flies glorious flies

quick the suns out in scotland get the bbq out

finally i got down in front of the vice today I've been gagging to get some flies done but life does throw a spanner in the works sometimes and i had planned to get a load done yesterday but we in Scotland had a very rare day of hot weather so the BBQ was dusted down and homemade burgers were chucked on beers cracked open and well that was that for yesterday

CLOUSER TIME

so the humble clouser minnow probably the most famous of flies you could in theory make a dozen of the fly above and be able to fish for pretty much anything that swims in the world although the fly above being 6 inch's may be a bit large for your average small trout but it will work for pretty much any other predatory fish ..

BLACK AND YELLOW ATTACK

so why the closers well they are for one a very good fly and pretty much under used in this country for pike but with there great wet profile they do make a great bait fish pattern and its a fantastic fly for fishing smaller waters like canals or ponds

pink is it

again another so underused colour is pink i have no idea why but its been a life saving fish banker in the past so of course i had to do at least one in pink

yellow and green

so yellow and green again another great bait fish colour and with the dumbbell eyes and epoxy head these flys will get down on the deck and ride hook up

its a catcher

yellow and orange gold eyes this will catch pretty much anywhere and at 6 inch's long this is a pike magnet again with the hook riding up you can get it down on the deck without worrying about fouling

its a natural thing

without doubt sometimes you just got to have natural patterns in your box and i find an olive backed pattern will mimic a lot of prey fish so a very versatile fly, the fly above is done with some olive sculpin feather at the back to add some length and profile.

the picture below is the same fly as above but this one is wet you can clearly see the lovely bait fish profile and if you look hard enough you'll see the piketrek life form UV flash which i think will be a great trigger point

RABBIT CLOUSER

pretty much the same colours and design as the flys above except that the sculpin has been replaced with olive rabbit strip just for something different and to add movement

lots o bait

with my u.s.a road trip getting ever closer I'm going to make sure i have a massive box full of these in different sizes as they will be great in smaller sizes for high sticking the river small mouths and of course the larger sizes for the pike large mouths and muskies

so that's the 6 inch ones done ill be working on smaller sizes this week , although I'm sure if i have a dig around i think I've probably got a box of the kicking around already but any excuse to tie some flys

so that's that for today been quite interesting tying these up as its been a while since i last tied some so big thanks to ken at pike adventures for the inspiration , he does quite a few of this fly and hell if its good enough for the man from Vermont then its good enough for me

see you all for the Tuesday tie off tomorrow

mcfluffchucker

(a cave in Scotland)

busy weekend

I'm having such a busy weekend with work pulling 2 13 hour shifts back to back so i thought id reflect a bit as time allows today , and the one incident that springs to mind is when i headed south to bury hill fishery in search of pike to test the new pike saber fly rod to its limits , tony "golden balls harkin was my partner for the day as as well as his outstanding boatman quality's hes a world renowned fly rod tester so who better to have along for an expert opinion and to try it out below is the video where tony gives us the technical lowdown for this casting machine ....cheers again tony

so that made me laugh , but this morning was the funniest ever ken capsey called me as sometimes he does when hes a bit lost on the high ties and needs some help well as i was talking to him all hell broke loose and i mean all hell i thought the guys house was falling down , earth quake , tornado , hurricane , the poor guy was screaming his head of like a girl well turns out a blackbird had flown down the chimney and straight at him a bloody blackbird they way he was going on you would have thought his leg was hanging off .............................

HARD AS NAILS REDNECK SCARIER

50 BUCKS PER HOUR CHEAP DEALS FOR VERMONTERS AS THEY SCARE EASY

so there ya have it for today i must get back to work but feel free to get over to kens pike adventures blog and take take the piss outta him

see ya all tomorrow when hopefully ill be back to tying and getting some fishing time in

mcfluffchucker

not scared of blackbirds

(a cave in Scotland)

frenzy

ok well frenzy is maybe a bit strong a word to use but I'm still in tying mode and enjoying tying today although i only got 2 flies done can you believe it well its my own fault as i left myself no time this afternoon before i went to work to get my head around what i was going to do , i still have a load of subbugs to make up for my USA trip but id bloody run out of a couple of things so it was down to orvis before work so what i did manage to get done was another 5 inch deercreek fly the you see below .....

PIKE SNAX

hook - 3/0 mustad big game

belly - pearly white gliss and glint

back - cherry bomb gliss and glint

eyes - deer creek gator eyes

head 5 min z poxy

dna pike snax

one of the things i love about fly tying is you just never know what something you have in your head will look like whens its on iron and its really funny how different materials will look when tied with exactly the same method , take for example the fly above well that's tied in the same way as the deer creek fly further up but a more different looking fly you couldn't imaging and actually I'm loving it and its going to keep me awake as I'm going to want to do a whole heap of em oh god here we go again

hook - 3/0 mustad big game

belly - white dna

back - pink dna

eye - orvis big fish eye

head - z-poxy

i just reckon that this fly is one of those that will catch pretty much anywhere you'd care to fish it I'm loving it already

tight lines till tomorrow flingers

dave mcfluffchucker

(a cave in scotland)

playing with material

last week i received a few packs of glint and gliss from those lovely people over at deercreek for me to play with and just really to see what i could come up with and i was delighted with the results and i look forward to trying these down my local water

sink the pink

pink and blue are very underrated colours in my book not a lot of people use them for the main colours in a fly they tend to use it for flashpoints or lateral lines in baitfish , but me being one who is forever pushing the confines of the box or to put it another way "that's just not sporting old boy" i decided as they had sent me a set of both colours that well it just had to be done and , and to be quite honest there was once when was fishing that pink was the only colour the fish were having so I'm more than happy to fish nearly all pink flys .......

the fly above with its shape and length (five inch's ) id be happy to fish in both salt water and for predators and with the pack size i think you'd get around 10 big flies like the pink one above out of a pack . which is pretty good value for the price it sells at £1.89 per pack if you wish to purchase a few packs there is the link direct to the page further down this page

glint and gliss blue bait fish

this is a great pattern at 5 inch's if you have a water like a canal that has a lot of small roach this fly will really do the trick , also worth having a bash for our saltwater bass as well

hook -3/0 mustad big game

belly-pearly white glint and gliss

back - midnight blue glint and gliss

eyes - deer creek croc eyes

for single colours or for there full range of glint and gliss for an amazing £16.29

here is the link

http://www.deercreek.co.uk/DeerCreekflytyingmaterials.html

deer creek are a UK based company there flies are made by UK tiers which is which is why i fully support them

a mini bunny bug

for no other reason than i felt like making one

tight lines brothers and sisters of the fluff

mcfluffchucker

(a cave in Scotland)

tuesday tie off

todays tie of with ken over at pike adventures is tying with foam (my choice this week )

classic red and white

hook - 6/0 gamakatsu sl

body - white slink n flash

flash- red angel hair

eye - pike trek 9mm

classic baitfish

hook - gamakatsu 6/0 sl

belly- white slink n flash

back - olive sf fibre

flash - red angel hair

eyes - 9mm piketrek eyes

head - coloured with perm markers

blue bait fish

hook - gamakatsu 6/0 sl

underbelly - white slink n flash

back - herring blue sf fibre

eyes 9mm piketrek eyes

head - foam head colored with blue nail varnish

rainbow trout

hook - gamakatsu 6/0 sl

underbody - white slink n flash

lateral line - pink piketrek body

back - olive super hair

head - foam coloured with perm markers

so there ya have it this weeks tie off be sure to go over and check kens ties out at

http://pikeadventures.blogspot.com/

knowing ken im sure there will b e a few surprises

tight lines fluff flingers

dave mcfluffchucker

(a cave in scotland)

c.ya tommorow

see you all tomorow for the tuesday tie off myself and ken over at pike adventures will be posting at differnt times tommorow this is due to me being on split shifts so mine will up late afternoon uk time ........

and a happy Easter to ken capsey below is more appropriate

ken invited me over for Easter dinner here is the menu

1 - 1-1/8 oz Cheetos1 - 1-1/4 oz Fritos1 - 1 oz Ruffles Potato Chips1 - 1-1/4 oz Cracker Jack1 - 1.38 oz Austin Cheese crackers with peanut butter1 - 1.38 oz Austin Toasty crackers with peanut butter2 - 0.28 oz Slim Jim2 - 0.4 oz Beef Jerky2 - 1 oz Planters salted peanuts1 - 2 oz Oreo Cookies 1 - 2.1 oz Baby Ruth candy bar1 - 2.07 oz Snickers candy bar 1 - 1.45 oz Hershey's chocolate bar with Almonds 2 - Moon Pie, single-Decker (1 each of chocolate and vanilla)

thanks ken but ill have to decline this year

new ideas

yesterday i had a day off and I've been wanting to muck about with piketrek body material on sub bugs for a while but I've not had the chance , well i finished up a customer order yesterday so i thought while i had 5 Min's id have a play i needed to stock up on a few big sinking bugs so that was the incentive i needed ........................

the first one

quite like this and am very impressed with how it came out using the pike trek material nice shape

the business end of a bug this has some big dumbbells tied in behind the eyes and then the eyes have been epoxied on using z poxy to add more weight to give it that vital balance between the buoyancy off the tightly packed deerhair and the weight of added material get this right and you have a winning fly

a few strands of flash down the middle by way of piketreks new life form flash (its the dogs danglers)


yea I'm liking this on the sub bugs , the other thing it is a lot easier and quicker to make the bugs than with using bucktail and you can get a longer fly with no extra weight .......nice



stay tuned for some more over the next few days i feel a tying frenzy coming so stay tuned

a big shout out goes to our bro in the states at pike adventures who is getting some fishing in hes been out and having some follows and hits so it only a matter of time , i spoke with him on the phone and he was in the middle of tying up some fresh red/white sub bugs so looking forward to his report .......

see ya all on Tuesday for the tie off ...although this may be off for a few weeks due to some changes at work which may see me having to put some hours in so hopefully see ya all next week

tight lines brothers and sisters of the fluff
mcfluffchucker
(a cave in Scotland)

golf not a feckin chance

yea OK for those of you that mailed me yesterday you obviously didn't see the date APRIL 1ST yea a good old April fools joke , but not as funny as a Friend of mine who turned on the news to find out that aliens had landed in London and she panicked to feck now that is funny .......

anyway back to business

subbugs ...i had an order in to do some for a pffa member but he wanted some to be sinking bugs well you may think how do you make a deerhair fly sink without using a sinking line well its quite easy to do really all ya have to do is incorporate a big dumbbell eye into the head to give it the weight and then epoxy a couple of 3d eyes on and your done they work just as well as in the depths as they do on the surface and you get a real nice slow sink on them which means you can countdown the fly and explore the water column ......

floater and a sinker

sinking bug

above is the sinking bug below is a floating bug the floating will make a helluva lot of noise on the surface , these are done in red and black as per customer request

sinking greenback

green and orange is a top colour and it was great to be able to tie a sinking bug in this colour plenty of motion in this and the marabou coller with flare out when stopped , always found this to0 be a great fish attractor in a fly and I've seen it close up when a fish hits hit and it really does make a difference

classic combo

red and white what a colour and always a constant fish catcher and its my favorite bug colour not only for catching but for seeing the fly in action in the water , the fly above is the floater a devastating catching pattern not only for pike but largemouths love em as well (eh Mr capsey) if i went out with a box of these id be more than confident in the warmer weather of catching fish in fact if there was only one fly i could take fishing then this would be it ...........awesome

the fly below is a slow sinking version the head has been trimmed a bit different more bullet shaped as there will be more water pressure against it so you want most of this water pressure hitting the stacked hair at the back to give it the action in deep water you ll notice that with all the sinking bugs the heads are pretty similar to allow the flow of water to get to the back quickly , with the subbugs its all about knowing how the water is going to react with the fly when pulled through it , but more on that another time .....


so sinking bugs , if you want to know how to make a sinking bug head then check out the subbuggin site later today for a full step by step ....should be up around 5 pm GMT

and id like say to all those people who mailed me yesterday i really appreciate your friendship and sorry to wind you all up and i promise not to do it again for at least another 365 days but one quote i did get and really made me laugh was from

Brian " what ya got in your fly box ken" price

who wrote the following on my facebook page

"good choice..That's what a Good Scotsman should do..running around in your knickers and shit along a perfectly manicured lawn....errrrrrrrr...wait a minute..I'm onto you! Golf courses have ponds,usually with large fish..you sneaky bastard.."

tight lines and see you all tomorrow
mcfluffchucker
(a cave in Scotland)

well thats about it

A MATTER OF LIFE AND GOLF CLUBBING

well after long thought and due consideration and due to my increasing years i find myself in the position off taking up golf I'm really a bit fed up of getting wet and constantly spitting out bits of fur and feather looking for the perfect fly so I'm now going to be taking up golf I've already bought a fine set of clubs and have even found a way of making my own golf balls so a new chapter has begun ......a matter of life and golfclubbing starts soon

thanks to all my followers over the years
see ya on the 18Th hole

mcgolfclubber

snow glorious snow

OK so i had my week set up i have some fly orders to do and i have some new flies i need to go try out and test , so perfect well that was until last night when they issued a severe weather alert in Scotland and i woke up to this lot ahhhhhhhhhhhh and its still coming down the funny thing my Mrs still had some washing drying on the line shes leaving it there just now in the vain hope that it will dry at some point in the year to come ....

view from the cave

new adventures in subbuggin

so I'm messing around with some new buggin ideas which are incorporating the pike body materials from piketrek as a main body material still some work to do but I'm quite impressed with the initial results so will get bashing on with them and see what i come up with


tying with deer hair is really not that hard once you get the hang of it and the great thing about deer hair is it doesn't get ripped to bits like foam i mean it may take you half the time to tie but what the feck is the point of that when its going to be ripped to bits first pike that comes along of course you can give em a layer of epoxy to toughen em up but by the time you have done all that you'd be quicker to tie a deerhair head .........

metalhead

sometimes experimentation is great and you never know what its going to look like till you try it so id been thinking for a while about butting some kind of vain on a subbug for the purpose of giving it even more action so i came up with the idea above and fitted an oval fish gill from piketrek on the top of the bug and epoxy it in from behind now the theory in this design says that it will shake quite vigorously when stripped but i have yet to test it i was due to this week but the bloody weather stopped that ....maybe next week

i love flies and i love to tie

i just love to tie flies simple as that i love the way materials blend in with each other i love the way colours look together i love to have a new idea and then to see that on a hook i love to get a new material through the post that I've never used before and bang away with a new idea like above , id gone down to orvis for some pike and musky hooks (the link takes you to the us orvis site but you can get them through the UK stores) and some 6/0 gamakatsu hooks id run out off and i decided like you do in a tackle shop to have a look round the tying stuff well glad i did as i came across some stuff called krinkle mirror flash made by orvis so i blended it in with melon orange pike body from piketrek and the results are really good as you can see in the picture above .....


so I've added some more in these 2 bait fish pictures but I've tied it in then folded material over the top of it and the result is a pretty hot looking bait fish the belly is made from copper ep flash something a bit different ...experimentation is good ..........


so there you have it for the ties for today i have to be getting on with orders but i will say one last thing ........i am by no means an expert fly tier , i am not an expert fly fisher , i enjoy what i do i have caught some feckin big fish I've caught a lot of small fish as well and i have loved every single fish i have caught . I'm always happy to share whatever info i can with anybody who asks and you really wouldn't believe the amount of stuff I've given away on the banks to those who have shown an interest the hours I've spent typing emails to people who asked for advice and I'm always happy to do so so don't let em grind you down go with your ideas and have fun ...

mcfluffchucker
(a cave in scotland)