would you like to see my flies

FLIES ALIVE O

ok so with the lack of fishy action I thought id update a few of my favourite pike fly patterns enjoy , and of course if you want any just shoot me a mail  

fried alive

this was really the surprise hit for me in late 2012 I originally made it to imitate sticklebacks on a local water and to try and get the attention of some chunky perch , but it ended up being a killer for pike me and the destroyer hit so many preds with these it was beyond belief and its only around 3 inch’s in length  

 gliss and glints

the material of 2013 absolutely amazing stuff gives off just the right amount of flash without being too in your face so many different things you can do with this stuff big , small , saltwater , even nymph bodies and loads of very cool colors never go out without some of these in my box

 naturals

the flies above are big bucktail monsters these have specially weighted heads to give them maximum dying fish predator attraction I only made these towards the end of last season so haven’t really been able to give them a fair crack of the whip yet , but they were very cool when I tested them in water look forward to using them when I get back on the water

THE SUBBUG

(the deerhair equivalent of a nuclear explosion)

why well because it does that much damage , hell yea it does first time I used them last year I had 3 mid size 20s hit these on the surface one of these fish hit the destroyers bug as I was teaching him how to use them his facial expression is one that will live with me for a long time this year mate this year  

The subbug ain’t just a surface fly for summer hell no , it can be used mid water on intermediate lines or one off my favored methods is when things are really slow is to stick on a lead-core line and inch it just off the bottom , this can result in some spectacular and savage takes just pinch them along the bottom very slowly and get ready for the smash  

the simplest flies are sometimes the best and still out fish most other patterns the simple marabou streamer was pretty much the go to fly for me in the early days of pike flies and it still holds the record for my biggest pike on the fly (a 25lb river fish and actually my biggest fish last year as well) if you have never tried marabou streamers before then check the video page out above , one thing id recommend though is get the best quality marabou plumes you can afford this makes all the difference to your fly in the water if you get marabou that’s threadbare and short your fly will look and fish awful , but when times are tough always worth a try with these  

I still love fishing and tying with naturals , these above I fish right on the bottom and fish them strip and pause so they rise up and drop to the deck , of course the dumbell eyes tied on top of the shank mean it fishes hook up every time ,again a great fly for when the fish are not that active and the long flowing metz tail can sometimes prove irresistible

another monstrosity of a fly but fishes like you wouldn't believe , a few more folks are getting the picture with black flies there seems to be a psychological block with anglers “I cant use that the fish wont see it” trust me they can and on those summer days when the waters green with algae these flies will out fish any other color out there try it out what you got to lose  

the humble bunny bug , I have had a love hate relationship with this fly ive never been able till this year to catch bloody fish on them (I still think that was a fluke) and ive been playing with various ways of pimping them up above being one such pimp ill have another bash this year with em see if I can get my confidence up with the things as I know a lot of people do really well on them in fact I know one guy who has only bunny bugs in his box so gotta be something in it. 

Sometimes some of the best flies come when tinkering around doing nothing in particular , infact the fly pattern above came about like that I was just sitting doing some basic bucktail patterns when I thought mmmmmm this may look good with a saddle hackle along the side then I decided to top it of with some peacock herl and bang a cracking bait fish is born I really like this pattern

DNA BABY

ok so first up DNA ain't cheap and to be honest if your using 2 packs you’ll maybe half a dozen of the flies above out of the pack , and that's tying them sparsely but they just look so dam bloody good and off course mixing a few strands with other fibers works really well also loads you can do with them there is a video of me tying these on you tube somewhere just look up mcfluffchucker

another slim profile baitfish , this time with orvis superhair , these were supposed to be heading to a guy in the states (who shall remain nameless) but he wanted sandeels for stripers and was delighted at the flies however he sent me an email some weeks later saying he had packed in fishing and was going to live in a tent just on the perimeter of area 51 in Nevada so he could be first on the space ships when they came back to earth , he did say he would honour the bill and pay it , but as I explained to him I thought the chances of fly fishing on some remote planet inhabited by little grey men was not a sure bet and id just keep them (I mean if they had fly fishing they wouldn’t need to leave there planet would they) true story folks

so these flies actually turned out to be quite good for jacks so fun was had and they stayed on the planet  

gliss and glint plus flies continue to dominate my boxes just now simply because they look so bloody good in the water , seriously I don’t think I could go out on the water without a few in the box  

nick the Greek and the mad scientists at the costa del Athens in Wales continue

to pass out some bloody good colors in this stuff and im now finding myself going nuts as to what to tie next as there is so many great color combos you could do with the stuff even using just one color like above and some perm marker you get some fantastic looking patterns.

You know when you get stuck for ideas or colors what you could do is do a google image search for jerkbaits and glidebaits and have a look at the color combos and just replicate them in a fly once you've done one you’ll find you’ll have the ideas flowing again

 perch patterns are extremely popular in Scotland for pike mainly because in a lot of places its the main food source so look in most fly anglers boxes and you'll see some form of perch pattern fly I have tied up loads on the past but the ones above are my favorite big perch gliss and glint patterns tied on 6/0 pike streamer hooks and the use of a round plastic eye gives it great movement in the water ive also played around with marker pens on the tail of this one , seen someone do this somewhere and though it looked quite cool so incorporated it into mine.

 PHONE HOME EP

I still really enjoy tying with ep fibre and of course everything has it place in the tying box you can produce so cool patterns with it and although you may not be able to see it in this picture you can also custom blend it to what you want (ive done the back on this one mixed the belly color with olive for the back) im still playing with mixing colors and coming up with some cool results stay tuned 

back in the day when I were a lad 

well actually back in the late 90s, I had a chap from Cornwall mail me asking if I

could make up a few patterns to his spec for saltwater fly fishing more than happy to oblige I set to work on his drawings and what you see above and below was the result , my customer was delighted and ordered a dozen of each and from that day to this I get an order from the same chap same time every year , there has however been a few times he’s ordered twice in a year im guessing that he fish rocky ground a few times but they must be working for him

marabou and metz squid

this was another fly I did for that salt and it looked cracking in the water although I never had it in action in saltwater I can say I caught quite a few jacks with it . Go figure

FAO BRIAN PRICE

VERMONT FLY GUYS

you know it makes sense

 ok thats plenty

OK so ive seen this kind of picture quite a lot on the net lately I mean come on your fooling nobody and your just making yourself look stoopid and just imagine if you do catch that big fish nobody’s going to believe you are they

tight lines

mcfluffchucker

(man flu in the cave)