Elavated casting platform

Those that have followed PikeFFArticles for sometime now will know I'm always on the look out for the "perfect aquatic platform" to fish from. Well this certainly fits that bill. I just love the elevated casting platform, which I might add is a lazy boy reclining chair. I could see myself quite easily spending hours up there chucking large wads of fluff at snotrockets. A few slight modifications like a retractable awning for those truly hot days and maybe a velcro six pack holder and Bobs yer uncle!

Fly Candy

Here's another of those Raccoon/marabou doubles that got snapped up at the fair and is much the same as the Chartreuse one from a week or so ago. I also tried this out in the test tank in Stockholm and I'll definitely be tying more of these up over the coming weeks in maybe firetiger colours, Purple/blues, Purple/Olive and maybe some White/Black as well.

Front Range Anglers

Baltic pike flies and PikeFFArticles features in the "Front Range Anglers" monthly magazine all the way over in Boulder Colorado this month. Thanks Paul for spreading the love mate. Click their logo to visit their site or click the link to read the article.Here he is with a tidy pike of his own.

Fly Candy

This started out as a vintage fly but ended up more like an alien bug.I had it in the test tank in Sweden though and it looked amazing under the water.

Yes, maybe a bit decadent for a pike fly but as you know with me as long as I catch a fish with it that's all that matters to me. Total length 120 mm.

Swedish fly fair

Well I'm back from the Swedish fly fair which was held in Stockholm and what an amazing time I had over the four days. The Swede's know how to put on a good show and I have to thank Ulf Burglund and Mountain media for giving me the opportunity to rub shoulders with some of the best fly tiers in the world. To name a few there was Peter Joest (Germany), Dave Wiltshire( UK), Chris Reeves and his wife Caroline (UK), Ulf Hagstrom (Sweden), Niklas Dahlin (Sweden), Par Palm (Sweden), Tommy Kjaergaard (Denmark), Martin Angel (Sweden), Phil White (UK), Mikko Stenberg (Finland), Hakan Karsnaser (Sweden), Charles Jardine (UK) and Helen Kernsby (Sweden)

My tying table from behind

And from the front. Cheers for the (Fat guy fly fishing) decals Alex took them along to spread the love fella.

Although Thu & Friday was busy...around 15 000 visitors,nothing prepared me for Saturday. An estimated 50 000 people visited the show and I was truly blown away by the response to Pike on the fly and PikeFFArticles in general. If you think pike on the fly is big in the States & Canada you truly have no idea how massive the sport here is in Europe. In total I tied over a hundred flies and gave all of them away to interested pike enthusiasts. Highlites for me were meeting new and improved friends Ulf Hagstrom, Niklas Dahlin and Peter Joest. What was even better I didn't come across a single over inflated ego out of any of the tiers which cant be said about other fly shows around the globe.

Chris reeves,Caroline & Ulf Berglund

Hakan simply a class act and an all round top bloke.

Mikko Stenberg...another class act and a hell of a nice chap on the left and my new found Guru...Peter Joest. This guy simply blew me away with his saltwater patterns.visit his website Twinkleflies.com

Niklas Dahlin, Still wondering why he had been invited because he was probably one of the poorest fly tiers there. Only taking the piss Niklas.What a fantastic guy and an extremely talented Catskill fly tier. ChecK his blog out (HERE)

And last but not least Ulf Berglund which I was very happy to meet and make new friends with. Over all it has to be the best fly tying fair in Europe. We were treated wonderfully over the 4 days with transport to and from the airport, hotels, meals, lots of whiskey...what more could one ask for I say.....I hope to see some of them back there next year.

Salmon/Trout Fly Candy

On the Subject of Salmon & Trout I tied up these teardrop tubes just before I left for the Helsinki fair to give to a good friend of mine there. This one I started by tying an 8mm strip of White raccoon zonker onto the back of a teardrop tube. Then added a sprig of Brown Pseudo hair then followed it with a 5mm strip of white raccoon zonker. Then on either side I added the tip of a jungle cock feather.

Then added a small grizzly microbarb saddle and then palmered on a grizzly variant hackle then whip finished and added a blob of head cement

This one is a slight variant from the other in that I added a second sprig of brown pseudo hair over the white raccoon and left out the grizzly variant hackle.

Although primarily tied for salmon n trout I'm sure they would be great for a number of other species including Saltwater as well.

Readers fish porn

Nikolai Holttinen is Eumers Sales consultant and by the looks of it not a bad pike fly fisherman either. Chatting with him last week he said he's been on the Finish national fly fishing team mainly targeting Salmon,Trout and Greyling. Thanks for this Nikolia...your welcome on my boat any day me old son.