Monday 13 May 2013

the way the wind blows

The way the wind blows

I had a long anticipated trip planned with the destroyer today so at the start of the week I had to catch up on a few things dig some tackle out look for missing stuff and it was while I was digging around looking for some braided leader loops in funky olive from pike trek that id ordered the week before and on arrival id but them into that special place that I put things so I wont mislay them and then promptly forget where the special place is , it was while I was looking for the loops I found a box of clouser flies I forgot I had (still no sign of the leaders)


FRIED ALIVE O



I also had to make up a few new variations on the fried alive flies so spent a few hours on that project and came up with a few new colours that I dig , trouble with the fried alives is they work so well I always end giving them away so always need to keep stocking the box up 



the box unlike the above picture is now pretty much full with lots of lovely new fried alive patterns , so with that in the bag my next job was some flies heading to the usa 



id pretty much got caught up on all the stuff I needed to do so I had time to play with some new materials
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at last years bffi I had the pleasure of meeting bob and sue from castle feathers who were on the stall next to deercreek , I had noticed that they had some cool looking flashy materials that were pretty much aimed at the trout fisher , I looked at a few of the colours and thought I could do some cool pike patterns with the materials so ive been playing over the year with a few ideas and have settled on a way to make them fairly easily but still have a full bodied looking baitfish im loving them



its been quite a long process getting these together as I had quite a few combinations to go through colour wise and many different ways of tying them 




the end result though is awesome and im very happy with the builds , im planning on doing a video for these next week so stay tuned , if however you want to get hold of some of the materials check castlefeathers out on ebay or catch them at the bffi where they will have a full range of colours with them...........

PLAYING WITH MOTHER NATURE


anybody who knows me will be well aware of the fact that I have actually quite a lot of flies , in-fact I probably have more flies than ill ever use in a lifetime and I do rotate flies from my store to my boxes and it can actually be a pain in the butt when im on the water and need a specific patterns , so the day before me and the destroyer headed out I decided on a big shake up of my boxes and try and get them in some kind of workable order.

I decided to split them into 3 major category’s for the flies I use gliss and glint plus flies , e.p fibre flies and natural materials , this pretty much covers it although I did sort out a few other boxes topwater , and fried alive have there own boxes so I can chop and change as I want although the fried alive boxes pretty much go everywhere with me and I also have a few smaller saltwater fly boxes with sandeel and small clouser patterns . I managed to get all the boxes sorted out and I wrote on top and on the side of each one what was in the box I.e gliss , ep , etc and stacked them away in the box and it should make finding things a lot easier .



Locked and loaded everything in its place and the inside lid has all the flies I use the most which of course begs the question why take so many flies fishing , well actually thats a good question because if I go on a quick trip or im wading I can get away with only using a couple of fly patterns and not worry about it , I guess its just boys and there toys and as fly tiers we just love to see how stuff works in the water and how it looks in fact I think the next fine day we have and I find myself at home im going to get all the flies out and just see how many of the bloody things I have , I think I may be in for a shock

AYE AYE CAPT DOUGHNUT



so having been capt of the good ship doughnut last year and shown the destroyer all the hotspots we agreed he would be capt this year which he was happy doing , so with the weather checked and to be honest it wasn’t the best forecast but with the way the wind was blowing we could get up into the bay and get shelter and actually it wouldn’t be to bad at all 



so with gear stowed away and rods ready for action we set off on the good ship windy , we decided not to head right across the loch but to creep around the side and stay out the worst of the wave



at least I wasn’t going to be cold , it may not look it but there was a fair wind blowing down the loch and that was not what the weather forecast had said just hours earlier mmmmm slightly worrying but we decided that we would go take a look 



the destroyer was more confident in his new role as head pirate despite the ominous dark clouds and increasing wind 



as we passed a favourite spot the destroyer spotted a fallow deer and was quite excited about seeing it , I however was looking at it as subbug material but a welcome distraction from the growing storm and the worrying changes in wind direction .
We got up into the bay and found that although not as bad as the main loch the wind was still pushing us just a little too fast for a good drift across the bay but we stuck with it for a couple of drifts and indeed I actually had a fish on for all of five seconds and with a thunderous cheer that we had one on the fish promptly fell off the hook obviously the words I said after cant be written but im sure most of you will have used similar words ill just say I said “my my that was unfortunate my good chap and outstanding boat partner the fish seems to have gone of its finely presented breakfast”

we had a few more drifts before deciding we should head back to the harbour and pick up an anchor this would make fishing the bay slightly easier 



what we didn’t however foresee was the wind completely going nuts and howling down the loch this caused the trip in to be slightly dodgy to say the least .

As we approached parallel to the dock and turned to go into the dock entrance we realised we didn’t have enough power to make headway against the wind and wave and we started to get pushed along the bank , although this wasn’t really a major issue as we could just tie up alongside the jetty further down.

This however proved not so easy as first thought as the wind was getting stronger and the wave bigger and we could not get close enough to grab or even lasso as we were really motoring along at a rate of knots as we came to the end of the jetty I realised we were at last chance saloon as just further down the bank there was a massive tree overhanging the water and if that wouldn’t be sore enough then crashing into the dam wall the other side of it would be so without further ado I lept from the boat rope in hand and landed on a pile of rocks .

As the rope tightened in my hand the boat and the destroyer turned round and the stern was now facing into the wave , it was now just a matter of pulling the boat up the jetty and tying off which wernt that easy with the pointy end facing the wrong way let me tell ya 



safely tied up and me onshore we looked over the loch and there was howler blowing right down the loch again this was not what the forecast said but hell that’s mother nature for ya 



I asked the destroyer what he thought and he had pretty much unloaded the boat already which was a bloody shame as we were both really looking forward to today but thats fishing 



you may not think it from this picture but is was really starting to blow hard in fact the owner of the fishery came down took one look at us and said “your not going out in that are you” er nope 



we stood around for another 30 mins or so and things wernt really calming down so we headed back to the car and decided to go back to mine for some lunch and watch some fishing tv



so far its been an awful start to the year but im sure it will improve soon we can but keep trying and even a crap start to the year aint going to make me take up golf.........we will be back everything
for a reason my fellow fluffers

a picture says a thousand words

loch leven a legendary place for the trout purist, eggs and fry trout from leven trout have been transported all over the world this special breed of trout can be found as far as Argentina the biggest fish from loch leven was a fish caught many moons ago in fact 101 years ago and stood at 9lb 13oz caught by a Colonel Bob Scott that record was broken by alan campbell with a fish of 11lb plus .

I hope im not jumping the gun here as I cant find out the info but im pretty sure this fish would have been far better having its photograph taken and placed back in the water , rather than the cardboard cut out fish thats been lying in the bottom of a boat for hours for a vanity shot , I really hope this fish was unable to revived and dispatched but I fear not .luckily the wilful killing of big fish and record fish in this country is largely a thing of the past lets keep it there .



This is how it should be done 



brian price from vermont fly guys with a stunning looking vermont spotty just look at the stunning colours on this fish which was put back in the water to fight and make baby trout another day , stunning catch brian

mcfluffchucker
(a cave in scotland)