The Curious Muddler

I've been tying a few new patterns recently and that has left me with a tub of rejects that I want to strip so I can use the hook again.  I used to do this by mounting the fly in the vice and scraping everything off with a knife but I found it was hard work and I had a tendency to bend the hook by pressing too hard.   Instead I figured out a much easier way that I want to show you.  Make sure you read to the end because there are a couple of cases that don't suit this method. Tools First of all, leave your tying scissors on the desk.  They are too good to waste and they are not all that useful for this anyway.  What you really want is chunky a pair of kitchen scissors.  A small sharp knife can also come in useful for particularly stubborn clumps of material. The tools you'll need Process Grab the fly by the bend of the hook and chop off all the hackles and soft stuff until you hit the varnish/glue/resin that’s hard to prune.  I find the best way i...

One of the best things about living in the highlands is that you can just pop out for a walk up a Munro.  Sadly, my partner Ania and I do a bit less of that than we really should but Sunday looked like a nice day and met up with a couple of our extremely accomplished walking friends, George and Susan, who were ticking off  Beinn an Dòthaidh and Beinn Dòrain  on their 4th (!) round of Munros. Both summits we repeats for me, but Beinn an Dòthaidh was a new one for Ania (who is catching up with my tally of 150 Munros pretty quickly). The forecast was for a clear morning with some cloud later on and a strong cold wind all day. Our first objective was Beinn an Dòthaidh so Ania could get her tick.  The view was excellent and the light was really amazing.  It was pretty cold though so we didn't hang around for long. Ben Dòrain from the summit of Beinn an Dòthaidh After a break and a snack between the 2 mountains we headed off up Ben Dòrain.  The weather real...

I started learning to tie flies at the end of the 2022 trout season - around 4 months ago.  I wouldn't say I have mastered the art but I have reached a point where I can generally have a go at most patterns and achieve a respectable result after a few goes.   Like many, I started with a book.  In my case it was Fly Tying for Beginners by Barry Ord Clark.  The idea of the book was to teach a number of flies in an order that was designed to guide you through various techniques and materials you need to learn about. The thing that made this book different to any other was that Barry had also posted videos on his YouTube channel of each one so you could follow along. Now, I don't want to criticise Barry or the quality of his work; but after a couple of weeks I started to wonder what's the point of having the book when you can just watch the videos online? My other problem was that I found the flies he'd chosen a bit irrelevant and costly.  I live in the Scotti...