Simple pike fly

simple fly using the new fish headz this time the large trout version. |I love the way the light catches the heads, looks like tiny fish scales!

Deer Creek Fish Headz are here!!!

The fish headz are here at last.....

Size 1 mustad 34007 with the small wrasse head (they come in small medium and large).

The headz are nice and soft so its very easy to catch them in with the thread to hold them before fixing with glue/resin. I LOVE these things!!!

Tight lines......Rich

New Vid "Oliverz jointed minnow" coming soon

Hi all

I am in the process of doing another video,this time its a fly that was inspired  by my 9 yr old son Oliver around 18 months ago. He was trying to tie somethuing similar and destroying most of my precious EZ-Body tubing so I sat down with him and we created this.

It has been a super successful pattern for me and the friends I have tied it for and has taken fish in both freash and saltwater.

Subscibe to my youtube channel and you will be emailed when the vid is uploaded.

Tight lines......Rich

New Video. The bendy bucktail fly.

I am really enjoying making these videos, so here is another of me tying the "bendy bucktail"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KY0nle-pF9A&context=C473eeafADvjVQa1PpcFMepgzUf3FzeOdTJR6HJ_bSRi6GjMdxYRY=

Tight lines.....;Rich

New Video of me tying an EP variant Pike Fly.

Enjoy!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFV1FvwhX_c

Deer Creek Fish Headz.

This is a prototype of the "Wrasse" fish headz soon to be available from Deer Creek. I tied this on a 2/0 34007 by catching in the very front of the head and binding it down to the hook. The finished product will have a subtle holographic effect increasing light reflecting qualities.

Keep an eye on Deer Creek's website for availability.

Tight lines......Rich

Bleeding Perch and Lefty's Deceiver

I have been playing around with the new perch pattern and have added a clump of red marabou to simulate a bleeding baitfish effect. The marabou is actually tied on the bend of the hook then a body braid is wound along the hook shank to approx half way between bend and eye. The actual baitfish itself is completey dressed on top of the hook on the first half of the shank allowing the marabou to be completely free of the rest of the fly so not to hinder movement. For durability you could swap out the marabou for arctic fox or even several strands of fine red flash.

I got fed up of tying with synthetic materials today so decided to whip up a few simple deceiver flies which are amongst my favourite flies to tie as they are so simple yet catch fish just about anywhere!

Tight lines.....Rich

New perch pattern

This is a new perch pattern I have tied using a combination of kustom fly fibre and sparkle fibre. It is shorter and deeper than my usual pattern and tied on a size 1 hook instead of a 2/0 or 3/0. I  am hoping to target smaller Pike and perch with this fly.

Tight lines.....Rich

Something different.

As most of you know I usually only tie Pike or Saltwater related flies as thats what I fish for. Recently though I have been tying more and more flies for Perch as I have arranged for a days Perch fishing for me and my father later in the year.

I have caught several Perch in the past on the fly, mainly by mistake as they took a fly intended for small Pike. The thing that interested me the most was the Perch seemed to like hybrid or crossover patterns more than standard synthetic baitfish patterns. With this in mind I have been tying up some flies that have been inspired by Salmon/Sea trout patterns and hopefully will prove deadly for the perch. I will give them a preview on my local canal and see how things go.

Tight lines......Rich

Gliss n Glint flies and new colour sparkle fibre

My "go to" Pike fly. 3/0 3407 SS and Deer Creek Gliss n Glint Plus. This fly has probably caught more Pike for me than any other I have used and continues to catch when other flies fail. Very easy to tie in a range of sizes and colours to suit any situation.

I am planning a trip later this year for me and my dad to go river perch fishing on the fly. He has not fly fished for many years mainly due to health reasons so I am really looking forward to taking him. Although its at least 2 months away I have been busy knocking up some perchy bite sized flies.

Finally I have gotten round to blending up a new colour of "sparkle fly fibre" and it looks simply stunning. Its a blend of pinks,whites and lilac and looks like rapberry ripple so that what I am going to call it. It has some very subtle flash colours running through it along with some DNA holofusion and I am confident its going to be a fish catcher.

Tight lines.....>Rich

Deer Creek Crystal Dumbbell eyes

I have been playing around with the DC dumbbell eyes and the more I use them the more I like them!!

You can tie them anywhere on the hook shank and create a baitfish pattern around them! I chose to do a simple Enrico |Puglisi style baitfish with 6mm dumbbell's tied in near the front of the hook. The glow in the dark backs are really bright and a bonus when fishing in murky water.

appearing soon over at Deer creek.

Tight lines.....Rich

NEW Deer Creek baitfish tubing and Diamond Fine UV resin.

This new baitfish tubing from Deer Creek is awesome stuff! Very similar to E-Z body and at a fraction of the cost. The tubing retains its round shape much like E-Z body and comes in several different colours and sizes.

The tubing is excellent for everything from simple baitfish patterns to more complex flies and is so easy to use....

This small Jack Pike pattern was created using the large pearl tubing coloured with pro markers and coated in the new Diamond thin UV resin.

Whilst on the subject of UV resins I have been playing around with the new DC diamond fine and have to say it is excellent!! The resin is just the right thickness for coating just about anything from small buzzers to large baitfish patterns. It is not as thin as the Bug Bond lite which is good news as that stuff is way too thin for my liking. it is somewhere in between BB lite and DC Diamond Hard.

Look out for the baitfish tubing appearing soon over at Deer Creek.

Tight lines.....Rich

Pike Tube fly + others.

The tube fly is dressed on a tubeology large brass tube with a silver turbo cone for better water displacement.

Hareline barred Zonker and Finn Racoon are the main materials with some rainbow crystal flash and rubber legs for extra attraction.. I|wanted to put in a white tail but ran out of white zonker....:o(

The extended mono fly is tied on 4/0 eagle claw with the hook point and curve cut off leaving just the shank. |A piece of 100lb mono is tied between the trailing circle hook and the main hook shank. This acts as a semi stiff link to stop the circle hook from tangling as well as keeping it at the rear of the fly. The 100lb mono is plenty enough to prevent the pikes teeth from chewing through, although if you are still not happy then a length of 20lb coated wire can easily be tied in and loosely wound round the mono.

The final fly is a simple little streamer type fly tied on a 2/0 3407 pattern hook and has taken both Pike and perch at my local canal. You could tie this on a smaller lighter wire hook if you wish but I tied this for the Pike so I wanted it that bit heavier.

Using the new dumbbell eyes.

I tied up a couple of quick flies today using the new dumbbell eyes and I am really impressed with them!
The glow in the dark eyes have a disc on the back of each eye that glows really brightly and also makes for a great extra anchor point for the eyes should you need it.

The dumbbell eyes on the last fly where large enough to allow the finn raccoon to pass through the middle of them and be tied off right at the eyes. Makes for a much neater fly in my opinion.

Tight lines....Rich

NEW mono dumbbell eyes coming soon!

We have been developing these eyes for a while now and hope to release them in the near future. We have tried our best to keep the weight down by not piling on unneccessary amounts of resin on the back (unlike some others on the market) so as not to add extra weight to the fly.

Best of all they are being produced in the UK not thailand!!

The eyes in the picture are just test samples. The final product will have an excellent range of colours and sizes and will be sold in packs of 10.

Tight lines......Rich

Deer Creek Ultra Shrimp

I decided to have a go at tying a semi-realistic shrimp pattern using the Diamond Hard resin and after a few failed attempts I finally came up with this.

The most time consuming part is preparing the peneopods (walking feeding legs) as they require the use of a glue gun and marker pens to complete.
For the eyes I decided to use  3mm standard epoxy eyes rather than a burnt mono as I wanted to create a target point on the shrimp

Here is a materials list.

Hook, #2 930 stainless
Thread, burnt orange 140 UTC
Walking legs, white super hair, glue gun and marker pens and a few bucktail strands to bulk out.
swimming legs, White Deer Creek flunkibou dubbed onto thread.
Carapace, White super hair shaped and coated with diamond hard and marker pen to colour.
Tail, white super hair coloured with pen and coated in diamond hard.
Feelers, 2 strands of bucktail

Tight lines.....Rich

Davie McPhail and Deer Creek Diamond Hard.

Great news for Deer Creek, Davie McPhail endorses Diamond Hard UV resin and has tied the "Deer Creek Caddis Pupa" using it.

Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mol104K4ZyI&list=UU16NCfnoaG7rm60e9pl89fw&index=1&feature=plcp

Deer Creek Tungsten micro tip scissors

Nik from Deer Creek sent me these a few months ago and I have used them constantly for pretty much all my fly tying. The only task they cannot perform is trimming long lengths of synthetic hair to shape as the blades are too small.

I would say I have used these almost every day for the last 5 months or so and they cut just as good as the day I got them. The tungsten inserts give the scissors a much longer life span than standard stainless steel blades and the solid quality construction means they can cut through almost anything.

Compare the price of these with other brands of tungsten scissors and you will see they are excellent value for money.

Tight lines.....Rich

Bend Back Eel size 1. great little baitfish imitation

Although this pattern is primarily for saltwater fishing I think it would make an excellent Pike fly.The hook rides point up so will help prevent snags when fishing close to the bottom. I tied this on a size 1 stainless hook but larger sizes would be great for the Pike.

Size 1 stainless mustad hook (bent in vice)
Pink barred rubber legs
rainbow flash
peacock hearl
Diamond Hard UV resin

Tight lines.....Rich

Bug Bond v Diamond Hard test results

There have been a few inaccurate reports recently on the subject of UV resins, especially Deer Creek Diamond Hard and Bug Bond. These where made by people who didnt even have a bottle of each to compare so how they can comment on it is beyond me............Shame on you!

I do have both resins to hand so decided to write my own review on the pro's and con's of each. First let me apologise for the state of the Bug Bond bottle. It tipped over in my drawer and leaked slightly smudging the label so apologies to Mr Edwards of BB if he reads this review.

The torch I used to cure the BB is the 1watt UV torch that Deer Creek sell as I dont have a pro BB torch. As far as I am aware the DC torch is equally or more powerful than the BB torch and the wavelengths are the same so this should not affect results.

All resins where cured using the manufacturers stated times and a bit of common sense....:o)

Test 1 involved applying both resins to a brown envelope and curing for the stated times. I then dropped marabou onto each square of resin from a height of approx 6". After a couple of seconds I tapped the envelope on my worktop to shake off any loose fibres.

As you can see BB is clearly not tack free as quite a lot of marabou stuck to the resin. DH passed this test well with only a single strand clinging to it.

I found this test odd as BB used to be totally tack free so all I can assume is the resin has changed since its first introduction.
Diamond hard is the clear winner here.



Test 2 involved applying a strip of resin approx 25mm long and approx 1.5mm deep to a piece of wood and curing. This served 2 purposes,the first was to test adhesion properties and the second was to test curing ability on an average thickness of resin. They where both cured for 10s using the 1watt UV torch.

Both resins had excellent adhesion properties to the wood but as can be seen from the picture BB left a slight residue underneath the cured surface. Although this did not affect the adhesion properties to the wood I am certain it would affect its ability to stick to a hook shank or other smooth surface. This could be helped by longer curing times for the BB but I am trying to keep things as even as possible.
Diamond hard is the winner here but only by a small margin.



Test 3 involved removing the strips of cured resin from the wood and testing its flexibility by bending it between my fingers. As you can see both resins performed well here although the DH would have broke if I had bent it anymore. BB on the other hand is more flexible and feels rubbery compared to DH.

Bug Bond is the winner in this test.

Test 4 is probably a little extreme and doesnt really apply to the world of fly tying/fishing but I am putting it in to show I am trying to be as impartial as possible.

I took the 2 strips of cured resin, put them on a strip of wood and hit them with a hammer! I used roughly the same amount of force used to drive a nail into wood. This is a lot more force than you would encounter whilst casting or playing a fish so I will leave it up to you to decide if it is relevent or not.

BB is the clear winner here as its flexibility absorbed the hammer blow where the harder properties of DH caused it to shatter but I still question the relevence of the test.........

For test 5 I simply applied the resin to a bare hook shank to test its clarity and adhesion properties.

Its hard to see from the pics but DH is definately slightly clearer when cured. I am not talking a massive amount here but still it is clearer than BB. Adhesion properties where pretty much equal as I applied a bit of common sense and cured the BB for a few seconds longer which seemed to do the trick. I broke the resin off the hooks and BB still had a slight residue under the cured surface. This did not seem to affect adhesion to the hook so its probably not worth worrying about.

Diamond Hard is the winner here but again only by a small margin.



For test 6 I tied 2 identical flies (as close as I could get them) and coated the finished head in the resin to test for ease of use and the resin's ability to transfer UV light through it. The thread I used was a danvilles flymaster plus neon green which  glows brightly under a UV light source.

I found BB to be a little tricky to apply in places as it did not seem to flow requiring constant input from the bottle tip to get it fairly smooth. DH is totally different, it is still a viscous resin so can be applied thick but it flows nicely requiring only a gentle turn of the vice to give it a smooth finish.

Obviously both BB and DH has its uses here. I can see BB being used for an application that requires the resin to stay put and not run where DH would be used for creating a smooth coating over a surface or head etc..

The results for the UV light test are as different as chalk and cheese. BB does not allow the UV reactive thread to glow, clearly stopping any benefit from having a UV thread. DH on the otker hand glows nicely letting the UV properties of the thread really light up which is great when fishing as the thread creates a little "hot spot" on the fly.

I think its safe to say its a draw on ease of use as each one has its uses...

DH is the clear winner on the UV light test as its the only resin to let the UV properties of the material under it flouresse

CONCLUSION.

Taking everything into account including cost, curing time, etc.. I personally think DH is the winner here. BB is around £50.00 for its pro kit (20ml) DH is around £30.00 for its pro laser kit (15ml).

Both resins perform well and each has its own strenghts and weaknesses but for me DH is the only one that is totally tack free and for me that is important. Someone wishing to brush the resin through fur or feathers might find BB easier to use as its more flexible but for general fly tying needs I think DH is the better of the 2.

If anyone has any questions or wants me to run a different test please leave a comment.

Tight lines.......Rich