Wednesday 30 December 2009

had a really nice mail from (fly guide)brad bohen over at http://muskycountryoutfitters.com/ check out the site if your a Wisconsin resident or your planning to fish the area this guy is really on the ball and knows his stuff and theres a pretty cool website as well just check out those musky pics in the gallery mouth full of bucktail love it



cant wait to see what kinda flies he puts up in the fly section come on brad no excuse now with all that snow outside .

heres a few links from brad the guy is a fellow serious fly nut

http://dnr.wi.gov/fish/record/bradbohen.html

http://hatchesmagazine.com/magazine/pdf/HangTime.pdf


brad thats hardcore buddy



tight lines all (it will thaw soon don't worry)

dave mcfluffchucker
(a cave in scotland)

Tuesday 29 December 2009

the tuesday tie off with ken capsey

this week it was my choice to choose the tuesday tie in with ken over at

http://pikeadventures.blogspot.com

so my choice this week was dna fibre in any form but you could mix it up with other materials and the finished product must be a baitfish for pike



ok so pattern 1 above is an all dna holofusion tie on a 4/0 sakuma stainless hook and comes in at 6 inchs long, by starting thin at the tail end and increasing thickness of the material up to the eye you get a really great profile when wet which is where dna really comes into its own as a material when wet it even feels like a fish



pattern 2 is based on rainbow trout colours and uses not only dna holo fusion but also uses dna frosty fish fibre, colours in this one are pearl , pink , lavender lateral line , red , and an olive back , this fly ive only slightly wetted so you can see the big back profile using the combination of the 2 give you not only flashs of sparkle but a great shean with the dna frosty fish fibres




pattern 3 is made up with dna holo fusion pink body with a lavender frosty fish fibre head , surprisingly the colours are not something you see widly used in the uk for predators but ive had some great days sport on them so give those colours a try if your going through a dry tie period

tight lines till tommorow and hope you enjoyed the tuesday tie in with ken capsey his flies from today can be found here http://pikeadventures.blogspot.com go check out the rednecks work

dave mcfluffchucker
(a cave in scotland)

Monday 28 December 2009

tube fly tutorial

as I've said before tube flys really have no purpose in pike fly fishing except for trolling flies but if you are so inclined to use them for pike then here is a fantastic tutorial from pete gray note the perfectly formed head and neat whippings and perfectly aliened eyes great looking fly

Sunday 27 December 2009

Thursday 24 December 2009

merry christmas for tomorrow

merry chritmas for tomorrow heres a few monster muskie bugs (12 inchs) to keep you going till boxing day , hope you all have a great time and santa brings you lots of fly fishing goodies



Wednesday 23 December 2009

ho ho ho

well the view outside the cave is grim with around 6 or 7 inch's of snow outside so my promise to her indoors to cut the grass cant be fulfilled so theres only one thing left to do.




TIE MONSTER FECKIN MUSKIE BUGS

yup huge massive sub bugs with the pulling power of a cold pint on hot day



these monsters are 11.5 inch's long sub surface sub bugs with enough action and size to get even the most lethargic toothy predator to get a chubby and attack it



built entirely for no reason whatsoever except that ken capsey dared me to do it last night well red rag to a bull hey capsey stick that in your redneck pipe and smoke it dude i wanna see what your going to come up with theres a challenge .

so will they catch fish well hell yea I'm even thinking of doing some in blue and white for bill fish doesn't matter they are 11.5 inch's long as for bill fish you tease em up to the back of the boat then toss a fly at them i know been there done it mind blowing stuff must did the pictures out .

THAT'S HANDY



OK so they look massive well yes they are , but they are very very light due to the make up of the materials even when wet they wont be that bad on a 9wgt the eyes have a layer of epoxy behind them critically balanced to give that all important sub bug action that toothys find hard to resist , remember think about what your tying and how it will act in the water



so as we come near the end of the year and tomorrow will be my last post till after Christmas I'm going to in January be concentrating on monster sub bugs as I'm in artist free fall just now i have millions of ideas in my head for not only monster bugs but monster bullheads can you feckin imagine a 13 inch bullhead made entirely of ep fibre oh the new year is going to be good and I've got my u.s.a trip where ill be fishing for pike muskie and largemouths and generally raising hell with ken capsey

2010 yeeeehaaaaaaaa gonna be a blast

tight lines fluffchuckers
dave mcfluffchucker
(a cave in Scotland)

Tuesday 22 December 2009

tuesday tie off

this week it was ken capsey over at pike adventures choice for the material for the Tuesday tie off so this week he picked a staple of fly tying Mylar tubing now Mylar is pretty much in every fly tiers box as it has so many uses so your bound to have some if you want to try these patterns

my choice of fly for the tie off is a simple little shinner type bait fish at 2 inch's long not only will this be great for fish like large and small mouths in the u.s.a but it also chub and perch in the UK









all the flys have a Mylar tubing body which shows through once wet , the hooks are a 1/0 fulling mill scorpion hook very very sharp .

if you want to see what ken got up to on the tie off here's the link

http://pikeadventures.blogspot.com


enjoy the ties and see ya all tomorrow

Dave mcfluffchucker
a cave in Scotland

Monday 21 December 2009

big guns

loving big flies at the moment i go through periods of tying smaller stuff then ill up it and decide to tie big stuff for no particular reason that for the hell of it this was the case today , one thing i love is really neat heads on flies i think its quite important and pleasing to the whole look of the fly to have a nicely whipped head theres nothing worse looking than a poorly finished whipping just makes the fly look like a pigs breakfast and can detract from the overall look of the fly so make sure you get those whippings tight

SPARKLY IS THE WORD


theres nothing better than a great big sparkly fly above is 2 examples of big flies the top one is tied with 2 colours of flash giving maximum movement and maximum flash the over sized eyes also give it great gliding motion in on the strip and pause ,

pretty much the same with the second fly except the underbelly is of white ep fibre probably going to be a good pattern on the trout lakes all the flies are tied on 6/0 hooks and are around 8 inch's long ill be doing some more of these in other colours soon so stay tuned


BACK ONTO THE FOAM HEADS

the foam heads have always been a favorite fly to tie they take a lot of work to get em just right its not a case of just chucking some foam on the front of a hook , you must use enough glue from a glue gun to critically balance the fly so that you get the correct action in the water if you don't it just wont work as its supposed to , in fact just sticking some material on a hook and calling it a pike fly is the wrong way to think you must take into account the weight of the hook the materials being used and how they act when wet how much they way weigh when wet the prey your trying to imitate etc etc you have to think about these things to get the most from your flies i mean would you read a medical book and call yourself a doctor would you no of course you wouldn't , stay true to this and you'll get the maximum out of your flies theres far to many instant experts these days who think they know everything there is to know about fly tying when in fact it takes many years to build yourself to a confident fly tier I'm not claiming to be an expert even im still learning

RAINBOW TROUT FOAM HEAD


the rainbow trout foam head has a very thin layer of epoxy on the head this can be done by the fact that its quite thick foam and therefore very buoyant coupled with the weight of the dried glue inside the head gives you a very slow sinking fly and with the odd twitch on the retrieve looks like a distressed fish and of course will give out the right signals for a predator to attack not using a very thin layer of epoxy would see this fly fish just sub surface , again as the post above think about your weights and how it will effect the sink rate , you could even just chuck it in the bath and see how fast it sinks and work backwards from there add less epoxy or glue or add more , once you have worked this out you'll find that a lot of other things will click into place , I've spent quite a few years developing this to get it just right so please feel free to use this information in your tying but please give me a heads up when you do publish flies theres nothing worse than spending loads of time on a fly pattern or method only to have some twat steal the idea as there own like happened to ken capsey recently.

OVERSIZE EYES



one thing i worked out over the years through a process of trial and error was that eye weight can have a massive effect on the foam heads and bullheads for that matter , the fly above is a prime example of this. the foam has glued with only enough glue to stick it together so that it will work just under the surface the slightly oversize eyes have been epoxied on what will happen is the most weight will be at the front of the fly but this counteracts the foams buoyancy behind the eyes giving you a fly that will only ever work just work in the surface film the eyes also cause the fly to glide massively from side to side on the pause , if id used smaller eyes the glide wouldn't have been as pronounced

SMALLER EYES AND THE GLIDE




in the 2 flies above i have used smaller 10mm eyes backed onto a thin layer of epoxy still critically balanced and with give only a slight glide imitating a small summer baitfish in the surface layers, so think about what your tying and how it will act and it will improve your flies no end or tie some of these up you'll find a step by step on my website here's the link
http://www.spanglefish.com/pikeandpredatorfishingflies/index.asp?pageid=169572 just remember to adjust you weight to what you want the fly to do

hope Ive given you something to think about

tight lines
dave mcfluffchucker
(a cave in Scotland)

Saturday 19 December 2009

a fluffchuckers progress pt 1

i had my first pike flies site up way back in around 2000 and i was happy back then to add a few new ties give a few tips etc and generally speak to people about pike fly fishing not that many were really interested back then in the sport but i carried on and persevered with it as i thought this was a great method to catch fish , besides id been catching pike on the fly since i was a lad although completely by accident most times while fishing a remote Scottish loch for trout , and each time i went in the school holidays id somehow manage to to get the biggest trout fly i could find and tell myself that i was really after a massive trout when in fact i really wanted to catch a pike.

the loch that probably started a life long passion



most of the pike i did catch back then were only around a few pounds but to a schoolboy they were monsters of the deep rows and rows of sharp teeth how on earth i ever managed to land them on 4 lb leaders is beyond me maybe it was just schoolboy luck well we knew nothing about wire traces back then let alone tying monster trout flies .....so to those nameless pike with a liking for trout flies i thank you

the bloody butcher jack catcher extreme


early 2000 and the heat is on

i had really stepped up a notch with tying flies and was coming out with some wonderful creations and at the time i couldn't do anything wrong i started to think this was the simplest way of catching pike ever invented , and also by this time the pike fly fishing association was starting to get a really strong membership base with more people joining and still to this day is the biggest single method / species club in the country and the guys in the club are a fantastic bunch there was a couple of complete dickheads in the club but they pushed things a bit far and got kicked out you really don't need arrogant tossers who think they now more than everyone else , really does ruin a club so my message to dick heads is ......................


continued rambling



so over the years I've experimented with loads of different styles fly types hooks , I've even used my dogs hair for dubbing on flies hell I've even used my own hair on flies luckily for me i didn't get into that , i experimented with tube flies many many years back after watching salmon anglers use them and came to the conclusion after using them for a while that they had absolutely no added benefit to the pike fly angler whatsoever besides making 12 inch trolling flies and then that's not really fly fishing but has its uses when you out in shit weather its far feckin easier to tie them on a single hook and a lot less bloody fiddly to get then on a line when its minus 2 feck that for a game of soldiers absolutely pointless .

chucking in winter



yea of course you can chuck fluff in the depths of winter the only thing stopping you is when it gets like the picture above of a local venue a right bitch to fish , but then when venues like my local canal freeze over it can be a blessing in disguise well you see my local canal suffers really badly with boat traffic which stirs up the sediment and clouds the water OK i can still catch fish but its a real searching game for them when its like that but once the ice happens well boats cant use it so the sediment gets a chance to sink and the water gets lovely and clear so much so that you stalk fish with the fly and if you can put up with the cold then its well worth the effort before the boats start again..........

THE GLORIOUS NET

the Internet has been a revolution for fly anglers not only can we check out fly patterns from other country's and adapt them for our own style of fishing in the UK but we can now communicate with fellow anglers around the globe and even talk via skpe for free no mater where in the world they are through your PC and the sound quality is better than a land line ,

take for example my buddy ken capsey over at pike adventures (pictured below) now theres a guy with as much passion for fly fishing for pike and fly tying as me we regularly spend 3 or 4 hours talking over fly patterns new ideas and the like , bouncing ideas off each other is great and we come up with some really great ideas keep you eye on him as i believe in time ken will come up with a fish catching fly machine that everybody is going to copy so watch out for his name hes going to do big things in years to come mark my words ( although i think he needs to upgrade his boat)



later fluffchuckers have a great Christmas and may all your fish be 20lbers in 2010

dave mcfluffchucker
(a cave in scotland)

p.s back to flies tomorrow








Friday 18 December 2009

mutt dog copys and scrap flies


well the snows still falling so sitting in front of the vice with ever lasting mugs of coffee is how its to be for the next few days , so im diging around in the boxes and draws and dawns on me that ive got quite a few scraps of stuff left , you know the sort of thing bits of fur a bit of sparkly stuff and i dont throw anything away as i always think there will be a use for it somewhere along the line .... so todays effort is scrap flies and mutt dog copys
SCRAP SCHULPIN
so i found in a bag a couple of bits of zonker strip and a bit of green sparkly stuff so well had to be a small schulpin made , the thing is it wil be in my box and i may never fish it but i may have the urge to try it (does anybody else get that felling of put that fly on it will catch) and may bring a bonus fish on an otherwise fishless day so im a creature of superstition so it probably will get wet at somepoint ..........stay tuned


MUTT DOGS
not my idea this ken capsey over at http://pikeadventures.blogspot.com posted a couple he had made the other day and i really liked the idea Ive tied similar but ken nailed the design of it so i had to have a few for the box unfortunately i didn't have the colours i needed in marabou so went with just what i had they will still catch fish though , i feel a trip to the tying shop coming on . marabou is such a wonder full medium to work with and is fantastic in the water i really don't know why i don't do more of them , well actually i think i will thanks for the idea ken





SOMETHING TASTY
still mucking around with some ideas for smallmouths and largemouth bass for my u.s.a trip in may im kinda liking the idea of big shrimp patterns for the rivers so came up with this and im sure ill have a box full by the time may comes cant wait the picture below is mainly done with dubbing and bit of a plastic bag yes plastic bag so something different for me to do stay tuned for more


tight lines fluff flingers
dave mcfluffchucker
(a cave in Scotland)

Thursday 17 December 2009

its a feckin monster

been going a bit nutty with flies today must be something to do with the first snows of the year here in Edinburgh so what i did was just start to do some high ties on circle hooks , circle hooks are feckin brilliant for high ties and a really fish friendly hook even lefty kreh pushes them for flies and hey you cant get better recommendation than from someone who is top of there field in the sport.



so i started by tying a little bucktail baitfish high tie on a 4/0 circle



then i started to mess around with materials again on a 4/0 circle high tie style



then i though hey lets try a high tie on an 8/0 circle and came up with this ep and sf roach its a friggin monster and i loved the looked so only one thing to do now

MASSIVE IT UP



big style 10 /0 circle hook and a bucket load of bucktail mmmmmmm eat me



a group shot to give an example of size the ones on the bottom are 4/0 the roach in the middle is on an 8/0 the top is on a 10 /0 .

OK so a 10/0 hook may be a bit overboard for our freshwater species but it would be OK for large saltwater game fish so i decided to keep it a bit more real with 8/0 circles , and they are not as large as they sound and will be perfectly fine for pike fly fishing Ive been in this game long enough to know what I'm talking about and id never endanger a fish by using the wrong or inadequate gear

ENTER THE SHEEP HAIR


Icelandic sheep hair is a great thing to work with once you get the hang of it and it pulses brilliantly in the water and you can get a great length of fly as well without adding loads of weight and because it naturally tapered its great for baitfish profile flies

RHAPSODY IN BLUE


blue is a colour overlooked by loads of people but its a great colour to use give it a try you may be surprised , also great for saltwater fly patterns as well .

so enjoy and get yourself behind the vice if you cant get out and fish and try something different

tight lines
Dave

Tuesday 15 December 2009

the tuesady tie off

so the Tuesday tie off whats it all about , well in case you missed last Tuesday's post , myself and ken capsey over at http://pikeadventures.blogspot.com on alternate weeks choose a fly pattern it could be old or new and add a pike twist to it ,then at 9pm on a tuesday evening (UK time) we both publish on our blogs and see what the other came up with last week keen had a cracker of a pattern so it was up to me this week to do something different .

so being the time of good cheers holly trees Christmas cards and decorations i thought id throw into the mix some of those sparkly pipe cleaners you get at this of year and incorporate them into some 4.5 inch pike flys ....so this is what i came up with , if you go over to kens blog (the link is above) you'll see what he come up with thanks again to Richard for the eyes .............enjoy











tight lines fluff flingers
dave mcfluffchucker ......a cave in Scotland

Monday 14 December 2009

Murdich Minnows

The Murdich was first designed by Bill Murdich for stripers and has found its home on the small mouth rivers of the Midwest united states . it was then used to great effect for loads of other species including salmon , trout and a whole heap of other predatory fish This pattern can be ripped fast or stripped slowly over structure a great all round little bait fish pattern



for anglers in the UK and Europe who may not have come across this pattern the uses are endless along with the species it will catch for example perch , sea bass , sea trout , pike , zander would all have a go at this although i think id get a funny look from the tweed and britches brigade if i turned up on a Scottish spate river and started throwing it around for salmon mind you i would be able to afford the permit price to fish these rivers anyway (don't even start me off on that)



so as with a lot of my ties i try to add a little something new to a pattern in this case a pinch of bucktail but I'm really thinking its not needed on this however it doesn't hurt to experiment sometimes



personally i think my main application for this fly will be the canals and drains of the UK I'm pretty sure this will be an outstanding fly for big perch as it is very similar to a fly i tied quite a few years and that fly caught me my biggest ever perch of 3 and a half pounds a massive specimen on any method but on a fly rod it is something else





when i find a great looking pattern i like to tie up a lot of variations on colour and size although all the flies pictured are 5 inch's long i will do some smaller



the fly above is tied with a dumbbell eye to i can fish it right on the bottom hook up style without trawling up a load of garbage from the bottom i know a couple of places this style will be a killer







enjoy and have a go at this great little fly , if you want to have a go yourself there is plenty of tutorials on this fly on the net and it only takes a few Min's to make ..thanks again to Richard who does the eyes and if you want some at a great price you'll find the link to mail him in the side menu under 3.d eyes .........tight lines fluffers ....Dave