The Lakeland Beetle
Published : 16 July 2009 at 09:35
So easy to tie, but absolutely deadly. I have been fishing this pattern for years on the local waters for brown and rainbow trout, it fishes right in the surface film just were the trout expect to find terrestrials like beetles. In a decent wave you might struggle to spot your fly because they sit low in the water, try coating the fly with the Roman Moser Miracle Fly Floatant and it will ride a lot higher! Even on the brightest of days this pattern will pull fish up from the depths.
Tying is so easy, start off with a wide gape hook like the Varivas Iwai Terrestrial T2000, we are finding these hooks very good. I use Black UTC 70 for the thread, catch this in just behind the eye and cover the hook shank. Cut a strip of Evazote Foam about 4mm wide, cut one end to a point and catch it in 2mm back from the eye, take the tying thread down making segments in the foam, the less foam you crush the more buoyant the fly! When you have gauged the length of the fly take the tying thread forward again to the half way point, catch in about 4 strands of peacock herl and secure them in place as you take the thread to the back of the fly. Take hold of the Peacock Herl and tying thread together and start to wind forward, as you do this they will twist together making the herl very strong. Wind to the 2/3 point and then bring the foam over the top, secure in place and keep taking the thread forward to the hook eye, you should now have the foam pointing over the hook eye. Cover the flattened foam with peacock herl and then pull the foam back over the peacock herl and tie off.
Fish on a floating line casting it a cross the waves and let it drift around, if you see any movement at the end of the line lift the rod tip and hopefully the rod tip will buckle as a trout goes crazy.
Lakeland Detached Body with a CDC Wing
Published : 02 June 2009 at 10:17
I can’t believe how easy it is to use the Rainy’s Mayfly Bodies, the more you use them the easier it becomes. I am still favouring the Varivas Iwai Terrestrial T2000 hook for these patterns, but if I wanted to tie smaller Olives I would use the Varivas 2200. As for the tying thread I am going more towards the Sheer 14/0, its strong for its diameter and will NOT SLIP on the hook shank. So once you have pushed the hook point through the Mayfly body secure this in place, on this pattern I have used a grizzly olive hackle to keep the pattern a lot darker with dark olive squirrel dubbing for the thorax. The wing is made up from Dark Dun CDC, secure in place and then take the tying thread under the CDC feathers and whip finish.
Tight Lines
Nigel Thompson
Lakeland Detached Body Sedge, Under Body Image
Published : 02 June 2009 at 09:47
As promised Lakeland have also taken an image from the underside so that you can see the Rainy’s Caddis detached body. The surface imprint of this fly is just right and we are confident it will take its share of trout and grayling. With the cut away hackle this sedge pattern will sit just right.
Tight Lines
Nigel Thompson
Lakeland Detached Body Sedge
Published : 29 May 2009 at 11:29
The Lakeland Detached Body Sedge is a Stunning looking fly. I have used the Rainy’s Caddis Tube Bodies to form the under body of the fly, we have taken a second image of this to show the fly from the underside. The hook used is the Varivas IWAI Terrestrial T2000. I have not tried fishing with this pattern yet but it looks the part and will fish right in the surface, with it’s short stiff hackle it will give that V wake when you twitch it across the surface.
Tying the Lakeland Detached Body Sedge
Let’s start with the hook, I am finding the Varivas IWAI Terrestrial T2000 the perfect hook to go with the detached bodies, I would tie this fly in size 12,14,16. For smaller patterns use the Varivas 2200, this is a great all-round hook for surface flies. Sheer 14/0 is a great tying thread to tie this type of fly, it’s fine and strong so you can easily secure the body in place. Just like the Olive body, thread the hook inside and push the point through the body tube. Secure in place with the Sheer 14/0. The next stage is to form the wing from the Roman Moser Plastic Raffia Sheeting, double the material over to give the wing more strength and measure this against the body to find the correct length, it wants to be just longer than the body. Once you have the length correct fold the material long ways to get the depth of the wing, with 3 slopping cuts you should be able to produce the natural sedge wing shape, it’s that easy. The next stage is to tie in the antennae of the sedge using 2 fibres from a ***-pheasant centre tail. Tie in a red game hackle at the start of the wing and then use squirrel dubbing to form the thorax. Wind the hackle forward to just behind the the eye and whip finish. Permanent markers can be used to colour the wing.
Tight Lines
Nigel Thompson
Lakeland Ice Stretch Suspender Biot Buzzer
Published : 28 May 2009 at 15:00
I have had so much FUN with this superb pattern, I have been fishing it with 2 suspenders on a cast or with the dropper being the Ice Stretch Biot Buzzer or the Black Pennell Variant. You can’t beat seeing a large trout take a fly that is in the surface film, with that big boil by your fly line and the anticipation of everything tightening as you lift the rod tip. I have tied these up in a range of colours, Black, Tan, Olive, Root Beer, Red and Chartreuse. Their is so many colour combinations that you can try to suit your local waters, you could use a pearl mylar or coloured under body and take the Ice Stretch up in open turns.
Tying the Lakeland Ice Stretch Suspender Biot Buzzer is quit straight forward, lets start with the hook. I have been using the Varivas 2400V size 14, it’s a nice shape and strong, it’s proven its strength on other patterns and when the trout get hold it won't let go! For the tying thread I have used UTC 70 in a matching colour to the Ice Stretch Body. The Biots are the Lakeland Goose Biots, Sunburst is the top catcher again but experiment with different colours like Hot Orange, Fl.Orange and Fl.Lime. The suspender ball is made from a strip of Rainy’s White Evazote Foam cut to about 4mm wide and doubled over with a very small amount of Prism Dubbing at the base of the ball. Lift the foam ball and tie off just behind the eye. Look for feeding trout and cast in front and just wait for everything to tighten!
Tight Lines
Nigel Thompson
Lakeland Detached Body Olive
Published : 28 May 2009 at 11:12
Even with the BAD WEATHER we are starting to see Small Dark Olives coming off the local waters. They look like small sailing boats being blown across the surface. I went to our local water last Saturday and landed 5 Brown Trout. I worked my way along the bank looking for feeding fish and managed to find a bay were the wind was blowing into the bay with plenty of trout waiting to ambush the olives as they made their way to the bank. Casting the Lakeland detached bodied olive across the water I managed to get among the trout with some very nice takes! I found the flies to be very durable and floated well!
Tying the Lakeland Detached Body Olive is quite easy. The best way to attach the Rainy’s Mayfly body is to thread the hook point inside the tube and push the hook point through the body material. The hooks I chose for the detached bodies are the Varivas IWAI Terrestrial T2000, they look just right for this style of fly, with a nice wide gape! The thorax is made up from SLF Squirrel dubbing with a dun hackle wound through it, clip the hackle on the top and bottom so the fly will sit nice and low and by clipping the top it will allow the wing to be tied in place. The wing is made up from the Romam Moser Neve Fibre or you could use the Dust fibre on smaller flies, be carful not to put to many fibres in to the wing, it would spoil the look of the wing.
Tight Lines
Nigel Thompson
Lakeland Black Pennell Variant
Published : 16 May 2009 at 14:19
The Black Pennell is one of the fly patterns that every fly fisher will have tried and it will have caught its fair share of fish, with its slim profile and soft black hen hackle its always going to catch fish, but making a small change and adding dyed Amherst Pheasant the fly can become even more deadly.
Fished on a floating line and cast a cross the wind or just in front of rising trout and grayling you will take a large number of fish. So far I have tied Pennell's using Lime and Sunburst, so far the Sunburst as taken the most trout.
Tying the Lakeland Black Pennell Variant
I have been using the Varivas 2400V, I am finding the strength and holding power of this hook unbelievably good try using size 10,12,14,16.The tail is a few dyed fibres from a Amherst Pheasant Collar dyed lime or sunburst.
For the body I have been using black UTC 70 8/0 ribbed with silver wire and then 2 turns of black hen hackle. Very easy to tie but absolutely deadly when it comes to catching trout and grayling feeding on black buzzers and black gnats.
Lakeland Ice Stretch Biot Buzzer
Published : 16 May 2009 at 11:24
The weather conditions are still VERY, VERY unsettled in Cumbria with very strong winds most days. Most of my fishing is limited to early mornings at the weekend or late evenings after work. I am starting to see buzzers coming off when the wind drops but it is still going cold when the sun goes down. I have had some very exciting fishing with the UV Polar Predator but what I really like is using my 9’ 5 weight and small flies, imitating the insects coming off or getting blown onto the water. In anticipation I have started to tie some Buzzer patterns using Ice stretch and the goose biots that I have just dyed up. The last flies I tied for my self in my old fishing days were made with Ice Stretch and the results were fantastic so it seemed sensible to take these patterns a step further by adding the biots. I have started by using black ice stretch and tying the patterns on the Partridge K14ST size 12, I always start new patterns on larger hooks and then work my way down the sizes once I’m comfortable tying the pattern. I tied 15 buzzers to start with using Sunburst, Fl.Orange and Hot Orange Biots to see which would work best.
Fishing the Lakeland Ice Stretch Biot Buzzer
My first opportunity to try my new creation came on a Sunday evening, the wind had dropped to a light breeze with fish feeding just below the surface. I moved into a bay where I could see a number of trout boiling at the surface, I put a black buzzer with Sunburst biots on the dropper and a black buzzer with Hot Orange Biots on the point. The first 5 Rainbows hit the dropper with nothing that I could see hitting the point fly, it was time for a change so I put a black buzzer with Fl.Orange Biots on the point. On my second cast I landed a nice rainbow on the point fly and as the evening progressed I landed 15 trout and lost a few more in about 21/2 hours of excellent fishing with both biot colours taking a number of fish, the sunburst still came out on top on this occasion. The takes went from one extreme to another with fish snatching at the fly or the smallest of movements on the fly line.
Tying the Lakeland Ice Stretch Biot Buzzer
I have tied this particular buzzer pattern on the Partridge K14ST size 12, this hook just shouts out buzzer! I would use size 12,14,16,18 for this pattern. Use a tying thread to match the body colour or white looks good on the lighter colours. Ice stretch comes in a range of colours and in 2 sizes, for size 12 and larger use the medium and size 14 and smaller use the small as for colour I would try the Black, Red, Olive Tan and Root Beer. Once tied in stretch the Ice Stretch as much as possible to give the fly a slim profile, the smoother the under body the better the fly will look.The cheeks are made from Goose Biots, its worth trying a range of colours to see which works best on your local waters. The white breathers are made from white Artic Fox Body Fur clipped short, it flares out very nice with a soft appearance.
Tight Lines
Nigel Thompson
The Lakeland UV Polar Predator
Published : 16 May 2009 at 10:03
The Lakeland UV Polar Predator is the first new pattern that I tied for about 5 years, running Lakeland is taking up more and more time. The one thing I am really missing are the fly tying demonstrations that I used to do. With all the new products arriving I have been getting more and more frustrated with all these pattern ideas going around in my head, so we have decided to start a Fly Blog to show Lakeland Designed Patterns using New and Old products in use. Obviously the patterns are going to be driven by the Weather Conditions, there is no point in tying a size 20 dry when you have gale force winds and rain, at the moment this is typical weather conditions for Cumbria. So the start of the fishing season arrived, the weather conditions were Very Strong Cold Winds with over cast or blue skies, these have been the most prominent conditions. It was obvious that I would have to use lures (pulling flies) to get among the fresh stock fish, I am fishing big deep reservoirs that are wide open to the elements. Fly line choice was going to be slow sink or a floating line on better days and retrieving the line in a figure of eight at different speeds. The original fly was tied on a Varivas 2500V size 10 Streamer Hook with a 4mm bead and the shank was leaded to get the fly down fast and matched to my 6 weight CD ICT 9’ rod. The UV Polar Predator pictured was tied to match my CD 5 Weight XLS 9’, this pattern is tied a lot lighter, its tied on the Varivas 2400V size 14 with NO LEAD to keep the weight down and the bead was scaled down to a 2.8mm bead. I have found so far that the enamel beads in orange and chartreuse have been taking lots of rainbows, but try different colours, I just know that gold will take a lot of trout.
The fishing as been explosive with line being stripped from my finger tips, I found on very windy days casting across or into the wind with the slow sink line gave me more control, keeping a straighter line so I could hit the takes a lot faster, therefore landing more trout. Catch numbers have been very high with some very exciting fishing. To spice things up I started using my favourite weight of rod, the 5 weight, if you want excitement this is the way to go. The UV Polar chenille adds a lot of flash to the fly, I personally believe this is the reason why this fly works so well. I have been fishing the orange beaded version on the top dropper and the chartreuse bead on the point, cast a cross or into the wind and hold tight to your rod the takes will be savage! With fish stripping line from the reel you need the drag set right, I’ve been using the New Danielsson L5W, what a drag system this reel would stop a train.
Dressing the Lakeland UV Polar Predator
First of all select your hook size, you can go as big or small as you wish but match it to the conditions and line weight. If the fly is to heavy for your line you will struggle to cast and turn the fly over! I have so far used the Varivas 2500V Streamer size 10 and the Varivas 2400V Wet size 14. Select the size of bead to compliment the hook you have chosen. I have been using UTC 8/0 in olive, this gives me plenty of strength with very little build up. The tail is made from marabou, so far I have used olive and black but please use other colour combinations like Orange, Chartreuse, White, Sunburst. Blend a few strands of 8” Ice wing into the marabou tail, I used pearl Green Hue, but their is a fast range of colours you can use. The body is wound using the UV Polar Chenille, I have used the Olive, Brown Olive and Black all have taken lots of fish so experiment with different colours. When you start to wind the polar chenille keep stroking the long shimmering fibres backwards so that you do not trap the fibres down. When you get behind the bead tie the chenille off and catch in a soft hen hackle to match the body and tail colour, 2 to 3 turns is sufficient, whip finish behind the bead, Job done now go fishing.
Tight Lines
Nigel Thompson
