the travelling fluff show

been a bit quite over the last few days as im off to do a fly tying demo so had loads to get ready so in the next hour the travelling fluff show will be off to convert the masses to the delights of pike fly fishing and tying pike flys .

bloody hard job though to choose what to tie in a limited amount of time and then get all the materials together for it but after a couple of ales i got it sorted , so see ya all later in the week

well done garry

big well done to garry jolly , on his first trip out with pike fly fishing association manage to land this superb fish on gratham water , garry has only recently taken up the sport what a way to start well done again

playing around at the vice

ive been messing around at the vice just trying new things i wanted to come up with a nice small baitfish pattern using the bushy tie method i do for the big ep pike flies the main reason for this is with zander/walleye in mind so set about trying a few materials out to see what i could come up with below is the result



hook.............4/0 gamakatsu g/point worm hook (incredibly sharp)
underbelly ...white icelandic sheep hair
back...............grey icelandic sheep hair
eyes...............5mm conical animal eyes
flash...............pearl flashbou
head...............spun icelandic sheep hair
length............4 inchs
cheeks...........red icelandic sheep hair (although you could just use a perm marker if you like )



hook...............4/0 gamakatsu g/point worm hook (incredibly sharp)
underbelly....orange icelandic sheep hair
back...............chartreuse icelandic sheep hair
eyes...............5mm conical animal eyes
flash...............pearl flashbou
head...............spun icelandic sheep hair
length............4 inchs



hook...............4/0 gamakatsu g/point worm hook (incredibly sharp)
underbelly....white orvis ultra hair
back...............olive orvis ultra hair
eyes...............5mm gold stick on 3d eyes
flash...............pearl flashbou
head...............folded back and spun ultra hair
length............ 4 inchs
tail................. shaped beetle foam



hook...............4/0 gamakatsu g/point worm hook (incredibly sharp)
underbelly....yellow orvis ultra hair/fluro green orvis ultra hair
back...............black orvis ulta hair
eyes...............8mm orvis jurassic eyes
flash...............green flashbou
head...............folded and spun black yellow ultra hair
length............4 inchs


hook...............4/0 gamakatsu g/point worm hook (incredibly sharp)
underbelly....yellow orvis ultra hair/fluro green orvis ultra hair
back...............black orvis ulta hair
eyes...............8mm orvis jurassic eyes
flash...............green flashbou
head...............epoxied head with 8mm orvis jurassic eyes
length............4 inchs

hope you enjoy these and maybe have a go yourself experimentation sometimes pays off good i think this week ill be trying some more icelandic flies as it has a lovley motion in the water

busy weekend

well busy weekend this weekend family wedding reception i have to atend i was going to go fish gratham with the pffa this weekend for zander but was told in no uncertain terms where i was actually going this weekend by the wife and mother in law and it wasnt gratham ... feckin hell all i wanna do is fish c ya monday , picture of the mother in law below (cheers ken)

deerhair floating perch fry

alien hair big heads

been trying out a few new materials for making the big head flies originally i was using ep fibre but there is a load of materials out there that although not ep will probably do the job with the heads so Ive started to experiment with some different fibres







these flies above have all been tied with a great material called alien hair available from Alex at zoota lures http://homepage.ntlworld.com/alexander.prouse/zoota.co.uk/zoota-accessories.html#alien%20hair

this material is also more hard wearing than ep fibre and less prone to be ripped off by big angry pike , the first time i got some of this was about a year ago i bought all 23 colours i mean at £1.25 a hank you really cant go wrong and Ive just re ordered yesterday so that's a helluva lot of flies

the great thing also is although Ive just re ordered material i still have bucket loads left in 3 inch+ lengths because I'm tying big pike flies most of the time i always have odd bits left over the great thing with alien hair is i know i can still build up some pretty impressive smaller flies for either saltwater or smaller predators



id also recommend this for those starting out in fly tying for predators as you can tie up a pretty basic but very good looking bait fish in a couple of Min's i kid you not great material also to tie massive flies like the one below 10 inch's really holds it shape well



so get on over to Alex's site and buy a couple of hanks honestly you'll never look back

a new step by step

just added a new step by step for tying the bushy ep heads you can find it on my website click the link below

http://www.spanglefish.com/pikeandpredatorfishingflies/index.asp?pageid=178516

great fly to do although it took me 30 mins to make first time ive got that down to 20 mins now very involved fly but well worth the effort

lifes a bag of fluff a view from the cave

been a hellava weekend with work 3 hours sleep in 48 and no fly tying so i was gaggin to get going at the vice with some new colours on a new kind of fly , im heading to a big reservoir in the next few weeks after some monster snotrockets so i needed to beef up some bigger flies anyway so here's the result......enjoy



like my Buddy ken over at pike adventures a constantly full coffee cup is needed at all times




this is a a variation on the classic red and white colour , the fibres have been mixed to create a candy floss fly will it work maybe but at 8 inch's i reckon there going to find it hard to resist



8 inch jackalike maybe bordering on a baby pike i think i need to darken the the top fibre nearly there though and there nothing a pike big pike likes better to eat than a baby pike




basic bait fish again 8 inchs and heading down the roach pattern road nice red throat ive done a step by step for tying this and it will appear on my pike fly tying website sometime this week although you cant see it this has also got flashbou tied into the head the camera didn't pick it up though




shoal of gliding ep heads yup a good mornings work .........see ya soon

experimenting is good

been messing around at the vice today and have come up with some new patterns these flies come in at 6 and 7 inchs ultra light and have a great gliding action the same as the sub bug the head although you may think is to large for the hook gape actually isnt as when a fish hits being ep fibre offers no resistance and will flatten down the fly also retains the head shape when wet yet will shed the water on the cast another bonus is you can make these as big as you like or as small as you like for other species like perch bass zander/walleye even trout ...in the coming week ill be sticking a step by step on my predator flies website if you want to have a go yourself

may to july 2010

2 nut jobs 1 van campfires living off beans and roadkill pike fly fishing from dawn till dusk and all being videoed is the world ready for this.................watch this space

gear gear gear

crazy i was over looking at simon grahems blog yesterday and he was saying that sometimes people take way to much gear fishing and how bloody right he is sometimes i cant help it if im out and only take a certain amount of flies and have not to great a day a day ill be like i wish i had that bloody box of parrots they would have caught today etc etc etc

the pictures below are of the box i take on boats everything neat and tidy and there must be close on 800 odd flies in the boxes and wallets and always when i get home i get the box i keep the wet flies in out and you can bet ill have a dozen flies that ive used and caught on in that box so why the bloody hell dont i just take the same ones every time ,

well ok so if i catch on a new fly brillient but i just cant friggin help myself ill look at said fly and think mmmmmm if that had a red tail / eye / back etc etc and i end up with 20 variations on the fly that caught me the fish in the first place , i call it what if syndrome






ok so if im not on a boat or im going on a road trip i take this bag below i can only get half the stuff thats in the box above in it and a couple of rod tubes strapped to the top and the flies i take always do me good





so if i go roving about or wading ill take the bum belt below now i can get half a dozen finsport wallets in it traces camera bits and bobs enough to do me for a trip



so the question is have i really lost the plot because im always coming up with new fly ideas and i need boxes to put them in i mean i tie up at least 25 new flies per week and thats on a bad week and when my board is full i put them into boxes which ultimtley end up being added to the big box for a boat trip

so i can see myself in a years time having to sit down a week before a trip and decide what flies im taking with me then what will happen is ill probably change my mind days before the trip and have to go through the whole sorry process again

ah hell thats half the fun of it ill just keep taking the tablets and buying more boxes

tight lines fellow brothers of the fluff

dave

this is really funny

edinburgh looks like down town kabul just know with all the roads being dug up , ive actually lost count of the amount of time ive gone past 6 or 7 workman looking into a hole while the eighth one whos down the hole is waiting to be told what to do by those round the hole at the top why all this chaos well its the council putting in a tram line , a tram line that is costing millions of taxpayers pounds and the tax payer dosnt want the f**ckin thing in the first place , where does it go, nowhere of any f**ckin importance to the people of f**ckin edinburgh anyway check this video



back to normal fishing stuff tommorow

new sub buggin site

if your interested in tying with deerhair then check out myself and ken capseys new site



lots of deehair fly patterns step by step by step instruction and the usual capsey/lindsay madness

variations on a theme

ok so the last few weeks ive been really busy getting the new sub bug site ready for launch so ive been tying deerhair flies like crazy , so yesterday i decide to play with some ep and sf fibre and here is the result although i need to work a little bit on the heads but im nearly there ,

the flies although not technically sub bugs work the same way the heads have been trimmed the same as deerhair flies giving a nice bulk and with the added eye weight you get that same great gliding action on the strip , the flies below are mostly around 7 inch's long enjoy ...........



standard red and white ep fibre with a touch of pearl flashbou



the red and white ep fly great bulky water shifting head



again all ep fibre orange and yellow with pearl flashbou bit of a flame head this one



and again bulky head



this time ive used a zonker tail and sf fibre


zonker tail and sf fibre



white ep fibre body and blue sf fibre head

enjoy and see ya all tomorrow and thanks for all the emails from all over the world really interesting hearing your points of views on flies .........Dave

for the love of tying predator flies

the next lot of flies are ready for testing hey ken i need a bigger envelope

ken capsey goes native

my buddy ken over at pike adventures has been spending quite a bit of time on the phone to me here in scotland and im worried hes losing the plot trying to become an adopted scotsman , ken get back to the vice buddy

pffa still a force to be reckoned with

have a moment

take a little moment today to remember all those who lost there lives in the terror attacks on 9/11

if you out on a river make your first cast for one of those people

more perch flys

hoping to take a little break from tying and the new website for the sub bugs and get out fishing specifically I'm going after perch on a venue that has huge roach stocks so wont be the easiest but you never know here's a few bait fish patterns in 4 inch's that i think will do the trick



the perch patterns nearly full and ready to go

hard at work

well me and ken capsey are still hard at work over on our new site for the sub bug family and deerhair flies hopefully it should be ready in about a week , mabey if i stop drinking at night id get it done faster

bargain fly tying

well the wife and i went food shopping at a a local retail park and we had to go into b and q to get a light bulb so while we were walking round i found this in the clearance section a foot long and has no difference to flashabou in size of the strands just bloody loads of it in a pack and at 50 pence a pack what a bargain .

but when we got to the self scan check out it came up at 6 pence per packet even better so i picket up a few packs unfortunately they only had red and one pack of white , quite happy with this we were on the way out after paying and i decided to get my son a fruit shoot drink so put the money in and it gave me a free can of red bull as well could this day get any better




so we went over to tesco to pick up some food for dinner and i was looking around and i came across these bags of flashabou in pearl in 6 inch clumps oh my god 80 frigging pence a bag so 2 bags were purchased



so i reckon i got a really good deal and the stores haven't even started stocking there Christmas decorations yet thats when i really stock up hey ho i love cheap materials ........tight lines fellow flingers of the fluff

slippery when wet

i wonder how many tiers out there think about there flys i mean we all spend a hell of a lot of time in front of the vice making up the most beautiful creations be it for pike bass trout salmon whatever you tie for , but do we actually think about what goes on when the thing is wet while we tye it.

well sometimes it is just nice when things come together simply by running the thing under the tap yup that's what i do , or if the wife's not around ill stick em in the bath with me attached to a small length of mono to see the action in the water but hell thats another story and i aint putting those pictures up on a blog so have a look at the tap wetted ones instead



the finished fly nice and dry this time a 7 inch bucktail and flashbou fly for pike



the same fly after being under the tap it actually thins out a lot more in the belly when soaked a nice fat baitfish profile



still a nice body shape front on



same again but with a different colours



so there ya go have a think about it and get em wet