hot hot hot

New stuff

SHANK'S SHANKS

 New to the deercreek range is these fantastic shanks Hand made in the USA by Bill Shank. These if you’ve never used these kind of things are awesome for shy biting fish or even using them for foam poppers because the hook sits out the back so any fish making a swipe or interested nip will hook up fairly easily that’s got to be a bonus with fish like zander 

I do adjust mine slightly though I remove the split ring and put it at the other end and leave the swivel to attach the trace but that’s just a personnel thing you can just have the hook hanging of the split ring

2 1/2 inch and 3" inch 3 of each per pkt

Price: £2.99 from

http://www.deercreek.co.uk/HOOKS-AND-SHANKS.html

Heres the finished product a basic marabou pattern with an epoxy head the body has some flashabou tied though at random points very easy to tie all you need to do is Palmer the marabou around the shank and that’s it 

Before I attach the hook I take one piece of flashbou and one marabou feather and tie onto the hook, this creates a rather nice articulated tail how can they resist

Great value for money and very very very strong wire give em a go available now at

www.deercreek.co.uk

WHY DO WE DO IT

So after my merry holiday jaunt it was time to hit the water with the destroyer again and to be honest I was chomping at the bit to get and throw fluff , so his royal destroyerness turns up at mine and we hit the road ,

Much excitement was to be had as we rolled up onto the first spot which is usually a quick 20 min stop to get a bend in the rod but strange we stayed for about an hour and no takers no even a pull which is very unusual at this spot and with the temperature starting to rise I was beginning to get the feeling the fish may have switched off , last year we were out in similar temperatures and we bagged up but I was getting the feeling it was hotter already than that day as sweat was starting to creep down my forehead  

The destroyers confused look well he had put on some smaller trout type flies on and had a cast near a fishing to a platform and straight away he hooked a fish which almost in the blink of an eye snapped him off he redid his cast and stated fishing again and same thing he got snapped off , never one to give up he carried on and retied his cast and cast again but this time the fish stayed on and a lively little jack sporting some fine new lip jewelry came to the boat 

Cloud cover quick cast, the temps were starting to get a bit on the extreme side by this point so when this cloud came over it was a case of cast for your life 

By now it was lunch time and while the destroyer stuffed another scotch egg in his month and contemplated passing wind (it that look on his face that’s a dead give away ) I contemplated a change of fly not that I have many to choose from and decided I wanted something that I could fish very slowly but would give me a lot of movement so I delved into my bunny bug box and chose a bug in chartreuse with some lateral scale flash over the top if I didn’t get hooked with this then it just wasn’t going to happen even my gliss and glints and fried alives had been ignored now that’s bad karma

Still the sun beat down, even warmer than id felt it in a long time seriously was this a British summer happening 

I call this the green house, its an area of thick weeds that esox likes to get under and if you hook up here its really hook and hold, so the destroyer got the boat into pretty much the perfect position for a few shots at the edges , the trick here is to get the fly right on the edge of the weeds and let it sink for a few seconds before giving it a gentle pinch on the line to  

Stop it sinking and then a painfully slow strip and pause to get em hitting it.

The reasoning behind this is to when the fly lands the fish may see it from its cover then when you pinch it to stop it and make it move that first “puff” of movement can be the trigger to get them to strike if its going to happen it will usually be in the first couple of pulls but it’s a really exciting way to fish

And bang the second cast proves the point, on the second cast I had a fish on, you can see in the picture above I had cast right tight to the weeds at point 1 and the fish hit at point 2 the fish was clearly in among the cover staying cool and darted out and nailed the fly on the second pull proof indeed that I sometimes know what im talking about.

And a very welcome jack around 4 lbs graces the boat let me tell you I was grateful for anything on a day like this and as regular readers will know I believe fly fishing for pike is not all about how big a pike you can catch from chew or how many doubles you can catch in a week I really cant be doing with back slapping big fish hunters, its all about the method not about the size of the fish so don’t be put off that you’ll never catch a double , you will and when you do you’ll realize that is not all about that .please don’t be fooled by thinking you have to constantly catch big fish that’s really not what its about I can stress that enough go out enjoy the method enjoy tying the flies enjoy being out there as i keep telling the wife size isnt everything

So with the sun setting on a very hot day and 11 hours fishing coming to an end we headed to the dock and just chatted about the day and had a laugh and the large fish that the destroyer lost not that id ever mention that, not his fault it has to be said so if your in the Glasgow angling center and you see his beardness don’t mention the fish but instead ask him to show you his sunburned arse which actually resembles a pair of ladies briefs.

Sometimes people say to me when ive had a bad trip why do you keep going well ill just point them to the picture below I think that says it all don’t you

Many thanks to dust buster for the following comment re bffi post  

“What can I say! great show and a pleasure to spend money on the Deer Creek stand. no pressure from Nick to buy and very helpful.
Learnt a lot from your good self and spent more money at Castle Feathers for the tinsel!!
Keep on doing what you do best”

i do what I do for free I accept no payments from any company’s for what I write or do, I like to promote products that I love to use be it deercreek or any other company ill write about it I write a lot about deercreek because they have some amazing material and some amazing tiers on there books and being part of there pro team means I can talk and swap ideas and help develop new colors in materials with the other pro team members and again I do it because I love it, be aware though if I'm not keen or don’t like a product ill bloody write about and that’s just who I am im no backside licker so I guess a lot of people like that because the blog in the month of June had an incredible over 9 thousand visitors  so to each and every visitor I humbly thank you from the bottom of my heart I really am humbled

Tightlines and don’t forget the suntan Lotion

(mcfluffchucker)

A cave in Scotland

happy holidays

WERE ALL GOING ON A SUMMER HOLIDAY

 (But not before ive made some shrimps)

Right my wife announced sometime ago, were going on a family summer holiday. Were would you like to go (err Vermont obviously) as long as its Spain she says oh well ok so how about you go to the travel agent and book something close to the ebro (catfish on poppers im thinking hell yea) ok she says as she’s good with me doing some fishing . So while I was checking a few things out I decided to make a few shrimps up for the salty box as id no doubt get close to the sea at some point so played with some of the medium shellbacks from deercreek and came up with this cool looking pattern tied on a 2/0

After I tied it I thought you know it could do with some legs so rubber legs were applied and I was happy with the result.

Fired up I eagerly awaited te phone call from my wife telling me what part of the ebro we would be staying at , and a few hours later the phone rang and indeed it was the red headed acid tongued fire breathing Medusa I lovingly call my wife ,the holiday was indeed booked and what wondrous part of Spain had she booked for us “marmarus in turkey” she says ok is that a small village on the ebro , no she replies its in turkey .

Hang on that’s nowhere near the ebro or even Spain for that matter its cheaper and hotter than spain she says. ok a little rethink and I should be ok well im by the sea for gods sake 

touchdown

So at the end of june I find myself standing on a balcony overlooking a lovely pool in mad heat with a very inviting swimming pool inviting me in and for the next few days that’s what I did swam . The thing was id done some research and id found that the fishing at this time of year actually wasn’t that good as most of the main species I wanted wernt around till later in the year so I decided to take a 3 wgt for the mountain streams and an 8wgt for the scratching around in the saltwater .

First I had to suss out the area so we took a few tours and unfortunately I realised that fishing in the salt just wasn’t going to happen due to the extreme heat of the place and lack of places to actually fish on the coast, after the cruise we had on the second day of the holiday I realised that all the best places to fish were a few hours away or unreachable on foot (im going to hire a boat next time).

One day we took a jeep safari up into the mountains and I actually new that there was trout up in the hills so at least id maybe get to see some fish in the streams 

I had a new camera to play with on this holiday (cheers nick at deercreek) so as we were walking over a bridge I happened to notice a dragon fly land on a leaf some 30ft below so I took this shot and was quite amazed at the result so ill continue to play with it and hopefully get some cool shots 

Death from above

Check this thing out, it landed on my wife (brave) but when I looked I saw it had actually taken down a wasp and was happily sucking its brains out

Streams and waterfalls

On the jeep trip we stopped at a lovely stream and waterfall up in the mountains a really beautiful place with crystal clear water and further up the stream I actually was able to swim in a waterfall (ill spare you the pictures) but this was the bottom pool there was a further 5 like this on the way up  

Fish there fish yes I spotted fish, these were actually small trout at the bottom of a waterfall but I suspect these had been introduced for the benefit of the tourists still really nice to see , fisherman are like that staring into random bits of water in the vain hope of spotting something we could catch I do that every morning taking my son to school , there’s a stream we pass and Ive looked in it everyday for the past 3 years , never seen anything yet but twice a day I still look just in case fisherman are so much more that just holding a rod 

Also came across these golden and brown trout in a small pool where we had lunch again pretty much placed for the tourists but still lovely to see and they weren’t bothered an inch by the tourists watching them frolic in the pool

So with that I just kinda had to resign myself to sitting by the pool drinking cocktails but it was great to actually relax just a shame about the fishing back to normal this week though with plenty of tying and some fishing in my local to be done

Back at the bullheads 

Bullheads are an amazing fly they work just like glidebaits when stripped deadly the trick with tying these is all about getting the head shape and weight right I used to make these exclusively with ep fiber but now I make them with deercreeks gliss and glint plus this is due the fact I can get a far better bodyshape and the flash is built in saving a fair amount of time making them heres the recipe

Hook – esox 1

Thread – phantom thread

Body – gliss and glint plus (perch)

Eyes – hard eyez

Heres a link to a step by step and a short video of the fly in action

http://www.spanglefish.com/tyingpredatorflies/index.asp?pageid=281407

This ive done with ep but use the same method for gliss and glint but just leave out adding the flash as its already built in with the material

Right off to the loch

(mcfluffchucker)

A cave in scotland