Were all going down to the boneyard

Now the sticky subject of leaders always pops up now and again and it did just that last night when I was having a rather heated debate with one of those people who think they have been there and done that and it was always longer bigger more expensive than anything you’ve caught or own I really cant be arsed with that kind of person and your really just wasting your breath with them.

i lost the plot slightly with this Internet know it all


you see I've been there and done bought the t-shirt same with traces some guys have used wire leaders all there lives and I don’t have a problem with wire traces for leaders in fact I use them when I have to on venues that its in the rules but my preference is for 100lb fluorocarbons the reason for this is quite simple I was introduced to it through a friend many many years ago had the foresight to at least give it a try for a while and it did change the way I fished I caught and still catch a lot of fish and have never had a bite off yet ,

Steve sparton is somewhat of a legend in fly fishing and fly tying I've met him many a time in his factory near Nottingham when I used to go in to buy bulk bags of marabou Steve is the kind of guy that will call a spade a spade and he has upset a few people along the way but he was using American mason hard mono back in 92 pretty much at the birth of predator fly fishing in the UK and he’s been selling them for a good few years below is his ad from eBay although I don’t agree with everything Steve says in this advert he does make a bloody good product

one of Steve's leaders yesterday

Mr spartons eBay ad

“If you actually want to catch pike on a fly you will find in the end that a wire trace is pretty useless - it puts them and anything else that comes to look at your lure off ! It kinks and it sinks faster than you want it to and they can likely see the damned stuff as well as you can! This system actually works - the leader is 14" (like just over 30cms for the ill educated) and at one end is a size 7 swivel and at the other a size 7 spring link and swivel ! But instead of wire it is made out of American Mason Hard Nylon - and Pike cannot bite through it - we found the stuff fishing Snook in Florida and that was in 1992 just before Hurricane Andrew forced us to retreat to St Petersburg. We've used it for over 14 years and never lost a Pike on it - we also caught a whole load of Zander and Biggish Rainbows on it as well. It sinks the same speed as your leader and is clear so they can't see it ! You are bidding on a pack of 3”

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Pike-Fly-Leader-Monofil-Clear-3-Traces-/110586962107?pt=UK_SportingGoods_FishingAcces_RL&hash=item19bf7f20bb

However I really wish he would change the bloody link on the swivel they really are shite I cut them off and stick on an American cross lock link instead far better ………

You can of course make your own leaders in fact it works out quite cheap search the blog and you’ll find a post about this I shan't go into it all again

HOOKS AWAY
As much an emotive subject for the fly tier as the materials that go on it I like a range of hooks for various fly patterns some guys have one hook that they swear by and that’s cool everyone to there own I've come across a couple of new patterns that I'm quite excited about the first is the ct 1 now I had a very similar hook some years ago but it was well to expensive 5 x 6/0 hooks was the same price I could get a 25 count of my favourite mustard's so I was delighted whilst going through a suppliers list of stuff he had these very hooks and at a fantastic price so looking forward to getting some meaty bait fish patterns on these ,



The ct 2
Another hook that I'm quite excited about is the hook below I think this will be quite cool for smaller baitfish , clousers etc so again it’s a hook I'm looking forward to trying out stay tuned

Getting the itch
As I write today there’s a chill in the air that chill is like a big slap in the face for me as my year so far has been OK nothing special but its going to get a whole lot better , this is because as I smell the coldness I know that the boat traffic on my local will be virtually stopped and the water will be less colored the roach will be getting nervous and the best thing is I will be able to fish all day without loads of boats going past ill also on the strength of last year get a least 3 month's fishing in before it freezes over and if last year is anything to go by then it will only be a week or so iced up a lot different to my friends in Vermont who really suffer in the winter ……………….

my local frozen

lake Champlain frozen a difference of 5ft thick ice ouch a little bit of a difference to my local

So plenty to look forward to in the coming weeks and months so stay tuned

Tight lines brothers and sisters
mcfluffchucker