Bernd Ziesche - Wednesday, February 28, 2018
Traditional or Modern Spey style, Underhand style, Scandinavien style, Skagit style, Fulcrum style, Modern Ness style or whatever style you prefer, it all doesn't have to be as complicated as it may seem.
Gary Meyer - Tuesday, February 27, 2018
I now think I might understand how it could happen. We have all encountered that grumpy old-timer that seems to be mad at the world despite having personally experienced the mystical “good ol’ days”. How could someone who feasted during those glory days, a time when fish populations were exponentially larger than what is left today, be so unhappy? We have all heard the stories, viewed the faded photographs, and read the stiff and yellowed pages in books and magazines. If not for these historical artifacts we would likely dismiss the stories of gory excess as fish tales Our envy is hardly veiled but secretly we may blame them just a little for what we today might consider a short-sightedness. But it is easy to see that things truly were so different back then that the possible need for conservation eludes all but a very few.
Paul Arden - Monday, February 26, 2018
I've just arrived back in Malaysia following a mad final two weeks of fishing in Tasmania, trying to fit everything in, and taking every opportunity to fish that arose. I had some interesting fishing on one of the 19 lagoons. The first time we went there we found fish roaming the flats with speed. Then - of course - the cloud rolled in and visibility switched to zero. However later in the day I noticed what I was looking for, a big bug crawling along the silty bottom towards the bank, and at the bank large black spinner shucks. Back at the shack I tied some weighted nymphs to pull along the lake bottom. Next time I hooked 7 but only landed two (possibly too much weight in the flies). And finally I went back again with a friend a couple of days before my flight out - landed 2 out of 3, but they were spooky.
Paul Arden - Sunday, February 25, 2018
I’m just covering quickly for Matt today. Tomorrow I’ll write an FP on my last few weeks fishing Tasmania. I had some great fishing but I’ll talk about that tomorrow. Today I’m fishing with Ashly and I’m excited to be back. On the drive over we encountered many cicadas. This is promising! Also it’s Snakehead with Babies time of year so it should hopefully mean a cracking start to my trip here.
Viking Lars - Saturday, February 24, 2018
Sandstorm is a fantastic fly. It's simple to tie - two materials, durable and it's one of thise flies that seems to catch fish, even when all else fails. The fly is originated by my friend, Allan Overgaard, from Copenhagen, and if you din't like the fly, if you haven't fished it and experienced its merits, just know that Allan is one of those who seems to catch the big ones - all the time - evne when no one else is catching.
t.z. - Friday, February 23, 2018
oooops ... tying at night with a few friends and a bottle of red is a recipe for interesting flies. Again I’ll have to talk about the mystical Griffith’s Gnat, or palmer mygg (fly) as they call it here in Norway. The term “palmered” describes a technique where the hackle is wound in open turns on to the whole hook-shank and not only behind the eye. While tying “gnats” I got a bit sidetracked and for some odd reason just twisted all the materials together. I formed a „rope“ with the thread, herl and hackle and wound this onto the hook. The result was impressive and I tie them this way ever since. This was many many years ago. I was rather impressed of my subconscious self when I looked at the result. I later found out that other fly tiers tie this fly in the same way. Watching Oliver Edwards amazing series of fly tying DVD's I found out that he was tying the pattern in the exact same way. How the hell did he manage to steal „MY TRICK“? However, there were others long before, who described this technique. You can read how W.C. Stewart used it for the black, red and dun spider patterns he mainly fished. “What remains to be done is the most critical part of the whole operation; still holding the hook between the forefinger and thumb of your left hand, take the thread, lay it along the centre of the inside of the feather, and with the forefinger and thumb of your right hand twirl them round together till the feather is rolled round the thread; and in this state wrap it round the hook, taking care that a sufficient number of the fibres stick out to represent the legs; to effect this it will sometimes be necessary to raise the fibres with a needle during the operation. Having carried the feather and thread down to where you commenced, wrap the silk three or four times round the end of the feather, and if there is any left cut it off, and finish with a succession of hitch knots, or the common whip fastening. If the legs of the spider when dressed are too long, there is no remedy for it; cutting injures rather than improves them. This is a very rough and simple mode of dressing a spider, and does not make it so neat as if the feather were[…]” Excerpt From: Stewart, W. C. (William C.). “The practical angler : or, The art of trout-fishing, more particularly applied to clear water.” - published 1857 He obviously did not have a fly tying vice, but that didn't stop him either. Here's how I do the Griffith's Gnat. It is the first fly I teach at my classes courses. You should see how proud a beginner is, after having managed to produce such small fly. The design is very robust and it catches a lot of fish. I was and am still proud that I somehow connected with what seems to be some sort of old wisdom. However, it is still new to many and some tiers actually feel almost insulted when they see how easy life can be. I have a included a small video on how to tie the Griffith's Gnat dirty harry style.
Tracy&James - Thursday, February 22, 2018
This weekend James and I will be visiting Ragley Hall in Warwickshire to recce the venue of this summer’s Game Fair. The BFCC have again been invited to support the show by organising the fly casting competitions. It’s fantastic that the Game Fair are backing casting sport and hopefully we’ll have a high quality entry in the lead up to the World Championships in Cumbria, just a few weeks later. We had a great weekend at Ragley Hall in 2016, so if you are interested in joining us please get in touch with me. This year the BFCC have had a specific request to put on accuracy competition, as such we intend running a weekend long competition to the same rules as the World Championships i.e. casting at set of four bullseye targets (although it may be on grass rather than water). Whoever scores the highest (in the women’s, men’s and junior’s categories) over the course of the three days will get a prize. We don’t know what these will be yet but we’re hoping to get a sponsor on board who will supply something special.
Bernd Ziesche - Wednesday, February 21, 2018
While planning the details of our fly fishing trip to the tropical salt water I put down a check list in order to not forget any important stuff!
Gary Meyer - Tuesday, February 20, 2018
Well, after spending the last two long weekends rubbing shoulders with the great-unwashed horde of avid anglers and fly casters I guess I should not be surprised that I picked up one of the circulating viruses. For my sins of ignoring them, the fish gods made my penance a week of suffering through a nasty head cold. Of course, this trough in my personal health cycle coincided perfectly with a long weekend of spectacularly unusual beautiful weather. At least I did not have the dilemma of having to choose between the large tarpon bite that was off the chain or canoeing out for what was likely the finest backcountry snook fishing of the year. Instead, heavily medicated, I sat home and researched and planned for my spring camping trip for yet another stab at trout fishing up around the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Viking Lars - Monday, February 19, 2018
I got a message on Facebook yesterday - from Mrs. Sexyloops, becasue Paul has, once again, drowned his phone and needed an emergency front page today. So - Paul's out of reach and I'm covering today.
Daniela Misteli - Sunday, February 18, 2018
I had the funny question if I would talk about fishing on the national TV daily show this week. So I met the TV team at the river and "fished" for them. Maybe the withe sneakers weren't the best choice for outdoor but they did a good and after 3 hours, repeating each step a few times we're done for 1 minute local tv news. And last week my new uv nail studio lamp arrived....
Viking Lars - Saturday, February 17, 2018
When tying flies there are many roads to choose from. You can tie imitations, provacative flies, general representations of edible things, blobs of nothing that somehow gets eaten anyway, and on top of that, you can add some overall principles of for instance always incorporating contrast in your flies.
t.z. - Friday, February 16, 2018
Oh my dear deer hair fly. I really love this pattern. It is so versatile and can be fished for so many different hatches. Pretty much anything from small to larger caddis flies and it even seems to be taken as a mayfly. Tie a slimmer wing and a darker body and the finned fellows take it as a stonefly or even a terrestrial. However, as a novice fly fisher I really struggled with getting the wing securely fixed onto the hook, but the small trick of cutting the deer hair wing to length before tying it on saved me. Thanks to Hans Weilenmann, whom I learned this from many, many .... many years ago.
Tracy&James - Thursday, February 15, 2018
This week the focus of my knot testing has switched to hook/fly attachments. Before I get into the results I wanted to emphasise that these tests are never going to tell you which is the strongest knot for your circumstances. I’m simply presenting data from knots which I’ve tied (sometimes for the first time), in the nylon I’ve selected (chosen because it’s cheap and I’ve got loads of it that I wouldn’t use for anything else because it’s brown) under test parameters that are governed by the equipment, i.e. the strain rate is a fast as the Instron will go, but not ‘shock’ conditions. [In a previous FP I’ve written about the effect that strain rate has on pretty much all materials – it’s quite substantial]. These tests are however all identical, well controlled and I get to record the stress/strain response along with the exact failure loading.
Bernd Ziesche - Wednesday, February 14, 2018
Flies, leaders, lines, backings, reels, rods and much more - all that needs to be planned in detail right now. The fish we will be after can get pretty large and are very strong fighters. That doesn't leave any room to not have our equipment updated and best possible prepared.
Gary Meyer - Tuesday, February 13, 2018
Over the last weekend, I attended the Florida FFI expo in Crystal River Florida. That was my second flyfishing show in two weeks, and most likely that will do me for the year. Unlike the Atlanta show, this one had few vendors but lots of folks outside with fly lines in the air. Also unlike the Atlanta show, there were a number of folks that I recognized, which I guess is only natural as I have been peripherally involved with the Florida FFI for quite some time. Sad to say but I have been hanging around long enough that I am beginning to notice some good folks are not around anymore. I drove up with two other guys. One is a fly tying instructor who had a booth at the show. The other is just an avid fly caster/angler/tier who sort of set flyfishing aside while his two sons have pursued things like Black Belts and becoming an Eagle Scout. Either, or both of these gentlemen have the chops to become a CI if they set their mind to it. With that in mind, I urged them to drive up a day early so they could observe the CI and MCI testing. From afar, of course.
Paul Arden - Monday, February 12, 2018
As mentioned last week for the Great Hot Torpedo competition I brought in five judges; Charles Jardine, Mac Brown, Jason Borger, Simon Gawesworth and Bruce Richards and asked them each to pick their favourite entry. Since Ashly managed to make it to the finals (and since I have now married her!) this was the best option. This is what they wrote...
Matt Klara - Sunday, February 11, 2018
It is 3 degrees and snowing here in Montana as I write this. It’s skiing season. Maybe ice fishing season. But a few days ago it was nearly 50 degrees, and a couple of my lake fishing buddies have already texted me, excited for the upcoming stillwater fishing season. I’ll admit that I got a bit excited too. I wrapped up a few flies for my lake boxes. And now I’m writing this, organizing my thoughts in anticipation of ice out.
Viking Lars - Saturday, February 10, 2018
You know me - I like my gizmoes, and the other day, I stumbled upon a nice little that I couldn't resist - and it was even quite cheap at about 5 GBP.
t.z. - Friday, February 9, 2018
Geez ... have you seen this new pattern? So incredible innovative. Never seen anything like this before .... he shouts convinced that all the other insect or prey imitation of the yesterday will not work. This enthusiastic reaction is nice and a good motivation for each creative person to keep going, but - that the bystander has not seen a certain technique before does not automatically indicate that this was not done before, maybe even without the knowledge of the person having found a certain technique or trick for himself. We all have rather similar hands and use rather similar materials to imitate very similar flies or fish or other prey. Of course like everybody else making and creating things, I had my own experience with this phenomenon. I remember two cases very well. I almost thought I had "invented" a new technique, or even pattern. Foolish you say? Yes, most definitely.
Tracy&James - Thursday, February 8, 2018
Last year was a particularly competitive one regarding #5 weight competition casting at the BFCC, the average winning distance was a shade under 122 feet (37.2m), which is great casting in anyone’s book (Paul’s record was rocked on a couple of occasions by Matt Tonkin the eventual 2017 champion). My personal average was 121.5 feet, probably my best single year to date, however I only won one competition – clear testament to the strength of the opposition (I had to get used to being the gallant runner-up). This year I hope to improve on this, not necessarily the distance, as this is somewhat weather dependent, but the finishing position.
Bernd Ziesche - Wednesday, February 7, 2018
These days I see more and more fly lines coming with welded loops at both their ends - to the reel and to the tip. My experience with these sort of loops have always been poor!
Gary Meyer - Tuesday, February 6, 2018
Last week I ventured up to the show in Atlanta. This annual show travels around the US, staging at about a half dozen different areas where flyfishing is either an attraction or has a decent local population of fly anglers. My trip was unexpected. I had not even considered the thought until I caught a notice the week before. It happened that I had no other obligations so I quickly reserved a room and rental car and was on my way. Atlanta is just a bit south of the beautiful Smoky Mountains, an area in which I have recently become enamored. And since I need all the help I can get with imaginary trout fishing I hoped I might actually learn something from the locals. Besides, I had never attended a regional show, only those based in Florida, and I thought it was about time.
Paul Arden - Monday, February 5, 2018
For the Hot Torpedo Competition we have four finalists; Ashly Chan from Malaysia, Konstanse Larsen from Norway, Carl Martin Vennefjord from Sweden and An Ren Tan from the USA/Singapore. Thank you to everyone who took the time to select their favourite entries. All four finalists will receive a Sexyloops Flyline of their choice. And I can thoroughly recommend our new Sexyloops DT Intermediate 6WT lumi-lines. And so in order to have judging that is independent and so that we will have one definite winner we have five judges! Our judges are Bruce Richards, Simon Gawesworth, Jason Borger, Mac Brown and Charles Jardine. (Sort of a dream team of flycasters and anglers!) Next week we will have a winner... Thank you very much to everyone who participated in this competition. Every entrant will receive a Sexyloops shirt with their name on it. The shirts are being finalised at the moment and I will post them once I'm back in Malaysia. And of course for 2018 we will be running a similar competition and full details will be announced along with the lucky winner's name who has won a brand new custom HT fly rod of his or her choice.
Daniela Misteli - Sunday, February 4, 2018
Step by step pike streamer with awesome movement for Stillwater. Maybe you remember my perch streamer with the small plastic disc, so that's the bigger version for pike. The cool thing about that fly is that the big head brings a lot of movement into the streamer. And the synthetic fibers keep the fly light and alive. So that's the way how to tie it:
t.z. - Friday, February 2, 2018
L'orange Lagopède (no worries, I made up the name - so you can stop googling) .... There is a little story around this fly. The feather is from a Lagopus I "met" in northern Norway a few years ago. I always wanted to do something with these feathers, but didn't know quite what. As things progressed I have decided to make 2018 a wetfly year. North Country wets to be exact and add Scotsman W.C. Stewart's spiders into the mix as well.
Tracy&James - Thursday, February 1, 2018
I think I’ve finally found the tippet knot that I’m going to use from now on – the ‘J Knot’. Up until yesterday I hadn’t actually heard of this knot, although the way the same knot is called various names in different parts of the world perhaps this isn’t too surprising. What brought it to my attention was a Facebook post where Peter Morse stated that it was a knot that he uses. With Facebook being Facebook though, a number of contributors were telling him he’s wrong – but their blatant observational biases have escalated the way that they do things into religious, or cultish, unquestionable truths. So unless Peter declares he’s the Messiah they’re never going to believe him (or indeed do any of their own testing).