a final push

Downsize

so I got a trip coming up and im not in a boat for a change, so my whole set up has to change for this trip my boat box below has pretty much every fly line and every fly in every colour you can think of , id be happy to get in a boat in any part of the county and be confident of having the right fly for the job predator wise so when I have to scale thing back for a non boat trip I really have to think about what im taking and to take flies that will cover most situations I will come across and that can mean taking a whole heap of one colour in different sizes or a whole heap of mixed flies depends where im going ….

 

 

so for this trip and really for most trips I do in this country I will have had some prior knowledge of the venue or as in most cases it will be a venue that ive fished before at least once in the past so usually ill know what the main baitfish is so I can take flies to match but when im going through the boxes of flies it just ain’t that easy OK so ill take the flies I really need but then ill think oh id better take this and that fly and before you know it ive got loads its a nightmare choosing flies sometimes but most of the time ill get it right .

So this below is believe it or not my lightweight bag that I take if im wandering around lochs or canals

 

I love this bag it has loads of great features unfortunately as far as im aware its not available any more so id better take care of it , it has a very nice zip pocket on the top here I keep leader material clips etc. and a small first aid kit , dont know how many people actually carry a first aid kit when fishing but carrying one can make things a whole lot more comfortable if you cut yourself or get chewed by a bug

 

the main compartment is large enough carry 4 of my big plastic cases and the big finsport wallet and my leader wallet , the side pockets take 2 more smaller boxes and the front pocket carrys another small box and glasses and unhooking gear , I can of course also fit in a bottle of water and some food in the main compartment , the small camo patch you can see is a small pocket which is ideal for keys cash or a mobile phone , although I tend to have my phone in the top compartment with my leader. nice bag

 

from the vice this week smaller patterns

thread - clear mono

hook - 2/0 dai reki

body - icelandic sheep hair

flash - deercreek crystal flash

eye - green piketrek 8mm rubberized

 



thread - clear mono

hook - dai reki 2/0

belly - yellow ep fiber

back - black ep fiber

eye - hard eyez from hook eye and fly

hook - dai reki 2/0

belly - white icelandic sheep hair

back - olive icelandic sheep hair

flash - deercreek crystal flash

sidestripe - grizzed hackle

eye - piketrek 8mm red eye

 

follow the leader

OK so im going to say this now I don’t like to complicate my set up with complicated leader set ups the set up below ive used and abused and its always served me well there is really no need to go down the tapered leaders for turning over big flies my biggest of flies turn over nicely thank you very much , the thing is with guys coming into the sport from a trout fishing angle will bring there own leader ideas with them which if it works for them great but its really not needed in my opinion this is a big bad ass predator we are chasing, not trout on a chalk stream the thing is to get the fly in the water and that’s half the battle done , I know people will have there own ideas on leaders im not saying your wrong im just saying how I do it and its never failed me in 30+ years so here it is a bog standard one size fits all leader for pike



I use seaguar flurocarbon for my leaders simply because its never let me down ok its quite expensive but youll get your moneys worth out of a 50m spool and its a lot cheaper that buying those ready made leaders so it makes sense to make your own

1 – the loop

I make a simple loop in each end like above , make sure you wet the knot before pulling it tight and once pulled tight clip the tag end close to the knot , for a bog standard leader on an intermediate line ill use a 5 foot leader the pike arnt line shy once they focus on the fly thats its there on it.

loop to loop on the fly line

once ive looped both ends of the leader I attach one to the fly line and gently pull until is a snug fit

 

then I attach the other end to my trace material (authanic wire) again with a loop to loop, authanic is very easy to loop unlike stiffer wires and that is pretty much it a very easy and effective leader set up , nothing complicated and has done me well over many years and the most important thing is its never let me down as I said before this isn’t about finesse and presentation on the water we are fishing for a predator so delicate dosnt apply ….

a long day on the loch

today was the last day of boat fishing on the loch so myself and conan decided to have a major crack at it with a dawn till dusk session and cover the areas I call my sweet spots so I arranged for a 6.30am pick up and we would be there just as dawn was breaking , unfortunately conan decided his lovely warm bed was worth staying in an extra half hour so we arrived slightly later than anticipated but only by half an hour so wasn’t that bad .

When we got there it was chilly a most defiantly a nip in the air the fact I was wearing long trousers instead of shorts proved that it was certainly getting into winter but never the less this time of year can be great for the fly fisher and as the leaves turn a golden brown a lot of people start thinking pike but keep those fly rods out there’s still plenty of action to be had despite the cold weather

a great time of year to be out on the water loads of cool colours on the trees the water was still a bit green but this would be too much of a problem being out there and getting a fly wet is the most important thing , so we cruised up to a couple of my honey spots but things were a bit slow so we headed to the other side of the loch where if you get the right wind you can have a fantastic drift right down one shoreline and over a couple of sweet spots if you get the right drift so we got over there and it wasn’t quite a perfect drift but it was good enough , as we approached one sweet spot on the drift conans rod buckled over with what was obviously a very large fish that stayed down deep and moved off taking a few yards of line , I started to bring my line in so as not to get in the way when it got near the boat and to give a clear shot of netting it , the conan muttered those words you never want to hear “its off” I was gutted for him as it was obviously a large fish and without a shadow of a doubt his new pb but these things happen sometimes a fish can be lightly hooked and any pressure will see the hook just popping out nothing you can do about it , but to give him his credit he just got back on with it and carried on fishing …....mabey next later .

Poundage of green torpedo

 

we carried on fishing the drift then went back up to the top of the drift again for a second run at it , this time I had put on a pretty basic but deadly fly a simple marabou pattern id tied up a couple of these as I do these days 2 of everything so if it does work then I can give one to conan well actually his lost fish came on the fly so I stuck my one on for the second drift and as we fished down the bank I cast into the shore and after a couple of casts towards the bank my rod thumped over as 12lbs of angry esox comped down on the maribou streamer , now these fish in this loch are really turbo charged and outstanding sport on a fly rod this one stayed down and actually went round the boat a few times before finally slipping into the net I just love that moment when they break surface and give you the eye cant beat it .

my biggest pike on the fly so far is a fish of 25lbs from an English river and back then as ive spoken about before the only materials we had back then were maribou feathers and bucktail synthetic materials had only just started making an apperance in this country with e.p fiber so that fish fell pretty much to the same type of fly as this one a basic streamer fly , I do however recommend you get a decent maribou feather because you need it to have lots of movement and long plums for maximum pulse I exclusively use the feathers from deercreek because they are Hand picked at DC HQ and dyed by the best in the business. These feathers are probably the best ive ever seen. 10 great feathers per pkt Price: £1.69 you cant go wrong heres the link
http://www.deercreek.co.uk/FEATHERS.html

if your a bit of a feather junky then its worth having a look at there other feathers as well as they have some very nice stuff . The hook was one of hook eye and flies esox 2 streamer hook heres the link and they have a buy a pack get a pack free offer on

http://www.spanglefish.com/hookeyeandfly/index.asp?pageid=417239

But as I was saying that fish took a maribou feather so mabey its time to knock a few out again if your not sure how to make one heres a video I did a while ago , in the video I glue on eyes but if you want to use dunbells like the fly above then just tie that in first behind the eye on top of the hook so it swims hook up

 

lunch is served

well you got to face it theres nothing worse than being out for the day and having rubbish food ok fisherman’s food is usually a couple of pies or something and there’s nothing worse than being hungry when your out fishing so we tend to take a good feed out with us and to be honest you cant beat sitting in a boat on a pretty loch having a good feed and we certainly do that although I draw the line at eating his left overs from the night before …....................
 

 

  a float around

we had a float around after lunch and came in contact with a few more smaller fish nothing exciting there you may think but I actually caught them on my pimped bunny bugs now ive got history of failing miserably with bunny bugs so this is indeed a dramatic turn around for me as ive not been able to catch on the things for at least 15 years so this has given a massive boost (ernie firth will be laughing his head off) seriously I just had no luck with things at all ,

most of the action shots you see on the blog are taken by conan with his monster big posh camera and although he doesn’t think so I absolutely love his pictures and he pulls out a great action shot so this picture above is one of my favourites bunny out the mouth gills flaring brilliance conan is also available for weddings , party’s etc and will work for chocolate

close encounters of the R.A.F kind

we had a close encounter with an R.A.F Hercules which buzzed very low over the loch by the time I had seen it coming and got my camera it was just about out of view but as it passed I swear it was so close I could see the pilots , I remember some years ago when I was fishing a loch in the north of scotland and a tornado jet came screaming up the loch just above the water in fact it was so low it actually left a wake on the water which was quite a cool site but what was cooler was another jet that appeared a few minutes later chasing it now that was cool , the things you see when your fishing

over and out

 

so with the end of the boat season on the loch I go to say ive fished with a lot of people and taught a lot of people to pike fly fish but its been a real honour and a pleasure and dare I say a bloody great laugh with conan these past few months and the speed he’s picked it up has been incredible and bearing in mind hes come from a trout fishing background he’s actually bought none of his trouting habits with him and just gone with the flow which is incredible rare for someone coming from one arm of the sport to another so again hats of to ya buddy and look forward to loads more adventures and species chasing in the future (we got plans people)

up the fluff

get some of the best pike fly fishing in Scotland

so there’s an opportunity come up if you fancy having a crack at this fantastic water I fish in stunning countryside and fish that are turbo charged and never give up the fight then there’s some bank fishing tickets available heres the detals and hopefully ill see you on the loch

Pike fly fishing opportunities available on a private loch just 20 miles
from Edinburgh.
This is a first class facility with all you need for great pike fly fishing.
The fishing has been strictly controlled on the loch so the pike have not been over fished.

There is limited availability.

Call Steve on. 07423356510 (uk number)

till next time

mcfluffchucker

(a cave in scotland)