sticklebacks and other stories

 FAVORITE TIERS PT 1

I thought id write over the coming weeks short pieces on tiers that I admire , something ive not really done before because I really dont go down the hero worship route I have tiers who I love there work and have been honing there skills for many many years , so to start with I present the first guy and this will go in no particular order over the coming weeks …...

BOB VEVERKA (USA)

 if you have never read or seen bobs book innovative saltwater flies then you’ve missed a gem, although bobs flies are aimed at saltwater species the flies can be adapted for uk predators , the book itself contains various tiers and a lot of the names you will know like terry combs , steve abel , dan blanton , jack gartside and a lot of unfamiliar names in the uk but still a dam fine read plenty of lovely glossy plates and clear pictures of the flies , a great book if you can find a copy buy it …....

I really like bobs way of tying and in a lot of ways its like my own finding great patterns for other species and adapting and updating them to your own needs , bob I tip my hat to you and try and find bobs braid sardine one of the greatest looking baitfish ever …....

again find this book and add it to your collection , if your ever suffering from tiers block a quick flick through this book will have you in a tying frenzy cheers again bob

 

 PLAYING WITH FLIES

start of the week DNA flies was the order of the order of the day , just messin around with a few ideas and using diamond hard tack free uv these are being done with perch in mind although the hook is a 2/0 dai reki because most places ill use this will have pike in , again love dna looks awesome in the water 

After id the trouty one I thought id try and see if I could do something that resembled a spawning male stickleback that inhabit my local although this fly wasn't quite what I wanted it still looked OK so I had to think of a couple of alternatives material and design wise . 

 Mk 1  

 I looked at doing these in gliss and glint plus but I didn’t have the colours I wanted so I went and dug around in my ep fibers drawer and chose a colour called tarpon streamer , a nice blend of colours that I could use marker pens on , and I used a deercreek gator eye on this one which matches the eye colour of the stickleback perfectly so the mark one was produced …........still not quite right though

MK 2 

 next I went on to a mullet colour ep fiber was a bit more happy with this but I was still not 100% happy , I had a vision in my head of a monster male stickleback that me and the destroyer saw from the boat last year so while I had the vision in my head I went a totally different route and left out the coloring on the sides and came up with something a bit simpler now this hit the spot and now im happy ep fire deercreek eyes and an orange sharpie pen perfect , better go tie a few more …........:-)

SPRING FISHING

 spring already blimey well me and the destroyer pencilled in a trip this friday (last week) and we were quite excited about a trip into new waters and ideas for him by the way of saltwater fly flyfishing , I was going to take him to a spot where I was sure he would have some fun with some pollock and probably a few bass as well and knock another couple of species of the 2013 hunt list ,

I checked the weather forecast on Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday and it all looked pretty much the same as the picture above for friday and the fact that we would have a force 7 or 8 blowing into our faces while chucking with 7 weights was pretty much a no no if it had been blowing out to sea we could have done it but you just cant take risks with mother nature and especially in the sea so with heavy heart a fly tying day was arranged , although I say heavy heart its always good doing it and we both get a lot from it the destroyer new tying ideas and ways and me well I get to speak to a fellow human being for a day before being locked in my cave again .

And heres a couple I made  

BUGZ

HOOK – 8/0

BODY – olive maribou

FLASH – gold flashbou

EYES – christmas tree decoration

THREAD – phantom thread

SIZE – 7 inchs

MARIBUNNY

HOOK – 8/0

BODY – barred zonker strip

FLASH - gold flashbou

EYES – seaeyes with green gator eyes stuck on

THREAD – phantom thread

SIZE – 9 inchs

AND HERES A PIKE

 because im forgetting what they look like , this was caught by a customer in Ireland on one of my purple crystal minnows

I bid you farewell till next week when we are going fishing by the looks of it fingers crossed and a doughnut offering to the weather gods

mcfluffchucker

( a cave in Scotland)