a fine new year

well we are only a couple of days away from a brand new year and I'm lucky enough to live in one of the best city's in the world for a new year celebration yup Edinburgh has a great hogmany but for me there will be no getting pissed this year as I'm working right through , oh well at least I've got a new bunch of stuff to play with from the chaps at piketrek including some rather nice hooks

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so with plenty to get my brain into gear and ideas flowing i waste no time in getting some flies together and testing the hooks i got which by the way are pretty dam good for the price bloody sharp and most importantly bloody strong

BAITFISH ON A ROPE
piketrek have been out on the hunt again bringing us yet more fantastic tying materials this time in the form of gasto fibre , i haven't had much chance to play with it yet during the festivities i have had a few ideas and one is for a smaller bait fish to fish hook up on the bottom a very nice mobile material that is very easy to tie with

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so the fly below is tied on piketrek eagle claw jig hook and has a rattle built onto the top of the hook shank doing this means not only do you have a very attractive bottom fly with an added attraction of a rattle but it will flip over and fish hook up every time , when i did a soak test in the bath with this (yes i took it into the bath) it has a fantastic fat minnow profile

ROACH ON A ROPE

so tied the above fly up which i suppose is a bit of a hybrid between a humongous trout fly and a murdich minnow but this has a rattle built in , i looked at this and was so impressed that it would be a great fly for a local venue and has everything i need for a catching predators on this very hard local venue but i reckon it will do the business on any water so i had to tie a box full as I'm sure a couple of my Buddy's will no doubt pinch a couple got a good feeling about these all we need now is some De iced water to try them but that will be soon

i think this fly will be a killer this year and i don't just think for pike i really think this will do the business with any species that eats minnows , shiners , or baitfish in general both fresh and saltwater click the link below to go take a look or purchase a pack at a great price

http://www.pikeflyrod.com/46-gatso-fibre-giant-mutiflash-fritz

till the new year folks

(mcfluffchucker)

hopefully also new year will also see my brother put his bottle down get his head out of his rectum and give me a call or hes going to get a 6/0 up his backside ........lol

done and dusted

that's it Christmas is over really cant be bothered with it bah humbug ....anyway i is back i have been tying while I've been working and getting up to all sorts so check in over the next few days and see what I've been doing including these metalheadz below



so happy new year to you all and to my brother ken YOOOOOOOOOOO redneck pick up the phone

oh and theres a thaw on hopefully get out soon

mcfluffchucker

(a cold cave in Scotland)

its getting closer

oh yes this time of year i think about getting my shit together my USA trip this time I'm going for 2 weeks i have some personnel bests and some big fish to catch oh and i guess ill have to take 2 pairs of pants see ya soon VT

so with still no fishing because off iced up extreme winter conditions (well for Scotland anyway) its time to get down and do some tying

on the menu today is snacks for www.deercreek.co.uk i supply them with limited runs of some top pike patterns tied by me so head on over and grab em before there gone

or you may want to tie them yourself materials are
hook -4/0
belly - white ep fibre
back - mullet e.p fibre
gill flash - piketrek orange spectrum twist
eyes - deercreek gator eyes
thread - clear mono
varnish - piketreks final overcoat

easy as that enjoy

mcfluffchucker
(a cave in Scotland)

why fly fish for pike

watch this

any questions

goodnight

(mcfluffchucker)

tying in rattles on big flies

since discovering those great people over at piketrek had some very cheap but brilliant rattles on there site I've been playing quite a lot with them now they speak for themselves as a great product as I've reviewed them once already for the blog and the pffa site http://www.pffa.co.uk/ and they in my book are still up there as one of the best rattles out there for A the price and b the fact that they are tooth proof if you need rattles for your flies then get over there sharpish

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so i had a mail from a couple of far Eastern client of mine who are fly fishers hi aiko(mainly salt) bought aload and loved them however he was not quite sure the best way to use them on octopus style hooks and large flies , well its actually a very easy tie .

having first tied in your first length of material in this case white slink n flash you then whip on with half a dozen wraps of thread around the lip of the rattle you can see the position of the rattle from the picture above , (if your concerned about off balancing the fly don't be as the weight equals its self out when you add the epoxy eyes later) once you have wrapped the thread around the lip add a touch of varnish to secure you can add superglue but I've found this to be unnecessary when it come to this as the varnish secures well enough but its down to your own preference

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what you then do is add 3 pieces of your belly and side colours and hollow tie in again just a few turns to secure around the lip

then place in your back colour (in this case Steve Farrah's sf fibre in wild olive) which is a great all round bait fish back colour no matter where you are , one thin piece is hollow tied back and secured with a couple of wraps of clear mono thread in the lip of the rattle , you could of course just add all 4 bits of material at the same time but i prefer at this stage to secure the 3rd and get the right sitting of the fibre then add the 4Th

in front of the rattle I've added some orange spectrum twist palmered it to the front of the hook then back again to build up a sloping body and the orange really does show through , once you have got the spectrum on (you can use any chenille i just prefer the UV spectrum colours far brighter than normal chenille) you hollow tie another 4 slight shorter sections in front of the rattle then whip down and then add another 4 shorter again sections and then add an eye
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the end result is an absolutely fantastic looking fly with the added rattle factor , i now tie one with a rattle and one without for the simple reason that adding a rattle isn't the be all end all of attractor flies i tend to use them for pike when the water is slightly more colored than normal or if the fish are playing really tough and are hugging the bottom a very slowly fished fly with rattle can be deadly especially in winter it can make the difference between catching and not catching and in winter one fish can boast your confidence no end and stop you going home early

the fly above is done with exactly the same method except i have use 4 less peaces of material and a different colour eye , straight away you can see the difference in profile this one has a far skinnier roach type profile whereas the one above has a thicker fatter profile that's done just by using less materials simple and there is also a rattle in the same place

i played with a profile made from slightly thicker sections of piketreks body materials and I'm very impressed with the result although it doors look like the material is masking the hook it actually isn't and when a fish chomps down on it the material flattens up against the body , maximum material flare maximum hooking

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with temps at -15 just now not to much fishing is going to be going down till the new year so expect the usual fly tying exploits over the coming few weeks , i will be in a couple of weeks heading out to but a new camera so thanks for persevering with the shite camera phone

see you all soon

mcfluffchucker

(a cave in Scotland)

Fishing food
I touched on the subject a few months back about fishing food with the humble bacon sandwich and how to cook it , there is however more you can do on the bank without having to take a full kitchen you . you maybe one of these guys that likes to stick a plastic box with a couple of cheese and ham sandwiches nothing wrong with that and for the fly fisher walking the banks it goes easily into a rucksack with a bag of crisps and a flask of coffee,

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but of course theres way more you can do I mean in the winter there is the option of taking a smaller flask as well and just having hot water in it and have one of the many kinds of add to hot water ready in 2 Min's noddle dishes that are out there and there really is something for everyone flavour wise and if you live in a big city you'll no doubt have a Chinese supermarket near you and these places have a great selection of add to hot water noddles and you get twice as many and twice the flavour in a tub and usually the tub is made from cardboard so Eco friendly as well and taking a small flask is little extra weight and worth it for a hot meal on a cold bank side
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of course you may not be that adventurous when it comes to food but there is also a solution for you as well to get a good hearty meal on the bank , if you get one of those plastic lock down boxes from you local pound/dollar store they are pretty much instant dinner bowls and here's what I sometimes make

tastes better than it looks bacon and potatoes
tinned bacon grill / or spam / or your fav tinned meat
instant mashed potato powder
knob of butter / salt

all you need to do is this the night before , cube up your meat of choice and lightly fry till golden then drain on kitchen paper leave to cool , pour your serving of potato powder into your box then add a knob of butter add your now cooled meat cubes and that’s it all you need to do is pour on your hot water at the backside and youve got a really satisfying meal and it does make all the difference on a cold day ,
off course you can mess around with this recipe by adding different spices or meats all you need is you basic powder and hot water and a hearty meal is yours for little night before prep

thoughts of the salt
really if your going to go fly fishing in UK waters the only kind of fly you should really need is a sand eel pattern pretty much anything that swims in UK waters will eat it some parts of our coastline in the UK are not really explored much by the bait brigade , why well quite simply there can be bothered most of the time walking any distance from there cars not really due to laziness (although true in a few cases) but because if your fishing rough ground your going to lose a fair bit of lead and tackle so you need to carry spares , the lure and fly angler is a bit better set up as usually a small rucksack and one rod is all that’s called for and you can cover the miles with little kit , so theres a lot of UN flied water out there especially round the cost of Scotland

its all in the pattern
so the pattern itself isn't really a complicated one indeed no couple of different colours of buck tail , a few strands of lime crystal flash , deercreek gator eyes and some Mr bond and bang you have a pretty good imitation of a saltwater snack , the only thing I do out of the ordinary is to use clear mono thread this becomes invisible one Mr bond is added , I do for the most part keep this pattern at 3 to 4 inch's long as with the colours I favour it is also a great fly for other species anything from trout to pike to small mouths would have a munch on this and indeed in the bigger sizes with synthetics it does catch the odd musky or 3 try it

as you can see I've still not been able to get a new camera yet so you'll have to make do with camera phone shots but I'm guessing you'll get the idea OK as you can see nice little snacks in a box ready to go you can really churn a lot of these out in no time as with most thing sometimes fly tiers over complicate a basic idea that doesn't really need changed but that’s just what we do I'm already thinking about the next version you see I have a lake in VT with some bloody great big small mouths that I know will demolish these flies but that’s another story yet to come

the UV light box

bloody brilliant idea as you can see I have a line of sand eels curing I just apply Mr bond and stick am under means I can churn out more flies as I'm not sodding about with a uv torch which always runs out of batteries very quickly as well this way I just plug it in and off I go a far far better option than the torches but that’s just my opinion but I do know a few others that prefer the box as well , should you be so inclined to purchase one you'll find it at pike fly fishing mecca www.pikeflyrod.com the best pike only materials site out there and home to the mighty pikesaber fly rod the choice of experts

big is beautiful

of course i cant help myself and had to make a big version of the sand eel but funnily enough the fly above in slightly different colours caught one of Friends a really half decent musky so i know they work , the one above is a basic buck tail pattern on a 4/0 with a Mr bond head

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so with that and the week drawing to a close i can only wish for some un frozen water to fish as I'm dying to get out with old Friend Stevie again for some laughs but with the weather still looking on the -15 side I'm guessing that its not going to happen for a few weeks yet but when it does hell those fish are going to be hungry and up for it

tomorrow sees me putting some synthetics on iron again so will catch you after the weekend and if my bro checks in can you send me hoover Lady's address in the falls so i can get the package out to ya

mcfluffchucker

(a cave in Scotland)

The guys at piketrek have got some outstanding offers on just now so get over there fast before it all goes so get over there http://www.pikeflyrod.com/ for some very cool christmas goodies like below this has got to be some of the best offers we have ever seen well done chaps thanks for coming

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real materials from real pike fly anglers at great prices buy from the best pike materials supplier on the web and remember they ship worldwide

NINE DIFFERENT HANKS OF SPECTRUM FIBRE FOR £12.50! UNBEATABLE CHRISTMAS VALUE! NINE NORMAL SIZED HANKS FOR HALF THE MONEY!
One each of Black, Captain Blue, Harmony Angel, Gill Red, Copper, Gold/Green, Silver, Mysteron and Blue Roach. That's 900 feet of flash material :- simply unbeatable value for money!
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(i think this has to be one of the best deals ive ever seen)

Top quality #11 Weight Forward Short-Taper Pike Fly Line
This line has been designed by us here at Piketrek and manufactured by a leading World-Class Fly Line Manufacturer, specifically for fly fishing for pike.

Special Offer! Buy two lines and get one free this month only! (only 11 weight full-price lines, any three). Choose from Floating, Intermediate and Fast-Sink, one of each or three of one type or any other way you like!
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its all in the thickness

OK so after a busy weekend at work and only being able to tie a few patterns after id fallen into orvis on the way i got to thinking you know materials are expensive and really you want to get as much out of a pack as possible , so how doe you go about it , well i remember e.p fibre was still a rare find in the UK and there was only a few places stocking it those days were the forefront of fishing with the fly for other species this country was still very much trout and salmon and only a few crazy people were pike fly fishing and yes i was one of those people and many years before others had even seen a fly rod , decent materials were hard to get especially in pike sizes

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so with that in mind when i was looking to the American bill fish fly market a lot of them were using ep fiber so this was a good starting point , when i got my first 2 packets of it (white and olive) i had to sit there and work out what to do with stuff there was no step by steps and the e.p site was very basic so with two packs i was getting 3 flies out of it bloody expensive way to go

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the eureka moment came maybe 6 months after i got my first packs of the stuff when quite randomly i was watching a video on you tube of a guy fishing for some fast American saltwater species he turned to his Friend and said just look at that fly in the water there it was an ep fly well his mate said great movement in that and this guy says well its a mistake a lot of people make with ep fiber they put way to much on the hook with this stuff less is more , let me tell you its taken me a lot of years and a lot of experimenting to get to the stage I'm at now with synthetics and indeed less is more with this stuff

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the fly below is from a few months back simply done with the hollow tie method , a great profile light weight and done with half a pencil thickness materials

so a great looking lightweight fly but as id bought some sf and slink and flash at the weekend and with Christmas coming i needed to get the most out of a pack and maximise the amount of flies i get from it so how low could i go well best thing to do was try it and see so i set to work

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below is a cocktail stick with some flash and slinky next to it,this piece is for the front side sections of the bait fish further down .

here is 2 sections of the fibre tied in ready to be done hollow style if your interested in the hollow tie method check out Steve farrah videos here theres a lot of people out there who claim this method as there own but check out all the pdf files on this site and you'll see that Steve has been doing it fort a while and some fantastic step by steps as well , you can also notice that you can see my hand through the materials that's how much less I'm using , if you were to up this to a pencil thickness you wouldn't see through it

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so having built up a few layers hollow style and adding a purple lateral line to it i then just need to add the olive sf for the back but you can already see i have a fly pretty much the same as the fly at the start of this post but using half the materials therefore getting double the flies out of a packet but not losing the quality of the tie and still have a great looking fly in the water
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so the finished result below is a dam fine bait fish worthy of any hungry pike and made with half the materials and the flies below this little rainbow trout pattern are done using the same method you really cant go wrong

just makes you want to go fishing doesn't it I'm pretty sure smaller versions of the flys below would do really well for Pollock and other sea species that swim around the UK coast line but that i think is for another day .......


so armed with this new knowledge ill be tying a bucket load of new stuff this week yes I'm tying again this week because my trip this week looks like its up the Swanee due to ice oh well that's winter for ya .........

Dave mcfluffchucker
(a cave in Scotland)

big up the creeks and gurglers

so it goes finally there is a ray of hope in fact theres been rays of sunshine which has melted 80% of the snow now although my local wont be fit to fish for a few days that's if the temps stay as they are but if they do me and a mate will be heading to a water for a day on a boat chasing big green mean fish , however its being said that we have yet to get more snow on Monday if we don't then great we will be fishing if we do the water will freeze up and that will be it till new year hell that's fishing for ya

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so with that and in case we get out i started getting some stuff sorted "again" which brings me nicely to this point , pike flys can be big ,big boxes are expensive here's a simple solution for both the bank and boat angler , i have covered video boxes before as a storage solution and here is a perfect bag to keep em it what it is , is a sea angling bait cool bag which holds as you see 11 video boxes , now you could use this just as a grab bag to chuck a load of flies in or you can use it as a main tackle bag , has a zip section on the bottom that you could keep either spare spools or tackle items if you fancy one here's a link to buy them in the UK cheap as chips

https://www.veals.co.uk/acatalog/Bags.html

gurglers

nothing new with the famous gartside gurgler the pattern has been long prized by top water bass and stripper anglers in the sates for quite a number of years I've been using them for pike after talking to gurgler devote ken capsey years ago to great effect I've even seen some really badly tied pike versions of gurgler I've seen some fantastic ties from American gurgler fishers its indeed a hell of a fly

i used the fly to great effect fished in amongst some really heavy jungle on lake Champlain in Vermont after large mouths and i could believe how well this fly worked and the fantastic fish catching quality's this fly has i mean its not a hard fly to make you just have to have a bit of imagination with colours and you can pretty much come up with some great looking surface flies


so i was quite impressed when i picked up a copy of fly fishing and fly tying magazine here in the UK and it had quite a spread on the fly for UK species this actually really surprised me as we are quite behind when it comes to new ideas in this country you want to see the looks i get when i was using this down my local in the summer , the one thing the article did say was that you could use this on a sinking line to give it a different look under the surface , must say i haven't yet tried this but i do remember tying up some bobs bangers years ago for a day on big clear water pike venue and i used a section of lead core to get in down and although i didn't catch on it , it really did shake its tail in the water so there may be something in it will have to try it out

pike sized thunder creeks

the thunder creek fly needs no introduction and i said the other day i was going do some pike sized versions now i say pike sized versions i think we are all aware that pike will take the small flies its been well documented about 20lb + fish taking gold heads and nymphs , so i decided to do some larger than normal thunder creeks the flies below are tied on 5/0 up tide hooks basic green and white patterns with a touch of red and some gator eyes from deer creek finises them of lovely and to be honest i reckon these would catch pretty much any fish the eats other fish

I've also on these used pike treks Mr bond UV cure to seal the eyes in you can add in on the tie some red angel hair for a gill flash or you can just use a perm marker i quite look forward to using them once every where de ices

so with he weekend fast approaching and hopefully some of you especially in warmer climates will be getting out to do some fishing wish i bloody was if you are have fun and catch you at the start of next week for more fun in fur feathers and synthetics

mcfluffchucker

(never been kicked of a venue for being a tosser in his life)

bloody more snow = no fishing

with Scotland being pretty much snowed in and everywhere frozen solid its time to get the vice out , well i actually had some kit packed and ready to go into my bag for work but i got a call saying not to bother going in as all the groups i had to set up for had cancelled so rather than bugger about i just hauled my stuff out my bag and set up in the warmth of the living room , still not got my camera fixed so sorry about the crappy phone camera pics

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I've been tying pretty much with new materials lately so thought id back track quite a few years and do some ep flies , a pattern that I've always had is a simple bait fish type pattern which scores well on many venues the belly is a plain white ep the back is a mullet colour ep and the red flash is done by simply adding red angel hair , all tied on 4/0 hooks eyes are from deercreek a simple but effective bait fish


a few made up in different sizes and different eyes and in the video box i can easily get at least another 6 flies in the box and same amount again if i put them at both ends , so with that i actually realise i much prefer making flies with the new synthetics that are out there i find them a lot easier to work with than ep and i never thought id say that , anyway these materials can be obtained from the following
top range of pike fly tying products
http://www.pikeflyrod.com/

gliss n glint and gliss n glint plus can be obtained from
http://www.deercreek.co.uk/default.html


someone was talking about thunder creek flies the other day on the pffa forum and i remembered that quite a while ago i had made a load up for perch and i had sized em up for pike as well although i cant find the pike sized ones , i think there buried in one of my many boxes of fluff but I'm digressing a bit .....

the fly itself is a a cracking little bait fish pattern and can be deadly when predators are fry feeding or if your targeting smaller predators like the perch family that just love a small minnow snack ,the flies themselves are very easy to tie and ill include a video at the bottom of toady's post of somebody doing one and ill also include a link to a photographic step by step

the flies above were done for perch and are done on 1/0 Aberdeen hooks the designs and colours you can do with this pattern are endless as you can see below , if your like me and sometimes especially in the UK like to go and cast on a commercial trout pond for some fresh fish (i refuse to eat supermarket rainbow trout) then you pay your money for a few fish and then normally you can if you wish pay a few pounds for catch and release so you could pay a flat price of say £10.00 for 2 fish and then catch and realise . this is normally the option i go for .

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now the reason i go for this is quite simple i love my fishing as well as fly tying and imagine if you turn up at one of these fisheries and catch a couple of fish within five Min's then you have to pack up and go home as you've caught your limit well although I've digressed a bit again theres is a point to this as these fisheries usually have a great head of specimen sized perch which normally don't get fished for as these venues are fly only and not too many people fly fish for perch but this is a golden opportunity to catch some very big fish and these flies along with sparkly creations are the way to go as these perch will be mainly feeding on smaller invertebrates and minnows so theres a golden opportunity right there to have a great days fishing for some specimen sized fish and the fisheries owners really don't mind at all if you want to fish for them in fact I'm classed as a bit of an oddball on some trout waters when i say I've only caught nuisance rainbow trout actually come to think of it I'm classed as a bit of an oddball anyway oh well

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here's a link for a great step by step for this deadly pattern although i tend to stick an epoxy eye on

http://www.metroeastanglers.com/Thundercreek.html

and if you click this link you'll get a great 2 part video

http://www.5min.com/Video/Thunder-Creek-Streamers---Rainbow-Trout-Part-12-268384221

so with no fishing on the horizon for at least a few weeks and maybe even into January i guess im going to be doing a fair bit of tying so i look forward to the coming weeks of talking about when we can get out and new patterns emerging out of my brain

mcfluffchucker

frozen in a cave in Scotland

ho ho ho and other exotic destinations

you just got to hand it to the guys over at piketrek as seasoned anglers and not five min know it all bull shitters they really know what to do with a fly , uncle greg head tying honcho with the chaps has produced predator fly packs like no other , why like no other well because they will catch you fish full stop they have the videos to back that up as well

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these packs are fantastic for the everyday predator fly anglers who maybe doesn't tie his own flies , well not everybody has the time with work and family commitments so h has produced these fantastic off the shelf packs that will get any pike interested (just click the picture below to go there and check em out , they are selling fast )

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PERCH IMITATION PIKE FLIES

BULK PACK OF TEN

(4 different selections)

from pike treks site
These flies are simply super value-for-money and provide "confidence in a bag", take them out and give the pike a thrashing! These flies will catch pike on any venue, and outscore attractor flies many times over.

These flies are "cheap and cheerful" versions of the real macoy, and are absolutely perfect for situations where you are likely to lose tackle amongst snags and rocks etc. or on the bottom in boulder-strewn rivers. GUARANTEED FISH-PULLING POWER FOR LITTLE MONEY, do not be fooled into thinking these flies are the same as the shit that you see in the shops, they really do work!

FANTASTIC STOCKING-FILLERS FOR CHRISTMAS!

They all feature top quality materials in their construction, including Holographic Gills, Holographic eyes and superb sharp 5/0 nickel-plated hooks, and feature epoxy-finished heads for extra durability,(although please be aware that they will not last as long as the U.V. Resin heads on our Premium flies).
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got me thinking

dear Friend , guide and fly fishing headcase drew price from http://dponthefly.blogspot.com/
had a very interesting post on his blog on his top ten dream freshwater fly fishing locations you know as drew said if i one the lotto where would i go fishing , well i thought about it after reading his blog and thought about it some more and came up with the following facts

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saltwater fly fishing is fun hell yea I've done that I've caught barracuda , I've caught sailfish in the gulf to 96lb , I've caught flatfish in the estuaries of Scottish rivers , I've caught European sea bass and sea trout just down the road from me , I've had Pollock near pulling my arm off but my first love is fresh water so with that here's my top ten cheers drew

My dream fish and destinations

1 – bowfin lake champlain (the fish pictured above) big nasty loads of teeth and ive already had a couple of close encounters with this son of a bitch devil fish next year I will be getting one

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2 – smallmouth bass lake carmi – when you get a good sized fish they are like fighting wild stalions had a trophy fish already so I know , and me and capsey know where the big fish are in may

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3 – largemouth bass lake champlain – out of the lillypads on top waters , heart stopping stuff already done it but need bigger

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4 – muskie vermont , didn’t happen for me this year with the fish of a thousand casts but confidence is high for next year

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5 – smallmouth bass from a river , already done this but I want a horse next time

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6 – lake trout , lake champlain , 50/50 chance on this one but you never know

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7 – carp lake champlain , i want a big american carp on the fly this I think will happen next year

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8 – white perch , lake champlain already had a trophy fish but I want a bigger one

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9 – sheephead lake champlain these are like turbo charged freshwater gts I know a man who can help me out

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10 – chain pickerel lake x , had a few already but I want a real big one and I know a man whos going to put me on them,

theres a few species ive left out but will still be gunning for bigger ones than ive had rock bass , yellow perch , fall fish , suckers , catfish , sunnies etc the list goes on

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so there you have it and holy mother of mary ive already fished in my dream destination and im going again for 2 weeks next year ,to the great state of vermont and its fish I raise a glass and be seeing ya next year

mcfluffchucker
(a cave in scotland)

its snow joke

you couldn't have failed to notice if you live in the UK that theres been a few snow showers in the UK and the whole country seems to now have ground to a halt , we in this country are just not prepared for snow like this simply because it just doesn't happen that often that we get really bad snow here , other country's like Canada and north America have pretty much the same extreme conditions every year so government and indeed the locals are used to it and don't think twice about it when it does happen they are prepared for it

i feel very blessed to live in one of the most beautiful cities in the world and Edinburgh in the snow is a beautiful place the picture below i took on my way to work yesterday funnily enough orvis is only 2 seconds away from this spot .......mmmmmmmm

so after sitting at the bench for a while as i couldn't get into work this week , although i did manage to get in for an hour yesterday to give some homeless guys some food I've been going pretty stir crazy , i booked a date for wed with my buddy for maybe getting out for a fluff but we will just have to keep an eye out on the weather

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so with that theres really only one thing to do and thats get your favorite fishing hat on get down to your pants and get out into the snow merry Christmas ...........:-)

ye all come back soon now

mcfluffchucker

(a cave in Scotland)

the best laid plans

it happens that this is the worst snow we have had in 20 odd years and so early in the year to , i know that in the grand scheme of things its only a dusting compared to places like Canada and Vermont but believe it or not our whole country (Scotland) has ground to a halt because of it in fact i cant even get a bus into work and the kids schools are closed , people are panic buying bread at the supermarket i mean one woman had like 40 loafs in her basket i mean even if you could get them all in your freezer how bloody long do you think this is going to last stupid people

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my garden this morning yes i am wearing chest waders

so yesterday i had planned a day out on a water i have special access to with an old pal although the water itself wasn't frozen we could get there due to roads being impassable and to be honest its not worth even trying as i had 3 ft of snow outside my door and the road outside had disappeared completely so luckily after a swift phone call to the fishery owner he said no problem let him know when we can make it so that's a bonus and haven't missed out on what could be some outstanding predator fishing on the fly

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so no work kids at home means i can do some tying I'm not going to tie in my cave to bloody cold so the next best option is the wife's coffee table so i set to work on some new gliss n glint plus patterns if you notice outside its finally stopped snowing

not for long and I've only just started tying and the snows coming down again if you notice the TV weather the map of the UK is looking suspiciously non fishy with blue everywhere which means yet more snow blahhhhhhhhhhhhhh

so a couple of gliss n glint bait fish down (yea my camera is still knackered) and I'm ready to go well I'm kind of all dressed up and no place to go , my local canal is also frozen but that's no bad thing as when it starts to thaw I've found that it can if you go to right places on there as its thawing these spots fish there heads off
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you'll have to stay tuned for more posting as and when because no doubt in the coming days with more of the white stuff forecast we will probably lose power or Internet connection , i just hope i have enough hooks to keep me busy till its up again and i can order some more
ho ho ho
mcfluffchucker
(a cold cave in Scotland)