big big flies

playing with big patterns day today

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yup time to mess with some really big flies for no other reason than i fancied doing it , not seen really big stuff anyones blogs lately not that i need to steal ideas or anything if i get an idea from somebody ill happily give them a name check for it i think its pretty low stealing ideas as your own oh yes it happens twats go out and steal stuff because they haven't got the brains cells to think of something themselves like I've seen it happen so if you do want to copy anything go ahead but at least give the tier a name check they don't mind it happened to me recently with ulf hagstrom he had a great little pattern so i did my spin on it and gave him the name check well nits only the right thing to do you see some of the best patterns have been developed from the smallest idea that somebody's picked up on and adapted so think on

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rattled up i sure am i love tying with rattles and sometimes they can give you an edge particular in coloured water here's a rattle I've tied onto a big bunny type fly and one of my new hooks I'm trying out

so the finished product below by using piketreks spectrum twist great looking big fly with great movement and flash , how could i possibly know that , well I've been tying flies since i was a kid tying flies for the trout on the river tweed i know what makes a good fly don't need to get it wet i know its gonna be good and do what its made for you cant buy experience
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this fly looked good i know what it will do in the water so i thought id just play with some ideas adding a bit of flash here some bucktail there different colour eyes etc and see what comes out my brain mmmmm works for me

the purple throbber

hey if ivory tower productions is good enough for pike trek videos them the purple throbber is a good enough name for this fly , the chaps at piketrek do this fantastic colour called shiner its basically black synthetic hair with an angel hair like flash through it , and it looks brilliant so as i was on a big fly kick i decided a big purple throbber was called for uncle Greg will no doubt be spraying his dinner over the computer screen when he reads that one

you've been tangoed I'm into using bright fluro type colours as a core then tying in a lighter colour over the top adding a bit of flash here and there , and to be honest I'm impressed with the results so far the core colours really shine through and I've got a few ideas to improve on it, these are big flies there designed for big predators 10 , 11 12 inch flies are the norm here but don't be shocked with the lengths because as there made from piketreks synthetics there are light as anything and the movement in the water (yes i have tried them) is unbelievable they move like nothing you've ever seen before



scrappy dappy doo
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i had some scraps of arc chrome left in the bottom of a box now being of north of the border origin i really don't waste anything I've even done flies with one eye before because I've lost the matching one i get asked wheres the other eye , it was in a fight and lost it i reply , seriously i waste nothing the stuff i could throw away would keep a trout fly tier in materials for 20 years .
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so with that in mind i created this monster below nothing much to look at but it has movement and flash so that's good enough to get something interested

more furry creations
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well ya cant beat playing with a bit of fur and again big massive flies were the order of the day i was going to put a layer of epoxy round these but i really don't think they need it as there is enough weight with hook and its never good having your fur on the heavy side as it soaks up the water and combine that with the weight of a hook and it could get a bit heavy on the casting
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the rabbit strip I've used is from hareline I've tried a few company's in the past but always found hairline to be the most consistent in length and colour you can go back and buy the same material years later and be assured that you'd get the same colour

same kind of idea as above except I've just palmerd the fur behind the spectrum fibre as with the others there is a rattle buried in the spectrum a bit more streamlined this one

so to take things up a level I've split bunnied this one and added the spectrum as a flash head i would imagine that a fish may mistake this fly as a frog in the water as the double strip does look like a frogs rear legs stripped and paused , some people I'm aware do put a stiff mono loop behind the hook to stop the fur tangling when cast , although i must admit I've never had this problem myself so i never add a loop

so that's that a very productive day for tying

all the materials I've used on the flies are available from the following

spectrum fibre

pike body material (synthetics)

are available from

PIKE TREK

the brilliant 3d eyes are available from

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

other stuff going on is there is a couple of brilliant new fly tying videos from the piketrek lads here's just one from YouTube if you enjoy what you see sign up to them on YouTube they have some great videos to watch i know they will never win an Oscar but neither did steptoe and son nice job lads

so till next time

tight lines

mcfluffchucker

stir crazy

so I'm going stir crazy i really am my wife has her head stuck in books and I'm only toddler duty nursery runs etc so she can get ready for her exams next week I'm looking out at great Autumn weather leaves falling clear Sky's and I'm just thinking pike pike pike i need to fish this must be like going cold turkey , even when i stopped smoking 7 months ago it wasn't as bad as this , the only saving grace is the fact that its been blowing a bad one for the last few days and before that its been absolutely pissing it down with rain so not the best for going out chucking fluff

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so really the only thing i can do is net stuff sort out and tidy up the websites i do and of course tie flys so i suppose that's not t0o bad but its not as good as being out there but when her indoors qualifies as a maths teacher this year she will be able to fund my American jaunts and she gets months at a time off in the summer bonus

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battling spider

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i took this picture the other night , once all the family have gone to bed and I'm settled with a glass of vino he appears from under the TV cabinet hes been there for a while now hes got a few legs and things missing but it nice to see him each night

my own fault i didn't read the add properly you see what i needed was some magnum zonker strip for an idea i have for really big flies so i logged onto eBay and saw some for £1.20 great i thought that will do nicely and they had the colour i wanted so i bought it , of course if i had read the add correctly i would have seen it was only 3mm and id probably waste more than came in the packet , so not one to waste anything i decided to just make up a couple of small perch type flies with an epoxy head to sink it a mini bunny bug in essence here's the result below

as there wasn't much fur on the strips i decided to top off the head with some synthetic orange body material from piketrek just to give it a little something extra and bulk the body out a little


so time to big it up with some new hooks to try massive flies were on the menu although time was getting on today i managed to get one big one out a few secret patterns that are looking quite good again simple hollow tied flies with rattles and the eyes I've used piketreks brilliant Mr bond uv resin probably the best on the market and at a price that everybody can afford

I've only used 3 colours on this one again all pike body material from the piketrek chaps very easy to do and you get a cracking looking fly


other stuff going on this week has been updating the pike fly fishing associations website and blog , the blog we set up as a public portal for the club and its not something that's updated everyday but its always worth dropping by or following as we have now started to add some fly tying videos in the side menu , even if your not a club member you can still mail us any story's or catch pictures so get on over and take a look click the link below

pike fly fishing association


the piketrek lads have been doing there home movies again yes ivory towers productions (think about it) and have again got another great little video on night fishing , and a fantastic looking fly that I'm going to pinch the design off and put my own slant on it I'm sure they will approve anyway take a look at the video nice lads

so hope you all have a great week and catch ya all later

mcfluffchucker

(a cave in Scotland)

eat me seymor

you know sometimes you find a pattern you just have to make because it either looks great or it well just looks great i had this moment today when i saw a fly by well know Swedish fly tying maestro ulf hagstrom and i thought I'm just going to have to tie them so i dug into my boxes for ideas and came up with a couple

ulfs ties looked like they were tied with synthetics so i dug about in my boxes and decided on piketreks synthetics for the job and a new hook type I'm trying out

it was fun making the pike snack theres so many ways you could do it this little roach pattern was done in 2 half's tying in each half then carrying on the material to the hook eye


so having done the first one i though well what can i do know and i thought how about doing a whole bait fish as a one Peace deal , so i made up the perch in the picture below just in my fingers without a hook then stuck some small deercreek eyes on with a thick gel superglue , i think it looks quite good

a closer look and you should be able to see how its done nothing to difficult if you have some idea even with a basic fly tying knowledge and its just a bit of fun , but you could still use it and indeed i will try it but i suspect ill just be making some more for fun , to look at , and no doubt for a few Buddy's

so thats for today i hope you enjoy the pics thanks for the idea ulf

tight lines

mcfluffchucker

(a cave in scotland)

looking back

ok so just looking back at my trip stateside and thought id have a play with putting some music to pictures if this works out i have a few cool ideas normal fly tying will commence again later

its a rock soundtrack so if that aint your bag best check back over the weekend

tight lines fluffers

mcfluffchucker

onwards and upwards

"The PIKESABER is the Pike Fly Rod that all others will be judged by. It has been specifically designed for the rigours of Pike Fly Fishing. It is made from the finest materials. From the bespoke and unique fighting butt, to the un-ground blank finish, everything has been thought of, and though about. It has now got approval from the Pike Fly Fishing Association" ,

some people just didn't get it what it was all about the ultimate pike fly rod you can quite understand there point of view something new comes onto the market making some bold claims but time is the best judge of a product and the pikesaber just goes from strength to strength and know the chaps have introduced some new fighting butts as well

PIKESABER - Black - 10 Weight 9'00" 4 Piece Specialist Pike Fly Rod


PIKESABER - Gunsmoke - 10 Weight 9'00" 4 Piece Specialist Pike Fly Rod

PIKESABER - New! Cork Butt - 10 Weight 9'00" 4 Piece Specialist Pike Fly Rod


PIKESABER - New! Duplon Butt model - 10 Weight 9'00" 4 Piece Pike Fly Rod

"The PIKESABER is the Pike Fly Rod that all others will be judged by".
That is the claim that we made for this rod when we unleashed it onto an unsuspecting market late last year. In the short time that it has been available, those claims have not only become reality, they have been surpassed.
The way that the rod has been received has been nothing short of amazing; to quote Brad Bohen, the "Afton Angler" and Musky King,
"The PIKESABER is now my all-time-favourite #1 Musky-Stick! I'm fully impressed with the full range of PIKESABER attributes....construction, cosmetics, performance - power, weight, loading, sensitivity, fish-handling you name it, it does it in spades!"
......... and this boy uses BIG flies


This rod has been designed by pike fly anglers FOR pike fly anglers, and this is evident in the look, the feel and the handling.

This pike fly rod is a delight to use. It is both light and strong and throws large pike flies with ease. The unground blank means that the rod is finished in an uncompromised, "as-manufactured" state, which retains maximum strength within the blank walls and ensures that all of the materials used in construction are doing their job properly. The spiral wrap is also unadulterated, which defies torsion building up within the blank, and so is the hard-baked resin outer coating, which maximises durability of the finish and length of life. No varnish to flake off!

To Quote Dave 'McFluffchucker' Lindsay -

"So all in all this rod has been very well thought out by pike fly anglers and they have come up with probably the best pike fly rod on the market at a great price. It really doesn't matter if you're looking for an entry level rod or stepping up to the next level this rod will be the only rod you will ever need, and at under 200 pounds UK this rod is far better than rods costing 4 times that much. I really cannot fault it in anyway , if you're a pike fly angler you really need to own one of these."

some top people who really know there stuff are praising this rod and you cant argue with that , the latest guide to feel the force is drew price from http://www.fieldandstream.com/ who is also praising the rod high praise indeed

but don't just think this is a pike and musky rod only it also makes a great carp fly rod and i used it for hauling gurglers through thick jungle for largemouth bass

if your somebody who chases big fish in either freshwater or saltwater then this is the rod for you

need to know more click the picture

tight lines and join the revolution

mcfluffchucker

(a cave in scotland)

the road to winter and outrageous in-laws

what a week its been this week i had a fairly busy week since Thursday , Friday i was called into work for a few hours and sat i started work at 12pm and finished Sunday morning at 7am which was a long shift but it pays for materials , unfortunately at this time on a Sunday morning i cant get a bus home i have to wait for an hour for the first bus to run so i nipped into McDonald's for a sausage ,cheese, and egg bagel which was pretty tasty or was it just that i was tired and i thought it tasted good mmmmmm not sure but it wasted some time before the bus came

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well i got home and had a couple of hours sleep before i had to head with the wife down to the coast of Edinburgh to my mother and father in laws ruby wedding anniversary which was being held in this beautiful and very old Dating from the 15Th Century (1441), the church is the oldest building in south Queensferry. and was built a full 50 years before America was discovered to give it some prospective

my in laws are really great people i love them all to bits unfortunately some daft sod suggested we all meet in the pub BEFORE the church service as you can see from the picture below the female members of the family were absolutely delighted about this yes these really are my wife's aunts and a cousin i can see where she gets it from now great day was had though

another bonus of Sunday was that while the customary pictures were being taken at a harbour close by i found a fantastic looking fishing spot which I'm going to be checking out soon although i feel i may have left it a bit late in the season but there may be a couple of species i can still chase from there with the fly i need to go tie up some clousers

breaking news

as we all know the lads from the development dept at piketrek are always on the look out for new products and i got this fantastic picture of uncle Greg testing out a new anti snoring device for those overnight trips where you share a car/tent with a buddy they put in 4 hours testing on this product driving around the derby bypass more updates as we have them .

THE ARTIST FORMALLY KNOWN AS KEN CAPSEY

ken is in the process of doing a prince and is changing his name so from this point on he will be known to all his Friends as LIMB you see it turns out that our brother limb has developed a new sport what you have to see how close you can cast a fly to a tree without it actually catching on a branch although from reports its seems like brother limb needs a lot more practice

on limbs blog the other day there was a fantastic step by step for a pickerel fly that incorporates a tandem rig well limb but the theory into practice and came up with pretty hot little pickerel pattern as you can see limbs fish puked up some of its lunch great photo limb

limb is getting well good with the camera theses days when i was over he showed me his cameras which was a small compact water proof camera and takes fantastic pictures even has a great big round float on it so if you drop it in the water it will float brilliant idea and some great shots like the pickerel below nice brother limb

limb with another fine pickerel caught from his secret pound i cant wait to get back across and have a couple of days after these great fighting little fish , i love the colour of the trees in the back ground winter is on its way



its crazy we all have a bit of a crazy past i think and we've all been somewhere maybe we shouldn't have or done things while we have had our beer glasses on this i think is a part of a learning curve of life but imagine if like limb below your walking across a field to you favorite fishing spot and you come across all your ex girlfriends in one place i think i too would be pulling a face like limbs


so another week starts and i have as usual a whole heap of stuff planned just depends on Scottish weather / wine drunk the night before / flies i need to tie etc etc etc so look forward to catching you all soon on what is without doubt the most random fly fishing blog out there

tight lines and see ya all in the week
mcfluffchucker
(a cave in Scotland)
out on a limb

Were all going down to the boneyard

Now the sticky subject of leaders always pops up now and again and it did just that last night when I was having a rather heated debate with one of those people who think they have been there and done that and it was always longer bigger more expensive than anything you’ve caught or own I really cant be arsed with that kind of person and your really just wasting your breath with them.

i lost the plot slightly with this Internet know it all


you see I've been there and done bought the t-shirt same with traces some guys have used wire leaders all there lives and I don’t have a problem with wire traces for leaders in fact I use them when I have to on venues that its in the rules but my preference is for 100lb fluorocarbons the reason for this is quite simple I was introduced to it through a friend many many years ago had the foresight to at least give it a try for a while and it did change the way I fished I caught and still catch a lot of fish and have never had a bite off yet ,

Steve sparton is somewhat of a legend in fly fishing and fly tying I've met him many a time in his factory near Nottingham when I used to go in to buy bulk bags of marabou Steve is the kind of guy that will call a spade a spade and he has upset a few people along the way but he was using American mason hard mono back in 92 pretty much at the birth of predator fly fishing in the UK and he’s been selling them for a good few years below is his ad from eBay although I don’t agree with everything Steve says in this advert he does make a bloody good product

one of Steve's leaders yesterday

Mr spartons eBay ad

“If you actually want to catch pike on a fly you will find in the end that a wire trace is pretty useless - it puts them and anything else that comes to look at your lure off ! It kinks and it sinks faster than you want it to and they can likely see the damned stuff as well as you can! This system actually works - the leader is 14" (like just over 30cms for the ill educated) and at one end is a size 7 swivel and at the other a size 7 spring link and swivel ! But instead of wire it is made out of American Mason Hard Nylon - and Pike cannot bite through it - we found the stuff fishing Snook in Florida and that was in 1992 just before Hurricane Andrew forced us to retreat to St Petersburg. We've used it for over 14 years and never lost a Pike on it - we also caught a whole load of Zander and Biggish Rainbows on it as well. It sinks the same speed as your leader and is clear so they can't see it ! You are bidding on a pack of 3”

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Pike-Fly-Leader-Monofil-Clear-3-Traces-/110586962107?pt=UK_SportingGoods_FishingAcces_RL&hash=item19bf7f20bb

However I really wish he would change the bloody link on the swivel they really are shite I cut them off and stick on an American cross lock link instead far better ………

You can of course make your own leaders in fact it works out quite cheap search the blog and you’ll find a post about this I shan't go into it all again

HOOKS AWAY
As much an emotive subject for the fly tier as the materials that go on it I like a range of hooks for various fly patterns some guys have one hook that they swear by and that’s cool everyone to there own I've come across a couple of new patterns that I'm quite excited about the first is the ct 1 now I had a very similar hook some years ago but it was well to expensive 5 x 6/0 hooks was the same price I could get a 25 count of my favourite mustard's so I was delighted whilst going through a suppliers list of stuff he had these very hooks and at a fantastic price so looking forward to getting some meaty bait fish patterns on these ,



The ct 2
Another hook that I'm quite excited about is the hook below I think this will be quite cool for smaller baitfish , clousers etc so again it’s a hook I'm looking forward to trying out stay tuned

Getting the itch
As I write today there’s a chill in the air that chill is like a big slap in the face for me as my year so far has been OK nothing special but its going to get a whole lot better , this is because as I smell the coldness I know that the boat traffic on my local will be virtually stopped and the water will be less colored the roach will be getting nervous and the best thing is I will be able to fish all day without loads of boats going past ill also on the strength of last year get a least 3 month's fishing in before it freezes over and if last year is anything to go by then it will only be a week or so iced up a lot different to my friends in Vermont who really suffer in the winter ……………….

my local frozen

lake Champlain frozen a difference of 5ft thick ice ouch a little bit of a difference to my local

So plenty to look forward to in the coming weeks and months so stay tuned

Tight lines brothers and sisters
mcfluffchucker

fishy facts

Fishy Facts: The more sardines that are placed in a can, the greater the profit as sardine oil costs more than the sardines. don't ever say you never learn anything visiting this blog

something for the weekend sir

so still having a busy week tying flies for some Friends to try out on fall predators and something really cool is that a couple of fish made it onto the Vermont master angler programme which I'm quite chuffed about they should really have something like this in the UK any way click the link below to go take a look ,the fish wasn't harvested as it says it was set free to fight another day

http://www.vtfishandwildlife.com/masterangler_list.cfm

TULIP FABRIC PAINTS

OK I'm going to share a secret with ya now i used to use this quite a lot on flies especially foam ones for spots and stripes etc it comes in a massive range of colours and is really cheap and easy to use its like the consistency of porridge and can also be used to make your own eyes (ill do a step by step for this ) click the picture above to go check tulip out

so i was making some flies last night and decided i wanted a bit of a rubbery head on them them i remembered the tulip fabric paint so i dug out the box and even after a few years it was still usable so here's what i came up with luminous heads , I'm digging that its also worth a mention that competion trout anglers use this stuff to make flies like the one below

my flies tend to be slightly larger though

these flies I've worked the tulip into the head with my finger to spread it about a bit and have stuck the pike trek rubberized eyes on top the material I've used is piketreks pike body material
in fact as you can see I've used it in all the ties on this page

some flies will require a second coat but that's not a problem with tulip as you can put it on around the eye without worrying about it or you can add a different colour on top or even spots whatever you like the stuff being fabric paint is also waterproof so perfect for flies either for building heads or sticking on eyes , the only real down side i can find is that its best to leave it for 24 hours to fully dry but you don't need to put your flies on a rotary drier as i said before it doesn't drip

other things that are going down this week which I'm quite excited about is some new hooks I've got coming in to try so stay tuned

tight lines Friends and thanks for the ride

mcfluffchucker

(a cave in Scotland)

whos drew

i caused quite a stir with my Sunday piketrek preach yesterday all in a good way people got it and laughed along with us , one question did come up a few times and that was who is drew price

well i first came across drew last year when i was digging around for patterns for long nose gar for a client and i came across a picture of drew with a massive garfish caught on the fly nice i thought and thought no more of it then last year i found out that ken capsey also knew of him as a guide in Vermont since then I've found out that not only is he a top guide but a helluva nice guy and fly fishing all round maniac and drew really knows his stuff which why hes one of Vermont's top guides you don't get a reputation like drew has through bull i tell you

still not convinced about drew well the next thing we do is to look at Vermont's master angler programme which is all about catching specimen fish of various species drew has a staggering 28 entries to date click the picture above to go see (yours truly has a couple as well coming up) below you'll find just a few pictures of Drew's fish hes caught and all on the fly

muskie

monster brownie

this trout is a staggeringly beautiful fish just look at the colours on it you would think this came from a Scottish river and when trout grow this big they do it by not eating a strict diet of nymphs they will be chomping small fish so yes it is a predator

long nose gar

this fish was 46 inch's long a real garzilla and simply a stunning catch these fish are hard enough to catch at the best of times so to get one this size is quite simply a stunning achievement


common carp

i cant help laugh when i see Americans catching carp on the fly you see in the UK fish are named people go into mourning when they die have funerals and all sorts , you can pay thousands of pounds to join a syndicate to fish for them in America they are treated like any other sporting fish to be caught and thrown back in they are not rally highly prized in fact some people hunt them with bow and arrows can you imagine that in the UK .......

anyway fancy a few days chasing big carp on the fly its quite easy for a UK angler to do fly over get a hotel for a few days and drew will provide everything you need in the way of rods flys etc and he will take you out and catch you the carp of a lifetime and for a lot less that it would cost you to join a top syndicate over here i can tell you

bowfin

i had a couple of close encounters with bowfin when i was over there one was at 6.30 am when i was barefoot wading on sand up to my backside and a massive bow fin followed in a hooked white perch id caught i was standing staring at this fish which was staring right back at me not 6 feet away from me i actually thought i was going to lose a leg theres a reason they use boga grips on these there like a conger eel with the teeth of a great white very pleasant

common carp

another nice fly caught carp for drew , you know some people spend thousands of pounds on gear and bait and club / syndicate tickets to never catch a fish like this Drew's out there with nothing more that a canoe and a fly rod and getting fish like this booked your holidays yet chaps

freshwater drum

by all accounts quite hard fish to catch and one that ill be sticking on my list for next year along with those garfish

bowfining with drew

I'm looking forward to spending a couple of days with drew and ken next year if you cant wait then click the link below to go over and check some guiding out you wont be disappointed see you in may drew

i shall be MIA in the next week as i have quite a lot of stuff to do and I'm hoping to get a few days on the local fluff venue as there is a chill in the air the water is getting clearer and I SMELL PIKE so don't worry if you don't here from me ill be chucking flies

see ya at the weekend folks

mcfluffchucker

(a cave in scotland)