brainless idiots and next years plans

BRAINLESS IDIOTS AND NEXT YEARS PLANS 
you know lot a lots makes me angry , but jesus christ there is some real uneducated idiots out there , what follows is a brief exchange on facebook , this club in Ireland was talking about pike removal and killing pike caught so i chimed in with saying that was a pretty misguided thing to do , as we all know that taking pike out of a water just gives you an explosion of smaller fish which would decimate a trout fishery so have a read at the exchange , the first reply back from one of this club was actually political about them being independent from england and scotland not ,bunch this particular bloke was a bit of an idiot so i didn't engage him in and what this had to do with the actually pike removal was beyond me

ok so i posted a reply as such below nothing really controversial just pointing to a link with the document "the case against pike removal" a wide spread and informative document  which dispels a lot of myths and have some really valuable information 

and below is the reply i revived 

so if this numbskull corrib ferox had actually read the piece he would have realized that actually bob roberts didnt write it and after reading his reply i really could not be bothered wasting my time in trying to convince them what they were doing was actually making there situation worse 

and of course as they were also complaining about the lack of trout in there waters , well maybe if you stopped your members killing them you may have better populations but hey then you know better dont you its all the pikes fault eh .

bloody africans again

yet again i get a monthly rash of top flight african fly tiers who want to sell me there crap , well ive given up spamming then and just send them a short message now and seems to do the trick  

some may think this is a somewhat rude rude reply but you know when these idiots send you pictures of your own flies claiming that they have made them really pisses me off as it does many other tiers i know both here and in the states , and you know if you buy flies from large company's then check where your flies are being produced , because Africa is a hot bed for shit made flies that fall apart after a few fish  , just have a look around and get some recommendations from folks and get a local tier to make them at least this way you will get flies that will last a long time and tied by people that actually fish for pike and predators if your struggling mail me and i can pass on some recommendations for you but please people stay away from large company's 

and as a parting shot on this subject , do you think the large company wants your fly to last for ages er no, no profit in that 

local tiers tie bomb proof flies and mostly use the little income for buying more materials and most of the time they will tie you bespoke patterns as well  

go figure but dont buy African made flies 

plans for ferox and beyond 

so still been a bit quiet on the fishing front in fact its been a really quiet year fishing wise for me and not really managed to get out as often as ive wanted , although a lot of this was done to moving in with my girlfriend and getting lots of jobs done around the house and the like , ive also had a few problems with my casting arm so i think the enforced layoff will have been a good thing for it but next year is looking a lot brighter and have a few things already booked .

saying ive not been out dosnt mean i haven't been tying though in fact far from it ive tied thousands of flies for customers this year and unfortunately ive had to introduce recorded delivery as standard now , i simply cant afford either the time or the money to keep filling up somebody's fly box for free and by all accounts this is quite common but hey hoe you live and learn .

anyway ive been working on a lot of new things for next year including trolling flies which have already been banking the ferox and some bloody great pike as well , i get a lot of catch reports through from regular clients so its great t see whats working and the biggest difference this year is the amount of dropshot flies i have been doing 

i have been doing drop shot flies for a few years now and they seem to really slay the perch from what ive been told  the flies above were a bespoke order i usually tie them further back and on the hook bend but hell they look good wet 

trolling flies 

been also doing these for a while , actually many many years and i have been refining them ever since i started making them you see with these its not just a case of chucking feathers on a hook and chucking them behind the boat , er naw far from it when these are in the water i have to make sure they dont lose there shape and actually movement is so very important in these flies so i do put a lot of effort into making them work and to be honest results have been been great and im looking forward to a few days on the deep dark lochs of Scotland with the wild loch fishing group at the start of the season  

and these will be being dragged behind the boat check that profile out , predator sexiness and ill be heading for a trip with brian at highland guided fishing and doing the full customer review on his company and what there all about and what you get for your hard earned dosh  but i can tell you brian is one of the best guides out there and has some armory on his boat from engines with all sorts of gadgets attached to some NASA type man toys that get you right on the spot you highland guiding is where its at for predator trips check em out here , oh and he makes some pretty mean toasties as well yup he has a gadget on the boat for that as well 

facebook highland guided fishing

and the fish below was caught on one of my trolled flies 

life in the cave continues

my local fly testing center 

yea you know its kinda cool i can just grab a rod and go for a few hours in the salt so i decided to sort some more flies for quick sessions you know just a box or two so i got my boxes out and started to rummage around 

no easy task so the big box came out first which is kinda like the mother ship for my flies , well it has all the really really cool stuff in it 

but then there is the day roving bags i also have some cool flies in these 

one is for trout (im talking wild here) and the other is for perch / saltwater 

i forgot i also have a box of topwater stuff as well from when i was last in vermont (ill be returning soon) floating the Chernobyl ants down the river while wet wading catching smallmouth bass off the surface with ken capsey was absolutely an awesome experience and one im looking forward again with brother ken

my box of perch goodness , although this box of flies was responsible for for over 250 fish on my last vist to lake carmine and Champlain  including white perch , yellow perch , largemouth bass , smallmouth bass , crappie ,chain  pickerel (mini pike) and some i cant remember and most of those fish came to this fly box so my thinking of a grab and go box or should i say a re think on the grab and go box and what other flies i should add to it for the saltwater

so i went hunting for some other boxes in some other bags and you know what before i knew it 3 hours had passed and i still hadn't sorted any extra flies out , all i had succeeded in doing was moving a load of flies from one set of boxes to other boxes and re organizing all my boxes well that's my day off gone , i guess ill have to try that one next day off  wooops . 

REELS AND DEALS

ok as you know if you read my blog quite regularly i had a major fail with a greys reel last year and im still waiting for an email from them , that is really shocking customer service and to be honest i dont think ill ever use them or recommended them to anybody again so thanks greys 

so this left me with a situation where i needed another reel for my floating line , so i took to websites and amazon and ebay looked at reviews and the massive fluctuation in prices in reels and after looking on ebay i saw a reel that pretty much looked like a high speck reel that i have but a far cheaper version and although it was a Chinese manufacturer it was dispatched  from a uk seller for the price of £9:99 with free p+p 

you know i had a moment of madness and i thought ill buy one of these and have a look , they claimed it was cnc machined aluminium and ultra light and came in a variety of sizes so i opted for the 9/10 wgt pressed the buy it know and waited for it to arrive   

2 days later it arrived and it was with some trepidation that i opened the parcel to actually a really nice looking reel , but hey looks can be deceptive so i hitched it up to my pikesaber and it was a really nice fit very snug with no wobbling in the fitting and i proceeded to load some backing on , the reel itself was very smooth on the load , so i then connected the fly line (rio pike and musky floating line) and it loaded up really nicely , while i was loading it i played with the drag and it was actually really good even under a lot of pressure and was very easy to adjust i was actually very impressed .

i also went out into the back garden and had a few casts as well and although i couldn't replicate catching fish i must say i was bloody impressed with it and it was as light as a feather 

so for a tenner i really cant complain and if it is as good as i feels im just wondering why on earth we buy reels for hundreds of pounds when a no name is just as good but then we all know the answer to that dont we , yup we are all in someway tackle tarts and love a name brand and this is no different i suppose but the thing is after my greys experience on a 100 quid reel which i now cant use i could buy ten of these and always have a spare if one goes wrong makes sense to me , i actually cant wait to put this to the test so watch this space oh and most tackle is made in china these days so makes you think ?    

was out with my old pal duke a few weeks ago he was doing up his flat so i went with him to get some paint with him , of course heading round diy centers is always cool as this time of year they have xmas decorations which means big pike fly materials and diy centers also have lots of great ideas for storage boxes and the like so always worth a look and always fun with duke haven't laughed so much in ages  thanks for a fun afternoon pal (duke sometimes fishes with me as well) 

days off 

with my days off being few and far between these days i do like to crank a few ties off for myself and play with ideas , apparently when i put this picture on facebook people were outraged that i listened to that band that should not be mentioned , oh bollocks to that ill listen to what i like and i think there cool and a great band to listen to while tying anyway just nice to be tying 

was messing about with some angel hair blends and the copper was a great color so busted out the gliss n glint plus and added some more gold angel hair to it  looked kinda neat 

pretty much a 2 colour fly this but mixed up the materials a little now the eye is quite interesting as what i have done is used a deercreek gator eye (wrasse) and gone over the top with a permanent marker and then gone over with deer creeks diamond fine uv , now the great thing about this is you get a really cool looking black eye where you can just make out the pupil in a certain light , will this make a difference hell i dont know but does the job on how i wanted the fly to look , god bless deer creek  bloody finest out there go visit them and buy stuff help them have a merry Christmas

http://www.deercreek.co.uk/

EAT EM AND SMILE

so life in the cave continues and im continuing to tie stuff up for my own boxes , usually when i have an order ill have a bit of a warm up with a couple of flies that ive thought about the design during the week (usually when im on a night shift) as i have said before work is pretty hectic and its not really fesable to bring the vice in so usually on my days off if ive not planned to fish ill wack out some flies and usually ill make mabey six or seven before i start orders so the boxes get filled pretty fast just wish i had the time to fish them all 

my main thing at the moment is experimenting with different materials , and im having heaps of fun with synthetics and naturals just now and also having lots of fun sourcing new hooks to play with because a hook just aint a hook i like to match hook weight with the patterns im tying , i mean for a sparsely tied baitfish thats going to fish in the upper layers i really dont want a weighty hook thats going to sink the fly very fast kinda pointless that , and that kind of hook id fish on a fly that i want to get down quickly but then i dont want a really fine wired hook thats going to bend out if you hook a lump so you see im forever playing with hooks and have come across so really good metalware for the job so far , and i refuse to tie on crap hooks , i mean some of the flies you see on ebay would bend out on a minnow and it just aint worth risking that fish of a lifetime on crap hooks end off .

i also play around a lot with different ways of tying and some work and some don't , just now im really enjoying different ways of putting flash through flies for maximum effect again its just not about chucking stuff on a hook and thats it , trust me a lot of thought goes into each fly , im doing some hi end flies for a client just now and even at the price i charge for flies its still less than the minimum wage per hour but hey its never about a quick profit its about catching fish and besides what i do earn goes straight into buying materials so i suppose that holiday house on lake champlain will have to wait a bit longer although could still bed down in brother ken capseys dog kennel

so getting round to the last orders of the year going out the door and yes winter is a way better time to order than in the middle of the season , you'd be surprised at the amount of orders i actually turn down during the spring , summer and autumn i have my regular clients who i tie for during the year but hey i gotta have some down time at some point.  

seen an increase this year in the amount of hotcore flies ive been doing , these seem to have really been doing the business especially for a couple of American clients for largemouth bass , these flies i originally done a few years ago and proved highly popular although ive now refined them a bit and pimped then out and they look as good as ever , the one below has an in built rattle and is a killer in murky waters (so ive been told ) but they do look great in the water so i guess a few more are on the cards 

yea so its nearly Christmas and i think this will more than likely be my last post of the year as im going to be busy with family stuff , work (yea im working overnight christmas eve) and trying to get some tying done in between so im also hoping to get out for a fish somewhere which would be cool and hopefully out with pal james lafferty from wild loch just need to sort my days out but as ever will be a scream with him .

the weather is really mild in scotland considering its December , and you know i was standing at the bus stop waiting to go to work and i was looking over a flat glass like sea and i was in two minds to phone in sick and go grab the rod and go chase some small pollock in the dock but as i was thinking about it and my bus arrived so work won this time hey ho .

so dear readers i wish you all a very great Christmas and new year and ill see you all in january

oh by the way im looking for a travel fly rod 8/9 wgt to test so if your a company who makes em drop me a line indeed if you want anything reviewed drop me a message 

STEP BY STEP EP ROACH

TYING AN EP ROACH 

you will need the following 

hook : 6/0 cz or similar long shank lightweight hook  

belly : white ep fiber 

back ; any  combination of green ep ( ive used 3d minnow blend here) 

gill flash :red angel hair 

extra back flash : peacock angel hair 

eye :- 8mm gold 

clear varnish

super glue  

clear mono predator thread 

the step by step 

place hook in vice (really i hear you cry) but actually wrong placement of the hook means your hook will move about in the vice no matter how tight its in so this is my preferred placement for a solid hold  

 tie on your thread so that is in line with the hookpoint and secure with a little varnish , this makes it tooth proof and give the thread a strong base 

take you first section of white ep fibre ( full length)  and place on the hook so you have around a quarter of the material past the hook eye  

spread the fibre around the hook shank and tie down quite firmly your going to go up to just behind the hook eye as you can see in the picture below (your varnish will still be a little wet which will soak into the fiber , this is all good 

next fold back underneath the white ep that was sticking out the front and give a couple of wraps to secure this will start to give you the body shape 

flip the hook over and make sure the fiber is split evenly on each side of the hook 

take another length of ep and tie in, this section will be slightly longer at the front (this helps with the shape) and secure down with a couple of wraps 

take your back section again a full length with about a quarter poking out the front then flip it back as you did with the white section earlier and secure with a couple of wraps   

next you need to add another white section in with again around a quarter poking out the front then add in a pinch of red angel hair and secure with a couple of wraps  

then take another section of ep (again less is more with ep fiber ) and place it on top of the angel hair 

then fold back and secure with a couple of wraps and flip the hook back round 

as you can see the angel hair is now well blended in and a visual trigger point for predators as well as a lovely flash in the water 

now add a full length of the back fiber with just over the quarter past the front of the hook ete   

now add in your lengths of peacock angel hair on top of the fiber again some protruding past the hook eye 

fold it all back and secure with a couple of wraps of thread 

flip the hook and add one very sparse section of white ep with again a quarter of the material past the hook eye 

fold back and secure with a few wraps (we only ever use a few wraps so as not to build up too bigger head) 

tie off and add a few drops of varnish to secure the whipping 

and heres your 99% finished fly , as you can see by placing ep forward of the hook eye in various lengths you have produced a nice tapered body pattern 

take your eyes in this case a couple of gold 8mm (i like red 3d stealhead eyes on this pattern  from deercreek but ran out so using basic eyes )

using superglue (place on the back of the eye not direct to the fiber as it will soak right in and your eye wont stick ) place eye where you want it , i quite like it near the front of the hook eye as i believe it makes the fly balance better in the water  and especially if you use epoxy heads 

close up of the finished head looking very fishy if you ask me 

and there you have a darn fine looking natural pattern 

of course you can mix up the fiber colors or add more or less flash or change the eye color like ive  done on the fly above 

this can be a standard way of tying with ep but by adding flash to it you can pretty much customize and pimp your flies out , i often  mix fibers  together and add flash to create new blends and to be honest theirs thousands of combinations out there so did in and give it a try , one tying method and a thousands different flies .

tight lines from the cave fellow flingers