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.
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.
Another monster musky fly this time in Chartreuse and Black actually heading out to the Netherlads for spring pike. Well Its the season opener tomorrow so I'll be uploading my daily posts in the evenings for the next 2 months as I'll be out guiding clients. Looking forward to meeting old friends and bagging some fish.
If there is one fly tier I've been itching to do a fly swap with, it has to be with Nick Granato from "Fly Obsession" . I have huge admiration with guys tying skills and to be honest I was beside myself when an envelope arrived in the post the other day containing some free swag from him.
For me this is proper fly porn at the highest level. Not only are these flies eye catching but one can see a lot of thought has gone into their construction, and I have to be honest here and say for their size and bulk have to be some of the lightest flies I've ever come across.....no pun intended, being fly porn n all!
With names like "El chupacabra", "The Ghetto Tramp" " The Truffle shuffle" & "The Sasquatch" Nick has been able to come up with a truly unique design of fly for himself, using materials us Europeans wouldn't generally consider placing on a hook for a toothy critter,yet makes a lot of sense if you realy think about it. Combining flash,Synthetics, feathers and his own brand of flash dubbing...oh and some rubber off course, these flies are wonderful to cast and especially fish with.....trust me I took a couple out the other day for a sneaky peak test run!
In the envelope were a couple of sample bags of a new flash dubbing he's be working on for sometime which I will certainly find a use for. Nicks flies are being sold through a number of internet shops "Raineys" , "Eastern Trophies" to name a few. Nick!....... thanks for these, they are the absolute bollocks mate I cant tell you how chuffed I am to have a set of your flies.
Here's a great tutorial from Brian Wise tying one of Mike Schmidt's double decievers which I featured some time ago. I do like this fly a lot but there are two things you should be aware of when tying this fly. Firstly with all double tandem rigs like this, its better to have the trailing hook pointing upwards. This will give you double hooking posibilities in either the top or the bottom of the mouth. Always remember to use a hook size 2 sizes smaller than the main body hook as the fly will track better through the retrieve.
The second thing to look out for when tying in doubles is never run the cotton over the wire down the bend of the hook. Keep the wire streight with the main body hook shank as it will also allow the fly to swim better. With the extra added weight of the beads and being tied on down the bend of the hook you have a tail that not only looks unnatural but will affect the way the fly swims overall.
Yet another double tandem musky fly this time in just Black & Red. I didn't use any schlappen on this fly but stuck with the wider black chinese cock saddles instead. Total length 12" inches.
I've managed 21 fish since I started the pike fly challenge last Thursday. These two pulse tubes have caught the two biggest fish for me the last 5 days. Water temps have been extremely low around 3'c - 5'c and persistant Northerly winds have pushed water south, so water levels have also been extremely low the last week, and when water levels are low here the fish go off the bite! I had a blank on Saturday using hooked flies and the longest a fly has stayed on my line was the perch tube fly. I'll be putting up the 1st points this evening on the league table.
Raccoon bunny's have been flying out the door since January. I cant tell you how many I've tied so far this year. Anyway I'm adding three more colour combo's to my shop soon.
The first is this Orange/Black with gold flash
The second is this Pink/black model with pink holographic flash
And the third will be this Black/yellow with gold holographic flash
Sadly some of the models that have microbarb saddles tied into the fly will be replaced with flash materials for the forseeable future due to the sheer lack of these feathers being available at a reasonable price.
I really like this Bengal tiger colour scheme. Orange cock saddle feathers mixed in with red/brown microbarb saddlesand super fine orange FFF Flash & orange and black bucktail.
Again I added a large dumbbell eye to the front of the head to give a little extra weight.
Even though the microbarb saddle hair craze never took off here in Finland, we've still been hit with regards to dwindling stocks of these feathers due to the hair dressing salons buying the majority of them up. From the sounds of it they are going to take a number of years for things to get back to normal. Anyway I was in my local fly/fishing/hunting/outdoor shop the other and found this cape for €39 which in my eyes is a bargain considering I've seen them knocking about on Ebay and a couple of other auction sites for 20 times that price over the last 6 months......Sure its a pro grade cape, and they will be used on pike flies, but I'd rather they be used for a good cause than be stuck in some girls hair being paraded around some shopping mall.
