the tug is the drug

i received today an awesome new reel (yes i paid for it) from the lads at piketrek the guys there really know there stuff , and when i was told there was a new purpose built fly reel coming into there stable i knew it would be a good quality and great value product and i wasn't disappointed when i took the plunge and got one and the one thing that struck me straight away was how light the thing was , i have flies that weigh more , well OK maybe not but it did feel incredible light maybe it would heavy up a bit when i go some line on it

so i loaded the reel up with a Rio outbound short (intermediate line) and despite the spool looking quite shallow it took it and the running line and some backing with space to spare i was impressed , what i was also impressed with was the fact it was still lighter than my airflo t7 10/11 which has been my workhorse reels for many years in fact even with the line on it was still lighter than the airflo without a line on very pleasantly surprised .

the other thing i liked was that the drag was similar to the airflo in the fact that its an easy to operate size not small and fiddly its pretty much the same size as the one on the airflo I've set the drag to a few different setting and tied my fly line to my son and got him to walk gently up the garden and I'm very impressed with the smoothness of it and to be honest it felt like i was using the t7 drag the reel itself uses aircraft grade aluminum and can take up to an 11 or even a 12 wgt line , this without doubt is a serious bit of kit and blows a lot of similar priced reels out of the water , the only down side for me is that there is no spare spools available for it , but this is being worked on , fantastic bit of kit

so i headed off last week and was having a lovely fish when we decided to go into to the lodge for a cuppa and a leg stretch , and got to chatting to the owner about flies and stuff and he mentioned he would like a big perch fly hmmmm hang on Ive got a few ill go get one for you , so i trotted off down to the boat to get one and he was suitable impressed and asked me to do 10 for him absolutely no problem here's the shoal ready for him

so having done perch patterns for my client i then sat down to check some emails when skype started singing its song , it was Friend and super Vermont fly guide drew price from guide service http://www.drewpriceonthefly.com/ now I've been having a few skype problems so it was good to catch up with him and get some inside fly info and what he was telling me was go heavy go flies that get down to the bottom in amongst the ambush points for the preds .

well red rag to a bull and i went with a big yellow perch pattern you see below , yellow perch are pretty much the same as our European perch except there yellow and they also but up quite a fight on a 6wgt so i came up with the fly below , what I've done is tied big dumbbell eyes underneath where the eyes are so the provide the weight and are quite hidden , the eyes are big because sometimes i think they make a great strike point for predators , although this theory is totally unproved and there camps for both arguments there , anyway I've finished off with a coat of UV resin around the head this gives a fantastic overall shape in the water and also helps with the action

still doing some prep for my up coming USA jaunt and i did OK on yellow and black flies for smallies last year so tying up a few more just to top the box up , i have a better idea of what i need for this year so i wont be taking as many flies , besides i can always tie up at kens if i have a flash of inspiration cheers brother

these are tied on tiemco tmc811s i was turned onto these by ken over at pike adventures great hook for small bait fish or clousers and very sharp

see you all soon and wherever you are cast safe

mcfluffchucker

(a cave in Scotland)