piketrek/ edinburgh angling center /and other stories
well good evening morning or afternoon depending where in this vast fish tank you are currently playing with your flies or chucking your fluff . i am still in my mancave with my lovey woman enjoying all the delights that living by the sea can offer in winter well bracing walks thats for one thing .
in fact i dont actually mind the bracing winter walks and actually its only today (27th of jan) that ive actually really noticed the icy conditions but its quite cool if the sea hasnt been blowing for a few days and goes crystal clear so great for fish spotting for future info , ive actually got a week of work this week and im going to settle in to some prolonged fly tying for my own boxes for the up coming conclave up a mountain chasing highland snotrockets with the wildloch chaps
so with my impending trip looming i needed to order some specific bits of fibre for some flies i need for this trip so it was over to www.pikeflyrod.com my go to website for all things pike related fly tying and of course home to the bloody amazing pikesaber fly rod
have a look at the piketrek website and youll find that it pretty much covers all the materials you could ever want for tying predator flies ive included some screen shots below
have a look at the piketrek website and youll find that it pretty much covers all the materials you could ever want for tying predator flies ive included some screen shots below
another thing i love about piketrek is there is no crap about them , ive had the pleasure to meet greg a few times and fished with him and his no nonsense attitude is a breath of fresh air calls a spade a spade and thats it and indeed this flows over into his website and the products on there, quite simply he dosnt stock garbage , in fact i remember seeing his fly lines at a bargain price and at the time i needed some fast sink lines i could chop up for sinking heads and i thought at that price i couldn't go wrong really , but when i got the line i was impressed with the quality and in fact it was so good i actually kept it as my main sinking line and its still going strong with no signs of ware at all after 5 years , so please if your looking for a line check em out you wont be disappointed dont pay over inflated prices for a name in fact this line has out lived a line i paid £60 pounds for and that speaks volumes , anyway when i need to change lines i use piketrek now dogs bollocks fly lines for pike end off
the site not only does a very wide range of great materials but it also has some off the wall stuff that you may not find on other sites and unlike other sites piketrek are exactly that geared towards the pikeangler and thats one of the things i love about them actually going through the materials side on there im constantly thinking of things i can do with the stuff on there , one thing they excel at is material for games changers in there gatso fibre , this is the best ive found out there for these flies with the fibre itself being just about the perfect size no trimming needed .
so i chose the bits i needed and placed the order and was directed over to the pay site again all very easy to do for a technophobe like me and boom 2 days later my stuff was here (i ordered in the evening and the post office was shut if id ordered earlier im sure delivery would have been a lot quicker) so really no complaints there and cheers for the fast service which is oh so important in this day and age
i may have mentioned before that they have the pikesaber on special offer just now so get on over and pick up one of the finest rods for pike out there at a bargain price link below
FLY STUFF
with very little time last week to tye due to work shifts i did manage to get a few out for my own box above is a big deceiver type fly of 9 inchs using big solid eyes , i love working with natural materials and it was after a brief call with my self proclaimed brother from another mother and all round top guy and predator nut from vermont ken capsey that got me fully fired up with big ol naturals
im constantly amazed at the results brother ken has with his flies and i love some of his out there designs in bucktail and feather and his flies catch a lot of fish , brother ken aint on facebook but you can check his stuff out Instagram look for ken capsey or #wetsockflyfishing gotta love the redneck
so thought id better start doing some more videos as i get asked quite a lot to demonstrate stuff so above is a short video tying with superhair , ok so i failed at the end when i ran out of memory but you get the idea and the end is just me sticking a couple of eyes on so yea i was trying out the i phone for quality and although pretty good i think ill maybe stick to my normal camera for tying videos but whatever ill be doing some more videos so anything you wanna see done please mail me
above is a deciver type fly just for the hell of it and haven't done one for a while
EDINBURGH ANGLING CENTER
so Edinburgh angling center has been open for a few months now and ive ventured in a few times looking for bits and bobs that i needed and to be fair its a great shop and you can spend many hours walking around as we do as anglers picking stuff up and putting stuff down again and wondering how on earth i can get various rods reels , fly boxes , etc into the house without being seen by the good woman (not that she minds) to be fair
THE SEXY SECTION
the last time i was in in i was kinda underwhelmed with the tying section i mean dont get me wrong there was lots of the normal type tying stuff for the trout fisher but and this is my biggest criticism is that it dosnt really cater for the predator or saltwater tier , now i fully understand that you cant have everything in stock but the fact that i have been to the mothership "glasgow angling center"and i was able to pick up what i call standards in tying like DNA fiber and E.P fiber, Edinburgh has neither of these and i was disappointed as i really needed some ep fiber for an order and i thought after seeing the stock in Glasgow id be able to get it no problem .
to be fair the staff were awesome and said that they could get it for me in a few days if i wanted to order it but i really wanted it there and then so pretty much walked out the store and ordered it online for delivery in the same timescale and price which is a shame as i really wanted to get it of the shelf , after talking to a member of staff (very helpful) who said they were getting a load of new stuff in so im hopefull my next visit will be better , i did however pick up a few bits which was a bonus
never get enough flashy stuff and Edinburgh angling center does have a good selection of flashy stuff and i can never get enough of that and im pleased i can walk in and get flashabou of the shelf though and can you imagine walking out of a tackle shop without buying anything , so look forward to many more trips there and well it is only 5 mins from my house .
RODS GLORIOUS RODS
(oh and a few reels)
thousands of the things , they have a really nice selection of rods and i enjoined picking a few up but then im a pikesaber convert so wouldn't ever see me replacing it but if i was in the market for a lighter rod then im 99% sure i would get what i need here as they have a really good range
likewise the reel section, they have an amazing selection of reels and whats really nice is to actually pick stuff up and have a close look , i mean we all through the medium of the internet , be it facebook twitter or instagram or just webisites we see these amazing fly reels which is great and great to look at but looking at pictures is still not the sames as having it in your hand and thats why i love going into shops and have an unhealthy obsession with picking things up and looking at them , i spend way to many hours doing that shit and the great thing is that you dont feel pressured in the store because the guys that work there are also anglers so they know what its like .
vice behind glass
some nice vices in there as well (i must resist the urge) everytime i go in i get drawn to this section and one day i swear im going to walk out with one (paid for obviously) i had a chat with one of the staff first time i went in while i was staring at this display , i think he was just checking i was ok as i may have been standing there staring with my mouth open for a while but nice selection
for the fly angler it has to be said they do have a great selection of gear and its one place i will shop if i need any hardware and with all the normal brands you would expect .
so you know despite my reservations at the lack of predator fly tying stuff the Edinburgh angling center gets a massive thumbs up from me the staff are absolutely brilliant and more than helpful the few times i have been in and even if your not a fly fisher the range of lure fishing stuff is wallet emptying scary i thank god i dont do that lure fishing thing anymore , there is also a great clothing section and a fairly big sea fishing section so pretty much something for every discipline of the sport so if your in the area look em up they are in granton and very easy to find heres the link for directions if you need it
as im away on a bit of a trip in a couple of weeks i needed to buy a sleeping bag so handy that nextdoor to the angling center is go outdoors which caters for all things outdoors so i thought id pop in and see what they had to offer
firstly i was quite impressed with the range of stuff they had and as below they also had a small fishing tackle section which although a fair range the angling center next door was far cheaper but being an angler i had a look anyway
so after i had a browse at the tackle (power bait seems to be the thing in there) i found the sleeping bag section and there was the perfect one for what i wanted at a mere £20:00 , fantastic i thought then i picked one up and headed to the check out and it went like this
so the woman at the counter says thats £20:00 (yea i knew that)
and do you have your discount card
"eh what discount card"
you need a discount card to purchase items in the store
"er no dont have one "
ok she says i can fix you one up now
"fantastic "
that will be £5;00
"er why"
so you can get the discount
"but then its not a discount"
you need the card to shop here
"if i get the card then its dearer than buying the sleeping bag online with free delivery"
you may want to come back and purchase more items
"not coming back after this"
so do you want the sleeping bag
"er no ill get it online for £20:00 with free delivery"
anything else i can help you with
"actually ill have a packet of mints (£1:00 on the counter)"
you'll need your discount card though
"seriously for a packet of mints"
yes
i then left the building as i could feel myself going into meltdown which wouldn't have been a good end to the day for go outdoors , i mean in this day and age you'd think they would be glad of actually customers that come through the door for alarge company youd think they would give you a free card , well never again will i step into one of there stores
not really been the greatest of weeks for me this week the way purchases have been , my next gripe is with tackle company lureflash , i purchased a new rotary drier online (angling center didnt have them) and my drier has completely died a death and i loved that drier it was a stonefly one , i looked online and couldnt find the same model so i purchased one from a well know tackle company in yorkshire and it arrived within a few days so i put some battries in and it didnt work .
ok so i get dressed and head into town for some fresh batteries get home put them in and nothing , so by now i wasnt sure what was happening so i turned it over and saw this
the connection was broken, yup kaput now i have to say this has to be the most crap design for a base especially for a tying table and also the switch itself was broken and one side wasn't screwed in now fr a company like them id expect a bit better so bitterly disappointed with this , to be fair the seller responded very quickly and is sending a replacement , not really there fault but i cant help feel very little effort has gone in to this design mabey i should have gone a little more expensive but time will tell on this one , and i intend to get in touch with lureflash about this issue as im sure im not the only one whos had this problem.
and to finish on a positive
my next blog post in a couple of weeks will have seen me on my first fly trip of the year to this stunning place and a new one for me and ill be fishing in the company of a couple of fine friends so whisky will no doubt happen in the evening and its a 2 day trip so i suspect it might get messy .
tight lines
a cave in scotland
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