A MATTER OF LIFE AND FLUFFCHUCKING: July 2015

Tuesday, 7 July 2015

alaska bobs first pike on the fly

ALASKA BOBS PIKE ADVENTURE

whis alaska bob , well you may well ask ,alaska bob or (james lafferty) as hes known in other parts is a pal and a member of a small private group who are harder to get into than the masons , now alsaka bob is a die hard out every moment he can angler , as long as theres fish in it he will fish it , now i had arranged a jaunt some mouths ago into the saltwater but unfortunately i was felling not very well (and as it turns out he was ill as well) so we had to cancel the trip , which was a shame as id been looking forward to it .

so as it was my birthday fish and regular fishing the destroyer is off having a sex change operation and couldnt make it , i put the call out on our jungle drums and as it turns out alaska bob was free so the date was set and as it turns out alaska bob had yet to catch a pike on the fly so i was determined to get him one

we arrived at the venue not to early by usual fishing standards at around 7:30am and

of course he usual round of stoopid selfies , well thats what its all about having fun and making memories (selfie alert)

so my choice of weapon for this was my trusty pikesaber (still love it after all these years) couples with a saber fly reel loaded with a 10wgt intermediate line and a 5ft 18lb furled flurocarbon leader , 8 inchs of authentic wire and a fastach 50lb quick change link , i tend to use a lot of flies during a normal days fly fishing , not because i have no confidence in the fly im using , its just im a complete fly tart and i love to see how they look in the water fly of choice to start was a small 2 inch olive fried alive

now i know theres some out there that think 8 inchs isnt enough length on a wire leader well bollocks it is enough , what you have to remember is this isnt a game where pike is picking up a bait of the bottom munching it down the back of its throat , no 90% of the time these fish are lip hooked and even when they do take it deeper its never very far down and i have yet to be bitten off on authanic wire or any pike while fly fishing so your argument is invalid and trust me ive been doing this longer than most in this country and if it doe ever happen i will write about it ,

the bag was my boat bag as we had originally decided to boat fish but there wasnt any available so had to rough it , usually if im doing a lot of walking ill have a small rucksack with me plenty of room for everything you need if you dont go completely overboard on flies (cough)

the fried alive probably one of my most productive flys ever, absolute fish slayer

so i tackled up alaska bob with the same set up i had and we headed up to the first spot , nothing to pikey in the way of features but ive always had a few here of the boat so worth a few casts and sure enough after half a dozen casts i had a slamming take

5 mins later the first was on the bank

these fish in my local really fight so well and just never give up and yea ok its no 20 pounder but actually i dont give a rats on fish size i really dont , ive done the specimen hunting thing in my youth so had all the big fish i could ever hope to catch but nothing gives me as much pleasure as catching pike on the fly no mater what size everyone's a pleasure on the fly and so sporting and after all isnt that what its all about getting pleasure from your sport and not getting your picture in the local fishing rag , and besides the whole process from putting a hook in the vice to landing on your own creation is good enough for me ........hero worship na stick it

this particular fish wrapped itself around the leader so last part of the fight was quite interesting but i unwrapped it and cradled it in the water and it swam of strongly probably wondering what the hell had just happened

so alaska bobs turn , obviously he was full of questions how did i retrieve , how far down i counted etc etc , so was happy to pass on the info and within a few casts he was into his first on the fly and well i just had to do a little video while he was playing it

as i said before alaska bob is an experienced angler and has caught plenty of pike before so

he needed no instruction from me on playing or landing

unhooked in the water as it should be and even for a picture its best to hold them over water , they are a fragile fish and sometimes i cant believe some of the bad handling practices i see sometimes , just no need

so alaska bobs got his first pike on the fly and an instant fan has been born , im guessing by the look on his face he enjoined that

random video of the 1

so with the weather warming up i decided to move us further up the bank to another favourite boat spot but one that i had seldom bank fished , so while i conducted myself in a zen like way to be at one with my fly , alaska bob was again photo bombing the moment ,any resemblance to sonic the hedgehog is purely coincidental

so according to my weather app it was supposed to be a fine day with 3 mph winds and indeed when we got to the loch it was indeed flat and glass like , as soon as we set up the wind started to rise and after the first couple of fish i decided to move us further up the bank where we would be a bit more sheltered from the rising gusts .

didnt take long to be in amongst the fish again and the fried alive living up to its deadly reputation as a fish catcher , the pike in this instance hit it like an express train and promptly wrapped me round some weed , but with some steady pressure and the aid of the furled leader i was able to free it , at one point i actually thought it had thrown the hook as they do sometimes in weed but no it was still firmly attached and again took off like a rocket , great fun

one of my favourite things in summer is wet wading just love getting in about the fish and save the expense of having a bath

so fish firmly landed with a good chin hold and ready for another these fish are so bloody fighting fit its unreal and such great sport on the fly

a couple more casts and the fried alive claims another victim , bloody small flies are absolutely killer on here ive actually lost count the amount of fish ive caught on them small fly is king up here

WIND ALERT

so after a few more fish another move was in order ,this time to the point where the bay starts and where there is slightly deeper water , and has always been a good spot with the fly , what i didnt count on was the wind whipping through faster than a night after a curry , and if you watch the video on here no 5 you can really here it , which made casting bloody difficult if not darn right dangerous to ears and exposed flesh with sharp hooks whipping through the air , but perseverance is the key and casting between gusts was the sensible option in this case

perseverance paid off with a nice fish that really gave me a run for my money so it was worth sticking in there at this spot , but eventually the wind got to much and then it rained big massive chunks so out of the water and a quick shelter under a tree for 10 mins (yea seems daft when i was already wet from wet wading) so at this point we decided to walk back to the car and have a spot of lunch , how bloody civilised

(wtf is that on my tounge)

alaska bob bod by this time had stripped down to just his waders (im sure theres some kind of weird fetish going on there with him ) but has to be said his chicken noodles really hit the spot and a welcome break along with much laughs and hilarity watching him topless cooking in waders ....form an orderly que fetish fans

so after lunch we decided to stick close to the truck so we decided to fish the platforms close to the lodge alaska bob was within talking distance so we continued with the fried alives for a bit , after a while with no interest so i decided to change over to a red and white epoxy headed bucktail streamer fished very slow mid water

the change was obviously what was needed as i banged into a fish straight away

this fish while playing it had a larger fish following under it so wonder it went like a rocket , get that quite a lot up here youll get a fish and youll have a bigger fish underneath, probably looking for an easy meal

this was one of those rare fish that actually took the fly deeper down , as ive said before most of the fish i get are mostly lip hooked but i still carry a pair of forceps in my pocket when i travel light , so this was a case of just lifting the fish out the water a quick unhook and picture and released in a couple of mins as it should be with as little fuss as possible , theres really no need to keep em out the water for any length of time after all despite being top of the food chain they are still a delicate fish and the less you can handle them the better , if your chasing pike for the first time always wise to hook up with someone whos got experience to go with or go with a guide the lessons you will learn are invaluable.

aint nature great

alaska bob fetish fishing website coming soon

social media fishins

social media like facebook has its ups and downs when it comes to fishing and obviously you get the armchair expert guy ,you get the been there done it guy and and quite frankly there is some right idiots on there , but i find myself privileged to be in a very small invite only group of guys that are spread around the country but we do fish with each other and its really refreshing to fish with these guys as we all come from different backgrounds and have different jobs and even different methods of fishing but what brings us together is the fact we love fishing and we get to experience new waters and even new methods and of course the banter that goes with it is first class

so the fish kept coming

at this point poor old alaska bob was having no luck on the next platform so i invited him to take my place as i wanted him to get a few more fish before the end of the session , i even gave him one of the flys i was using but to no eval , i think if i remember he hooked 1 and lost it , but despite my best efforts i couldn't get him another one and with the wind getting up it was time to call it a day

have to give alaska bob a big shout out as it was great fun fishing with him and look forward to doing it again , well we have some plans afoot so shouldn't be long , and have to shout out to all the fannies in wild loch fishing , bunch of nut jobs ive ever met and look forward to more adventures with these heid the balls as well soon

so a great day was had alaska bob had his first pike on the fly and i had a i think it was 7 fish so quite a productive day despite the weather and great to get away from the pressures of work kinda good that to get away and as soon as that first line is cast you forget every other thing that's going on i guess thats the zen of fly fishing and why i love it