Saturday 13 May 2017

life in video and social media

LIFE IN VIDEO AND SOCIAL MEDIA 

so social media be it Facebook , Instagram , pintrest , twitter whatever your daily vice its worth noting that these are fantastic outlets for making friends , swapping patters and flies or general fishyness i for one love browsing around looking at flies or what new materials are hitting the market and where to get them.

but theirs a downside trend ive noticed and thats people seem to be neglecting there blogs in favor of other media outlets  ive noticed that a lot of great blogs that are in the side menu haven't posted in mouths and years and that is a real shame as there are some fantastic fishy bloggers that seen to have just given up in favor of there own pages on Facebook , 

you know this is a bad move on there part because you can both at the same time and you know it may surprise you that not everybody has Facebook and some people just like to browse blogs and well who can blame them , so please guys if you haven't updated for a while please do, you have people (like me) who love to read them .

the other thing ive noticed is that photo sharing media site called Instagram which actually is fantastic check me out on there "mcfluffchucker" has loads of folks that are also on Facebook but post more pics on insta than Facebook OK thats cool love checking the pics out  but the other great thing like Facebook is the ability to stream live which actually i love so you get a warts and all tying video (my fiance often makes an appearance as you can see from below) but hey we are all human and make the odd mistake when tying so you got to have a very large pair to get through that one let me tell you .


so back to Instagram great idea but you can stream a live video but cant save it which is a pain so i often do one on instagram and one on facebook (which you can save) and thats pretty cool in the fact that your actually tying live and chatting to people while your doing it , and you know i prefer doing these to youtube as you have direct interaction with folks , and well you can have a laugh along the way as well (way too many serious people out there in fly tying world lighten up fellas) . 


so anyway i just wish the guys in the side menu blogs would update them , aint going to delete them of there as i hope they will start posting again especially my bro mr capsey was always very entertaining so come on fellas  please update em.

ok so yea i know we all lead busy lives with work and family's and fishing and its not always possible to up date stuff ,well i know this from my own experience but im trying my best to update every 3 or for weeks , and more if i go fishing so i have no intentions of stopping blogging .

so what new , well actually not too much since last post really , again been busy with the work thing , but the other day i was out with my wife to be to do some shopping and happened upon one of these second had electrical shops so had a quick browse and saw a brand new unused apeman action camera as below 


it was such a good price that i had to snap it up and to be honest i was looking for one of these anyway and really didn't want to pay for a go pro (expensive) so i thought i would take the chance 

soon as i got it home i checked out some online reviews and was presently surprised at what i found all pretty positive and my pal cez from pike and slippers  http://www.pikeandslippers.com/ said he actually had one and was a great bit of kit so if it good enough for him that will do me .




nice underwater housing a s well which im going to have lots of fun with in the summer 

so i charged the battery up and i decided to have a bash at the time lapse setting as a start as im going to do a tying session while using this setting , so i set it up in the back garden and gave it a try and have to say was quite impressed at the results 


so looking ahead im heading out on tues i think to fish weather permitting with my pal duke  and will be dabbling about in the salt and hopefully  getting some cool footage .

in the mean time stay safe folks 







Monday 1 May 2017

fly tying times

FLY TYING TIMES 

so this week has seen me playing about with something different , well  actually after my foray into trout last week i got home  and decided that i really needed to sort out my trout flies , thing is i have loads of bloody boxes of various sizes and various flies in them in no particular order and to be honest my trout stuff is pretty much shoved in a grab and go bag .

so after i got back from my trip i was clearing out the bag as i had some bits of rubbish in there (always take your rubbish home no excuse to leave it , you got it out your bag you can put it back in) and i came across my maggot flies in a box at the bottom of the bag and im thinker bugger i wish id seen those so it was pretty much straight down to Edinburgh angling center to purchase some new boxes , i settled on these slim boxes and set to work filling them up , well actually i only got a couple of small boxes swapped over and had to go to bed , seriously i couldn't believe how long it took to transfer flies over . 


so anyway i thought to myself  im going to have to whip up a few new flies as i now have the space even after i emptied all my boxes so i thought yea do some more so i though yea more maggots , can never have enough maggots so id put a picture up on facebook and fellow blogger cez from pike and slippers blog http://www.pikeandslippers.com  said he wouldn't mind trying them on his local river so because i know him im like yea cool will send you a couple up but them of course i remembered his sidekick Rachel so id pretty much have to do 2 of each for the pair of them or they would just disappear into her box . so i set upon the task  


actually maggot flies are fairly easy to make , here is a short video on how to do em 


i keep saying it but im a fan of products that work and im a massive fan of deercreeks uvs  they really do cure tack free if you want to try it the links are on the side menu you wont be disappointed.

so back to the job in hand cez and Rachels maggots  , well i actually went a little overboard 



and thought well ill do them some bugz that have done well for me before so knocked out a couple of pink maggots 


and then i thought well actually the green robo buzzers with the green wire used to be quite cool as well so did a couple of them for then 


then i thought what about with black heads yea thats cool give em a couple of those as well 


oh and then i remembered the red and white robo buzzers i used to do really well on the roach and grayling , oh hell couple of them as well


and as we speak they should have them in there hand by now and hopefully catching some fish fairly soon tight lines guys 

AHREX HOOKS 

ok so received some new hooks from nick at deercreek and i have to say im quite impressed , the last hooks i tried were the fulling mill predator hooks and was like there African made flies less than impressed and pretty much binned them as being totally not up to the job , so it was nice to see a better quality hook from the folks at ahrex who obviously know what there fishing for , as i understand they are of Scandinavian origin and clearly know what there talking about when it comes to hooks 


i like the quality of these hooks and are not in the least flimsy and bendy like a lot of so called predator Aberdeen's can be , these also have a nice gape even on the 1/0 and although obviously very strong they are also very light im bloody impressed actually and will be looking to try there saltwater hooks also as im sure they will be of the same quality 



oh and there bloody sharp 

so with a little time om my hands i decided to make a few for my own boxes 


because i find fly tying very therapeutic and i love to see things develop on the hooks  , im often flattered by the messages i get but you know as the sun goes down im just a guy who enjoys what he does and passing that info over to others , theirs so many dick head wannabes and know it alls in this game and i really cant be arsed with these people 

you know many years ago i had a phone call from this chap who had seen some of my flies long before all the synthetics became abundant and wanted to know where i got my materials from and in return promised me some free materials and stuff so i could tye flies and put them on my blog and stuff and you know getting free material for me was fantastic as i had a crap job at the time and my wages were only just covering the bills so this meant i wouldn't have to worry  to much about finding funds for new materials great i thought , well how wrong i was.

once he had the info i was never called or emailed again by this fat parasite who actually has done over a few people to get where he is now pretty shocking really but you live and learn and i have a long memory .

and you know theirs the flip side  to this because shortly after that i met nick from deercreek and he has constantly stood behind me and sent me stuff to try and that why ill always recommend his product because hes a straight talking down to earth guy with a down to earth family business  so thats why i have the links in the side menu to help him as he helped me, nick hats of to ya pal you deserve all that you have achieved without the need to stab people in the back , any way i digress

SALTWATER FLEES
summer is rapidly creeping up on us and i need to fill a couple of spaces in the box and this pattern is my go to saltwater fly for pretty much anything that swims around our shores 


a cracking wee fly that can be fished in among the kelp for the Pollock that live there or is just at home on sandy beaches for flatfish or even sea trout these catch em all oh and fly fishing for mackerel these are awesome , a great all round fly . 


this fly actually is also very good on canals and has accounted for some fine perch as well ( although not by me ) and a great little natural pattern that isn't  to complicated to tie and catches fish and after all thats what its all about the old adage keep it simple works well for a reason .



anyway so while i was digging through boxes i came across a box of stuff i had forgotten about , i seriously dont know how i do that but anyway i found it and it had lots of cool bits and pieces in it and this got me to thinking i should start tying the traditional  american streamer again , now ive always had an interest in these flies as they are so nice to tie and can be done in so many variations .

 i actually call these my therapy flies as i tye huuners of pike flies every year and design many more so this is my escape , although these flies are nothing new and have been around for many many years in fact a potted history can be found here 


i just like to tye them for myself and sometimes fish them , maybe i should fish them more actually and dont really see a lot of uk anglers using them although there widely used in the states for trout but then the uk has always been a little behind the usa in techniques and no doubt heads would turn and mumblings of discontent would be heard from the tweed set if you turned up on a chalk stream with these   


so below is an example of some that came of the vice recently and to be honest i think im going to need a new fly box to keep em in oh jesus what have i started .


a simple pattern in classic perch catching colors 


the heads are finished with deercreeks uv fine and its a perfect combination for these flies to be honest and they give me the perfect head , in planning on experimenting with these to see what i can come up with , and the uv will be high in the ingredients list , i know i keep going on about it but i only use the best in my tying and deercreeks uv is simply the best out there , far superior to the likes of bug bond (actually cant stand the stuff ) . 


classic little stickleback pattern all natural 


another classic color like the gold shaft on this and this is a colour combo i think im going to develop (stay tuned )  



one of my favorites of the session was this one above a classic kinda rainbow trout colour with the twist of fake jungle cock which even my brother ken (half man half muskie) capsey liked and well lets face it if brother ken likes it then im onto a winner lol


this however is my favorite , mix of blue and white with subtle hints of flash and a black head (this is just black thread with a head of deercreeks builder uv, quite an amazing uv and make bloody perfect heads if you haven't tried it then i strongly suggest you do you wont look back 

click on the link below to go to deercreeks website 



so thats that for now i have to go back to work , but next time ill have even more flees and ive received a great new uv torch so will have a tying demo video , this thing is really the dogs stay tuned



mcfluffchucker 
(a cave in Scotland)