Friday 25 October 2013

all things must pass

to all my followers and friends alike
 
 
dear friends you know sometimes life throws a pile of crap at you and at the moment that's what's happened to me I am at the moment going through a quite traumatic break up with my wife and mother of my son , you know when I got married I really expected it to be for life and for better or for worse meant just that to me , I am struggling with my head at the moment as there is so much shit to sort out .
 
my immediate plans are to find somewhere to live and to add the pressure on im starting a new job on Monday so then it comes to the blog .
 
I love writing this blog and it helps me figure out stuff on dark days but im going to take a break while I get shit sorted out so please don't expect anything for the next couple of months or even till after Christmas but I will return with continuing adventures with my dear fishing buddy Conan the destroyer.
 
I have to especially thank nick and jen over at www.deercreek.co.uk and the whole pro team for there support at this time words cannot express what the messages of support from them and other folks via my facebook page I am humbled to have such good friends .
 
I have to especially thank my brother ken capsey from Vermont fly guys and my extended Vermont family you guys know why ........
 
love and peace all
mcfluffchucker
 
 
 


Saturday 12 October 2013

bonjour mr esox

OF PIKE AND MEN
Ok so its been a really strange year this year didn’t get half the stuff done I wanted to I didn’t get to fish some of the places I wanted to and my time is running out for chucking flies in fact my local has already taken the boats off for the winter yes what with the strange weather and seasons its really been a crap year in fact but still managed to catch a fair few fish nothing massive but that’s not why I do this its all about the method and the enjoyment of fly fishing ……..

Ive been paying with a few new patterns these are a mix of bucktail and gliss and glint plus for the tail / body and come in around 6 to 7 inch’s. ive called them pmt’s because they take these really aggressively and if your married you’ll know exactly what I mean 

Enough for me and the destroyer obviously but I must say they do look great in the water

On the loch

Wading barefoot and trouser less after the destroyers lost tackle seems a long time ago and with a bit of a nip in the air and he was warned that he had not a snow ball in hells chance of me being a really good mate and going in for him, he was on his own on today

Our latest discovery in fast angler type food is strips of peppered beef from asda (that’s Wal-Mart to you eric Larsen) 2 for 5 uk pounds and to be honest it was actually really nice fast and easy food 

A peppered beef strip modelled by the destroyer miserable sod 

The algae has started to die off leaving big floating rafts of green gunk not actually as bad as it seems as the pike really like to sit under it and the destroyer plucked a rainbow trout form under it so as far as I can see it doesn’t affect the fishing 

As the bend in the destroyer’s rod proves 

The subbug again proved its worth and the funny thing is this fly has worked right throughout the year 

So with the subbug working away for the destroyer I decide to see if the pmt fly still worked its magic so one cast in and bang yup esox loved it and really slammed it its really strange that other large flies of 7 inch’s and over don’t work that well on this venue and usually we fish flies in the 2 to 3 inch range so why these and subbugs do so well is strange maybe its down to the movement of them who know only thing I do know is they bloody work very well and not only on this water , I tie a lot of these subbugs flies for all over the world and they constantly work my brother from another mother ken capsey also makes them in the usa and he and others do really well on them, I predict the pmt will go the same way


Sometimes things go a little quite so usually when this happens for a prolonged period of time ill change over to fried alive fly in olive and a sinking line nailed to the bottom and 9 times out of ten we can nail one or 2 bonus fish as the pic above shows 

I still enjoy tying with ep fibre although these days they tend to be one best made with colour with flash worked through like a hot core fly, although the original hotcore is made with gliss and glint plus

Talking of gliss and glint plus 

The new musky blend gliss and glint plus has now hit the shelves and its become a favourite blend the bottom fly is tied with only musky blend just check out those colours very cool and when tying up a standard baitfish pattern adding a white belly and a musky blend back looks stunning and ive tried these in the water and oh my god they look stunning get some ….


A BRIEF ENCOUNTER

You know not everything goes the way you want it to and last week on the loch was no exception we thought we had a good day for it to be honest and things were looking great until we rowed past sexy loops Mr. will I fish who had been on the loch long before us (late start don’t ask) how’s it going was asked, not too good was the reply with only a couple
Of bumps since the morning not really what we wanted to hear but if your flies aren’t in the water you aren’t catching so we set about trying a multitude of flys with only the same half hearted plucks , eventually I stuck a fried alive on and lo and behold a nice scraper double came to the boat ……

Of course after this I just had to give one to mr will I fish to see if he could at least get one to the boat as he still wasn’t having much luck , now dot get me wrong im not trying to say my flies are better that anybody elses but if I can help with a pattern that’s catching then ill happily give a fly away to someone like us who was struggling that day and im happy to report that after a few casts he had one on and to the boat …….funnily enough he forgot to give me the fly back I suspect a few will end up being made for his box and off course I will never mention this episode again ….lol 

For no other reason than I wanted to ive started playing with some smaller but ramped up trout type patterns for pike the first being this stickleback imitation which is an adaption of an old trout pattern ive just added eyes and upped the size , its funny that even after I visualize a fly when its done and im looking at it I can straight away see how I can improve or make variations on the pattern and that what has happened here as I amd next going to do one with a dubbed olive body to give it a more fat stickleback shape and hence we start morphing trad trout patterns into flies for pike , I suspect my winter with the destroyer tying flies will consist of a lot of this kind of thing as my heads buzzing with ideas stay tuned .

Thank you for the Oscar I would like to thank my manager etc etc etc

Ok it had been on the cards for a while I had been speaking with a French documentary maker about a film he was doing on fishing in Scotland for French TV and he had been interested in pike on the fly so I was happy to help but due to some of his logistical problems (i.e not having a car here and hardly any budget ) I opted to fish loch ven in the trossochs as my local loch the preferred venue was showing 15mph winds which made it not very concussive to fly fishing for a number of factors so i had a look at the weather for a few areas and lochs I know to try and find the best option , which happened to be loch venachar in the trossochs a loch I know very well and if the conditions were right we would get some fish

We arranged to meet in callander at the tesco supermarket where me and the dark one could also pick up some lunch , it was a fairly short day with the boat hired between 10 and 4pm a lot shorter than we normally do but we were just happy to find a water we could get out on to be honest , he turned up bang on time and pleasantries were exchanged and the destroyer decided to try and speak French which for me was the highlight ive never laughed so much in ages haven’t a clue what he said but with the look on the directors face I didn’t think he was going to get in the car ……. 

Let me tell you something producing fish for the camera is never as easy as it seems on tv the folks who do the fishing shows will have been on a venue for a good few days getting footage although they probably make out they have just turned up, and with the Scottish lochs you never know what mother nature is going to throw at you.

We started with a few drifts that I knew and the wind was just gently blowing giving us a great long drift at just the right speed but the loch was well below its normal levels in fact I had never seen it so low I knew the pike wouldn’t be in one particular area so doing these drifts would cover a lot of water and the areas I suspected fish would be.

We filmed for a good few hours then disaster struck when the engine wouldn’t engage so we had to get a rescue boat out to tow us in and we changed to another boat and speed back of across the loch then the wind started to get up from nowhere and white caps were starting to appear on the waves this was a sign that we would have to get back across the loch before it got any worse you just don’t take any chances on the big lochs.

Did we catch?  Well you’ll have to wait till it’s on to find out but rest assured ill post the link when it appears online at some point, monsters well you just never know stay tuned 

Being fisherman sometimes its hard to go past a water without stopping to take a look and id always wanted to have a peak at this water but till now never had the chance so our film maker had arranged to film some salmon anglers and when were delighted to drop him of at the very river id wanted to take a look at.

 Didn't see any salmon caught but I always rivers very mysterious places and can sit next to one pretty much all day even without a rod just watching it so even though we only stopped for 20 mins or so I really enjoyed the moment and beside me and the destroyer were actually quite hungry and my wife had a stir fry on and as long as his wife didn't have a better offer he would dine with us although I suspect he would munch his way through a second dinner also well hes a growing lad after all

So on that note there will probably be less fishing reports until march unless we manage to get out as the weather in scotland is taking a turn for the worse but there will be a lot of fly patterns coming up over the winter so expect some new video step by steps some new gliss and glint ties and a whole lot of stoopidness from me and my little pony the pink destroyer ……

Mcfluffchucker
(a cave in Scotland)


Monday 30 September 2013

the madness of king saunders

THE MADNESS OF KING SAUNDERS THE FIRST

From left to right
The destroyer – mcfluffchucker (me) – andy “pandy” saunders

Ok so you know me you know the destroyer through my ranting on here or mabey you have seen him at work in the Glasgow angling center (hope you took him a doughnut) but saunders well let me tell you he really is completely bonkers im taking padded cell here folks, my self and conan absolutely gushed tears everyday he was here I mean the guy was even sleeping in a bed with a little princess duvet cover completely bonkers.

But don’t let that fool you he is an amazing fly tier of trout type flies in fact his work has been featured in angling magazines on these shores and is quite stunning , so much so he made it onto the deercreek pro team which is really how this trip came up .

Andy and conan hatched a plan for him to come up fishing for a few days and during that time he wanted to catch his first ever pike on the fly and a bass or saltwater species and well me and the destroyer were happy to help out ,

The first day
“pike”

I had a look at the weather and it seamed piking would be the first option so we headed out to my local where although it could be hard at times I was quietly confident that I could get trout boy his first fish, so with a bit of guidance on how to fish the subbug I soon had him casting confidently.

He managed to hit a few fish and have them on for a few seconds before losing them, so after a little pep talk on how to strike and where he was going wrong he soon banged into his first ever pike .

Of course with somebody who’s not caught them before I think its always better to chin them or net them for the person and show how to do it properly and point out the very sharp teeth which you really don’t want to be sticking your fingers anywhere near 

A very pleased nut case with his first ever pike

LOCH LEVEN
(a childhood dream full field)

When I was a youngster growing up on the banks of the river tweed throwing my own somewhat strange variations of classic patterns at trout in the river after school, there was a magical place called loch leven that was pretty much the Shangri-La of trout fishing and id always dreamed about making the 2 hour or so trip to go there , but it was always just that a dream for one reason or the other .

So when the opportunity came up with mr saunders being up here and wanting to fish for trout a plan was hatched and a childhood dream would be fulfilled 

“Securely located on Castle Island in Loch Leven, Lochleven Castle had an important role in Scotland's history for over three hundred years. Yet it is perhaps best remembered as Mary Queen of Scots' prison from June 1567 to May 1568, and the place where she was forced to abdicate in favour of her infant son James VI on 24 July 1567.”

Imagine this as your backdrop while fishing how stunning

On with the freak show 


So we pulled into the carpark and there was a few other guys already there setting up and they grace us more than a passing glace as we got out the car (are you surprised) and as I walked around to the otherside of the car to get my gear I spotted a 6 month old pork scratching on the drivers side the destroyer is really the muckiest person I know you know the week before he had accused me of whiffing a bit after a day afloat (quite possibly) but the following week he owned up to the fact that actually it proberbly wasn’t me after all as he had spilt some milk in the car the week before and it was that making the smell ……………cheers pal 

 So with the mental patient secured in the middle off the boat so either one of us could grab him if he decided to get out the boat and have a wade around , I mean why else would he be wearing a waist coat ?


Andy actually turned himself into a human compass and told us which way to head what he failed to actually realise was that we used that pot for having a wee on the boat oh well guess he knows know why we were laughing at him 


Loch leven is a large body of water so I was glad to have a couple of trout guys to show me the ropes on where and how to fish as trout fishing has become a very alien thing to me these days with the amount of pike fly fishing I do 


We tried a lot of different tactics but it wasn’t to be my loch leven brown trout eluded me , infact out of the dozen boats on the water that day there was only 2 fish caught so bloody tough but hey I wont hold it against the trout experts we all have our off days I mean saunders even had an indicator on with a blob at one point absolutely shocking behaviour and the actions of truly a mad person to do this on such a hallowed brown trout water ……………..still had a great day with the pro bros though and we look forward to seeing his royal nutjob saunders back again soon pleasure to fish with ya pal

Back on the esox next week though stay tuned

Mcfluffchucker
(a cave in scotland) 

Friday 20 September 2013

spongebob chesse sucks

UP AND AT EM
 Been playing around with stuff on the vice mostly the last week or so , me and te destroyer had a quick tying day last Friday , sometimes home life gets in the way of the planned fishing trips so we got a quick session with some tying , like we need an excuse so after conan left I went through to the cave and whipped out a few more done with nayat hair  , it’s a nice material  and looks great in the water very mobile
 
These ones come in at around 7 inch’s and are tied on 6/0 hooks , although they look quite bulky there not they are actually quite slim line when wet , this one has a standard 3d eyes for a slow sink and a slow fluid movement in the water

These ones come in at around 7 inch’s and are tied on 6/0 hooks , although they look quite bulky there not they are actually quite slim line when wet , this one has a standard 3d eyes for a slow sink and a slow fluid movement in the water

Same idea different colour and 8mm hard eyez
Ive also lately been mixing natural fibres and synthetics gliss and glint plus is still a favourite and been doing quite well on mixing it up with subbugs so doing standard ties seems to be a natural progression so here ive used all gliss n glint body’s with deercreek dyed black peacock hearl works quite well I think
 


If you get time check out my friends over at frankenfly it’s a fantastic site and even I pick up a few tips from great tiers around the world, again this is a non profit site just full of great tips find em here http://www.frankenfly.com/

Fishing again with the master of disaster the destroyer

 
Above is a random picture of a rather large mushroom for no other reason than it was there when I got out the car and bears a stunning resemblance to the food in the destroyer’s beard after a trip
It was lovely to get a welcoming wave off as we speed past the fishing lodge cheers fellas
 
Lunch time
Not much was happening in the a.m and lunchtime was soon upon us, there just so happens to be a supermarket on the way to the local fishery and we always pop in for our food usually scotch eggs and salami, and this time I quite fancied some individual cheese portions and happened upon these SpongeBob square pants chesses which I thought would do the trick …….
You know ive tasted some utter crud in my time but these were just absolutely feckin awful even for a fishing snack , the thing is I reckon the supermarkets and people that make these things have got it made because parents all around the world buy this garbage for there kids you know the latest cartoon character on a cheap snack , I mean would you ever get the chance to try it probably not because your kids wouldn’t let you and no kid is going to say I don’t like it , because its got there favourite character on it and that wouldn’t be cool ……….do yourself a favour parents buy them an apple over this pigs swill in a wax coatingJ
 
The afternoon was somewhat better with the fish being in a more playful mood
 
With Mr Destroyer catching the first one of the day which was a bonus the blank was off
 
 
Another one for the destroyer, he’s actually getting quite good at this
And on his own flies at last, confidence is a great thing and it took him a while to get there but I kept telling him his flies look really good and id fish them no bother and the proof at last is an esox hanging off one, top job mate
 
 
Of course not one to be outdone by the young jedi I stuck a subbug on and leathered this one off the surface ……….talking of subbugs
 
BUGGIN OUT
I had a few orders for subbugs to do and knowing how long they take to make I just cracked on with it and of course as always happens you get interrupted half way through , although this time it was brother ken so was happy to speak to the redneck
 
As it turned out I actually ended up giving him a full subbug fly tying lesson via skype , nor that he cant make them good enough its just that sometimes you end up with a few bad habits or should that be your own way of doing things so was a pleasure to give him a refresher
 

  The finished lesson
After ken had disappeared I decided to and tie up a pink and purple bug pink and purple are such an underused colour but can be so good and indeed pink has saved my ass from a few blanks, recently ive started using a lot of gliss and glint plus in my subbugs for the tails and ive also been using deercreeks dyed peacock hearl as an extra on the backs looks really sweet
 So im thinking we have like a month left of fly fishing for pike unless the weather is kind , I have a few goals to reach yet this year , the main one is to get the destroyer a double , its been so close in fact there is fish that were a hairs breath away from it but im confident that by the end of October he will have done it watch this space.
 So we have had a bit of madness this past week in the form of the a deercreek pro team fish myself and Conan had the honour of taking Andy “the gypsy” Saunders for a few days fishing in Scotland one of his goals was to catch his first pike on the fly , let me tell you madness ensued , rods were broken tears flowed and many sweets were eaten watch this space next week folks ………….its gonna be a ride
 Mcfluffchucker
(a cave in Scotland)