happy trails

No you can’t go fishing
So start of the week and I’ve worked over the whole weekend at my bill paying job with the thought of getting a day’s fishing in on the Monday , but yet again the weather came into play throwing some big wind across the city , now I know that if you’re a plastic chucker or a bait soaker then you can go out in anything you want really I know this because I’ve done it in my younger days , but that stuff doesn’t float my boat I’m a fly fisher through and through that’s what does it for me so chucking big flies and ending up with big hooks in my face and up trees just doesn’t appeal really , I’m sure you see where I’m coming from here. So I’m going to hope I’ll get a few hours later in the week.

In the meantime with wind howling around I decided to take my son into Edinburgh to have a look at the castle and the museum and err who put an Orvis shop on the route darn best go in then son ……

Is not like I don’t have anything to do off course I did a restock for http://www.deercreek.co.uk/ and have added a few extra patterns including some tangos (below) can’t go wrong with a classic orange and white pattern and I think the new gator eyes in blue really set the fly off nicely so hook into the chaps at the creek if you want some hot predator catching flies, should be in stock by the time you read this …

As part of my trying to make life easier when it comes to all things fishing im tying up flies for my grab and go pack , the grab and go pack is basically a large finsport wallet that stays loaded with flies that will catch pretty much anywhere but its more designed for those moments when I can get down the local canal for a few hours , just means I don’t have to go digging for flies in my boat box or day bag and the flies tied are primarily for use on the canal but I could if need be use them anywhere

With that in mind and the canal being fairly cloudy most of the time greens and orange flies are a must really these are tied on 4/0 sakuma mantas these colours have always done well for me on there, the heads are just heavy enough to get the flies on the deck but not into the sludge , i always use a floating line when fishing the canal as it’s not that deep so buy using a leader of around five feet I can make the fly dart up off the bottom and sing back down dying fish style or I can use a standard slow retrieve just off the bottom both of which work very well

I was in the cave today and had opened a draw to get some e.p materials out for a roach pattern I had in mind and my eyes landed on some orvis ultra-hair the yellow and olive were just sat next to each other in the draw and I thought mmmmmmmm that looks pikey then I thought of some eyes that could go with it and bang I had a great new idea for a baby pike pattern just happens like that sometimes and I think they worked out just great.

The first fly in the picture is just one colour on top of another but while I was tying it I though what if I took equal amounts off both colours and blended them together which is what I did with the bottom fly so I tied in the normal yellow colour for the belly and the blended for the back and although you can’t see it, it actually worked out really good and the blend is superb just the correct amount of yellow coming through the olive so I’m very pleased with it and it’s given me a few new ideas to play with other colours and materials watch this space……


The whole idea with these flies was to produce a small pike pattern for the canal as besides roach small pike like most places feature very highly on another pikes menu so may as well have a few in the bag

I tried a few different eyes with this pattern as I couldn’t really decide on what I wanted, I did actually Google pike eyes and there was plenty of variations out there so In the end I settled on the one above I just thought it really suited the overall design of the fly I like it and would fish it with confidence and of course that’s the main thing confidence in what’s on the end of the line is half the battle

Grab and go pack
So I’m getting the pack together so far here’s what’s in it of course a load of shinny things can’t go wrong with shiny things

A load of classic baitfish type flies made out of various materials and of various sizes a few whistler type flies also in there for really slow work

And for summer I have a selection of gurglers I have actually seen fish hitting bait on the surface on the first few rays of dawn so a gurgler or ten is a must, I have all sizes from very small to large they all have their place of course I have my brother ken to thanks for getting me onto these very deadly flies and the damage they did for me on kens local largemouth population absolutely nuts, cheers brother

I’m playing with a few large thunder creek patterns for canal fish just now as well so I have a few in there as well , thing is if I’m not catching this could be the fly that saves the day you just never know , I’m kind of guessing this would be a great pattern for saltwater as well I’ll give it a chuck next time I’m near the salty stuff that’s the magic of this grab bag I have pretty much the patterns that will do salt and fresh water , well maybe with the exception of the frogs above , unless of course you know somewhere where there’s saltwater frogs …………….

The Oscar for best actor goes to
Ok so I’ll admit now I’m not really one for being in front of the camera and I don’t profess to being any kind of fly-tying expert never have done , what I like to do is show folks how to do stuff so that’s what I do off course you can always watch it with the sound off
My idea on this video was to show that pretty much anybody with little or no tying experience would be able to sit down and tie a basic fly that will catch fish and give you the confidence to actually do a fly that you would be confident in fishing , I’ve used gliss and glint plus fibre because it does away with the need to add your own flash and provides just the correct blend of sparkle to you fly once you get the hang of fly tying you’ll be able to add your own flash but this is a great material for the beginner and confident tier to make some amazing patterns , so please enjoy the video

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Blog updates in your mail

You’ll notice I’ve added a little email subscription box just above the site followers this is provided by blogger so I thought I’d add it , the reason being that you will get a notification in your mail when I’ve updated the blog if you have one of those smart phone things it means you’ll get a mail saying that I’ve added content to the blog , you can then browse at your leisure seems like a good idea to me so hopefully you’ll use the service

GET THE BBQ OUT AND GATHER UP SOME ROADKILL

I’m delighted to have known ken from pike adventures and his lovely chick Naomi for a good few years now I’ve had the pleasure of staying and fishing with ken (and will be there later this year on a triple predator hunt) ken and his family I can only describe as probably the nicest people on the planet and I now count them all as my family , ken despite being a complete goofball is so on the same wavelength as me and I’m not even going to describe the conversations we have on skype we bounce fly ideas off each other all the time and generally have a blast , I really wish we had a film crew following us round when I was over there , imagine the show swamp people but with fly rods , yea you got the picture the guy is a legend ,so when I found out that he had got engaged my first thought was Naomi had bought him a shit hot new fly rod .

But seriously it couldn’t have happened to a nicer couple total congratulations to you both

So on that happy note I bid you all a great week ahead

And be cool to each other
Mcfluffchucker
(a cave in Scotland)