Flicking feathers

  The light partridge and yellow really is a deadly North country spider. Despite its simplicity, this fly is a great taker of both trout and grayling and frankly, the partridge and yellow should be in every river angler's box. To support the channel and be eligible for giveaways head to https://www.patreon.com/flickingfeathers and become a patron or support through paypal.me/flickingfeathers Materials list Hook: Kamasan B170 size 14 Thread: Yellow silk (waxed) Hackle: Grey speckled partridge

  Paul and Nick are back, this time discussing the elements that make up casting 100 feet plus. It’s starting to get exciting…

  At the International Fly Fishing Show 2017 Indonesia Paul Arden of Sexyloops conducts a workshop to help prepare the casting instructor candidates

  Over the last few years I've been tying more and more flies with snowshoe hare, either as a wing material, dubbing or both. It's a great material that I think is underrated, taking a back seat to CDC, synthetics or deer hair. The more I use snowshoe, the more I like it. I can almost see it replacing all other dry fly wing materials completely in my own box... almost. It's very buoyant, it'll do a better job of floating a dry fly (and a nymph) than CDC and most synthetics and is probably on a par with deer hair. It's tough, much tougher than deer hair or CDC. Obviously synthetic yarns are more durable, but there's not much in it and it doesn't matter as both will likely outlast hackles and tails. It doesn't need much looking after while fishing. This is a big one for me, I don't want to be spending ages trying to get slime off of a fly then drying it, primping it back into shape and reapplying floatant. Snowshoe is so easy to clean, fish slime just

  Last week I wrote a bit about Tummel flies and made a video of Tod's No.1, a friend sent me an article by Dave Westwood from a Dutch website (although it does look have the look of FF&FT from the late 1990s) which seems to be about the only other modern information available. It's fairly good so I thought I'd share it here, the more people know about them the more chance this stuff has to be preserved. Dave's Article One of the points made in the article is about using fine modern threads, I'm guessing from the dates that he's referring to Uni 8/0 or UTC 70 rather than the super fine gsp stuff available now. It got me thinking about something I had said in the video for Tod's fly; you don't have to use silks, but they'll help make you a better fly tyer. I don't disagree with what Dave said, and I often use modern thread for old spider patterns, especially when there's no modern silk that matches the old Pearsall's colours. They are

  Frank Sawyer's Killer bug is as effective now as ever, it's a quick, durable tie that works year round for trout and grayling in all kinds of waters from chalkstreams to peaty freestones. To support my channel and enter the giveaways head to https://www.patreon.com/flickingfeathers and become a patron or support through paypal.me/flickingfeathers Materials list Hook: B170/B175 or similar size 12-16 Thread: Dark reddish copper wire Body: Chadwick's 477 sub- any brownish, pinky grey yarn

  Last week fly fishing the Malaysian Jungle for Giant Snakehead using George’s fly.

  I've been tying river wet flies for a friend this week, mostly spiders. I really like tying them and was particularly pleased when he asked me to stick some Tummel style flies in with the rest. I like Tummel style. I like all the traditional river wets, Clyde, Tweed and North Counrty, but I there's something about the Tummel style that just works for me somehow. Now, unless you're from the UK or a student of traditional flies, you may not be that familiar with Tummel style flies. It's not surprising as they rarely seem to be written about. It's not cause they're not good flies though, they're just forgotten. The same could probably be said for Tweed style flies though clyde style patterns seem to be a bit better known. Most of the stuff I see is North Country spiders, mostly from Yorkshiremen, and flymphs. This probably has something to do with the style itself. Tummel style flies are really for the extremophiles among us, they are incredibly spartan in th

 An old one I wrote for www.sexyloops.com Just a quick one from me this week, I almost forgot as the days are blurring into each other. It's been too cold for much in the way of fishing here, I could have gone out for carp but it's been consistently below zero over night for the past couple of weeks, better just to stay home with a mince pie, mess around with the fishing stuff, make some inroads on my book of carp flies and try to plan what the coming year will bring. If things start normalising a bit more I might make it over to Malaysia to see Paul, drink some whisky and miss shots at snakehead. I'd also like to get back to Scotland for a month or so, see family head to the Hebrides for some machair loch browns, hit Loch Lomond and a few others for pike and spend some days chasing grayling on the Tweed. But who knows, it seems like the travel regulations are changing all the time here: maybe we can leave, maybe we can get back in, maybe we'll have to quarantine in a h

  A short student video showing the movement differences between OSD and 170 backcasts

  A video on the elements of the 170 and uses of both back and forward cast stopless deliveries. Filmed in a jungle near you.

  The Walt's & Sexy Walt's are super easy, super quick, super effective little nymph pattern that catches fish everywhere. Adjust the size, weight bead colours to suit your fishing. To support my channel and enter the giveaways head to https://www.patreon.com/flickingfeathers and become a patron or support through paypal.me/flickingfeathers Materials list Walt's Worm Hook: Jig 10-20 Weight: Slotted tungsten bead Thread: 8/0 Brown or dun Body: Hare's ear or squirrel Sexy Walt's Hook: Jig 10-20 Weight: Slotted tungsten bead Thread: 8/0 FL orange, green, red or pink Body: Hare's ear or squirrel Rib: Mirage tinsel

An old one I wrote for sexyloops.com   It's that time of year again, a time of cheer and goodwill to all men and, unfortunately, for the redd caught browns to start showing up on intagram. It took a bit longer than last year for me to notice. Probably because most of the higher profile culprits have blocked me for calling it out over the last few years. I don't think people will ever completely stop fishing for spawning fish and kelts, whether because of ignorance or greed. It is something that can be reduced though, I'm sure a lot of inexperienced angler's who catch fish on redds don't realise what they're doing and if given the opportunity to learn, would change their behaviour.  Some in the States try to justify it by saying browns are invasives, but that's bullshit. If they cared about that they'd be killing the fish and backing a removal programme.  The thing is, when you see these posts online you'll also see comments of encouragement from the

  Eyes, do they make a difference? Some say no, some say yes and some are agnostic. Then there are the people who believe in them but wonder what the point is because their eyes always fall off. I think eyes make a difference, or rather several differences. Yes I'm pretty sure that for some species an eye on a baitfish pattern is, or can be the difference between an eat and a refusal. I think this is especially true of small bait imitations. A lot of small minnows have very prominent eyes and it probably makes sense to imitate them. Of course there's no way of truly proving that fish that eats a fly with an eye wouldn't have eaten a blind one, but I've been in situations where I'm sure it has made the difference. But really I don't think that's the most important difference when it comes to eyes. Not least because although eyes might give the angler confidence we'll never know for sure if it really mattered. So what is important? Well, the things that ar

  Perdigons have become firmly established as essential river nymphs. These super simple body quill versions are quick, easy ties that are ideal when the fish prefer a more drab offering rather than the tinsel based patterns You sometimes see these under other names such as the Spanish bullet, but I see no reason to change the name from the original. To support my channel and enter the giveaways head to https://www.patreon.com/flickingfeathers and become a patron or support through paypal.me/flickingfeathers I strongly recommend a salon style UV lamp to give these and all your UV resin flies a final cure for a hard, clear tack free finish regardless of the brand resin you use Amazon https://amzn.to/3qTXqiH Amazon UK https://amzn.to/3fSw9qM Materials list Hook: Jig or nymph hook 14 -20 Thread: Body quill Weight: Tungsten bead Tail: Coq de Leon Thorax cover: Black varnish Book of the Month 10 "Essential Saltwater Flies" is available here; Amazon https://amzn.to/3zGD

Exercises and components to go from a 50’ to a 70’ cast as part of a distance casting series. This is the first episode. With Paul Arden and Nick Moore from Sexyloops  

  The first leg of my winter seabass season has come to a close as the fish will be moving out to the open sea over the next week or two as they get ready to spawn, they won't be back till January sometime. It's been interesting as we've been experimenting with some very big flies. I'm not sure the really big flies are that necessary. Naturally I've caught fewer fish than normal, but that was to be expected. I have caught a few nice bass and come into contact with a couple of huge fish, most notably one that would have smashed my PB which was lost at the net. The isssue is, I've not caught any more big fish than usual. In fact, some of the best fish I have caught came to the usual 7-20cm flies. This week for example I caught a beautifully conditioned 65cm bass on a little rubber candy, a second 67cm fish came to a 20cm Sedotti slammer. I spent at least half of the trip fishing a 30cm topwater fly for one chase from a fish that either missed or rejected on the ea

 Another oldie from loops.. Both Nick and Paul's posts this week chimed with something I've been thinking about recently, a lot of people criticise methods, it could be the bung, Euro nymphing, the booby or anything else. Often it's a sort of knee-jerk response because they don't understand it, or maybe it's envy at the success of another angler, sometimes it's because of the way a lot of people use the method in question. I'm far from a purist, just yesterday I was fitting large willow leaf spinner blades to some topwater gamechangers in a bid to make them a bit noisier! I'll gladly fish the bung, a booby or a Euro rig-I even use a beefed up french leader for small stream carping! I've no time for the moans from old-usually American- men complaining that Euro nymphing isn't flyfishing, or isn't new and they've been doing it for 60 years. The second complaint in particular just screams to me that they don't understand the method(s) Th

  Music by Morlais https://music.apple.com/jp/artist/morlais/1018522954?l=en The Maruta, or pacific redfin, is a sea-run member of the dace family that return to spawn in Japanese rivers in early spring. Unlike salmon, they continue to feed in fresh water and are easy to catch on nymphs, or streamers. When they are fresh in the river from the ocean, they are very powerful for their size. After a few weeks in the rivers they lose some of that strength but still fight well. To support my channel and enter the giveaways head to https://www.patreon.com/flickingfeathers and become a patron or support through paypal.me/flickingfeathers

  The Dyret is a great caddis imitation from Norway, it's a great choice for trout and grayling. This olive version is ideal for for situations where you want something buoyant enough to fish with a small dropper nymph To support my channel and enter the giveaways head to https://www.patreon.com/flickingfeathers and become a patron or support through paypal.me/flickingfeathers Materials list Hook: Dry fly 10-18 Thread: Uni 8/0 grey Tail/head: Deer hair Body: Olive superfine dubbing Hackle: Grizzly dyed olive

  The Nymphs & The Trout https://amzn.to/3Ty9mUf Frank Sawyer's pheasant tail nymph is a truly fantastic fly that everyone should have in their fly box. It's simple, and easy to tie once you know how and really works just as well as modern variations with more going on. To support the channel, get access to the monthly tying classes and enter the giveaways head to https://www.patreon.com/flickingfeathers or https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/flickingfeathers and sign up. Material list. Hook: Nymph 14-20 Thread: XS copper wire Tail: Peasant tail Body: pheasant tail

An old post I wrote for www.sexloops.com   I've been checking a few new-to-me shore locations around Tokyo bay over the last few weeks. Some of them are right in the city, like down by the Olympic village. Others are thankfully a bit out of the way. It's been fun, even if it has meant fewer fish than I might usually expect. This is the kind of situation where I don't mind blanking though. Each visit to a mark helps to build a picture of the area and what it's like at different tides. Of course fish are welcome, but I'm OK with some slow sessions if it means I can manage some more consistent success in future. This week I've been to a promising place, a nice esturine area with a couple of islands, some nice channels and other manmade structure. The first visit I went down during the day without the rod and just had a walk around, at low tide to see what was what. I like to do this where possible as I'll often be fishing at night and it's a good idea to ha

  Perdigon style flies are well established as excellent fish catchers the world over. The butano version is a great attractor that will catch, trout grayling and other species year round. To support the channel, get access to the monthly tying classes and enter the givaways head to https://www.patreon.com/flickingfeathers or https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/flickingfeathers and sign up. I strongly recommend a salon style UV lamp to give these and all your UV resin flies a final cure for a hard, clear tack free finish regardless of the brand resin you use Amazon https://amzn.to/3qTXqiH Amazon UK https://amzn.to/3fSw9qM Material list. Hook: Nymph or jig hook size 14-22 Weight: Silver tungsten bead Thread: Fluoro. orange Tail: Coq de Leon Body: Hends perdigon body, FB06 Collar: Black thread Coating: Thin UV resin or Varnish

  What was originally supposed to be a video about the Sexyloops HT8 https://www.sexyloops.com/index.php/w... turned out to be more a video about giant snakehead and elephants :)) Some nice fishing moments here in the jungle.

  This easy little crippled emerger is deadly for fussy fish that want something low in the surface film. It can be tied to imitate mayfly species from the smallest BWOs to the largest Danicas. To support the channel, get access to the monthly tying classes and enter the giveaways, head to https://www.patreon.com/flickingfeathers or https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/flickingfeathers and sign up. Materials list Hook: TMC 100 or similar, size 8-22 Thread: 70 denier to match colour Shuck: Antron Rib: Fine gold Wire Abdomen: Pheasant tail Thorax: Snow shoe hare yellow/olive/cream/natural Emergent wing: Snow shoe hare light or dark dun to suit

 Another oldie from www.sexyloops.com After a blackout on the train caused an unwelcome surprise break from everything, I'm starting to get back to some kind of normalcy. I even went out fishing on Monday night, which annoyed/worried my wife but made me feel better about a lot of things. It's peak time for big seabass and Chuck came down from Tochigi to try and get into his first bass. I got him set up with the ubiquitous rubber candy and we e started of at an inshore point and I got into a fish pretty quickly off of a dock light. I hooked and dropped another better fish immediately after while Chuck was getting eats but couldn't help but trout set on them. A couple of moves later and he got into the swing of things, spookily catching a blackfin seabass or Hirasuzuki for his first ever seabass. In my years of living in Japan I've only ever caught 2 of them. Later we went looking for bigger fish, and although we saw a spin fisherman in another boat catching an absolute t

  This simple little pattern is absolutely deadly for fish that are focused on emerging and egg laying caddis. It can be dressed more heavily so it can be skated and skittered or more sparsely to suit. Tied large it is a great pattern for stillwater fish too, especially for great red sedge or murroughs. To support the channel, get access to the monthly tying classes and enter the giveaways, head to https://www.patreon.com/flickingfeathers or https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/flickingfeathers and sign up. Materials list Hook: TMC2487 or equivalent size 8-18 Thread: Uni 8/0 to match body colour Abdomen: Hareline dubbing or other natural dubbing Thorax: Fox squirrel or similar Legs: Brown partridge Wing: Deer hair

  This deadly little streamer was devised by Martin Smith of England for targeting trout, but it has since proved itself for a range of other species including bass, zander, perch and pike. It'll certainly catch other species too, and is definitely worth trying for any predatory gamefish. You'll see plenty of variants with different additions, but I don't think they work better than the original. To support the channel, get access to the monthly tying classes and enter the giveaways, head to https://www.patreon.com/flickingfeathers or https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/flickingfeathers and sign up. I strongly recommend a salon style UV lamp to give these and all your UV resin flies a final cure for a hard, clear tack free finish regardless of the brand resin you use Amazon https://amzn.to/3qTXqiH Amazon UK https://amzn.to/3fSw9qM Material list Hook: Ahrex FW550 Weight: Tungsten bead Thread: 140 denier of your choice Body: Congo hair/EP ( Use stiffer material for bigg

  The other day I shared a photo of a well chewed billfish tube that I had tied for Juan Wei to use on the Rompin sails. It's nothing particularly special but I had given it a core of body tubing to keep the feathers from collapsing against the tube, much like the fatboy mullet which uses EZ body to give the wing fibers shape and volume. The result is a fly that is almost as wide as my hand and will stay that size in the water. The idea being that the fly would be much easier to both see and feel/hear because of its significantly larger profile yet still be quick on the delivery as there isn't much real bulk in the fly. I'm sure other people have done this, but it's the first I've seen it on a billfish fly. A surprising number of people started telling me I should be giving credit to Blane Chocklett or even that I was ripping him off. I was a bit taken aback at first, I mean reversed tubing bodies have been around since before I started tying flies almost 30 years a

  This deadly little streamer was devised by Martin Smith of England for targeting trout, but it has since proved itself for a range of other species including bass, zander, perch and pike. It'll certainly catch other species too, and is definitely worth trying for any predatory gamefish. You'll see plenty of variants with different additions, but I don't think they work better than the original. To support the channel, get access to the monthly tying classes and enter the giveaways, head to https://www.patreon.com/flickingfeathers or https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/flickingfeathers and sign up. I strongly recommend a salon style UV lamp to give these and all your UV resin flies a final cure for a hard, clear tack free finish regardless of the brand resin you use Amazon https://amzn.to/3qTXqiH Amazon UK https://amzn.to/3fSw9qM Material list Hook: Ahrex FW550 Weight: Tungsten bead Thread: 140 denier of your choice Body: Congo hair/EP ( Use stiffer material for bigg

  This deadly little streamer was devised by Martin Smith of England for targeting trout, but it has since proved itself for a range of other species including bass, zander, perch and pike. It'll certainly catch other species too, and is definitely worth trying for any predatory gamefish. You'll see plenty of variants with different additions, but I don't think they work better than the original. To support the channel, get access to the monthly tying classes and enter the giveaways, head to https://www.patreon.com/flickingfeathers or https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/flickingfeathers and sign up. I strongly recommend a salon style UV lamp to give these and all your UV resin flies a final cure for a hard, clear tack free finish regardless of the brand resin you use Amazon https://amzn.to/3qTXqiH Amazon UK https://amzn.to/3fSw9qM Material list Hook: Ahrex FW550 Weight: Tungsten bead Thread: 140 denier of your choice Body: Congo hair/EP ( Use stiffer material for bigg

  This is a chat with Phil Blackmar about golf, coaching, commentating and of course flycasting. I think many of you will find this very interesting in many levels. Thanks Phil!

 

  This is the “grip shift” for Gary and a Board discussion. Please don’t get too hung up on it because it’s really quite an advanced technique where many other things need to be in place first. But if you are 170ing or throwing stopless and we’re wondering how to make the transitions between strokes then this is certainly one way.

 Repost from www.sexyloops.com Not much been going on here this week. We're settling in to winter and the seabass fishing is getting good. Fishing was good on Monday and although I've not had any really big fish yet, they're starting to show up in reports. Encouraging! There are some new shore marks I'm keen to explore too, and revisit the area where the Olympic village was built, a lot of it was closed off during construction and the games so this is the first winter these spots will be open for a few years. There are new structures that will attract bait and of course bass, so a few trips at different tides will be in order to get to grips with the spots. I'm sure I'll not be the only one looking to get in there, but luckily I'll be going on Mondays so I'll probably not have to contend with other anglers. In other news teleworking has come to an end. Being back in the office I can't go down my local river before work any more and doing much less ty

 Another repost from www.sexyloops.com Japanese people often seem obsessed with seasonality, you'd be amazed how often people tell me that Japan has 4 seasons. Sometimes they even say it's a unique feature of Japan's weather! The thing is, it doesn't. It has 2; Hot/wet and cold/dry. There are about 2-3 days between them. Temperatures have been down towards single digits from up in the thirties last week. Which despite being a bit of a shock to the system, is good. The seabass fishing can really get going now and I took my pal John out for his first ever fishing trip on Monday. He had recently got himself kitted out with a spinning set up and assured me he had been practising casting a little dummy plug down the river. So out we went, it was a cool 8 degrees and a little windy with clear skies. The slightly stained water made for excellent conditions. I fully expected John to get a fish or a few. We arrived at the first spot to see a few bass smashing bait near a large f

  This easy little baitfish can be tied with or without a rattle and in various sizes and colours to target all kinds of game-fish in fresh and salt waters. Regardless of the forage species being imitated they all feature a strongly fluorescent core material which can be a fantastic attractor. To support the channel, get access to the monthly tying classes and enter the giveaways, head to https://www.patreon.com/flickingfeathers or https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/flickingfeathers and sign up. I strongly recommend a salon style UV lamp to give these and all your UV resin flies a final cure for a hard, clear tack free finish regardless of the brand resin you use Amazon https://amzn.to/3qTXqiH Amazon UK https://amzn.to/3fSw9qM Material list Hook: Gamakatsu B10S size 4 -2/0 Thread: Fluoro to match core colour & fine clear mono Core: Laser dub, egg yarn or predator dubbing Body: SF blend, flash & slinky or similar Eyes: 3D eyes to suit Finish: UV resin Optional rattle shrin