HOLIDAY BLUES
so been trying to get a week off work for a while and i finally got this week off , so id promised my lovely girlfriend id help with some gardening on Monday and i could fish and tie flys for the rest of the week to be fair she lets me do as i please so i really didn't mind , well what i hadn't planned on was doing my back in and not being able to move all week and on seriously strong painkillers the best laid plans and all that so that has stuffed my plans up a bit , but on the plus side nice to see some of my flies slaying the snotrockets in Ireland .
cheers to stephen at http://www.theoaksfishery.co.uk who had a cracking session with my fluff , nice to see somebody's getting out
( thanks to stephen from the oaks fishery in ireland for the pic)
they are also stocking some of my flies so head over to there onsite tackle shop and take a look
life at the vice
as you can gather with my enforced imprisonment due to not being able to move anything but my arms ive been fairly busy at the vice so what ill do is just give a recipe breakdown on the patterns ive been doing
first up i was thundercreek minnows these are heading to the states for smallmouth bass and yea before anybody starts yea i have caught them before
ive left most of the sizes off these flies as basically you can tie what eversize you like , ive included eye size to give an idea of the overall size of the fly , as always i purchase all my eyes from deercreek who you can find the ink for in the side menu , i have championed deercreeks eyes and uv for many years because i believe they are the best on the market and i have yet to find any better , they have always been at the head of the game when it comes to eyes well thats why they are often copied
hook : long shank streamer hook
belly: white bucktail
back: chartreuse bucktail
flash: a few strands of crystal flash
eye: 4mm 3d from deercreek
head: diamond hard uv
thread: red
hook : long shank streamer hook
belly: white bucktail
back:chartreuse bucktail
flash: pearl crystal flash
eye: 4mm 3d from deercreek
head:diamond hard uv
thread: green
hook : long shank streamer hook
belly: white bucktail
back:chartreuse bucktail with black perm marker
flash: pearl crystal flash
eye: 4mm 3d from deercreek
head:diamond hard uv
thread: red
monster articulated musky fly
ok so this baby is a monster and is 4 x articulated gliss and glint plus rides again
hook : 6/0 mcfluffchucker
belly:white gliss n glint plus
back: my blend gliss n glint plus
flash:pearl
eye:8mm hard eye
head:-
thread: clear mono
personally i think thats a killer
BOX OF DOOM
so i also needed to clear out the box of doom , you know re arrange and shift through stuff , to top part of my box i have a foam sheet and on here i have my new ties to test and flies that need drying out after trips although with the amount i tie its mostly new stuff so they get gathered up on my tying board and then transferred , i actually like have a big boat box as i can keep this as the mothership then move stuff around to smaller back packs or waistcoats , depending on the kind of fishing im doing. boat bank or light weight roving
ive been testing some saltwater patterns latley as well but i keep them in separate boxes more on those another time but like all blokes its nice to get the big one out and play with it for a while (sorry was that a bit smutty oh er mrs)
so inside the big box i have lots of medium sized boxes with divided sections i can get 11 of these boxes in the big one so thats a hell of a lot of fluff and i have enough room at the side for my trace / leaders / reels / unhooking gear etc oh and my sandwiches
i split my boxes into groups , i,e gliss n glint box , naturals box , small streamer box , ep box , i have found this makes it easier to locate flies when i need them , ive tried loads of storage solutions for pike flies including custom bags , finsport wallets , video boxes , boxes and ive found that these are by far the best solution , unfortunatley there lots of people out there that go for the make before putting thought into how many flies they have or the practicalities of carting them around but each to there own i mean if you want to spend nearly 40 quid then no problem ill get by with my £5:00 boxes , all a matter of choice but then ive never been a follower of fashion
UP THE DEERCREEK
i know i know i keep going on about materials from www.deercreek.co.uk but heres the thing i have been tying with deercreek gliss n glint and gliss for nearly 8 years, i and clients have caught numerous pike on em and i still love the stuff for tying , ive seen it progress over the years into a 1st class tying material in loads of colors and of course they have always been the leaders in color blends as far as im concerned and of course if you like me want the best quality predator flies then your going to want the best materials to do it , so check the guys out at deercreek for some great tying stuff i mean after 8 years without issue i cant be wrong and neither can the pike
of course im not saying this is the be all and end all of tying materials in fact i also tye with e.p fibre as well and also love this , i also tye with a lot of natural materials and ideed they all have there place but i like the versatility of gliss and glint plus so i will continue to plug it (and no i dont get paid to plug stuff i get sent stuff to review and thats it) again im completely independent and ill tell it like it is.
on the subject of reviewing stuff well i do get stuff to review and im happy to do it and ill tell it like it is , i sometimes go out and buy stuff and do a review on it good or bad because you now im not stuck up the backsides of tackle companies getting free materials all the time to give good press about it , if its good its good if its bad its bad and ill say so , but thankfully most stuff these days is pretty decent so that rarely happens and i never ever take cash payments or farm my flies out to cheap crap African tying houses to be sold anyway more on that practice next blog.
hook : 6/0 mcfluffchucker
belly: yellow gliss n glint plus
back:orange gliss n glint plus
flash:blended pearl
eye: 6mm generic gold eye
head: diamond hard uv
thread: clear mono
hook : 6/0 mcfluffchucker
belly: white gliss n glint plus
back: rainbow gliss n glint plus
flash:blended peacock
eye: 8mm gator eye
head: diamond hard uv
thread: clear mono
hook : 6/0 mcfluffchucker
belly: pink gliss n glint plus
back: pink gliss n glint plus
flash:blended purple pearl
eye: 8mm gator eye
head: diamond hard uv
thread: clear mono
hook : 6/0 mcfluffchucker
belly: white gliss n glint plus
back: olive gliss n glint plus
flash back :peacock flash
eye: 8mm gator eye
head: diamond hard uv
thread: clear mono:
hook : 6/0 mcfluffchucker
belly: mullet ep fibre
back: mullet ep fibre
flash back :peacock flash
eye: 8mm generic gold eye
head: diamond hard uv
thread: clear mono:
hook : 6/0 mcfluffchucker
belly: pink gliss n glint plus
back: pink gliss n glint plus
flash:blended purple pearl
eye: 8mm roachie eye
head: diamond hard uv
thread: clear mono
SOME NATURALS
a few natural tyes below , these are pretty much made up of schulpin feathers and bucktail with braid tubing heads covered with a layer of diamond flex uv , a really quick fly to tye and great in either salt water or fresh water , these care fairly large as they are for pike but you can do them in any sizes you want really , great flies when wet
MAKING A MUSKY MONSTER
this beast is heading stateside and i took a couple of days to complete due to work shifts but was a joy to tye a massive fly with natural materials after doing the smallmouth flies
not really much room on the vice , for this
hook : 8/0
belly: white bucktail laced with silver flashbou
back: chartreus bucktail laced with greem magnum flash flashbou
body : 5 x articulated shanks
flash : flashbou
eye: 10mm gator eye
head: black varnish
thread: kevlar
would love to see a video of this in the water bet it has some moves
MORE MORE MORE
ok so posted these on my facbook page and of course had a lot of folks asking why i tied these so far back on the shank well theres a couple of reasons
1 - the material is more mobile tying towards the back of the hook
( the pike will easily engulf even the biggest fly tied this way)
2 - its easier to unhook fish by using the bare shank , you dont damage flies
(nothing worse that material round your unhooking gear)
3 - because it looks cool
hook : 6/0 mcfluffchucker
belly: orange gliss n glint plus
back: green gliss n glint plus
flash: crystal flash pearl overcoat
eye: 6mm
head: diamond hard uv
thread: clear mono
hook : 6/0 mcfluffchucker
belly: yellow gliss n glint plus
back: orange gliss n glint plus
flash: crystal flash pearl overcoat
eye: 6mm roachie eye from deercreek
head: diamond hard uv
thread: clear mono
and thats another load of my fluff packet into boxes , are you seeing the advantage yet of these boxes
SMALL SALTWATER FLIES
doing some morning small stuff tying at the table with breakfast , just tying a few saltwater patterns for my boxes so got limited stuff out and was only tying with what i had on the table
sometimes its really nice getting right back to basics a bit of flash and a pair of eyes and making the basic of flies which by the way work just as good as complicated patterns and you know ive still not got round to making the latest fad of these wiggle tails yet , to be honest i prefer to use actual material and lovely long feathers for tails and from the videos ive seen its just seems to much effort for the same results and what next , plastic bodies for flies well arnt we just turning flies into spinning lures i dont know well just not for me but then ive not really ever been a fad follower but each to there own and if it catches you fish well good on ya , and to be honest ive had all sorts of rubber concoptions on the tails end of flies in the past but ive always gone back to materials , mabey im becoming a traditionalist so dont thing these will be seeing the inside of my box anytime soon .
so some small fly funk , pretty basic designs some flash a gator eye some some diamond hard and there you have it a nifty little fly for either fresh or saltwater
i keep adding these to my ever increasing perch fly box , still cant catch them though although my friends have had them to over 3lbs on my flies , mabey i need a re think on fishing for them or maybe im just crap at perch can you belive the last perch i had in this country was a stonking 3 lb fish from a highland loch nearly 17 years ago , told you they were my bogey fish ( i dont count the tons of yellow perch and white perch i had in vermont with brother ken a few years ago ) im talking about this country , yup defiantly my bogey fish , there will be joyful celebrations when i do get one i can tell you
i just love these little sprat flies theres just something about them that screams eat me , im going to do some more this week so will mabey do a step by step on them.
light weight ultra flashy bucktails
so hit on the idea of a large ultralight flashy bucktail so played around and heres what i came up with , i really like these they all thats needed in a big predator fly lots of bulk and lots of flash (and no wiggly tail) these are incredibly light weight but still have the bulk thanks to the hollow tye method
hook : 6/0 long shank sakuma
body : green bucktail hollow tied
flash: a mix of flashabou in green and gold
head: a touch of diamond flex uv
thread:clear mono
hook : 6/0 long shank sakuma
body : red bucktail hollow tied
flash: magnum flashabouin silver
head: a touch of diamond flex uv
thread:clear mono
hook : 6/0 long shank sakuma
body : green bucktail hollow tied
flash: a magnum flashabou in silver
head: a touch of diamond flex uv
thread:clear mono
EDINBURGH ANGLING CENTER
well fantastic that the new edinburgh angling center is now open and this is great news for anglers this side of the coast and something that has been long overdue so it was with a spring in my step that i headed down there last week looking for some specific items
and i have to say its a fantastic shop and great to have so much under one roof and the staff are really friendly and keen to put you on the right stuff , so i had a wander round (thank god i don't lure fish anymore the amount they have is unbelievable)
so i found the fly tying section and i have to say i was really disappointed with the section , don't get me wrong if your a trout fisher it more than meets your needs for tying gear , but from a predator tiers perspective it was a big let down , i went to buy ep fiber , and DNA fiber and some flashabou , now i get the flash ok and there was an ok selection and i also bought some wing and flash but there was no ep fiber at all and i know they stock it in the Glasgow store but there was none here or dna which they also stock so that was a big let down for me , the staff couldn't have been more helpful in the fact that they would order it in from the Glasgow store , but it would be really nice just to go in and buy it off the street so please guys get a load in, i know of a few people who were underwhelmed at the lack of predator fly tying stuff , so it was with heavy heart that i had to go home and order stuff online which i really didnt want to do , a real shame as its only 5 mins from my house , will i go back hell yea there's always something to buy and when was the last time you came out of a tackle shop empty handed but again massive thanks to the staff for being some dam friendly and helpful
and so with that i shall retire off to the vice and create some more pike snaxs , and yea i know its been 4 weeks or so since my last post but that thing called work tends to get in the way a bit , im hoping if the weather stays mild to get out and do some salt water fly fishing but as the year drawers ever closer to an end that looking less likely but i still have a few pike trips planned so all is not lost.
greetings from the cave
dave mcfluffchucker
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