Flicking feathers

  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.