Fly action!!

A short video I took of a white/orange baitfish tied with sparkle fibre. The action this synthetic material imparts is very realistic.

Tight lines.......Rich

Pike Fishing with my 10 yr old son.

Today was Oliver's first time Pike fishing on the fly, and what an eventful couple of hours we had!

We got to the Erewash around 6.00pm and set the rods up in the car park. We had a quick look either side of the bridge to see if we could spot any fish, as there had been a few Pike surface cruising the evening before. I saw what I thought was a small Pike sat amongst the lillies so we decided to try there first.
Oliver was using a simple silver/orange baitfish pattern I had tied and I put on a large deceiver to give the fish a choice of 2 different flies.
Within 5 minutes of fishing I lost what felt like a reasonable fish and Oliver pulled out of one. We carried on fishing for a further half hour without a bite so we decided to move. The fish must have been spooked from the lost fish and constant thrashing of the water.....:o)

We had a walk to the other side of the bridge and immediately saw a very large carp crusing close to the Lock gates along with a shoal of what looked like small roach. With this many small fish around I knew a pike must be fairly close by, so we decided to give it a half hour and then move on if we caught nothing. Within 10 minutes I had banked a small Pike of around 3lb and Oliver had yet again pulled out of another fish. I looked at the fly and the hook seemed o.k but just to be safe I asked Oliver to pick another fly to use. After another few minutes and with an impatient dad chastising him he picked a Clouser minnow style fly.

On went the fly and approx 10 minutes later he hooked a Pike. He was playing the fish well when suddenly the rod tip slammed over and he shouted me to help. I got there just in time to see a Pike of epic proportions (well it is to Oliver) let go of the smaller Pike he had hooked. The rod tip sprang back and almost flirted the poor little Pike onto the grass bank.The look on Oliver's face was a mixture of panic and joy at catching his first fly caught Pike. I netted the fish and removed the fly easily as I had crimped the barb on the mustad C68SZ tarpon hook.

In the Pikes left flank was a large and very deep gash where the larger Pike had hold of it.  I wiped down the wound with an old towel I keep in my tackle bag ,and applied some Kryston Clinic antiseptic wound wash. Normally I only carry the clinic when stalking carp with my older son but luckily I had left it in my tackle bag.

Oliver and I had a fantastic couple of hours fishing together and I am really proud of him taking his first ever fly caught Pike.

In a society obsessed with money and technolog its days like these that remind us all of whats really important..........

Tight lines.......Rich and Oliver

Streamer flies for Pike

Hi all.

I have been tying up a storm lately and have had loads of fun tying Streamer flies for the local Pike to (hopefully) have a chew on.

These flies are a pleasure to tie and fairly easy as long as you get the proportions right. The action varies with each fly depending on hook size, dressing etc. and half the fun for me is seeing them in action and working out how to improve them.

Give them a go and see how much fun they can be....

|Tight lines.....rich

Pike Fly, Hot Pink Bunny Tube fly

I have been experimenting with tube flies recently, mainly because some of the patterns I want to tie will close the gape up on a standard hook and affect hook ups.

This fly is tied on a Pro Tube system flexi tube with a soft sonic disc. I have cut off most of the retainer tube leaving approx 10mm left.

I first tied on a "pillow" of UV hot pink fritz followed by a collar of barred blood marabou. I then attached a length of 2 tone zonker strip before locking everything down with a drop of superglue.
The body is a mosaic fritz followed by a marabou collar and topped with some peacock hearl.

Video coming soon......

Tight lines......Rich

Bend Back Minnow and Surf Candy

These 2 patterns where originally designed for Saltwater fishing, but as with many saltwater patterns they make excellent Pike flies.

The bend back has been weighted with lead wire and is tied on a Mustad 34007 size 1/0 and fishes with an excellent jigging action.

The surf candy has been tied on a size 2 short shank wide gape hook and is coated with 2 layers of Deer Creek diamond hard resin.

Tight lines......Rich

New Video. Articulated Baitfish

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuYpqEPhLZ0

New 3D Epoxy Gel eyes "Blue Fusion"

New colour gel eyes, currently only available from me.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/170838727150?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649


Blue Fusion 6mm, 8mm, 10mm, 12mm and a whopping 14mm!
Magma (Red) 8mm, 10mm, 12mm
orange Fusion 12mm
Lime Fusion 13mm

Pike Flies. BunnyBou flies....:o)

Hope everyone is well...:o)

I have been tying a lot of flies recently with rabbit strip and marabou as the movement you get with these flies caanot be obtained with synthetics. The flies are not as hard wearing as my usual synthetic baitfish but I dont mind changing out the fly every couple of fish or so.

Hope you like em.

Tight lines.....Rich

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