and were off

A POSITIVE START TO 2013

indeed it is very positive. ive got a whole heap of stuff going on this year and a lot of it will include hairy sidekick the destroyer which include tackling some monster night feeding predatory brown trout in the summer on the surface at an undisclosed location in the highlands with floating baitfish flies (that is really going to be a blast) .

I’m also on a mission to get a big perch from a local venue that I know are there but had little success last year , although I wasn’t trying that hard really , there’s also some saltwater opportunities that im looking into and of course im heading to the usa in october after musky and big northerns (and maybe the odd bass or two) ill be doing this in the company of my brother from another mother and vermont fly guy ken capsey having fished in vermont with ken before and catching over

200 fish in a week im really looking forward to that trip .

And of course the fly tying , ive got thousands of ideas floating around for various patterns and no doubt there will be some new colours of gliss and glint plus to throw a spanner in my plans

im also going to be doing a bit of wild brown trout fishing this year something ive not done for a while , the other thing ill being doing and notice I said “doing” and not maybe is to get the destroyer his first double figure pike , he came so close last year but the fish chucked the hook , nothing to do with the destroyers fishing ability’s it was just one of those things so that's high on the cards seeing his big beaming doughnut shaped face with a large croc in his arms .

First tie of 2013 

 I was on the skype the other day and brother redneck was tying up bucktail baitfish which I thought looked really cool so I tied one up but I used a thin layer of gliss and glint plus matching the colour of the bucktail on the back to add some length to the fly , there is some fibers out there that you cant mix with other fibres but so far ive used gliss and glint plus with ep fibre , slinky fibre , sf fibre , deerhair and DNA and it mixes quite well with these if you mix the likes of congo hair (called funky fibre in this country ) with the likes of ep or the fibres mentioned they don’t take well with each other and act pretty bad in the water so stay well clear .

Anyway the fly aboves recipe

(highlighted is the links to products used)

hook – esox 2 5/0

thread – phantom thread

eyes – 7mm cutthroat gator eyez

belly – white bucktail

lat line - iced mojito gliss and glint plus

back – olive bucktail

the bucktail in this picture is pretty much generic you can use whatever you favorite brand is I favour the buctail from orvis and the glasgow angling center as a close second if I cant get the colors I need from orvis  

JUJU TIME IN THE CAVE

 im thinking im needing a clean up in the cave or maybe some more boxes to keep stuff in , I usually come up with some great storage solutions while sitting tying flies unfortunately I usually forget what they are the next day   

 the boards starting to fill up again and im in need of a bit of a tidy up putting fly boxes away and stuff because by the end of this mouth this board will be full and then they will be heading over to www.predatorbite.com if you fancy some new flies tied directly by me and not some tribesman in a mudhut in Kenya

Small is beautiful

 I saw with interest an article in a fishing magazine which was written by a guy in the UK called Dominic Garrett in which he ties a funky little fly with horns for coarse fish in the UK I actually really liked his design and the way it works so I tied a couple up using diamond hard flex .

I do love to tie smaller stuff now and again it takes me back to my roots as a young child living on the banks of the river tweed and because I lived in a castle in fact the one in the picture below

yea yea I hear you say but actually I did , as a young boy my dad was a butler here to the duke of roxburgh and we lived on the premises and the river tweed in front of the castle is where I started my fly fishing life I think I was around 8 or 9 years old , I used to go down to river with my dad and watch him (try) and fly fish for trout he caught a few and it sparked my interest as a hobby it wasn’t till I was around 10 or 11 that I was given a small wooden box with some feathers and other fly tying stuff and I started making small flies like march browns which I got quite good, at after a short space of time I progressed to greenwells glory’s and butchers in fact these were the only flies I ever used as a kid because they caught me trout , grayling and sea trout from this stretch of the tweed all season I knew nothing about hatches and the like , Id get home from school grab my cheap woolworths fly rod walk across the field and fish for an hour catch fish and then go home for food id do this every chance I got and my crude little homemade flies kept me entertained all summer .

So its nice to sometimes get back to my roots after long periods of tying big predator munches now im noway in the same league as people like Conan the doughnut and other guys out there that I respect for there skills like Fred hannie , Andy Saunders, ulf hagstrom indeed just check out pro team on deercreeks website or facebook page to see some of the most fantastic creations out there

class nymph courtesy of the destroyer

 im now gearing up the fly tying again and I was asked to do a quick video to make a tube fly for pike , as you probably know ive messed with tubes before and am still undecided about them for pike and predators but I shall be fishing them a lot more this year to get a wider picture on there usefulness , in the meantime here’s a little video I did

 so we have a lot of really horrible weather on the way which for me equates to more time at the vice , I had a tying day planned with conan today ,the last few weeks its been called of due to illness both fro me and conan and work stuff so I was really looking forward to getting together for a chinwag and some tying but it again wasn't to be this week ,

at the start of the week I came down with the dreaded noro virus but by Thursday afternoon I was feeling great so I texted the doughnut to arrange a time and what we were going to tie , then this morning (Friday) my step daughter came down with it , then my wife came home from school sick (no my wife isn’t a schoolgirl she’s a teacher just in case you were raising an eyebrow) so today was also called off sorry pal pencil in next week this will be waiting for you buddy

 see ya soon

mcfluffchucker

(a cave in Scotland)

last post of 2012

Pass me a doughnut ill be back for breakfast

dont time fly when your having fun , well fun ive not really been having as such as what with my job going crazy the family gearing up for Christmas and the odd spot of illness that's been doing the rounds ive pretty not had much time to get a blog post together but I have been up to a few things read on fellow fluffchucker and all will become clear

 first off I had the destroyer round for a fly tying day and he always brings a choice collection of doughnuts with him in fact not much tying gets done much of a distraction sitting there besides us so nothing gets done till we fortify ourselves 

 the destroyer as ive said before makes some of the most amazing nymphs so its been a pleasure these past few months teaching him the fundamentals of pike and saltwater flies and its been really funny watching his face as I place 8 inch’s of material onto a hook those 8 inch’s would probably do him for a year in trout flies , but he getting the hang of it and starting to produce some very cool flies himself and he’s actually getting the confidence to fish his own flies as well  

 he also a complete convert to deercreeks UV resin after using another inferior well advertised product he can actually tell the difference and as a non biased view says its better , hes started doing some really amazing buzzers ill do a feature early next year on his flies as they really are quite amazing , but this day he was round doing some patterns for saltwater bass fishing trip we had planned so a few eels were called for and as always he picked it up dead quick and we were churning out quite a few for our trip

 heading into the salt

 I tend to take only the bear minimum of stuff when I go saltwater fly fishing a waist coat or rucksack is about it and in this I have as you can see from the picture a few boxes of flies , unhooking gear, water , wipes leader material and that is about it everything you need for trundling around in the salt . Has to be said a few pies and a couple of doughnuts would be added to the rucksack if im fishing a long day  

 I have a few flies of choice when it comes to mainly sparsely dressed bucktail patterns , thin in profile to emulate a small sandeel or fry of some kind these always do well for me with white with red dumbbell eyes outscoring other colors when the going is tough

 the ever versatile thundercreek minnow also has a place in the box I finish the heads of with deer creeks diamond hard uv which pretty much makes em bomb proof , such a versatile fly the thunder creek, ive tried making them in synthetics but I just cant seem to match the look or feel of using bucktail to make them but whatever the fish still love em  

 pink is another colour I love to use in the salt , this time pink bucktail back with a white bucktail belly and a DNA flash tied on a hook eye and fly clouser hook this color also works really well for pike believe it or not give it a try

 sandeels of course are another must have for any saltwater fly fishers box I have a couple of favourite patterns that I use above is eels made from orvis superhair it has a nice crinkle in it which keeps the eel fairly stiff in the water the head is finished with deercreeks diamond hard uv tied on hookeye and flys esox 2s

 the other is a basic DNA sandeel with small deep water dumbbell eyes a great simple little fly that takes a amount of fish and pretty easy to make as well . So with that I was ready to go , unfortunately the weather took a turn for the worse and our trip was scuppered the sea is not a mistress to play with and I dont take chances so we ended up back at mine tying flies and well we had doughnuts to eat so we just made the best of a bad day  

 the destroyer is like a sponge at the moment wanting to suck in all the tying styles he can so with today being blown off I decided id show him the first steps towards making subbugs so I showed him how to stack and trim and mix colours with sheephair to make some tasty looking snacks , this bullhead is designed to be fished on or off the bottom short sharp strip and pause will bring this up and then it will sink back down , a great fly when the fish are playing hard to get and sulking on the deck ….........

 conan as always did a fantastic job with his first tie (his is behind mine)  

 THE DEERCREEK FACTOR

fly by markus hoffman

been a great year for materials from deercreek and the last ties of this year prove without a doubt that gliss and glint plus is the greatest material ever made honestly they just keep delivering the good time after time this material looks absolutely unbelievable with glints and flashes that really does look like a fish in the water do yourself a favour if you havent already then head over to www.deercreek.co.uk and click on tying materials and you’ll find gliss and glint further down the page , check out the cool colour chart and at only £1.99 a pack its simply does represent the best value out there without compromising on quality , all my flies also feature deercreek eyes , they have now become the market leaders in eye design if you see others out there that look the same then you know where the idea came from go with the best folks  

 team 2013

 hook eye and fly

our predator hook site continues to grow  

 we are adding new products all the time we will be shortly adding these funky new black night streamer hooks very similar to the orvis pike and musky hook this is a fine sharp hook they ain’t bending off with these hooks

offset baitfish 

 we are also stocking this very nice offset baitfish hook great for baitfish patterns and laser sharp the offset helps hook up rate and also with an offset you will find you have a greater lip hook rate than traditional j hooks an advantage for the fly fisher

PHANTOM THREAD

 we are also stocking phantom thread a fantastic mono thread designed for synthetics , normal mono threads can snap quite easy , a problem ive had when applying a bit to much pressure to materials , phantom thread has been designed to be 30% stronger than normal mono threads making ideal for the likes of ep fire and gliss and glint plus all these products can be found over at hook eye and fly you find the link in the links menus at the side of the blog

2013 is gonna rock

as I write this on boxing day 2013 and christmas is thankfully behind us , I have a whole heap of cool stuff to look forward to next year me and the detroyer will be back on the pike around the end of feb early march and mabey some grayling up till then if the weather is kind to us ill be disappearing to the Mediterranean for a week in the summer in search of a few exotics on the fly and in october ill be heading to my second home and american family in the form of ken capsey and vermont fly guys in search of northerns and muskys in the lake champlain area and to be honest im stoked and cant wait to get back last time I was there I had 251 fish on the fly in a week and a whole host of different species , theres also going to be some chasing of some cannibalistic big brown trout that enter a small river from a big dark loch and feed on small fish in the shallows of the feeder river , for me as a predator fly guy who fishes baitfish patterns this is going to be a rush if we pull it off the plan of attack on that one is 4 inch gliss and glint plus baitfish fished on the surface in the dark what a rush and of course plenty off mayhem throughout the year with fellow maniac and regular to this blog conan the destryer  

 so to sign of for the year id just like to thank all of you for visiting this blog from around the world the kind messages I get sent (I do reply to them) to the people at deercreek who blow my mind and keep my creative juices flowing with there incredible products to piketrek for the pikesaber my trusty weapon of choice for the past 3 years (never failed me) of course to conan my Scottish brother in crime for all the shit we are going to get into in 2013 . To www.predatorbite.com who stock my flies and give me somewhere to chase monsters and of course ken capsey and Vermont fly guys who always keep me in check (Brian get the steak ready) .

BEST WISHES FOR 2013 SEE YOU ALL ON THE WATER SOMEWHERE IN THE WORLD

DAVE MCFLUFFCHUCKER

(a cave in Scotland)

hi folks

sorry for the lack of post in the last few weeks ive been real busy with work and of course tying flies ill have a post up with fly activity and stuff in the next couple of days

 

have to say thanks for all the messages of concern but im good thanks

 

dave mcfluffchucker

 

a big wet blueberry doughnut

 TRUSSED UP LIKE A TURKEY

had to be done sometimes I just get the urge to tie something that takes a stoopid amount of time to make ill sit at the vice for bloody ages making a single fly for no other reason than I had an idea well I just had the idea that I wanted something in natural but I wanted it not only big but I wanted it with plenty of movement and to act like a dying fish when stripped , I had the idea in my head the night before while watching some tediously boring cooking programme on the TV , well I wasn’t watching it the wife was ive no idea why as I cant remember the last time she cooked me Caramelized pears with Braised pork loin starter followed by Roast of lamb with a home made balsamic reduction followed by Steamed Lobster

Filet Mignon Roasted duck with raspberry glaze and finishing of with a nice Cheese soufflé and all cooked and ready to eat ten mins after walking in the front door like this woman on the tv has done anyway it must have been the lobster that set me about thinking about fishing flies and I only had another 15 mins of this cooking show before scooby doo came on so with the pattern in the drawer in my head marked “tie tomorrow” I watched scooby and went to bed  

in the morning the pattern was still buzzing about in my head so I had breakfast and headed to the vice where after an interesting couple of hours I came up with the patterns above and below kinda based loosely on a flatwing and a deceiver I think it came out ok but of course the test is getting the 10 inch beast wet (more on that later)

the pattern

hook - 6/0

tail – chartreuse/white saddle cape

belly chartreuse/white bucktail

feathers – a combo of metz and grizzled cape

eyes - deer creeks crystal eyes

------

WATER CALLING TIME TO GET FLIES WET

me and Conan the fly destroyer had arranged a pike trip on wed and a grayling trip on Friday these would be wading around jobs and no boats involved at all (well the boats are off the venue for winter anyway but I can still fish from the shore) so it would be a travel light job 1 rod waistcoat a few packs of flies (that took a while let me tell you) and I would only have to change the rods and flies although Conan was going to be providing the grayling flies for Friday I was actually quite excited  

so above is my kit for the pike trip nothing to flash and as regular followers of my blog will know choosing just a handful of flies for a trip is a bit of a daunting task , but I pretty much knew the colour schemes that I needed and being quite cold I wanted flies that I could fish very slow but still have plenty of movement the seed was set.

THE BLAIR WITCH DOUGHNUT BOX

there’s some strange sights in Scotland (not just me and the destroyer) its getting to be a bit of a fishing tradition Conan brings blueberry and lemon curd doughnuts on our fishing trips we firmly believe a couple of doughnuts around lunch time gives you that boost you need to carry on chucking big flies into the evening well that’s what Conan says anyway and who am I to argue with a man who truly knows his doughnuts. 

Every wondered what a fly reel looks like that been submerged for years well while I was down looking at the water I found this which a trout angler had obviously dropped in the water strange there was no line on it though hope he hadn’t just bought it and dropped it in the water ouch that would have hurt the wallet

BUY A FLY MISTER

fellow fly enthusiast and up and coming young jedi pike fly fisher conan the fly destroyer has started to tie a few of his own patterns and is slowly filling his spanking new fly box although the chances of it staying sparkly are not very good to be honest and im pretty sure those lovely bits of fluff in his box will a bit battered by this time next year and im sure he will have a few more boxes as well its a downward spiral this game

so we arrived at the loch and what a horrible day it wasn't raining very hard but it was that fine famous “scotch mist” its almost like a fine mist but bloody soaks you right through pretty unpleasant to fish in and not my most favored fishing conditions to be honest but we were here and ready to give it a go more chance of catching something if you have a fly in the water rather than sitting on the couch at home so we donned wet weather gear and headed into the water 

the water levels were down by around a meter so we had pretty good access to 90% of the areas we cover by boat on here in fact the picture below where conan is standing I take quite a few that very spot but bugger me it was cold in that water the water was also fairly clear so I was able to go through a whole heap of fly colours although mainly green and olive and work them really slowly , ive found In cold conditions the pike don’t like to expel a lot of energy chasing food but if something comes close enough it will take it as an easy meal and that’s the trick of winter fishing , yes you can catch them on the fly but it can be a bloody hard road but it can be done , perseverance is the word for winter and besides every time you fish a day in winter its a day nearer springtime but don’t beat yourself up if you don’t catch still better being out there trying and if it does get to cold for you there’s always the vice to fall back on and boxes to fill

at the top of the page I had tied a couple of monster flies well mission was a complete success , now its not very often I blow my own trumpet but this is the most life like fly ive ever made it hangs in the water perfectly when stripped it glides from side to side like an injured baitfish when short stripped it hangs on its side on the pause and really does look like an injured fish although the pike didn’t think so today kept me entertained for a while just watching it even doughnut boy was impressed I think I maybe onto something........

look into the sky point your saber and you will be blessed by lemon cured doughnuts  

I continued to wade the sides right up the point in the distance casting as I went fishing really slow with the occasional quick tweek to add some life to the fly and create that trigger point that can force a predator to reaction strike but to be honest I wasn’t feeling confident at this point , there was a lot of water flowing into the loch from the hills this is always a good way of keeping them off the feed , I never do that well in prolonged periods of rain dont know about anyone else .

Results today were

fish 1 - dave 0

fish 1 – conan 0

1 lost fly

1 lost fly line

soaked to the skin

sore feet

sore back

fell in a swamp

cracked wheel rim

not enough doughnuts

all in all not too bad a day really oh talking of doughnuts Conan decided to try some voodoo magic and changed into his lucky Mr doughnut outfit , but it didn’t work  

 below is the result of being out in scotch mist the stuff gets in no matter how trussed up you are in waterproofs

we were due to go grayling fishing on the Friday but after a phone call on the Thursday it seems we had both fallen foul of the cold and wet and were both feeling a bit crap after out soaking and the river was also starting to flood so we but the grayling trip on hold again roll on bloody spring , we have some great targets for next year including a lot of chasing new personal bests and new species on the fly for the fly destroyer in the mean time I think ill be spending a bit of time at the vice …...

PREDATOR BITE IS GO

really happy to say the crew at predatorbite have updated there website and is now all predator flies only and saltwater patterns this is going to be a great resource for those that don't have time to tie there own book mark the site and keep checking back for new patterns and updates .

You may also notice ive started to add a few sections at the top of the blog in the form of click able tabs , the first is a basic guide to pike fly fishing kit , the reason ive done this is because I get a lot of emails from folks who are interested in pike fly fishing but don't know where to start , now I like to reply to everybody who emails me but im sure you'll understand it takes a while to reply to everyone so ive put this up as a quick reference page to those who wish to have a go , now the gear that's in there is the gear I use and am happy with there is obviously a lot of different brands out there but this is just what I use , I will be adding a few sections over the coming weeks including methods and flies to use so please feel free to share these

heres to spring

mcfluffchucker

(a cold cave in Scotland)