Wednesday 30 September 2009
Fly Candy
"The Lazy boy" is the name I've given to this fly. Can be fished at all depths but has been particularly productive on the Merikarvia river mouth this year. It has a decent length of Raccoon fur zonker strip tied on to the back mixed with rubber,Flash and bucktail.
Tuesday 29 September 2009
Readers fish porn
Thanks to global warming the season is starting earlier and earlier. My first fish this year was that fat one , didn't way it, but probably 9-10 kilos, fattest pike ever, almost bursting.
This river is constantly very dirty, but right after the ice disappears we have a couple of days with very clear water and often very good fishing.
Pike Muppets works really well early in the spring, because they have pulsating(?) move even if you strip in the fly really slowly. Found out his year that very slow retrieves was the right medicine, so slow that it was almost boring(middle of March).
The Pike Muppet is one of the flies He uses most of the time pike fishing in Nitelva and Øyern. Very easy to cast . Black, chartreuse, red and white and black and red (black tail, red marabou) are my favorite colours. Strangely they don't work that well in clear water, but when fishing murky waters its my first choice.
Hook: Mustad stinger 2.0
Tail: Big fly fibre with some crystal flash
Hackle: 2 Pieces of marabou
Head: stick on eyes and epoxy.
My personal best was 12.8 kg caught in early 2000, after spawning, it was 116,5 cm. This year he finally beat it with a monster fish caught before spawning, 13,7 kg , 121 cm and what a fight. Its almost a religious feeling holding a fish like that. Its going to be hard to beat that one but that is not what it's about for him anymore.
Thanks for these Robban,I hope to get up to see you hopefully next year or the following May
Monday 28 September 2009
The Little Wizard
Step 1:
Slide a 10 mm bigger tube over a small tube towards the end. All tying will be done on the smaller tube. Then run a length of cotton along the small tube up to the bigger tube then back 8mm.
Step 2:
Cut a 5mm strip of white Raccoon fur and tie on from where you had stopped with the cotton
Step 3:
Turn vise upside down and tie on a small clump of pearl angel hair
Step 4:
Turn vise back over and tie on a small clump of Chartreuse pseudo hair
Step 5:
Cut a 5 mm strip of Olive raccoon fur. Snip fur from leather and tie on in front of the Chartreuse pseudo hair
Step 6:
Palmer on 2 Chartreuse grizzly variant neck hackles on
Step 7:
Whip finish and add a dab of head cement to it. Slide a silver cone over the tube to finish of. This fly can be tied onto hooks as well.
Friday 25 September 2009
Spinning Ostrich Hurl
Thursday 24 September 2009
Chucking fluff
I know many of you out there probably look at some off the flies I’ve tied and think, “ Fuck me! That’s got to be like chucking a soggy tampon”, and yes, in hindsight some do weigh a fraction more than say a plain baitfish pattern tied with either EP Fibers or Flash n slinky but I learned a long time ago one doesn’t need to cast flies 25-30m (80 or 100 feet) all the time to get the best out of my fishing.
This brings me back to the beginning of the season with my new found friends from the States. Both were excellent casters of a fly, yet were so hell bend on trying to chuck their flies 80-100 ft all the time that I often found them both looking quite drained once the fly had hit the water, especially after a couple of hours on the water. Chucking flies that far opens you up to all kinds of problems. The further away the fly is when the pike strikes at it makes it much harder for you to set the hook due to so much slack from hook point to reel, and secondly fly lines have a considerable amount of stretch in them, combine this with the 1st issue and your chances of a hook up are greatly reduced. It was also one the things I brought up that second morning with them. I’d noticed that the extra exertion they were putting into their casting was greatly affecting their concentration level which in turn was affecting their hook up percentages. They agreed to try shorter casts to around 15-20m (50-65 ft)….and well, the results showed for themselves.
The 3rd day saw them casting shorter distances all day and I also noticed that they’d stopped yakking to one another like they had the 1st evening. Both were more focused than the previous 2 days, which reaped rewards as they ended the day with 33 pike between the two of them.
Unlike fly-fishing for Bone or Permit where precision long casts of 80-90 ft are needed majority of the time, the opposite can be said about chucking large wads of fluff to mike the pike. In fact I’d go as far as to say that casting should figure last on any pike fly-fisherman’s agenda. Everything should be focused on the retrieval and presentation of that fly. Mixing different speeds with short tugs of your line combining them with slight jerks of your rod either up or down or sideways is what will catch you fish….not the 35m cast!
Wednesday 23 September 2009
That “Killer” fly….not!
I’ve never been one to just fish with the same pattern day in, day out……..Yawn – Booooooring” ! Don’t get me wrong, if you feel comfortable using just one or two patterns for the rest of your life, tied with the same materials over & over again, then good for you, you’ve found your comfort zone!. Unfortunately fly-fishing for pike with this mentality, limits your knowledge of not only how other materials perform under the water...but also how other types of flies can be fished.
4 months ago I had a couple of clients arrive from the
Anyway that afternoon we spent 5 hours chuckin fluff and only managed 4 pike…. So much for the killer pattern I thought!. Anyway the next day I took a large selection of my own flies along and before we departed we sat down over a couple of cups of coffee and disgust the previous days fishing, where it transpired that both were basically self taught pike fly-fishermen & fly tyer’s (Respect fellas) This though had unfortunately stunted their progression in the sport some what. I told them they both needed to look further than the comfort zone they’d obviously fallen into, & just for that day use a multitude of different flies I’d tied, instead of the flies they’d brought….Which thank Christ they agreed. By the time we’d stopped for lunch both chaps had bagged no fewer than 15 pike….The most pike they’d ever caught in a single 4 hr session.
Before each change of fly, I explained to them the action it would give off under the water as well as how to fish the fly through different depths and speeds. By the end of the day the pair had caught 27 pike. In one day they had learned more about the engineering and esthetics that goes into different pike flies, than in the 3 years they’d been pike fly-fishing. This wasn’t because my flies were better, but because we used all types of flies, tied with all manner or materials & colours, fished at different speeds and depths and it opened their eyes up to a whole new world………..More tomorrow!
Tuesday 22 September 2009
Fly candy
Pike fly vid
Monday 21 September 2009
The Little Ned tutorial
Glue a small 8mm length larger tube over 30mm inner tube
Tie on a 5 mm strip white raccoon fur then tie on 8-12 strands red krinkle flash in front. Snip so they just hang over the raccoon tail
Take a decent clump of black bucktail face towards the hook eye or front of tube. rap a couple of turns of thread pull tight then fold back over itself. Crimp between fingers so hair stays either to the top and bottom of hook or tube.
Repeat step 3 except with a bright colour. Here I used red.
Whip finish and add a dab of head cement. slide cone over tube,if using a tube. Eyes are not necessary but I've placed some on just for aesthetics.
Sunday 20 September 2009
It was thiiis big.......serious!
Bicycle madness
Saturday 19 September 2009
Fly Candy
Poppers from James Durbins box
How many flies do you take out for a days pike on the fly? I know of some blokes that go out with boxes and boxes of flies.I even had a client last year arrive with over 700 flies in his box, and only used maybe 20 of them. An overkill if ever I saw one. You really only need 10 flies,15 at the most for a days fishing. I take one box of 10 flies with me where ever I go, either on the boat or out wading, thats how confident I am I'm going to catch a fish here on Replot. The fishing has been that good this season its allowed me to really scale down the amount of tackle I use,and flies has been one of them.
Friday 18 September 2009
Fly Candy
Thursday 17 September 2009
Beer n fishin!
Garden sculptures
Wednesday 16 September 2009
"The Bob Marley"
Step 1:
This fly can be tied either on hook or tube. Run your cotton along the length of the thin tube and back to half way
Step 2:
Cut an 8 mm strip of white raccoon zonker fur and tie on
Step 3:
Turn vise upside down and tie on a small clump of pearl angel hair
Step 4:
Directly after the white raccoon tie on a dumbbell eye any size.Here I used large.
Step 5:
Turn vise back over and then tie on a 120 mm microbarb grizzly saddle
Step 6:
Directly after that tie a small clump of brown Raccoon fur on.
Step 7:
Tie on your second microbarb grizzly saddle (This one only 80 mm long)
Step 8:
Turn vise over again and tie on a very small amount of red arctic fox fur.
Alternatively,one can replace the dumbbell eyes with two grizzly variant neck hackle and finish off with a conehead like in these two examples.
Click images for a larger view.
Tuesday 15 September 2009
Fly Candy
Whether your tying a head for a Diver,Popper or even a sub bug with bucktail, the general consensus or rule of thumb is to trim the head down leaving a slight collar behind the head. Me,I'm different...I like to leave the collar as long as I can possibly have it. This way I'm able to create a little more volume to the fly than if I trimmed it off, & secondly at the end of each strip the collar springs back thus creating a little more life to the fly. I've found this untrimmed collar helps the fly dart and jerk a lot more through the retrieve.
Click images for a larger view.