the way the wind blows

The way the wind blows

I had a long anticipated trip planned with the destroyer today so at the start of the week I had to catch up on a few things dig some tackle out look for missing stuff and it was while I was digging around looking for some braided leader loops in funky olive from pike trek that id ordered the week before and on arrival id but them into that special place that I put things so I wont mislay them and then promptly forget where the special place is , it was while I was looking for the loops I found a box of clouser flies I forgot I had (still no sign of the leaders)

FRIED ALIVE O

I also had to make up a few new variations on the fried alive flies so spent a few hours on that project and came up with a few new colours that I dig , trouble with the fried alives is they work so well I always end giving them away so always need to keep stocking the box up 

the box unlike the above picture is now pretty much full with lots of lovely new fried alive patterns , so with that in the bag my next job was some flies heading to the usa 

id pretty much got caught up on all the stuff I needed to do so I had time to play with some new materials

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at last years bffi I had the pleasure of meeting bob and sue from castle feathers who were on the stall next to deercreek , I had noticed that they had some cool looking flashy materials that were pretty much aimed at the trout fisher , I looked at a few of the colours and thought I could do some cool pike patterns with the materials so ive been playing over the year with a few ideas and have settled on a way to make them fairly easily but still have a full bodied looking baitfish im loving them

its been quite a long process getting these together as I had quite a few combinations to go through colour wise and many different ways of tying them 

the end result though is awesome and im very happy with the builds , im planning on doing a video for these next week so stay tuned , if however you want to get hold of some of the materials check castlefeathers out on ebay or catch them at the bffi where they will have a full range of colours with them...........

PLAYING WITH MOTHER NATURE

anybody who knows me will be well aware of the fact that I have actually quite a lot of flies , in-fact I probably have more flies than ill ever use in a lifetime and I do rotate flies from my store to my boxes and it can actually be a pain in the butt when im on the water and need a specific patterns , so the day before me and the destroyer headed out I decided on a big shake up of my boxes and try and get them in some kind of workable order.

I decided to split them into 3 major category’s for the flies I use gliss and glint plus flies , e.p fibre flies and natural materials , this pretty much covers it although I did sort out a few other boxes topwater , and fried alive have there own boxes so I can chop and change as I want although the fried alive boxes pretty much go everywhere with me and I also have a few smaller saltwater fly boxes with sandeel and small clouser patterns . I managed to get all the boxes sorted out and I wrote on top and on the side of each one what was in the box I.e gliss , ep , etc and stacked them away in the box and it should make finding things a lot easier .

Locked and loaded everything in its place and the inside lid has all the flies I use the most which of course begs the question why take so many flies fishing , well actually thats a good question because if I go on a quick trip or im wading I can get away with only using a couple of fly patterns and not worry about it , I guess its just boys and there toys and as fly tiers we just love to see how stuff works in the water and how it looks in fact I think the next fine day we have and I find myself at home im going to get all the flies out and just see how many of the bloody things I have , I think I may be in for a shock

AYE AYE CAPT DOUGHNUT

so having been capt of the good ship doughnut last year and shown the destroyer all the hotspots we agreed he would be capt this year which he was happy doing , so with the weather checked and to be honest it wasn’t the best forecast but with the way the wind was blowing we could get up into the bay and get shelter and actually it wouldn’t be to bad at all 

so with gear stowed away and rods ready for action we set off on the good ship windy , we decided not to head right across the loch but to creep around the side and stay out the worst of the wave

at least I wasn’t going to be cold , it may not look it but there was a fair wind blowing down the loch and that was not what the weather forecast had said just hours earlier mmmmm slightly worrying but we decided that we would go take a look 

the destroyer was more confident in his new role as head pirate despite the ominous dark clouds and increasing wind 

as we passed a favourite spot the destroyer spotted a fallow deer and was quite excited about seeing it , I however was looking at it as subbug material but a welcome distraction from the growing storm and the worrying changes in wind direction .

We got up into the bay and found that although not as bad as the main loch the wind was still pushing us just a little too fast for a good drift across the bay but we stuck with it for a couple of drifts and indeed I actually had a fish on for all of five seconds and with a thunderous cheer that we had one on the fish promptly fell off the hook obviously the words I said after cant be written but im sure most of you will have used similar words ill just say I said “my my that was unfortunate my good chap and outstanding boat partner the fish seems to have gone of its finely presented breakfast”

we had a few more drifts before deciding we should head back to the harbour and pick up an anchor this would make fishing the bay slightly easier 

what we didn’t however foresee was the wind completely going nuts and howling down the loch this caused the trip in to be slightly dodgy to say the least .

As we approached parallel to the dock and turned to go into the dock entrance we realised we didn’t have enough power to make headway against the wind and wave and we started to get pushed along the bank , although this wasn’t really a major issue as we could just tie up alongside the jetty further down.

This however proved not so easy as first thought as the wind was getting stronger and the wave bigger and we could not get close enough to grab or even lasso as we were really motoring along at a rate of knots as we came to the end of the jetty I realised we were at last chance saloon as just further down the bank there was a massive tree overhanging the water and if that wouldn’t be sore enough then crashing into the dam wall the other side of it would be so without further ado I lept from the boat rope in hand and landed on a pile of rocks .

As the rope tightened in my hand the boat and the destroyer turned round and the stern was now facing into the wave , it was now just a matter of pulling the boat up the jetty and tying off which wernt that easy with the pointy end facing the wrong way let me tell ya 

safely tied up and me onshore we looked over the loch and there was howler blowing right down the loch again this was not what the forecast said but hell that’s mother nature for ya 

I asked the destroyer what he thought and he had pretty much unloaded the boat already which was a bloody shame as we were both really looking forward to today but thats fishing 

you may not think it from this picture but is was really starting to blow hard in fact the owner of the fishery came down took one look at us and said “your not going out in that are you” er nope 

we stood around for another 30 mins or so and things wernt really calming down so we headed back to the car and decided to go back to mine for some lunch and watch some fishing tv

so far its been an awful start to the year but im sure it will improve soon we can but keep trying and even a crap start to the year aint going to make me take up golf.........we will be back everything

for a reason my fellow fluffers

a picture says a thousand words

loch leven a legendary place for the trout purist, eggs and fry trout from leven trout have been transported all over the world this special breed of trout can be found as far as Argentina the biggest fish from loch leven was a fish caught many moons ago in fact 101 years ago and stood at 9lb 13oz caught by a Colonel Bob Scott that record was broken by alan campbell with a fish of 11lb plus .

I hope im not jumping the gun here as I cant find out the info but im pretty sure this fish would have been far better having its photograph taken and placed back in the water , rather than the cardboard cut out fish thats been lying in the bottom of a boat for hours for a vanity shot , I really hope this fish was unable to revived and dispatched but I fear not .luckily the wilful killing of big fish and record fish in this country is largely a thing of the past lets keep it there .

This is how it should be done 

brian price from vermont fly guys with a stunning looking vermont spotty just look at the stunning colours on this fish which was put back in the water to fight and make baby trout another day , stunning catch brian

mcfluffchucker

(a cave in scotland)

2 men a loch a vice and a doughnut

8,589 visitors last month

(IM HUMBLED THANK YOU)

HELLO TO MY NEWIEST FOLLOWER

http://www.ricksreeladventures.blogspot.co.uk/

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HELL YEA THE TEAM GOT OUT

finally after what seemed like an age the team got out to throw some flies after green meanies the weather was looking ok although somewhat on the cold side but we really needed to get out

my boat box had been in and out of the cave at least half a dozen times to add a few more flies check lines making sure I hadn’t forgotten anything you know how it is before a trip men and there toys , so the day before all the rods were out and everything was ready to go and to be honest I was slightly excited to be hitting the water …....

well that was until I got a phone call saying the boats had not yet been put in the water because the road to the venue was still blocked with snow and had only been cleared that morning oh bugger , rather than cancel the trip we just decided to stick some waders in the car and fish from the bank , although this would cut down the amount of water we could target I did feel quite confident about us catching .

I spent quite a bit of time in the area above which is usually good for a few jacks although casting is somewhat limited because of trees behind me it was a case of getting in the water and side casting the bank and let me tell you the water was bloody freezing luckily ive had all the children I could ever want which is probably just as well because after today im sure I wont ever have anymore  

talking of trees the destroyer was having some fun getting caught up them and I got this shot of him having retrieved his fly from the branches it wasnt till I got home that I thought it reminded me of something and well there you go mystery solved ….............  

we fished fairly hard around the banks that we could access but we didnt have so much as a pull I was getting the feeling that the fish wernt playing ball but we carried on anyway aint gonna catch if your fly isn’t in the water but it was still bloody cold ….

we continued to fish round the banks with not much going on so I decide to head to a corner near a valve tower on the dam wall for no other reason than I hadn’t been there yet I also changed my fly to a pike sized gummy minnow in silver with a green back , just to try and spark a response as these flies have a great wiggle and flash to them and second cast I had a small jack swirl at it just under the surface , this was enough to get my focus so I got another cast out in the area . I then a few cast later had a large brown trout around 5 or 6 lbs follow my fly and roll away pretty much 6 feet away from the rod tip …..

this was enough to shout the destroyer over as there was obviously a bit of activity around this area and there was plenty of room so without asking twice he was round in a flash and within a few casts he was into a fish , however it wasnt a green lump it was more of the stocked rainbow trout varity 

although it wasn’t our intended target to be honest it was just good to get a pull on a day like this to be honest and conan was more than pleased as it was his first of the year I think by the end of the day we must have hit around 40 odd fish between us and great fun

ive got flies bigger than that 

lovely colours and fin perfect not you average stockie 

the destroyers fishin wagon also passes as a mobile recycling plant 

I mean really am I supposed to sit amongst all that although to be fair I think one item maybe mine , so with that we fired up the in car entertainment and pumped out so metal although the plan for today didnt quite work out how we wanted it was still great to get out and throwing flies and hell theres always next week 

and before we know it, it’ll be summer again and we will be in among all sorts of craziness again , the weather is still playing havoc a bit and even the best laid plans are going a bit to pot but the thing o love about fly fishing is even if you cant get out there’s always flies to tie speaking of which

VICE NEWS

as always im forever at the vice trying new things and playing with old patterns well this week has been no different and having finished a private shop order I got back on it for me and his destroyerness again with my ties you can click on the links within the recipes to go to the site selling it or you can souce it from wherever you like 

a simple little baitfish to make this one and consists of nothing more that supreme hair from deercreek a bit of flash and a touch up (oh er Mrs) with a marker pen

hook – owner stinger 6/0

thread – phantom thread

belly – chartreuse supreme hair

back – olive supreme hair

flash – magnum flashbou (gold)

eye – hookeye and fly 7.5 mm

hook – owner stinger 6/0

thread – phantom thread

belly – lemon sherbet gliss and glint plus

back – green goblin gliss and glint plus

eye – piketrek 8mm

hook – tactical lazer 6/0

thread – phantom thread

belly – fluro chartreuse ep fibre

back – olive ep fibre

flash – chartreuse angel hair

eye – roachie crystal gator eye 9mm

hook – tactical lazer 6/0

thread – phantom thread

body -white ep fibre

flash – white angel hair

flash gill – red angel hair

eye – hookeye and fly 8mm 

hook – tactical baitfish lazerpoint 6/0

thread – phantom thread

body – 3d mullet ep fibre

flash – angel hair peacock

eye – gator eye 8.mm

hook – owner stinger 6/0

thread – phantom thread

body – olive ep fibre

flash – peacock angel hair

eye – pike trek 8mm

all my flies are whipped off and sealed with diamond hard tack free uv

so with that I bid you tight lines till next time enjoy

mcfluffchucker

(a cave in Scotland)

SBS gummy pike fly

TIE A PIKE/PREDATOR GUMMY

(no fly tying equipment needed)

Gummys are a fantastic little bait-fish fly for all manner of predator species , here’s a version I make for pike . Now you may think you couldn't make these in any decent size for pike but you’d be wrong you can actually make them as large as you like myself I like to make them in the 3 to 4 inch range this size will do just as well as any of the larger pike patterns .

You will need 

hooks – this pattern im using a 6/0

eyes – 8mm gator eyes

squid skin

a pro marker (olive)

a pair of sharp scissors

glue or epoxy (to stick the eye on)

(suppliers at the botttom of the page)

1- cut a four inch by 1 inch rectangular piece of squid skin and fold in half

2- start cutting downwards

3 - start cutting the rounded belly shape of a baitfish on the up cut towards the tail  

4 – this is the shape your aiming for , if you using smaller hooks simply reduce the size of the squid skin and if you want it larger increase the size of the rectangle 

5 – place the squid skin on the hook and check for size and make sure you don't mask too much of the hook gape you can at this point trim around the bottom to adjust the shape and size as you like

6 – when your happy peel away the backing try not to touch the sticky side 

7 – place the sticky side on the shaft so the sticky side is facing you , then fold over very slowly and match the edges together , start at the head end and work back , this stops any air bubbles being trapped (if you do get an air bubble just prick it with a needle) 

8 – when you’ve folded the squid skin and its stuck together this is what your left with

9 – now take you pro marker and add the back color (ive chosen an olive color but use what ever you like )

10 – mix up a small amount of epoxy

(of course you can if you wish use glue , I chose epoxy as the weight helps with the action of the fly in the water ) glue will still work but you’ll get a slower sink rate and a slightly different action because of the weight difference over epoxy 

11 – add a small blob of epoxy on each side

12 – place the eyes on 

13 – and allow to cure (I use a rotary dryer s I do around 10 of each in one go) if your using five min epoxy and making one at a time you can just hold it till it cures 

and there you have it a very fast to make versatile baitfish and no fly tying tools needed

(I used a vice in some pics so I could take pictures)

try different shapes and smaller hooks there all good and catch fish

the sky’s the limit with these

for squid skin please contact nick at www.deercreek.co.uk

http://www.deercreek.co.uk/CONTACT-US.html

happy tying 

mcfluffchucker

(a cave in Scotland)