Back in Stock - Tibor BackCountry fly Reels

Suitable for a 5-7 weight rods in both fresh and saltwater conditions. Proudly made and assembled in the USA.

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The All New Tibor BackCountry Fly Reel - In Stock Now

The NEW BackCountry is designed and crafted with the same uncompromising standards as our time-tested Tibor, Signature, and Billy Pate series reels. Suitable for a 5-7 weight rods in both fresh and saltwater conditions, even the most fragile tippet can be fished with complete confidence. Proudly made and assembled in the USA.

Features

• Made from solid aluminum bar stock and has very few parts.
• Features a drag that cannot be set excessively tight, yet the spool won't over run if you pull line rapidily from it.
• Spool is easily removable. Extra spools are available.
• A clicker monitors line going out or coming in.
• Comes with a thick neoprene case AND a clear pocket window.
• Weight: 6.oz / Rods: 5-7 / Frame Size: 3.50" x 1.50" Capacity: 150 yds. w/65 lb. jelspun

Specs - 

Model	Diameter	Weight	Rod wt	Line
BackCountry	3.50"	6.0 oz	5-7	150yds/65# Gelspun

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I love Ole' Rubber Lips, and I’m not afraid to say it!

Ole' Rubber Lips

I spent much of my childhood in the Midwest, where carp, largemouth and panfish were easily accessible and really the only thing going. After dialing in how to catch bass (there was one identifiably scarred fish I caught 5 times in one summer) I needed a bigger challenge. Ole' Rubber Lips, Cyprinus carpio, the maligned common carp was my new target.  I was drawn to this beast that often crept silently in shallows of the creeks and ponds of my youth, grew to mythical sizes and spooked at the snap of a blade of grass from 40 paces.

There are blogs and articles a-plenty out there on carp, in which they are often referred to as "golden bonefish", a name so overused and misleading I won’t bore you with regurgitation.  They really aren’t like bonefish at all,, they just have similar mouths, and are typically bottom feeders, but I digress… If you are looking for a true challenge on a fly rod and you live near any body of water, you owe it to yourself to give these rubber lipped beasts a go.

A couple things you need to know before you dive into carpin’:

1. They eat the same things trout do, they don’t eat trash or dead things
2. They are not easy to catch 
3. Most importantly, carp are moody as hell

In trying explain what I mean when I say they are moody,  I coined this term; tripolar. Bipolar isn’t adequate to explain carp behavior and as I see it, carp have 3 major states of being and with % of time they seem to spend in each phase as I have witnessed:

     A. Totally uninterested in eating at all/sun bathing- 50%
     B. Eating, but extremely spooky. Like grandma in a haunted house spooky- 40%
     C. Feeding aggressively and relatively less spooky-10%

Ok, now you may start to see why these are tough fish to catch. If you are lucky enough to find some fish that are fired up, good on you. It is a lot like hitting an evening hatch perfectly on your favorite trout stream; rare and special. When carp are aggressive you will know it. The will often be tailing and mudding hard with little regard for anything around them. The will usually not spook with a poorly placed cast, unless you line them (a cast where your line lands over the top of the fish), and they will actively chase a fly.

The B. fish are where the real challenge lies. Can you approach a fish, lead them with a perfect cast and if all of that goes right, know when to set the hook? Trust me when I say none of this is easy, but that’s what makes it fun. A one fish day is a good day. And when it all goes right, you will be rewarding with some freight train runs. The A. fish are usually the easiest to find as they are usually an inch below the surface and perfectly still or lazily swimming. They are not uncatchable, so give them a go, but don’t be bummed when they spook at any sight of you, your line, boat, or that errant whisker on your beard.

A trout fishing bycatch on a chironomid larva

Carp can be caught year round, but are most accessible to the fly angler when they come shallow, which is typically spring to fall. Sight fishing is the name of the game, though that does not always mean seeing the fish. Often times, and in particular in turbid water you will only see mud boils, bubbles, or a disturbance in the force. Wading, walking the bank or working a boat through shallow weedy/muddy flats is a great way to find fish and the key is to stay very vigilant of your surroundings. Schooling carp will spook if one fish in the school spooks, so stalk quietly and if you spot fish try to work the angles so they don’t see your fly line shadow or you. Sometimes a belly crawl or fishing from your knees is a great way to lower you profile and avoid the spook.

Carptastic

There are times where you can blind cast for carp, but I will tell you it isn’t a pattern you can depend on. If carp move into rocky banks or riprap they are often feeding aggressively on crayfish, insects and baitfish and working these areas with a bugger, craw pattern or Clouser minnow can be effective, or at least yield some bass. And yes I said carp feed on baitfish, I have witnessed on more than a few occasions, carp actively chasing schools of bait.

A few of Ryan's Carp Nuggets

Speaking more on flies, keep it simple and natural. Simple craw patterns and nymphs are my goto’s . Larger craws in #2 and #4 and nymphs in #4- #8s with good strong sharp hooks are the weapons of choice. Think earth tones, browns, olives, rusty orange etc. If the water is dingy or downright muddy black and chartreuse are excellent. Pretend you are trout fishing and match the hatch and the habitat. Rubber legs are always a good idea too. My favorite carp fly is a short rabbit strip on dumbbell eyes with a dubbing body and some nice rubber or silicone legs. My next favorite is the Clouser swimming nymph, which I was turned on to by the guy that wrote the book on carp fly fishing, Brad Befus. A sparse olive wooly bugger is hard to beat too, and produced my largest carp, a 47# grassy!

The White Amur, AKA Grassy

You can catch carp on dries, and if you spend enough time on the water you will inevitably see carp
feeding in the surface. Keep some midges in your box in all stages: larvae, pupae/emergers, adults. Hoppers fished near the banks in late summer will also work. I have had some killer fun at night catching caddis slurping carp too. If you have a body of water with cottonwood trees or mulberry bushes on the banks you owe it to yourself to have some flies that represent both. A few white CDC feathers on a hook worked for me when they are eating cottonwood seeds and a burgundy/purple spun deer hair bug will represent mulberries effectively. Mulberry flies not goofy enough for you?

Say what?  Bread fly, *patent pending*

Chum up some fish with bread and try to get them to eat an elk hair bread fly, serious fun and a total challenge.

So what about the gear you ask? It really depends on the average fish you are fishing for. If most of the fish in your water are 1-5lbs, your 5wt trout rod like a Winston BIIIx, NRX LP or Sage One will do the job perfectly. If you are stalking bigger fish I recommend at least a 6wt and I prefer a softer 7wt like the Winston BIIIx. You need to have a rod with some delicacy to present a fly to these fish and both the Sage and the Winston fit the bill. Your reel should have a great drag. My favorite is the Tibor BackCountry wide, but a Lamson Litespeed, Galvan Torque, or Ross Evolution in the appropriate size are all great choices.

Limited edition 1 of 2 Carp Engraved Tibors 

Fly line choice is equally as important. You can do most carpin’ with a floating line, but carp addiction will lead you to add an intermediate sink tip (Rio InTouch Streamer Tip) and intermediate full sink (Rio InTouch Camolux) to your arsenal. The floating line should be delicate, but also be able to handle bigger bugs and wind. The InTouch Rio Gold is a great choice, and if you have a softer rod the InTouch Trout LT is even better. These new InTouch lines from Rio will really help you detect subtle takes with their low stretch braided core. Bonefish or heavy trout leaders in 8-12# are ideal and if you are fishing subsurface I highly recommend fluorocarbon especially in clear water.

Inner City Carpin'!

There is no hard and fast method to catch carp on the fly, and that’s half the fun.  The beauty of these fish is that they live almost everywhere in the US and most of the world and rarely have the pressure of more glorified species. Take some of my advice or try your own ideas, but my message to you is by all means go try some carpin’.

The Bearded Pescador

Ryan Van Duzor
Gorge Fly Shop | Product Specialist
541.386.6977


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"Fly Fish the World with Us"

Rio Chama gives up her Gold

November 21, 2014

My Trout Spey Chronicles was to officially kick off at the start of the new year. But why wait! With fall fishing being some of the best I've seen, I have an overwhelming desire to tell you about it. Why wait until new years when it's happening now!

Wrestling Gold

So where the hell is this Rio Chama? 

"The Chama" as called by the locals is a Rio Grande Tributary that originates from the southern side of the San Juan Mountain range located in southern Colorado and joins the Rio Grande in New Mexico near the town of Espanola. It's considered one of the larger rivers in the state but still pretty small water especially in winter flows.

While not a bucket list fishery by any means if you're in the area during the fall/winter season you might just get lucky and find gold. Big Browns hide in the murky shadows of this small river and its a perfect place to swing streamers with a two hand rod.

Boron III TH-MS 4110-4

For this fishery I chose the Winston Boron III TH-MS 4110...Ok in English that is Winston's new 11 foot 4 weight Microspey. My reel choice was a Tibor Light Back Country CL Wide and my line was the Rio Scandi Short Versi-Tip in 320 Grain.


I experimented with a variety of flies that day but the proven choice would be a Solitudes' Sculpzilla in olive/black color and #8 in size.

This New Rod from Winston continues to impress me

I have really come to love how light and balanced it feels in hand. Never cumbersome. I've had enough time with it in my hands to really develop a working relationship with it. It's easy to understand and quite capable. I've yet to find any limitations to its abilities for the fishing it was designed for.

Tibor Back Country in Crimson Red

I originally purchased the Tibor Back Country for my Sage Bass Rod. With trout season in place I couldn't resist putting this reel to the test. Little did I know what a perfect fit it would be to the Winston MicroSpey. Balanced and with a smooth drag that can protect any tippet has made this reel a top choice in my arsenal. Maybe my fish engraving should have been a trout instead of the bass. Maybe I see another Tibor Back Country in my future. I'm crazy about the classic look of a solid back. The reel is surprisingly light for a solid back design but just right to balance this 11 foot stick. FYI...This reel scale weighted at 6.0 oz empty.

Small Water

I think I mentioned earlier, the Rio Chama River is small water especially for a two hand rod. That brings up a good topic of discussion. Are these rods too big for many small trout waters? The Rio Chama forces you to be versitile in the way of casting. If you're seeking long runs of wide moving water to quarter downstream cast and swing flies you might be disappointed with this river. While I did get to fish some water like this it didn't produce on this day. Instead I had to seek out the pocket water, foam lines, tail outs and undercuts.

He couldn't resist Sculpzilla doing the swing!

The real beauty of these small two hand rods is that if you think of it as a fly rod it will perform as a fly rod. Follow me here for a minute. First of all the MicroSpey gives the angler all the benefits of a two hand rod. Easy to cast good distances with sinking tips and larger than normal flies. Trust me these rods put the fun in two hand fishing. But they don't stop there! They can easily cast overhand and roll casts are amazing. On this day I had to pull off all these casts to find success. After this day I started to really think about my two hand rod in a different way. No longer is it that other type of fishing. It is my all fishing rod. It does what I need it to do, when I need to do it and does it better.

Line details

So Versatile

While I just claimed that this is my "all fishing rod" I need to give line detail a quick breakdown. For sure this topic is going to be a huge subject for the upcoming year but before I kill this article with line information overload let me point out that your line choices will fine tune what this rod does great. On this day I fished with the Rio Scandi Short Versitip. I have fished this line for over a year on various rods and all kinds of situations. It has become my standard (at least for now) "go to" line for the plain and simple reason that it is versatile. Being a Scandi taper it throws overhead casts quite well while this same taper is an awesome roll caster. Its also performs tight looped two hand casts to perfection. The versitips gives me choices for fishing depth. Of course it has limitations and those can include fly size and sink tip size. No one line will ever do everything! But that's one of the beauties of these rods. With a simple line change you can tune the rod to do different tactics. Like I said earlier we'll get more into lines at a later date. Even if I gave you all the line details I have now they'll all be out of date in another couple months anyway...Hint Hint! Some new lines are coming.

Finding Gold

Getting a Grip

As The Two Hand Tour continues onward my wish is to demonstrate what this rod really is. In my mind it's not just a spey rod, switch rod or a single hand fly rod, This rod is what I need it to be when I need it! The Rio Chama River was a great test for this and with the help of the MicroSpey it gave up some Gold!

More Trout Spey Chronicles

Greg Darling 

Gorge Fly Shop Internet Sales Manager | Product Specialist

"Fly Fish the World with Us"