The Covid-19 diaries Ep2

With the global pandemic, the lodge has no clients this year.To keep in touch with friends, family and clients i decided to make this series of vlogs. Fish or no fish, good and bad days. I film my outings as they are.  Keep safe every one!

Back to baitfish

The simple baitfish, the tie that we all (mostly) started with...You can make it very simple or spend more time being creative, the bottom line they all catch fish.
Easy to cast, low cost on materials they are the pattern that match the hatch all the time.
I see more and more guys that fish with me when i guide that carry very little baitfish in their boxes. In this world of Bufford, Gamechangers, T-bones and other patterns ( and all these catch too) the humble baitfish is somehow forgotten.
I  always have at least a roach and a perch with me all the time. I had many sessions where pikes where eating heavily, splashing all around me after shoals of roach..And all they wanted to take was a baitfish. You think that in these frantic times they would smash anything in their path, but no. Many times i found myself in this situation, casting buffords, bunnies, T-bones without any interest. Switched to a 10cm (4 inch) roach baitfish and all hell broke loose! Hits after hits...I also remember the time where pikes where going crazy in the shallows , that was in may.And with me i had two guys lure fishing, all they could managed was getting follows without any eats.And they tried all the lures they had with them that day.They finally managed half a dozen jacks between the two of them and i had over 30 fish and some approaching the meter mark. All on a small baitfish.
It's also a good fly to fish when things gets slow. Fish it slowly  with a lightly heavy head , like a fish mask or a small dumbbell the slow jigging action can push them to eat.
I wanted to fill my box for this season with a fresh batch. With the Covid-19 striking hard all over the world, my season here as a fishing lodge owner and guide is completely gone...And i don't know when things will come back to normal...
It's hard on the bank account and for the moral. But looking on the bright side i'm not in total lock-down and it's been over 15 years that i had time to fish at this time of the year.
As i said i will keep the vlogs coming to give you guys a little escapism, even if it's for 5 minutes..

Back to this bunch of baitfish!  I wanted them slightly head  heavy to be able to fish them in depths of 1 to 5 m on my favorite line: a floating line. I love floating line, many would only fish a floating if they fish with surface flies but i adore watching my line on the surface. In between each strips the line slightly coil and more than often you can see the bite before you can feel it.
It gives you the option to fish super shallow and in deeper water ( 5m max) you just need to use a longer leader and when pikes are hunting, they have absolutely no problem coming up to nail you fly.

I tied these on Kona hooks 3/0 Xtra strong stinger hooks. The heads are from Flymen Fishing Company, the one used here are the size #10.  I airbrushed them in white first to prime them then added different colours to match each style. Of course a roachy one, a perch and one that saved me so many blanks: white/yellow.
To make them long lasting  and shinny a coat of Gorilla clear glue.
The fibres used are Congo hair (tail+ belly) and kanekalon for the back to add volume.

• Head prep:

  

  Primed in white

  
  

  

  Colouring and eyes

  
  

   

  
  

  A good coating of Gorilla clear glue.

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

• Body prep:
  
  
  

  

  I like to airbrush accent colours, like gills(orange)

  
  

  
  

Now all you have to do is to stick on the heads, for this i use hot glue inside the head, and the front where the eye of the hook is, i use a solid UV resin.

The Covid19 diaries

Two weeks ago we were all very far from imagining how fast this virus is spreading and affecting so many people in so many different levels...
The virus is spreading here too, we are not in total lock down (yet) but we are advised to keep at home as much as possible and obey the social distancing rules. I really feel for my many friends at home and abroad. Owning a fishing lodge and working as a guide has permitted me to meet so many wonderful people from around the globe. Many clients have become very good friends over the years that's  the beauty of the fishing world, we all share the same interest.
The lodge is closed now until further notice and i keep in touch on a regular basis with many clients/friends.
I know at the time of writing this that some parts of the world a very badly affected with the Covid-19 and it's about to get worse before we see some light at the end of the tunnel.
Many are now in total lock down, fishing and hunting is now banned in France to limit people movements and interactions. It's difficult loosing jobs, financial difficulty, daily stress mounting and not really knowing what will happen next week.
So i decided to make a few vlogs for as long as i am allowed to do so here. To keep me busy, and to offer a tiny bit of escapism  for the many who can't leave their houses.
Stay safe friends, stay home ,wash your hands ,take this situation seriously and we will come out for the better as humans.


A quick note on the gear i used over the winter:
I really like them westin w4 Monsterstick rods, strong yet light they have been a pleasure to use.
For the reel i have a new Revo Beast, it looks ok but i feel it might not last in the long run. My other reel is a Shimano Calcutta and i have this one for over 15 years without any problems.
The line is the colour coded Daiwa J-braid, the markings on the line is great for precise lure presentation when trolling.
For the lures, i really liked that Westin Hypnoteez inline, it has caught most of my pikes this winter.
The biggest fish came on a magnum pro Dawg. No surprise as these Dawg have been catching me big fish for years. I just love Dawgs.
Biggest disappointment in the inline trout from Savage Gear in the giant 50cm size.I have trolled this for many days, and only managed to tempt one pike of 70cm....It's probably a great bait for other waters, but it's not been very good here for some reason.

Now this is the end of my winter fishing, i will put away all the heavy gear and i'm so happy to get the fly rods back out! it's been too long ;)
I finish this with a few pics of my best fish of the winter.Most of those came in the month of December. January and February have been a lot slower with the weather being so changeable.

The Tying sessions EP:34 The Bunny Boiler

A streamer that can be tied on a smaller hook for other predatory fish. From bass,trout, perch this fly will tempt many fish. The zonker will protect the rattle making it a very durable fly. For pike i like to cut my own zonker to have them slightly wider than the shop bought ones.
As usual fell free to change colours to suit your area and fish targeted.

Tactical winter and chasing majors

Every successful angler i met in my life are the ones who can adapt. Change techniques to suit the conditions. This is the reason that my winter fishing is completely different than the rest of the year.
Fly fishing is my all time first choice, but it's not always the best especially in winter when it get cold and very windy....Ireland , being on the edge of the Atlantic gets all the winter storms first before  the rest of Europe. And call it climate change or whatever rocks your boat, but every winter we have more and more of these storms. Less cold, more winds more rain is the norm.
The baitfish find the best thermoclines , usually in deep holes and if you want to find hungry fish you need to concentrate on the bigger loughs where you have a decent depth.
Like i say in this short video, big fish love to follow a long way before committing into a eat. So if you cast and retrieve at these depths (lure or fly) you spend very little time in the strike zone. If a fish gets an interest in your lure/fly , as soon as this one starts to rise up in the water column pike can easily loose interest and rather stay in the comfortable depths. This is why trolling bit rubbers can be so effective if you fish them at the right depth, big fish can be so lazy and cold, you need to put that bait right in front of their noses. Speed is important too! Too fast and the pike wont chase, too slow and the pike will have too much time to inspect your lure and smell the trap... Depth and speed can change from week to week, having a good sonar will help to see how high the baitfish is holding.
Now that you have the gear sorted you need to get out at the right time. Difficult to do if you only have weekend to get out....And storms have a nasty habit of landing on weekends...
I usually try to  pick a day where the weather and water condition  is favorable and throw in the mix a good major (preferably mid to late morning up to early afternoon when its at its warmest).
Now talking about majors...A lot of people i guide think moon phases and fishing goes only with full moon or new moon . Yes this is true but it's ( in my opinion) best to look at when the major is on at  each outing.

• What is  a major and minor?  

major periods occur when the moon is directly overhead or directly below a reference longitude. Minors occur when it's positioned at 90 degrees to either side. 

• How does this affect the fishing? 

Some theorists feel that invertebrate movements are related to solunar productivity and that these tiny creatures move and become more vulnerable depending on moon phase, leading to increased activity by species that feed on them. Their activity might, in turn, encourage feeding by  pike and other predators.

•  How do you find out about majors and minors?

Well that's the easy part!  Like everything in this world, there is an app for this: go to the Google Play store or the Apple App store , look for "HUNT & FISH" , download and that it! Now you know the perfect time to concentrate on your hotspots!
Here's a good little video by my mate Sam Scott  from Blue Ridge Musky explaining all this:



Now i really am looking to the warmer months to bring the fish up in the water and increase their activity! Very soon, the big lures and heavy rods will get back on the wall and the fly will take over for the next 8 months!!!
Hope you guys enjoy this short video i made ( i lost all my drone footage from my sd card...) but still had a few clips to stick together.

DEEZ Nuts!

Fruit flies, not the annoying flying type, but the ones that get crushed by hungry fish! And this time i have the mighty Pacu (or Koumaru) in sight.
I have tied the first batch and went for the floating version, i will make some sinking ones soon.
I used the  Sakumas 410 size 2 , hope they will hold...
Made out of foam , you can get them into the shape you want in two ways.
First you can place a small cube of foam onto a Dremell bit or a drill, spin it and use sandpaper to shape. Or you can do it the way i use, just using a sharp blade( a razor or a scalpel ) get the best fruity shape you can and then burn the sharp edges left by the cuts.

Foam melts fast! So try on a sample first to get to know how much heat you need to apply. Melt and roll in your fingers, simple.
After you need to cut a slit in the middle, put some super glue on the hook shank and place the fruit into place. Make sure to place it so it doesn't obstruct the hook point. Squeeze and hold for a few seconds and your nut is in place...

Then comes a little cosmetic. Sharpeys and airbrush some details, so it looks a little more realistic, like a ripe or over ripe fruit falling from natural causes into the water.

 Again i decided to coat the fruits/nuts with some Gorilla clear glue.You can also use your favorite UV resin for this. The coating will help in two ways, first it will protect the fly so you can hope to catch more than one fish on the same fly, and very important for this type of fly, it gives it an extra weight.

That extra weight will help to make a good splash when the fly hit the water. Fruit flies need to be noisy! No gentle landing here! Keep tuned for the sinking version soon!

Cicadas!

One of the most enjoyable part of fly tying for me is definitely tying terrestrials. Great summer fun flies to fish, top water action that catches many species of fish from trout, carp, chubb, to masheer.
I wish we had more species here in Ireland to chase on terrestrials....
This tie was one that i wanted to fish for a long time, the cicada. Cicadas have always fascinated me from a young age living in the south of France. That characteristic noise they make with their wings in the summer months  and their amazing life cycle makes for a very special insect. The hatch can take from 2 to 17 years to happen depending on the type of cicada!
So with the Amazon trip planned for next November i had to tie a few  ( it's a good excuse anyway to carry a few in my box). These are slightly on the big size, but can be tied smaller to suit your area and fish targeted.
I tied them this time on Gamakatsus C70SD Big Game in size 1/0. Largely inspired from Dron Lee ties and Hernan Tulá  i came up with these supersize Cicas!
All you need for this tie is some 3mm foam for the body and some 2mm foam for the head. A little bucktail for the wings, some round rubber for the legs and some home made eyes with a couple of beads on a bit of mono.
I made these as tooth proof as i could for the Amazon, but normally if you chase chubbs, trouts , bass or carp you don't really need to coat them with anything.

• First cut out the body parts, the belly and the back. You can use the same colour or two different ones. This is 3mm foam.

• Now put some thread on your hook to give the glue more grip

• To add volume and buoyancy glue a strip of 2mm foam

• Then glue in place the top part

•  Trim the edges
  

•  Now for the tricky part, burn and weld the sides. Better to try this on some loose foam first to get used on how much heat and how fast the foam you use will melt. Burn and squeeze to weld the sides, then trim the welds with scissors to give a clean finish.

•  Shape the body with a few wraps of thread to make about 4/5 sections
  
• Add the legs now( round rubber) and the wings (bucktail)
  
  
  
  
  

•  Making the eyes is fairly straight forward, put two beads on some thick mono and burn to hold in place
  

•  Tie the eyes in front of the foam body and cut the 2mm foam to make the head.This foam is cut like a long tear drop shape. Bring the thread forward a little (in front of the legs/wings part) Tie the narrow part of the "tear drop " underneath the measure where the eye of the hook need to come out. Burn this hole with a hot needle for a better finish.
  
  
  

• Nearly finished, bring the foam over the top of the head, pass the hook eye through the hole on the foam and secure with a few wraps directly behind the eyes. Bring the thread back a bit and secure an other section. The fly is now complete.Secure with some glue, add some details with a Sharpey and you're ready to fish!
  
  
  
  

• As i mentioned at the beginning, i'm hoping that these will get crushed on the Amazon, so they need to be strong and resilient.For this i add a thin coat of some Gorilla clear glue and let it spin and dry for a good two hours.
  

 Here's a few videos on how effective this pattern can be when fished at the right time, i will let you know how mines do on the Amazon when i come back from this trip!