albannachxcuileag

The term "Bar Fly" tickles my fancy! You could get names such as - The Rheumy, Gin Soaked Sod, The Paralytic, A Busted Wheel, Foggy Dew, etc! We ran a traditional swap (post 203) on another forum with 15 tyers and the Swap Meister presented all the flies with history sheets of all the information that was available to the tyers.

Could this be the end at last?! Trim the wing to length and shape the rear and the fly is finished Here is one that has the winging correct but has suffered from being boxed. And here are some I made earlier waiting on wing shaping before getting posted off for a traditional fly tie Here is one tied to Jimmy Tyrell's method using an orange hen feather stroked over with varnish. Just put a couple of small drops on your forefinger, bring your thumb to meet it and then apply to either side of the feather, stroking the fibres to shape and put aside to dry.

Party of four? Centre table Next stage is to form the antennae from two fibres from a pheasant tail Strip them off the stalk and rotate them between your fingers in order to get opposing curves - don't worry if it does not do this, there is a cure at the last step that helps Present them to the head and loop a couple of slack turns of thread around them after ensuring that the thread is at the back of the head Adjust the lengths and positioning of the antennae before tightening the thread loops and adding a couple more for security Find the two stalk ends of the fibres and lift clear of the hackle before cutting flush with the head Whip finish and apply varnish if the antennae are sitting cocked up, if they are not, slip a loop of thread under then before whip finishing and varnishing the head. You can adjust their position while the varnish gets to the tacky stage

Part three Cut across the slip where the fibres are complete to square it off Present this folded slip to the body about 4mm back from the eye so that it sits on top of the seals fur, if you set it on the thread it will cock the wing up and you want to get a more or less level wing on the body As you can see from the image above, the wing is disproportionate to the body so the image below shows the wing in a more suitable size Trim the excess with a diagonal cut sloping towards the eye of the hook If you look at the next image you will see that the wing has split to form a wing on either side, this is not correct but when the fly is on the water this is how it actually looks, you can heal the split by careful stroking and seal with varnish or floo gloo if required Take the larger of the two hackles and tie in to the thread that is over the end of the wing Make a minimum of 6 turns as you want to achieve a really bushy thorax area on the fly before tying in and trimming

Part two Now for the swearing part, take your Oak Turkey quill and match up a slip to the fly Ease the selected slip out to right angles trying not to break the barbule lock of the fibres as I do here. Cut your slip free from the quill holding on to the thinner end of it. Turn it over so that the dull side is facing you Fold one third from the good side to the dull side Then fold the top third over this again to have two good sides on the wing slip Reverse your hold on the slip so that you are now holding the thicker end with the tips free

This is a tying (if you can call it that) of the Irish Murrough sedge adapted for modern materials but using the folded wing method (something I will never master!). The original as far as I can find out was tied with brown wool, gold tinsel, red game hackle and grouse breast feather wing. As a dry fly, the materials let it down as it had to be heavily ginked to float. The natural that the Murrough represents is the Great Red Sedge or Murragh (Eruciform, Phryganeidae, Phryganea striata ) Here is another tying for the Murrough. Successful on slow running rivers and stillwaters when fished on or very near the surface. Large sizes (6 to 10) are great `wake' flies but smaller 12 to 16`s also do the business in most hatches. The dressing should be medium, not bushy but not overly sparse. Body grey mole, body hackle palmered dark red cock hackle, rib gold wire, tail red cock hackle, wing brown speckled hen tied roof shaped rather than upright. As you can see, tyings can vary from all over the country with no-one agreeing on the proper tying but I had some assistance from Jimmy Tyrrell, a well known tyer and instructor and also, owner of the Irish Fishing and Game museum at Abbeyleix in Co. Laois, who's own tying follows a more traditional pattern using either fiery brown seals fur or claret seals fur, gold wire rib, red game palmered body hackle, varnished red grouse breast feather roof winging, red game thorax hackle and cock pheasant antennae. My effort uses the folded wing technique which on hindsight may not have been the best choice for winging. On with the tie. Materials:- Thread - Olive UTC 140 Denier Hook - any medium long shank from size 10 to size 6 Rib - Hot Yellow UTC wire Body - Fiery Brown Seals fur Body Hackle - Ollve with Skunk strip in Black Wing - Mottled Oak Turkey, folded Hackle - as body hackle but with longer fibres Antennae - Cock Pheasant Tail Fibres As this is not a beginner fly, I have missed out the threading and wire attaching as this should be second nature when tying complex flies such as this. Form a heavy dubbing rope as this is a substantial fly in reality and the thick body is needed to wing it properly Run the dubbing up to behind the eye quite thickly Catch in the body hackle after stripping away the flue from the base, the fibres should be equal to or just slightly larger than the hook gape but not overly so. Palmer the hackle down the body in about 6 to 8 turns, the black centre gives a segmentation effect on this fly that is supplemented by the ribbing in reverse turns. Run the ribbing wire in opposite turns after making two turns around the hackle end making sure that you do not trap too many of the hackle fibres by waggling it through the fibres on each turn up the body. Take your scissors and lie them flat along the body without pressing in to it and cut off the top hackle fibres, if you do not do this then you can end up with a cocked wing. ]

I warned you all previously, that man Tupps is a wolf in sheep's clothing! One mean tyer!

Woose! Try dry fly on a 12' loch style boat rod!

Nice tie, Tupps! (I prefer the blue silk one myself) Funnily enough I was rattling some of these up this afternoon for a little outing tomorrow along with some size 16 Hare's Ear Paras and Black and Copper wire buzzers in the same size. Folks, Tupps is a Tackle Tart! Note the exclusive and unashamed usage of C&F paraphernalia!

This arose from looking at some of the stuff in the Calgary site and also with the fact that this is also part of the trout's natural diet when available. Looking at it again, there is also the possibility of using this for Grayling due to the colouration of the casing. Materials - Hook - Kamasan B830 size 12 Thread - UTC 140 Denier Olive Body - 3lb nylon and Copper Micro Seed Beads Hackle - Olive Thread up your hook to the start of the bend and then catch in 3 strands of thin mono. Put a couple of dabs of supeglue on the shank and run your thread back to the eye catching in the mono with touching turns, run the thread back to the bend and up to the eye again to bulk out the hook. Feed 24 of the micro seed beads onto your home made bobbin threader! Slip one of the mono lengths into the loop and peel off 8 beads, keep a hold of this loose end! Repeat this for the other two lengths until it looks like the photo below Stretch out the 3 lengths of mono and hold in place with a couple of wraps of thread before aligning them to your satisfaction. Put a dab of superglue on the shank behind the eye and bind in the mono keeping it taut. Allow to harden before trimming off the excess Catch in a prepared hackle stalk and form a dense thorax with about 5 to 6 turns. Whip finish and varnish generously to achieve a Conceptual Cased Caddis

Ooops! Nearly headed for an a** kicking from moderation as I mistakenly posted a PM text here! A quick edit was in order to save grace!

Ladystrange - FOMCLMFAO! Try this one - Bowmore 1955 / 40 Year old Single Islay Malt Scotch Whisky Bottled in a beautiful crystal decanter, this gorgeous fruity Bowmore has been declared by more than one of our customers to be the best that they have ever tasted. After such a long period of ageing, the malt has taken on a very elegant character and shows restrained peat combined with ethereal layers of exotic fruit. A serious, subtle malt that demands the drinker's time and full attention. £4,700.00 inc. VAT (£4,000.00 ex. VAT) = 9,504.63 Canadian Dollar

This is not a time based thing, it is just a suggestion to get those little grey matter things working and see what everyone can come up with. What I may do is post all the different submissions from all the tyers and have both forums vote on what is their favourite. Alternatively, everyone can send their creation to me and I will test drive them all! Above all I am looking for originality in design and to have a direct link with the name that they give to the fly. Who knows, we may end up with some really interesting flies for us all to copy from this.

Part two, the second part, following on from part one, the first part Prepare your CDC puff - the one on the left is too big, the other next to it is fine, split the fibres equally and then tear it in two Tie in the CDC breathers directly behind the hook eye securing well Form the head with your thread trying to achieve a ball shape I think that whip finishing by hand is better as you can control the positioning of the thread much easier and then varnish with SHHAN or black cellire Once dry, pinch the breather fibres to the required length The almost finished article showing the rib effect from the film Fishing the buzzers as a pair suspended beneath an indicator fly with the first at 6" below and the second at 18" below the indicator. Fish them into the wind to allow the indicator to drift towards you and keep your line under control. To see how effective looking these are, drop one into a glass of water and look at the body colouration - as near to the real thing as possible. Here is a version tied as an indicator on a size 8 circle hook with a shocking pink spanflex collar By changing the underlying thread colour of the base, you can achieve a range of effects on this buzzer, here it is Fire Orange Uni thread which gives a copper sheen when the electrostatic film is applied to the abdomen. Tyed a little bit differently with a wing case on this example.

This is a buzzer designed to work in the top layers during a rise. The benefit of the electrostatic film is that is becomes translucent and forms it's own rib during the tying eliminating the need for wire and also making the buzzer much slimmer. Assuming that most viewing this are right handed tyers then we will proceed - Materials - Hook - Kamasan B100 size 12 or 14 (see note) Thread - Black UTC Body - strip cut from electrostatic envelope / bag Breathers - split natural CDC puff Preparing the electrostatic material is easy - lay out on thick card and trim away the seam from the side leaving the bag open. Depending on the size of hook you will have to cut strips accordingly. NOTE - I have found that for size 12s, 2mm maximum and for size 14s you have to reduce this to 1,5mm. Make sure that the cutting blade that you use is new as a blunt one will rag the edges of the film. Cut parallel strips of the width desired by placing a ruler over the bag and maintaining pressure on it as you cut. One strip from a 5" bag is enough for about 6 to 8 flies size 12. Wind on your thread in tight touching turns until you reach the bend area Prepare your strip of electrostatic film by cutting at an angle and tie in with long side down as shown, this eliminates bulk at the tail end Return the thread back up the body again with tight touching turns Wind the film up the body in turns that just overlap to produce the rib effect required Complete the body to the eye of the hook - you are not going to finish the fly here

To give a basic use of the Boobie is simple, you need a still water that you know the depths of and a fast sinking line to get it down quickly. DI7 is used by a lot of anglers over here but I have used a DI3 in reasonably deep water (14 feet) and counted it down. When you are fishing the booby, you are fishing a relatively short leader of 2 - 4 feet in some cases. If you retrieve the line with short jerks, it causes the booby to drop down fast and on the stop, flutter upwards. Repeating this gives your average trout the idea that he will have it the next time it moves! There is one drawback to fishing these flies - fish can get gut hooked easily if the retrieve is not controlled, a static line will result in gut hooked fish, timing the tug and rise is of the essence when boobying and you can see the action required if you start with a short leader and fish it in visible water depth close to you for practice. A lot of takes can come on the drop but the majority are on the rise and fall sequence, especially the 'dive' that is created by the tug retrieve. The other method is to use them with a floating line as a point fly with a couple of buzzer or nymph droppers, this is called the 'washing line' method. Your booby is a floating anchor, your buzzers or nymphs are in between this and the end of your floating line and their natural weight will let them slowly descend. Give a short pull and they will rise in a motion similar to that of the natural and you are hoping for a take then. Contrary to some beliefs, buzzers will rise and fall depending on conditions and fishing the 'washing line' will emulate this natural movement. Using weighted buzzers or nymphs will accelerate the motion and an added bonus that is obtained with this method is that your 'static' anchor fly will also move on the tug and become a wake attractor on the surface. Often a fish will rise to the floating booby and turn away only to take one of the suspended flies beneath it Hope this explains a little bit about booby fishing. Good luck and tight lines.

Here is a simple tip for you guys, I have a 35mm film can in my waistcoat pocket that I stuff used leaders into through a cross cut on the lid, this is fine for a few trips and then you can dispose of them correctly at home. Cigarette ends? I never leave any as the stub is extinguished and then put in my LHS pocket that is reserved solely for this and the leader can. - Always keep your fishings clean and ensure others do so as well.

It is now October the 6th and there is no sign of Ladystrange, looks like the Scotch Whisky did done her in folks!

LMFTO! - I will PM a decode for that if you cannot work it out! Albannach Cuileag, to get it right as the system does not like spaces, means Scottish Fly - simple when you know how!

No offence meant, I was referring to the blood on the neck!

If what I hear is anything to go by, he looks like a typical red neck! OK, here is the horror story that you all dread involving a size 12 Whisky Fly as it happened to me one fine day. We were out on a Club outing to fish one of the rounds for club championship points at a smallish local loch called Portmore in the Borders area of Scotland, where else would you get lochs? We had teamed up with partners on a heavily misted morning with poor visibility but with the prospect of some sun later to burn it off. Into the boats and row about 25 yds from the docking area and start fishing. First cast produced a strong follow with the fish turning away at the last minute on the dangle. My glasses had misted up with the mist so I took them off and put them on the boat seat momentarily and I swung my rod to represent the flies to the fish. A gust of wind hit the cast and I felt a sting at the side of my eye, I have had hooks near there before and thought nothing of it. I turned to my boat partner and asked him to pull out the hook. "I can't, it is in your eye" "I know it is, pull it out" "No! It is IN your eye". I felt nothing at the time apart from a little discomfort and did not think it was that bad. The boat was rowed to the shore and one of the other members who was not competing for the championship took me down to the local cottage hiospital and left me there. Examined by the doctor and informed that he could do nothing about it and that I would have to go to the eye pavilion in Edinburgh. "Can you drive?" " Er, no! My car is at the fishery" "OK, we will get you an ambulance" The incident happened at 10:15 AM, I was at the cottage hospital at 11:00AM, the ambulance came at 12:30PM, I arrived at the casualty (ER) department of the Royal Infirmary about 14:00PM and queued up for examination. The bloke in front of me asked over his shoulder what was I there for without looking at me. "I have a fishing fly in my eye" says I. He turned around took one look and turned back again "For f*ck's sake!" Does it hurt?" "Not really, it just irritates like hell from the feathers". "Jesus!" says he. I got to the head of the queue and the admissions nurse took one look at me, " We can't treat that here, you will have to go to the Eye Pavilion, do you know how to get there walking?" "Er, no" "OK, wait there we will get you a taxi". One taxi ride later I am at the admissions desk of the Eye Pavilion and am ushered into a consultation room where the doctor says "We will need to get that out of there for you". Great idea thought I. Sent back to a waiting room where I sat for a further 2 hours before they informed me that they had managed to get hold of an anesthetist and that I would be admitted to surgery in 15 mins. "Would you change into this please?" and got handed the usual backless hospital gown. All this time I was wearing full wax proof clothing and Hunter wellies. So from 10:15 in the morning until what is now 18:30 I have been knocking around with a fly in my eye, irritating as hell and no anaesthetic to dull the pain. I wake up about 20:00 with a huge bandage and pad over my left eye and am told that I have to stay here for a few days as they do not want to risk dislodging the stitches in my eye. I had received 11 stitches in total, 5 sub-surface and 6 surface in my eyeball. I also managed to avoid a lens transplant as there was a possibility that the damage might be too severe. Off work for 6 weeks, attending the Eye Pavilion twice a week for progress checks etc until I eventually get the stitches out of the surface which were more irritating that the bloody fly! Ever tried riding a bicycle with one eye? Even more difficult casting with one eye also! Missed a seatrout on the top pool of the Duke of Sutherland's beat because of that! SO, now I never fish without glasses and hopefully this will encourage those who don't to do so!

Have a look at a UK maker - Bloke Reels - I have the KPXX V6 and it is an amazing piece of machinery, only down side are the spare spools are £70+ each! - Mick sometimes puts them up on Ebay - that is where I got mine for £62 inc a spare spool. The rods are good too as I have an XL50 9' #6 that has become my main rod these days.

I was reading the posts to the SBS I did on the Rusty Nail and a thought occurred to me, why don't we have a little challenge to come up with a fly that is named after a drink or cocktail? I am sure that folks can come up with their own creations. Any takers?

Does shipping to Ireland come with it?

Part 2 Form the thorax and leave a little space behind the hook eye Gently pull the pheasant tail fibres forwards and secure with a couple of turns of thread Trim of the excess length and whip finish before varnishing. To reduce bulk try whipping 3 turns followed by a fresh whipping of 3 more As a good rule, practice the rule of 6, tie 6 in each size before progressing to another fly, this gives you good practice Another good rule is to tie up in several sizes as I did here