Subbuggin 36 not out

Subbuggin 36 not out

a battered and tattered 2 season subbug finally lost an eye after a particularly savage attack from esox over the past couple  of years (yup designed to last these baby's) so I decided that rather than put it into retirement (the body was still sort of OK) id just spruce it up a bit and stick a couple of new eyes on 

So after gently cutting behind the eye the tattered remains are put to one side and a small amount of five min epoxy is mixed up and placed were the old eyes used to be, then is just a case of putting the new ones on and holding in place until the epoxy cures

And there you have it, as good as new (well sort off)

I actually added a little more epoxy at the front of the eye as a bit of an experiment weight wise and to see if it would make any difference in the action when fished (but more on that later)

Talking of subbugs I had a large order of subbugs to do so I hunkered down in the cave with some planet rock radio and got stuck in , each bug takes approximately 45 mins to make as I never rush them and I make each turn of the thread bombproof and I mean lets face facts if you buy a spun deer hair fly from an African tying house they will not last more than a few fish I know ive seen one fall apart after 2 fish , esox really go to town on subbugs so you need to really know to protect the tie on every single step of making them which is why they take so bloody long but it is a labor of love if the truth be told and the winning color this season , well ill let you guess from the picture above J

BUGGIN OUT 

I had a friend down passing through the neighborhood and I owed him a day on my local as the last time he was on it was bloody cold and miserable and the wind was really not being very nice at all , so we planned a day and hit the water , I have also decided that im going to be using subbugs for pretty much until October at least as I have a lot of new ideas for them so I only grabbed my top water box (yes there’s a couple of poppers in there but they have now been taken out the box) and because quite frankly they are a devastating pattern .

This is ideal bug water getting them in about the weed where the predators lurk and when the hits come they really do come hard usually with a massive splash of a vicious take you really have to witness these things hitting bugs on the surface quite incredible heart stopping action .

Paul my friend was obviously pleased that only 2 casts in this one hit the subbug on the surface, this was one of 7 or 8 fish he he caught and at least ten throwing or missing the fly on the surface, I think altogether we had around 36 fish hitting the subbugs it was quite manic heart stopping sport and fantastic fun you just cant beat it

SUBBUGS RULE

I used only 4 subbugs that day in the colors you see above, and yes there’s 2 black ones as one has a stinger hook (I was trying to convert some of those short strikes into fish in the boat) the small articulated fly was in the box and I had it on at the start of the day but I find it hard to fish anything else when I have subbugs with me, so it only got wet for around 10 mins 

Subbug pike crack , they just couldn't get enough of that crunchy esox crack great seeing a pike clear the water after one of these …..

DRY FLY FISHING FOR ESOX

Not as far fetched as it sounds to be honest , the pike were striking sticklebacks on the surface and I had just pulled my line in ready for another cast when I decided to take the picture above , my target was actually behind the ring where there were sticklebacks on the surface but as I took the picture a pike stuck its nose out of the water and took a gulp of bait now in a flash my mind went back to my last days fishing with brother ken on lake Champlain when a largemouth bass had struck a shoal of small baitfish behind the boat .

That time id been in mid cast with a crease fly and id let the fly drop right on the ring on the back cast and hooked the fish so I thought this aint no different if I can get a fly on it while its still there ive got a great chance of actually hooking it, so in a split second id dumped the camera and cast a subbug right on top of it first pull and bang it was on in a flurry of spray, teeth grinding, and general bad attitude. 

Being hooked so close to the boat it took off like a rocket. But the trusty pikesaber did the job yet again. And funnily enough on the repaired subbug I spoke of at the start , now Paul had more fish than me today but he was using a method id not even thought about for subbugs before so im going to play with his idea next week and with his permission ill write about it in the next blog , but if he dosnt want it shared then that’s cool but it’s a really interesting concept ……..and it works

In the boat after a short fight and released to fight another day a stunningly marked Scottish predator that fought like an Atlantic salmon just gotta love em 

 So as the sun started to go down the fish completely turned of and myself and Paul decided to head back to mine for a cup of well earned coffee , I have to also give a massive shout out to Paul who also bought me some black country *pork scratchings and and 4 bottles of banks bitter you’re a star mate and they were awesome thanks again.

 *for my American readers who may not be aware of what pork scratching are heres a link

http://www.porkscratchingworld.com/

BEACH BUMS 

Poor destroyer was in despair at two doubles coming to the boat when hes so tantalizingly close to getting his first double figure pike (this week pal) so to make up for it I decided to take him after another species on his hit list saltwater bass , now cracking the saltwater isn't the easiest thing so to get him hooked up I decided to take his to a local spot where there was a pretty good chance of getting a schoolie bass and getting a point on the leader board .

As the tide started to rise I was very confident , the water was lovely and warm and clear , I could actually see the odd flash of silver baitfish now and again as the tide rose I was electrified and so bloody focused on what I was doing I really was in that very special place that we fly anglers go when we are in the zone and you just know that your fly is working perfectly in fact so well you can almost sense the fish behind it , trying to decide to take it or not you can just sense it ……

Strike one a nice little school bass to start and we were off and running, even as I was casting the chap with the lure rod next to me said he could see fish chasing my fly, the destroyer was just about 15 feet above me and I was sure he would be next but then something very strange happened .

We should have been absolutely smoking fish out over the next hour but it died a death big time even the lure chucker’s weren't catching and if they aint catching on the rubber sand-eels then nobody is going to catch, we fished the tide right up and the only thing we saw being caught was mullet on bread (and I didn't have bread flies with me) , I really cant put a finger on why it died a death did sharks move in , did they see the destroyers legs , the wind changed halfway through was it that or was it that way out to see we could sea gannets diving on something was this sand-eels or small bait-fish , or maybe there were seals around (didn't sea any though) I really don’t know but no other bass were caught that day .

Mabey somebody who fly fishes for bass a lot more often than me could mail me if they have any idea as I only dabble in saltwater fly fishing and don’t claim to be and expert but id be interested to know what would cause this sudden turn off

 BROTHER MUSKY DID A GOOD UN 

Massive cool well done to brother ken in the states who did a 52 inch musky at the weekend awesome fish bro and taken on a pikesaber, who says it’s a rubbish rod …

Till next time fellow loonies

Mcfluffchucker

(a cave in Scotland)

kicking back with Mr esox and Mr destroyer

 A QUICK VICE TRIP BEFORE FISHING

 

So it had to happen at some point I spring cleaned the cave , well I say spring clean it was more like chucking stuff back in boxes where they belong as you may be aware this is only my temp cave until I get my own room back so after I had half tided it (there’s storage boxes  on the left hand side outa site) and hovered the floor and stuff I went and checked out a few of my favourite blogs starting with a fly tier who I respect immensely for his downright awesome patterns and that’s dron over at http://dronsworld.blogspot.co.uk/ this guy is simply amazing and his latest pattern was no exception . No as dron himself says just this isn’t his pattern it’s just his take on it

So I looked at this pattern and thought im just going to have to ramp it up for pike so I followed the very simple steps on his blog and came up with my take on his fly and came up with what you see below

I varied slightly from drons pattern in that I used gatso from piketrek for the body http://www.pikeflyrod.com/46-gatso-fibre-giant-mutiflash-fritz for no other reason than I didn’t have the same material as dron and to be honest after I had tied it a really thought it wasn’t going to be and issue as from looking at it and shaking it around a bit it would I thought work the same …………..

First cast and two twitches and bang that kinda proved that worked a few more will be hitting the fly box in various colors.

A NICE DAY OUT 

The pike in the picture was one of 10 that me and the destroyer had to the boat last week on a rare half decent weather day although it was quite bright and supposedly that’s rubbish for pike fishing but last year we had our best day numbers wise on a day that was actually hotter than today so who knows I suppose that’s why we go fishing and for a change the destroyer had the first fish of the day …..And he landed it 

Another one with a tiny head and a big body great scrappy fight and no matter what the size its always good to get that first one in the boat ……..

As we were in the shallow bay I decided to put a subbug on and then things got a little bonkers fish wise I was hitting one in 5 fish as you do with top water stuff I even had one come and swirl and miss 30ft from the boat I mean we are talking torpedo swipe here and it scared the life outa the destroyer I never understand how they can miss but they do great fun on the fluff everyone’s a challenge and a joy 

As we were on our way to our spot first thing we noticed a float tuber on the loch and as we passed we said hello and exchanged pleasantry’s and we headed to our spot , after a while we stopped for lunch and the float tuber started to paddle our way “we have a visitor destroyer say nothing and hide the flies” as it turns out it was friend and casting instructor and general really nice bloke will shaw (thing is im blind as a bat and didn’t realise it was will as he had his glasses and hat on …………lol

Will had beem (as we had notiched) leathering the fish out on his new secret method (sworn to secrecy here so I cant say no more) …….so we had a chat and a laugh and he floated of for what he said was his last cast although he was still floating around 2 hours later and still catching, nice to have a catch up as id not been down to orvis for a few months as id been a bit busy..

Conan with a lovely marked jack, check the colors on that tail no wonder hes smiling 

The subbug claims another such a devastating pattern especially in the summer months this fish was caught later in the day and things died completely after this fish , as happens in pike fishing the dinner bell rings then they all turn off , so we decided on trying for some perch 

So we headed down to the perch spot and I changed to small clouser minnow tied directly to the authentic wire , I actually felt quite confident as the sun dipped and the thought of small predators on the prowl I actually though I was in with a good chance of catching indeed also the destroyer was feeling the love so we anchored up and started to fish , and fish and fish and fish and fish in fact we fished for an hour over the spot without even so much as a tap , one day I will catch another enormous perch like I had a few years ago , in the meantime I just laugh at my efforts to deliberately target one …

So with a beautiful sunset over fantastic water which kept its bigger secrets for another week me and the destroyer to headed back to mine for a cuppa and arranged the next trip? not this week however as the kids were on school holidays and the destroyer was on holiday for a week camping somewhere (seriously dude this is Scotland) as it turns out the weather got the better of that idea so that’s another story ……….

 Me well im back in the cave this week as I have a shed load of fly orders that came in over a couple of days so I need this week to get those done and out the door so here is where youll find me if you need me if im asleep just leave a note ……..oh and yea yea ive heard all the cousin it jokes J

Pike adventures with ken capsey 

My brother from another mother ken capsey from http://pikeadventures.blogspot.co.uk/ has been a bit quite on his blog since Sept last year this was due to the brother being really busy with other projects and catching fish , I spoke to the other day and he has promised to get back on the case with his blog……… come on bro we miss your shit

Till next time fly tying friends

Your humble cave dweller

Mcfluffchucker

(a cave in scotland)

hot hot hot

New stuff

SHANK'S SHANKS

 New to the deercreek range is these fantastic shanks Hand made in the USA by Bill Shank. These if you’ve never used these kind of things are awesome for shy biting fish or even using them for foam poppers because the hook sits out the back so any fish making a swipe or interested nip will hook up fairly easily that’s got to be a bonus with fish like zander 

I do adjust mine slightly though I remove the split ring and put it at the other end and leave the swivel to attach the trace but that’s just a personnel thing you can just have the hook hanging of the split ring

2 1/2 inch and 3" inch 3 of each per pkt

Price: £2.99 from

http://www.deercreek.co.uk/HOOKS-AND-SHANKS.html

Heres the finished product a basic marabou pattern with an epoxy head the body has some flashabou tied though at random points very easy to tie all you need to do is Palmer the marabou around the shank and that’s it 

Before I attach the hook I take one piece of flashbou and one marabou feather and tie onto the hook, this creates a rather nice articulated tail how can they resist

Great value for money and very very very strong wire give em a go available now at

www.deercreek.co.uk

WHY DO WE DO IT

So after my merry holiday jaunt it was time to hit the water with the destroyer again and to be honest I was chomping at the bit to get and throw fluff , so his royal destroyerness turns up at mine and we hit the road ,

Much excitement was to be had as we rolled up onto the first spot which is usually a quick 20 min stop to get a bend in the rod but strange we stayed for about an hour and no takers no even a pull which is very unusual at this spot and with the temperature starting to rise I was beginning to get the feeling the fish may have switched off , last year we were out in similar temperatures and we bagged up but I was getting the feeling it was hotter already than that day as sweat was starting to creep down my forehead  

The destroyers confused look well he had put on some smaller trout type flies on and had a cast near a fishing to a platform and straight away he hooked a fish which almost in the blink of an eye snapped him off he redid his cast and stated fishing again and same thing he got snapped off , never one to give up he carried on and retied his cast and cast again but this time the fish stayed on and a lively little jack sporting some fine new lip jewelry came to the boat 

Cloud cover quick cast, the temps were starting to get a bit on the extreme side by this point so when this cloud came over it was a case of cast for your life 

By now it was lunch time and while the destroyer stuffed another scotch egg in his month and contemplated passing wind (it that look on his face that’s a dead give away ) I contemplated a change of fly not that I have many to choose from and decided I wanted something that I could fish very slowly but would give me a lot of movement so I delved into my bunny bug box and chose a bug in chartreuse with some lateral scale flash over the top if I didn’t get hooked with this then it just wasn’t going to happen even my gliss and glints and fried alives had been ignored now that’s bad karma

Still the sun beat down, even warmer than id felt it in a long time seriously was this a British summer happening 

I call this the green house, its an area of thick weeds that esox likes to get under and if you hook up here its really hook and hold, so the destroyer got the boat into pretty much the perfect position for a few shots at the edges , the trick here is to get the fly right on the edge of the weeds and let it sink for a few seconds before giving it a gentle pinch on the line to  

Stop it sinking and then a painfully slow strip and pause to get em hitting it.

The reasoning behind this is to when the fly lands the fish may see it from its cover then when you pinch it to stop it and make it move that first “puff” of movement can be the trigger to get them to strike if its going to happen it will usually be in the first couple of pulls but it’s a really exciting way to fish

And bang the second cast proves the point, on the second cast I had a fish on, you can see in the picture above I had cast right tight to the weeds at point 1 and the fish hit at point 2 the fish was clearly in among the cover staying cool and darted out and nailed the fly on the second pull proof indeed that I sometimes know what im talking about.

And a very welcome jack around 4 lbs graces the boat let me tell you I was grateful for anything on a day like this and as regular readers will know I believe fly fishing for pike is not all about how big a pike you can catch from chew or how many doubles you can catch in a week I really cant be doing with back slapping big fish hunters, its all about the method not about the size of the fish so don’t be put off that you’ll never catch a double , you will and when you do you’ll realize that is not all about that .please don’t be fooled by thinking you have to constantly catch big fish that’s really not what its about I can stress that enough go out enjoy the method enjoy tying the flies enjoy being out there as i keep telling the wife size isnt everything

So with the sun setting on a very hot day and 11 hours fishing coming to an end we headed to the dock and just chatted about the day and had a laugh and the large fish that the destroyer lost not that id ever mention that, not his fault it has to be said so if your in the Glasgow angling center and you see his beardness don’t mention the fish but instead ask him to show you his sunburned arse which actually resembles a pair of ladies briefs.

Sometimes people say to me when ive had a bad trip why do you keep going well ill just point them to the picture below I think that says it all don’t you

Many thanks to dust buster for the following comment re bffi post  

“What can I say! great show and a pleasure to spend money on the Deer Creek stand. no pressure from Nick to buy and very helpful.
Learnt a lot from your good self and spent more money at Castle Feathers for the tinsel!!
Keep on doing what you do best”

i do what I do for free I accept no payments from any company’s for what I write or do, I like to promote products that I love to use be it deercreek or any other company ill write about it I write a lot about deercreek because they have some amazing material and some amazing tiers on there books and being part of there pro team means I can talk and swap ideas and help develop new colors in materials with the other pro team members and again I do it because I love it, be aware though if I'm not keen or don’t like a product ill bloody write about and that’s just who I am im no backside licker so I guess a lot of people like that because the blog in the month of June had an incredible over 9 thousand visitors  so to each and every visitor I humbly thank you from the bottom of my heart I really am humbled

Tightlines and don’t forget the suntan Lotion

(mcfluffchucker)

A cave in Scotland

happy holidays

WERE ALL GOING ON A SUMMER HOLIDAY

 (But not before ive made some shrimps)

Right my wife announced sometime ago, were going on a family summer holiday. Were would you like to go (err Vermont obviously) as long as its Spain she says oh well ok so how about you go to the travel agent and book something close to the ebro (catfish on poppers im thinking hell yea) ok she says as she’s good with me doing some fishing . So while I was checking a few things out I decided to make a few shrimps up for the salty box as id no doubt get close to the sea at some point so played with some of the medium shellbacks from deercreek and came up with this cool looking pattern tied on a 2/0

After I tied it I thought you know it could do with some legs so rubber legs were applied and I was happy with the result.

Fired up I eagerly awaited te phone call from my wife telling me what part of the ebro we would be staying at , and a few hours later the phone rang and indeed it was the red headed acid tongued fire breathing Medusa I lovingly call my wife ,the holiday was indeed booked and what wondrous part of Spain had she booked for us “marmarus in turkey” she says ok is that a small village on the ebro , no she replies its in turkey .

Hang on that’s nowhere near the ebro or even Spain for that matter its cheaper and hotter than spain she says. ok a little rethink and I should be ok well im by the sea for gods sake 

touchdown

So at the end of june I find myself standing on a balcony overlooking a lovely pool in mad heat with a very inviting swimming pool inviting me in and for the next few days that’s what I did swam . The thing was id done some research and id found that the fishing at this time of year actually wasn’t that good as most of the main species I wanted wernt around till later in the year so I decided to take a 3 wgt for the mountain streams and an 8wgt for the scratching around in the saltwater .

First I had to suss out the area so we took a few tours and unfortunately I realised that fishing in the salt just wasn’t going to happen due to the extreme heat of the place and lack of places to actually fish on the coast, after the cruise we had on the second day of the holiday I realised that all the best places to fish were a few hours away or unreachable on foot (im going to hire a boat next time).

One day we took a jeep safari up into the mountains and I actually new that there was trout up in the hills so at least id maybe get to see some fish in the streams 

I had a new camera to play with on this holiday (cheers nick at deercreek) so as we were walking over a bridge I happened to notice a dragon fly land on a leaf some 30ft below so I took this shot and was quite amazed at the result so ill continue to play with it and hopefully get some cool shots 

Death from above

Check this thing out, it landed on my wife (brave) but when I looked I saw it had actually taken down a wasp and was happily sucking its brains out

Streams and waterfalls

On the jeep trip we stopped at a lovely stream and waterfall up in the mountains a really beautiful place with crystal clear water and further up the stream I actually was able to swim in a waterfall (ill spare you the pictures) but this was the bottom pool there was a further 5 like this on the way up  

Fish there fish yes I spotted fish, these were actually small trout at the bottom of a waterfall but I suspect these had been introduced for the benefit of the tourists still really nice to see , fisherman are like that staring into random bits of water in the vain hope of spotting something we could catch I do that every morning taking my son to school , there’s a stream we pass and Ive looked in it everyday for the past 3 years , never seen anything yet but twice a day I still look just in case fisherman are so much more that just holding a rod 

Also came across these golden and brown trout in a small pool where we had lunch again pretty much placed for the tourists but still lovely to see and they weren’t bothered an inch by the tourists watching them frolic in the pool

So with that I just kinda had to resign myself to sitting by the pool drinking cocktails but it was great to actually relax just a shame about the fishing back to normal this week though with plenty of tying and some fishing in my local to be done

Back at the bullheads 

Bullheads are an amazing fly they work just like glidebaits when stripped deadly the trick with tying these is all about getting the head shape and weight right I used to make these exclusively with ep fiber but now I make them with deercreeks gliss and glint plus this is due the fact I can get a far better bodyshape and the flash is built in saving a fair amount of time making them heres the recipe

Hook – esox 1

Thread – phantom thread

Body – gliss and glint plus (perch)

Eyes – hard eyez

Heres a link to a step by step and a short video of the fly in action

http://www.spanglefish.com/tyingpredatorflies/index.asp?pageid=281407

This ive done with ep but use the same method for gliss and glint but just leave out adding the flash as its already built in with the material

Right off to the loch

(mcfluffchucker)

A cave in scotland