Christmas is early as BUG-BOND goes into the studio...

The shoot

It has been a good few years since I have shot photos in a studio... very much a previous life. Best thing to do if you fall off a horse is to get back into the saddle!

I do the majority of photos for the adverts and also the layouts myself... This gives me control over creativity. As most of my subjects 'max' out at a few inches in size the 'studio' is tabletop. Imagine my surprise when Phil at Veniard's thrust into my grubby paws two cases and said "are you able to photograph these for us?" Always nice to be asked. A few days after the Tackle & Guns show I received an email asking for the photos by Monday. I love a challenge!

A few phone calls and I had secured a couple of hours at Cetra's studio on the Wirral... great studio and with a warm welcome and a help in set up from Verity and her partner Richard I was shooting!

A proper studio again and with 5 automated flash guns on rigs I was cooking on gas... just me, the lens and the subject... back in the groove!

It was great to be able to pop upstairs and put the SD card into a Mac and check the shots... I was pretty chuffed. The final advert is in Trout & Salmon that will come out with the Christmas gift guide... so you are getting only a taster!

What of the products?

The Pinnacle kit is in a fab cooler sized organiser - loads of space to keep all your kit in (oh and it is fully loaded) you'll tie hundreds of different fly patterns with this kit... NO excuses for an untidy work area with this one! I really love the Paramount2 kit though - the case is a WOW! If you want a kit in a sturdy throw anywhere case then this is it... but open it up and it it throws a curve ball right at you! It has an ingenious two tier caddy that collapses down and fits in the case... add to this the vise and materials... simply magic!

And of course I get to photograph the BUG-BOND footswitch again... The feedback I am getting is fantastic... everyone who tries it loves the convenience and consistent curing and a it also means a Christmas without batteries!

Now if you really, really want to treat the new fly-tyer/love in your life this holiday season the above gives some great ideas!

Personally I'd go with the..... Sorry, I'm not telling... it's a surprise!

Thomas Magnusson joins the BUG-BOND Team

As I have mentioned before I get a great many emails from BUG-BOND customers that include images of flies they have tied and fish they have caught… one such customer is Thomas Magnusson from Sweden… Thomas ties flies to catch fish but also as a method of relaxation… a self-confessed perfectionist.

Having looked through Thomas's portfolio of flies for some time now I am pleased to welcome Thomas to the BUG-BOND Pro-Tying Team… here is what Thomas has to say about himself…  


“My name is Thomas Magnusson, a 44 year old Swedish passionate fly fisher and fly tyer. These have been my major hobbies for the last 30 years. I got into golf for some time, but that sport really didn´t give something that fishing already did. As the years have turned my hair grey, it is the fly tying that gives me relaxation and satisfaction, a lot more hours than I find myself with a rod in my hand anyway. After a long period of Atlantic salmon fishing, I have found myself more and more exploring the kind of fishing that´s not far from home, and not so very crowded. I have the luck to be blessed with nice trout waters a bike ride away, and a wife that is happy to have me home more than a few days a month…

I have also taken up writing again and my first article in about 20 years will be published in Fly & Tie #1 2014. It is a fly tying article with some patterns around the use of moose in fly tying… which features in a lot of trout patterns here in Scandinavia…

I bought by my first bottle of Bug-Bond from Whitewaterflies in New Jersey some years ago; I consider that I have been an ambassador for the product since then. So for me it is about keeping up the job. For me it´s fun to be able to contribute and that puts an extra spark to my own tying... I will shortly have my own blog to share my fly tying with more people”


Welcome Thomas…

BUG-BOND Footswitch goes live at Tackle & Guns trade show

I’m just back from the Tackle & Guns trade show in Stoneleigh, Warwickshire… a great couple of days meeting up with both new and existing retailers of BUG-BOND. For the second year I was on the Veniard stand… the BUG-BOND brand has received tremendous support from Veniard who celebrate 90 years of supplying fly tying materials this year.

Interestingly multi-award winning BUG-BOND came to the market 5 years ago next year as the first tack-free UV resin designed and developed for fly-tying… we will therefore be the only brand of UV cured resin to have a 5 year tack-free track record in the fly tying world… undeniable innovators.

Since launching BUG-BOND I have ensured that the product has stayed at the cutting edge… and I have maintained this by launching the BUG-BOND footswitch which is a retro-fit accessory to the existing single UV-LED Professional light… power is provided from the grid via an AC/DC adapter. It is a first for the fly-tyer!

The footswitch has been used and tested for almost 2 years and I announced its impending release in June this year. It has been used in public by Barry Ord Clarke, Dougie Loughridge  and filmed by Chris Sandford. Two weeks ago its release was formally announced at the Glasgow Angling Centre open weekend. 

I was pleased to be able to demonstrate the BUG-BOND Footswitch as part of Veniard’s 2014 new product range at Tackle & Guns trade show over the last couple of days. The benefit of the footswitch is that it will deliver a consistent level of UV for curing and will be of great benefit to those who tie regularly or those who don’t wish to be troubled with when to change the battery in the light. Convenience and consistency are the key words that have been the centre of the BUG-BOND brand and this follows through into the footswitch.

The response from the trade was brilliant!

It is one thing me showing off BUG-BOND… at shows I take the opportunity to have someone who has never used it to tie a fly and get their response. At this show I persuaded Danielle Hicks from Total Fly Fisher magazine to tie a relatively simple stalking bug… Danielle though working for a fishing title had never tied a fly. Taking time at the end of the show she tied a great fly which she is going to make Steve Cullen the editor of the magazine catch a fish on!

Well done Danielle...