Now that's fly fishing!

Now that's what I call a fish and it'll have me changing my name to McEdwards and moving north of the border... There are folk who have directly or indirectly affected my fishing and hence why I include them in my blog. Dougie Loughridge... I'm not sure whether he's directly or indirectly influence my fishing, we'll go with the former though!

I came across Dougie on the Pike Anglers Club of Great Britain forum (PAC) and have stalked him on the FlyForum and the Pike Fly Fishing Association (PFFA) forum... When PAC decided to have a fly fishing element to the forum I saw posts of step by step "How to tie a fly" and I was in awe of the creations Dougie has made. I then bought a selection off Dougie and that was the turning point in my fly fishing... I started to catch fish!

I lost a fly and asked Dougie to tie me another... I think he graciously declined BUT sold me some surplus hooks he had... and that was the start of the fly tying for me. I've used the flies I bought as the patterns and amusingly until that new fly has caught a fish you don't have as much confidence in it as the original that has caught 10 fish!

I freely admit I'm a novice at this aspect of pike fishing and Dougie has been a source of excellent information... if he can catch fish like this on Scottish loch's then I'm sure other pike aren't going to say no to his creations. I didn't actually appreciate how much time and material went into constructing a pike fly until I started tying my own.

My recent advice to other novices is to search Dougie out on the forums and buy a few flies when he's selling them... (it isn't his day job!) and watch your hit rate go up...

No comment... on the grounds that I may incriminate myself

Where do I start... well after last Friday's debacle I decided to get up early on Saturday... blowing old boots and I saw nothing and heard nothing. Today I decided to steal a couple of hours and chose one fly (THAT pattern again!)... from where I lost the big pike I cast out in a fan shape and probably 6 or 7 casts in, BANG. Yippee! I score again! Nice 10lb ish pike unhooked in the water...

Now ask me where I should have been... my lips are sealed!

Gutted like a fish....

What no pike? Grrrrrrr!

I decided to sneak a couple of hours this morning before the world got going... and knowing that the weather is going to be very wet tomorrow I decided on an early start.

All tackled up I decided to use THAT pattern again! and had a few casts across the reeds... nothing, so on to the next peg and cast into the corner. What happened next is truly amazing... I did a half roll cast to get some line out onto the water and in the time it took me to strip a couple of times from the reel my fly was in the centre of a seething, writhing mass of pike... I played the pike for what must have been 30 seconds perhaps more but not longer than a minute. I saw the pike twist and writhe on the end of the line and I was captivated by this leviathan from the deep.

I made one fatal error and one that I have beaten myself up about all day... I had too much clutch on the reel... the result is sickening... the leader failed at the knot between the mono and the supratress. I lost my fish... size? Unimportant... but much larger than last week's 10lber - maybe sneaking up to 16/17lb mark... perhaps larger. Who knows?

I now have a wet Saturday lined up in front of the vice to make up clones of THAT fly and a few wire traces as well... whilst I lick my wounds!

Red Letter Day....

Well there are days and there are DAYS! I have been studying moon phases and it had Tuesday down as an excellent day for fishing... I was driving to Carlisle! Yesterday was down as poor and today... was just average. What is average? Average to some of the better pikers out there would be a bloomin' good day for me... actually it would be a win on the Lotto, or the equivalent in piking terms. Average to me well... may or may not hit.

So how was this average day? It started at 7am... overcast and cold... armed with a recent creation or three I set forth... I did three tours of the lake... sorry I got a head of myself a little.

I'll cut to the chase.. the selected pattern did well... did so well we (that's me and the chosen one - the fly) accounted for 4 pike... the biggest hitting the scales at a smidgen over 10lbs... you can tell how smug I felt!! Not half... a cracker of a day! A couple of almosts and a loss to boot...

Do you know what? I'm enjoying this pike on the fly malarkey! Oh and that bit about the moon... it's utter rubbish!

Vice is nice...................

I've just used Funky Fibres from Toby on the fly forum to help bulk up my tandems... nice stuff and it'll be great to see it in the water. I found that a little goes a long way and a great range of colours too! Oh and the sparkle is 12" Krystal flash again from Toby... so it'll be off somewhere on Friday to chuck a parrot or two!! Couldn't decide on which photo to put up so I've given you both...

A "REEL" good time!!

My new Danielsson 8Eleven arrived this weekend... ordered from Hugh O'Reilly. I have to say that his advice was faultless as was the service. The fully loaded reel arrived ready to use... with a couple of pike flies thrown in for free! The reel has been loaded with Cortland Pike WF10F (not the new red and mint line as you'll notice BUT the 333 version). The reel is the Rolls Royce of all reels... compare it to the reel my dad used on his Milward's Flyrover; they are poles apart.

Fishing this weekend was interesting. Friday night found me casting into the teeth of a gale and by comparison this evening it was totally calm and serene. A few carp rolling tonight but not much else moving, all seen off by the heavy rain that included hail during the night.

High point... well out fishing and with a reel and line that brought the Ron Thompson MPX Pike 8/9 weight fly rod to life. Oh and my hand tied flies are standing up to all that casting!

Tying a tandem...

I didn't think it would be easy... but here is the first attempt!

Lessons learned: Don't have the mylar tube run too far up the shank of the first hook and get some white EP fibres to add some volume in the next fly. Oh... and message to self "if you want to put a rattle tube inside the mylar do it before you whip it on the front hook!" Doh!

It'll be interesting seeing how it works in this format... I'm not as confident about the longevity of the front half of the fly... we'll see...