Thank You Vicuña Dubbing!

I first became aware of  Vicuña Dubbing about five years ago when this dubbing material came to my  attention on various flyfishing and flytying media pages.

Based in Essex Vicuña Dubbing is an entirely natural product made from Alpaca wool which has been dyed and processed by hand to achieve a dubbing which adds that essential buggy effect to your fly patterns. 

I was very kindly sent some samples to try by David Lloyd to try back then.

I was very impressed with the material as a sub for seals fur and used it in quite a few of my loch style wets and cruncher style patterns.

I recall going along to a GAC Open day round about that time  and noticed a few of the tyers were using this which at the time was a new dubbing material.

I particularly remember talking to Geroge Barron that day and we spoke about Vicuña dubbing and how impressive it was.

Since then I have used it off and on for a lot of my flytying.

At first I started collecting the basic colours for my fly patterns but as time went by I started blending different  colours together to come up with some interesting combinations.

Over the last few years The company have put together some lovely blends too and introduced fine dubbing for dries and specially blended boxes as well as my favourite, the SLF Blends.

This year I have fortunately been asked to tye at the Scottish Game Fair at Scone Palace.

This event takes place in a couple of weeks time. 

This will be my first time ever tying at such an big event in public and although I'm feeling nervous I am equally very excited to be tying alongside some very talented flytyers.

Whilst preparing for this event I was given some good advice and was told to relax and enjoy the experience and to tye what I do best. 

Therfore it was an easy decision to choose and focus on loch style wets.

So with this in mind I thought it would be an ideal opportunity to once again highlight vicuña dubbing in my fly tying displays at the Game Fair.

I must thank David Lloyd at Vicuña Dubbing who has provided me with a box of their fantastic SFL blends which I will definitely be utilising at Scone.

In the pattern below I've dubbed the body with the Fiery Black SLF blend from Vicuña Dubbing.

The picture here doesnt do the material justice. 

Best to see it first hand and you will appreciate the colours that come together to form the fiery black 

If you are attending the game fair do pop along to the flytyers marquee and see the flytying demos. I'll be the slightly nervous guy tying loch style wets with Vicuña Dubbing.

Scottish Game Fair 2023

Good Day on a Badenoch Loch!

Sunday 11th June What a fantastic memorable day in the Scottish Highlands.

Myself, the two Tams and Scott had a great time in the Upper Spey area on a Badenoch Loch catching fiesty brown trout whilst the net was closing in on an indignant  Sturgeon elsewhere! 

We travelled North in the afternoon at a leisurely pace as our intention was to fish into the evening.

Some two and a half hours later we arrived at the loch where we met Sheena & Jacko for the first time this year.

Last year Sheena was out of commission for some maintainance so it was good to have both boats available once again.

As the four of us set off afloat out on the loch, the weather wasn't the best for fishing but it was great for the  tourists and sightseers I'm  sure!

We had bright sunshine and occasional cloud cover  for most of our time on  the loch  however we did had a lovely warm gentle breeze blowing  from the west which switched to the south, and thankfully the rain showers and  thunder & lightening which was predicted didn't materialise.

Despite the bright conditions the trout were very obliging taking a wide variety of patterns. Leggy hopper patterns, Muddlers, Sedgehogs, Ordies and various other Palmers fooled the trout.

Twenty six trout were caught between the four of us.

We had twenty to the boat, twelve for Tam and eight for me whilst Scott and the other Tam had thee each.

We called it a day about 8.30ish and reluctantly went back ashore.

After all the he pelava of carrying our engine and gear back to the cars we were soon heading back down the A9 and made our customary stop at Pitlochry for a very welcome bite to eat.

It was just past midnight when we got home and I learned of the latest Scottish political scandal.

A great day was had by all!

Too Darn Hot!

I should have been fishing yesterday on a boat on a Highland Loch.
However my fishing companion, Tam The Clarkston Tangler decided he would rather go for a walk somewhere near Edinburgh pinging golf balls up and down fairways and possibly the long grass too.
Therefore I was rather frustrated as the fishing season is moving along at pace, so for me it felt like another weekend and opportunity wasted.
Nevertheless given the mini heat wave we are experiencing at the minute it was perhaps not so bad an idea to give the fishing a miss.
The heat and the blazing sunshine on a flat calm Spey Dam would not have been condjusive to good fishing. It'd  be too darn hot!
So with the Scottish Game Fair at Scone coming up in a few weeks time I got some flytying practice in at my vice tying up various fly patterns for my display stands.
This will be my first time ever flytying in public. To say I'm nervous would be an understatement but is something I'm very much looking forward to.
As well as flytying I decided to tidy up and clear out  my numerous flyboxes! It was a daunting but rewarding task as I ended up with three new empty fly boxes!
This weekend I hope to make that trip up north flyfishing.
I can only hope that the fishing weather improves and that Tam will swap his golf clubs for a fishing rod!