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albannachxcuileag

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Posts posted by albannachxcuileag

  1. Nice work guys.

     

    I got a tip from a Salty regarding baitfish imitations - the smaller the pattern, the larger the eye has to be in comparison, this increases the likelyhood of hookups when fishing for predator / fry bashing fish. When you see th ereal thing you notice this too.

  2. An article in one of our fly fishing, fly tying magazines across here makes me ask, how bad is fish farming or "Aquaculture" affecting the runs of the various salmonoids in Canada.

     

    The salmon and seatrout runs in Scotland have been severely affected by the presence of fish farms as they spread disease and lice amongst the returning fish as well as contribute to localised pollution around the farm areas. The writer of the article states that the the increase in farming has had devastating effects on natural stocks in Canada. Have you found this to be the case?

     

    The biggest salmon farmer is Marine Harvest who operate in Europe, North America and off the South American coasts as well. Their CEO recently made a controversial statement regarding the effects of fish farming on natural stocks and that farming was the main reason for the decline in fish runs.

     

    There is nothing worse that seeing cages in the lochs and hearing of the effects of infestation, pollution and escapees that dilute the natural stock fish.

     

    Opinions?

  3. Nice fly AC, do you think they'd work in a black or red for grayling ?

     

    There is only one way to find out! Try it!

     

    You could make the abdomen pink as well, this would not be out of keeping with the grub / caterpillar idea. The dark one worked for me but I got broken off fishing for rainbows on Sunday last.

  4. After mucking around with the other stuff it is time to get things real again and this little generic larva/caddis/grub can fill a lot of requirements especially as it is colour adaptable at the water's edge.

     

    Ye Tying of Ye Maggotty Grubbe.

     

    Thread - Olive 140 Denier UTC

    Hook - Partridge Klinkhaamer Extreme size 14

    Rib - Wine Red UTC Brassie wire

    Abdomen - LureFlash Super Bug Wool - brushed out after ribbing

    Hackle - Olive Grizzly Cock Hackle

     

     

    Larvae.jpg

     

    LarvaeGroup.jpg

     

    Want to change the colour to match the hatch? Get a permanent marker and stroke the abdomen with it.

     

    You can, of course, use a dark marker for the anal end of the larvae and graduate the body colour to suit to get more realistic in colouration.

     

    Don't have a marker handy at the water's edge? Use natural colouring by picking some vegetation and rubbing this into the abdomen. various shades of green and brown are available to hand always and if you want colour then the petals from wild flowers will give you some temporary colouration as well.

     

    Think out of the box, experiment with everything, there are no rules as far as I am concerned.

     

    ColouredLarvae.jpg

  5. Car Insurance.

     

    I had the misfortune to have a car written off years ago when I lived in the UK and thought that the insurance company would pay up without question - no way! Ended up with book price despite my car being a low mileage, perfect example.

    Got wiser the second time around though, we have a thing called the insurance ombudsman. I got a hold of the phone number and when I received the settlement figure from the insurance company, low as always, I phoned them right away and asked if this was their final offer, told it was, told them that I will be phoning this number in 30 minutes and quoted the number to the insurance agent. 20 minutes later I got a call saying that an error in calculating the value of my car was made and the figure they then quoted was double the first!

     

    Pays to hang out for more if you can get it.

     

    Commiserations on the loss of your car. Go visit the suckers with a bottle of iodine or better still, hydrogen peroxide - cleans out wounds very nicely!, any questions, just say you were tending to their wounds.

  6. I love that material. Did you get one of the leechs I sent in the crossboard swap?

     

     

    I did, thanks. Trying to track down the variegated type that has the olive through brown colouration. The black and red I think will make a deadly still water lure, need to get experimenting with it!

  7. and who says tyers aren't innovative eh?...cool idea...:)

     

    DBT,

     

    the first of these I did with black thread but if you use red, orange or yellow, you will get some translucency with the film and get the indication of a different coloured abdomen. Getting the rib is the tricky part, trying to keep it even as you wind on the ES film.

    Another favourite buzzer from similar materials across here is the Videotape buzzer - scotfly has an SBS on this in our forum in the Step by Step section UK Fly Dressers

  8. good tie albanna...what'd you use for the body and rib on that shuttlecock midge?

     

    DBT, this -

     

    Hook - Kamasan B100 size 12 or 14 (see note)

    Thread - Black UTC

    Body - strip cut from electrostatic envelope / bag

    Breathers - split natural CDC puff

     

     

     

    - if you click on the here on the photo post you will get the SBS for each of them.

  9. Had a little play with the Eyelash Boa this afternoon and it makes a decent nymph body, lots of mobility in the abdomen area, nice attractant if there ever was, mobility.

    I like the Variegated colour of this material, it means that no two flies will be identical, similar yes but identical, no.

     

    EyelashNymph02.jpg

  10. Imbibing Scotch Whisky depends on what type of whisky that you prefer. The tastes vary from the very smooth Glenkinchie to the almost acrid smokey peat tasting Laphroaig.

     

    This link will dispel the mysteries and give you an insight into Uisge Beatha, The Water of Life.

     

    Why do the Scots drink?

     

    With regards to the $40 - $100, it can be done but if you really want to impress, how about £3,000 for a 60 year old single malt from Islay? :)

  11. LS,

     

    when they are talking "floss" in these patterns, they don't mean floss as in floss today!

     

    Pearsalls marketed a range of floss silk called Marabou which consists of two wrapped strands of 4 threads in each strand. This was usually split down to the single threads and then used to form the bodies.

     

    DSCF0115.jpg

     

    DSCF0114.jpg

     

    This is my jealously guarded Pearsalls collection that I have had for more years than I can remember and almost threw out one time thinking that they were old fashioned! A couple of the colours I believe are no longer produced and are quite rare these days. The labels vary with the description of length - oldest have approx 1/2 dram, next comes 8 yards and finally 8 metres.

    THose labelled "Gossamer" are silk threads

    The small diameter spools at the front contain pure silk floss that is not stranded and can be a pure illegitimate offspring to work with as it catches any rags in my finger tips and gives a frayed look instead of a nice smooth finish.

    For some reason the modern plastic spools just don't seem to contain the same quality of material as the wooden ones or is that just my nostalgia for old things showing through?

  12. The simplest of patterns, spiders are, but the most difficult to tie correctly. Spiders were always tied with silk thread and today's synthetics cannot match the look that silk gives to these flies. I have always steered clear of these despite their simple looks because of the difficulty in getting them right. Natural silk lies flat on the hook and to emulate this you have to let your thread untwist and then apply it to the hook to get that super smooth body that the oldtimers achieved. The hackle part is another story! Super webby hackles work best on these and the sparser the hackle the better. Trying to get that evenly spaced look with only about 10 fibres is a real pain! They are an art form in their own right.

  13. This is an adaptation of an American pattern that I used for the 90 Second tie swap. The original was tied on a size 8 streamer hook with chenille and a wooly bugger hackle so I opted to reduce the size and increase the mobility of the fly body with the use of Ostrich herl. It is a very simple pattern and can be tyed in any colour combination to suit area of fishing. As it is it will make a good dry to try under trees during the caterpillar season, weighted and it will imitate a few wriggly things!

     

    Materials -

     

    Hook - Kamasan B830 size 12

    Thread - any - Cream UTC 140 Denier used here

    Body - 2 light Olive Ostrich Herls and 1 Olive Grizzly Hackle

    Back - Permanent marker - Promarker Raw Sienna used.

     

    Prepare your hook by taking the thread into the start of the bend as this will give some tail bristles.

     

    PreparedHook.jpg

     

    Select a couple of long herls, I tried this with one and found out it took too long for the swap version and used 2 instead. Prepare your hackle by cleaning off the flue from the stalk and then hold all 3 so that the tips are even

     

    PreparedMaterials.jpg

     

    Lay them onto the hook and keep them back behind the eye and secure them along the length of the hook shank with the thread

     

    DressingAttached.jpg

     

    Wrap your herls up the shank of the hook to the eye and secure with a couple of wraps of thread

     

    HerlOnWorm.jpg

     

    No need to cut off, just snap them off with your nails

     

    HerledWorm.jpg

     

    Now palmer your hackle with reasonably tight turns through the herl in the same direction that you wound the herl

     

    PalmeredWorm.jpg

     

    Trim off the excess and then whip finish the head with about 5 turns of thread - if you want a bigger head then repeat this part

     

    CompletedWorm.jpg

     

    Get rid of any stray fibres by holding back the body of the fly between your fingers and flash burn the strays with a lighter and then take a permanent marker of your choice and rub it up the back of the fly and include the head as well

     

    BackColour.jpg

     

    Varnish the head and your 1,000 leg worm is complete.

     

    FinishedWorm.jpg

  14. Nice work on the SBS - pity about the photo limitations to a posting - need to get them extended for doing SBSs!

     

    Actually it is the G&H Sedge - Goddard and Henry collaborated on this after studying the natural and combined their talents to produce a fly that is unsinkable and usually succeeds in bring the larger fish up to it.

     

    For some reason we prefer caddis when it is still sub-surface and sedge when it is ready to take off!

     

    I did a similar tutorial last year on our forum to demonstrate deer hair work and this fly is an excellent one for beginners to start on as it just needs the basics of hair spinning to succeed.

     

    More please!

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