Dream Team win and support Help for Heroes!

Photo kind permission of Chris Sandford Copyright 2011 (so please don't copy it!)

Yesterday's result for me yesterday was quickly followed with an email from Chris Sandford... it was another "Wow!" and success for Bug-Bond.

Chris and his Dream Team won the 'One Fly' competition on the River Test... fantastic news and really well done.
The press release follows:

"Dream Team Win The ‘One Fly’!
On April 28th, Chris Tarrant, Bob James and Chris Sandford scored the most points to take first prize in the ‘River Test ‘One Fly’ Competition organized by Simon Cooper’s company ‘Fishing Breaks’. All three contestants used Sandford’s signature fly ‘The Ducking Feadly’. (Rearrange the letters slightly to find out what the fly was originally christened during the 2010 ‘One Fly’!). Sandford also won his Lower Test region with the most points to a single rod.

Commenting at the prize giving he said “Broadlands is not the easiest fishery but I was lucky enough to have keeper Jon Hall as my guide. He can spot fish when us mere mortals are still gazing into the depths!

It was a great day, but most importantly we raised over £1000 for ‘Help the Heroes’."

For those that don't know the aim of the competition is to fish the same fly all day... with a coating of Bug-Bond the life expectancy of the fly is extended subtantially... almost bullet proofed infact!

A lot to carp about!

It was too bright to concentrate on the pike today and having seen a nice pod of carp I tried a different tactic altogether... carp on the fly. I was rewarded almost immediately with a take on the second cast sadly I missed it. Third cast and it wasn't long in the water when there was a huge gulp and a swirl... I tightened into it and I was attached to a 10lb common carp! This was a special fish... a personal best but also fish number 40 on my home built fly rod (Harrison Lohric 9ft 9weight blank, with Bug-Bond securing all rod rings... no whippings on the rings just pure resin!). What a magic day!

Bug-Bond™ and a first Sailfish

I'm always delighted to hear from Bug-Bond™ users of their catches... it doesn't matter what size it is either. However, I was exceptionally pleased to hear that Tom Gorman (one of our first overseas customers) had caught his first sailfish and Bug-Bond™ had a hand in the catch.

I had hoped to report this a year ago however, Tom's trip to Central America was blighted by a shortage of fish and spit outs. So, this report is all the sweeter! I won't replicate Tom's report here as it can be read on the Globalfisher website.

However, the additional great news is that Tom has used Bug-Bond™ to coat his popperheads to make them longer lasting and also uses Bug-Bond™ on all his fly line connections.

"The Sigler mega heads come in plain white . I coated them with pearl Sparkle-eze... then finished off the eyes and the rest of the head with a nice coating of Bug-Bond: bulletproof and super shiny . You slip the mega head over the shock tippet and seat them on the front part of tube which the fly is tied on...

I used Bug-Bond to cement several loop to loop connections on 10-14 weight fly lines for use in the salt , where you create a loop in braided monofilament, thread the end of the fly line up into it inch-worm style, and then cement it in several locations , with or without a nail knot to reinforce . You make a big loop at the top end (fly line to backing) and a small loop at the bottom end (fly line to butt section) of the fly line .

The alternative glues are UV knot sense, or super glue, but I found that Bug-Bond works better because it penetrates the braided mono with a capillary type action, yet leaves a nice smooth finish – better than UV knot sense – so that the connection shoots nicely through the guides" Tom Gorman

I had the words from Tom post trip to Costa Rica last year but no fish! This year I can match the words with the photo... a well earned catch.

Tom, many congratulations on the capture and release of such a wonderful creature, I am pleased that Bug-Bond™ was able to play its part. Thank you for sharing your moment with us.

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.