The
way the wind blows
I had a long anticipated trip
planned with the destroyer today so at the start of the week I had to
catch up on a few things dig some tackle out look for missing stuff
and it was while I was digging around looking for some braided leader
loops in funky olive from pike trek that id ordered the week before
and on arrival id but them into that special place that I put things
so I wont mislay them and then promptly forget where the special
place is , it was while I was looking for the loops I found a box of
clouser flies I forgot I had (still no sign of the leaders)
FRIED ALIVE O
I also had to make up a few new variations on the fried
alive flies so spent a few hours on that project and came up with a
few new colours that I dig , trouble with the fried alives is they
work so well I always end giving them away so always need to keep
stocking the box up
the box unlike the above picture is now pretty much full
with lots of lovely new fried alive patterns , so with that in the
bag my next job was some flies heading to the usa
id pretty much got caught up on all the stuff I needed
to do so I had time to play with some new materials
---------
at last years bffi I had the pleasure of meeting bob and
sue from castle feathers who were on the stall next to deercreek , I
had noticed that they had some cool looking flashy materials that
were pretty much aimed at the trout fisher , I looked at a few of the
colours and thought I could do some cool pike patterns with the
materials so ive been playing over the year with a few ideas and have
settled on a way to make them fairly easily but still have a full
bodied looking baitfish im loving them
its been quite a long process getting these together as
I had quite a few combinations to go through colour wise and many
different ways of tying them
the end result though is awesome and im very happy with
the builds , im planning on doing a video for these next week so stay
tuned , if however you want to get hold of some of the materials
check castlefeathers out on ebay or catch them at the bffi where they
will have a full range of colours with them...........
PLAYING
WITH MOTHER NATURE
anybody who knows me will be well aware of the fact that
I have actually quite a lot of flies , in-fact I probably have more
flies than ill ever use in a lifetime and I do rotate flies from my
store to my boxes and it can actually be a pain in the butt when im
on the water and need a specific patterns , so the day before me and
the destroyer headed out I decided on a big shake up of my boxes and
try and get them in some kind of workable order.
I decided to split them into 3 major category’s for
the flies I use gliss and glint plus flies , e.p fibre flies and
natural materials , this pretty much covers it although I did sort
out a few other boxes topwater , and fried alive have there own boxes
so I can chop and change as I want although the fried alive boxes
pretty much go everywhere with me and I also have a few smaller
saltwater fly boxes with sandeel and small clouser patterns . I
managed to get all the boxes sorted out and I wrote on top and on the
side of each one what was in the box I.e gliss , ep , etc and stacked
them away in the box and it should make finding things a lot easier .
Locked and loaded everything in its place and the inside
lid has all the flies I use the most which of course begs the
question why take so many flies fishing , well actually thats a good
question because if I go on a quick trip or im wading I can get away
with only using a couple of fly patterns and not worry about it , I
guess its just boys and there toys and as fly tiers we just love to
see how stuff works in the water and how it looks in fact I think the
next fine day we have and I find myself at home im going to get all
the flies out and just see how many of the bloody things I have , I
think I may be in for a shock
AYE AYE CAPT DOUGHNUT
so having been capt of the good ship doughnut last year
and shown the destroyer all the hotspots we agreed he would be capt
this year which he was happy doing , so with the weather checked and
to be honest it wasn’t the best forecast but with the way the wind
was blowing we could get up into the bay and get shelter and actually
it wouldn’t be to bad at all
so with gear stowed away and rods ready for action we
set off on the good ship windy , we decided not to head right across
the loch but to creep around the side and stay out the worst of the
wave
at least I wasn’t going to be cold , it may not look
it but there was a fair wind blowing down the loch and that was not
what the weather forecast had said just hours earlier mmmmm slightly
worrying but we decided that we would go take a look
the destroyer was more confident in his new role as head
pirate despite the ominous dark clouds and increasing wind
as we passed a favourite spot the destroyer spotted a
fallow deer and was quite excited about seeing it , I however was
looking at it as subbug material but a welcome distraction from the
growing storm and the worrying changes in wind direction .
We got up into the bay and found that although not as
bad as the main loch the wind was still pushing us just a little too
fast for a good drift across the bay but we stuck with it for a
couple of drifts and indeed I actually had a fish on for all of five
seconds and with a thunderous cheer that we had one on the fish
promptly fell off the hook obviously the words I said after cant be
written but im sure most of you will have used similar words ill just
say I said “my my that was unfortunate my good chap and outstanding
boat partner the fish seems to have gone of its finely presented
breakfast”
we had a few more drifts before deciding we should head
back to the harbour and pick up an anchor this would make fishing the
bay slightly easier
what we didn’t however foresee was the wind completely
going nuts and howling down the loch this caused the trip in to be
slightly dodgy to say the least .
As we approached parallel to the dock and turned to go
into the dock entrance we realised we didn’t have enough power to
make headway against the wind and wave and we started to get pushed
along the bank , although this wasn’t really a major issue as we
could just tie up alongside the jetty further down.
This however proved not so easy as first thought as the
wind was getting stronger and the wave bigger and we could not get
close enough to grab or even lasso as we were really motoring along
at a rate of knots as we came to the end of the jetty I realised we
were at last chance saloon as just further down the bank there was a
massive tree overhanging the water and if that wouldn’t be sore
enough then crashing into the dam wall the other side of it would be
so without further ado I lept from the boat rope in hand and landed
on a pile of rocks .
As the rope tightened in my hand the boat and the
destroyer turned round and the stern was now facing into the wave ,
it was now just a matter of pulling the boat up the jetty and tying
off which wernt that easy with the pointy end facing the wrong way
let me tell ya
safely tied up and me onshore we looked over the loch
and there was howler blowing right down the loch again this was not
what the forecast said but hell that’s mother nature for ya
I asked the destroyer what he thought and he had pretty
much unloaded the boat already which was a bloody shame as we were
both really looking forward to today but thats fishing
you may not think it from this picture but is was really
starting to blow hard in fact the owner of the fishery came down took
one look at us and said “your not going out in that are you” er
nope
we stood around for another 30 mins or so and things
wernt really calming down so we headed back to the car and decided to go back to mine for some lunch
and watch some fishing tv
so far its been an awful start to the year but im sure
it will improve soon we can but keep trying and even a crap start to
the year aint going to make me take up golf.........we will be back
everything
for a reason my fellow fluffers
a
picture says a thousand words
loch leven a legendary place for the trout purist, eggs
and fry trout from leven trout have been transported all over the
world this special breed of trout can be found as far as Argentina
the biggest fish from loch leven was a fish caught many moons ago in
fact 101 years ago and stood at 9lb 13oz caught by a Colonel
Bob Scott
that
record was broken by alan campbell with a fish of 11lb plus .
I hope im not jumping the gun here as I cant find out
the info but im pretty sure this fish would have been far better
having its photograph taken and placed back in the water , rather
than the cardboard cut out fish thats been lying in the bottom of a
boat for hours for a vanity shot , I really hope this fish was unable
to revived and dispatched but I fear not .luckily the wilful killing
of big fish and record fish in this country is largely a thing of the
past lets keep it there .
This is how it should be done
brian price from vermont fly guys with a stunning
looking vermont spotty just look at the stunning colours on this fish
which was put back in the water to fight and make baby trout another
day , stunning catch brian
mcfluffchucker
(a cave in scotland)
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