Saturday 23 May 2015

mylar baitfish step by step

 MYLAR BAITFISH

STEP BY STEP
You will need 


e-z body by hareline (medium)
small eyes 4mm
Crystal or micro flash
angel hair (red)
saltwater hook
(im using a 1/0 for a 3 inch baitfish)
Clear mono thread
Deercreeks diamond flex


1 – cut a section of tubing to your desired length , im using 3 inchs on a 1/0 for every hook size up id add an extra inch , when you get to around 3/0 hooks id start using large tubing . and the reverse lower than 1/0 id go for small tubing , of course you can go very small on these for smaller predators (think about dead drifting smaller sizes in streams for trout ) 


2– Thread the hook eye first through the braid (can be a bit fiddly)  , you can leave the white cotton in the braid as this makes a fine lateral line 


3 – heres how you need the hook to sit so the eye is just poking out the end of braid and the Mylar going back from the where the hook starts to bend 


4 – you should have it looking like this on the hook 


5 – pull the braid back to reveal bare hook shank and add a few wraps of mono 


6 – Take a small amount of angel hair in your desired colour (I think red works really well)


7 – Place on hook shaft and tease round the shank and secure with a few wraps


8 – Take the forward facing section of angel hair and twist into a rope with your fingers and wrap evenly around the hookshank


9 – Then secure with a wrap of mono 


10 – Next take a bobbin needle and push remaining angel hair into the tube 


11- when its all in it will look like this 


12 – Secure with a few wraps of mono till you have formed a head 


13 – turn the hook around in the vice , ready for working the tail in 


14 – as you can see the cotton core makes a great lateral line 


15 – take a small amount of crystal flash 


16 – Heat the end with a lighter and roll to stick the ends together, this makes it easier to place in the tubing 


17 – place into the tubing 


18 – Add a few wraps of mono to secure and tie off



19 – Trim any uneven flash to form an even tail profile


20 – Turn hook around and we are ready for building the head 


21 – Place a small eye on just behind the eye of the hook 


22 – add a drop of deercreeks diamond flex uv behind the eye and zap with a uv pen (if you don’t have uv product you can use either epoxy or super glue and varnish but this does take a while to build up a good head shape)



23 – Rotate the hook and continue to build up layers 


24 – I build up the head by doing the top then the side then the bottom until you get the right head shape . (if using epoxy coat the head then place in a rotary drier till dry) 


25 – When your happy with the head shape you can then move onto the tail


26 – Add a small drop of uv to secure the tail in 


And boom there you have it; tell me that aint a great little pattern

Mcfluffchucker
(a cave in scotland)



Friday 22 May 2015

times are a changing

Times of change and mylar baitfish

Ok so those of you who aren’t using facebook and due to the amount of emails im getting im going to have to post this on my blog now I really didn’t want to but have no choice so I can draw a line under it heres my post from the 15th of may:-

it is with heavy heart that as of now i am out of the deercreek pro team , morally i cannot stand by while one pro team member continues to pull the wool over pro team member eyes and its owner, and its people i care about , but they have been sucked into his bullshit i can no longer be part of a team i love and keep quiet while this goes on , out of respect to nick and jen who i love dearly i will not name the little scumbag”

Now to clear a few things up, despite my leaving deercreek I will continue to use there materials as I still believe they are the best on the market and im happy to tie with them that wont change and this has nothing to do with the owners, good product is good product and I will continue to write and tie about as I will write about other products I use as i have always done.

I would like to thank the members of the pro team who messaged me supporting and understanding my actions these people are still my brothers and sisters (except for one dick) this also wont change I really didn’t want to do this on my blogs but im getting so many emails and messages I have no choice in the matter, so I hope this answers your questions and that’s and end to it……….peace
----------------------------------

Mylar baitfish

Ok so onto the vice , well these sexy little patterns are variations with my own little twist on a chris silvertone mylar baitfish all ive done (as we do as tyers) is tweeked it a bit , I reckon it’s a cracking versatile little baitfish for I think anything that swims ….step by step (hopefully tomorrow) 


Hook – 3/0 mustad saltwater
Tubing – harline pearl ezy tubing
Tail- black crystal flash
Head – red angel hair
Head seal - deercreek flexible uv resin
Eye – 4mm gator eye
Thread – clear mono

There is no set length for tying these, tie as long or as short as you like


Hook – 3/0 mustad saltwater
Tubing – harline pearl ezy tubing
Tail- black crystal flash
Head – green angel hair
Head seal - deercreek flexible uv resin
Eye – 4mm gator eye
Thread – clear mono


Cracking little baitfish give em a go

Ok next weekend is this fantastic event



ill be donating a load of flies for the raffle  as will chris rawle and john wilson as well as john horsfall, please go on the facebook page and give em your support 



Wednesday 13 May 2015

the only way is ferox


THE ONLY WAY IS FEROX

what is a ferox 
Ferox trout are a fantastic example of the genetic diversity that exists within wild brown trout.  Since the term ferox was first coined in 1835 by the renowned angler scientist Sir William Jardine, various authors have attempted to define what exactly a ferox is, for example:
Campbell (1979) offered the following definition:
‘Ferox are long-lived, late-maturing, piscivorous brown trout which in Britain and Ireland, are often present in large, deep glacier-formed lakes containing Arctic charr or whitefish species’
The status of ferox within the brown trout (Salmo trutta) species complex epitomises the debate about what is and what isn’t a species (see Ferguson, 2004). There can be no doubt however that ferox can be spectacularly different from other brown trout; in life history, genetics and habits.

ferox trout are found throughout the brown trout’s native range, wherever there are large glacial lakes.  In Britain they are found mainly in Scotland and Ireland but there are also thought to be populations in some Welsh lakes and in the English Lake District. In Campbell’s (1979) study, ferox were mainly found in lochs of over with Arctic charr present, however ferox do occasionally occur in smaller lochs 

THE BRITISH RECORD


 brian rutlands  31lb 11oz trout British record

( the fish unfortunately died and was not dispatched to claim the record)

SOWING THE SEEDS


i had know brians face (hard to forget) through this picture thats on a few websites out there with this stunning looking ferox , so when he contacted me to provide a special custom order for something (nope aint telling) i already knew who i was talking too , i have over the years had a few close encounters with ferox so when i got an invite to fish with him i gladly accepted the offer and the date was set.

PREPERATION

for this trip i pretty much had to scales everything down in terms of gear , i had to sort so many boxes out and only take flies that would be specific to what i was going to be doing i.e trolling flies , although i was going to take a single fly rod as well for any opportunity to chuck a few for pike (be a crime  to be on loch awe and not get a quick 20 mins ) so i managed to thin it down to below 


thinned down all the boxes went into a lure bag (below) with a fly reel in a side pocked and other bits and pieces leaders etc went into a day carry wallet in another pocket and  my flys in boxes went into the main compartment , knowing where everything is is vitally important when your on a boat and you need everything to hand at a split seconds notice , i mean imagine cetting a fish on board and going right where is my forceps hmmmmmm . 



fly choice for ferox was going to be vital and i needed to think carefully what i was going to take so i took a mixture of brown trout , flash and flies with a lot of movement , i knew it wasnt going to be easy so i had to make the best choice available to me through the limited knowledge that i had and colours i knew had worked for folks before , let me tell you my brain really hurt by the end off 3 hours when id narrowed it down to give myself the best chance.

ON THE ROAD FEROX

so after a pretty uneventful journey full of fishing talk and after a 3am pick up brian launched his boat around 6.30am  at the slip way at torran bay at the south end of loch awe once all brians micro fibre cloths had been accounted for and labelled and all the gear stowed away we fired out into the loch 


   AND WERE OFF

now those of you with a sharp eye will see that these are not fly rods , and yup youd be right but i was actually trolling a fly behind the boat , now this may raise a few eyebrows amongst the purists but its the way it had to be done and as a novice to trolling i had to go with brians knowledge (and he has a wealth of it) so was more than happy to follow brians lead on this and this was a whole new experience for me  i did have a fly rod with me but this was only going to be used when we went back to the dock .


loch awe is an amazing magical place over 26 miles in length and i believe the longest loch in scotland with depths of well over 300 feet quite mind blowing , so with that you can imagine its quite a needle in a haystack trying to find ferox in a place like this .


so who you going to call , well obviously brian , probably one of the most dedicated anglers ive ever met and one whos knowledge of the species and of the water itself is quite amazing , the guy is a ferox machine 

holy mother of god 


now we trolled around on brian well trodden pre travelled routes and came across this site many times massive shoals of char and i mean massive , i watched the sounder a lot over 2 days and was amazed at after periods of nothing on the screen we would suddenly come across huge shoals like this  quite mind blowing and you can understand why ferox grow so bloody big in here and the passion of the people that go for them   


a nice site an ospreys nest , nobody home though this time past


as with big lochs in scotland you can get 4 seasons in a day and these 2 days were no different from cold and overcast to bright and glass like to bouncing around on choppy waters in the space of 30 mins , welcome to scotland , always another layer to put on or take off 


brian locates a pair of scissors he lost in 96 in 325ft of water i swear if you had a pee in the loch brians lowrance would know where when and how warm it was , i know a little about sounders but this thing was amazing and thanks to brian for explaining various things to me and answering my constant stream of stoopid questions about it 


the one thing on this post about the 2 days away that your not going to see is brians methods and lures , its a very secretive thing about what they use and the tactics aint common knowledge but i really had my eyes opened to some amazing tactics and some quite amazing lures which brian was more than happy to give me a demonstration off so there will be no info on that sorry , although i will show some flies that i tried , now ok you can copy flies but you cant copy if you dont know whats inside them and how they are weighted ......good luck on that one lol



triple jointed ready to go , this was quite amazing in the water how on earth it didnt catch is beyond me but with bright conditions it wasnt the best weather for fishing



as we trolled back up the loch the ospreys had returned and made there presence and there annoyance very much known  


nice to see them 

end of day one and feeling a bit flat in more ways than one

sunset on awe


yup the dreaded flat tire but with the help of jocheim at the torran bay hostel for sorting out the flat , top bloke so onto day 2 

DAY TWO


this was to be my fly of choice today and something special behind the eyes brings this fly alive in the water and add a wiggle fin to the front and you have a hell of a fly , i was feeling rather excited at my design coming to life in the water looked great 


(stewerts super sexy secret seducer)
if only you knew what was inside 

before we hit the loch brian decided to see if he could throw a dead rainbow trout around on the fly , not quite getting the concept there mate 


gies a shot , brian entrusted me to get us out into the loch and no thats not a big fly on my back and im happy to say nobody was injured while i was being captain pugwash .


the kiss of death , yup probably the worst conditions you could get for fishing unless you were trolling for marlin in the Caribbean (actually i prefer this) 


still we persisted after a day and a half with no fish on the boat youd think we would be tearing our hair out but you know that didnt even cross my mind , its such a magical place and actually knowing what could be down there actually really keeps you on the ball and ready for it, giving up as a bad job was simply not an option  in this case and we were preprepared to go right into dark on the quest .

so to break the day up we decided to head for an all day breakfast at a small place by the lochside and a welcome break it was , we sat down in the village shop come post office come local hangout and decided on a  full fried breakfast (best thing to see us through the day) , and as we sat there an older gentleman (i use that tern loosely) obviously sussed us as anglers (not rocket science really).

well he got talking to us and started to tell us a load of bollocks about the loch , you know the type all the gear and no idea, well he proceeded to tell us about this massive pike he had caught that was as big as him (5ft something) well to be honest it was going in one ear and out the other and brian had face planted his breakfast by this point and i just wanted him to shut up , until he said he had a photograph of it well this changed things maybe as he was the local ghillie there may be a shread of some truth here .

so the bell end produces a picture of him holding a pike of about mabey 15lbs , but he was holding it away from his body making it look a lot bigger oh ffs really not only that the fanny was holding it up using a pair of boga grips and zero support on the body ffs really what
 a fanny , well my self and brian informed him and educated him on the dangers of his actions and actually made him look like a complete bell end in front of the villages elderly lady population who no doubt he was trying to impress this bloke was a complete fanny and will no doubt he will continue doing what he does , as well hes the local man to go to .

no amount of talking will ever make people like this change there ways all we can do is pass on and educate a younger generation to do the right thing , sad really 

A BIT OF A CHOP ON 


was nice to see current british ferox record holder brian rutland out on the loch and had a bit of banter with him at the dock side and in the torran bay hotel dinning room , lovley bloke and pleasure chatting to him , and sampling his fine whisky 


brian is a wealth of knowledge and his words of wisdom at 1:15 will stay with me for a long time thanks for that brian 


coming to the end of the day and still hopefull of fish 

the long troll home 


so with the sun setting we started the long troll home 26 hours trolling various things around this gigantic body of water with no takes is a hellava ride and takes a certain amount of madness that all of us anglers have. has this put me off doing it again , well the short answer to that is no , in fact quite the opposite im already looking forward to the next one what a blast .

if you want to find out more about ferox check out some videos from the ferox 85 group on youtube 

now i have to say special thanks to the half man half orangoutang brian salmo tuttra lawrance for his hospitality and taking me out and allowing me to use his micro fibre cloth look at his labels on his boxes, and most of all for the laughs , and i can tell you a more dedicated angler i have never met and a pleasure to fish with cheers me old tin of tuna . 

also have to mention the torran bay hotel at loch awe 


a fantastic base for angling or walking in the area. great rooms very clean and comfortable, a home away from home and very angler friendly please click the link below to find out more info or to book 


website 


big thanks to jochiem at torran bay 

so with that im back at the vice and getting some orders out , next post on the blog will be a very special one from a well known guest angler on a subject that we need to raise awareness on this will be at the weekend hopefully so keep checking back 

and remember listening to black sabbath isnt a crime 

a cave in scotland