i write about what i like

I LIKE THIS PRODUCT

(if carlsberg did uv kits this would be it)

BECAUSE I DO

i hate to start posts on a bit of a downer but im sick to death of idiots on the Internet you know the type keyboard warriors , well to those idiots i say this i write what i like and about what i like , if i choose to write about a particular product then its simply because i like it ,if i like it and it makes great flies then ill write about it to let others know about it , so don't tell me that im "ramming it down your throat" if i like it im writing about it if you don't like it then don't read it your choice but don't start giving it large about it again ill say this . i am not tied or paid by any company to promote products i do what i do because i like it end of ....... i don't do politics and im not interested in engaging you in your petty crap just go and fish .

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on the subject of new materials gliss and glint plus is now available in 2 very cool black colours one with a green flash and one with a reddish gold flash for it , im quite into black these days so was more than happy to get these 2 packs to play with

somebody saw one of these packs on my desk and said not a lot of material in that pack for pike flies , but actually there is enough to make quite a few flies with this stuff less is definitely more and if you use it sparingly you can make some great flies , there is definitely a thing in a fly fishers head that says i need to pile the material on to make a great big bait fish but actually you can get the same if not better looking fly by using just a few strands of material as the picture below shows , do you think the fish would notice if you use less material ........

the subject of circle hooks reared its ugly head again the other day and i found myself trying to explain the pros of them to somebody who wasn't ever going to use them anyway , but they are fish friendly and bloody good at getting fish on the bank . these days i don't even usually post pictures of flies done on them because it always starts a massive debate on the subject so rather than go through all that again if your interested in the whole circle hook thing click the link scroll down the page and you'll see a great article

circle hooks the truth is out there

a fly on a circle hook , just try it you may like em , the only bugger i find with circles is getting a decent fly box to store them in im sure something will come along at some point but in the mean time i use video boxes if you know something i don't please let me know

mixing things up a bit

you know there's no rule book written about fly tying so sometimes its just good to mix stuff up so that's exactly what I've done with this fly , for no other reason than i just wanted too and i was quite happy with the result

the main body of the fly is made from gliss and glint plus (ops sorry a blatant ramming there) I've used this as i wanted just a little glint in the body not a full on flashy body , added to this I've placed a few orvis woolly bugger feathers (is that a plug) and made the head up of normal prime northern buck tail hook on this is a gamakatsu sl12 6/0 bloody sharp

i must learn to use the close up button on the camera sometimes things are just a bit to technical for me but even though the eye is a bit out of focus i still like the picture .
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below is the fly in all its glory laid out and ready to go in the box i like the colouration on this and think ill play with a few more colours hopefully if the weather settles down a bit ill get out and about to test em , actually my bro over at pike adventures may want to play with the muskies before the white stuff sets in so it may go into a care package this week


so with that im off to do some more tying with materials that i cant name in case somebody thinks in blatantly pushing a product but if your interested in looking round at some lovely websites then go have a browse at http://www.deercreek.co.uk/ but please be aware you may find fly tying products there and id hate to think I've in anyway influenced you into buying some materials i just like the site as there's some lovely pictures on there

*please not any product placement in pictures on this page is purely coincidental , if you interested in any of the products i use please click on the relevant picture to go to the site , i have done this to save you time searching the Internet for the same product , isn't that a nice thing to do



mcfluffchucker

a cave in Scotland

p.s this is a blatant plug because its awesome and check the price

EAZI UV RESIN KIT

Our Budget resin kit the same resin just a longer curing torch (9 seconds) amazing value at

Price: £19.99

A BACKYARD in NOWHERE
(A fly fishing western)

There has been a few pike fly fishing videos lately and to be honest most of them are fantastic the last 2 great works have been the musky country did from brad bohen and the lair of the water wolf by Barry Reynolds which set the benchmark for fishing videos

Then we have this DVD from some crazy guys from Denmark who head to the wilds of Alaska in search of pike on the fly. from the start you know this video is something different something that in the back of your mind you knew you wanted to see but you didn’t realise what it was until you saw it, this is that thing, it’s a pike fuelled shot in the arm done in a movie documentary style, in fact imagine the blair witch project with tarentino as the director and your nearly there and it all becomes clear why we do what we do

The one thing that sets this off from other DVDs and takes things to a whole new level is the absolutely stunning slow motion footage of pike hitting flies and going airborne this is really some of the best footage I’ve seen they really got it spot on.

Along with the stunning fishing there is a some great scenes with the local Indians who seem to be permanently drunk, the interaction with the fishers and the Indians is worthy of its own movie alone, but I won’t spoil it for you as to what goes on but I was actually laughing out loud while watching it, the only thing I can say is remind me never to get baptized in Alaska

This is not a how to pike fly fish or a look at me and my big fish type of film oh no it’s a whole new way of creating an entertaing movie for the fly fisher and it does have everything including some rather disturbing footage of a run in with a guide company who work out of there ( I was shocked at the way these people behaved)

a BACKYARD in NOWHERE official HD trailer from Sellfish Media & Smatis Film on Vimeo.

but it does make very interesting viewing , I think if there was a downside to this dvd it would be the length , at just under an hour I wish they had stretched it out to an hour and a half , they were up there for 3 weeks so they must have a lot of footage maybe just maybe there will be backyard pt 2 coming out I really hope so because this has me gagging for a sequel , the dvd extra is a really bizarre music video with the fellas dancing in a boat somewhere now I wasn’t sure what was going on to be honest and then the fly rods appeared and it all became clear

Do yourself a favour go and buy it crack open a beer and enjoy the next level of fishing videos
Click the link to buy direct

http://flyfishingwestern.com/

video killed the radio star and a free economy

you know I'm all for a free economy and all that but you know theres limits to that and one thing that really gets me is money grabbing fly stealing tossers and i make no apology for what I'm about to write

i had a skype video call from a chap who wanted to chat with me and this is what had happened , he had bought a couple of pike flies from flies**line (not allowed to name them) and he was under the assumption that these were flies from Richard Todd at ukpikeflies.co.uk , now Richard produces some fantastic hand tied pike flies and they are of the best quality you can get , Richard like me puts a lot of time and effort into his flies .

so when i got the skype call i was shocked to see this fly had fallen apart before even seeing water , i looked at the fly through the medium of skype video i realised that it wasn't one of Richards i asked where he got them and i headed over to the site to find some really crap copy's of Richards flies , now like Richard i know that flies are copied that's the nature of fly tying and to be honest there probably nothing original out there in fly tying and we all feed of each others ideas and stuff and its a compliment when people do make flies that you have done and most of the time people will say where they got the idea ,i know i do if something is based on someones pattern then ill say so . because that show most fly tiers roll

but then you get the leeches like the guy who has had cheap shit copies made in china on crap hooks and then sell them as quality pike flies on there site at a fraction of the cost that the original tyier sells them for well listen let me tell you its a false economy because that fly you bought cheap will fall apart with one fish is you even manage to get it in the water so don't even bother buying that crap go to the original site (in this case www.ukpikeflies.co.uk) spend the extra few quid and get something that's going to last you a hell of a lot longer and more fish than that crap in the picture .............. and if your the owner of the site that sells that garbage you know its one of Richards flies don't try and deny it pal because i know for a fact it is along with the other garbage you call pike flies , stick to the trout flies

black is the new chartrues

I've been going a bit black crazy over the last few months and with good cause as its a devastating colour and all round fly to use the thing with me is i do like to tinker with flies and love to add a bit and try new ways to do stuff , the fly above i made with black ep fiber and green awesome hair flash through it , with this fly i tied the head bullhead style and trimmed it and I'm really happy with the results

this fly I've done with gold awesome hair but not tied the ep in bullhead style I've tied it hollow style , to be honest although i know it will fish fine I'm more happy with the bullhead style , but that's what its all about trying new things to see what works ill still fish this though

more dodgy video

i had a great reaction the wig vid the other day so when a facebook pal wanted to know how to do a thing on a fly that i do so rather than try and explain it in an email i decided to do a video and well to be honest i though oh bugger it ill just do the whole thing so below is the result

hope you enjoyed my ramblings yea Spielberg i ain't but you know i don't care i just enjoy doing them and if i can be of help to someone then hell why not help a buddy out then I'm quite happy to do it , and again feel free to share this video on your website or blog just let me know where its going (this video is not allowed to be used in china) so with that ill bid your farewell and see you all soon

tight lines

mcfluffchucker

(a cave in scotland)

wig vid

well had to happen i did a video for this black wig fly i was blogging about the other day , now i don't aim to make a professional video , that's not really what I'm about so please enjoy and hope you get something from it and as with all my other tying videos please feel free to share

tight lines

mcfluffchucker

halloween and cool stuff

if your one of these people that have a funky iPhone and are a pike angler then check out deercreek very cool iPhone cover they also do them in trout and rainbow trout , i for one cant be trusted with mobile phones as they usually end up in the bottom of a boat covered in water (q my trip with bother ken over at pike adventures ) so i limit myself to 10 quid/dollar pay as you go phones which incidentally i think were made with the angler in mind , if you haven't yet lost a phone by it either falling out your vest while wading , over the side of a boat chinning a fish , or falling out your bag into a pool of water at the bottom of the boat (cough cough) then its only a matter of time .

so its that time of year when shop start to stock Halloween stuff , now im not really big into it in fact its only in recent years that the UK has decided to do the American full on festivities with it strangely enough we don't get trick or treaters round my door but then that could be something to do with answering the door the year before in a loin cloth and with an axe in my hand ..

but it does present a few possibilities for the pike fly tier in the form of materials like Christmas presents us with lots of sparkly flashy stuff halloween usually presents us with synthetics .

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and so today id just picked up my son from school and i head to head to the supermarket for a few provisions and as i walked down the frozen chicken isle i spotted a display off witches wigs

and a rather fetching young lady on the front a bonus , now this stuff is made from the same stuff as a lot of synthetics and it cost me 3.00 UK pounds for this wig and the stuff is around 15 inches long so quite good value for money , this one is black and was the only colour they had but no doubt if id looked around the town center i could have found different colours

just to show you how much stuff there is in one of these wigs I've placed a tin of tuna (line and pole caught) on top and as you can see there is plenty, and as i needed to do lots of black flies i guess i struck lucky .

watch this space for some flies im going to tie with it tomorrow and remember next time the wife wants you to go shopping head along with her you never know what you'll find

tight lines

mcfluffchucker

(a cave in Scotland)

cold days and new ideas

i have no problem with asking for help if i don't know how to do something hell that's how you learn things helped enough people in my time and don't mind doing that at all . so when it came to thinking about a new idea i needed help , you see id seen a video on you tube with a chap using lead head jigs (no not on the fly) and the chap in question had used a stinger hook for these walleyes and actually did a great job on catching those short biting fish ,.

well I've had that very same problem before with predators you know so i got to thinking about incorporating this into some of my flies , i thought this would work very well with my sub bugs , trouble was i had no faith in the holding power of the stinger hook i just couldn't get it out my head that the connection would break on a decent fish , with that in mind there was only one thing to do , in times of indecision a call to my my redneck brother ken capsey at pike adventures was the the only option as he uses the very same stinger hooks on some of his flies .

after a skype video call with brother ken and a nifty little demo and some choice words from him (glue the crap outta it dude) i watched him do a test on the stinger loop and yup im convinced a fish and gonna break it

so lay down a bed of thread , i just use a normal sewing cotton

now as brother ken says glue the crap outta it , this will completely seal it and make it rock solid

using a stiff plastic coated wire tie in one side to the side of the hook shaft , then slip on your stinger hook and whip the other length of wire to the shaft , pinch both pieces of the wire together at the rear of the hook and whip down so the loop sits directly out from the back and not flat , this will mean you hook will sit properly and not to one side

the finished sub bug with a small stinger hook , I've gone for a small circle hook as circles are really the dogs rowlocks when it comes to hook ups and really its the ideal thing to use i think and you'd be able to get away with using smaller sizes of hook and being assured your not going to compromise on the hook up strength

this bug is designed more on ken capseys sub bug head over mine as kens heads seem to get the fly deeper on a floating line whereas mine will just trip under the surface , it all down to the packing of the hair but anyway i went with a smaller packed head and plastic eyes to give it a cool glide-bait action

the business end yea im liking that

the finished fly looking great in my book and hopeful it will fish like i think it will. test day coming up and i think ill do a few more just to make sure
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i was tying some flies up the other day and i got this particular fly down to being tied up in 2 Min's yes just two Min's so thought id share this really quick tie fly with you the possibility's are really endless when it comes to colours so knock yourself out and have fun with it , the video takes 8 Min's but that's because im talking through it but you get the idea , feel free to share this as with my other videos on your blogs or website , just let me know where there going

have fun if your out and a massive thanks to ken for the walk through and settling my mind

mcfluffchucker

(a cave in Scotland)

whats in the box jock

thanks to Bob Cozzo from Ely, Minnesota for a mail asking for a bit more detailed explanation on what i carry in my boat box , well happy to help bob here below is the contents of my box unpacked and on the living room floor (the wife is out)

my boat box is completely different to my bank bag and that again is completely different to what id take if i was traveling ultralight but more on that in another blog post , i tend to choose water specific flies these days that match what the fish are probably used to seeing swimming about , i also include a few flyer flies flies that id maybe not use on a particular water , so depending on season and what the fish are up to my choice of flies can vary greatly in both colour and size , the flies above represent what im hauling just now , again this can change from trip to trip

so whats in the box then

i carry a large ziplock bag which i put all my spools of leader materials this keeps em altogether and easy access on the boat if i need to change leaders i have all the spools in one bag ready to go

a couple of plano boxes one has all the deerhair head flies , I've learnt through experience that deerhair can be flattened if stored incorrectly , there is also a deep clip lock box that i have a reel and some spare spools in it fits great in the box and again keeps everything together , i also have in this picture a sea fishing rig wallet that i keep all my traces in ready made up and ready to clip on to a leader although ince discovering authanic wire it doesn't get out much now

i also carry a small range of tools and unhooking equipment i carry a few styles of unhooking pliers short ones tend to be what i use most as most of the fish i catch are usually lip hooked or just inside the mouth but i always carry longer ones in case i do deep hook one but this has yet to happen , knifes are also useful to clear weed of props and a million other things , i also carry a multi tool again a million different uses for it and handy to have in the box especially if you get a hook in the hand .

a longer type clip box is a recent addition to the box fits in a corner quite nicely and for my use carry a couple of spools of authanic wire a pair of small sharp scissors for cutting the authanic with , and i also keep a small box of cross lock swivels in here that i use on the end of my traces for quick change of fly , again all easy to access in one place , i also carry a small roll of electrical tape this has many uses from using as a finger guard when stripping line in the wet to covering cuts and using to mark you line to keep you fly at a specific depth in the water , a million uses

when every thing is packed away it all fits quite snugly into the box , the box itself is a daiwa seat bot that course anglers use in the UK , im not sure if you can get them overseas if you then a large plastic cool box will also do the job if you can get one with a hinged lid even better

the inside lid i have lined with a cut to size yoga matt and used a hot melt glue gun to stick it down on these i tend to have the flys im going to be starting out with and flies i want to try in the water also a great place to store used flies to dry , make sure all your flies are dry at the end of the trip if not take them out and dry them separately

i have a rapala clip on unhooking and scissors tool kit that your supposed to clip on your best , i clip it to the side of my box and i always have ultra fast access to a knife and unhooking equipment , and that's that hope it was helpful to you bob

on the vice

been a busy week for me topping up predatorbite with flies so ive had little time to play with my own patterns until last night when i decided to whack out a couple of buck tail patterns which came out better than i expected one in black with black flash

and of course one in chartreuse with a nice green flash through it like this pattern quite a lot will be playing with a few more of these patterns

while i was doing the predatorbite order i was churning out the flies and wondered how long it was taking me to do a rainbow trout pattern so i timed myself and i managed to tie a fly in 2 Min's so with that being so easy i decided to make a short video on the tie , the video actually takes 8 Min's or so but im talking through it but you ca tie this no bother in just a few Min's , a quick and easy but great looking fly enjoy




enjoy and see you all soon

mcfluffchucker

(a cave in Scotland)

adventures in diamond hard uv

ADVENTURES IN DIAMOND HARD UV RESIN
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DIAMOND HARD TACK FREE U.V. RESIN is quite amazing stuff and unlike other torch activated uvs out there this stuff really is tack free and cures in seconds and most importantly it wont break the bank , there's quite a few things you can do with uv but its not in my mind a complete replacement for epoxy or glue it has its use along side these products , and one thing i really do love about it is doing what I've blogged about today

these eyes are called sea eyes , i got these from rutland fly fishing in the UK but i don't think they do them anymore you can however get them from lake-land fly tying they are exactly the same ones here's the link aluminium sea eyes they are sold in packs of 25 for the ridiculously cheap price of 2.50 UK basically they are like dumbbell eyes like you get on clousers but these are made from aluminium and have a really cool recess that you can stick in your own 3d eyes so of course this brings up a gazillion possibilities for the fly tier , and the other bonus is being aluminium there are very light which in turn reduces the sink rate of your fly over the trad metal dumbbells , these ones being large are also a great option for the pike fly tier

I've used these eyes quite a lot in past and before id have to mix up a little 5 min epoxy then ad a bit to the recess then place the eye on top then add a another little bit of epoxy on top of the positioned eye then wait for it to dry before turning the sea eye over and repeating the process this takes a bloody age to do and you can only do a limited amount of eyes at one time before the epoxy goes hard and you have to mix a new batch up

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as you can see in the picture above the handy dispenser makes it really easy to drop a little bit into the recess of the eye

i then place the small 3d on top and push down with a bodkin as you push down the diamond cure will overflow a bit at the sides but don't worry about this as it will even itself out on the next step

just top up with diamond cure to completely seal the eye in , it will form the shape of the eye just don't overfill the eye for the best results , you can always just add a bit at a time curing as you go till you get the desired effect and thickness

curing takes seconds with the very cool half the price twice the job of other similar looking torches ultrafire uv torch and seconds is really all it takes , the torches come in a an amazing 19.95 UK with batteries fitted compere that to 34.oo UK on other sites well that's quite a saving for the same torch

so having set the eyes you need to prepare the hook i still go with the old build a dam on each side of where the eye is going to sit (you can just see it with my rubbish photography) im also using a clear mono thread from uncle Greg over at piketrek and its only 1.50 UK for 200m another bargain

so what i do know is add a covering of diamond hard over the thread and on the spot where the eyes are going to sit , you only need a small amount on there




sit the eye on and whip round a few times to hold it in place add a small blob of the diamond hard to the dumbbell whipping

then zap it for a few seconds and that's all you need

this has set rock solid and you wont be able to shift it a great solid bond


ive just decided to do the most messy fly in the world just made up of angel hair and nothing else plenty of flash and plenty of movement

some red angel hair tied in under and in front of the eye and fold back and secure cant beat some red in head

there you have it a great looking sparkly fly with a rock solid eye , of course you can pretty much add any kind of eye you like to the dumbbells , and its fast and easy to do give it a try ,

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and that's me for the week no fishing due to bloody awful wind this week here so maybe next week ill maybe get out who knows if i don't at least i can get onto vice for some entertainment

mcfluffchucker

(a cave in Scotland)

welcome to scotland

you got to just shake your head sometimes , id looked at the weather forecast and it said bright with 10mph winds , not the most ideal conditions for pike fishing but sometimes you just got to go with it , and that's what i did the forecast said the wind would die down and to be honest i could handle 10mph even rowing by hand so with that in mind i arrived at the loch with a 50/50 confidence but sometimes its just great too be out in beautiful surrounding's

i was on the water early to make the most of things i like to get on water early first light if possible give me a better chance of being on the money when the underwater dinner bell goes off , so i rowed up the loch to my first spot and tried a few patterns around the area for a few hours .

there was nothing much going on using the intermediate line fishing down through the layers so i decided to change over to a floating line and an ugly Betty fly on the surface to see if i could get them agitated to take a surface fly making some noise i fished around the edges on some of my favorite lies where bank access is difficult so threes a bonus right there

with the wind getting up even worse and only a few half hearted nips at the flies i decide to take a break and dig up a late breakfast and think about what i was going to do next as i wasn't coming off the water till i had a fish to the boat , i knew the conditions were getting even harder with a now scorching sun beating down and the wind up to way more than 10mph i seriously needed a rethink on tactics , sometimes a radical change is the way to go on a hard day , the bummer is if this water was in the states id just stick on a gurgler and go largemouth , well it ain't its Scotland so a rethink is the only thing i can do

my thinking was black yup plain old black flies on the bottom ya see the water is still pretty green and rubbish visibility and i figure on such a hot day i figured the fish would be down on the deck , so i rigged up a 5 inch subbug in noir (black to me and you) i also changed to a stripped bass intermediate line as i still wanted to search out the layers with this fly , first cast i let the fly go right down and did a strip pause strip and within a a couple of pulls the rod arched over into a satisfying curve FISH ON BABY the bug does it again

a first look as it shot to the surface very annoyed at getting caught out

the way the bug was sitting in the pike mouth i guessed id pulled the fly right past its mouth anyway the fish couldn't resist the passing snack and it nailed it check out the teeth

just got to love those predators and on a day where conditions were bloody awful i was delighted to be holding a well earned fish


and there you have the killer bug , this is highly visible in the water and the 7mm animal eyes give it the action of a glidebait in the water , used with the wonderful authentic wire from predatorbite.com give this sub bug maximum movement in the water i mean this thing really does look like a fish in the water

so my box of shinny stuff was confined to the box all day , as i carried on to miss a load of fish to the bug mostly turning at the side of the boat in shallow water that all they wanted black bugs .

so with the wind getting up i decided to head back to the dock and home as there was white caps starting to happen and that's never a good sign . its really quite rare to have a day like this in Scotland at this time of year and from now on i think the weather will go down the pan its already being forecast snow for the end of October , but ill still manage a couple of trips out and hopefully a few more through November if the snow holds off well you cant believe the forecasters
got a busy week ahead lots of tying to do so stay tuned midweek

mcfluffchucker

(a cave in Scotland)