Pike on the fly in Canada

Fly Candy

I have one of these Black party wig hair streamers in my fly box where ever I go. They are simple to tie and are very effective fished slow, fast, deep or on the surface through all the seasons. Its particularly effective during dusk & dawn

Peter Gray's dual tube fly

The Pete Gray's double tube fly is an other one of those cross over flies that can be adapted to pike fly fishing.This one was tied specifically for saltwater purposes in the form of a Bunker baitfish but with different coloured microbarb saddle hackles and bucktail one can tie this fly in a variety of colour combination's and sizes. The extra tube tied on to the bottom of the top one is to allow for better hook presentation as it hangs below the trailing tied materials.

Fly Candy

I like to combine feathers with fur,I think the two materials work work well together under the water. These are super light flies with minimal materials, Yet have maximum volume qualities.

I stated off taking 8 small brown microbarbs and tying them on to the back of the hook flayed out.Then 5 Longer ones over those tied down the length of the hook shaft. I then dubbing looped a small piece of brown raccoon zonker strip.

I then tied on Some clumps of bucktail in Fluoro blue and then black Hollow fleye along the top of the hook shank. Then a clump of black along its flanks on either side. Then a clump of White bucktail then finished of the fly with 5 more brown microbarb feathers.Whip finished,stuck a couple of eyes on and bug-bonded the head.

This one I used White microbarb saddle hackles,Olive raccoon fur dubbing looped to the back.Then ran clumps of White and Fluoro green bucktail along the hook shaft, followed by a single glump of black bucktail. Some more white microbarb saddles.......well you know the rest.
Click images for a larger view.

Musky on the fly

I don't often feature Musky here in PikeFFArticles,but when I do Its for a reason.This is the trailer for the new film "The Musky chronicles". Its a film about the quest to catch a muskellunge on a fly rod while paying homage to some of the legendary anglers that paved the way.

Musky Chronicles Trailer from Lee Church on Vimeo.

This image isn't taken from the film but gives a good account why they are such a sought after species in north America.

The Muppet

Pike Muppet from Robert Sørvik on Vimeo.

The SG Guinea fowl shrimp tutorial

Getting away from Pike flies for a moment and on to the subject of Shrimp patterns. When I was fly-fishing for saltwater species in South Africa during the early nineties, new age fly tying materials were extremely hard to come by which was due to a number of factors. The first being, there were very few fly-fishing shops to be had….still are I might add, although shops like “Kingfisher’s” in Durban now stock a wide range of goodies which are supplied to them by one of the largest producers now of synthetic materials “Fishient group” found in Scottburgh on the South Coast, and secondly the internet was pretty much none existent even up until a few years ago. So as a fly-fisherman one really had to find and conjure up what ever materials I could lay my grubby little mitts on to tie curtain patterns. Hence why I’m probably such a tight arse with regards to not only saving off cuts, but also with the use of alternative materials and equipment within the sport.

Anyway Shrimp patterns were never far from the business end of my tippet and can account for 60% of the fish I caught. I literally tied hundreds of them in pretty much the same pattern. Now over the last 3 months I’ve spent a considerable amount of time looking at shrimp patterns and tutorials and have been very surprised by one finding and that is that none of them use Guinea fowl feathers for the legs which I always used on my shrimp patterns.

For me there’s no better feather for reproducing shrimp legs than a guinea fowl feather. One only has to split each filament to see the striations they leave, and once palmered on around the hook shaft the end product speaks for itself. What’s more, Guinea fowl feathers are extremely oily, which offer a much stiffer profile than say Chinese Cock neck hackles which most tiers prefer to use.

This images is of the shrimp pattern I used all those years back with the exception of using Bug-bond instead of 10 min epoxy, and the bucktail had to be dyed baby pink by myself.

This is what I would call the new age version where I’ve used tiny dumbbell eyes at the rear of the fly to give it a bit of weight and added a few strands of pink flashaboy in to the mix as well as pincers at the front and a tail, all bug-bonded together at the rear. These additions I might add aren’t necessary as the original bagged me literally hundreds of Stump-nose, Bream, Snapper, Grunter, Flatheads as well as anabundance of estuary bound species.

For those that want a tried and tested shrimp pattern for a multitude of fresh and saltwater species here’s a step by step tutorial for you to use. Move mouse over the tutorial and click view in full full screen mode

Fly Candy

I call these Bobble heads purely because of the palmered fur I apply to the front of the fly giving it the look of a bobble found on the top of some wooly hats. This one I started by tying grey raccoon zonker to the rear of the hook. Then tied on 15 or so silver FFF krinkle flash strands, then added several White micro-barb saddle feathers. Last but not least I then dubbing looped pink raccoon fur around the hook shaft to the eye. Whip finished and stuck a couple of 15 mm eyes on and a large black cone-head.

With this one I took several several grizzly variant and white micro-barb saddle hackles & tied them onto the back of the hook near the bend. I then added a generous helping of silver & blue fine tinsel. The bobble head is blue arctic fox fur dubbing looped around the hook shaft to the eye. Whip finished and a large cone-head added.

Raccoon fur

There are those that swear by raccoon fur, me included.......and there are those that either have their doubts, or just find the material to heavy to cast once its soaked. I prefer to tie a lot more natural materials on to my flies than synthetics especially feathers and Coon fur. The great thing about raccoon fur is that if combed through thoroughly with a very fine comb before applying to a hook, one can halve the amount of weight down as you end up extracting all or most of the underfur or down fur which leaves you with just the long outer hairs & a shit load of dubbing material for free.

Fly Candy

Juvenile Mullet fry tied for targeting Ide in the spring although am sure would be great for a few other many species.

Not much to these really.Shaped the body with slinky blend then added a couple of small strips of holographic Xmas tinsel along their flanks.

Then added a couple of Ostrich hurl feathers for lateral lines.Added a couple of 10 mm rattle eyes and bug-bonded them together to form a head

New kid on the block

For those interested,there's a new blog just started by Richard Johnson called "Custom pike & Saltwater flies". I've noticed that many pike blogs have all started to look much the same and get filled with pretty much the same content, so lets hope this one brings something different to the table in the way of written content, looks, articles etc etc. I must say though it has the makings of a great read and am looking forward to bouncing ideas of Rich with regards to his saltwater flies in the coming months.I wish you all the best with this Rich and welcome to the blogging world....Its a mad house!

Click the link or the image to visit his blog

Friday pin up after 12 beers!

You wouldn't be far mistaken for thinking that this image was taken from the set of the new "Hostel 3 " movie, but actually today's Fri pin up is 24yr old Tracy from Glasgow who works as a part time St Johns ambulance assistant over the weekends. Anyway she loves dressing up, cooking and says here personality really comes out once she's had a few pints down her skrag on a Friday night down at her local.mmmmm!

Fly Candy

Some saltwater fry hot of the vice. Tails are a mix of bucktail and a couple of peacock hurl feathers for lateral lines.

Once the tails have been tied off I then wrap 3 or 4 strands of holographic tinsel along the hook shaft to build it up. I then added Cherry red 4 strand flat floss to the front of the fly near the hook eye and tie off. Then I add Gold/orange 4 strand flat floss to the rear of the fly. Stuck a couple of gold 3D eyes on and bug-bonded the whole head area

This one has white bucktail under belly followed by yellow for the flanks then turquoise finished off with a couple of ostrich hurl feathers.

This one has white bucktail under belly then pink for the flanks and then black with some ostrich hurl feathers for lateral lines.

This one has a white bucktail underbelly then I added some baby pink for its flank then some light blue bucktail and peacock hurls for lateral lines

Fly-fishing art

Every now and then I come across an artist who's passion for fly-fishing can clearly be seen through his art work. Jonothon A Waske from Dryflywaters.com is one of them. If you're looking for something for the office or home then pop by his website to check out the many paintings and prints he has for sale.

Fly Candy

Some medium sized cross over mullet baitfish of around 100 mm long. Started with white Slinky fibers mixing in a few strands of pearl tinsel then finished the lateral line with some black slinky fiber and just bug-bonded a couple of eyes on.

I've tied these for the spring and have Ide in mind for these. I had a couple last season try to take some fairly large size flies I was fishing with, so hopefully these down sized versions will do the trick.

All hail Duct tape!

I came across this story yesterday about a plane, a bear and a lot of duct tape. To read the whole story click here.

Pike on the fly in Denmark

This is a short clip from a DVD I have in my collection about pike on the fly in Denmark.

Paddle popper tutorial

If you have followed this blog from the beginning then you will know how keen I am about using surface lures & especially poppers. During Spring & Autumn time my fly box consists primarily of poppers. Unfortunately though the size of the poppers that are available to buy either from tackle shops or off the net are too small due to most primarily being designed for the bass fly-fishing market in the states, and just didn’t give me the surface disturbance I was looking for to attract larger fish so over the last 5 yrs here in Finland I have been tying up my own poppers which I have called the “PADDLE POPPER” There are 3 main features to this popper which I have changed.

The 1^st being the popper head itself which I've started to make my own out of bottling corks. These have a wider surface area & make a louder popping sound when you strip it back.

The 2^nd is their length, and this is easy to achieve with adding longer strips of Zonker raccoon fur to the end of your hook + - 15 cm, and

The 3^rd feature is the use of stiffer feathers tied on either side of the hook shaft which bend outwards and displace a lot more water similar to that found on a rowing boat.

If you have some time and you like using poppers then buy some bottling corks and shape a few heads and make some of these “ PADDLE POPPERS “ up. I did have a tutorial for this popper but have changed a few features on it and so have done a new and easier one for you
Once it has loaded up view in full screen mode

Fly Candy

The Bluedun baitfish trio

This one has a mix of red, brown,black & gold fine tinsel tied over the red & black bucktail.

I like to add more white bucktail for its flanks which helps the tinsel from wrapping itself around the hook bend. I'm going to be tying more with bucktail heads next but I liked the big 12 mm rattle eyes for these ties so as to give just a slight bit of buoyancy to the front of the fly which will hopefully give it an undulating motion through the retrieve....hopefully!

Pike on the fly in Canada

Fly Candy

Tube popper streamers were primarily tied for larger saltwater species but have been great for bagging snotrockets with as well. Take a normal bottling cork. Drill a hole through the middle. Dremmel out the front to form a cup. Then tie on some Slinky blend towards the back of the tube 140 mm long lengths. Then palmer on a couple of Marabou hairline feathers then slide the tube over the front of the tube to butt up against the marabou. Fished with a floating line they work a treat.

Baltic Pike Flies

Those of you that are new to this blog (Welcome) and are looking for something specific regarding pike fly fishing or fly tying in general, then use the "LABEL CLOUD" in the left column. You'll find over "20 separate fly tying tutorials" from myself, "52 video fly tying tutorials", and for pages upon pages of pike fly inspiration then click "Baltic pike flies". If you see a fly or flies you like get hold of me through the contacts form and I'll see if I have it in stock for you. I also have plenty of money saving "Tight arse top tips" available for you to use as well.Other than that, use the search engine at the top of the page to find something specific. Have a great year n tight lines.

Vincenzo....These left yesterday for you + extras....Thanks for your support mate.

The Bart-o Minnow baitfish

Fly Candy

Some Black n White feathered fur streamers hot off the vise. Probably one of my favourite flies to fish with. Simple to tie and have a lot of movement under the surface.

With these I tie black Chinese cock neck hackles with white microbarb saddle hackles to half way down the hook. I then Palmer on 2 white Marabou feathers and then Dubbing loop some black raccoon fur for the neck n head region.

Stick a couple of 5mm 3D silver eyes on and then Bugbonded to finish. Total length 120mm. I also tie these in red n white.