first ties of the year

so the first ties of the year and i wanted to ease myself back in gently after festive season , so i had some ideas that i wanted to play around with so i thought id get em down on the vice before i forget .

so with my trip to the USA getting ever closer i thought id better stock up on some old favorites for the trip , its quite amazing when i think about the amount of flies ill be taking , at first i was just taking one great big roller bag with all my clothes and gear for the trip but as I'm thinking about it I'm now taking a second smaller bag for my clothes well as i see it i can always turn my underpants inside out and that will give me an extra 3 or 4 days wear same with socks so i should be OK with a small bag for those and the rest of the space can be taken up with flies sorted

so first out the vice is the humble and oh so productive for loads of species the clouser minnow (anybody got bobs book ill swap for flies) ill be having at least one box of various sizes for everything from small mouths to walleyes in the bigger sizes as below and with various eye weights to cover any situation that capsey my fishing partner and guide for the week decides to throw me into (no rednecks getting the better of me )

on the same trip we will hopefully get into some musky territory so i need big musky sized snacks to throw at them the flies below are loosely based on brad bohens musky flies (see earlier post) and he seems to do more than OK on them so big mobile garish monster flies were created , this flies have pretty much the whole deal when it comes to movement and flash and tied on 6/0 orvis pike and musky hooks so ill probably give them a field test before i take them with me just to see how they work but i think they will be fine

another musky snack this time completely in black with black marbled flash running through it , this is just layered schulpin and buck tail to create a wide profile and mobile effect fly which should do the job

of course it wouldn't be complete without a chartreuse yellow and orange fly in the pack and well , the slightly raised buck tail will lie flat on the back when wet allowing the feathers behind it to wave seductively behind , this is a big big profile fly and cant wait to see it in action

another bait fish pattern pretty much a standard deceiver type bait fish except the eye is right at the front on the nose allowing maximum wounded bait fish movement



a big DNA bait fish tied on a 6/0 gama big game hook and tied pretty much like a high tie were all the material is tied withing the top few millimetres behind the eye allowing maximum free movement in the water these flies really do feel and look like fish in the water DNA is quite an amazing material especially when you mix it with other synthetics some stunning looking flies can be produced

so to end last night before i cracked open my favorite £2.99 bottle of red wine i just had to tie my first sub bug of the year I'm still crazy about these flies and if you see them in action then you'd know why such a versatile fly and it really does drive fish absolutely nuts

the bug below is big but still you'd be able to cast it on a 9 wgt I'm starting to realise that these flies really do offer the angler something quite different in a fly and ill be working on more as the year goes on



so till tomorrow i hope you all have lost your new year hangovers and are starting to get that familiar twitch that has you sitting behind the for hours i know i have and well with most of my local waters frozen its a great excuse to top up your boxes

have a great year fellow tiers around the world and thanks for great Friends and new ideas

dave mcfluffchucker

(a cave in scotland)