Claretbumbler

Known to most anglers as the yelllow owl, I still call those small, brown caddis with an abdomen the colour of lemon curd by their Scottish soliloquy. Curlybums were a great favourite on Loch Leven many years ago, and indeed they may still be for all I know. Summer evenings were when these flies hatchedContinue reading "Curlybums"

Most weekday evenings I am to be found at an old desk in my digs here in the boggy Irish midlands. As the winter weather swings between sodden gales and pin-sharp frosts, I am inside making flies for the coming season. Dabblers, bumbles, Wulffs and the rest of the usual suspects have rapidly filled myContinue reading "The dark side"

A lot of you were just as intrigued as I am about the identity of the indigo blue feathers on a patch of skin which recently came into my possession. The shape of the feathers were nothing like any domestic fowl, so whatever it was it came from the wild. I set about tracking itContinue reading "What is it (part 2)"

Fly tying season is in full swing for me now and most weekday evenings are spent at the vice. When I am busy like this I go through a heck of a lot of materials, meaning I am regularly topping up the most commonly consumed feathers and hairs. While putting together a shopping list earlierContinue reading "What is it?"

I wrote last time about some keel hooks I had acquired and now I want to discuss another oddity, the sedge hook. I first became aware of these in the 1980’s when they were marketed as ‘Yorkshire sedge hooks’ and they appeared in a number of patterns tied by the foremost reservoir fly fishers ofContinue reading "Sedge hooks"

A while back I bought some partly used packets and small boxes of fly hooks from a well know online purveyor of pre-loved goods. The photos accompanying said lot of hooks were none too clear, but for a small layout I thought it was worth the risk as I wanted to top up a fewContinue reading "Keel hooks"

As you regular readers know, I am forever buying old fishing tat. Gear or materials that nobody else wants finds its way to me and I spend hours messing around trying make whatever it is of some use. One purchase from last year was a wooden box full of fly tying materials and a flyContinue reading "Under the knife"

High winds and heavy rain are keeping me from the fishing this week so I will put up some fly tying posts. I’ll start off with this moan! Like the rest of you, I used to sometimes watch the plethora of fly tying videos out there on the different social media platforms. Being an oldContinue reading "Counting turns"

There is, as we say here in Ireland, a grand stretch in the day. I became aware of it a couple of weeks ago when my normally dreary Monday morning commute was ennobled by a perfect sunrise as I ploughed along the east bound lane of the M6 between Athlone and Clara. With the daysContinue reading "Almost there"

The way this coming season is shaping up I will in all probability do a bit of rainbow trout fishing. Living in the Midlands during weekdays will severely curtail my normal boat fishing for wild browns but there are a couple of rainbow put-and-take fisheries close by to keep me occupied. The last couple ofContinue reading "The Jury’s out"

Rainbow trout were exotic arrivals to the fishing scene around Aberdeen when I was but a lad. The ADAA stocked some in the Loch of Loriston just to the south of the city and I cut my teeth on rainbow fishing there. My boxes of dry Greenwells and other size 16 flies failed miserably toContinue reading "The Whisky Fly"