Sybai Ghost hair

One of my suppliers here at Silver Scales is a great company called Sybai and they have a great range of mostly unique products.
One such product is called Ghost hair and they recently brought out a Saltwater version, in fact they have added a Saltwater version to several of their range including the awesome Flash hair! The Saltwater ranges are not only perfect for salty stuff but also Pike and other predator flies. Both the above mentioned products are available in the Silver Scales shop.

I have put together a new video featuring one way of using these two brilliant materials.

Hope you like it and if you have a minute please visit the Silver Scales shop to check out our great products range and subscribe to our news letter to be updated when new items are added to our stock and keep up with special offers and other news!

Craft Fur Baitfish

There is no doubt Craft fur is an excellent and very popular material for tying flies, but I think many beginner fly tiers struggle to master the techniques needed to achieve a satisfactory result. Indeed I admit it took me a while to master the material but once I did I was able to produce Patterns such as the one pictured above.

I am going to produce a video of how to tie the pattern above and include some techniques that should help many tiers come to grips with using craft fur. Hopefully it will be up soon.

Silver Scales Flash blend

One of the best materials for creating Saltwater and Predator flies is Flash blend. Silver Scales Flash blend is an exceptionally high quality product, hand blended in house for quality control and value, With some unique colour blends available the range is ever expanding. The fly below is tied from our Snow white, Lime juice and Ocean blends.
Check them out at www.silverscalesflytying.co.uk

New colours of Crafty Minnow fur added to shop !

New colours of Crafty Minnow fur have just been added to the shop, this great material now comes in 10 colours and is fantastic for Saltwater and Sea trout flies as well as heads on Pike flies.

Watch this space for more new exciting products coming soon !

Barred Livebait Minnow

Here's a nice little pattern that I've called the 'Barred Livebait Minnow'

At around 4 inches long and tied on a size 4 hook it's perfect for a wide range of species around the world but was designed and tied with European Seabass and Seatrout in mind.

Made from my own 'Crafty Minnow fur' for the Tail and 'Livebait dubbing' for the head and body, both available in the Webshop. I have also added a new Step by Step for tying it.
I hope you enjoy tying this pattern and catching many fish with it !

More fish 'Candy' on the way !

Still busy tying stock flies for the shop, here's a sneak peek at some Surf Candy style fish catchers. More colours to come !

New stock flies coming soon !

I am gradually filling the shop with stock flies over the next few weeks so that customers can just point, click and buy !

Here is a taster of what is to come, these are my Bass Minnows designed for European Sea Bass and very effective they are too. They will also be attractive to a wide range of other species too. Available soon in a wide range of colours.

Happy New Year !

Polar Flash Dubbing

Here's a great material by Czec company Sybai, their Polar Flash Dubbing.
This is a super fine and soft material with superb translucent properties. The Dubbing also has a super fine flash blended in. Not as short as normal Dubbings this is designed specifically for Bonefish shrimp patterns and small Baitfish imitations and is cut slightly longer. Very easy to use and create some great fly patterns from, the limit is just your imagination ! Available in a wide range of colours.

Here is a small Baitfish pattern tied with the Polar flash Dubbing, once submerged in the water the fibres will open out giving a broader but more transparent profile with great movement even at 2.5 inches long !

Transparent Baitfish fly

I'm not sure who the originator of this type of pattern is, but no doubt it was designed with Sea Trout in mind, however it's one of those patterns that is far more versatile than perhaps the originator intended. Certainly it will take Bass and Pollock here in the U.K but no doubt many other species around the world will find it's simple elegant form attractive enough to munch on !

So here's a variation that I have come up with. The body is made from Sybai Polar Flash Dubbing which is a beautiful soft translucent material that I think suits the design parameters of this pattern down to the ground. In the core is a tiny pinch of Deer Creek Laser Dub in red, a very thin mylar tube is used for the tail to which I have inserted a grizzly hackle to form the Caudal fin. The head is finished with a small amount of Deer Creek fine flex UV resin. I'll certainly be carrying a few colour variants of this fly in my box next season !

Flash Blend Flies

Flash Blends are a staple material for all sorts of flies for Predators both Salt and Fresh water ! sheds water well, light and castable, good movement and looks great !

This fly is tied Hi Tie style with my own 'SPF' ( Saltwater and Predator Flies ) version, chosen and hand blended by me for consistent quality and value. 

EP style Baitfish

For my own fishing this year I am trying to focus mostly on using Baitfish imitations like the ones in the picture below....
Now these are actually made with Deer Creek Baitfish fibre which closely resembles EP fibre and therefore can be tied in a similar fashion, hence the 'EP style'. I have tweaked these slightly during the tying process and used slightly more material around the body and head than is the norm for this type of pattern to give a slightly fuller more rounded profile, however they still remain light and castable, shedding water well on the back cast.... I was easily hitting 30yds with them while test fishing them the other night and the fish also gave them the seal of approval...
They are tied on a 1/0 Sakuma saltwater hook and measure around 4 inches.

Bunny Baitfish

Here are some recent Baitfish patterns I have been tying, they are made with the awesome Deer Creek Mega Laser Dub and some rabbit Zonker.The Flies are finished with Gator Eyes and Diamond Fine Flex Tack free UV resin, also available from Deer Creek
They will fish great for any freshwater predator with lots of movement coming from the Zonker and some nice flash from the Mega Laser dub. Tied on my favourite Sakuma hooks.

Firetigers and Fatboys

 

 

 



Mega Laser dub Firetiger Baitfish with Tail Hackles

Fatboys

More Baitfish patterns

I've been working on some more baitfish patterns of varying styles and profiles, here's a couple of Perch imitations that I did recently. I've tried to blend several colours of Deer Creek Baitfish fibre, ( similar to ep fibres ), to achieve a semi realistic natural colour scheme.

Surf Candy

The Surf Candy was is one of those flies that all newcomers to saltwater fly tying aspire to..
Originally designed by Bob Popovic, this beautiful fly is a winner all over the globe and is one of my personal favourites, not least because I love playing with resin but also because it is just a lovely fly to tie.

Hi Tie Baitfish

These Hi Tie baitfish are Perch and Roach imitations.

 

 



These should grab the attention of a few Pike !

Baitfish Patterns

I've been very busy at the vice recently as the weather just has not been conducive to fishing and I have been concentrating on the baitfish type patterns experimenting with different profiles and colour schemes and perfecting the techniques for tying them.

 

 

High tie Flash blend baitfish

Continuing with the Flash blend theme here's another baitfish this time tied 'high tie' style.

Fly collection

A friend asked me to tie a selection of flies of my recommendation to get him started in Saltwater fly fishing.