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) 

click here for the best tack free uv on the market

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)