Yo Ho Ho and a bottle of…. Bass?
Well it was Guinness really, chilled to perfection after dangling over the side of my friend’s boat for a few hours. We’d taken advantage of the neap tides and the fine weather to head out about 10km south of Anvil Point to a secret mark known only to Tom (one of the drunken reprobates on board) and apparently every charter skipper on the south coast as when we got there the mark was distinctly crowded. Read the rest of this entry »
Tying a Shrimp Fly
There are many shrimp imitations and my version isn’t particularly unique in any of it’s features, but it does the job and catches fish 
Start by making two ‘eyes’ by cutting a couple of pieces of heavy mono and melting the ends until they form ball shapes. I colour these with black nail varnish to make them a bit more lifelike. Read the rest of this entry »
Tying a Mohawk Fly
There are several flies called a Mohawk but this is the one I’ve most commonly heard called the Mohawk in the UK. It’s good for both fresh and saltwater, regularly used for Pike and has proved very successful for Bass (at least it has for me 
) It’s a simple fly to tie, but the finished result is an effective and easy-casting fly, being narrow in cross-section but giving a good solid profile. Read the rest of this entry »
I’ve lost another phone…
What is it about me that I lose phones so easily when I’m out fishing? 
This morning’s loss was sad, not because of the price of the phone as it was only a cheapo £20 Nokia… No, it was because it had in it a couple of photos of a nice Pollack and a biggish Bass that I caught and wanted to boast about Read the rest of this entry »
Osmington, Black Head Ledges – 13 Aug 2010
As it was a bright, sunny dawn I thought I’d tempt fate on Friday 13th by going out to Osmington before the showers hit, fishing a bit to the right of the pub carpark in an area known as Black Head. I’d intended walking with the dog all way up to Redcliff but a combination of age and laziness got the better of me It wasn’t a total calm but not that bad, and I got there about an hour into the flood so conditions were as good as they get at Osmington for wading Read the rest of this entry »
Tying a Crease Fly
This isn’t really a fly, more a lure with a tied tail, but it has it’s place in saltwater fishing as a good surface fly. After saying that, it’s not a fly I use much as I prefer a fishing a Popper, but as someone has just asked me to tie him a batch of Crease Flies I can show you how to make them. Read the rest of this entry »
Tying a Mullet “Bread Flake” Fly
A very simple and easy to make fly…
I have several versions of this fly, some made out of foam, others from synthetic fibres, but the one I like best and find most successful is this version tied from natural bucktail. Bucktail absorbs water and sinks, the finer hairs at the tip of the tail sinking faster than the coarse fibres from the tail base. Using coarse fibres and careful use of floatant will make you a fly that will float for a minute or two then slowly sink at the same rate that real bread will Read the rest of this entry »
Tying a “Lazy” Mickey Finn
This is probably not a fly you’ve heard of for saltwater use but I had some sent by a friend in Canada where they use them for Char and Salmon in arctic rivers and lakes. One day I was having no success on my usual flies as the water was a bit murky, so I tied on this fly and had instant results My version is much, much simpler than the original flies I was sent and I’ve cheated slightly by using mylar tube for the body, but it works just as well I think. Read the rest of this entry »
Bream Trip on “Sambe” – Beer, Devon, 30/7/2010
I went out with a group of friends from the Chesil Beach forum for a Bream trip yesterday afternoon. We left from Beer village, not a regular charter boat port but home to a small fishing fleet. The trip was arranged out on local fisherman Kim Aplin’s crab boat “Sambe” – no frills, or luxuries as it’s a working boat, but Kim knows his marks. Read the rest of this entry »
Tying the Clouser Minnow
The Clouser pattern is without argument the most popular saltwater fly type used in the UK, and probably the fly most beginners will use. It’s designed to be ‘top-heavy’ and retrieve upside down to keep the hook pointing upward and so relatively free of snags and weeds. Read the rest of this entry »