Pete Gray - joins the Bug-Bond™ team!

Over the last 7 months or so a fly tyer from the US has been playing with Bug-Bond™… nothing strange in that, as many from across the pond have chosen to use Bug-Bond™ the first Tack-Free light cured acrylic for fly tyers… the big deal is that this particular tyer has an affiliation with Tuffleye the first guys on the block. Pete Gray has been documented here humorously under the name of Two Hatz or McPhantom… Pete has pushed the boundaries of tying saltwater flies and was the first to publicly declare his hand with fly welding… correction “Phly Welding” (as Pete calls it) is an innovative method developed by Pete in constructing a fly without using thread to tie in the materials!

Initially Pete started welding with Tuffleye and then decided to conduct a back to back test of the Tack-Free products. Pete has been forthright with his comments and I was delighted to find that Bug-Bond™ had Pete’s support based on its Tack-Free finish. Pete now uses Bug-Bond™ as part of his armoury to Phly Weld… I guess the dilemma for Pete was that he was and is still part of the Tuffleye camp… torn between two materials and also a friendship that had been built with Dr Ned Lunt the creator of Tuffleye and now the new protagonist Bug-Bond™ and its designer!

Pete and I have emailed a lot; we met also met up in Somerset NJ at the Symposium and now subject each other to Skype! We have formed a great friendship – a similar anarchic sense of humour assists… and also a respect for Tuffleye team who broke the ground for the use of innovative light cured material in fly tying.

It therefore gives me great pleasure to announce that Pete Gray has joined the Bug-Bond™ Pro-Tying team… Pete’s unmistakable tying styles can be seen at shows in the US in addition to the select forums he posts on. Just in case you haven’t spotted him before he is instantly recognisable!

Competition time! Win a copy of Tapam - the movie

Some might have seen April and soon to be in the May issue of Fly Fishing and Fly Tying the Bug-Bond half page display advert... the story behind the photo is that Theo Bakelaar used his Bug-Bond kit for the first time at the IFTS in Somerset last November and then with a fly he created at the show, caught this magnificent fish! The photo was taken by fellow fly tyer Harry Schoel both friends come from the Netherlands... fast becoming Bug-Bond's second home!

I have cropped the photo to give a mouth shot with the fly and what I would like is for folk to think of a caption and post their thoughts on the Bug-Bond face book page... and I'll announce the winner on 21st April...

What's the prize? Well my friends Daniel Goz and Jan Bach Kristensen have kindly given a copy of their fab movie Tapam. If you haven't seen the film or just the trailer you are missing one of fly fishing's top DVDs... I got infected by the tarpon bug last year... BUT irrespective of whether you like destination fishing or not this is the film!

So dream up a caption and enter the competition and win a copy of Tapam... click here to be taken to the Bug-Bond competition page... and do tell your friends and don't keep it to yourselves... get them to vote for your caption!

Oh and my final verdict is final and a pristine unwrapped version of the DVD will be sent to the winner... Good luck!

Click the top photo to enter the competition and the bottom photo to buy the DVD or the Blue Ray that is coming soon...

Hywel Morgan ties with Bug-Bond

Hywel kindly dropped me an email this evening after having a play with Bug-Bond... So for all the trout guys'n'gals who feel neglected by my saltwater offerings here is Hywel tying a staple of many a trout... a buzzer. I might even have to try tying one myself! Thanks for sharing Hywel...

Veniard's Glo-Brite thread & Bug-Bond

I was recently asked by a potential customer what the interaction was between Bug-Bond and Glo-Brite thread as his experience of other UV cured resins was that that took away the fluorescent nature of the thread. I had one spool of Glo-Brite and did the test and sure enough it did have an effect on reducing the glow... BUT when reporting back I was able to say that another Bug-Bond customer had supplied photos with Glo-Brite thread incorporated in the ties and they positively glowed... so what is the deal?

As fortune would have it I met up with Phil Varney at the Glasgow Angling Centre open weekend and mentioned this to him and Phil kindly arranged to supply 16 spools of thread for the test.

I spent a couple of evenings whipping a couple of layers of Glo-Brite on a size 8 streamer hook and then putting 2 coats of Bug-Bond Original over the top.

The results are that all the threads did well under 395nm wavelength of UV light and retained their fluorescent nature with the exception of Burnt Orange (6), Fl Chartreuse (10), Blue (14), Purple (15), White (16) these threads didn't do so well.

However, whilst writing the blog this morning I decided to try a 365nm wavelength light I'd forgotten I possessed! There was a significant improvement with those 5 threads with the exception of Burnt Orange (6)... Now what do fish see?

I'd say that it was a successful test and that Bug-Bond Original interacts well with Glo-Brite thread with few exceptions.

Sandford's Sinkhamer!

I'm being playfully accused of ignoring the buggy end of fly tying by my pals who prefer the rivers looking for trout etc... My great friend Chris Sandford has obliged with this refreshing play on the Klink... Photographs and words from Chris. Grateful thanks.

Chris Sandford’s Yellow ‘Sinkhamer’.
(With apologies to Hans van Klinken)

Why do so many tiers want to alter a classic fly pattern that has caught thousands, if not millions of fish? Well, as a wise old angler once said ‘The fish haven’t changed over the years, only the materials with which we try and catch ‘em.’ Every year more and more tying materials come to the market and I must say, I find it interesting to try some of them on my favourite flies. Can a pattern be improved? You bet it can!

I’m a great fan of Hans Van Klinken’s ‘Klinkhamer’ and its many variations. Traditionally, the body material is tan or olive dubbing that initially holds hundreds of little air bubbles as it enters the water. This has the effect of making the body ‘fizzy’ and is a great fish attractor. The problem can sometimes arise, that on a fast moving stream, until the body takes on a little water and pierces the surface film, the fly may not always ‘sit’ correctly.

I’m lucky enough to fish a very fast moving stretch of the River Itchen. The fish sit in a couple of feet of water and if you want to catch one you better make sure your fly rides the water perfectly! As a New Zealand guide once said to me ‘Your first cast is your best chance mate!’ Now I’m not saying that I haven’t caught fish with my fly floating on its side, or that I don’t dampen the body of the fly to help it sink. However, I did spend time last summer working on a body material that would pierce the surface film as soon as it hit the water.

For some inexplicable reason, the Klinkhamer that the fish find hard to refuse on that particular stretch of the river, has a body of bright yellow dubbing. Towards the end of last season I was tying some buzzers and finishing them as usual with a fine coating of Bug-Bond, when the problem of how to get the ‘Klink’ to sink was suddenly solved. Tie the body using bright yellow thread and seal it with Bug-Bond! I use ‘Black Hare’e Ice Dub’ for the thorax area and Niche Siliconised Polypropylene Yarn for the wing. I give the fly at least 5 turns of black cock hackle and find that black and olive bodies also work well.

Try it for those spooky fish in shallow fast moving water and let us know if the ‘Sinkhamer’ works for you.

Chris Sandford. March 2011.

Theo "Goldbead" Bakelaar Part II

I promised you Theo's Eelskin flies, well here are the photos of the flies that Theo sent me... and a picture showing that when wet these come alive and catch fish. The flies are a marriage of both natural and man made fibres and coated with Bug-Bond... inspiring and thought provoking. Thanks for sharing Theo!

Theo "Goldbead" Bakelaar - Joins the Bug-Bond Team

I met Theo first of all at the Spring Fly Fair in Newark last year... well to be precise I watched him tie... but it wasn't until the International Fly Tying Symposium that we got talking. Theo had just bought Bug-Bond from Greg at Whitewaterflies in New Jersey and was quite taken with it. He tied flies with Bug-Bond at the show and then went out and caught stripers with them!

So I had a few emails with Theo a few weeks ago and he kindly agreed to join the team... Welcome Theo!

I'll let him give his own bio...

"The normal stuff is that : I’ am 63 years old and so on…..bla bla bla….and fish for blab la bla…. Don’t like that.

Yes, its truth I brought those Goldbead flies again in the world and it works great, you can find them in every flybox. A big bang.

Tying on many shows around the world to show my style of tying and love it to do with people, to share, discus and fish them. Tying many different styles with different materials, play with it and always looking for new things. I’ am a tier for fishing flies, easy and catchers.

Fly fishing started for me as a therapy for my work as a sports teacher in the State prison, worked there for 35 years and found out that in the nature, the hills, rivers and so on : there were no bars…..its makes me free, it gave me freedom. There was no one who jump in your back to shoot you or kill you. ( maybe a bear or shark ).

Like to work with people in tying classes or teaching them the beauty of fly fishing. Also writing about my trips for magazines or websites to share my experience.

And most of all……..like to be with all those funny crazy fly fishermen.

Playing with that Bug-Bond stuff gave me also some new ideas ……..that’s what I like about this crazy fishing world."

Theo has just sent me some flies which I'll photograph after my trip to Dublin this weekend... watch this space...