The Red Arrow

Just the otber night a fly pattern thst was brought to may attention was "The Red Arrow"
Its a fly of Irish origin devised by Longford dentist, Syl Higgins. Aparently this pattern is deadly on the point early in the season. I was advised that I had tied the hackles too long on the first two I tied. So I tied another couple which are hopefully closer to the original.

At the end of the line!

Angling has a rich history of literature and I'm lucky enough to have a number of classic angling books in my collection!

I'm particularly keen on books that deal with the art of flytying. Flytying books are a wealth of information on not only the dressings but the history of flies. Among my favourites are "Lets Fish the Clyde" by Bert Sharp, Mike Hardings "North Country Spiders" and Stan Headley's " Flies Of Scotland."

One book which has been available for a couple of years and was brought to my attention recently by the excellent Flytyer John Ferguson of Dalmellington , is  "At the end of the line" by Ex-International fisherman and flytyer George Barron.

I recently met George and had a brief chat with him at the Glasgow Angling Centre where he was giving flytying demonstrations. 

A few days later I got in touch with him online and he arranged for a signed copy of his excellent book to be sent to me.

It's a fantastic piece of work dealing with classic loch style wet flies a style that I like to fish and tye too. 

It's been a joy to pour over the last few days, picking out a few patterns to tie and to keep in mind for future use. 

Im not gonna claim to have managed to tie exact copies of the flies there in contained in this book but what I can say is that this book has inspired me to keep busy at the vice and will keep me tying during the dark winter months until the new fishing season arrives next year! 

Naming rights!

Just tied the one so far tonight. Again I never followed any set pattern. Just a style I like to tie! Im calling it The Gallivanter!
Ive noted recently that when posting up flies publicly you need to be careful about naming them. In some quarters its sacrilidge to claim a pattern to be such and su ch for unless one sticks to the exact dressing you really cant claim the flee to be what you say it is. Which to be honest I totally get, because that just causes confusion! Lets put it this way, You buy a new car, a Vauxhall Astra! You really cant tell everybody you've got a new Porsche! 😂 Some  folk take this fly tying game a bit too serious its really only just a bit of fun! Anyway I hope you like my Gallivanter!

Tying at the station!

As mentioned earlier the flytying sesson is now underway.I've recovered my old tying station box from the loft that my wee pal made for me years ago! It was getting unused and neglected up there. Got it back set up in the spare room! Great to have my stuff all organised again! It really makes a huge difference to have a proper tying station with everthing to hand. Im currently starting to fill a box with traditional wets. Heres a flavour of my time at the vice!

Fly Tying Season

The new Fly tying season is almost upon us so Ive been in pre season training recently and been warming up by tying a few in my favourite bumble style as well as a couple of patterns I normally struggle with, muddlers and winged patterns!
I'm Reasonably pleased with my Connamara Black but really pleased with my progress with the muddlers after receiving some advice and tips about these patterns.
The new týing season starts on Sunday 7th October!