Saturday 24 March 2012

Hand Lines

Image above: Homemade Hand Line

A little while ago we spent a few days in Wales trying to look for a future. We stayed with couple who were friends of a friend in a converted barn. As a thank you present I got together a hand line as the guy had said he had a small boat but he didn`t go fishing. The hand line handle I routed out of oak and used an old cork place mat to create a hook hold while it is being stored. The feather rig I tied from holographic curling ribbon and the weight is one I cast in the small video I made (see earlier post).

I had forgotten that I had once done a bit a hand lining many years ago while holidaying in Devon. I paddled across a wide bay and about half a mile out the line I was towing cut through a shoal of mackerel and the rest was history. Despite the obvious advantages of a rod it is still dull compared to the urgency that hand holding a line gives.

If you are looking for some feather rigs for the summer influx of mackerel or a bit of Pollock fishing follow the link below. These are rigs I hand tie from  designs I have used for the last few years to take a few thousand fish.



Thursday 22 March 2012

Messing with paints
























I got the paint pots out and did bit of messing around trying to come up with some colour combinations, some I love, some I hate.


Below is Pedro, a very little lure I made as a prototype he weighed 3grams. I made him yesterday from fimo (polymerclay) it took me about ten minutes and then another twenty to airbrush him. I gave him a couple of coats of acrylic varnish and left him to dry overnight. This morning early I took him along with some other lures to the local lake for test run. What a lure he swam beautifully and then I lost him to snag, why oh why oh why.  Poor Pedro you are now like an ex-girlfriend, it was beautiful but it is over.