big baitfish with deer creek eyes

deer creek crystal eyes rock

do eyes on flies make a difference you know I'm really on the fence with this one as i believe some patterns do need them they give a strike point for predators on other flies i believe don't need eyes just by the very nature of the fly itself i.e deer hair divers which have a lot of action , eyes for me need to be good if I'm going to use them and i only use 2 company's for them as i like quality and one of those company's is deer creek a UK based company that has a great reputation so when nick sent me some sample eyes i was delighted to tie up some big bait fish using them

the flies you'll see further down I'm sure you'll agree look great and at 9 inch's a fine predator sized snack and there not that hard to tie and you get a fantastic looking fly

these flies are tied using the Steve farrahs hollow tie method use very little material and look great , i wont go into the hollow tie method as its well documented out there on the net but if your interested a video can be watched here

its a great method and can be adapted to many types of material

YELLOW PERCH

ken over at pike adventures came up with a great yellow perch pattern and i thought what a great looking fly and that was it i had to go make a big version of it so take one above using deer creeks crystal eyes just to add that special something

YELLOW PERCH (version 2)

id completely run of of yellow ep fibre so i headed down to orvis and they didn't have any either so had to make do with a fluro lime colour which turns out to be actually quite a good fly and nice with the crystal eyes

so do eyes add anything I'm still really on the fence but one things for sure they look great get on over to deer creek to see the full range click the link below

DEER CREEK

tight lines
Dave

tying baitfish with rattles

if you click the picture below you'll find a step by step on tying with rattles the first one is tying a bait fish with an enclosed rattle ill be doing a few features on rattles over on the website over the coming weeks as I've had a few mails from folks who are not struggling but would like to see different options on using then enjoy

tight lines and enjoy

mcfluffchucker

nowhereville

yup and I'm on the last train folks , a bit deep and a bit dark for me well not really I'm getting married a week tomorrow and although i feel i should be getting on with the wedding preparation's but I've no need to so i guess ill turn my attentions to tying flies up but more on that later

so i was digging through some stuff and i realised that my vt fishing license is still valid and ken been doing pretty good so maybe i should go jump on the plane i could be throwing gurglers in 24 hrs at largmouths ...........mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

the pickerel are on it oh hell this picture below was sent by ken and the pickerel were really going nuts for flies the other night and the fly in the picture is one i tied for ken while i was over there on one of the weeks many too hot afternoons chewing the cud in front of his vice guess the work then

OK you know you want me , you know i look good , i have the moves , I'm waiting for you , come and get me

been working with the piketrek rattles today and tying with some of my favorite materials , I've done a short step by step for the pike and predator flies website which ill up load tomorrow so watch for that tomorrow as it is something that some people have a little bit of trouble with so glad to help

MY GOD ITS ALIVE MR BOND AND IT GIVING BIRTH



OUTA THE LAB

now i love to break down a fly and see how it works so i tied the bug thing up below with a local venue in mind where i have to fish the bottom have to fish hook up and rattles score well so , i sat and thought about it and came up with the fish snack below

I've fixed in a rattle within some creature skin weighted the head with some Mr bond but what I've done is added Mr bond in layers so that i get more weight on the bottom and therefore the hook sits off the bottom which is perfect for what i need the fly below is tied on a 5/0 hook so that will give you an idea on size


thats it for today

tight lines and get on a plane
mcfluffchucker

back to the vice

so got back to the vice today and needed to warm up a bit as I've not been near the vice for a Little bit and i also have a special project flies to do (more on that in a few months) so because of working last week and wedding preparation's I've not had the time to tie flies although I've had plenty of ideas

dirty water is always a pain in the arse and one of my local venues is pretty much constantly like that and I've found that orange and yellows do OK so is set about making a few patterns

these are pretty basic bunny bug type flies with a rattle built in these flies will hit the deck and stay there and will fish hook up which is pretty much how you want them to fish as the pike are always stuck fast on the bottom in the sections i fish and you really don't want to fish hook down as you never know what your going to hook into i I'm not talking fish

any colour as long as its yellow and orange quite simply you cant go wrong with these and a rattle for a bit of extra attraction does no harm as your bumping them across the bottom , i know theres some massive perch in there as well and id love to hook up to some it will happen at some point hopefully sooner than later

all of the flies are made pretty much with the same materials orvis magnum zonker and orange arctic fox in orange I've added in some nice orange UV sparkle from piketrek around the rattle and just to add a something little different in the way of flash

so after that i spent a few hours tying up the flies for a special project which i cant say anything about just now , I've also been reviewing the new pike fly fishing book from wollsoncroft-dodds which will appear on a few sites soon so what with all that and everything else that's going on it been a hectic few weeks so ill bid you farewell for today and hopefully see you all Monday for some resumed chaos

tight lines

mcfluffchucker

oh and be sure to check out and join in over at

WORLDWIDE FLY FISHERS FORUM

been working crazy shifts this week so little time to tie flies let alone fish so here's a couple of pictures just for the hell of it

oh and I'm also getting married in a couple weeks so that can eat into the fishing and tying time as well

lines in the fluff

fluffchucker

nothing going on in the city

sometimes a picture says more than words ever can

long live the fluff

sometimes

SOME FLIES JUST STAND OUT FROM THE CROWD

pics and randomness

THINGS I LOVE

a fly that caught 70 odd fish in a row

small colourful fish that love flies

my brother the best Friend a man can have


and random heavy metal videos done by the Muppet's

tight lines

mcfluffchucker

rattle n hum

adventures in rattles

well that's what it seems like as from the post the other day (was it yesterday i cant remember) ive been tinkering about with the piketrek rattle (click any of the pictures to go there) and as I've said before they are a brilliant design and theres so much you can do with them so ,

as per the step the other day you can tie them right onto the end of your hook or hanging off the end as picture below or with a short length of mono whipped to the back of the hook

another way to use them is to tie them in so there just in at the back of the head like below (hook is a 6/0 gamagatsu sl) tie it on top of your first wrap of material and glue or varnish , i find that a few wraps of mono thread does the job and a bit of varnish

one the fly is tied you can see the rattle is virtually impossible to see and is secure inside the head incidentally the fly fly below is constructed completely from piketrek materials including there fantastically cheap Mr bond UV kit (again click the picture to go have a look)


crease flies

Brian the chef out in vermont is really doing the business with crease flies just now well one that i left him although it is getting a bit battle scarred now so I'm making up a new batch for em , and yes theres rattles in them as well these thing catch like buggery so again pretty easy just to tie em in on the hook shank i prefer near the front of the hook eye as this will on the strip and pause give a great dying fish look


a pretty simple but effective pattern I've always scored well with a number of species withe the colour below and a little flash out the tail the fly below is tied on a 5/0 Aberdeen hook

just another fishy colour black and silver again with a rattle , I've still to tie a short buck tail tail in yet but you get the idea

below is what my darling wife made me for work tonight a fine cheese topped tiger baton with lettuce, tuna and onion and mayo

whats that got to do with fly tying well absolutely nothing at all just a pure act of randomness on my part and it was bloody tasty was it as tasty as a big fat steak from brians grill er no

tight lines fellow lovers of the fluff

mcfluffchucker

tying a half and half rattler

piketrek rattles

leading UK pike fly and fly tying company piketrek have recently introduced into there kit a new plastic rattle that to be quite honest makes a far better rattle than the more traditional glass rattle and a bloody lot cheaper (the link to the rattle is at the bottom of today's post) so i got asked how to use them so i thought the best way was to tie up a half and half clouser as this pattern can be used not only for pike but for a bucket load of other species both fresh and saltwater

half and half rattler

1 - so the rattle itself has a lovely and dead handy little lip that helps to secure it in a number of ways , what I've done is to park it at the back of the fly and given it a couple of wraps on the lip and added a touch of super glue to the whipping to secure i then bring the clear mono thread up to the hook eye and then back to secure a dumbbell eye

2 - added in 4 cock hackles (2 each side) and tied them in right behind the dumbbell eye (as you can see the rattle has disappeared in the tie already) bring your thread down to level with the hook point

3 - add in some crystal flash and lay on some white buck tail pushing down slightly so that the buck tail goes round the hook shaft as above

4 - tie in another thinner clump of white buck tail from the hook eye and tie back using a figure of 8 around the dumbbell

5 - add a red throat or if you like another colour or not at all that's up to you i find it best to add a touch of varnish to seal each step , i use piketreks final overcoat which is a nice consistency for big ties

6 - turn the fly upside down and add the back colour , again this is really down to personnel preference and to what species your trying to mimic I've done white and chartreuse simply because its a great all round colour

7 - finish of with an eye (6mm epoxy eye has been used here) although again you can use what ever you like , this fly works very well with normal dumbbell eyes also again its down to your personal preference

so there you have it a great fly with a nice rattle easy to make and great to fish with and will catch pretty much anything that swims if you wish to buy the rattles they cost and incredible 2.50 UK for 25 buy them buy clicking the link below

RATTLES

tight lines fellow fishers

mcfluffchucker

rubber legged cat puke again

THE GREAT RUBBER LEGGED CAT PUKE

so the weather is still rubbish and I'm really not fancying getting a soaking before even I've wet a line , i don't mind if I'm already out and actually i love taking shelter while the rains come down and theres that lovely damp fresh smell after a shower

so i decided to carry on tying up some rubber legged cat pukes in different colours well red and white as you cant fail on that colour

unlike my USA versions I've decided to weight these with a wrap of lead wire the reason for this is that i intend to fish these close to the bottom where the fish on my local usually hang around the bottom most of the time although you can catch them on the top as the water is quite shallow and its easy to raise them up in the right conditions

classic colours

red and white is a colour you cant go wrong on so of course i had to tie up a few in the cat pukes


slightly different no red in the tail this one

i ended up tying bloody loads in the red and white and i wanted to try some different colours but only had time to do another one so i made the one below fairly quickly so i knew what id be tying otherwise id just forget so when i open the box tomorrow i know what I'm tying must be an age thing

so that's the cliffs bugger barn nearly filled up with perch/smallie snacks i think however that i need to buy another of these boxes as i still need to make a box of crayfish ......mmmmm


so another day done and I'm really looking forward to later on when i can see how ken over at pike adventures got on with his river float with Brian after smallies apparently it went rather well

so looking forward to a good write up ken

tight lines

mcfluffchucker

something a little offbeat today

time to play with smaller predators

OK so while i was out last week with Kevin from orvis in Edinburgh i could help but notice the amount of fairly lively perch that were having a go at the big pike flies , so i decide to have a go at some smaller flies to target these perch and as i was on toddler watch today i had to bring bits and pieces through from my main tying area so i could do flies and also watch the toddler

all i need

so portable vice and some other bits and I'm ready , now the great thing about this is i can tie a few of the same pattern without being distracted by other bit of materials lying around my bench

perch flies

perch are a strange old fish for me (well in this country) i only ever seem to catch big ones I'm talking 3.5 lb as my biggest but this is more by luck than anything as I'm usually fishing sparkly pike flies and catch them completely by mistake so its going to be nice to target them as a species and not an accidental by catch of pike fly fishing

so whats the deal then

movement and sparkle that's whats the deal perch love movement and sparkle simple how do i know this well I've had enough of the bloody things follow flies in before to know what I'm doing well that's the theory anyway so i set about making what i hope will be the ultimate perch fly

so whats it all bout then

OK so what I've done is used my favorite streamer hook a tiemco 300 in a size 2 , i picked these up in the states awesome hook , anyway I've weighted the hook with some wraps of lead wire added a marabou and rubber legged tail this will give the fly movement the orange marabou will give it not only movement but they seem to really like red or orange flashes of colour added to that a head made from a sparkly orvis chenille and i think i have a winning pattern

so there you go hopefully a great catching fly and i have a sneaking suspicion that these may also do rather well on a little old smallmouth lake i know in Vermont so ill be having a box full by may next year ho hum

a box full of cat puke

the rubber legged version of course , ill just keep filling the box till i need another one as the boys in Vermont will no doubt clear me of a few ....... so I'm hoping to get out this week and test some patterns but its been a bit crazy weather wise we have had short sunny spells followed by high winds and monsoon rains , it supposed to settle down later in the week so fingers crossed

i spoke to ken at pikeadventures earlier today and him and Brian were planing a river float today something that we had planned but never got round to when i was there so I'm really looking forward to seeing what they do today on my favorite smallie river am i jealous to right i am have fun boys

mcfluffchucker

(missing VT and the grill)

sharkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk

interesting article popped up today on a news site about a small great white shark caught 20 miles off Boston's east coast which of course raises questions on the sharks appearing off the west coast of Scotland click the link below to join in the discussion and see the article , the forum is just starting off so it would be great to have your support on there all welcome no matter what you fish for or where in the world

a quick mention to Davey scales who caught this awesome 20lb UK river pike this week great catch and blimey on a pikesaber the rod that makes chucking wet socks enjoyable Davey is an accomplished all round angler with some big fish to his name and said the fish came in within minutes

tight lines

dave

hard at work today

so Saturday and I'm at work and today I'm kinda lucky as i only have one booking in for a couple of hours so well there only one thing to do and that's bust out the porta work fly tying kit

my desk at work today

as I'm still on my foam kick i didn't need to bring much i have a medium size snap lid deep food box which i can store my portable vice and base , glue , varnish , thread , box of hooks and little bits and pieces that i may need , in this case rubber legs as I'm still on my foam kick ,

unfortunately i just happened to fall into orvis on the way to work which was a real bummer as they had the very rubber legs i was looking for , i had a little gold sparkly number than i needed to get on a hook

so with that off my chest and on a hook i though mmmmm how would that look with a little deer hair behind the head so off i went again but this time i managed to get a little bump at the front of the deer hair which will disturb water and add a little something to the action of the fly




so now that I've done a few of these patterns and I'm really happy with the result and i know they will catch fish , i have a sneaking suspicion that the largemouth bass will be crawling up the line for these baby's , however in this country i think the pike and chub will have a go , I'm going to go and do some testing of these next week to see how they ride

so whats next well i have some pretty funky ideas for a slow sinking version of the foam flies but that will have to wait till next week as I've pulled a long shift tomorrow and wont be able to tie at work what a bummer eh

tight lines
mcfluffchucker