Wednesday 27 April 2011

its a classic recording all right

was digging around in some boxes yesterday and came across an old press shot of ken capseys old musical adventures before he changed to pike adventures not much difference except the hairs gone beards the same and i sometimes see him with his guitar out in the old sugar house his band only ever produced one CD and if your really lucky you'll find the disc that has the bonus tracks happy hunting ken capsey can now be found weeping into his gummy bears and falling asleep at the vice here http://pikeadventures.blogspot.com/ keep up with bums adventures


BONE YOUR OWN DAM BOWFIN


1. Get Your Biscuits In The Oven And Your Buns In Bed
2. Get Your Tongue Outta My Mouth 'Cause I'm Kissing You Goodbye
3. How Can I Miss You If You Won't Go Away?
4. I Can't Get Over You, So Why Don't You Get Under Me?
5. I Don't Know Whether To Kill Myself Or Go Bowling
6. I Got In At 2 With a 10, And Woke Up At 10 With a 2
7. I Hate Every Bone In Your Body Except For Mine
8. I Keep Forgettin' I Forgot About You
9. I Liked You Better Before I Knew You So Well
10. I Still Miss You Baby, But My Aim's Gettin' Better
11. I Wouldn't Take Her To A Dog Fight, Cause I'm Afraid She'd Win
12. I'll Marry You Tomorrow But Let's Honeymoon Tonite
13. I'm So Miserable Without You, It's Like Having You Here


FIVE AND DIME STORE LTD EDITION BONUS TRACKS
14. I've Got Tears in My Ears From Lying On My Back Crying my eyes out over you
15. If I Had Shot You When I Wanted To, I'd Be Out By Now
16. Mama Get A Hammer (There's A Fly On Papa's Head)
17. My Head Hurts, My Feet Stink, And I Don't Love Jesus
18. My Wife Ran Off With My Best Friend, and I Sure Do Miss Him
19. Please Bypass this Heart
20. She Got The Ring and I Got The Finger
21. You're The Reason Our Kids Are So Ugly



tying like a good un


(naughty word warning below)
my normally tidy area ain't so tidy these days as I've worked out the time it takes me to tidy up shit i could have actually made another fly so , from now on i ain't tiding shit up that way ill get more shit tied therefore giving me more shit to play with at the river, i think the only time I'm now going to tidy shit up is when i cant find shit , so if i cant find shit amongst my shit ill not be able to tie so much shit because I'm spending that time looking for shit to tie with so from now on I'm going to keep a tidy bench as i just don't like having untidy shit


DECEIVER SNACKS
sometimes its really good just to go back to basics i spend many an hour examining materials laying materials over each over trying to get new colours and stuff , in fact I've been doing that for an order this week and it to be quite honest was burning my brain abit as although i was getting some great results with the mix ,one seamed to blur into another so it was with great relief i noticed on kens blog that he had a deceiver video up and i thought hell I've not made any of those for a while so although i have a box full i decided to make a load of small versions up for the big small mouths and pickerel I'm going to be chasing soon , of course the first has to be a chartreuse and white classic colour combo and willing take fish no matter where you are , great colours

some nice snacks started to take shape , of course nothing special or clever about these i just think they look really awesome little bait fish just some saddle hackle for the the tail , pearl flash , bucktail and to finish off a sprig of herl on the back , couple of realistic eyes how can you go wrong


shoal coming to a river near you , ain't it great you know you get feeling when you look at the fly sitting in the vice and you just know its going to catch fish well this is one of those moments .


of course as your aware I'm not just happy doing the one colour so i always like to have a mess around with colours and i was running out of white bucktail and the white ended up being a mixture of white and the light cream back of the bucktail was showing through so i kinda just went with that and came up with these , ill maybe yet pen in some red for the throat or maybe i wont undecided but whatever I'm just happy to be tying




thanks to nick over at http://www.deercreek.co.uk/ for the cool eyes and to ken for the gift of music , I'm going to be quite for the rest of the week as I'm disappearing to my Friends house to watch bucket loads of sea monster , disaster , UFO , conspiracy films to get away from the bloody royal wedding , you know the only people interested in this are bloody tourists its a real pain in the arse and to make the whole country grind to a halt because of it is a joke when many businesses are struggling and need to open so I'm making myself scarce



later


mcfluffchucker


(a non wedding cave in Scotland)

Saturday 23 April 2011

does my fly look big in this

just the other day i had a chap round to talk pike flies and fly tying as my other job is tying lessons (great rates) so i was showing him a few flies that he was going to be doing normal 6 inch's simply baitfish to get him started which he seemed to find pretty cool but his eyes were drawn to one of the bigger 10 inch flies that i had on my board what the **** is that for he asked well it was a pattern i had done for musky an absolute corker of a fly that screams eat me .


he said i thought it was a fly for shark surly no pike or musky will attack that , well you know predators are just that predators and if they think its an easy meal then of course its going to have a go i mean look at the picture below somebody sent me and tell me the flys to big the only thing that limits the size of fly is the rods ability to cast it , but let me tell you I've cast 13 inch flies before on the saber .................no problem he was impressed




so on the subject of flies i shall this week launch the second pike and predators fly tying disc . 2.1 is simply a follow on from the first very successful disc , this time there is around 50 new patterns with there recipes covering all sorts of natural and synthetic fibres step by step photo videos and lots more again these discs i don't sell i swap for hooks and fly tying materials so stay tuned and ill post next week when its ready . there's nothing better than tying your own flies and catching fish on them stay tuned


things you may have noticed have been a bit slow on the posting this week because I've been pretty busy with projects and work and stuff I've had a chap wanted 100 flies so I've been busy doing that and trying to get some smallmouth patterns together and stockin up the boxes for my American trip in July although what I'm going to do with 500 Chernobyl ants for the rivers smallies is any ones guess , I'm also being sent some stp bodies from a tying Friend smoking prince check out his very cool blog here http://gotflyfishing.blogspot.com/ or in the side menu he does some mean stuff , id seen some of his work on the fly tying forum so asked him a couple of questions about the frogs as i thought they would be cool for pike over here in summer as well as large mouths in July , he kindly agreed to send me some body's to try , i in return am sending him some big ol pike flies thanks again buddy


part of an order 99 to go




I've also received a new delivery of hooks and eyes from the guys at piketrek nice to see they have manged to source some reasonably priced rattle eyes these are fantastic for subbugs and dalberg divers as they really do give of a great rattle when stripped and paused a lot of people just glue these eyes on with super glue i like to stick them on a blob of 5 min epoxy give a little weight to the head and make them bomb proof so they don't come off it does help to give a thin coat over the eye as well this helps protect against the eye being pierced by teeth as a pierced eye doesn't give of the same rattle and if it creates a big enough hole then the rattle eye dies completely so a thin coat of epoxy always does the trick


also got sent some more of there awesome spectrum fibre in sapphire blue this stuff is fantastic for deep-water flies and roach patterns funny that blue seems to be a colour ignored in this this country i know of a few anglers who use blue flies but overall most people wouldn't even think about it great colour looks fantastic in the water get some, tie with some ,get results with it


spectrum flash fibre

ken from pike adventures is pretty much ice free now although still a little cold but him and Brian the grill headed out and tackled some fishing and he managed a small walleye on an old fenwick rod , funally enough it was in the same spot i had my trophy smallmouth last year nice going brother ill be hitting that same spot very soon .......buzzing going to be awesome to catch up with my Vermont family and friends fishing with Brian and ken is always great fun if Brian the griller was anymore laid back he would fall over get the steak out Brian and a shot of kraken


happy days people

mcfluffchucker


(a cave in Scotland)

Sunday 17 April 2011

scottish summer is here

i had organized a get together for the pike fly fishing association on loch venachar in Scotland , its always great to meet up with old and new members and just have a great days fishing with like minded anglers , the thing i love about the club is the fact that there is no politics and no look at me I'm better than you because I've caught x amount of fish if you don't praise me all the time I'm going to throw my dummy out of the pram , this sort of mentality has been the down fall of many a good club and it leads to people not joining because quite simply they don't want to hear that bullshit hero worship stuff .


so with that in mind we are starting to get some great people in the club who along with the others in the club pretty much just want to fish and talk fly fishing and to be honest with these events you can stick 2 strangers in a boat and 99.9% of the time both by the end of the day will be firm friends now that's what i call a club ,


left to right - mcfluffchucker - AL mabon - martin bailey - Eddie (the ninja) - Stevie (the worlds tallest fly fisher) slight . this was the motley crew who assembled at the lodge on a bright but somewhat windy sat morning , we were supposed to have a few more people Derek savage was struck down with a rather nasty throat infection so was bed bound but managed to get a message through that he wouldn't be able to attend and poor old long standing club member smithy who called me up saying he was having a bit of engine trouble so didn't want to risk a long journey from the midlands which was fair enough .


i really felt for him as this is one of his favorite places to fish and one year we both had a rather sizable young lady fall of the fly within seconds of me losing in in deep water it must have turned and hit smithy's fly at the same time but it dropped of his as well since then hes never missed an opportunity to fish there . next time mate next time


my boat partner for the day Maurice didn't show up no idea why and no message from him I'm starting to think he may turn up next week and there will be nobody there i keep telling people read the forum that's why its there keep up to date with things going on most people check it before heading on a trip because sometime bad weather can spring up from nowhere ad i can give up to date info for all to see .


the forecast for today was pretty good sunshine in the afternoon slightly cloudy winds of 5 to 7 mph all the sign's were good , however when i came out of the shelter of the harbour it was a bit lumpy 5 to 7 mph my arse i just cranked the engine and headed into it knowing that when i reached near to the top end the treeline and mountains would break the winds power on the water and it wouldn't be to bad to fish in.

i drifted around for a bit at the top end using all the old favorites but it was strangely quiet with not a lot happening which to be honest is strange so i motored to a quiet shore and dug around the fly box i decided on a smaller bait fish pattern grey green back and white belly with red eyes i fished this for a bit but i just didn't feel it with the fly so i had to change , i don't know if anybody else gets that your fishing with a great looking pattern looks fantastic in the water but it just doesn't do it for you on the day , you cast it a couple of times but you just don't get that vibe , well i had that with this fly, so straight back into the box and pulled out another new tie .


this was a classic red and white fly that acts like a jerk bait i actually hadn't got round to finishing it id epoxied the head to give it the weight to give it the action but hadn't got round to putting the eyes on , so i thought what the hell ill chuck it in the box anyway and second cast i had a really annoyed Scottish pike hit it almost at the side of the boat mmmmm guess that works then

the picture above is literally a few seconds after it hit , i always keep a camera handy to get some action shots and sometimes you'll see eagles and other cool wildlife or even other anglers playing fish and i just love to get some shots off , and being in such a stunning place you cant help but take photos as the shot above shows its handy to have it close and accessible
you cant help but love Scottish pike they really have a seriously bad attitude and just look at the eye how annoyed is that fish they really just do not give up of course I'm happy to say this one skulked of to the depths to fight another day and with that i headed back to the boat house harbour , as it turned out it wasn't the best of days with only 3 fish being landed and numerous hits and misses unfortunately due to the wind i couldn't fish my other favorite drift , if i had a boat partner i would have but i as worried that if i hit into a big fish i would really struggle to get it in safely with being sideways on i may have been in danger of getting swamped and no fish is worth a dunk in an icy cold loch so i wasn't taking the chance end off ... id had a great day in great company and a fantastic breakfast in some of the most stunning scenery in the world


the video below was shot by me just to show how the red and white classic works in the water , I've developed over the years the perfect weigh a head to give it the same action as a glide bait as you can see from this video it looks hot , sorry for some bad filming but it was just me in the boat and trying to cast and film at the same time ain't the easiest and id forgotten my little camera stand so ill not be getting any Oscars for this performance




usually i don't do video fly tying films i prefer to do photo step by steps in movie form so you can pause it etc etc , i was asked to do this for a customer so was happy to help and i though what the hell ill stick it up on my fly tying website and blog , its by no means meant to be a professional video , but i hope you enjoy it and it gives you an idea or two





well with that its time for me to go do some family stuff catch you all later in the week


mcfluffchucker

(a cave in Scotland)

Wednesday 13 April 2011

wassuuuuuuuuuuuuuuppppp!!!!!!!!!!!

again as you can see from the picture below sometimes works gets in the way of fishing and fly tying but i did get a few things done this week , i got a new shelf built on my tying desk for the ever increasing bits and pieces i seem to pick up well if you go into a craft shop with your kids and threes a bundle of foam on sale we you going to pick it up arnt you whoopsy ,


its been great to get back at my proper bench as well , the room has been a bit cold to tie in and heating is so expensive in this country you simply cant afford to have heating on 24/7 because of greedy fat cats and share holders but that's another story but now the mild weather is back I'm firing on all guns although you wouldn't be able to tell that from the picture below .....




back on the sub bugs


this season sees the addition of the "hell yea" sub bug named after my brother from another mother ken in VT why well ken when i come over am i going to catch fish "hell yea" says ken 250 odd fish later ken my guide for the week wasn't bull crapping the hell yeas for you buddy long may it deviate and annoy predators for years to come and if you want to try and tie one here's a little photo video step by step for ye all to enjoy after you have cast it and it plops down on the water you must say HELL YEA and think about that crazy redneck up in Vermont .......








sometimes things just don't go to plan i had an idea for some crease flies i needed to make but i just could not get it right so i abandoned the idea for now and will pick it back up later when I'm tuned into them again see doesn't always go right , my brother on the otherside of the pond however seems to be well on fire and is producing some really outstanding flies just now ,if he gets round to it they will be on his blog , but don't hold your breath the ice is melting the weathers getting warmer over there so hes going to doing some fishing i suspect


the annual report from Vermont's dept of fish and game is out and online by clicking the link makes some really interesting reading , why oh why does this country not have something similar to this fantastic programme again Americans are show just how far advanced they are over this country in fish management get a grip UK , you will notice a familiar name for a couple of the species ...................


the 2010 Master Angler Annual Summary Report is now available online at www.vtfishandwildlife.com/masterangler.cfm. The report provides a list of all trophy fish catches entered in 2010, summarized by species from largest to smallest. Also in the report are some interesting statistics on species breakdown, top producing locations, preferred gear type and other information"


trophy white perch



Perch, White – State Record: 2 lbs 3 oz, 16.5 inches, Connecticut River, 2009

13 Adult Dave Lindsay Edinburgh MI Lake Champlain Highgate Springs 5/25/2010 Fly Fishing
13 Adult * Dale Scichitano Cochester VT Winooski River Colchester 7/31/2010 Casting
11.5 Youth * Caleb Smith St. Albans VT Lake Champlain Georgia 8/13/2010 Casting


trophy smallmouth




Bass, Smallmouth – State Record: 6 lbs 13 oz, 23 inches, Lake Eden, 2003

21 4 lbs 6 oz Adult Robert Booth Barre VT Lake Morey Fairlee 8/30/2010 Casting
20.5 Youth Nico LaBrusciano Burlington VT Lake Champlain Shelburne 7/20/2010 Casting
20 Adult Dave Lindsay Edinburgh MI Lake Carmi Franklin 5/22/2010 Fly Fishing


i do tend to bang on a bit about smallies but as much as i enjoy the adreniline fuelled fishing that is largemouth surface fishing i just love the small mouth nothing and i mean nothing compare to these fish on light gear the video below is me losing a horse of a smaller at the side of the boat you know its only a couple of months and I'm back there doing it all again





that's me I'm off to make clousers again


tight lines from the cave


mcfluffchucker

Monday 11 April 2011

piketrek fly reel now avalible

PIKETREK SUPER-LIGHT 9/11 WEIGHT CNC-CUT FLY REEL

now I'm really excited I'm really really excited look whats now available , just when you think things couldn't get any better they do i cant wait to get on on my saber , you just know that the quality is going to be the dogs bollocks from these guys get them from from piketreks site here


(from piketreks site)



WELL, IT HAD TO HAPPEN EVENTUALLY I SUPPOSE........ For the past nine months this product has been on our drawing-board, and now at last we are proud to announce the arrival of our new baby brother for Pikesaber! This is the lightest reel available ANYWHERE that is capable of taking an eleven-weight line and backing. We have designed it to be extremely light in weight without sacrificing strength in the main frame, and still be of a sufficient size to hold those big lines that have now become standard-issue for pike fly fishing. Finished in Satin Black, this reel simply oozes quality and the looks are stunning, stick one on your Pikesaber and see! AWESOME! It is lighter in weight than any other reel in it's class, and will even hold a full long-belly weight-forward eleven with backing. Constructed from the very finest Aircraft Aluminium Alloy for superb strength and ultra-light weight, and made by a World-Class manufacturer to our own specifications specifically for fly fishing for pike. Smooth drag with a four-Kilo tension to slow down even the largest pike. Rakish styling with Laser-cut logo and line rating, neatly cut into the black anodized finish. Comes complete with Neoprene "Tote Bag" that fits around the reel and rod so that your reel and line will be fully protected whilst on the move or during transit. Spare spools available soon!



you know what I've only ever used and sworn blind by the airflo t10/12 but know I'm seriously thinking of selling them and getting some of these as there replacement you may think I'm crazy but you know when i got the original pikesaber i sold my sage x13 and that is a decision that i still do not regret one bit , the same will be said for this reel


get one you know it makes sense these guys are pike anglers they know what there doing plain and simple


merry Christmas people

the new age of pike fly tackle has arrived

Thursday 7 April 2011

return of the croc

about this time last year i was getting ready for my stateside trip , ken had advised me to get some crocs for the boat as it was by far the best thing to wear just slip em on and off and fish bare feet , of course ken knows his stuff so id go with that if that's whats needed that's what ill get , unfortunately i couldn't get em over here so ken said not to worry he would pick me a pair up before i got there , he did warn me however that id find it hard to take them off , and he wasn't wrong the pair below are now nearly a year old and to be honest I've had them on pretty much everyday since that trip back in may

Houston we have a problem


my beloved crocs have developed a hole in one of them and I'm not going to be back in the states chasing fish with fluff till July so emergency repairs are called for till i get there the picture below shows the offending hole

i thought for a bit about what to do as i want to get another pair over there as there way to expensive in this country so an emergency plan was called for

the solution was actually quite simple i took an old insole from my wife's Birkenstock (she will never notice) and cut the back bit off it so it fitted in the front of my croc over the hole

a bit of blue tack and super glue to the reverse side (the blue tack keeps it in place)

in place and ready to go it may not look great but it covers the hole and is still just as comfy

great stunning fantastic stuff will get another few months out of them before i get back to Vermont where me and ken will be sending these out onto lake Champlain and give them a viking funeral


live life have fun and fish mcfluffchucker (a cave in Scotland)

Wednesday 6 April 2011

on the surface

playing with river smallmouths on the top

you ll be aware that if you follow this blog you'll know that I'm from Scotland , and you'll also realise that smallmouth bass are a bit short on the ground in Scotland this one the reason i posted this picture from last year is that although its not the biggest smallie out of a river or Even a specimen size i had about 20 plus of these out of kens local river just in a couple of hours and all on Chernobyl ants they just couldn't seem to get enough of them .


funny thing was i was wanting to catch as many species as i could on the fly over there and ken said this stretch of river had loads of fall fish great i thought one more to the list well ken was fishing just a short ways up from me , still in talking distance and he shouts over "hey i got a fall fish wanna look" cockily i said Na its cool ill get one in the next few casts if there about , so this year when i get over there I'm hoping to add this species to my caught on the fly list ...cough cough cocky sod that will teach me

so I've set about making some smallie crack with the aid of some awesome hoppin mad legs from deer creek i really think threes just something about these legs that says eat me i just hope the critters in the rivers think so

a more trad type of ant except that i make segmented underbodies just think it looks a bit more eat me probably makes no difference at all as by having the back flat it will get the same silhouette in the water (can you believe i have trouble going to sleep sometimes wondering about shit like that) i do actually really enjoy making these things crazy looking creatures
here's a pretty new tie of mine consists of a classic streamer hook , i get these from brother ken as i cant get them over here fantastic hook and bloody sharp plus the bonus of tons of shank room to make a crunchy snack


so a few more for the box of foam next up is some crease flies July's getting ever closer see ya later


mcfluffchucker

(a cave in Scotland)

Tuesday 5 April 2011

happy days are here again


its like waiting for a bus sometimes waiting for packets and parcels to arrive , i was waiting for a parcels from my brother at pike adventures ken capsey and a parcel from nick over at deercreek and of course by some strange twist of fate both arrive on the same day you have really got to love the UK post sometimes


BROTHER KENS U.S.A MERCY PARCEL

kens parcel was very welcome as it contained a pack of my favorite jerky in the world ever Rosie's Vermont beef jerky , a couple of large Hershey bars and a pack of the best coffee in the world green mountain let me tell you that stuff kick started me for the early morning trips i did on Champlain with ken very very very tasty and of course whenever i get a parcel from ken there's always a fly fishing or tying mag in there as well these mags are far better than the dross we get in this country ......so thanks brother for the mercy pack


this will be a very rare shot an unopened packet of it , you may wonder why i have sun glasses and my fishing bum hat on well that is to enhance the whole drinking coffee eating jerky VT experience if i close my eyes i could be there all again , well i will be soon anyway

a close up of the prized packet , you know i wouldn't be surprised if this was the only packet in the UK and its all mine ...........actually I'm going to take it on a tour of Edinburgh show it the site and stuff give the jerky the whole tourist thing before i crack it open i think that's only the fair thing to do its travelled so far it would be a shame not to give it a little respect


BROTHER NICK THE GREEKS PARCEL

brother nick Jedi master from www.deercreek.co.uk sent me some really nice sea green gliss and glint plus the other day which i did some quite sexy jack pike patterns i sent him a mail asking if he could do me a custom blend and he sent me this sample and i have to say he really did get it bang on with the shading what i wanted ,ill be tying up some samples later .........

with my impending u.s.a trip getting ever closer i also got some of nicks insect legs ,I'm going to do a load if chernobyl ant type vi-bro flies with these for small mouth bass and fall-fish on a river me and ken had a great afternoon on really hyped for that and for tying these bugs should be awesome I've also got a load of crease flies to do as well so i really ought to get my finger out as no doubt my fly fishing brothers over there will also end up having some make there way into there fly boxes .......doom bugs , vi-bro ants , sub bugs , gurglers , and small bait fish patterns for the pickerel hell yes id better get a move on ...... oh and of course some big kick ass musky flies and some flies for nick


so with a spring in my step and the vice in my bag and work this evening I'm just going to fill up with some go go juice as i fell a massive tying session coming on this week

so once again many thanks to the troops for the mercy packs

ken and nick cheers fellas


mcfluffchucker

(juiced up in a cave in Scotland)

Saturday 2 April 2011

in a pickle

what a week its been my wife has been taken on as a fully paid tutor at her work (she was a volunteer) which is great news , she has also been working really hard for the last few years to try and get a maths degree that she needed to get into teaching collage , well not only did she get her degree but she also managed to get into the best teaching university in the world moray house here in Edinburgh (below) which is just phenomenal as places are very scarce , she has put the work in mind you she has managed to raise a family and cram 5 years study into 2 years and shes also had to put up with my fishing trips as well so I'm really proud of her well done dear .




also this week i purchased a new laptop when i got my old one funds were tight and got one on a pay weekly scheme OK you end up paying more in the long run but it had to been done not that i needed one just for fishing stuff i needed to keep in touch with family etc , so i was sitting there last week and i worked out how much i had left to pay and realised that i would be far better off just going out and buying another and the machine i got was ten times better spec than my current one and a fraction of the price i had left on the old one er no brainier really


so i called the shop i got my old one from and said i didn't want it anymore they said OK just stop making payments and had it back then easy as that , even with what i had paid already i was still getting a better machine at a quarter of the price .


so i gets my all singing all dancing laptop and i had the foresight to back everything up onto memory sticks , so i hooks in powers up and gets connected to the net and stuff and first thing i do is skype video my bro ken over at pike adventures , man the webcam was really awful blurry picture and stuff i was quite disappointed to say the least as everything else was very good of course after some hours i realised that there was a bit of thin protective covering over the built in camera "duh" so that's that sorted luckily I'm better at tying flies than computer nonsense probably just as well


my thoughts again turn to my upcoming American adventure mu thoughts are turning to making some kick ass top water flies for the large mouths these will comprise of 2 kinds of flies which will be doom bugs and gurglers more on that later next week when I've made some the doom bug is a killer let me tell you ill tie these on the piketrek Aberdeen as simply its strong and lightweight which is what i need for these flies , they do take a while to make but bloody worth it


I've taken to doing most of my bait fish patterns on piketrek oshaugnassys these days simply because for an economy hook they are bloody good and most impressive is how they stay sharp and only very rarely will , and the fact they seem to be a lot better than some of the big name oshaunassys I've bought in the past obviously the fact that the hook stays sharp is a bonus when fishing for bony mouth predators , i used to use pretty much exclusively sakuma mantas for all my flies but i had a great deal of trouble with the hooks blunting when fished on the bottom in fact the mear sight of a rock or shingle in the water and they would blunt ....


however they do make absolutely fantastic popper or surface hooks as they have a good gape on em but just don't let them near rocks and keep checking the hook point on the manta range

my favorite all time hook for big flies is the orvis pike and musky the thing i love about this hook is the hook shank length and especially on the 6/0s give you the ability to build a very big pike fly

the flies below have been tied on the above mentioned hooks are are monster size and I'm very much looking forward to casting these beast's when i hit the states or maybe even local , the amount of material i could get on one of these hooks is really silly , the only downside is the price i could in fact buy 100 of my other favorite hooks for what it costs me for ten of these but aah well you got to have some little luxury's in life and they do make a bloody lovely fly

so back to doin flies tomorrow and waiting for some very cool packages see ya in the week mcfluffchucker a cave in Scotland