BBzzzzzz.... chewed alive, flies and mozzies

Last week was a bit slow as my car was in for an MOT so i didn't get out till Friday for a few hours. I'm still really enjoying Pike fly fishing and tying the flies is equally as fun, its actually very therapeutic tying flies. I've mainly been tying bait fish patterns and trying slightly different ways to tie them to get a better profile. The trouble is if you use too much material, when the fly is in the water the materials puff out and you totally loose your profile. It doesn't really matter that much, pike will still chew it but i like to make things realistic as this is what there used to seeing and eating and it also gives me confidence in what I'm using.

Ive been playing around with blending materials and chucking colours together than don't even go together to slightly alter the shade of the more prominent colour, it gives a really nice effect actually.

You will notice one of the flies has a tail on the end, this is something else Ive been trying to make the profile even more realistic. The tail is attached to a central core of material, i was going to try some fluro but thought if i matched what the rest of the fly was made with it would blend in and also move in the same way. I also thought by using 10-15 strands of material was better than just one in case a fish ripped it off or bit through it. 

The effect is more realistic than i thought and it looks brilliant in the water, i went out yesterday to try the fly out and ended up with a really nice fish on it. It was awful taking the photos though as i was getting swarmed by mosquito's and had to keep wafting them off me so to have to stay still for a photo meant i was getting chewed by the little bleeders!

This morning i had the chance to get out again for a few hours so chose to go visit somewhere id not been to this year due to not having access to get to it, i looked on maps and managed to find a new way to it but this meant allot of walking. I knew this place was like hell on earth for mosquito's and after getting chewed yesterday i went and bought some repellent. It worked great keeping them off my skin even though they were still swarming me which was annoying. You can see them flying for me in the photo below.

I had a great couple of hours with 6 fish banked on the tail fly, the best of the bunch was the fish below which was a nice looking fish as well as a nice size. I seem to be on a bit of a roll at the minute with a decent fish most sessions, you've got to enjoy times like these while you can.