fast food , orvis and life from the cave

Thanks to the brotherhood

I start this week’s blog with a heartfelt thanks to all the people who kindly got in touch with me and have sent fishing gifts to help my buddy who lost all his tackle in a fire I have been truly humbled by your generosity to one and all and including the stunning donations from nikki price at flies of fancy in the usa and Andrew turner in Scotland for the bag of lures, will shaw from lineslinger.com Eric Larson’s uncle for the generous gift , al mabon for the rods and assorted tackle , trout flies for the cool box of , well trout flies and to the guys and girls that have stuff in transit to me I that you all from the bottom of my heart …..

On the trail

My 5 year old was of school today something called Victoria Day; to be honest I haven’t clue why they would name a day off after some dodgy old queen from the 1800s who had no contact with the common person on the street why we would celebrate it is beyond me , but I digress so I was taking my boy into town for a promised fast food snack , more to get him out of the house for a few hours to give his mother a break , so surprise he orders a happy meal , although why they call it a happy meal is beyond me I certainly wasn’t happy paying that price for 4 chicken(cough) nuggets and a few fries along with some plastic garbage that’s supposed to be a tie in for the latest kids film , but I kept my mouth firm closed as my son was obviously having a great time

And of course what my wife always forgets when I offer to take my son out for a McDonalds(other delicious fast food joints are available) that only a few shops away and just round the corner is orvis mmmmm very convenient well actually I needed to in there as I had some materials I desperately needed to pick up more on that later ……

Weekend first

So before I had headed to town with my son for the McDonalds and Orvis visit id just completed a long weekend at work and course I decided to take the traveling fly tying kit with me and this time I had a bunch of yellow and orange flies to do for a client so I set to work, I’m lucky that my bosses don’t mind me filing up the office desk with fur and synthetics and bits of random epoxy on the desk

I had a problem though despite my best efforts and packing of minimal tying kit I’d forgotten to pack my pegs, yes pegs I use them to hold eyes on flies while they dry this was a bit of a problem as I was using gorilla glue(run out of croc glue) to stick them down and this type of glue expands to 3 times its size so by holding them down you stop the eye being pushed away from the body and the glue then expands back towards the hook shaft give a real solid bond 

Being ever resourceful and dumbstruck by my own stupidity at not bringing the bloody pegs my eyes fell upon some of the bosses paperclips now an idea sprung to mind, how about I clip the paper clip to each side of the fly so I did, and as you can see it worked very well though nothing will replace my trusty peg.

A LETTER FROM AMERICA

A monster thanks to brother Vermont fly guy and brother from another mother ken capsey who sent me a very cool care package over which included a copy of the latest north eastern fly fishing magazine a rather cool portable fish finder that runs off AA batteries but the best thing about the whole package was 2 packs of rosies Vermont beef jerky the best dam jerky on the planet and a couple of very cool Vermont fly guys stickers one of which adorns my tying desk only the best on there. Thanks again brother

Ok so I mentioned at the start of the blog about taking my son down to that favourite of fast food emporiums which just happens to be very close to orvis so and I had a special mission to go pick up some raccoon zonker strips, you see ive never actually bothered to tie with them before instead sticking to rabbit for those bunny bug patterns that I tie loads of but am unable to catch bloody fish on, but after seeing will shaws pattern in the water I was hooked and knew I just had to tie some so orvis bound to pick up supplies it was 

I picked up a couple of packs of a light green almost olive colour and one of red for the collar a great colour combo and fine way to start playing with the stuff , these are the first ones I did and im more than happy with them , I suspect I may need to submerge them in water and give them a good soaking to get them to sink though but hell they look good

The third one I tied was a bit of a big boy in fact the size of a beer bottle as you can see in the picture below that just happened to be lying around the house well in the fridge actually but that’s another story, so overall im well pleased with the result and look forward to chucking them around next week

I don’t know about you but im forever visiting websites and more often than not ill sign up for the email list when they get new products or there’s fishy news monster catches etc. etc. and I enjoy getting these mail outs and sometimes signing up to can have its rewards like earlier this week when I got a mail shot from orvis in Edinburgh saying they had some top grade barred dark olive capes in for the daft price of £20.00 uk now these had obviously been miss priced so I headed down there straight away and bought one although I didn’t need it right now I wasn’t going to hang around till I did at that price

I also  walked out with a brand new mclean net as well , the thing is im not really one for using nets I prefer to hand the fish out but I do realise my limitations when it comes to fishing from a boat and I decided that I would by one and if I was going to buy one then it would have to be the best I could buy .

I first saw this net in action while I was sharing a boat with a fellow pffa member gratham water and was impressed with it back then as the fact of the matter is you handle the fish very little using these nets and you have a very good built in scale so really besides the trophy shot you don’t need to even touch the fish , ok so they are bloody  a expensive but they are bloody good nets and they weigh hardly anything and with a very neat strap attachment its light enough to sling over your shoulder if your wading and wandering so that is that bit the bullet and bought it , im now just wondering if will at orvis is on a commision sell bloody sand to the arabs that boy .

So the final thing I’d like to shout out about is our brand new site for those who tie flies or are just starting but don’t know where to buy or what to buy hook wise for predators well our aim for this site is to link all the hooks to specific patterns or ways of tying with them for example if you wanted to try a circle hook but weren’t sure what to do with it well there a link right there on the page to a video of me tying a fly on one easy as that and no extra charge or membership fees the only thing you pay for is the hook , even the post and packing is free and that’s worldwide so check us out by clicking the link below I will be adding a lot of new stuff to it as time goes on so as I do it I’ll put a little shameless plug on here . Please bear in mind this will only be a hook and eye site I won’t be selling materials there plenty of great guys out there doing that already like www.piketrek.com and www.deercreek.co.uk  I am also able to supply trade as well so if you’re a commercial non-African tying house get in touch at hookeyeandfly@gmail.com 



Take care folks and keep chucking at em and remember if you want to tie great pike flies become one with your material

Mcfluffchucker

(a cave in Scotland)

secret hot sandwich

Well it’s time to that time when I’m thinking about heading stateside and getting my backside into planning mode and I was sitting thinking about my last trip to the green mountain state and the fish I caught and looking forward to the ones im going to catch this year including lots of pickerel like the one below caught on a subbug

The one thing I did bring home with me last year (besides Vermont fly guys brain prices fluorocarbon recently found in a jacket and few new flies) was a love of the ken capsey  pastrami and cheese hot sandwich , which id never had before hooking up with ken for a fishing trip

 

Ken is the master of this and even with my best efforts I still can’t reproduce the very same taste but then the ingredients are a lot better in kens neck of the woods far better flavours , I’ve tried many different kinds of cheeses for this but so far gouda is the best along with Tesco’s pastrami.

So to make it, simply butter some bread (I like wholemeal bread), add the pastrami and cheese as you would if making a sandwich , then add to a dry frying pan or griddle and hold down each piece with a fish slice till you hear it start to sizzle then turn it over and keep repeating this process until brown …..and you have a damn fine snack that you can wrap in foil and take fishing or as breakfast , for me if im ever felling low and fed up with life I stick one of these on the pan and life becomes a whole lot better ………thanks brother ken 

Now brother fluffs cooking lesson has finished can I introduce you to a shameless plug for our new predator fly hook website (click the banner) this isn’t about becoming millionaires it’s simply a way of generating a little cash for fly materials and fishing trips, but it’s also been done to help new predator fly tiers choose the correct hook for job in hand.

Just think about the number of hooks out there some great some bad, some company’s jumping on the predator bandwagon thinking a hook is a hook so what does for trout will do for pike if we scale it up a few sizes well er no that’s not quite how it works and we are only a away for advice.

We will be adding new hooks and eyes as we test them and tie with them so please keep checking back with us for new patterns for both saltwater and freshwater predators around the world and at great prices from people that actually fish for and have caught and tie flies for predators.

So I had some new eyes sent to me last week and I decided I wanted to go back to my tying roots with them and tie up some streamer patterns ive been meaning to tie up some naturals for a while but to be honest ive been way busy with family and work stuff to think about too much time at the vice believe it or not , doing almost 48 hour shifts over a weekend really takes its toll on you when you have a family as well to look after as well. 

But downtime was needed and seeing these drop through the door and seeing some of the streamer patterns fellow tiers and friends ken capsey and nikki price were putting out stateside gave me the inspiration to get behind the vice and kick some of my own out so thanks guys and gals for that .

What I really wanted was something that looked good and i could knock up fairly quickly but without compremising on the overall look of the fly so , I sat at my vice staring at a hook then looking at the eyes on the desk and then around at all my materials boxes and this went on for a while before my eyes finally fell on my boxes of whitting farm saddle hackles (luckilly steven tyler hsnt been round latley) and once my eyes fell on the barred green feathers , well the pattern sprung into my head and it was a frenzy of bits of buctail, peacock herl and crystal flash with the odd drop of epoxy thrown in for good messure , but the resulting flies looked good and I think they will slay the green........job done

Of course me being me I couldn’t settle for just the pattern above I had of course to do a black one as well and it was as I was doing it that I thought mmmmmm what about white for a belly as well and there you go a whole another streamer is born, I actually quite like this one as it could represent a whole heap of different baitfish dark top light bottom, tied in a few sizes I think that this would be a good all round holiday destination fly from trout and pike in freshwater  to the predators of the sea including bass and barracuda I think this will catch them all , sometimes it’s really nice to play with colours that you don’t normally use so have a dig in your box and try something different you may be onto something

So with the rain still tipping down here in the gods chosen country, although I think god may be a bit pissed with your everyday highlander  I think with the amount of crazy assed weather we are getting just now I think he’s objecting to all that work on the Sabbath (people have been thrown off highly religious Scottish islands for flushing a toilet on a Sunday let me tell you) well im kind of really done with this awful weather don’t get me wrong I don’t mind fishing in rain but really not all day long downpours that’s just horrible to fish in .

So I was browsing through some photos whilst the horizontal rain battered against the door for 3^rd day running and I came across this picture from a few years ago when I was fishing a venue south of London and my friend took this picture whilst I was putting the legendary pikesaber through its paces with some monster synthetic flies, don’t know why I like this picture so much, maybe it’s because ive got a straight line for a change or it’s the way the shadow of the fly is just inches of the water or if you look very closely about halfway down the line on the water you can see where a fish has just risen whatever it is I just love the picture and cheered me up on a rainy day .

Friend rich over at http://pikeflies.blogspot.co.uk has been busy with the videos again , this time he shows how to make a rather nice articulated bait fish and having watched the video it actually gave me an idea for another fly pattern but that’s for another day , click to play below or take a look at his very informative blog in the link above

Hopefully the weather will improve next week and I’ll be able to get out but I’m not holding my breath we are in Scotland after all in the meantime back to the vice …………………….

Mcfluffchucker

(a cave in Scotland)

an appeal to the fishing brotherhood

An appeal to the fishing brotherhood

Fire is a terrible thing it can destroy a lifetime of memories in a second and imagine if you had a fishing lodge that you’d built up for 30 years with sweat and toil, imagine walking into a beautiful wooden lodge at the invitation of the owner for a cuppa standing there gazing at the very cool fish pictures on the wall, or the fantastic stuffed fish from around the world the copy of the marlin on the wall, and although not the biggest of marlin but the fish as the owner proudly tells you about how his young son caught it imagine then walking out onto a porch with your cuppa and gazing over a pristine loch full of trout and pike surrounded by beautiful Scottish hills while you listen and talk fishy tales with other guys just like yourself because no matter who you are or what you do in life at this place your simply all in the club that is the brotherhood of fisherman throughout the world where the only thing that matters is fish and fishing   

Imagine being the owner of this special place and turning up one morning to find some scumbag has set fire to the place and burnt it to the ground just for fun what would go through your head as you stand there looking at a pile of burnt wood then realising what you had inside the building the memories the lazy days talking about fishing the memories of all your pals setting the world to rights before casting a line how devastated would YOU be ……

This is what has happened to a friend of mine just a few days ago and although buildings can be replaced and thank good nobody was hurt he has lost all of his fishing tackle his memories everything so im putting an appeal out to anglers all over the world to help get him fishing again at least…..

I understand it’s a difficult economic climate and money is tight but here’s what I’m looking for, spinner baits, rubber lures , hard plugs , jerk baits , fly lines (all wgts and sizes) spinning rods and reels , fly rods and reels for trout and pike, line , swivels , lure boxes , fly boxes, mono or braid  etc. every little helps

I myself am donating a trout rod and reel and a pike fly outfit, but even if you can donate a packet of swivels it would be of help , even one plug or a packet of rubber baits anything you can spare will help …………

I will leave this post up for a couple of weeks but if you are a tackle company or you know somebody who can help please contact me for details

dlindsay28@googlemail.com – subject a little help

I will do a special blog post listing all the folks and links to their company sites blogs or whatever they like , if they wish to be anonymous that’s also fine

I have to say a big thanks you to those who already have come through with offers of help on facebook (pike flys ) let’s all get together on this and help put a smile on the guys face again and get him fishing

Thank you all in advance

and please share this page

finished fishheadz

well i finally got round to finishing the fisheadz from deercreek

has to be said I'm pretty impressed with the result   

I've now added red crystal eyez to the fishheadz and i think it looks like a great addition to the headz

the green crystal eyez are also well nice on the headz

these come in at 9 inch's and are tied with gliss and glint plus loving these perch patterns, below is a couple more with the addition of the bigger eyes 

so impressed i have been with these headz i put together a little video on using them on your flies , i have to say I've only just scratched the surface with designs for these but hopefully you'll get the idea and have your own ideas for using them ,

mcfluffchucker

(a cave in Scotland)

fishheadz are go

Deercreek fishheadz

So finally Got my hands on some eagerly awaited fishheadz from www.deercreek.co.uk and to be honest when I opened the pack I had a hundred ideas fly out at me right away so far I’ve only tied with the biggest sizes as I’m short of time this weekend due to work commitments so only had time to tie up a couple and use the big sizes for the first few , I’ll be adding a few new designs over the coming weeks and hopefully a video as so stay tuned

THe first thing I love about these is they are actually flexible as you can see from the picture below which obviously open up a few new head ideas shape wise (the heads in the picture are trout) and the back is also very sticky which means head placement is easy to achieve without them having to be stuck on with glue and moved around to get the head shape (a right pain)

So to achieve the position of the head on the hook shank all I need to do is stick a fish head on and make sure there plenty of gape for hooking without materials obstructing the gape, when im happy with that I can then take the fishhead off and tie in the materials and the tie in point will be out of site on the finished fly (I hope that makes sense you’ll see what I mean in the video when I do it)

The first batch

Ok first up I did a perch with the biggest perch fisheadz and tied on a 6/0 bleeding hook http://www.spanglefish.com/hookeyeandfly/index.asp?pageid=387155 and used gliss and glint plus for the body and coloured with the aid of some pro markers

Next I used the trout fishheadz which has a very nice bronzy red shine to it along with a white gliss and glint plus body I thought this turned out well

Now comes the weird one it a fishhead called wrasse, well I don’t really know of anybody who is using an imitation wrasse for flies for pike but If you think outside the box on colours I don’t think a name actually maters and I’m loving what I came up with for it

Wrasse close up tied on an esox pike hook lovley colours

So far I’ve used normal 5 min epoxy , uv tack free, super glue , gorilla glue and they all work on these headz , I shall be tying a load more in different shades and types on Monday so tune in ,if you cant wait they can be found on deercreeks site all the flies above are the 32mm size

Id recommended for pike and musky the 32mm and the 24mm for fishing places with a large stock of smaller baitfish id recommend the 18mm please click the link below

http://www.deercreek.co.uk/NEW-Fisheadz-tm.html

Great product

flash alice is in town and fish other stories

The flash alice and other fishy stories

THE FLASH ALICE The flash Alice series of flies is unlike any other pike streamer you will find, the fly is designed to keep its shape in the water while the back end gives a nice wiggle it is critically balanced with 3d epoxy drop resin eyes that makes this fly swim true , the flash is designed to give the perfect amount of flash when the light hits it without being to over the top this fly will not only catch pike it will catch anything that has a liking for small baitfish , use it in fresh or saltwater this is a killer series of flies these are also tied on the world famous gamakatsu hooks (6/0) and use deercreeks world famous gator eyes all in all a quality fly . *please note these flies are delicate until wet when the fiber bonds together”

Flash alice roach

Flash alice yellow belly

Flash alice classic

These awesome predator catchers are available exclusively through predator bite and are tied by myself here in Scotland predator bite ships worldwide, go get some mcfluffchucker flies in your box you know it makes sense click the link below

http://www.predatorbite.com/shop/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=106&zenid=c02521d7a397f3704c0bf7a862a06d14

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Holiday time

for those of you who are stuck at home in the uk for a holiday (holidays abroad are getting well expensive) you may find yourself at the seaside, well I’ve produced this little saltwater kit based on the flies I use and catch fish on , these flies will catch you fish wherever you go In the uk , I’ve caught bass , Pollock and flatfish on them great little kit that can also double up as perch and small water flies

Get em here

http://www.predatorbite.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=105&products_id=445

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THE MAIN EVENT (2^ndmay)

Ive been trying to get a day on the water with sexyloops.com and line slinger will Shaw for the last 3 weeks, but the weather has completely knocked things on the head for us with the last 3 times we have gone to gi its either been blowing a gale or hammering with rain even as late as last weekend there was snow coming down horrendous weather for the time of year

So we had re arranged for this week and when I checked the weather it was going to be the best day of the week to go , so we just did it and we arranged for will to pick me up at 6.am his sat nav bought him right outside my house at 6.am on the dot (paul bloomer take note) we arrived at the loch at around 6.30 am and set up before the short walk to the boats

Will could hardly contain his excitement at actually getting out fishing and I was the same, I’ve been like a caged animal waiting to get out, in fact it was getting so bad I actually strung a rod up and took it out in the garden and just looked at it I was really becoming a basket case (well more than normal anyway)

So we loaded up the boat and headed up the loch to my usual haunts and after a few nips and misses will hooked into the first fish of the day much to my relief and even though it was only a small jack I think he was also relived to get one

No need for a net on this one a quick hand and it was in, the fish took revenge on will by catching him with a thrashing tooth and a few seconds later will was spurting a lovely claret which actually bled for most of the day and he went through 3 plasters serious teeth

 We fished on for a few hours and things had started to change for the worse weather wise, usually with this loch you can usually find a spot out of the worst of the wind but today there was a north easterly blowing right up the loch which was blowing always across the loch given us some really crazy drift lines which was fun to say the least

After a while I decided to try out a musky buster thinking that they might just fancy a bigger meal so on it went and its always good to try new things

Chucking it over the side of the boat it did a great impersonation of a punk duck

Shortly after this picture was taken it sank beneath the surface and came to life a fantastic looking fly I already have a few more in mind to do ………………J

The final shot before the wind became a pain in the back side although it looks fairly calm let me assure you it bloody wasn’t, I ended up rowing the bank letting will fish all the way down to the dock as I really wanted him to have another fish sadly this wasn’t to be I even went to another spot that I know holds fish but it wasn’t to be just to dam out there with the weather but hey that’s fishing , all too soon it was time to head back , as I had to pick my son up from school .

Has to be said that it was still a great day even with both of us seeing a fish hit my fly twice in a row without getting nailed made the day stuff like that is so call to watch, and it has to be said will was excellent company and the chat flowed most of the day and luckily he didn’t spot my casting mistakes so cheers again will and see you for the rematch next break in the weather that will be august by the looks of it welcome to scotland........

stay tuned this week for some very cool new tyes with deercreeks fishheadz

mcfluffchucker

(a cave in scotland)