life in foam

LIFE IN FOAM

OK so after coming back from the states and having a look in ken and Brian's fly boxes i admit to being very impressed with the foam stuff they both had and i tied some up at Ken's to try as well , i had to tie my own as capsey would still have been going on about catching fish on his flys .

so yesterday i made few Chernobyl ant flies up but in pike size , id had so much success in the states with smaller ones i thought theres no way big sizes wouldn't catch pike on the surface and it gives me a good excuse for starting up a rather massive box of top water flys for my trip after the bass next year .

all the flys below are tied on long shank 4/0 hooks (there big)

the foam above i was getting from ken over at pike adventures he sends me a pack every 3 months and i send him old fishing shit that he likes to collect (rusty hook on its way buddy) but I've now found the very same foam in a local craft store what a bonus

the flies above are pretty much the same build except I've left enough space on the one above to stick on an epoxy eye


purple back and segmented under body sometimes its good to play with colours , when everything else ain't working that may be the one that save you

the fly above is probably your more traditional ant with sight indicators although with pike flies I'm not sure that you really need them as you in contact with the fly most of the time although i suppose it would have its uses in weedy bays or rivers

the fly above is actually twice the thickness of the same colour fly above it i just like to tinker with stuff and see what happens

frankin dragon flies

well i have ken to thank for getting my brain in gear on this one , while i was fishing Champlain with him we saw quite a lot of massive dragon flies the things were so big they could have taken on an f16 well id forgotten that ken had said they were good bass snacks (i should listen to him now and again ) and it wasn't till last night while he was on the video hook up to me that he showed me his version of it, its not on his blog yet but hopefully it will be soon as its an absolute killer , below is my version i say my version as I'm not one for directly copying a fly and calling it my own , although something similar probably is out there although maybe not in this size , so this is my spin on kens dragon fly

I'm quite liking the fly above as the foam at the back should make it dive a little under the surface although I'm not 100% on this yet and i do have the option of just cutting it of if it doesn't work how i want it to without wasting a fly

every thing gonna be all white

yea sorry that's a crap title i know but here is a white one i did with a red site indicator , the back has been given a shell back with the incredible and cheap mr bond from pike trek , the reason I've give it a shell back is so that it makes a bigger splash when it hits the water simple

death from below

how can a fish resist such a tasty morsel struggling for its life on the surface simple it cant , so I've still got some ideas in my head that i need to get on a hook and making the flys above was the first part of the plan as i have in mind some really radical designs which as i have the day of tomorrow will be put on a hook so check back tomorrow evening and see what come out the lab

tight lines fellow tiers

mcfluffchucker

(a cave in Scotland)

duckling breakfast and foam ants

well my alarm went off and i looked at the clock indeed it was 3 am it only seemed like a few hours since i went to bed actually it was , i was supposed to speak to ken over at pike adventures at 10 pm but he had taken his boy swimming so i think he must have got back late and by the time i had had a couple of beers tiredness had taken over and let me tell you it was a close thing that i managed to slip out the door at that time so sorry to ken if you tried to skype me

so by 4.00am i was down on the canal and there was no sign of Kevin from orvis who i had arranged to meet mabey he had the same alarm clock problem i did so i set up under a bridge as the rain was falling and i could fish from this spot if i needed to by doing some low side casting

quack quack bang slap ouch

while i was setting up i heard a big splash across and to my right where there had been 3 ducklings and one mother duck there was now 2 very confused ducklings and a mother duck swimming in circles looking for the duckling which was now sat in the stomach of a very large pike sitting on the bottom ..................that must of hurt

the scene of the crime

so i kinda thought after seeing the duck special that gurglers may be the way to go something that would make a lot of noise on top , so i persevered for ages with the gurglers and Kevin had turned up by this time (4.45am) i had apparently said 4.30 so ill let him off with that one but i will be checking my email

predator perfection

now all of us looking at this lovely little pike will say perfect little predator nailed a 5 inch zonker but if your ken capsey you will say shit is that a tiger musky look at the stripes ken i rest my case mate i really wish you'd listen to me sometimes , anyway not the biggest fish in the pond but i really don't care what size they are as long as i catch em on the fly that's all that counts . I've done my share of big 20lb + fish and i get more enjoyment from smaller fish , i caught this on a 7 wgt outfit and i gave a really great account of itself

Kevin gets busy

Kevin was also using a 7wgt outfit and you can get fish in really quickly , i rigged him up with a 20lb fluro leader and tyger wire trace and you can see by the smile on his face he loved every second of it

so that was that its was only a short session on here otherwise you'd be hooking dogs cyclists and all sorts and although dogs give a good fight on a 7 wgt taking you down to the backing most times the owners ain't usually very happy , especially when you try to video it

so i left Kevin with a hand shake and a well done and a promise to do it again next week he looked like he enjoyed it

trout bum

i decided to walk home and check out the river that runs near me again not big fish but with trout and grayling in there its always worth a go , in fact if i had my trout flies with me i would have had a quick cast as they are lovely brownies in there

the river is quite low but i did see fish that i think if i had some dry flies i think i could have had a couple on bank even with the water being so low next time

so yesterday i also got some new massive Chernobyl bass/pike snacks made which you can see below i have put one of Brian prices ants there (which i nicked while i was over there cheers Brian) for size comparison these are tied on 4/0s

so that's that for today I'm back at the vice later to do some sub bugs for a customer so will catch ya all on wed

tight lines fluffers

top water fever and other storys

finally today i got a wee crack at the vice so it was nice to do some tying after the the last few weeks of stuff going on , I'm away fishing at he crack of dawn tomorrow with one of the guys from orvis so I'm looking forward to some dawn top water sport and of course i couldn't help myself i had to piss around with some patterns

Chernobyl rubber legged what the feck is that

i love the Chernobyl ant as a fly and always thought a bigger version would be pretty cool for pike so with me going after a few tomorrow i thought id big one up pike size(4/0) and above is what i came up , and I'm loving it and looking forward not only to fishing it tomorrow but to tying up some more cant wait to see what i come up god only knows with my head

rubber legged cat puke

having had quite a bit of success on these flies in the states i thought they would do quite well on some local venues for small pike and perch so Ive tied a few variations up in preparation for tomorrow and just in case the top water isn't happening

so of course i had to tie up another gurgler just in case again this one has a pike trek rattle inside

so I'm busting to get out now and not long to go so i think ill disappear back to the vice and see what i can come up with stay tuned for a full report tomorrow

tight lines fluffers

THE STAGE IS SET

so after a crazy couple of weeks and after catching up after my USA romp with ken over at pike adventures then getting back and sorting out shit that needed to be sorted while i was away , building a new fly desk sorting out a new room for my son and getting that decorated which i finished tonight , so expect next week silly levels of fly tying silly levels of stupidity and the usual stuff that you all love people see ya next week when my vice is gonna be smoking

ken you've been a rock brother my heartfelt thanks to you and your family you know where I'm coming from

mcfluffchucker

a new forum

I've always since I've started messing around on the net had an idea of a world wide fly fishing forum , don't get me wrong there is some fantastic forums out there but a lot tend to be country specific , i really believe a pike or game fly fisher in the UK would be able to pick something up from the same fisher in say the USA , spreading new ideas advances not only our fly fishing but our fly tying as well i have learnt this one lesson over the years

it would also be great would it not to have a forum where there is no bullshit no arguing just a whole bunch of people from around the world enjoying what they love best , fly fishing and fly tying , there is also forums on there for guides to advertise there services(free of charge) as again i believe people can recommend guides they have used , same goes for fly tiers there is a section on there for local guys to sell there flys again i firmly believe you cant beat a home made fly from a guy who has caught fish on his own patterns , usually these guys are only making them to be able to afford to buy a beer or more fly tying materials or to fund fishing trips so if your a fly tier or somebody looking for flies please check it out , again no fees or costs whatsoever so please help by spreading the word


so please sign up and help to make this a great place to spend time no mater what you you fish for by clicking the picture above

tight lines
Dave

video

heres a great little video from ken at pikeadventures on leaders

ha ha ha

i did this just last week



see ya later

back to normality

so back to normality and hilarity well now that I've recovered from the 2 day trip back from northern Vermont and the mozzie bites have calmed down a bit although I've still got a few on my arms bloody things .......

so i had a few projects to get on with one was to build a new fly tying desk the reason for this is that my son is needing his own space now so i decided to move it back to where i had it originally as the light was fantastic in there for tying i only moved it in the first place as we had a baby
the new desk rises from the ashes

OK so rising from the ashes is a bit strong but I'm a great believer in recycling so the whole thing is mashed together with recycled scraps from old draws and wardrobes just doing my bit for the planet

gurglers tying spree

while i was fishing with ken i noticed how devastating the gurgler was ken has got these down to a fine art and he can really make these things talk on the water so i tied a couple while i was over there and seeing how devastating they are i tied some of my own variations when i got home

you may think the gurgler is the a fly that cant really be improved on but me being me I've added my own twist by simply adding rubber legs and rattles inside them they are great to tie up look like nothing on earth but the fact is they catch fish end of story

weedless bass beast

i was chatting to ken about weedless flies the other day and i must say although you may not agree but i think weed guards particularly 100lb guards can make you miss fish so while talking about this i came up with the idea that you could make a weed guard by using natural materials work for you and do away with the mono

so i set to work , what i needed was something that was like the gurgler going to try and dive but spit water out in front of it and make some noise but also be able to hook up fish in deep cover

so here it is I've slightly bent back the hook (like a bend back) and used stiff deer hair at the back as the guard the rubber legs I've made from some sea angling rubber squids (Muppet's) just cut the legs of and you get a great long thick tapperd leg

so the finished prototype the other great thing is that the fly when cast will always ride hook up because of the way the deerhair is spun and cut it will flip over when it lands perfect , so this ones on the way to ken just now for testing so stay tuned

a big shout out today for ken at pike adventures who along with sidekick Brian the grill are taking part in a bass fly fishing tournament this weekend so watch kens blog for a full write up next week

tight lines

mcfluffchucker

start of a long road

the road home starts with a party

so with my time coming to an end in Vermont Brian had invited us all over for a farewell BBQ which i really appreciated as the guy is a legend on the grill as much as his grill is legend where he lives , we had the added entertainment tonight of Brian's neighbour across the road making an official tournament rules horse shoes throwing box strange place but good fun

capt grill chiefs legendary grill and smoker

whilst Brian fired up the grill we relaxed with some beers cheese, sausage and biscuits check out the half sized bottles of Newcastle brown ale its either the Americans cant handle there dog (that will confuse them ) or Scottish and Newcastle breweries are making a fortune out of smaller bottles .......good plan

the captain and his ship

so ken what did you think of mcfluffchucker coming over to America fishing with you for the week and completely out fishing you .............



the fluff -the grill- and the boss
just lift my cap up pour the beer into the hole young man

Naomi was gutted to find out ken had ducked round the back of the chicken coup and finished all the chili dogs , i however is so pissed i cant find my mouth i feckin love these guys

now you can say what you like about the Americans but nobody does steak like them and nobody cooks a steak like Brian i mean look at the size of that fecker (the steak not me)

doom bug landing lights yellow to far to to the right in between the red and the green is spot on for landing at full speed in fluffs head

so with heavy heart i stand and watch my train come in (big fecker or what) and get on board for the long 10 hour trip to new york passing all that fantastic water from the small shallow gravel trout and small mouth rivers of mid Vermont to the estuary's of new york i enjoy a peaceful trip filled with all the adventures I've just had , and start to plan my trip next year maybe add a few more days on though of course just to fish that large mouth place ken was talking about but we didn't quite get time to fish and maybe just maybe hit a really big bucket mouth on the surface

Vermont came and said goodbye to me as this landed on the window of the moving train and bore a striking resemblance to the flies that were all over Champlain that morning with the five wgts and it waited for me to get the camera out to get the picture as soon as i had taken it the battery ran out and the fly flew away i really think that was a sign

so i have to say a big thank you and send good karma out to my brother from another mother ken capsey for making this probably the best experience of my life Naomi his charming and lovely Mrs for putting up with me and my bizarre foreign ways kaiden there son for being a cool kid most of the time

Brian price for being an all round feckin nice geezer and top griller (dude a grill cookbook is needed) the day we had fishing was an experience and was like some kind of weird circus sideshow with us 3 awesome laugh and of course Hanna pants brains cool girlfriend who despite being of German origin had a great sense of humour and an amazing artist (doom bug has pride of place on my new desk ) a special mention goes to diesel dog the leader of brains race for not hitting me with the death ray ...........

i learnt a lot on this trip not just as a angler but as a person and i thank the people above for really opening my mind and seeing things in a new light

slange vt

mcfluffchucker

back to flies this week

the fly fishing hunger day 7 pt 2

the great fish hunt

Brian took over the wheel of kens monster truck he knew a couple of spots on a river that may be worth checking out so with the windows down and the west Virginia hoocie mama banjos reunited band blaring out the stereo (Brian's choice) we sped off however with the windows down i caused quite a high mortality rate within the local bug community half pf which ended up on my hat

you know you may think you have the best water in the world or you may think your the best fly fisher in the world you may think your the best money can buy and all others should kneel at your feet but you know if you ain't got great loyal Friends and Buddy's to share it with you ain't worth jack

the redneck fly fishing team

Brian knew a couple of spots on the missisquoi that would be worth a try although it would be wise not to use the public toilet next to the sign below ken went in and came back out looking decidedly unwell



a river runs through it

a more beautiful and fishy river i haven't seen in a while , this river covers a large area and you could almost imagine the Indian's in there canoes paddling on it we fished it hard but didn't even see any fish topping

Brian sends down his death ray from oz

i tried all manner of flies we knew there was muskies in there but they truly are the fish of a thousand casts we stopped casting at em at 734 casts

it was quite funny to find a frog in the long grass and throw into the water only to watch it try and get out of the water as fast as possible , this tells me that the frogs in this area know whats in the water and they don't want to be in the water , the frog version of jaws

despite several changes of fly we couldn't raise a single fish so it was time to move on and we had a BBQ to look forward to as i was flying out the following day we were going to have a grill off a Brian's although we wernt fish less this day we caught large mouths , chain pickerel , and rock bass and it was really great travelling light and dropping in spots on the river with great company

as i now have to go to work id better cut this short

later fluffers

mcfluffchucker