Some fab catches from our customers!
Karl McGee on a Olive/Blue Hothead Flash Damsel at Ardaire Springs, Co Kilkenny, Ireland. What a beauty!
Ken Andrews on a Black Hopper and a Daddy Longlegs
Matthias Kneale on a buzzer and a UV buzzer
Well done folks! Drop me an email with your catches on annie@troutflies.co.uk and I will post them on here 🙂
Tight Lines!
Annie
What a catch by Andrew King on one of our red nomads, good work!! Have you got any pictures of your catches? Send them to Annie on annie@troutflies.co.uk to publish!
What do fishery bailiffs do in the close season. Apart from working around the fishery, the go fishing of course. See attached photo of Ted (Bailiff at Summerfield’s fly fishery) with his prize Salmon from Palm Springs. One of 20 fish caught between ted & three friends on a day out in December.
If you have followed my pages you will have seen that last year I caught some perch using flies that had been specifically tied for using on the dropshot.
Recently I was reading an issue of Anglers Mail and lo and behold there was an article on fishing the dropshot using flies, also before someone comes out with horrible comments I’m not saying someone copied me or even that I came up with the idea as I’m fully aware it has been used many many times before I used it. The article did however rekindle my interest in using flies on the dropshot.
I have been looking at a company called ‘Trout Flies UK’ a lot lately as I am thinking more and more about learning to fly fish as it is the only style of fishing I haven’t done yet. It is a family run business and they produce some brilliant looking trout flies such as the damsels which I thought would be absolutely perfect for dropshotting as well as fly fishing.
Looking on their website I found ’24 damsel flies in a water tight trout box’ (boxed damsel-trout-fishing-flies) which looked absolutely perfect for the job and at only £12.99 for 24 flies and the box I thought it was a bargain. Having got in touch with the company they were extremely helpful and also recommended trying some of the hothead flies that they make as well.
So now I knew what flies to get and waited for them to arrive. The package arrived really quickly and upon opening I was extremely surprised at the superb quality of not only the trout box but the craftsmanship of the flies. Considering the price of these flies the quality is simply stunning, after taking out the cost of the trout box (£6.99) the damsels work out at just 25 pence each!!!!!
If you run out of flies the box will also be highly useful for storing jigheads in too.
Okay so I don’t have the right tackle yet for fly fishing so these flies were destined to be used on the dropshot. I tied a couple of the colours on and I was going to start with a yellow, then changed my mind to a hothead, then an orange, finally settling back on the yellow.
The weekend I was fishing arrived and if I’m honest I didn’t hold out much hope as it had been seriously raining the day before and the canal I was fishing with some friends was highly coloured (I couldn’t see the lures/flies under 1″ of water) and carrying some extra water.
I started out with the yellow fly on the dropshot but due to the colour of the water didn’t get any bites. I moved onto some of my soft Relax Lures and managed five perch but I still really wanted to get a fish on these damsel flies.
About half way through the day I found some water that was a bit clearer so I put an orange damsel on and cast out my dropshot rig.
Within a couple of gentle twitches my rod hooped over and line started coming off my reel, either this was a good sized perch or I’d managed to hook a jack pike.
After a few minutes of reeling in and then losing line when the fish did a run I had a nice little jack pike in my net.
As the wind picked up and the rain started again the fish turned off and I didn’t get any more fish for the day. I thoroughly enjoyed the day and the company, I proved to myself that I can catch fish on these brilliant flies from Trout Flies UK and I will definitely be using them again.
I also tied up a split shot rig and a carolina rig but didn’t think the conditions were suitable for that rig so will try that at a later stage.
You can find out more about the flies from Trout Flies UK via these links.
Website: www.troutflies.co.uk
Facebook: /TroutfliesUK
Twitter: @TroutfliesUK
Ben Moody Landed this beauty on one of our Gold Head Cats Whiskers which you can still see in the mouth.
Nice one !!
A customer has shared his blog with us showing his first steps into fly fishing, a great read. You can see the tungsten pheasant tail nymph still in the trouts mouth!
Check it out – HERE
Here we have
the winners of the friendly catch and return at Summerfields Trout Fishery in Luton
They were issued with Damsels, Buzzers and Gnats from our Fly Collection by organiser Ted Leather .
With 29 Entrys 49 fish were caught.
WELL DONE GUYS !
The lumi zonker flies are one of our top selling trout flies and Paul Kay from Ireland has promoted their quality’s by winning the Rathcon Winter League Final using these beauties!
The Rathcon Winter League final was held Sunday 09 March. 13 anglers fished the event and landed 26 fish over the 4hrs. It was a tough but fair final with a strong westerly wind making conditions pretty testing.
Congratulations to the following prize winners
Steve Cracknell from St Neots in Cambridgeshire, shares with us this stunning trout weighing in at 10lb, Nice one!
Paul Unsworth is a regular customer here at Troutflies and purchases his fly tying materials from us. He has happily passed over some images of his latest catch from Itchen House Fishery.
Paul was using a classic style Salmon Fly and was rewarded with a 35lb 3oz Pike ! Nice one Paul !
I guess to many people we are just a webpage that you browse, shop, place an order and it arrives generally the next day.
But just occasionally we email or speak to people on a regular basis working to get them the right patterns made to spec, or generally just helpful advise.
One such customer is Mr T Johns who has been a long term customer and indeed one of his flies – Toms Choice has become a top seller on our site. He recently shared with us some pictures which he gladly gave us permission to share with customers. If tou have any pictures you would like to share with us please feel free to email them to us.
This one is his largest fish at 11lb 11oz
This one is a recent catch at Larners Lake
Catching a pike, one of the largest predator fish is a challenge all of us fishermen want to achieve at one point. For some its a tick box, for others its a lifetime challenge pursuing these magnificent beasts.
Jerk Bait, Lures, big spoons, and of course deadbait have to be what most of us associate with pike fishing, but the more modern method of catching them fast and friendly has to be with the Pike Flies. Doing away with the treble hooks which can cause damage and a simple pattern on a single hook has to be not only a better option for the pike, but boy is it good fun !
We have a great Range of Pike Flies for you to have a go with.
Let us know how you get on, and send us your pictures!
info@troutflies.co.uk
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.
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.
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.
Can you imagine a fish sculpture made from Trout Flies??
Well Australian artist Linton Meagher has done exactly that using our own trout flies 🙂
Announcing an art exhibition with a difference – and one sure to excite anyone keen on game sports.
‘Pursuits: The MacNab Challenge’ is 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 in a single day.
Sydney-born artist, Linton Meagher (pron.‘Marr’) uses materials taken out of their usual context and presented in innovative and surprising ways; spent shotgun cartridges depict game birds in flight and fishing flies are used to create salmon and trout arcing upstream, among many such things.
Pursuits: The MacNab Challenge opens at Gallery 8, Duke Street St James, London, on Monday 21 October until Sunday 27 October 2013.
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.
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.
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:
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!
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:
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!
Charles Jardine fly lines, fantastic products at a price we can all afford Distance and Presentation Lines in stock,
Technical Info: Presentation Taper – High Buoyancy Float
I am the fly line that will get you a gold medal for distance. My bullet-shaped body creates a distance taper that forms powerful, tight loops when cast. Meaning I shoot like John Wayne and eat wind for breakfast! When fish are moving just out of range, pick me up and fire me out
I work like a dream on Stillwater reservoirs or lakes hitting extreme distances required, working exceptionally well with teams of flies or lures.
Check them out here – CJL
Although we support as best we can the small fishing clubs we also choose a charity to supprt and this year it is Cancer Research.
Three of our girls are running the race for life in support of this, if anyone wishes to sponsor them the links are below. I am sure many of you have spoken with them over time, there is a book open on who raises the most money!!
Emma – The brummie accent, coming in last at the moment!
Becky – The cute one,