Its amazing how a couple of years ago when I started tying these large musky flies that so many chaps critisised there size and wondered whether they were castable. Yet these same chaps are now showcasing their flies with all the same design attributes as these on a number of social media sites & forums.....go figure. Yes they are heavier but they aren't meant to be cast 30m. These are bombed out 10-12m at the most and used primarily on the surface.

Baitfish time

Some tasty synthetic baitfish snacks for Mike the pike. This bottom one "The Scrat" has been tied with Misty black and chartreuse mirror image and given a red arctic fox chin with some silli legs added to the front of the fly. By placing the materials towards the back of the hook like this you get very little clogging up around the hook point.The downside the fly is that the fly is more weighted towards the rear and so tends to sink backwards. The trick is to strip this fly back rather quickly with short breaks inbetween.

Fire tiger fly!

Musky madness!

Been adding 3 or 4 round foam disks to the front of each hook used on these beasts lately. Feedback from clients say they aid the fly from dropping below the surface as well as push more water also. White & black chinese cock saddles with the same colour in bucktail were used on this monster. 

Bluegill patterns

A while back I was asked to tie up some bluegill patterns for a chap in the States and he asked for a couple of Replot stingers tied in Chartreuse and blue, and so these were the end result. I rather like them. Not a colour combination I would consider here on the Baltic to fish with but might be a great freshwater fly!

Guiding clients has its ups and down. Some days are slower than others, while some just produce days to remember. Here are a few fish some of my clients have bagged this early spring.Not the biggest but a pike, is a pike, is a pike in my eyes.

Always great to see good mates fishing the Baltic for pike the way it should be done.

The Spartan!!

"The Spartan!" 14" inches of craziness. The trailing tandem tail is a combination of yellow grizzly schlappen, yellow tinsel flash, tan and white bucktail. The main body is a combination of white cock saddles,tan and white bucktail Silver tinsel flash and a spun deerhair head crimped between a large fishskull. This is going to open up a serious can of whip ass on some stretch of water.

Baltic scuds!

Some new Baltic Scud goodness tied with Steelhead Mirror image for this thursday morning. Chin is grey arctic fox and black raccoon fur.

The Hollow semper fleye

Here's a great pattern tied by Steve Farrar that can be tied eithr large or small depending on the size fish your targeting.

Dull is the new bright!

 

  

 

Yet another tandem double tied in tan, brown and white with a large Elk hair head at the front. Total length 12" inches. 

Num num!

 A small platoon of newish baitfish patterns I tied up the other week. All vary in length between 100mm - 120mm and tied either with Mirror Image or Slinky fiber or both blended.

Billfish flies

If you remember from early this year while I was back home in South Africa I tied up a set of Double tandem Billfish flies for the boys at Wildfly for their up & comming trip to Kenya. Well I'm stoked to see they worked fantastically for Gavin Loveday who bagged this wicked looking Striped Marlin.

Musky flies!

This ones called the yellow submarine and is another of my monster madness musky double tandem trailing rig flies. The client has asked for extra bouyancy with this next batch and found the double spun deerhair heads kept the fly more elevated in the water.

To cut down on the weight I spun two clumps of deer hair then added either 3 or 4 small foam disks to the front of each hook.

 

These should push some water,thats for sure.

Stocked to see my Replot Stinger featurind in a new series of books written by Barry Ord Clarke published by Paul Morgan Coch-y-Bonddu Books "Proven patterns for pike" Click the link to get yourself one for the shelf.

Bluegill baitfish

Custom Bluegill baitfish patterns heading to a good home in the States. Sea blue underbelly with chartreuse backing.Added some spots with a black marker pen and then gave them an Olive arctic fox fur chin. 

back to business!

Its hard to put into words the season I'm having this year. We had the least productive spring season in all the seven years I've been living here around the island. Constant northerly wind pushed and kept the water here in the Baltic towards Sweden which inturn played havoc with the water level. Coupled with that but water temps here this year have been much colder than previous yrs. Pike only started really coming on the bite around mid June. Saying that though I have caught a few fish that have put up a decent scrap. This one was caught on a perch tubefly. With Italian clients in June I lost a truly monsterous pike that jumped clear one meter out the water and snapped the hook which was double the weight of this one here.

back behind the vise!

So its been a long time since I uploaded anything on here due to a culmination of things really, I was terribly worn out from the spring guiding season, coupled with that I've had terrible internet woes for the last 8 weeks here on the island. Anyway I'm back infront of the vise tying again and this one was recently finished.
 

A days work!

Had a nice little half hour session yesterday picking up 4 fish all in the mid 90's. This one took the fly that was covered in weed 60cm out the water as I was lifting out to clean off. what a savage attack!

Been to long!

Sorry for no posting the last 3 to 4 weeks but its been balls to the walls with guiding clients 17hrs a day and just haven't had the energy to even think about anything once I get back home in the evenings. In all honesty this has been the worst fishing season I have had in 7 yrs here due to a number of factors. Constant north winds have not only pushed water towards Sweden which in turn has kept the warmer water from moving up into the Baltic, but water temps have been between 6'c - 8'c for over 4 week here and only now is it starting to rise. Coupled with that water level here have been at their lowest in 7 yrs and when water levels around the island are that low then the fish go off the bite. Pike have been reluctant to take flies and overall with 12 clients already back home we have only taken 826 pike which compaired to last yr is only half. Saying all that though water temps have now risen to around 12'c - 14'c and pike have become aggressive and we had a great end to last week with 42 fish caught and released in 4 hrs all above 75cm....We have seen some truly monster pike but they just havent been interested enough to want to take flies or lures. frustrating yet exsiting all in one cast. Have managed several between 90cm - 99cm, but havent had any over the one meter mark yet.

A couple of Bluegill patterns for a chap in the States. I blended Camo SF Blend with Sea blue & mottled green slinky fiber for these imitations.Added some faint stripes with a marker pen and a chin of red Arctic fox.

Eastern Trophies - CK Musky tails

Around three yrs ago Rowland Frasier came out here to fish and brought with him a set of flies that he'd cut & tied using a product called "Micro fiber" which I was very impressed with once I'd seen them swimming. Anyway Here is a "New" product coming out of the States from Originator Chuck Kraft by "Eastern trophies fly fishing" called (Musky CK Baitfish tails, Musky Streamer tails & Musky curly tails) that have a lot of similarities to Paolo Pacchiarini's wiggle tails except they are made from a different material and around 6" inches long. They even go as far as to say that these tails will out last your hook!......mmm!, bold statement. Having fished with some tails I made from Rowland's micro fiber they certainly didn't out last the hook especially with the amount of fishing I get through. Saying that though, I can see a lot of thought has gone into their design by Chuck with regards to adding extra tag ends to the tails for strengthening purposes when attaching them to a hook and I think he is on to a winner here. 

These are the Musky CK Baitfish tails  that come in a multitude of colours

These are the Musky CK Streamer tails that also come in a variety of colours.

  

These are the Musky Curly tails which are a little larger than Paolo's wiggle tails but I'm surprised that Chuck hasn't added some extra tag ends on these tails for extra strengthning. Past experience fishing with this style of tail is they never last that long due to the thinning of the tail near the hook bend. Anyway as I'm just getting started with my challenge I'm going to be allocating a day once a week for the spring season to test these tails to the max, and If they get a day like I had yesterday, and they last the pace and the hook they are tied onto, then I'll be over the moon. You'll be reading my over all thoughts on these new tails in the coming month. If your interested in giving these a bash then why not get hold of the boys at "Eastern Trophies fly fishing" and get yourself some to try out.