Flicking feathers

  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...