i just love this stuff

I HAVE SEEN THE FUTURE
AND THE FUTURE IS

FISHGILLS

if you tuned in earlier in the day you would have seen the above statement and to be quite frank you be quite right in thinking id lost the plot well i sort of have let me explain , there is some fantastic new materials out there in UK pike fly fishing land and its from newish guys piketrek

piketrek have sourced some really amazing new stuff for the UK tyier so i received a parcel for review purposes for the pffa and to be quite honest i was blown away by the amount of there pike body material in a pack if you imagine a pack of slinky fibre then times that by 4 packs that's the amount you get in a piketrek pack and let me tell you the length is between 11 and 13 inch's(thats some big ol flies) so that is a hell of a lot of fibre for £2.50 a pack and there is around 29 colours to choose from and out of those 29 colours you would be able to match pretty much anything that swims and more if your a predator fly tyier you really have to try some of this id recommended melon orange and a pack of yellow for the belly as a starter , the orange melon is just such a beautiful colour and when you hold it at an angle in the light you can see a lovely green sheen going through truly a remarkable colour the flys below have used the orange melon

so if that wasn't enough i then tried some of piketrek eyes now when i received these i thought OK just some normal 3d epoxy eyes in 9 and 10 mm but how wrong i was when i examined then i found that there is an almost rubber like feel to these eyes so you and actually shape them to your head or just have then normal flat as above great product

so that's the first fly done and i was very impressed at not only how the materials looked colour wise but how easily it tied i was able to tie up this big fly (1o inch's ) in a very small amount of time ill certainly be making some more of these up

the future

piketrek have sourced these remarkable life and fly changing gills and they have opened a door to a whole new world of pike flies i mean there is so many things you could do with these , unfortunately i was rather hurried this morning due to having to go to work so only got one tied but all i thought about all day is the many things i could do with these including using them on subbugs so keep checking back as i will be doing a load more next week

EAT ME

OK i used just a tad to much epoxy at the gill edge but I've never tied with these before so I'm sure ill be forgiven ill get it 100% next time .....................

*now just a note here i have to say i get stuff to review all the time and one thing i wont do is lie about something if i think something is shite then ill say so i get grief for this sometimes but I'm an angler first through and through and if i wont use an inferior product then i wont expect anybody else to , i get no financial gain from reviews and neither do i expect it if you have something that you think is good enough then great but don't expect me to lie about it if its not up to scratch.......

the thing about piketrek is they are anglers first and demand the same levels as i do so that why I'm more than happy to promote there stuff through my blog and why don't you click any of the pictures above go over to there site and try something i can assure it will be the best money you will have spent i for one will carry on supporting these guys even though Greg won the fenland flyer this year but i wont hold that against him .........

tight lines flingers

Dave mcfluffchucker

a cave in Scotland)

love to tie

fly fishing for me is a hardcore addiction full stop otherwise why the feck would i fish in conditions like this short film below filmed in early in the year



but there is another side to the sport and that's tying flies as most of you will know but i saw a post on another blog that said whats the point of tying flies is if you don't get out and fish them ,

well there is a point to it i mean you get people who tie real imitations of some wonderful insects but they don't fish them oh no there is a massive collectors market out there for flies as there is antique fishing tackle well i mean you wouldn't go out and fish antique fly bamboo hardy fly rod that's you've just paid a few grand for would you well whats the point of buying it then .....

likewise if your a football fan whats the point of going out and buying your teams shirt if your not in the team or ever kicked a ball in your life

you see fly tying doesn't have to be about tie fly go fish fly catch fish on fly tie another fly etc etc no for me its about creating things of beauty by using your own hands bits of feather of other materials and its also very therapeutic there nothing better than after a shit day at work sitting down at a vice and creating a fly your soon relaxed ...

fly tying is an art form in itself

fancy a go then here is an easy one to do



sometimes if you listen to another persons bullshit for long enough youll start to belive its true best thing in life is form your own opinions

tight lines

winters back

bloody hell just when some of my local waters have started to defrost this morning i arise out of my lovely warm pit to discover a layer of the white stuff its been bloody snowing all night and as i type some hours after getting up out of the pit it still comes down so that's bugged the plans i had for the next few days so i guess its down to plan b ...........TIE FLIES

not that that's a bad thing i needed to get some smaller bait fish flies done for an up and coming predator hunt with the pike saber to a small water that holds a great head of pike and a lot of larger fish so ill get to but the saber through it paces with some big fish hanging on .....stay tuned march 10Th for the result and full write up on this amazing rod ...........

winter cave


so here the view from this morning ideas a flowing and bench kinda untidy but i know where everything is and i can lay my hands on most things in a flash so materials to hook.....



what i needed was a smaller profile bait fish as the majority of the pike and zander where I'm heading down south feed on small roach so i need to match the hatch so to speak but me being me i cant help but throw in something different to the mix can ya spot it on the flies







these flies above will do the job i think and I'm quite happy with the way they turned out and ill be even happier with a big green fish hanging on to them ......



here's what i throw into the mix ......angel hair as a belly material but not quite going the whole length of the fly just a touch to give it some contrast against the green





mixing things up is always great fun and sometimes an idea works and sometimes it don't the fly above is done with an slink n flash back and an yak hair under belly interesting mix but seems to compliment each over quite well



the flies ive been doing today although being quite small (5 inchs) in pike terms have a great profile on the them so will still give em enough to chew em below is a couple with eyes and one that I'm just about to eye up all the flies you see on today's blog have been made with 6 thin bits of material but when but together they have a great wide profile that stays wide in the water .......





so no doubt ill still be at the vice tomorrow as the snows still falling so tune in and see what I'm up to

tight lines fellow fly fishers around the world
Dave mcfluffchucker
(a cave in Scotland)

naaaaaa whats up doc

the Tuesday tie off with ken Capsey from pike adventures

the bunny bug that's whats up...... well what can you say about the bunny bug ken came up with the idea this week for the tie off and well i have a very chequered history with this fly in fact I've never caught a single fish on it , I've had a 2 20 pound plus fish follow it at the same time from deep water but that's another story ........

i really have no idea what I'm doing wrong with this fly but I'm going to give it another go this year so when came up with the idea i though well a good a time as any to stock up on the things so great idea ken

our redneck piker in Vermont does have a lot of success with this fly now his design is slightly different from the trad bunny bug that first surface on these shore when pike fly fishing was in its infancy well maybe kens head design has got something to do with it I'm not sure .

even Ernie firth the pike fly fishing associations membership sec catches on the things (OK so its not that often sorry ern) but he does so oh well maybe this year with the bug..........



OK so all the Bunny's here are tied on 4/0 sakumas the one above has a copper flashbou under tails marabou coller and red artic fox head for maximum movement the head has been epoxied so that the fly will dip and dive and flare up when paused



under tail of pearl flashbou coller of orange and fluro green flashbou and an epoxied googly eye to give it a bit of a rattle again 4/0 sakuma manta hooks are used



a coller of orange marabou and some over sided google eyes epoxied on bubble head style , I've absolutely no idea if ill catch on these but ill give them a try if they look right in the water and I'm confident of the way they move then there will be no reason to doubt they will catch (as long as somebody else is fishing them )..........

so that mine for the Tuesday tie off i know for a fact ken will have come up with something awesome for his the guy is the bunny master ......so go check it out here's the link

http://pikeadventures.blogspot.com

so just a quick note to all those tyiers out there on facebook ken and myself fly flingers site is only a couple of members off 200 and you want to get over there and see the photo gallery there is approaching 600 fly patterns on there get on over and check it out here's the link

http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=85058032128

till tomorrow when ill be exploring the delights of tying smaller bait fish flies although still big enough for a pike snack and I'm quite excited at what i have in my head ........

tight lines
and may the pikesaber be with you
mcfluffchucker
(a cave in Scotland)

busy busy busy

you may have noticed that its been a bit quite on here for the last few days well its been a bit crazy to tell you the truth and loads going on .....

may the force be with you (and it could well be)

i had a fantastic rod arrive the other day for review for the pffa and I've done part 1 which consists of doing a line test and well to not let anything out the bag until I've published the full review but I've been blown away by this rod ....more to follow stay tuned could this really be the best pike fly rod in the world ever...

the pike fly fishing association


the pike fly fishing association continues to grow and unlike other clubs we tend to pick up a lot of members from overseas this i believe is a fly fishing thing , well because of all the extra work peter Jones the clubs founder has given me the website to run as he just hasn't got the time to keep it updated due to the hours he works.

i am in a great position however to do the website for the pffa because although i work long shifts i am able to access the net at work and do get the time to update it so this should work really well , i did start on some tidying up today on it but theres plenty more to do , so if you haven't visited the site before please click on the picture above to go visit

of course

id much rather be doing this

so in my absence on the blog please go visit some of the great blogs in the blog list there really is some fantastic stuff out there so go take a surf and see what you can find ill see ya all tomorrow at 9 pm for the Tuesday tie off blimey id better get me skates on

tight lines

dave mcfluffchucker

(a busy cave in Scotland)

hell yea

I'm a massive supporter of cottage industry and especially in this country where we lag behind the fly shops from across the pond , so when 700 teeth merged with another website and was no more there was an opportunity for a free sponsorship of my pike and predators fly fishing website i an delighted to say I've given the next years sponsorship to piketrek who are totally dedicated to bringing the best products at the best prices to the UK predator angler don't believe me well tell me where can you get a range of very good quality pike lines for £15 quid not many places i tell you , these guys are anglers just like you and me dear reader so click the picture below to go have a look at what they have on offer including some funky new materials that are ridiculously cheap you wont be disappointed ...........



so a big massive well done to pffa member James hall (below) who is seen here holing his new fly caught pb of 12 pounds , Jame's is fairly new to the Noble sport of pike fly fishing and has been doing pretty well of late so well done ....oh and the fly that caught it one of my high ties that i sent him , and I've just stuck so new ones in the post for him so looking forward to seeing some more of his catches ............



whats off the vice today

well I'm heading off in a few weeks to do a major rod review and the chosen venue is quite murky because of the amount of carp in it despite only being 9 or 10 feet at its deepest point so I've been doing some flies that will show up well in the murky water and I'm also going to give the bunny bug a go despite never having done that well on them I'm going to give them another shot

circle bait fish and other flies from today















i am am not a tackle tart

everyone has it own use (honest)



a big bummer goes out to ken capsey who for most of today and has been having a very bad case of deli belly today and has found himself pretty much unable to do anything today there a loo roll on its way to you and that will teach you to eat raw chilli's ......I'm not laughing honest

if your going out this weekend fishing take care and don't take risks

tight lines
mcfluffchucker
(a cave in Scotland)

a scottish breakfasts

A full Scottish breakfast might include: toast, beans, fried haggis, potato hash, eggs, back bacon, potato scones, fried mushrooms, grilled tomatoes,Lorne sausage,black pudding, oatcakes, kippers, lamb chop and a fried slice (fried bread to people south of Hadrian's wall) , although a breakfast with all of these ingredients might be a bit excessive and a lot of times is called a heart attack on a plate.

now don't get me wrong i don't eat this every day ( i don't honest) but it is a bloody tasty treat maybe once a month on a Sunday before i go to work as it will fill me up for the est of the day no surprise there ......

nearly a full Scottish (picture below is the diet version)


OK so by now your probably wondering what the feck i am going on about well rest assured Ive not given up my fluff addiction and changed it over to a cooking addiction , you what happened this morning was i had just got my breakfast kippers (below) out of the fridge when the phone rings .



its ken from pike adventures in America although it was breakfast time for me ken unfortunately couldn't sleep and it was 3.30 am for him well he asked what i was doing and i told him

" id just got my breakfast out the fridge "

"what ya having"

"kippers i answer"

silence

"what the feck is a kipper" asks ken

well to save a long phone call and it is kinda fish related i decided to do this on my blog so here we go this is what a kipper is .........

Kipper - fish (usually a herring) cured by splitting, salting, and drying or smoking. A breakfast food in Scotland, kippered herring is poached, grilled or baked.

my kippers being grilled this morning


if you haven't tasted these before well you really should they are very very very tasty with a lovely smoked flavour , i prefer mine grilled or poached in full fat milk beautifully for quickness i do just grill them you can actually by kippers in tins and to be quite honest they are so cheap i often buy a couple of cans to go out fishing with for lunch , and they are just as nice cold .

grilled for 15 Min's and ready to go

you'll notice that I've added a small blob of Heinz tomato sauce this is a great complement to the taste of the smoked herring , lovely golden brown smoked kippers ready to eat and i bloody enjoyed them

however there is a down side to eating kippers , you find yourself belching a lot and when you do all you can taste is kippers although this can be great for a laugh if your up wind from your boat partner although not good if your trying to score chicks .

i now no longer have kippers as a starter before my fried breakfast i have them instead of a fried breakfast

ready to go and i really enjoyed them totally melt in the mouth (ken will be eating them when he visits in July)


OK so that's kippers but there is a holy grail of smoked fish oh yes there is something far more tasty in fact I'm watering at the mouth just writing about it it is the famous arbroath smokie it is indeed the king of smoked fish .

unfortunately arbroath is on the train line when i head north to my favorite fly fishing loch in the north of of Scotland and indeed i have been know to get an earlier train so i can get of the train and buy some of these and get the next train from arbroath

why is this the king of smoked fish well read below.....

Only haddock can be used to produce an authentic 'Arbroath Smokie'. The fish are gutted at sea, washed and boxed ready for auction at the fish market. Once back in the fish house, they are headed and cleaned, or 'sounded'. They are then dry salted in tubs for a given period. This helps to draw excess moisture from the fish and toughens the skin in preparation for the smoking process. The length of salting time depends on the size of the fish and how fresh they are (amongst other factors). After salting, they are thoroughly washed off, then tied by the tail in "pairs" and hung on sticks.

The smokie pit is then prepared. A hole is dug in the ground, and a half whisky barrel is set into it. The base of the barrel is lined with slates to protect it, and a hardwood fire of beech and oak is lit inside.

The sticks of fish are then placed over the pit and the hessian cover allows the fire to breathe and maintain the required heat. The number of layers and dampening of the 'cloots' depends on the weather, and may be adjusted throughout the smoking to prevent the fish either smoking too quickly and burning, or smoking too slowly and drying out. The cooking time is usually a minimum of 30 - 40 minutes but only an experienced smokie maker knows exactly when they are ready. The resultant golden brown fish, eaten straight from the barrel is a truly mouth-watering experience that has to be tasted to be believed!....

here's the link to

Iain R. Spink's Original Smokies From Arbroath

OK so that's that and for those of you who have no interest at all in my breakfast habits here is a subbug tied on an 8/0 circle hook this morning




tight lines and full stomachs
Dave mcfluffchucker
(a cave in Scotland

tuesday tie off

what you looking at



this week we decided on a Tuesday tie off was going to be a theme of spun deer hair , so we could tie pretty much anything we liked as long as it had some spun deer hair in it , so in decided due to this weeks challenge id have to make one of kens home made stacker's which actually are really rather bloody good, a rubber wine cork with a hole in it not pretty but does the job and even the dumbest redneck would be able to make it .......

stack n pack


so here is the result of the first try of the pack n stack a small subbug and actually it works really well , the bug itself is tied on a 4/0 sakuma manta orange and yellow buck tail body cream marabou feather collar and yellow and orange head topped of with conical eyes epoxyed in to give it that all important subbug action .........................

5 inch subbug


so next up i decided to muck around with crawdads no if you in the UK you'd think why do them they wont catch anything in the UK well actually they will i mean we have our own be it diminishing population of native crayfish there is of course the American signal crayfish which seems to be marching through our waterways just now and the fish are getting pretty fat on them so below was my first attempt at one with deer hair as a body i usually make them completely different than this although i think this looks more like a squid myself but its only the first attempt ........



close up of the above , just under and back behind the mono eyes is some heavy dumbbell eyes so this will hop and swim as its stripped and paused ....



OK so after the first one i had the basics of what i was doing so it kinda fell into place so really the only option really was to tie these with zonker strip and hey it looks kinda cool i think it will fish quite well and yea perch , pike and other predators will take these if there in the water they will probably be eating them ........



again the dumbbell eyes are hidden just behind the mono eye stems on the underside of the hook again this will make this fish in a hop swim and sink motion with the back body riding up mmmmm tempting .....



so just to finish up the tie off with something completely different , i saw this pattern in an American fly fishing magazine its made for steel heads and a most bizarre looking creature it is to well as we all now the Americans are way ahead of us when it comes to fly fishing i mean fly fishing for carp is the norm over there nobody bats an eyelid but could you imagine if i did that in the UK id be laughed of the water but i will be doing it later in the year ...

so anyway i saw this and thought what the hell I'm going to do one anyway and you know id fish it as well i reckon chub would kill for this so i will try it at some point it comes in at 3.5 inch's long what the hell the fish think it id is beyond me but hay ill try anything one (well almost anything)




so yet again we have the Tuesday tie of with ken capsey you'll find his ties here be sure to check em out

http://pikeadventures.blogspot.com/

so back on wed with another whole heap of trouble

tight lines
mcfluffchucker
(a cave in Scotland)

back at work

so back at work today and i have 5 spare Min's so time for an update of the bogus , i was in orvis on my way to work yesterday (sorry just happened to fall in the door) and i was shown a new product that they are doing which looks like an all in one leader now i was only shown a photo of it but its seems to be a 7 ft long leader with an inbuilt trace in the core which will be a great product for the newcomer to the sport a product that you ca just attach to your line and go fish .

they have ordered some in to the shop so once they are in ill pick one up and give you lowdown , i do remember once getting one of the airflo ones that was a tapperd leader with a titanium trace attached and i remember writing a review of that and being quite impressed so i look forward to seeing the orvis version ...stay tuned

one of my flies cartooned just for the hell of it but looks cool ad may become the new banner for the pike and predator flies site what do ya think



so this morning at 7 am saw me at the vice mucking around with materials and below is the result (sorry tony ill send the golf clubs down)

I've mixed up ultra hair and slink n flash for this one the belly being the ultra hair and the back the slink and flash it looks like a great bulky fly but Ive hardly used any material at all on it probably 4 bits of slink n flash and maybe 6 bits of ultra hair oh and a tiny bit of yellow DNA fibre the hook is a 6/0 gamakatsu

I've used a googly eye on this one with a tiny amount of epoxy to seal the head and protect the eye

slightly different smaller version of the above

tied using the same method but tied on a gamakatsu 4/0 this time and slightly thinner in profile






a small 7mm conical eye gives this the weight needed for the action and only the slightest bit of epoxy to stick the eyes and seal the head , ill be doing a step by step for this for the website this so stay tuned

well look forward to another fun filed week and I'm maybe going to get some fishing in as well so a right bonus

tight lines flingers
mcfluffchucker
(a cave in Scotland)

a day off today

I've been working my ass of the last couple of days so it was pretty cool to get a day of today and get on the vice , although once i had done my pre Tye exercise (hell its good enough for athletes to warm up) which consists of a large coffee and check whats been going down on face book , i slide on over to the vice and then bang it happens i hit that feckin brick wall what am i going to tie , what shall i use what is it for blah blah blah ,

well fortunately for me these episodes don't last very long and all i need to do is peer into one of my many draws of materials and I've usually snapped out of it today i just happened to pull open a draw with pink ultra hair and the ideas came a flooding well enough for one tie anyway and here is .....

PINK


pink bloody pink its a bloody pink fly what the feck i hear you cry ...well quite rightly so fellow chuckers but along with blue its a very underestimated colour i was one on a venue in summer last year crystal clear water and nothing would work so i had one tied with sf fibre so i stuck that on and it turned out to be the catching colour of the day when all around me were not catching on more trad patterns why well I'm buggered if i know and i really don't but it opened my eyes to alternative colours ill tell you that this ones tied on a 6/0 gamakatsu sl12s saltwater series hook



i have stuck the eyes on with epoxy and given a thin coat of epoxy round the eyes a few air spots have appeared but i learnt a few years ago that really doesn't matter a toss as the fish really don't care either way i mean Mr predator thinking "i wouldn't be seen dead eating that its got air bubbles in its eyes " i really don't think so i mean unless you a complete numpty and manage to make the whole eye white with air which to be quite honest is pretty much quite hard to do unless you mix it with an electric whisk but what idiots going to do that ........



so i guess although I've had success with pink on the pike I'm taking an educated guess that pretty much anything would stuff this down if it saw it , Ive tied it up using the 2 tie technique to give it more body in the right areas and using DNA holofusion in white and pink generous lashings of dark pink ultra hair eyes as always from Richard the eye supplier in the side menu who has just mailed me to say he has had another delivery in so get in there before they all go again ...told you they were good........

subbuggin the story continues.......

OK so unless you've been living under a rock you'll know that myself and ken over at pike adventures have a love of tying with deer hair and so much so that we have a site dedicated to that fine art of spinning deer hair for no other reason than the love of deer hair and for no commercial gain whatsoever , so every now and again myself or ken come across a deer hair tier of par excellence and we invite them to be a featured tier on the site .

well the latest discovery is an amazing tier called pat Cohen who hails from Cobleskill, NY now go check out his page on the buggin site here is the link amazing deer hair ties from pat

http://www.spanglefish.com/subbuggin/index.asp?pageid=211028

great to have you on board pat

a pat cohen deer hair


so back to other things my great redneck brother in Vermont has been doing some new style bunny bugs here's the link http://pikeadventures.blogspot.com

now ken has this way of doing heads which makes a really amazing fly i just cant get it myself when i try to tie them but love the look and the weight of the head provides amazing movement in the water "i know this because ken sent me a couple to try out" so hats off to ya for that one all you need to do is master the high tie mate eh ha ha ha ha ha



so here is a great video of a fly working underwater to finish the day off enjoy ok its a saltwater fly but it gives you an idea of how they work



so that's it for today for assorted ramblings hope you have enjoyed it no doubt the rest of the week will be filled with more randomness

tight lines fellow tiers and flingers around the word
dave mcfluffchucker
(a cave in Scotland)