a rant

A RANT TO END THE WEEKEND

Ive not really had a rant for a while but sometimes things just piss me off to the extent I have to vent , so this time its at the uks glorious postal system let me explain.

I work in a quite stressful job working shift patterns that can sometimes at least a couple of nights a week do sleepover shifts (12pm till 12pm) so this does effect my fly tying to the extent im limited to how many customers I take onto my books so to speak , so I keep a small list of regulars who place fairly regular orders which im usually able to fulfil within 7 to 14 days , shifts permitting , my regulars understand this and it works well for all concerned and of course my flies catch fish which is why they keep coming back .

So when things are quite I take on the odd bit of extra work, now I had a couple of weeks holiday recently and I had a couple of largish orders come in which I was able to take on , as id just finished 3 regular customers orders one of the orders was to southern Ireland and one to England which although was time sensitive I worked out that even with materials having to be ordered I would be able to do it in time .

So I set to work on both orders and it worked out quite well , the order to southern Ireland was finished and bagged up ready to be posted and I started on the last remaining flies for the other order although I was waiting for materials I could still complete most of it .

So job done I set off to the following day to do a 12 – 12 shift and arrived in work an hour early because this one time there wasn't a Q in the post office so parcels duly dispatched I felt quite relived that it was done and dusted.

So over the coming weeks out of the 5 packets I sent out that week these 2 orders hadn’t yet arrived and I was starting to get concerned after a few more days it became clear that they weren’t going to arrive and I would have to replace them (gutted).ive had to send replacement flies for the time sensitive ones from my stock of extras luckily I get a few orders for chew so I have a stock of these flies which work there , although not what the customer ordered I simply cant afford to refund as ive already bought the materials and again id have to re order the materials for this bespoke order at my own expense meaning id be making a loss let alone the hours and days put in to make them

Now let me tell you im in a very low paid job and I kid you not 90% of my wages goes on household bills , rent , council tax , electricity gas , etc and making ends meet is bloody hard any money I make from flies (which isn’t a lot after buying materials) goes on luxuries like food and the odd night out with friends , which I need to do for my own sanity (my fishing trips are few and far between and they don’t cost much) so having to replace 70 odd flies wipes out any potential extra I would make for these little luxuries and that’s not even mentioning the time it takes to make them .

As to the post office they really couldn’t give two shits about me the customer as far as there concerned its my fault anyway , you know I once had some hooks go missing to a customer some years ago and you know eventually after 4 months they were returned to me with a note saying very sorry we found these down the back of a machine , we will try to improve our practises to stop this happening again , oh great that makes it fine then maybe you can tell the guy that ordered them that  and he may order from me again …..

So im actually sitting here now wondering if its even worth continuing tying flies for folks unless A- im going to go fishing with them or B- they can come and pick them up themselves i.e advertise on gumtree or craigslist ……..really really burned out by this, bastards

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SOME NEW TIES FROM THE VICE

  

Ok so usually before I start on any orders I like to warm up with a few ties for myself so heres what ive been tying , mostly on 4/0 and 6/0 

Murdich minnows are a cracking fly and used quite a lot in the states quick and easy to tie and look great when figure of eight back through the water and you can tie t

Em as big or as small as you like

Gliss and glint flies

Despite having left the deer creek prostaff I still fully endorse there gliss and glint as one of the finest synthetics out there for large pike flies none finer 

Check out there full range at www.deercreek.co.uk

SOMETHING POSITIVE TO END

Brian from http://www.highlandguidedfishing.com is one of my regular customers and all uses my flies as another weapon for chasing the elusive ferox trout around the deep lochs of Scotland, brian comes to me with ideas for trolling flies and I put them onto hooks send him pictures in case he needs to change anything and then we roll from there.

And here is the result 

10lb 6oz of finest Scottish ferrox can’t really argue with that as proof of my abilities, it still amazes me that out there in social media land that there are people who have only been tying predator flies for such a short time and selling them as the best there is and put my flies down as rubbish, jealousy is a terrible thing , when your flies catch such rare fish as this in the hardest of lochs well your argument is invalid frankly , you know ive never claimed to be the greatest tier in the world , far from it and you know I really couldn’t care less , my regular customers know better 

Brian is probably one of the best guides out there and his detail to fish welfare is second to none , no wonder he gets booked up so quick , go check his website and do yourself a favour book a day in the finest of boats in the most beautiful locations in the word .Scotland.

Recovery 

Simply stunning what a way to end the blog

See ya out there

Mcfluffchucker

(a cave in scotland)