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2012

February 27th, 2012

The year is now two months long and I have not given much thought to posts or indeed fishing. Life seems to have been to busy to fish and certainly not blog. Yes I have been fishing in fact on two occasions on the Tay chasing salmon at Glendelvine, I have been fly tying and doing some casting.

Lets start with the casting first. GAIA has been taking up a lot of time, much more than I had imagined when I took on the role of Chairman which I have now been doing for fifteen months. We have just completeda casting day at Stirling for the Scottish guys which was very enjoyable Tony Quinn drove all the way from Lancashire to join us which was dedication on his part. Our next meeting is on the 25th March and if you want to join us let me know.

Brian McGlashan and Ken Oliver

The weekend of the 10th and 11th March is when GAIA holds its spring meeting this time in Llangollen which should also be good a day of assessments followed by a day of workshops this time from a group of Italian fly fisherman from SIM. I know that I will come back enthused and with the lighter evenings coming maybe I can get back to casting practice.

Chasing salmon what can I say for the last few years now I have booked a number of days on Glendelvine a prime middle beat of the Tay. These days cover the whole season so the early days can be fish less and cold. I do not like harling so always fly fish from the bank and with few fish in the river and snow in the air its a difficult time to be out.

I like to commit to days in advance for my salmon fishing as opposed to being part of a syndicate as I feel obliged to go no matter what the weather as they are booked and paid for. From here on in the fishing is going to get better March, April and May are prime months.

Harling, not normally this fast but they were cold and lunch was beckoning

Murthly Hut

Fly tying, I have been tying a few for the salmon and the opening of the Trout season at the end of the month. The success this year has been the Milngavie Fly Dressers, this little club which we formed about four years ago has been growing. We have a good turn out and regular speakers this week Paul Procter is about to descend on us, he is always good craic and great flies so I am looking forward to the evening.

Tags: Fly Dressing, GAIA, Milngavie Fly Dressers, Salmon, Tay
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Alaskabou Style

December 7th, 2011

I have a desire to get back to single hook salmon fly fishing next season and came across the Alaskabou style of tying for Steelheads flies like the Popsickle all of which are happily fished as singles. So I tied one up in Altantic salmon colours and here is the result, I am going to tie a few more and I am certain that they will work. The photo is courtesy of my friend John Symonds.

Alaskabou Gunn

Posted in Fly Tying, Salmon, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Thinkfish Automatic Reel

November 15th, 2011

Many years ago probably more than I care to remember when I started my game fishing career I used a French automatic reel. It was good at the time I fished in Dorset on a lake and chalk stream. I found the automatic reel to be great in that when I hooked a fish it very quickly got the line back on the spool and I was less likely to get snagged. The downside to this particular reel was its weight, very heavy and occasionally it ran out of steam and you had to rewind it whilst trying to control a fish.

However despite the disadvantages I enjoyed using it and often hankered over owning another. I can now confirm that I have one its called a Thinkfish Bold . Now this reel is very different beautifully made with aerospace aluminium which makes it incredibly light a great improvement on my earlier model, take a look below, this photo was courtesy of Jim Williams.

Thinkfish Bold Reel

Its a modern and very stylish piece of kit with a very contemporary design. This is a large arbour reel so has bags of capacity #6 with 60 metres of backing. I have used it both from a boat and on a river and found it to be equally at home on either. The absolute benefit is the way that you can retrieve line instantly no messing. Here is some of the technical stuff that you might like to be aware of:

Construction: Aluminuim frame, spool & assembly, S/Steel gearing

Weight: 6.51 ounces

Diameter: 8.97cm

Retrieve Capacity: 1.2 meters by pull, ratio 1:5.5

Drag: Conic Multi disc

Line rating: up to #7

Backing Capacity: #5 = 100 mtrs, #6 = 60 mtrs, #7 = 30 mtrs

Spools are large arbor and easily changed with the press of a button. The reel comes with a full replacement guarantee in the event of failure in the first two years after purchase and unlimited free repairs (except for carriage costs) of any genuine defect from there on.

The reel lever distance from the rod handle can be adjusted with a simple saw tooth design on the reel seat allowing for different sized hands. Generally whilst fishing though you are not aware of the reel lever until you catch a fish it is then that the rapid retrieve becomes apparent.

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Tags: Tackle
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Milngavie Fly Dressers

October 27th, 2011

Just a quick confirmation that our fly dressing club in Milngavie has restarted for the winter this is the program. We have a core of regulars who sit and talk fishing, every third week we have a demo. I did one last week all about fly bodies and quickly realised that I could have done a whole evening on individual aspects such as dubbed bodies, extended bodies and many more besides. Our guest this session is Ronnie Glass, Ronnie is this years Scottish Loch’s Champion and an artist specialising in mounting fish.

Tags: Fly Dressing, Milngavie Fly Dressers
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BFCC and Glasgow Casting Club event

September 11th, 2011

The Bristish Fly Casting Club contacted us over a year ago now and asked if we could assist in organising a Scottish day well it happened today in Glasgow. About 30 of us gathered in Pollok Park on a bleak September day in the pouring rain but despite the rain we all had a great day. Mike Marshall organised the event and Mike Heritage, John Reynolds, Rodger Miles and Tracey Thomas gave up of their time, traveled from the deep south by road and air and proceeded to share their expertise with us.

Brian pushing his 5 weight

What experts they were the leading light of BFCC, Mike Marshall, and FFF Master Mike Heritage, along with GAIA members Roger and John so much quality in one place. Group lessons were arranged for those who wanted them followed by competitions which were great fun.

I was delighted to see the enthusiasm of some of our Glasgow boys the young bucks were taking to distance casting like ducks to water. I must make special mention of Willie McGuire and Malcolm Prescot who won trophies. Full results will be posted on the BFCC web site in the next few days, please do not ask how I got on all I know is that I need to do a great deal of practice before next year, yes the date is fixed for the 9th September 2012 and as this year places will be restricted so book early through me or Mike Marshall.

Pollok Park in the rain

On a final note Mike Marshall celebrated his 75 birthday earlier this year and one of the competitions the BFCC run is for a T120 Double Handed Fly Distance (Any rod up to 17’ (5.2m). Any shooting head line 120gm max) they looked like carp rods with an extension. Mike on the day won by a mile somewhere in the region of 212 ft. We watched as he prepared a very slow and beautifully prepared false cast and then he let go it was effortless and from where we stood we could tell it was a long one as the guys marking had to run backwards, thanks Mike for showing us that it really is down to technique.

Posted in Casting, Coaching, Glasgow Casting Club, Uncategorized | No Comments »

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