Goodbye 2020 and good riddance! Let's hope for a brighter 2021, and thank you all for the support this year.
The Youtube channel has nearly doubled in size this year and it's given me a good push to bring it to the next level.
The live streams are finally ready to go with the first one starting on the 8th of January at 7pm Irish time.
We will have an unboxing of the Epic Bandit rod kit, tie a fly and will do a Q&A as we go. Hopefully all will go smoothly without a hitch.
Ok the last piece of the puzzle arrived today! We have proper lighting now.
I wish to thank all who took part in the little survey i put up a week ago to see my potential audience and their likes, like when to stream, what time and the contents of the streams.
So the streams will take part on friday evenings, i will start with one a month and more will come if we have a growing amount of interests.
One thing that was hard for me to decide is the language for the streams. All my videos are in english as i want to reach a maximum of viewers. But there is a growing interest from french anglers asking for streams to be in full french.
To start i will broadcast in english, but i will look after the few frenchies and will answer some questions in french if there really is a language problem for some.
Important bit: if you want to be on time for the streams and not miss any, it's good to be a subscriber and even better if you click that notification bell so Youtube can remind you when the streams will start.
Upcoming streams will be advertised on my stories on Instagram and in the community section on Youtube.
A list of materials will be announced prior to the stream if you want to tie with me. Like a fly tying class or being at a fly show without the noise, the croud and the covid...And best of all its free! Drink and tie is allowed...
One last thing, Youtube have made memberships possible on the channel. Memberships are a great way to support the channel directly, you can sub for the amount of time you want and for the price you want.
Youtube are set on weird rules for this, i wanted to make subscriptions open for people so they can "donate" whatever they want, but corpo Youtube said no! so i had to make three choices...Up to you to pick what you want. All members will get private videos of rough cuts and fly on the wall type of my day to day at the lodge, and some fishing videos.
You will not miss any tying videos and streams if you're not a member! The member thing is only up to you, if you enjoy the videos and like to help, go ahead, if you don't, it's fine too.
And other way to support the channel is donations on the chat during live streams. Now again i want you to know, in no way it's an obligation, it's only the tools given to me by youtube to try to make a little extra income.
First stream is being planned. Carl at Epic just sent me a kit to build your own fly rod, and not any rod! The legendary Bandit! we'll do a quick unboxing and after we will tie a few flies, have a coffee, a beer and a chat.
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| Lights have finally arrived! |
Ok, la dernière pièce du puzzle est arrivée aujourd'hui! Nous avons maintenant un bon éclairage.
Je tiens à remercier tous ceux qui ont participé au petit sondage que j'ai mis en place il y a une semaine pour voir mon public potentiel et ses goûts, comme quand diffuser, à quelle heure et le contenu des streams.
Donc les streams prendront part les vendredis soirs, je commencerai avec un par mois minimum et d'autres viendront si nous avons un nombre croissant d'intérêts.
Une chose qui a été difficile pour moi de décider est la langue pour les streams. Toutes mes vidéos sont en anglais car je souhaite toucher un maximum de spectateurs. Pour commencer je diffuserai en anglais, mais je m'occuperai des quelques français et répondrai à quelques questions en français s'il y a vraiment un problème de langue pour certains. Si les streams deviennent populaire avec la france je ferais aussi des streams 100% francais. Faites tourner ;)
Point important: si vous voulez être à l'heure pour les streams et n'en manquer aucun, c'est bien d'être abonné et encore mieux si vous cliquez sur cette cloche de notification pour que Youtube puisse vous rappeler quand les streams commenceront.
Les streams à venir seront annoncés sur mes histoires d'Instagram et dans la section communauté sur Youtube.
Une liste de matériel sera annoncée avant le stream si vous souhaitez vous me rejoindre et monter les même streamers.
Comme une classe de montage de mouches ou comme être present a un show mais sans le bruit , la foule et le covid....Et tout ça gratuit!
Une dernière chose, Youtube a rendu possible les adhésions sur la chaîne. Les adhésions sont un excellent moyen de soutenir directement la chaîne, vous pouvezvous abonner pendant la durée que vous souhaitez et pour le prix que vous souhaitez.
Youtube a des règles bizarres pour cela, je voulais ouvrir les abonnements aux gens pour qu'ils puissent simplement "faire un don" , mais corpo Youtube a dit non! J'ai donc dû mettre en place trois choix ... A vous de choisir ce que vous voulez.
Vous ne manquerez aucune vidéo et streams si vous n'êtes pas membre! Devenir membre ne dépend que de vous, si vous appréciez les vidéos et que vous voulez aider la chaine, allez-y! Si vous ne le faites pas, ça va aussi.Le seul plus pour les membre c'est l’accès exclusif à des vidéos privées de coupes brutes
qui suivent des journées de pêche et la vie au jour le jour au lodge...Plus genre TV réalité...Une autre facon de supporter la chaine est les donations avec les chats durant les streamsen direct. Encore je tient a préciser qu'il n'y a aucune obligation, tout est completement volontaire de votre part.
Le premier stream va être génial! Carl a Epic vient de m'envoyer un kit Bandit d'Epic! Si vous voulez voir ce que vous obtenez dans un kit Epic ne loupez pas ce stream! Et après nous monterons quelques mouches, prendrons un café, une bière et bavarderons un bout. Merci encore a tous pour votre support, bien important et apprécié en ces temps.Confinement and no work make for a lot of spare time to think about things...
I do enjoy video making and keeping my small Youtube channel going over the years. My style of video for fly tying is usually straight to the point and usually it's more oriented for the tier that has already some tying experience behind him/her.
I do get private message and request for more detailed videos , but i'm not into lengthy sbs and editing 45 mins of tying... I rather make something short and more pleasing to the eye.
Over the last couple of years streaming is getting popular on different broadcasting platforms, and even more now since the Covid pandemic. Cooking, learning to play the guitar, gaming, craft, everyday more and more viewers watch live streams...
So why not doing a fly related stream? Where people can come and join the stream , watch, tie with me and ask questions live. This way inexperienced and experienced tiers can come and join the fun!
This does take a bit of investment to get a multi-cam stream going, and time. Since the beginning of the pandemic anything webcam /streaming related is out of stock, over priced and it takes for ever to come by post. But i am slowly getting there and learning the world of live streaming.
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| Post is slow but the stream lab is getting close to completion soon! |
For this i need a little help from you guys, i want to provide the best viewing experience and need to know what rocks your boat.
Please fill in this quick questionnaire and don't forget to like and subscribe to the channel. I hate asking for this, but unfortunately YouTube algorithms works that way. Videos with little interactions do not get shared/recommended by Youtube and have a very hard time reaching new viewers. It only takes a click from the viewer but from a creator's side it make a big difference.
Also, i think "super chat" will be included in the live streams, so if you feel generous you can always throw a dollar or a euro my way or not...
To finish this post i wanted to thank all you guys that support me, via YouTube or my guiding here at the lodge over the years.Without you i wouldn't even bother doing this...You guys make this possible!
Questionnaire: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1RJd5D18mMcC8ere9KaOmW70bd0yKRkk1UJQcbGJ1eJM/edit
To finish, fishing has picked up a little here since we finally have some settled weather...
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A favorite of mine to fish low and slow ,especially when the water becomes cold and the pikes sit deeper and hunt on the bait fish shoals that started regrouping to their winter spots.
This fly sink nicely without the need to add more weight, giving it a more glide action.The compacted head take on a lot of water helping it to sink but also it pushes a lot of water giving the fly a superb presence in the water.
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| A streamer with loads of bulk. |
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| And yes, the fins really flap! |
Very important when you fish deep and the pike rely on their lateral line to hunt. The Congo hair sheds water fast on the false cast making an ideal fly when you need something substantial without being difficult to cast. This is also a fun fly to fish in the warmer months with a floating line when pikes are hunting large prays. It's a very visual fly to fish on a floating line.
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| Limitless amount of colour combo with the congo hair. |
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| Headlight roach colours. |
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| New model with a blade, very happy with the first few tests. |
I also wanted to thank you all for supporting the Youtube channel! I hate asking this like every single Youtuber...But please subscribe , it helps a lot with the way Youtube share the video to potential new viewers. At the moment the vids are watched by 80% off unsubscribed viewers....So if you came more than once to the channel and you like the content just click that button.
You can see new ads on the blog too....Not the way i want things but at the moment every pennies counts...
October, a month that resonates with all pike anglers!
With the Covid situation the lodge is still closed at the moment. Tonight at midnight the whole country is passing to level 3 of restrictions. So we are not supposed to leave our county of residence, and the lodge cannot welcome people from outside the county...Again lucky for me i have loads of free time and plenty of water to fish!
With some early frost and sunny days, the weather was shaping up to be perfect last week for some fishing.
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| This is when you need to get out! |
I decided to start dusting off my trolling gear and start tuning in the boat for this winter.
The lunar calendar was spot on, with a very wide major for the day i picked. Weather was for a cold start, fog and then sunny with an approaching front given for the evening. To add to all this the barometer was dropping slowly or the last 16 hours.
As you can see on the pics big lures where on the menu, 35 and 40cm was the winning combo!
Also check the sonar captures, you can clearly see the pike and the baitfish ball on each pictures. One thing to notice is also the configuration , look at the depth and the picture, they both look identical, but both are from a different spot and at a different time!
When you get so much information like this, there is no excuse not to fish at the right spots!
This is a keeper, i have tried and tested this fly over the summer months and i just cannot wait for the autumn season to arrive to really have fun with this one!
The foam in the head helps give hanging time , the hard head aids in cutting water and change in totally random directions. Body in magnum rabbit pulses and keeps moving during pauses and on the drops.
The added stiffness of the body and base of the tail due to the gluing helps with keeping the tail away so it doesn't foul itself on the hook.And i thing the stiff body helps keeping the bait on track after each strip.
Talking about strips... I like to vary my retrieves, but sharpish small to medium strips followed by good pauses drives the pike mad, very much like playing with a cat, there's only so much teasing they can take.....
I tried to make an "easy" cranked version with lips attached to the bottom of the head, but even with two dumbells tied on the hook and shank this version was very tricky to balance properly to have a cranked effect to it. It needed multiple lip cutting, and even adding so much weight that it was not an "easy" tie anymore. So i gave up on the idea ( they did look good). But to be honest i rather use this jerky version, so much more fun to fish. Try as well to tie them without the shank, they will will hang even more! Put it on a floating line and its such a visual fly for the angler, pure pleasure and fun to make a pike rise to your offering.
Also an other version to add even more hang! Tie without the head , and finish the head with lightly packed bucktail, works wonder on an intermediate or sink line.
Hey everyone! Sorry for the lack of posts lately, not much fishing due to the warm summer waters here. But things are changing weather wise, second storm is coming tonight, with high winds and again a lot of water.
Talking about water, the levels are high at the moment here, with many venues having the levels gone up onto the fields. The temperature still remain pretty high with an average of 18º / 19º
But this will change fast very soon, days are getting shorter, and less daylight will naturally drop the water temps.
With the Covid situation i am still out of work, 100% of my clients still face a quarantine upon arrival here. Looking into the future i don't think the situation will change much for this autumn and winter. I really do hope to be open for spring 2021...
So this is going to give me plenty free time over the next few months. Projects are being made, concentrating on publishing more Youtube videos. The channel has grown a good bit this year so it's giving me a good moral boost to keep at it. Tying videos are the most popular, but i'm also getting requests for more reviews about the gear i use and set ups. So i will be more than happy to make a few for you guys. I know you hear this on every videos you watch on Youtube and it gets very repetitive, this is why i usually never ask this on my videos, but please do subscribe and share if you enjoy the contents. 80% of the views the channel gets is from non subscribed viewers...
If you have requests for a specific videos, leave me a comment here, or on my Instagram ( this is where i get more of the requests).
I am currently working on my next tying video and it looks like it's going to be the bomb! As usual a streamer that you haven't seen before and one that does catch fish too!
To finish this little update i give you the latest short film from Patagonia, thanks again for the support and keep safe!
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| Cactus chenille XL |
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| Congo hair, top and bottom |
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| Yellow congo hair on the side for the pectoral fins (or different colour depending on what you are tying) |
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| Fold over, brush whip finish, glue and add a 25mm shank |
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| More chenille for the gills |
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| I like to put some foam at this stage to balance the fly and for a good base to glue the head on. |
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| Glue on the head now, i love the heads from Spawn flyfish !! |
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www.spawnflyfish.com    |
