An awesome session ended early.

Typical isn't it, you have a full day to go fishing and you struggle, but when you have the odd hour here or there you bag up! But every now and then you get those bag up days all day, well yesterday should have been one of those but even then It didn't go right.
Basically i wasn't supposed to be going fishing and wasn't too bothered to be honest, but something at the back of my mind said i should get out while the rivers are decent because when you plan to fish they will be knackered again! As i was thinking of going my Mother phones to say she has to wait in all day for a delivery so i could drop the kids off, get in! I stick the fly gear in the car as my bag was already set up from my last session with fly gear and it was already getting on for dinner time so just thought I'd enjoy a bit of PFF.

It started off great with 3 pike in the first 5 casts and it was looking like it was my turn to land on a venue fishing well with lots of hungry pike to be had. I started to get action in every available swim with fish banked and missed takes. Sometimes your not bothered missing takes and loosing fish as it all adds to the action and excitement. This was great fun and just what i needed, however just as i was settling into some much needed winter sport i could feel a headache coming on, it got worse and within an hour and a halves fishing i was starting to feel worse for wear. I nearly threw up my head was insane with pain (checking out me with a rap..innit). It was too much to bear feeling i was going to pass out so had to call it a day. I could not believe my luck after banking 11 fish in such a short space of time at this time of year, with the possibilities of carrying on the action and i had to cut it short, such bad luck! I enjoyed the flurry of fish i did manage though so it was still worth the unexpected opportunity to fish.

I fished one of my new and improved flash flies, i love this fly and i had a few suggestions from my mate Martin from MScustomFlies on how to improve it further. One thing it was missing was a wider more natural profile, this was lost as i like to nip my eyes on hard with epoxy to make them bomb proof but in doing so i flattened the profile. Marts suggestions improved this however and i even incorporated a rattle.

Flash, bang and wallop..

This week Ive been tying some flash flies, the first one pictured below was tied with a whole mix of different flash materials to give it a really textured look, i loved this fly and was keen to get out and try it.

It did the business and i banked an early fish before loosing another off and then missing a take. I was happy with that though as the weather on that day was horrendous, chucking it down with strong gales. I didn't was glad i was rewarded for going out in such conditions.

The following day i went back to the vice and tied a few more but instead of just chucking the materials together i tried to create a different blend for the belly, mid body and the back to create a subtle roach kind of look. I love this fly and it looks great in the water. Definitely a favourite of my flies just recently.

I popped out today to try the fly but was disappointed with the coloured conditions. I suppose at least the flash would cut through it a bit. It was a bit of a struggle compared to other sessions recently but i managed a nice fish in the end to get my fix!

Recent ties

Thought I would stick up a few more recent flies, I've also been really wanting to give tube flies a go. I like the idea of them being versatile in that you can change the hooks if they get damaged, another thing that appeals to me also is the fact that you can position hooks further back in the fly for bites where the fish are just nipping. The best example of how this is done is by Nicklaus Bauer, his tube flies and rigs look brilliant and i love the look and style of his tube flies.
I was bored yesterday so thought I'd knock up a device for my vice to hold a tube and try and tie a Bauer inspired tube fly. As previously mentioned I'm still building up my collection of materials so i don't have everything to do a good job of these but I'm pleased with what i have done. The heads are a little on the small size really this being down to the lack of materials for that job. I don't usually fish this big (12"+) as the waters i fish don't hold a decent number of bigger fish so i don't feel i need to fish big. I'll be interested to see what results i get with them though, whether or not i still catch the same amount of smaller fish, if the hook ups are good and if the material wraps round the hooks at all.

I got out the other day too for a few hours and caught on the bait fish flies pictured below, I'm building a serious addiction for PFF now!

Ticking along nicely..

Been out just a few times since my last post, although the fishing has been a bit slower its definitely the best time of year to be out. 

I managed to get out with Neil for a few hours as Ive not fished with him allot recently. I put the fly rod down for this session and we went to target some canal pike, as it turned out the pike were not playing ball but Neil got a result with a cracking 3lb perch.

I enjoyed the change of method but I'm really addicted to fly rodding for pike at the minute so had to get my fix for the week. Again the pike were not as on it as previous sessions, possibly down to the cold nights and warm days confusing them a little or making them feed at certain times. I managed a few fish though which satisfied my craving.

Still really enjoying my tying too, its great to be able to relax at home and do something fishing related, and its much more comfortable sat tying then in a cold damp shed making lures.

I thought I'd have a change again today and went with soft plastics for the perch, there starting to shoal up nicely now and i had quite a few with a couple of 2lbers mixed in.

The highlight was literally the last cast, which produced a clonker of a fish, it was absolutely stuffed and a shame i didn't have any working scales as its been a long time since Ive seen a fish of this size, it was never going to threaten my PB which is into 4's but this fish would certainly have gone into the meaty side of 3lb with the girth of it! It makes my reel look tiny! A bit disappointed with the self take, there not the easiest fish to get a good representation of there scale in photos and even more so with self takes.

Passing time in a rut..

I seem to be in a bit of a rut at the minute, i can't get out much because of the kids school holiday and things just seem to be going wrong which means when I'm stressed or in a bad mood i cannot get out fishing to calm myself down. Fishing is enjoyment but the more i fish the more i realise how it suits my life and how therapeutic it is for me.

So the day i got out was Wednesday, things started off really good with three pike on the fly rod in quick succession along with a few follows. Nothing big but i did catch the jack below which was an amazing colour, the tail and fins were like the colour you normally see on a big fish. It was great fun on the fly rod too with two of the fish being sight fished.

Just i was settling into the session i got the third jack on and it just so happens i was being watched at the time, not sure if this added extra pressure but i made a right tit of myself, firstly the bank was very steep so i could not chin the fish so i took my bag off to get my net. As i pulled my net off i knocked my bag and it went rolling down the bank into the river! Luckily the river margin was very shallow despite being silty. I saw the bag look like it was going to drift off but luckily it held, meanwhile i still had the fish to sort, i had to extend my net so as i usually do one handed, i stood on the net while pulling up on the handle, the net ripped of the corner of the frame..DAMMIT! anyway it did provide me with a good hook to get my bag back with, as i lifted my bag up i remembered where my camera was.... for god sake!

I've dropped cameras in before and they have come back to life so wasn't too worried although its not a great feeling as its happening.

Sadly this time my camera didn't come back to life but knowing how easy it is to drop them and done it a few times i got my camera covered for mishap or damage. So today off to the shop to get a new one, the only ones that were in the price range were out of stock, typical! so now i have to wait until i can get to another of the same retailers stores.

Being stuck at home with no fishing i thought i would use the time to build some lures to raise money for a new rod i really want, so this morning i set about it. Into the shed and realised i didn't really have the wood i needed, i had a few bits but they were not the same as what I'm used to using, they have a different density basically so need a whole new weighting set up. I started to get frustrated and didn't really have the mojo to be building lures, however i remembered that i had a few blanks already half finished so i could get on with those at least. While digging those out i then noticed i didn't even have any screw eyes left to build anymore lures...ARGGHH!

Ive also been doing some more fly tying, pike flies in particular and even that's being going rubbish, i just can't seem to think what to do and when i try to do something it ends up being a mess. I managed to pull the three below out the bag which aren't too bad but it still left me even more frustrated.

So that's it, pretty hacked off at the minute and no chance to calm myself down with some fishing, my main drive at the minute is my next purchase which is an upgrade of my pike fly rod. To fund that I'm having to part with jerkbaits from my own collection that Ive really had to force my hand to take them out there boxes, having made them myself and putting the time and effort into them i always find it hard to part with them. When i build lures i generally make multiples so that i can keep some and now I'm having to reluctantly part with those.

I'm just going to have to grin and bare it for about 3-4 weeks till the kids go back to school and hopefully everything else that's hacking me off sorts itself out.

An old fly reincarnated

I was looking through my fly boxes yesterday when i stumbled across the very first fly I tied, i took it out to fish after i had tied it and had a fair few takes on it but missed them all!

The fly compromised of various flash fibres that i basically tied to get rid of them as they had come in a cheap set. I started off with a white fibre body then added a load of peacock flash to the belly, a small hint of blue flash on the flanks leading up to brown and black flash across the back. To finish off i gave it a red throat and some gold eyes. It really was very basic but Ive always liked it for whatever reason so unlike allot of older flies Ive never butchered it to recycle the hook. I never actually use it because it was tied on a rubbish hook and i put that down to all the missed takes.

I still had a load of those flash fibres so thought I'd try and re-create it but on a better hook and improve it slightly hopefully. The hook choice was a Tiemco TMC 600SP lethally sharp and a butch looking hook!
The finished fly is below, i think if i tie another i will add less blue flash fibres as I'm not so keen on that addition where as the original just had a couple of strands tied in.

So today i went back to that same venue to try that fly out again and hopefully hit any takes this time round. The fly after a swim....

I'd had a couple of slow follows off small pike but nothing was really having a go at the fly like the first time id tried it. Then as i was running the fly down the near side margin thinking a pike might be tucked under the vegetation, out came a head and sucked it in. At first i thought it was just a decent jack, but every so often it would shake its head and id get a good view of it flaring its gills, its amazing how big there heads look when they do that. I still wasn't thinking this fish was any more than a jack even when i netted it, which i had to do to reach over the margin. I got a bit of a surprise when i lent over the marginal weed to lift the fish and it felt very heavy. It was a strange fish really, quite stunted length wise but with a big head and tails fins, it was also fat and very wide. despite it not looking so it would have gone mid double which was a really good result and i was happy with that, my old fly pattern had done its job!

And this is what it looks like after a pike has chewed on it.....