Author Archives: Simon Williams

Reminder: Don’t miss out on this unusual art exhibition!

Posted on by
Reply

Regular readers of our blog will remember that we posted about Linton Meagher’s exciting and unusual art exhibition Pursuits: The MacNab Challenge last week. Linton creates sculptures by using materials taken out of their usual context – including fish sculptures crafted from fishing flies supplied by Troutflies UK – to tell a story inspired by the book John MacNab by John Buchan, in which the protagonist has to catch a salmon on the fly, bag a brace of grouse and stalk a stag all in a single day.

Twisting_Trout

The exhibition opened today (Monday October 21st) at Gallery 8, Duke Street St James, London, and runs until Sunday 27 October 2013, so we thought it would be a good idea to remind all our readers who are able to get to it not to miss out on what is sure to be an engrossing and thought-provoking exhibition for fans of game sports – not least because you might bump into certain members of the Troutflies UK team in person as you peruse the exhibits!

The exhibition is hosted by art curators COMODAA. Based in Sydney and London, COMODAA’s remit is to introduce Australian contemporary art to markets beyond its borders, showcasing to the world that Australian art is more than what is widely believed to be indigenous work. In 2014, COMODAA aims to reciprocate the initiative and introduce British contemporary art down under.

Brown_Trout

For enquiries about the works and further details about the forthcoming exhibition including invitations to the private view, please contact Toby White at toby.white@comodaa.com or call on +44 (0)7790 005 416.

You can find out more about artist Linton Meagher – and view more of his stunning work – at his official website. The images used in this post are all copyright of Linton Meagher.

Troutflies Down Under!

Posted on by
Reply

Troutflies down under header

It never fails to amaze us how, even though we are a family-run fly fishing business based in the North West of the UK, our products are used by fly fishers all over the globe.

Case in point: Mr. Rob Gleghorn, who hails from Australia, got in touch with us to kindly share some photos of the gorgeous trout he caught using flies he’d purchased from our wide selection. These beauties were caught back in June up in the snowy mountains of New South Wales, and Rob informs us that they’re a common size for that river near the end of their trout season:

Troutflies down under photo 2

Troutflies down under photo 1

Rob says he uses both a fly rod and a fly reel as well as light spin gear to drift flies in that particular river, and, with trout like that waiting to be caught, it’s no surprise he’s looking forward to the season starting again in October!

Thanks to Rob for sharing his photos with us all the way from Down Under, and if you’re a Troutflies customer we’d love to see your photos of catches you’ve made with our products – no matter where in the world you are! Contact us at info@troutflies.co.uk to share your stories!

 

Where We Source our Flies (and Why it Matters)

Posted on by
2

Troutflies header

Recently, a member of the Fly Fishing internet forum contacted us here at Troutflies UK, after a forum thread in which members had raised concerns about the possibility of inhumane treatment of animals being used to supply fur/feather for fly tying. The Chinese fur trade in particular was noted as having a reputation for being particularly inhumane (you can read the original forum thread here).

The member asked us if we could advise him:

  • which (if any) of our flies are made in China
  • which (if any) of our flies are made using fur/hair sourced from the Chinese fur trade and
  • finally, whether any of the fly tying materials we sell are sourced from the Chinese fur trade

We replied to the gentleman in question, but we thought it would be a good idea to make clear about our sources, as we know that inhumane treatment of animals is a very real matter of concern for a number of flyfishermen and our customers.

Absolutely none of our flies are made in China.

The only imports we stock from China are our fly boxes, which are made by the same firm as Snowbie Boxes.

Most of the materials used in general fly tying now are synthetic, although traditional tyers like to use real feathers. The feather and fur used in products on our site is all a product of Veniard’s and they hold the vet certificates. Being as they are one of the top names in fly tying we are certain they would never associate themselves with stock that may be the result of inhumane treatment of animals.

Please feel assured we would never, ever buy our flies from China. We hope this sets everyone’s minds at rest!