loving big flies at the moment i go through periods of tying smaller stuff then ill up it and decide to tie big stuff for no particular reason that for the hell of it this was the case today , one thing i love is really neat heads on flies i think its quite important and pleasing to the whole look of the fly to have a nicely whipped head theres nothing worse looking than a poorly finished whipping just makes the fly look like a pigs breakfast and can detract from the overall look of the fly so make sure you get those whippings tight
SPARKLY IS THE WORD 
theres nothing better than a great big sparkly fly above is 2 examples of big flies the top one is tied with 2 colours of flash giving maximum movement and maximum flash the over sized eyes also give it great gliding motion in on the strip and pause ,
pretty much the same with the second fly except the underbelly is of white ep fibre probably going to be a good pattern on the trout lakes all the flies are tied on 6/0 hooks and are around 8 inch's long ill be doing some more of these in other colours soon so stay tuned
BACK ONTO THE FOAM HEADS the foam heads have always been a favorite fly to tie they take a lot of work to get em just right its not a case of just chucking some foam on the front of a hook , you must use enough glue from a glue gun to critically balance the fly so that you get the correct action in the water if you don't it just wont work as its supposed to , in fact just sticking some material on a hook and calling it a pike fly is the wrong way to think you must take into account the weight of the hook the materials being used and how they act when wet how much they way weigh when wet the prey your trying to imitate etc etc you have to think about these things to get the most from your flies i mean would you read a medical book and call yourself a doctor would you no of course you wouldn't , stay true to this and you'll get the maximum out of your flies theres far to many instant experts these days who think they know everything there is to know about fly tying when in fact it takes many years to build yourself to a confident fly tier I'm not claiming to be an expert even im still learning
RAINBOW TROUT FOAM HEAD
the rainbow trout foam head has a very thin layer of epoxy on the head this can be done by the fact that its quite thick foam and therefore very buoyant coupled with the weight of the dried glue inside the head gives you a very slow sinking fly and with the odd twitch on the retrieve looks like a distressed fish and of course will give out the right signals for a predator to attack not using a very thin layer of epoxy would see this fly fish just sub surface , again as the post above think about your weights and how it will effect the sink rate , you could even just chuck it in the bath and see how fast it sinks and work backwards from there add less epoxy or glue or add more , once you have worked this out you'll find that a lot of other things will click into place , I've spent quite a few years developing this to get it just right so please feel free to use this information in your tying but please give me a heads up when you do publish flies theres nothing worse than spending loads of time on a fly pattern or method only to have some twat steal the idea as there own like happened to ken capsey recently.
OVERSIZE EYES 
one thing i worked out over the years through a process of trial and error was that eye weight can have a massive effect on the foam heads and bullheads for that matter , the fly above is a prime example of this. the foam has glued with only enough glue to stick it together so that it will work just under the surface the slightly oversize eyes have been epoxied on what will happen is the most weight will be at the front of the fly but this counteracts the foams buoyancy behind the eyes giving you a fly that will only ever work just work in the surface film the eyes also cause the fly to glide massively from side to side on the pause , if id used smaller eyes the glide wouldn't have been as pronounced
SMALLER EYES AND THE GLIDE 
in the 2 flies above i have used smaller 10mm eyes backed onto a thin layer of epoxy still critically balanced and with give only a slight glide imitating a small summer baitfish in the surface layers, so think about what your tying and how it will act and it will improve your flies no end or tie some of these up you'll find a step by step on my website here's the link
http://www.spanglefish.com/pikeandpredatorfishingflies/index.asp?pageid=169572 just remember to adjust you weight to what you want the fly to do
hope Ive given you something to think about
tight lines
dave mcfluffchucker
(a cave in Scotland)
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