The Live Sessions: Rabbit

 Many thanks to all who took the time to join me again last night for an other stream, and thank you for the generous donations as well!

Last night live stream:

 

So yes, as you saw in the stream i am a big fan of rabbit zonker for pike flies, and also for any other predatory fish out there. A simple rabbit strip on a hook will catch you so many species time and time again, no matter where you are in the world, in fresh or salt water.

To recap the stream, this is where i buy my rabbit pelts: 

https://www.englishrabbitfur.com/ 

I did not purchased from that store since Brexit, not sure how this will impact the prices. If you guys know a similar supplier, please let us know, contact me directly, or leave a comment on any of my social media. I'm pretty sure something similar exist in the EU.

Here's a couple of my tying videos now of the flies we tied last night:

1:The Bunnyciever

2: The Pike Toad:

In bonus i will include the "Heavy Bunny" this is a fly tied for Aimara (Wolf fish) .I was supposed to go to French Guyana last Novembre, but the trip was cancelled due to Covid. This fly is not made to break distance record, its more to lob in between rocks in heavy flow to pull out these amazing predators. But its made with rabbit i'm in sure a similiar tie will work for pike:

This is the video on how i cut my zonkers, remember not to cut against a board as you will cut all those hairs trapped under. Raise the pelt a little before cutting it:

 And remember: don't be afraid in using small flies for pike, in fact after the stream i looked into my top 5 biggest pikes on the fly (with two over 15kgs) and 4 of them were caught using small flies (under 15cm) and three off them were caught on a bunny.

An other bonus using smaller flies is that you can always get that surprise, bonus fish especially on rivers here. Big brown trouts or large perch are often tempted by a bunny , even if this one was intended to catch pike.

To finish a few pics of pikes that fell to small bunny flies:

Big winter girl, caught on a bunny fished slowly and deep on a S6 line

This one grabbed a tiny bunny intended for a rainbow trout( caught on a 4 weight)

Mid June pike caught on a black bunny with body tubing head.

My first big Alaskan tank...Caught on a Chewbacca.

Bunnies lined up for the next day deep in the Alaskan bush.

The original Chewbacca!

 I will end this post with a video of a small tie i call the PugsNcBunny, this fly has caught me the most species on the fly including many saltwater ones, and mixed is footage of that huge girl caught on a four weight (fight lasted exactly 5mins 46...all filmed on the GoPro)

Ps: Someone asked if i use finn raccoon, and yes i do:

 

 

The Live Sessions: Synthetics!

 Many thanks for all the support recently with the live streams! So happy with the response, the kind words and the fantastic generosity with the latest donations to the channel!

I'll start this blog entry with a mini disclaimer...The views on the stream are purely personal, i share with you guys what works for me, for my personal fishing and for my guiding work.Like i mentioned on this stream, my choice of synthetics is based on what i need to tie and use for my clients. 

I am not a commercial tier and i tie mostly for clients while guiding or at the lodge. We call these flies    " guide flies", they need to be easy to tie, good value, long lasting, easy to cast and more importantly they have to catch fish!

This is the reason why i use mostly two synthetics for these flies: Kanekalon hair and Congo fibers.

That said, there is a huge amount of materials out there. Either made for fly tying, or used for other purposes but they work great for tying streamers.So there is absolutly nothing wrong with trying and discovering new materials!

The is often confusion with picking Kanekalon online, especially if you get it from Ebay or Amazon.There is about 5/7 types of Kanekalon out there, some very frizzy, some very sleek, and most of the time these sellers don't mention which one they have for sale, they only mention "Kanekalon"...So it's always a surprise when you open the mail...Its for this reason i always source my Kanekalon from the same seller.

Now with Brexit we have to pay extra VAT ( the shop i use is in the UK) but even with the extra charges it's still a bargain.

This is the frizzy one for big volume: KANEKALON JUMBO BRAID 

More slick, and bigger color choice : PHANTASIA JUMBO BRAID

And for a bonus check the new one: GLOW IN THE DARK KANEKALON

Also check the great value: ANGELINA FIBRES   Great for subtle flash and to add some bling to your brushes and dubbing loops.

My other favorite is the Congo hair , i will put the main address of the shop, as they have many other awesome materials(dubbing, eyes, flash..) , so get in there and explore! https://www.flytyersdungeon.com/

 

Next Friday we will look at an other favorite of mine, and often a forgotten natural material, the simple rabbit Zonker . Don't miss that stream, we will tie some proven bunnies!

To finish, here's a couple  to the flies i tie using synthetics, one i call "The Flasher" that got me most of my big pikes in Alaska and here in Ireland: 

 

And the Simple BaitFish , use the same method with the fibers of your choice:

122cm on a blue and white flasher

Fire tiger flasher totally inhaled

124cm on a firetiger flasher