got the jack with gliss and glint plus

nick over at deer creek sent me some bits to play with this week including some very cool realistic eyes , now eyes I'm on the fence with them do they help you catch more fish or doesn't it matter I'm really not sure to be honest i do however believe they provide a reference strike point in fish so maybe they do as i say I'm on the fence , one thing i do know for a fact is that they make flies look fantastic its quite stunning to see these eyes on a well made fly almost brings it alive so if its a confidence thing with eyes on your flies then these will give you it full stop .

deercreek have a full range of these realistic eyes and they are constantly coming out with new ones so click the picture below to check them out you'll find them in the fly tying section

deercreek is also home to gliss n glint and gliss n glint plus now if you not aware of this material let me give you a short breakdown glint and gliss is not a material I've come across before its a very slinky and mobile synthetic that has a shine to it which obviously is a great thing as it gives off a nice colour and shine in the water which is really what you need in bait fish patterns

the gliss and gliss plus is pretty much the same as above but it has fine metallic fiber through it which really does give of a nice body-wide flash to the fly , it also comes in a wide range of colours and its a really nice material to tie with my favorite with this is a plain old simple hollow tie again click the picture below to go there its in the fly tying section

i had been sent some really nice green gliss an glint plus a new colour for the range and straight away i thought mmmmmm roach as although it was green in the water it would darken up a bit and the flash would work really well so i decided to do a hot core with a satsuma stripe core that really shows through the white gliss and gliss plus really nicely this also has a custom 14mm roach eye from deercreek a stunning looking eye for really big flies and i hope they do other colours in this size as well .......

i really liked the new green colour (i think it may be called sea wave ) i really wanted to do something different with it so i sat and stared at it for a bit then i stared into box of gliss and glints and picked up a pack of sherbet colour and looked at them both and thought to myself , well the sherbet could be used for a belly and the sea wave for a back simple idea for a small jack pike i thought ....

so then i had a brainwave (kind of like a super-moon that once every 200 years or so) why not blend the 2 together , mmmmm well to be honest some years ago i saw an article on an American site about blending and thought that's an interesting idea well it was because nobody was doing it at the time , old Enrico puglisi or whatever his name is (him that does fly tying videos in his garden on windy days of ep fibre fame) hadn't started doing it yet but i saw this article at the time and gave it a try with a bag of white and a bundle of angel hair , the end result was something that looked like a cats puked up fur ball so as you can understand i was somewhat hesitant of trying it again and wasting valuable resource ..............

i thought id still give it a try because half the jobes already been done because the flash is already blended in and the fibre itself is a little stiffer than ep so i was hoping i would be able to blend it without hopefully 2 much trouble or mess , i really wanted to blend these 2 colours as i thought they would look really good together so i set to work and i was very happy with result (ill do a blog on blending later in the week) as you can see above it looks pretty shit hot i did at the very end of the tye add a bit of black synthetic fibre along the back but in future ill just do this with perm marker as it will be a lot easier and there's enough of the fly in bulk anyway so i would be able to get away with that no problem

I've also asked nick over at deercreek if he would do a yellow and green blend of gliss n glint which he said he will and send a sample up , the reason is i think it would make a rather nice jackpike pattern so i look forward to that and i have the blending thing in my head with this now so no doubt you'll be seeing a few interesting looking combos over the following days and as i said i will do a step by step for blending it as if i can do it anyone can .

see ya all soon ice breakers and deer grillers

mcfluffchucker

(a cave in Scotland)

trout and about

OK so I'm primarily a pike and predator fly angler that's what i love to do that what i like to tie for , but the title of my blog is a matter of life and fluffchucking i.e my life and chucking flies after fish , you may have seen in a post or 2 i sometimes go to the odd stocked trout fishery for a couple of rainbow trout to eat (i don't trust supermarket trouts) .

as a young boy i grew up trout fishing on the famous river tweed where i honed my skills as a fly fisher and spent many a winter while in my room tying up march browns and the like . so with a little stream full of brown trout and the odd grayling a stones throw from my house id be daft not to have the odd chuck down there , its in the city but i go to spots where i don't get bothered by the usual "caught anything mate" "you should try a worm mate" moron brigade , i can be at this spot in 10 Min's and its nice to break out the 5wgt and go and play here even though the fish are not massive a fish of a pound would be a specimen but they give you a great spirited fight in the shallow clear water , and to be honest even if you don't catch its great to be out in places like this

i have a lot of respect for the guys that make trout flies i mean have you tried getting material on to a size 24 hook let along some of the things that people like ulf hagstrom and fred hannie tie just to mention a couple of names , so i have to laugh when after nearly 12 months of tying monster pike and saltwater flies on size 4/0 and above i once a year stock up on some favorite patterns for the river , although I've no idea what I've done with last years lot , probably in a box somewhere from last year , can take me a few gos to get it right on on a size 22 or 24

so theres really only a couple of patterns i need for here and they are pretty basic spider type patterns peacock body's with cock cape and that's it nothing spectacular but they do the job

so here's the basic spider pattern I've tied this fly will always catch me fish down there

this is just a slight variant on the spider in that I've added a fluro tag to it , the reason for this is that the local canal is on my route to the river so as I'm passing at dawn especially in the summer you'll often see roach on the surface and they love these , they will take the normal spider but they prefer the tagged version so i always carry a few it would be daft not to cast for 20 Min's or so to some rising fish before i hit the river and the roach are great fun of the light fly gear

so that's my plan for opening day on the river , back to the pike flies tomorrow as I've had some funky new eyes from deercreek to play with

happy days spring is here

mcfluffchucker

(a cave in Scotland)

party weekend

OK so your probably wondering what the f@@k was going on with the blog yesterday well my brother in Vermont was taking ice fishing to extremes by falling through the ice but luckily the daft sod only went waist deep although the VT water dept said it may take some time to clear the waste up ..................nice bro

anyway back to this weekend and I've got a massive long weekend of party's although I'm not having them I'm working them so gives me a chance to catch up with some stuff although tying flies ain't an option this weekend so did a few yesterday .

my muskie busters caused a bit of a stir so i decided to go with a more trad colour of red head and white body the head is spun deer hair but not packed tight this will mean it will give of plenty of sonics under the water and plenty of noise on top of it my next plan is to do some with dumbbell eyes to get a bottom hugging version ........

the tails on these and the others i posted up a few days are whiting farm bugger woolly bugger packs , really impressed with quality of the feather although you pay a premium for such things but £13.oo a pack for 2 big wings ain't so bad i remember not so long ago paying 11 pounds for one wing about the same size from an online company, if your interested you local orvis store will have the if not they will be able to order them in great long feathers well worth the money

i know its not pretty to look at compared to other sub bug type flies i do , if you haven't been there here's the link subbuggin adventures in deerhair plenty of stuff to keep you amused on there , the thing with these is to generate noise be it on the surface or under it get the predators attention and thats half the battle and these things really do shake em up

i wanted also to do something massive , i really wanted to tie a big fly just for the hell of it so above is tied on a 8/0 o shaugnassy hook and is near ten inchs in length , oh and quite fishable as ive tied it with http://www.pikeflyrod.com/pike-fly-materials/52-electric-green-slick-fibre-for-tying-pike-flies-.htmlwhich is very very light so although its bloody big being tied hollow tie style its very fishable kinda looks like a small jackpike it will give a great profile when wet

so thats about me for this weekend and if in the absense of you having nothing better to do this week check out some of the fantastic blogs and websites in the menue there is fantastic people out there doing this and you can also learn a whole heap of new stuff

a big shout out to my brother whos doing some cool shit in his cave

enjoy your weekend folks

mcfluffchucker

a cave in scotland

saftey on the ice

Know the weather, water

The urge to get on the ice right now may be overwhelming. However, a day of risky fishing and the potential for a disaster is far outweighed by a winter full of good, safe ice fishing.

Important factors in good ice formation include:

Steady sub-freezing temperatures; the colder it is for a longer period of time results in a better freeze up of lake waters.

Calm days and nights; the less the wind blows, the faster and more solid ice freezes.

Water type; if the lake you fish on or are looking to walk on is high in salinity, or is a large body of water or is spring-fed, it will freeze at a slower rate than that of a smaller clearer lake.

Heavy snows; if there has been a lot of precipitation in the form of snow (or worse, rain) the formation of good ice is hindered. Pay attention to the amount and type of accumulations that have occurred recently.

Vegetation; shoreline plants result in thinner ice. Cattail stands and tree roots near the water’s edge can weaken ice and slow formation. Avoid these areas when possible.

Location-specific factors; if there are springs, feeder creeks or aquifers that put water into the lake, make sure you know where those areas are to avoid weak ice. The more moving water in a location, the less solid the ice will be. Pay close attention to the weather, and talk to local tackle shops and fishing guides about ice formation, as they are usually the first to know.

One small step

When venturing out on to a recently frozen body of water there are some safety precautions that can help you be prepared for the worst. Bringing several important tools can assure that in the event of ice breakage and submersion, one can avoid hypothermia and survive.

The buddy system; the best idea is to NEVER venture on the ice alone. The buddy system virtually assures that another person will be along with you to help in case of a fall-in or broken ice.

Life jackets; they aren’t just for summer anymore. By wearing a personal floatation device (PFD) underneath a coat or overalls, personal buoyancy is increased, keeping the head and shoulders above water. This is especially important as cold water shocks the system, and when a person hits such cold water, a loss of breath often occurs, with less air in the lungs, the body is less apt to float. The added buoyancy of a PFD also aids in escape.

Spud bar; a long metal, or metal tipped wood pole can be used to probe unsure areas of ice, and can also be used as a walking stick when traveling on slick areas as well.; There are many types of safety spikes, designed to give traction to an ice adventurer, should he break through. Pairs can be bought at stores such as Fleet Farm or Scheels. However, the best safety spikes can be made of wooden dowels and nails at home. By putting a nail into one-inch diameter dowels that fit into your hands, you have created a floating tool that could very well save your life. Connect the two dowels with eye-hooks and a durable cord to have them comfortably hang around your neck to be used at a moment’s notice.

ugly bettys

so my trip today didn't happen due to a heavy snow forecast from 9am till 3.pm which to be honest i really didn't fancy being out fly fishing all day in a boat on a big Scottish loch , I've done enough of that in my younger days and not really wanting to repeat it again , i spoke to Stevie who agreed and we have re scheduled , don't get me wrong i honestly don't mind a bit of rain or bit of a snow flurry on and off during the day but not all day , the weather was going to be raining in Edinburgh today but Stevie decided he was going to go on his syndicate water and came round last night and borrowed a box of sub bugs so hopefully he would have had a few fish today ill find out later

so today ended up being a bit of a tying day my brother from another motha across the pond has a really sick looking pike catcher called the ugly betty

quiet a sick looking fly and i was blown away when i saw it and though i had to make a few of them , just looking at it fires me up to make some well i say make some i should say put my own slant on it which is what i did , you see I've not had a chance to speak to ken about the design of it but by looking at it i got to thinking it was designed to make a lot of noise on the surface with the foam disc at the nose end so I'm like yea I'm digging that and my brain kicks into gear and I'm thinking OK how about replacing the disc just with pile of spun hair

so i thought the best way forward was with a big 6/0 pike / musky hook as there is plenty of room on the extra long shank for materials and to get a good enough pile of deer hair to shift some water the main thing being to create a lot of noise i did a slight trim on this one so when pulled the water should spit forward , of course i could fish this booby style on a sinking line as well which i think would fish just as well


pretty much the same fly as above except i haven't trimmed the head at all this should cause more of a water displacement than the fly above it

again the same tye untrimmed but using a different colour deer hair for the head although I've kept with the same perch type colours the head looks a bit wild , but that's what i was going for plenty of noise

there big these 8 inches of pike snax but they are not heavy at all due to them being tied hollow tye style I'm really looking forward to trying them out ,

so the next one i think is to do some with dumbbell eyes as a mid water or bottom bouncing fly same concept as above (i say concept somebody's probably already done a fly like this before) but to fish hook up

the daft thing I've just realised is that these flies bear no resemblance to kens ugly betty's that i was going to tie but i ended up going off on a tangent i will tomorrow do some copy's of kens bettys as i actually think they are really good so stay tuned and to see the real ugly betty head over to my brothers site at pike adventures
http://pikeadventures.blogspot.com/

see ya tomorrow when maybe just maybe ill have done one
(mcfluffchucker)
a cave in Scotland

its a winner and some head magic

I've just got through watching this eagerly anticipated DVD from brad bohen i will be doing a review shortly but what i will say is this film is incredible i just could stop watching it and with 60 Min's of extras as well awesome absolutely awesome if you don't want to wait click on the picture below for sales in the UK and to watch a trailer , for the USA click the link below

http://www.thirdyearflyfisher.com/stillsmusky.html

this DVD will give you more pleasure than a good humping

Marc Petijean Magic Heads

quite a while ago i bought a pile of magic heads and used them on some patterns , they had just hit the market and i thought id give them ago i bought 3 packets of them and used 2 packs on flies that have long since been given away , well a couple of months ago i found buried deep in a box of random stuff the last packet , so i decide that id make up some smaller baitfish for my local perch population i had a free day coming up , well i say free i was watching my boy while the wife went to work so i set aside this time to do them i had already dug out the hooks and stuck the heads on to save a bit of time when i came to do them .....great plan

well it would have been a great plan if when i cam to do them id bloody remembered where the safe place id put them was AAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGG so that was that idea shot down in flames , well last week i was getting some hooks out for a couple of streamers i was going make i opened the bag of hook to find the magic heads staring back at me , I'm pretty positive i didn't put them in that safe place so obviously somebody had moved them not me of course.

nothing really spectacular about these there really just scaled down pike flies , of course they will catch bigger pike but to me if your fishing a venue that has other species then you will off course pick up other bonus species with flies this size which incidentally are 4 inch's and tied on long shanked Aberdeen's , the Aberdeen hooks are very light so you get the best fly shake with these , nothing wrong with using heavier hooks i just prefer the lightweight hooks go with what your confident in

i do have a really funky plan for some surface versions of these which i think will destroy the largemouth bass when i head to Vermont for my yearly surface fly fishing adrenalin fix on Champlain , more on those when I've cooked them

so starts another week and I'm hitting a big water on Tuesday so watch out for some stunning scenic pictures and hopefully some fish on Wednesday

later folks

on the crease

we had had a pretty good week this was my last day the water was like a millpond , we decided to try and bag a last min large mouth before i headed for home ken fired up the engine and we cruised for 20 Min's across the big lake to a shallow area , the water was crystal clear and like an aquarium as we slowly made our way toward the shore and rush clumps that would no doubt hold fish i gazed at the hundreds of small fish darting out of the way of the boat , small blue gills , pumpkin seeds , small bass and god knows what else darting out of the way lake Champlain is a truly remarkable fishery and a place i truly get excited to go and fish id go as far as to say for the fly fisher Vermont is heaven on earth

so we started to cast around fishy looking areas and ken was having a bit of success with his gurgler fly i was slightly deeper with a small bait fish imitation that the fish wernt overly excited about so with ken taking hits on the surface i decided to dig around in my box and chucked on a crease fly a simple silver crease with a rattle in i cast a long line and did a short strip pause retrieve , as i lifted the line and started to false cast i heard a very loud crash behind the boat and ken going dude large mouth land your fly in the ring , it was one of those times everything came together i was at the end of the cast so on the back cast i just let the line fall i looked round to see my crease had landed bang in the center of the ring where the large mouth had hit the bait everything was perfect i did a fast strip and pause as the fly hit the water and on the pause the bass hit the fly ken shouted "fish on brother perfect cast" and after a spirited fight i had the bass not a massive fish but i had done what i had come to do and what a way to finish the trip

that was nearly a year ago and i still look back and wished i had used more crease flies on that trip , don't get me wrong i had like 251 fish in a week i was well happy one fly alone counted for 71 of those but there was circumstances on that trip that i reckon i should have used more of them this year I'm in the big green for 2 weeks so that's so going to happen

so this year has seen the rise of the realistic eye firms like www.deercreek.co.uk have been stocking these fantastic looking eyes , although I'm not 100% convinced that it really makes a massive amount of difference to fish catches you cant deny that they really do sex the flys up and well you know the old saying about flies catching more anglers by design than fish , some people may differ but its just an opinion , i have to say that these new eyes do look bloody good

so i got to work on a few patterns , ill always make 3 , 4 or half a dozen flies as i always end up giving a few of them away to Friends fellow anglers so ill tend just to sit down and churn them out factory style there is something strangely therapeutic about doing these flies and i always just love the end result

pretty much one of the best all round colours for crease flies is silver with a black back this imitates so many different bait fish species in so many places around the work both in fresh water and in saltwater you really cant go wrong with it , usually i have then with a plain red epoxy eye but i got some sexy new eyes (click the pic above) from pike trek to play with so i added these real roach eyes and look pretty good , i think they would also be pretty hot on a green crease fly that ill try later

I've also done some in red with a red stripe and the silver eye really makes a great strike point they really stand out , i remember way back in my lure fishing days i used to do really well with a red and black Berkley lure on a local river so hell may as well do a crease version to play with.

i played about for a bit and decided to do a little perch type pattern and i cant help but really like what i come up with , threes many tutorials on the Internet for making these flies just YouTube crease fly , i like to use epoxy as a thin coat once i have stuck the body on the hook i then wait for it to dry then add any markings and the eyes before adding another coat to finish off , adding epoxy toughens the fly up and protects against teeth.

i used to use the standard 5 min epoxy for crease flies these days with advances in technology i use 2 UV products one is from pike trek called mr bond the other is from deer creek and is called diamond hard resin with the bonus that these UV resins are lighter than traditional epoxy so don't add that much weight to the flys , although you can by using normal epoxy get a nice slow sinking crease fly if you use enough , but for me the UV resins are good enough for what i want

as you can see from the picture above even with 2 layers of resin and a rattle inside the fly (the term fly is used very loosely) sits just under the surface how sexy does that look just imagine if you a predator looking for a meal mmmmm would you turn your nose up at that .

i still have some ideas in my head on colours and stuff so I'm going to go play some more

if you find yourself with enough money to jump on a flight to Vermont and you want to experience some of the best fishing on the planet then book yourself a trip with Vermont's finest guide , drew price is really a great all round fly fisher and his results speak for themselves here's a link to his site

http://www.drewpriceonthefly.com/

c ya later

mcfluffchucker

(a cave in Scotland)

new patterns from old ideas

another Sunday dawned and i had a long shift at work to look forward to , i also had a bee in my bonnet about doing some more flashtails for Stevie and doing some different colours and you know what happens when you start doing different things with a pattern yup you start to morph that pattern into a completely new fly just so happens that's what happened yesterday

i knew it was going to be a good day for tying , i just felt it in my bones so i decided not to take the laptop to work and concentrate on the flies and see what i could come up with i knew something would happen just wasn't sure what i was going to end up with to be honest

OK so i sat and knocked out a few blantons whistler type flies for Stevie and while i was tying them i was constantly think what if i did this or added that what would happen if i did this etc , so when i had a firm idea in my head i went for the tie deciding to go for something green to start with and the big difference is that unlike the whistlers i have added a rattle into the body and tied onto a 5/0 oshaughnasy hook the hook gives it a little extra weight if i wanted it to fish higher in the water id just use a lightwire hook the plastic rattle despite having 3 ball bearings has pretty much zilch weight and has no effect weight wise on the flies

so with the first one done and being happy with the overall result i decided to do the old classic red and white version , so this is loosely designed on the Whistler and I'm liking what i see , the addition of a very thin coat of uv bond over the eyes this adds a little extra weight at the front of the fly for added action without giving it too much to make the thing sink like a stone

so i messed about the whole day with this to try and get it perfected and by the end of the day i had quite a few sexy looking flies and at an average of 6.5 inch's a great predator snack

so with another trip after pike being planned I've a great place to try these out before i go hopefully ill get to try them before i go to the big loch but I've been tying flies for predators for a lot of years and I'm pretty sure i know a good fly when i tie it and this has my juices going think its going to be a banker so i think ill need to give this a name

has to be of course

A MCRATTLETAIL WHISTLER

tight lines folks

Dave l

(a cave in Scotland)

blantons whistlers and other stories

esteemed fly fishing buddy Stevie slight called me today , hes on a loch on Sunday and needed a couple of blantons tied up for his trip off course as it was my day off from work i was happy to oblige actually even if i had been at work id have been able to do them happy to help , Stevie likes the blantons flashtail whistler its become his go to fly well that's how it goes if you catch fish on a pattern then of course you have confidence on that pattern if you have confidence then that's half the battle , the other half is getting the buggers to take it

I've been tying Dans fly for a while and used them no less or no more than any others in my box great fly and if you would like to know more about the history of Dans original from 1971 yes that's 1971 folks http://www.danblanton.com/spssty.html enjoy the master at work

Stevie's flies ready to go

OK so with Stevie's flies done i kinda decide id maybe have to see what i could do with a bit of a tweek here and there and see what i could up with well , i had a think and although it doesn't really need tweeking I'm just one of those guys that just likes to play with patterns and although this is one of those flies that really doesn't need any kind of tweeking at all as its the dogs as, it is trying something different so i came up with the fly below

the fly itself incorporates one of ken capsey over at pike adventures epoxy heads with a Dan blantons body the eyes are new rubberized roach eyes from pike trek fins them here

soft gels eyes OK so it may be nothing ground breaking or extraordinary but i think it will catch and look forward to fishing with it

so i ended up playing around with some materials and just doing some filling up of boxes , i mean i had all the stuff out so it would be rude not too make a load for my boxes really

so as I'm not fishing next week , well i may manage a few hours on a local but I'm so busy with flies and my other job I'm struggling to find the time for full day sessions , I'm working all the hours in preparation for paying for my 2 week jaunt to American in July chasing all sorts and having a blast with my American fly fishing buddies so guess it has to be done .

i have got a very cool day booked on a big water that should be fun so ill need to think long and hard about what ill need for it get it right and it will be a cracker so i suppose id better get off and do some research

later folks

we made a ton

carp on the fly

Carp on the fly
friend and vermont fly fishing guide drew price from http://www.dponthefly.com/ has just had a fantastic article put into american online mag http://www.uscarppromagazine.com/uscarppromagazine/Home.html page 136 about carp fly fishing on lake Champlain in Vermont , now this got me thinking in this country carp are the cause of more marital breakdowns than any other sport (apart from the strip joints) , I even know of a guy who many years ago split with his wife and with half the cash from the house bought a lifetime season ticket for his local syndicate water for I know he’s probably still there on the bank. people were know many years ago to smuggle massive 40lb plus fish in tanks in the back of vans and they would sell these black market fish to unscrupulous fishery owners for literally 30 or 40 thousand pounds a fish, the thing was if you had a few big fish in your water you could charge what you like to be a member to fish it and be in with a chance of catching the things we are talking big money here.

drew price with a donkey of a fly caught carp and from a kyak
(photo property of drew price)

recently there was a fish called two tone (yes they name them in the uk ) and they had a bloody funeral for it even made the news in the uk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRXFlxXoysY so you get the picture carp in this country is a multi million pound industry …….
So I now go back quite a few years intact more time than some people have been on the planet, and I had a mail completely out the blue from a guy who fished for trout on a still water and this water used to be a course fishery and had carp in , it was fly fishing only and he wanted to know if these fish could be caught on flies . well I did some research and found that a lot of our American cousins were fishing for them with flies and crossbows but with flies that you wouldn’t dream about chucking around in this country so I got to thinking how would I do it, and deciding that taking a crossbow down the local fishery would probably see me getting lynched so flies it was then.

Well the idea for me was quite a simple one really I needed to tie something that they would be used to feeding on or have some memory off feeding on the answer was the wonder bait at the time dog biscuits yes plain old pedigree chum dog biscuits and trout pellets yup these were the wonder baits in this country and I thought if I could replicate them id be half way to sorting the problem out and the solution was just as easy shaped spun deer hair that’s it deer hair floaters in the shape of biscuits ……

one of my original chum flies

below is the original carp superbait the humble pedigree chum mixer which the fly above was modled on

I tied a few up and headed to a local coarse lake with a plan , id throw a few dog biscuits at some sighted fish and get them feeding when they were throwing caution to the wind id throw in 3 or 4 biscuits followed by my fly and bugger me it only fringing worked ok the fish wasn’t massive just 4 or 5 pounds but I had caught one on a chum fly I was rightly chuffed , now im not saying I invented this fly there was probably guys around doing it before me I just thought it out my way .
So with that in mind I tied this guy up a few and sent them off with instructions about throwing freebies in for them as well , I heard nothing for a few weeks then he got back to me saying he was having a great time catching these fish on the flies id sent him now that was a result .

So the next problem was what to do with shy fish that wont join the pack you know those big fish that are solitary feeders sometimes well I came up with a solution for that as well , you see carp do see the hook they may have got hooked a few times before and know to be wary well the carp world came up with a solution to this and it was called a hair rig there baits would sit on a small length of silk or low breaking strain line so the hook was actually sitting away from the bait , what happened then was the fish would open its mouth and suck the hook less bait in and the hook complexly free of the bait would follow after and the fish 9 times out of ten would get hooked as it blew the deer hair biscuit out (circle hooks were great for this as the got hooked as they blew the bait out) and being free of the actual fly you could use whatever size hook you wanted all you needed to do was tie the deer hair fly then clip the hook off at the back add a little varnish to secure and your done a brilliant way to catch wary carp , I actually quite fancy doing this method for pike flies as well ill have to look into it …………mmmmmm

Ok so you fancy trying this metod heres the way I do it

*first find your fish (even if they are feeding on the bottom you can get them to feed on the surface just look for nuddy water or tail tips and get you mixers on top of them)

*catapult or throw half a dozen chum mixer biscits close to the fish

* wait till they have taken all the free offerings

* get a few more onto them

* when there fighting for the offerings throw a few more in followed by your fly


“if you struggle to see you fly amoungst the free offerings you can always add some kind of bright yarn orange or white etc, when you tie them up it wont make a difference to the fish”

it an adreniline filled experience fly fishing for them as you can activley target the big fish using this method , so if you’re her in the uk and don’t like to pike fish in the summer get onto your local carp water and have some fun .

I also find it very intereting the way the americans go about fishing for them using nymphs crawdads and assorted patterns again years ahead in fly fishing terms to the brits , and I think in time it’s a method that like pike fly fishing will start to make an impact into this country even though people still think we are the lunatic fringe for doing it ..

remember to check out

http://www.uscarppromagazine.com/

I hope this has given you something to think about and mabey even get out there and try it , thanks again to drew price for making me remember things that id long forgotten about

Tight lines
Mcfluffchucker
(a cave in scotland)