And
so it begins for another year
you can just tell when folks have had enough of Christmas and new
year , without fail around this time of year I start to get the fly
orders trickling in first a few then by the first week of February
every man and his dog want flies and this year is no exception in
fact its really strange most of the orders are for my smaller
predator flies maybe this year is the year of scaling down the flies
for pike , or maybe people just want something different to try who
knows . Be interesting to see how that pans out .
Same thing with hooks , all of a sudden im going nuts on the predator
hooks seems like everybody all of a sudden is tying flies must be the
bad weather and lochs with wintry lids on stopping people getting out
anyway keeps me busy in the cave
being busy in the cave
I also got down to making a load of pike bangers , these are based on
the famous “bobs bangers” but scaled up a bit , you can fish them
a number of ways but there great early season fished of the bottom on
sinking lines you can get some pretty savage takes on the way down
as well , because they flutter due the the round buoyant head can be
irresistible if it passes a fish
usually Ill make up a bunch of heads production line style in various
colours and various eyes , why so many well to be honest I tend to
give a lot of flies away to folks on the bank so I keep a few in
reserve and of course the destroyer will need a few in his box ..
so here they are pike bangers tied on a 6/0 clouser hook nothing much
too it but a deadly pattern , and of course works great for seabass
as well , ive not tried them for the bass but plenty do with the
smaller sizes and do OK , maybe that’s a trip to think about in the
summer …..and below well a few different colors ready to go it
would be rude not to really
also this week taken delivery of some rather nice new hook stock (yes
it a blatant plug for my websitehttp://www.spanglefish.com/hookeyeandfly/index.asp) first up is the rather tasty lazer
baitfish offset hook although this is supposed to be a size 6/0 its
clearly more of a 4/0 but the hook is so nice I can live with that
and its blinking razor sharp as well , would make a great hook for
either smaller predators or sea bass / pollock sandeel patterns
THE
SURGICAL STRIKE
there’s a lot of hooks out there and over the years ive found some favorites but there not all really marketed at the fly angler indeed
the ones that are marketed at the fly angler only come in packs of 10
or so most of time which does actually make them very expensive ,now
one of my favorite hooks is the orvis pike and musky hook , ive been
trying for years to find another hook like it that I could by in bulk
but I refuse to compromise on quality and of course the risk of
losing a big fish to a cheap hook just not worth it .
So finally after hundreds of samples and loads of testing I am
delighted to say ive found it and the best thing is it comes in sizes
up to 8/0 more details here on the site
---------------------
here’s a fantastic though provoking item write up from brain price
over at Vermont fly guys thanks for letting me use it brian
What's
wrong? You were expecting some beautiful colored fly with flowing
tendrils of feathers ; just picturing its beauty pulsating in the
water weren't ya? Let me explain:
We've done a few demos and the biggest question asked is "How long does a fly like that last" referring specifically to the toothies we chase. That is actually a good question, one that we never had a answer to because we either park the fly for memory lane; or it gets snagged by our buddies. So starting last March at ice out I set out to do a test, I was going to track the number of fish caught on one of our flies and stick with it all year. This is the one, a mini Maelstrom Whistler tied in last years fav color of mine, White/Pink. Tied on a double 2/0 Esox 1 Hook from Hook eye and Fly and finished off with Deercreek UV Diamond Hard. So this is the Gnar your seeing after 13 Northern Pike, 2 Pickerel, 3 Smallies and 2 Largemouth.
That means that this fly saw around 10,500 teeth and ran through a belt sander of mandibles 5 times. It is missing 2 tail feathers, a good bit of hair, marabou is chewed out, the dumbells are scarred with teeth marks, the UV resin has a chew through on one side,blood stained hackles(probably mine), and the hooks are sharp as the day they grew hair. I ain't going to lie, I'm surprised; but we do tie our flies to take this kind of abuse. Lets see if 2013 is its demise. Like I said, that was a good question...BP
We've done a few demos and the biggest question asked is "How long does a fly like that last" referring specifically to the toothies we chase. That is actually a good question, one that we never had a answer to because we either park the fly for memory lane; or it gets snagged by our buddies. So starting last March at ice out I set out to do a test, I was going to track the number of fish caught on one of our flies and stick with it all year. This is the one, a mini Maelstrom Whistler tied in last years fav color of mine, White/Pink. Tied on a double 2/0 Esox 1 Hook from Hook eye and Fly and finished off with Deercreek UV Diamond Hard. So this is the Gnar your seeing after 13 Northern Pike, 2 Pickerel, 3 Smallies and 2 Largemouth.
That means that this fly saw around 10,500 teeth and ran through a belt sander of mandibles 5 times. It is missing 2 tail feathers, a good bit of hair, marabou is chewed out, the dumbells are scarred with teeth marks, the UV resin has a chew through on one side,blood stained hackles(probably mine), and the hooks are sharp as the day they grew hair. I ain't going to lie, I'm surprised; but we do tie our flies to take this kind of abuse. Lets see if 2013 is its demise. Like I said, that was a good question...BP
-------------------------------
merry christmas to the destroyer
finally after weeks of illness and work I finally got a chance
yesterday (18th jan) to catch up with the destroyer and I
gave him christmas present ( 2 bottles of whisky) and I was
absolutely made up when he gave me a double sided box with some of
his flies in , I been raving for months now about how good his flies
are so that gift was well appreciated thanks buddy only trouble now
is I wont want to use them
what no doughnuts
the destroyer has a moment when he realises that he had forgotten to
bring the doughnuts
lunch time soup hot rolls and monster fish on the tv life is good ,
as you can see the destroyer is now free-styling with his flies
basally choosing a material he likes and tying it with the methods
ive shown him , the pink fly he did was a cracker anyway the day went
far to fast and before I knew it that was it finish time kids
arriving home from school and stuff so that was it for another week
and with the forecast being quite awful for the next 2 weeks looks
like next week will again be a tying day
I had some fly orders to finish off so there wasn’t much time today
for experimentation but we did manage to play with a few colours the
results are below , im experimenting with blending ep at the moment
as I like the idea of 2 colour blended flies hopefully when my ep
arrives this week ill have some new patterns to show next week all
being well and I dont stuff it up
(this fly is around 7 inchs long )
hook – 6/0
thread – phantom thread
belly – electric chartreuse
back – our blend of green and olive ep
flash – uv green blobtail (from castlefeathers on ebay)
eye 8mm black
(this fly is around 7 inchs long )
hook – 6/0
thread – phantom thread
belly – electric chartreuse
back – olive ep
flash – gold blobtail (from castlefeathers on ebay)
eye 8mm black
the results
looks like hes pretty much got it now so im looking forward to seeing
some of his own ties
see ya next week
mcfluffchucker
a cave in scotland
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