tuesday tie off

since last week i was of on my fluffing adventures there was no tie off with ken at pike adventures , so to ease us back into it we decided just to have a free tie off basically tie what you like ,
so i decided to tie a couple of bait fish that you'll find in loads of waters around the UK but I've used different materials and tying techniques for both , I've also soaked each flie to show the profile when wet as you know materials do different things when wet

skinny roach


roach come in all shapes and sizes depending where you fish the fatter ones are usually in places where there isn't predators , so the first roach is a skinny roach tied all in behind the hook eye the thinking behind this is that a skinny underfed fish is a prime target for a predator as it wont need to use much energy to catch it and get a meal . you could probably get away with using this for bass in saltwater as it may be mistaken for a sand eel ,



as you can see when wet the main bulk of the body is just behind the eyes tapering of to a skinny end a poor excuse for a fish that would more than likely if it was real see the back of a predators throat sooner rather than later



as you can see from this close up all the materials are tied just behind the hook eye this allows for maximum movement of the materials in the water , the epoxy head allows for a great action when you pause on the strip simulating a dying fish .

healthy roach


this one is tied pretty much the same as the first skinny roach but it has a wider profile this is achieved by tying in your first lot of materials just behind where you would tie if you were making the skinny version the second lot of materials goes just behind the hook eye by doing it this you can create a lot of bulk by being able to apply more materials than the skinny version

big fat wet one


the picture above is the wet version of the healthy roach as you can see by adding more materials and tying in a two step you get a great fat version of the skinny and even when wet you don't loose a great deal of the profile this is simply down to the two step tying method when wet this fly comes in at 9 inch's a great size for a predator snack , its funny that when you hold this fly wet in your hand it really does feel like a real fish kind of spongy .

RAINBOW TROUT


again tied with the two step method to give maximum bulk when wet of course you don't have to use the style of hook you can use a normal j hook but you will get less movement in the fly maybe you'd think not that's important but on some days that can be the key to fish on the bank
rainbow trout wet


again you can see by using the 2 step tying method you regain the profile when the fly is wet and i must point out this method does not work on all materials but does work very well when combining the materials listed below .

all the flies are tied using a combination of super hair , DNA fish hair , and DNA holo fusion and that's it . its really up to the individual if you use an epoxy head i don't always do this if I'm on a really shallow venue ill leave the epoxy head off and this gives it a very slow sink rate and a very attractive flutter on the retrieve

OUCH THAT HURT


the hooks i used on the flys above are the 6/0 gamakatsu SL126 these hooks are not cheap but they are the dogs bollox for this type of fly the 6/0 costs £5.00 UK for 6 the 2/0 size is £3.95 for 10 these hooks are very very sharp and tough well you'd expect them to be good for that price i order mine from orvis and if you don't have an orvis near you they will do mail order from there website www.orvis.co.uk

if you want to do these on normal j hooks then id highly recommend using sakuma mantas you can by them in bulk from here in the UK http://www.fishingdiscountstore.com/75.html and dont forget to go on over to ken capseys pike adventures to see what he came up with today here is the linkhttp://pikeadventures.blogspot.com/



tight lines till Thursday
mcfluffchucker
(a cave in Scotland)