views from here and over there

views from here and over-there 

afternoon dear follower's im going to start with a rant because as you know i love tying flies for predators , i love looking at flies and the thought and skill that goes into them but then sometimes you come across something that defies belief im referring to this commercially made garbage below

this waste of space is being advertised on the net for the pricey sum of £2.50 to be used for pike , now if this was some dude just starting out i could offer a few words of advice and obviously practice makes perfect and like all of us tiers we learn by our mistakes and im not saying im the greatest pike fly tier out there , those who know me will obviously know im just a guy that loves doing what he does and im not out there to make a heap of cash , in fact the small client list i keep helps me put food on the plate and buy materials .

in fact a lot of guys out there do it for just that and indeed there is a few guys who tie commercially but the difference is they make outstanding flies and are fully involved in the predator fishing world and like me actually fish the flies they make as well.

this garbage is probably made in an african or china tying house and is about as far removed from what we do as it gets to me looking at the fly above and ive actually seen one in the flesh , in fact the guy that showed me it looked at his and then looked at mine with a somewhat bemused look on his face when he saw what he could have got for his money , i did the correct thing and swapped one of mine for his and promptly destroyed it .

so folks please your looking for flies just have a look around places like facebook groups and just ask if anyone can make any , have a look at fly pictures and contact whoever made it and see if they will do you some , most folks will happily oblige and that way you get something decent that will last you a long time , unlike the shit above that will get destroyed in a few fish .

avoid this shit like the plague just aint worth the money , support your local fly tier  in fact in the next few weeks im going to set up a data base to do just that so you dont get suckered into buying this crap

from my vice this week

some bad ass sandeel type flies

coming in at 7 inchs long these things are quite large as far as sandeels go but im probably thinking more along the lines of pike with these as my salt trips are few and far between these days but i think they will do well on both the build is as follows 

hook - 6/0 oshaugnasy

belly - yellow bucktail

tail - white saddle hackle 

back -olive bucktail

flash - a few strands of flashbou (pearl)

over back - barred metz feather

head - medium ezy body

eye - 8mm

thread - clear mono

i kinda like this build think it has a few possibilities but will need to get it wet and see how it swims   

thin sandeel

hook - 4/0 oshaugnassy 

belly - white bucktail / white saddle hackle

back -metz olive barred hackle 

flash - pearl flashbou

head - small ezy body braid

eye - deercreek 5mm gator eye

thread -clear mono 

nice thin profile on this and im guessing quite sexy in the water 

more perch ideas

hook - 1/0 long shanked hook

body - deer creek uv chenille with a barred hackle feathered along the body

tail  -orange foxtail

flash - magnum gold flashbou

eye - aluminium seaeye (medium)

thread - ulttrafine 12/0

ok so if it will catch perch or not remains to be seen, i cant catch the buggers much to the amusement of a local fishery owner who keeps sending me pictures of perch he catches   

classic colour pike fly

hook - sakuma manta 7/0

body - white saddle hackle / white deerhair

flash - pearl flashbou 

head - red bucktail

eye - 8mm silver

thread - clear mono

hook - 7/0 sakuma manta

body - yellow sclappin feathers x2 / yellow bucktail

back - olive bucktail

sides - barred hackle 

flash - chartreuse flashbou 

eye - deercreek gator eye

thread - clear mono

hook - 6/0 bleeding

belly - yellow gliss n glint plus 

back - chartreuse gliss n glint plus 

eye - 8mm deercreek gator eye

flash - red angelhair

thread - clear mono

this was an order from one of my regular customers i tied him up some of my favourite perch flies  these always work well and the red hook dives it a little extra bling 

view from vermont 

brother ken is back amongst us and im more than happy to have him contribute to the blog and hes been in amongst the muskys , bother ken is a massive fan of tying big badass flies with natural materials and ties some darn fine flies .........so below is a few recent catches 

ill let the pictures do the talking

musky from the dugout

capsey musky buster just like brother ken , aint pretty but does the job 

prime vt musky held by a prime vt redneck caught on all natural , while brother ken wears shorts we are still in long trousers in scotland .........darn

ken likes big flies big flies catch ken muskys nuff said should make some of these for big green beasties this side of the pond thanks for the pictures bro

ok so me well im back at work tomorrow and back at the vice some point i hate work gets in the way of fishing

see ya all soon