ON THE ROAD WITH PIKETREK

 NEW SPONSOR FOR THE BLOG

very proud to announce the the guys at piketrek are now my new blog sponsors 

so why piketrek  , well to be honest ive never gone down the route of big sponsors and having to abide by there rules and to praise stuff ive never used before nope not me , i have a long history with greg at piketrek and have always supported them and the amazing pike saber pike fly rod which i have used since first trying one some mabey 8 odd years ago and to be honest nothing comes close in my opinion and that to me speaks volumes

also let me make this quite clear , i do not receive and would never take any financial incentive to promote there goods they are just a great company with down to earth pike tying and fishing gear , greg like me tells it like it is and i respect him for that in this day and age.

and yes there is a lot of companies out there selling pike tying gear but pike trek has always been a company that looks for new innovations in fly tying at a great price , ive seen comanys come and go but piketrek are still there doing what they do best . pike fly tying material and the pike saber 

so im delighted to have them on-board and its a decision ive not taken lightly  

   

so if your looking for great  original materials please check them out at 

www.pikeflyrod.co.uk  

 

so what does it all mean , well basically ill be showcasing piketreks materials in my tying videos on youtube and fish that have been caught on them both from me and my clients , im not going to be ramming stuff down your throat though and ill be also be reviewing other stuff i find .

you see ive always championed the smaller companies and especially those that provide outstanding service  especially small business because these days of ebay and the like, everyman and his dog is selling stuff  online these days but few of them specialize in pike only , and piketrek have always been great pike anglers and actually get out there and fish with there own products greg is no exception and has had some fantastic fish to his name including some monster perch and some cracking river fish 

greg with a cracking river pike

so there you have it and im looking forward to working with one of the best companies for pike gear out there so please take a moment and go and have a look for yourself 

www.pkeflyrod.co.uk

 

if your in the market for a new pike or saltwater rod check out the pike saber it really is a serious bit of kit and at he moment you can get one even cheaper as he has a sales on so there is no better time to get one , trust me you wont be disappointed heres the link 

http://www.pikeflyrod.com/6-pike-fly-rods 

saber action

urban saber testing pike tube flies

testing some big flies on a canal , just check out he power in that , these rods really make em fly

i also took the saber out to America chasing bass with top water flies with my bro and fellow saber user ken "redneck" capsey 

bass fluff in the states

the saber nailed the bass in tough cover and performed outstandingly 

so dont take my word for it go get one try it yourself you wont be disappointed

so for now hope you all have a great festive season , ill be in the cave doing more videos and out on the water again come march doing what i do stay tuned 

mcfluffchucker 

( a cave in scotland )

 

merry Christmas folks and other fly tying stories

DECEMBER

 well December is here and im sitting wondering where the year has actually gone , although its not been particularly busy for me fishing wise in fact the highlight for me was probably the big twaite shad i caught on my doorstep that really was up there with the fish of a lifetime but it has got me completely rethinking what is on my doorstep and how i can target them ,indeed a wakeup call 

other people however have been catching a lots on my flies especially doe at the blagdon event so that was nice to see .

be playing lately with the dragon tails from deercreek so ive done a couple of videos on tying and how they look in the water .

how they look in the water 

ok so next i wanted to do a tying video so i asked on my facebook page what people wanted to see done and an articulated fly came tops so this is the video i done for it and i used a drgon tail just for fun , again theres many ways of making articulated flies this is a way that works for me and fairly simple to do . 

so here is the video 

also i have been asked a few times to do a video on my end gear i.e from the flyline loop to the fly so i was happy also to do this , again i must stress that everybody is different and have different set ups that works for them , this is what i have used for many many years and hasn't let me down  .so please enjoy the video and if you pick something up from it then great if you dont then that fine , but as i said works for me please enjoy.

so this is just a brief update and reports of my premature death have been greatly exaggerated , i do plan on doing a few new videos which will see me going from vice to bank and this will hopefully get going fairly soon now ive worked out how to use my video software  :-)  

hopefully ill get a wee post before Christmas on flies ive been doing in the past few months and some new bits and bobs i have coming out .

tight lines folks 

mcfluffchucker

(a cave in scotland) 

hey maw im on the radio

HELLO AMERICA 

well been a helava month since my last post  started a new job with some crazy hours but have been managing to get some vice time in and some planned fishing with duke (well sort off) so whats been going down well let me tell ya 

had a message from the fellas over at svsfishing asking if i would like to join them in a podcast to talk about all things scotland , fishing, whiskey ,and fly tying , and well i was delighted to join in and it ended up being a blast what fun we had , i was actually working that day and had been up since 5am , so with the time difference it was actually around 23:30 when i took to the airwaves and i was on for a good couple of hours so by the time i git to bed it was 2am but you know what a great bunch of guys and loved every min of it , you can check out my podcast and some other great names on the link below to listen or download   

mcfluffchucker podcast

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BLAGDON PIKE TRIALS 

so unless you have been living under a rock in the uk you will have noticed that the pike trials have been taking place at blagdon lake which has been causing mass hysteria among pike fly fishers in the uk because it was widely believed that this lake would produce a new British record pike so off course the interest was massive , but the downside was that i was seeing a few people who had never flyfished in there lives buying the gear to go and do this this to me was quite shocking as it takes time to build up the expertise to land big fish on a fly rod or really any pike so this was worrying .

the other thing was that this was being pushed as a trial meaning the fish hadn't been targeted before well to be quite frank this was bollocks as i know that they have been fished for frequently by folks going on there but hey im not part of that particular circus so i was glad i wasn't part of it especially at 200 quid a boat just not my thing but watched with interest the results .

but saying that there were still undoubtedly large fish in there to be caught so i was still happy to make flies for folks who were fishing it 

most nights i worked long into the night to get them done as i had a deadline to make 

so i watched with interest at the results for the first day and they were pretty good and i think the biggest was a 30lb + fish and quite a few 20s caught , but folks were complaing about damage from being caught before and although some of this was undoubtedly from catches from trout anglers you have to ask how many of these fish were targeted by pike fly fishers being on there and i know they had a few guys on there lure fishing a while ago but ill watch with interest as questions are asked of bristol water who run this and chew as the internet seems to be gathering pace just now on this very subject .

but a couple of my customers had a few great fish as below 

so a big well done to the 2 richards from Sheffield who despite terrible conditions managed a few 

great fishing fellas 

-------

so had a plan to fish with my pal and fishing buddy duke , we had arranged to go play on the canal and fish small for the hope of perch , it was more an exploratory trip to see what it was like round there , however come the morning it was blowing a massive one and duke called me to see if we should venture out , i decided to hang back and asked him to call around 1pm and see if the wind had died down .

well 1pm came and went and turns out duke had gone back to bed (he works nights) and eventually messaged me at 6pm apologizing but hey no worrys as it turns out the weather had go worse so we wouldnt have got out anyway , further plans are now in place .

 STRAIGHT OUTA THE CAVE

so whats been coming out the cave , well be still happily blending my own materials and very happy with the shades and flash mixture and its opened a whole new world of fishy colors so below are a few that have made the grade all on 7/0 hooks 

STREAMERS 

i make no apology but i absolutely love american streamers and enjoy making them and making pike versions of them , i guess its my little get away from big pike flies and find them very therapeutic so below are some ive done on esox 2 5/0 hooks , so yea big so enjoy my indulgence 

BLENDING 

something mildly satisfying about blending your own colors 

again busy with getting flies out to customers , these were bought from my store (check the top bar in the blog flies for sale 1 and 2)

bespoke flies done and heading south shortly , bespoke are my favorites flies to tye as i can get creative with color blends that have worked in the past and customers love them and more importantly catch fish on them.

BIG STUFF

these are some bespoke flies that i made 13 inchs of fish munch they are boyant and sinking patterns very effective flies that can be twitched back along the bottom or used on the surface very much look like dying distressed fish when twitched back 

THE CLAYMORE BAITFISH

the claymore baitfish is just one of those flies that has everything looks movement flash and an attitude , i designed this to be very lightweight to fish but big and not lose on action this thing looks great in the water , only done 2 colors so far but love the pattern and can do it in all sizes which is cool 

boom , just a great picture and a simple fly 

been a helluva tying mouth but charged on through it and now have an empty order board i have gone through countless threads tons of materials and dont know how many eyes,scary thought been a long time since the board was clear , but then then it wont last long before it full again .

cave life spent quite a lot of time in here love it 

PIKE BANGERS 

i get asked quite a lot about buying online in other country's and to be honest i only ever supply one outlet per country and thats with original flies that you can only purchase from them so the flies below are available from 

http://www.1000vliegen.nl/flies/mcfluffchucker-snoek-streamers.html

this is an online store in Holland and have some very cool stuff so please have a browse around at here other stuff as well , plenty for the fly fisher 

these bangers are fantastic for predators , i fish these with fast sink lines so they float off the bottom and twitch them back and they really wiggle , they have been pretty successful for zander and perch in europe 

also available are these sandeel type patterns , now these are killers for tons of species i kid you not from bass and saltwater species right through to trout , pike , perch zander , and even carp a very versatile pattern that fishes oh so well the ones above are tied on 2/0 hooks and will be avalible over at http://www.1000vliegen.nl/flies/mcfluffchucker-snoek-streamers.html  as soon as the postman gets them there 

so with that i bid you farewell and tightlines see ya all in a few weeks 

mcfluffchucker

( a cave in scotland)