What have you tied today?

[roberth]

GAC were 3.50 for 20 self adhesive eyes so it's good to hear that these cheaper alternatives will be fine.

Rannoch Raider, that looks fantastic. I've been trying to keep the weight down on my pike flies, the first I made about 8 years ago were a nightmare to cast on a 10 weight rod. I was using them for stalking pike so had them heavy leaded and had dumbbell eyes. They could have been cast on a light spinning rod.

[corsican dave]

quality!  :

Picked these up from HobbyCraft today, far cheaper than the GAC. Not sure if they'll be as durable but worth a go. £5.50 for 225 eyes (7mm, 9mm and 12mm)

they're fine Robert. the only issue I've found is that they'll craze ie cloud over if you get superglue anywhere near them. uv cured resin is fine. plus getting the backing paper off can be an exercise in frustration! :lol:

GAC were 3.50 for 20 self adhesive eyes so it's good to hear that these cheaper alternatives will be fine.

Rannoch Raider, that looks fantastic. I've been trying to keep the weight down on my pike flies, the first I made about 8 years ago were a nightmare to cast on a 10 weight rod. I was using them for stalking pike so had them heavy leaded and had dumbbell eyes. They could have been cast on a light spinning rod.

fairly easy to tie mahussive flies with lots of bulk and very little weight with modern materials.at the risk of teaching you to suck eggs, try slowing down your casting and opening up the loop a bit.

[fergie]

Talking of Pike flies ! First attempt at a Niklaus Bauer pattern with detachable 3gm head and wiggle tail. It does a lot of damage in the video Dave just posted so let's hope it works for our Scottish toothy critters too !

Weighing in at 33cm !

[attachimg=1]

[attachimg=2]

The hollow construction style gives it good volume. Might be hard to see from my poor phone photos....

[attachimg=3]

Very light and fairly streamlined for casting for a fly with such presence.

Nice very nice.

[roberth]

I've not done a lot of fishing / tying over the last few years, predator fly fishing seems to have become very popular. A lot of the synthetic materials available now will allow big bulky flies with less casting issues. My old pike flies were basically heavily leaded Xmas trees.

Dyckers recommended an adhesive called E6000 for attaching eyes. I bought some from eBay but haven't used it due to the carcinogen warning on the label, need to get some protective masks first.

[JimJams]

Out of curiosity, where are you guys getting the waggle tails?

[rannoch raider]

A slightly bigger pattern for the big girls ! Again tied on a tube and can carry the wiggle tail and weighted front nose cone. This has a tremendous amount of volume created by a synthetic called Big Fish Fibre. Still very light despite the size.

The 'Kraken'  :shock:

[attachimg=1]

[attachimg=2]

[Lochan_load]

That's phenomenal! Great bit of tying. Used to dubbing loop marabou and foxtail to create a bulky tear drop without the weight but never looked anywhere near as good as that  :?

[rannoch raider]

Hi Andy. thanks, but truth be told, it is much more to do with the 'base' materials of this pattern than any skill of mine ! There is a 'halo' of bucktail tied in and surrounded by a generous amount of 'big fly fibre' which is like supreme hair that's had a 'Jackson Five perm'. Once its on, one material supports the other and you can add the flash and in this case ostrich feathers. The tube probably also helps to maintain the structure of the base. The great thing about this style of dressing is that it's very light.

[corsican dave]

glad you mentioned the ostrich; I was going to ask about that. presumably that's the barred green feather over the top? I went looking for some today in inverness. no luck! no feckin' white zonker, either... I reckon there's a shortage after all that hare culling  :lol:

[rannoch raider]

Yeah Dave , the green barred feather is ostrich. It is just an alternative to saddle hackles. It is light, doesn't soak up much water and it's highly mobile.  It comes in a variety of qualities , lengths and colours. The price tends to go up with the length of fibre.