largemouth bass

a few pictues of my bass box for america in may

capt pugwash

seaman stains consider yourself discharged its a classic i grew up with this which explains a lot

so begins Monday after my enforced layoff from the vice due to working silly hours i got back into it today , i also this week received a parcel of fantastic eyes from a new UK supplier and I'm well impressed with both the quality of eyes and the size and range but more of that later in the week here's what Ive been up to with today with the new eyes



first up is a little baitfish made from sea fibres (available from austen at uksaltwaterflies.com)




then came the slink and flash flies these the fly colour on this is a colour that has caught me hundreds of fish over the years so I'm looking forward to getting out and trying these slightly different variation



epoxy headed roach tied with sf fibre i reckon these will be a killer on the right day i think these will catch hundreds on there day





epoxy slinkys on the dryer



the picture above is for an upcoming trip to the states where im going to need some small mouth patterns for a river that I've seen ken capsey fishing and i cant wait so here a few of the many ill be tying for the trip these are on a size six feckin tying on size 6 is crazy after tying for years on 6/0s but great fun non the less

im baaaaaaaaaaccccccccccccccckkkkkkkkkk

10 days of split shifts finished over and out



I JUST LOVE THE SMELL OF FLY TYING IN THE MORNING

and im off to pick up 3 new rods tommorow life is sweet

stay tuned

2.5 days and counting

NASA preapere for launch

yea im still working silly hours

up ye ya bugger

I'm having a really crazy week at work I'm on 7am till 11 pm most nights so I'm getting zero time at the vice and its driving me fecking nuts , now what doesn't help when ken capsey from

http://pikeadventures.blogspot.com/ starts mailing you fly patterns now that's pure torture cheers bro ill return the favour. it also doesn't help when john from orvis in Edinburgh gets a load of lovely pikey type materials in for me ,and on my lunch half hour i go pick em up knowing full well i cant do a damm thing with them till Monday that's the same as somebody taking you to an unfished lake let you stand there watching hawgs cruising about and then telling you theres no fishing allowed..........aahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

so you faithful readers of my blog know that 99.9% of the patterns i put on my blog and website are pretty much pike patterns hey i love pike don't bust my backside but sometimes i do venture out to the local rainbow trout fishery to catch some ultra fresh bows why you fishing for them i here you ask well its quite simple i like eating them and i think the taste is superb if you eat it the same day you caught it, and ill never ever buy one from a supermarket ...but sorry i digress

so capsey the footless (don't ask) sends me these patterns that i need for a pond we are going to fish for brook trout when i hit the state of Vermont in may , so that will be a very cool change for me to go back to my roots as a kid living on the banks of the river tweed and do some trout patterns (although i suspect i may need a magnifier)

so ken sent me this picture of one of his wooly buggers as a guide to what to bring and of course straight away ive looked at it and thought to myself if i tweak that and adjust that add a bit of this and in that colour oh and what about doing some of that on the tail and in my mind ive come up with a brand new bugger fly well if that wernt enough i gone and looked at my fly in an empty cupboard in my brain and thought i could ramp my design up and add this and that to make a pike fly well thats its the cogs are turning and im burning to get back to the vice Monday

so what will next week bring well im going to be doing a tutorial on making extra long bucktail decivers for pike and muskie and ill also be doing a very cool high tie in colours that work great in scotland and will look very cool

im also going to be tying some brand new never before seen flies for predators with a new tying medium that i think is going to be killer for the like of pike but i think will be devastating for wallyeye , zander large and smallmouths watch this space from monday and remember were you read it first

tight lines fellow flingers

mcfluffchucker

new baitfish tutorial

just added a new baitfish tutorial over on my site heres the link

http://www.spanglefish.com/pikeandpredatorfishingflies/index.asp?pageid=192937&msg=Content%20Updated

made from only five pieces of material its a fly anybody can make and very fishy looking in the water enjoy

facebook fly flingers

OK so facebook the social network site well i stayed away from it for years thinking it was a site for teenagers , well i joined it sometime ago and Ive found it to be a very valuable resource for us fly fishers ive made no end of Friends on there with like minded anglers and there is an incredible amount of information on there and some stunning fly tiers .



if your a fly angler you should really check it out and there a great new face book group on there started up by ken capsey called Fly Flinger's pattern swap now this group is really growing fast with over 400 predator fly patterns on there so far including fresh and saltwater and growing all the time including some stunning work by orlando barrios the picture below is just a small example of his work



so here the link to go have a look http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=85058032128 so even if you haven't thought about before or thought a social network site wasnt for you get over and join in to this great resource for fly fishing all over the world , get connected this group is going to be massive

tight lines
dave

a new step by step

added a new step by step for a really simple but deadly fly that only uses 6 bits of material here is the link enjoy

http://www.spanglefish.com/pikeandpredatorfishingflies/index.asp?pageid=192891

pure genius

be sure to check out Mikael Blue Dun Gröndahl new blog , the guy ties some truly amazing flies and is now one of my fav tiers along with ulf hagstrom be sure to check his blog out regually as i know there will be some amazing patterns on there click the pick to go there

new step by step

have just added a new step by step for a deciver over on my website heres the link if you want to have a go http://www.spanglefish.com/pikeandpredatorfishingflies/index.asp?pageid=192578 enjoy

vices

the orvis rotary vice that is no more



well I've spent a while researching vices as its that time of year when i need another one so after lots of looking around and reading reviews i came to the decision to get the orvis vice above it had great reviews and no negatives i could find , it said that it could take hooks up to 2/0 but I've had that before and well to be quite honest i thought id still be able to get a 6/0 into it no problem but id need to try it first to be on the safe side




so i called john the ever helpful asst store manager who always puts up with my weird ordering requests for pike fly tying stuff.

so having called john up to see if they had one in stock that i could try some big ass hooks on he informed me that they were no longer making them , oh feckin arse but he did say he had just had a delivery of vices and id be welcome to come down and try some out , well that's a red rag to a bull , i shoved a load of my biggest hooks in a bag and headed off through the tram works to the shops no easy task i can assure you

so i tried a few out before i came across this one by veinards and it took the biggest of my hooks no problem and the price tag was just £40.00 the rotary side of it is a joy to use cant wait to get tying on it , myself and the vice will be reunited at the end of the month when i get paid


i was planning to get out for a few hours fluff chucking today but with near gale force winds and driving rain i think that's been knocked on the head I'm hardcore but not that hard core

tight lines
mcfluff

not much action

been really busy the last few days tied up with pffa stuff events planning membership list re formatting forum house keeping etc , so i wanted to take a quick break and get a few things tied quick and what better than a few sparsely tied clouser minnows for a couple of trout water where I'm targeting big perch so here's a few i tied up just done with bucktail and flashbou



normal pike flys will resume tomorrow fingers crossed

tight lines
dave

its been great

its been quite a few years since i set up the pike and predators fly fishing site back then i was happy just to keep a record of flies i made and to give fellow pike fly anglers a few ideas for flies , its progressed massively since those early days and really its been down to people worldwide mailing me with different ideas and wanting to know how to tie things which i have been and always will be happy to do so id like to say a massive thanks to those fellow faceless fly anglers who it has been my pleasure to speak to over the years you know who you are , if you haven't visited the site click the picture below to pay a visit for loads of step by steps on predator flys and off course all for free and if theres something you want to tie but cant find a step by step just mail me and ill do one for free of course there will always be new stuff added so keep checking back



you know it wasn't that long ago that here in the UK us pike fly anglers were considered a bit weird and a bit wacky and really not pike anglers at all a bit of an oddity in pike fishing circles and something that would fail to take off in the UK .

well how wrong did they get it the pike fly fishing association in the UK www.pffa.co.uk is now the 3rd biggest club in the country and growing all the time why its quite simple we have been able to approach game anglers who were looking to do something different but didn't want to and had no inclination to go out and buy loads of new tackle to pike fish i.e lure dead baits etc this we were able to do by being associated with the salmon and trout association and by getting out there to region meetings giving fly tying demos and talks on fly fishing for pike , and the interest has been massive among them in the sport and so the club continues to grow through the pffa management team which it has been my pleasure to part of for quite a few years now and still the fire burns bright within the whole team the future is bright

and to think they said it wouldn't last and they thought it was wrong to fly fish for them well i guess you have been proved very wrong and the word band wagon springs to mind

so again to all the Friends i have meet and fished with to the guys I'm going to fish with to the people i swap ideas with over 3 hour skype calls i thank every single one of you for flying in the face of adversity .

cheers

nice video

heres a really cool slightly speeded up video from the guys over at pike patrol i often go over to there site , cant understand a word of it but hey looking at fish is enough , the video is a nice variation on how to tie a very cool looking bait fish although myself id probably have some gratefull dead playing

anyway heres the link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TXRA9yx624

the week ahead for me well i got some crazy ideas in my mind that i need to transfer onto hooks yeeee haaaaa , and of course taking the piss out of ken "cant tie flies ive got no feet" capsey

and im going to fill a box up woth some pike size clousers in prep for bottom huggin winter pike on a venue i quite like to fish



and hopefully ill be getting some of these that live in the darkest parts of the water waiting for snak to come by

see ya next week

frozen solid or mabey not

OK so winter is on its way but will it ever be cold enough to freeze over the canal i fish well going on previous years I'm not sure , i can remember last year it was only frozen over for a week over the winter , now the great thing about a freeze up is that when it does thaw the water is lovely and clear for a couple of months due to no boat traffic churning up the bottom

the picture below shows the normal colour of the water , of course its not bad enough you cant catch fish as the pike have adapted to hunt in this type of environment deer hair flies and flashy flies usually do the job when it murky like this so i don't worry to much

so the freeze up comes and you cant fish yea bit of a bummer not getting out to fish but at least it gives the fish some time away from angling pressure

this is one of my local stretches pretty much solid a few years ago so zero chance of chucking fluff in this but when it thaws its always a good time to get out early morning before the dog walkers and bikes start up those hounds are a nightmare to unhook but the guys on bikes give you some good sport

trouble is if we don't get a spell of really cold weather it can throw the pike a bit , i mean once you get a cold snap the fish go on a feeding frenzy packing on the weight for the coming winter when they really don't want to be expelling lots of energy chasing prey .

so if the milder weather continues what does this mean to the fishing and the fish well i think milder it gets the more wide spread they fish be , i have spots where the the bait fish shoal up during the colder months and the predators follow them in so if its mild the bait fish will not converge on these spots meaning the pike will also stay were they are and not be to worried about packing on the extra pounds

is this down to global warming who knows maybe this winter will be more severe than other and but the balance back but I'm not sure its crazy that last weekend i was out fishing in just a t.shirt and not feeling the cold and its bloody November unheard of .

but look on the bright side if the UK does become warmer then I'm sure some enterprising angler will start sticking all sorts in the waters i mean myself i cant wait large mouth bass in my canal , barracuda and jacks off the beach down the road .mmmmm maybe global warming wont be so bad after all if your an angler ...tight lines

bullheads rock

was in the mood for tying up some big bullhead flies after seeing how well they worked on a recent trip , they have the action of a jerkbait are the same size but weigh virtually nowt and only have a single hook so less damage to the fish (don't care what you say 3 sets of trebles will do a lot more damage than a single hook)



tied on a 6/0 orvis musky hook and coming in at 8 inch's , head has gold angel hair tied into it for a little bit of flash



no flash on this one the action does it all and theres a nice orange throat for a bit of effect

the eyes on these are massive i bought them sometime ago but they were to large for anything i was tying at the time so when the bullhead came along i found it was the perfect eye for them as they add a little weight to the fly and sticking them on with epoxy is the key to getting that great action in the water and they are still very light and easily castable on a 9wgt . check my site for footage of the bullheads in action click the predator flies link in the side menu

enjoy .......mcfluff

p.s ken get out of your sick bed and tie some flies bro it was only a foot operation not brain surgery ya big jessie

fly porn

ok so theres some great footage out there of people catching pike on the fly and videos of people tying some great flies but what we don't seem to see a lot of is flies in action in the water so im going to start getting some together you can find 4 videos i did over the weekend on my site click the link

http://www.spanglefish.com/pikeandpredatorfishingflies/index.asp?pageid=190166

only short but youll get the idea how they work in the water

if you cant be bothered to click the link here's a sample enjoy



in this day and age with most digital cameras having video modes it would be great to see more flies in action , so next time your out get your fishing buddy to take a short video only takes a min

tight lines
dave

thats fishing for ya

back from the annual fenland flyer and bugger me it was rock hard after spending most of the day searching for fish we eventually just after lunch landed on them right place at the right time we walked down a path to be greeted by hundreds of roach exploding out of the water now take a look at the picture below and try to guess where to find the bait fish daunting on a venue like this , so we had a stroke of luck there as the morning was a waste of time despite many different tactics , lines , flies you name it we tried it and it wasn't only us 18 other fly fishers were going through the same thing



under the willow tree there was roach exploding a hunting predator was around i had to cast the fly tight under the tree



no matter what i tried i couldn't get the damn things to attack the flys i tried and i got right under the bloody tree as well in amongst the baitfish believe me i tried the lot





ahh well at least i got to look at loads of flies in action over the day



so the final result for the day was between 20 fly anglers there was a total of 6 pike caught the biggest being around 4 pounds , and most of the guys fishing are some of the finest pike fly anglers in the country

what went wrong well probably the weather to be honest i mean it was November and i was out in my t.shirt for gods sake i should have been DE icing my rod rings the fish wouldn't have been thinking about feeding up for a hard winter .....maybe it was that maybe they were thinking something else who knows but that's why its called fishing and not catching ,

I'm not to worried ill be out again next week chasing em

tight lines
mcfluffchucker

heading out

so heading out for a weekend fishing tomorrow after big pike on the fly so a few last min flies to tie gear to sort out etc , as I'm travelling fairly light and not on a boat i have to scale down a bit as I'm not taking my big boat box while I'm roving around , the trouble is though ill only be taking half the amount of flies that i usually do (i do like to be prepared) .



so i had a whim to tie up an orange and yellow foam head don't know why just had to so no doubt this will get a soaking over the weekend , the last time i tied on a whim i had an hour before i had to leave so i cranked out a red and white sub bug and that was the fly that did the business the fish were just hammering it ,m so maybe its a sign who knows , but id be kicking myself if i didn't make it and fish it at least once during the trip

gear gear gear



so here is my roving bag after much pain choosing boxes of flies 4 boxes of sub bugs went in well they are such a versatile fly for fishing deep , shallow , mid water i just had to go for it , as well as a few wallets of flash flies , sf flies bucktail flies etc so i reckon I've covered all the bases here so now looking forward to getting out and chuck some around .......c ya Monday for the full lowdown

*november competion now on*

along with our sister sites http://www.spanglefish.com/pikeandpredatorfishingflies and sub buggin we are now launching our year round competion its very simple

caught a pike /musky/zander/walleye / perch on the fly get the picture to us and you could win flies for the best fish of the month

mail your picture to dlindsay28@googlemail.com and prize could be on the way this competion is open to uk , usa , canada , europe

please remember to include your fish weight in lbs and you country

some new flees

well back on happy trails after a hard weekend at work (listen you you don't leave the building now I'm going to dump all your stuff out the door) so i was well looking forward to chucking some stuff and a hook or 3



so first up was an angel hair roach with plastic dumbbell type eyes quite happy with the way it turned out , this is tied on a 5/0 sakuma baitholder hook so its biggggggggg , and I've got enough angelhair left for a one inch perch fly well orvis do angel hair in tubes for £2.20 so not to bad , although its bloody messy to work with but tyhe end result is pretty cool



so back to bugs had a delivery of some whitting cape that my buddy ken at pike adventures picked up in a sale (thanks again ken) so put them to use on this one no particular thinking behind the colours its just whatever came to hand



so on the saddle hackle trail thought id tie up one in orange and green I've gut the head on this so it dives dives and dives on the strip i love the way it came out this is tied on a 6/0 orvis pike and musky hook cant wait to get it wet

tight lines till next time brothers of the fluff and remember to take regular breaks from tying flies or you to could end up like this