a grand day out

CHASING PERCH AND PIKE 

so decided to head with duke up to the lovely lomond hills fishery  in fife to chase after pike and perch , im not going to go into my history with perch that is well documented as i cant catch the bloody things by design.  

so with duke arriving fashionably late due to apparently some new dvds he received and stayed up late to watch them  (im not going to go into further detail) we headed over to the kingdom of of fife thankfully its around an hours drive so i didn't have to put up with him singing along to Japanese power ballads for long .

after we arrived and chatted with alex the owner and purchased necessary ticket , well the fisheries prices are pretty much the cheapest in Scotland and superb value so i bought  a 5 fish( rainbow trout) ticket, now the reason i do this even though i was pike and perch fishing is that i actually enjoy eating trout and inevitably i always seem to catch rainbows at some point when pike fly fishing in trout waters and of course its also supporting your local fishery and alex runs a great fishery at lomond hills so im happy to support it .

i also believe there is some very large pike in there its just a case of finding them , never an easy job on a biggish deep water , but been up a couple of times now and im starting to understand the topography of what im fishing into so if you have a look at this video of a slow fly round the water which by the way the water levels are very low , when we fished it was a lot lot higher and at the top end the water was right up to the bank , but very interesting to see fish holding features on the bottom take a wee look at this great video.

 
and here you can see the lines and where we fished and obviously i chose these for the very reason you can see in the video above in fact the only follow i had was from the top right hand corner and you can see from the video this area has lots of ambush points and small drop offs where the water flows through, great pike territory

so we boarded the boat (and can i say boats are actually free to use on here and if you want to use an electric engine its a fiver i cant think of anywhere else that does this absolute bargain) the boats are a good size with plenty of room and life jackets are provided and very comfy to fish in  

so on advice for the perch my first stop with small silver and blue baitfish fry was at the tower , so we anchored of it and started to fish although the wind was starting to be an arse and pushing us out of position so i kept having to adjust position as the anchor wasn't really holding which was a bit annoying . 

my bro duke has been starting to take his fishing a bit more seriously to the point he has now bought a decent bag and a sparkly new lure rod so some time was spent showing him how things went together and worked , duke loves his perch fishing as its something he used to do quite a lot as a kid in Switzerland so im kitting him out and showing him some new methods and offering some general advice including getting with knots out of his braid which is one thing he excels at. 

after a while being pushed around at the tower and the perch remaining totally out of reach of my flies and dukes dropshot i decided to head up to the left hand corner of the water where we would be a little more out the wind and the water was shallower and a bit more weedy so i thought there may be the chance of some pike up there .  

ultimate concentration duke at one with his lure before the heavens opened  

yea one thing about Scotland , although we had checked the weather its always advisable to take waterproof clothing no mater what as it can 4 seasons in a day 

and this was obviously the monsoon season 

not really much to do except chuck the coat on and sit it out and eat chocolate which we both excel at 

thankfully after 10 mins it had passed and fishing resumed , i had at this point changed over to a red and white fly , an old classic that never ages yup the one below a little devil and all time classic 

you know i said it recently on facebook (dave mcfluffchucker) that this was my favorite fly and still to this day the fly that has caught my biggest pike and the fly to date (a 25lb river fish) such a simple fly and was my pike fly of choice today .

believe it or not 15 mins after the rainstorm we headed up to the right hand corner and the weather went totally typical Scotland and i nearly got the top off , crazy weather but nice to have some calm and watch the flies in the water , craig broke out his lure rod and did some testing of my casting flies 

these actually worked very well and looked like a cross between a surface jerkbait and a fly and worked beyond what i wanted it too (sorry no video this time low battery on the phone and forgot my apeman camera) 

so after having a follow and nothing much more at the top end i decided we should go down to the tower again and as we were losing light and the perch would be hunting , unfortunately when half way across the water the wind started to get up and the engine was running out of juice , so i decided to turn the boat with the wind behind us and head for the bottom corner , this was because if i did completely lose juice i could safely drift into the corner at the dam and go and get another battery .

by the time we got into the corner the battery was pretty much shot so i got the paddle out and helped it along the  dam wall with the engine just ticking over 

of course duke rather than sit and do nothing decided to stick a spoon on and have a cast as i made our way along towards the jetty and off course the one time he has a duff cast it catches the wind and goes over the tower 

im just going to leave this picture here , duke dont like losing lures and yes we got it back , thankfully alex saw we were having an issue and actually bought a new battery along for us top bloke.

being out fishing with duke is always great fun although im not 100% sure why he had these in his cigarette box i know i said he would should have a stiff rod for casting flies but i think he miss understood what i meant .

so as we entered last cast before we completely lost the light territory i threw a long line towards the jetty and moored boats and started stripping back , as i did duke cast a trout looking rubber shad to my left and pretty much had a strike straight away which was a blessing and saved no fish to the boat for the days effort  

of course duke is just getting used to pike fishing so i chinned it out and unhooked for him and as i did it sunk its teeth into my thumb (my darling fiance actually said it looks like the rod went through your finger) battle scares all good .

so again not the greatest trip fish wise but again i love learning about a new water and what makes it tick , so if your up this way and fancy a days fishing check out the website as there is also trout fishing on another two waters at lomond hills and the prices he charges are really good , again alex goes out of his way to accommodate his anglers and his banter is also great  again go check the website out for more info.

https://www.lomondhillsfishery.com/

lomond hills also does a fantastic breakfast , alex cooks this on an open fire next to the office and flies it out to your boat on a drone , and all for the price of £1.80 per angler , right bargain that 

*disclaimer - this may not always be available and a pot noodle option may be available please ask when buying your ticket    

AT THE VICE LIFE IN THE CAVE

my dropshot flies for spinning rods are proving ever popular so if you need some please get in touch

i really dont know how many hours i spend at the vice not only tying for clients but developing ideas for flies etc and filling my own boxes up enjoy what i do though and get even greater satisfaction when people send me pics of fish they have caught on the flies i have made for them .

pink colors seem to be appearing in a lot of my bespoke patterns as ive said before this has been a life saver a few times and saved me from a few blanks and along with blue totally under(maybe i should have used it the other day lol ) .

you know when you accidentally buy a reel  

well yea we have all done it , not that i needed any extra reels or anything but well when this came up on my local edinburgh anglers facebook page i was quite taken by it and i thought hell its a great price and then i found a million and one reasons why i really did need them , so purchased they were from the fantastic mr dave mcquiston and have to say on getting them i really actually like them , nice wide spools and fairly light , unfortunately now im going to have to go get a load of fly lines hahahahah it never ends .

i have to say a big thanks also to dave for including some of his home made sea trout flies have to say very impressed really nicely done thanks so much , oh i do sometimes tye trout stuff but its finding the time and always fun after tying flies on 6/0 hooks going down to 22s .

BAITFISH FIBER 

been playing with deercreeks bait fish fiber lately i actually really like this fiber as an alternative to ep fiber which i struggle to get in the uk and tend to buy it from dykers in Holland but if i need it quickly i simply cant get it . so baitfish fiber is actually a really good alternative anyway here is a few flies ive made with it , mostly 6 inchs plus and these will be available to purchase should you wish to on my blog here mcfluffchucker flies    

just a word on buying my flies , i will ship worldwide and usually have a 7 day turnover from order to dispatch usually upon order i will send an email with an estimated dispatch date , usually this works very well although sometimes it can be slightly longer during busier times , as you would expect all flies are handmade upon order and not mass produced . also happy to take bespoke orders , mabey you have an idea for a fly or colors you would like but cant find  then shoot me an email.

this fibre is available in the uk from various outlets i use the following sites for mine , each link will take you to the product page its called various things so names may differ on each page

deercreek  pike trek  silverscales flytying

so have fun with that and remember the links ive put up are small uk businesses that i support they will ship worldwide 

DROP SHOT FLIES 

i know have a range of dropshot flies due to popular demand you can find them here 

drop shot flies

again i do get a few inquires about all the flies i post and if they are available for sale  and the answer to this is yes all my flies are available to purchase all you need to do is shoot me an email and we can take it from there , it maybe useful if you save the pictures of any of the flies you wish to purchase and also mail them to me as the may not always be on my for sale page.

and finally a massive thanks to cez over at pike and slippers for taking the time to make this awesome underwater video of one of my larger pike patterns doing its thing in a scottish loch 

so with that im off back in the cave , flies to tye and is it me or is winter approaching very quickly , well still a few trips to get in before that  tight lines folks 

MCFLUFFCHUCKER

a cave in Scotland