lockdown blues and other stories

Armageddon 

so the world is in lockdown with this virus , it is indeed an awful time for people and indeed here in Edinburgh the city is resembling a zombie movie set , empty streets no traffic , its actually really quite strange days .

im actually off work just now with a knee injury so pretty much im in forced isolation , although being classed as a critical  i would have been going in to work .but please wherever you are keep your familys safe and only go out for meds or food .

but you know there is a flip side to this we as anglers love to be waterside , its what we do , the government has said we can go out and exercise  for an hour as long as we keep a distance between other people but we cant fish .but here is the thing we always keep a distance when fishing  we go out to isolated places a lot of the time i really dont understand the difference to be honest but hey you know thats just my thoughts , guess we all have to abide by the rules .

but wherever you are stay safe folks and avoid public places and mass gatherings , nothing is going to stop it but we can slow it down .

LIFE GOES ON 

although not fishing just now ive been productive in other ways in the cave , i still have a few orders to get out although obviously flies have slowed down a lot , which is understandable in the current situation , nobody is getting out , even my local angling centre has closed its doors  i just really hope those guys are getting some form of wages as we still have bill to pay .

so cave life and website life continue 

ive started to manufacture my own fluro leaders for predator fly fishing these come in 3 different lengths and are bomb proof and made with the very best 100lb Japaneses fluro carbon and are a loop to loop system for easy changing over , ive also been requested to do full leaders for predator fly fishing these will be on site shortly the leaders you can find on the website here 

purchase fluro leaders here

BLADES

also due to the popularity of the casting flies ive now made a little attachment to use with them , rather than write it all out ive done a wee video , you can find them on the website in loads of different combos of beads under the short video below.

and on the website to purchase here 

purchase blades on the website here

the proof is in the catching 

just before the lockdown irish customer gary martin caught this beast of a pike on one of my claymore perch , an absolute well done on this , stunning looking fish 

the claymore perch has always been a good seller and takes a fair amount of fish over the season bot running and still water 

find it here 

claymore perch

CAVE LIFE 

a lot of tying has been going on lately , i love dyckers fibres and i really like the flies edwin from dyckers makes so had to do some for my own boxes , interesting that edwin hasn't used flash in his flies for a couple of years now and he is still catching some fantastic fish makes you think a bit .

been also sorting some boxes for my ventures into perch fishing on the canal i actually tye way to many flies 

days of from work have been spent tying and stocking up my man in holland 

if your in Europe my stuff is available from 

www.1000vliegen.nlml

also been working on a deluxe fly box which have turned out really good

the rise of the blade 

i think the biggest difference between anglers here and in the usa is the fact that your either a fly guy or a gear guy (gear being lures) from what ive seen although some do both . here in the uk we tend to do all sorts and mix and match methods .

i mean in the uk look at the rise in popularity of  lrf  fishing in the angling world and indeed a great method for catching a whole heap of mini species as well as getting some great sport from perch and smaller fish when bigger fish are getting harder to find and hell yea why not .

so i thought about my younger days and remember when the river bailiff wasn't watching we would take our worm hooks off and put on the holy of holys a mepps agila , which basically was a mepps lure with a bit of fluff tied on the treble , but christ we had some fish on those things including a ton of big grayling happy days .

so i came up with the idea of this lure quite a few years ago as i say in the video and it was used to great effect , ive only just recently got round to starting to commercially make them for pike on the strength of stevies catches 

there on the website now and of course i can bespoke to your custom builds if needed so check em out on the website here and of course ill be adding more shortly including a range for perch 

lure rod flies

below is a few of the patterns im doing at the moment 

have to say im really looking forward to using these when we can get back out on the water 

HOTCORE REVIVAL 

the hotcore first made an appearance around 8 years ago  when i was just messing around on the vice , the idea is to have a very sparsely tied fly that was almost translucent but had a core of dense flash as a strike point. there is a video on youtube if you want to check it out 

the white and raspberry has always been a favourite and look fantastic in the water , the white and red is always another go to fly 

i have of late been adding other colours but of course need to get out on the bank to try them , ive also made these into spinning lures aswell and have no doubt of there success  

DAY 14 OF LOCK DOWN 

so as you may be aware although i cant leave the house just now and not because of the virus as i stated earlier and with sales tailing of due to folks not fishing (understandable)  ive had time to play with some new patterns now i have all my orders done and posted

a rhubarb and custard pike fly with some red flash i kinda like this and my play is to make some more but on longshank hooks so i can use them with cherub weights and chase the wrasse on mu local if we are ever allowed out again.

the great thing about these is you can just use them as flies or with Texas or Carolina rigs and lure fish em ,another weapon in the armoury for chasing tricky predators 

yet another variation on a roach pattern i guess you can never have enough standard baitfish patterns this is 9 inchs and on a 6/0 like this a lot as well .

so whats happening next , well i have a few ideas including doing some video blogs so i can basically blog more often as sometimes my work life does not allow for a great deal of free time so maybe this way i can post more content .

•  making another video tommorow as ive just finally found the most amazing bucktail at last .
• dubbing brush small flies for smaller waters 
• plans for the year ahead
• another fly tying video , ill be tying with natural materials 
• website updates
• flurocarbon leaders my thoughts and views 
• and hopefully ill be answering a few questions from readers as well if threes enough interest

so wherever you are please stay safe see ya all soon 

mcfluffchucker a cave in Scotland