Double bunny suspending fly

After running around between street canals and polders with my fly rod I came up (not being really first and innovative) with a suspending fly. I will fish it with a full sinking line. The deer hair head of the fly will provide buoyancy and the little dumbbell eyes will counter it a bit. I found it that on shallower water and very often on short casts it's hard to sink this kind of fly, therefore I added little dumbbell eyes to counter the buoyancy. Enjoy my first fly tying video!

First pike in 2013

I just got back from a two week visit in Poland. Second day in the Netherlands and I went fishing of course. Today's score is a 75 cm pike from a 3hr session. I decided to further pursue fly fishing and try fishing from a belly boat, but It's going to cost me some money (bboat, fins, safety west, waders, shoes, maybe echo sounder). During the visit in Poland I already bought waders and shoes. I went for the "Vision" brand and bought "Kura" waders with the "Hopper" shoes. If you are looking for a fly fishing shop that has it all in Krakow, I can recommend www.hurch.pl. Now it's time to decide on the belly boat :-)

One more prototype

Still experimenting with mixing naturals and synthetics - maybe I'm reinventing existing patterns. This fly is tied on 4/0 hook, I started with some pearl flashabou, 4 white strung hackles, pencil thick white buck tail spun round the hook shank, some peacock herl for the back, marabou palmered around the hook shank, the head was build out of tan/white EP fibre and plastic EP eyes 9mm.

I just realized that it is only 2 weeks until the season opens here in the Netherlands - wow! I don't actually now if I'm going to be here, maybe I will go to Poland for two weeks to visit my parents, all depends on some projects at work. I think the two weeks will go by in a moment because... Diablo 3 is going to be released on May 15th, I'm a big fan of D1 and D2, I was even in a clan :-). I hope it will not conflict with my fishing.

Mylar and rattle baitfish

I found and interesting fly design and tried to tie it myself. Mylar used in this fly is not tied directly on the hook shank, but it is sort of extension of the hook. The mylar is tied off at the end, wit addition of some glue. Inside the mylar there is a glass rattle that slides back and forth. For the main body I used white/two shades of tan/grey EP fibre. The gills are made of red craft fur. Finished with 10mm eyes and UV resin.

More pike flies

My first carp adventures didn't go very well, since my last post I went out fishing only twice, the weather still not allows sight fishing. To kill off the time I started to tie flies for my annual trip to Poland. I found an interesting tutorial how to tie hollow fly using a foam head. This fly is absolutely lightweight, the foam head will push a lot of water. I can't wait to try this on the intermediate line.

Another experiment I tried is the raccoon bunny fly, tied on 4/0 hook. From the back: piece of magnum flashabou, 5cm raccoon zonker strip, pencil thick bucktail clamp, some marabou palmered around the hook shank, finished with deer hair diver style collar and head plus eyes glued with hot glue gun.