Petitjean CDC Book

For all you CDC fans, the Petitjean book is now available for order from on link This monumental book gathers on more than 40 years of fly-tying, innovation and a passion for fly-fishing. In this his legacy, Marc reveals some of his secrets about CDC’s unique properties, his concepts in designing flies and, last but not least,  a series of brand new, appealing and easy-to-tie patterns. Marc Petitjean Photography Barry Ord Clarke 500 pages 3000 photographs Continue reading Petitjean CDC Book

Petitjean CDC – The book

The long awaited book ‘Petitjean CDC’ that Marc and I have been working on for seven years, had its launch at the weekend at BFFI. As with everything else that Marc gets involved with, the book is beautifully designed and a joy to use. Each step by step page is a wealth of information, with required materials and tools for each pattern, step by step instruction, tying difficulty level. Each pattern is photographed from four different angles, side, above, under and forward, giving you detailed information on each fly. Each chapter is colour coded so you can finger your way … Continue reading Petitjean CDC – The book

30 years of flies…

Although you can never have enough flies, after 30 years of tying trout flies for articles, demos, courses and videos, I have decided to have a clear out of all the boxes of flies I have tied over these years. I am going to split them up into dozens with a signed card, and let them go for $25.00 per dozen, including package and postage anywhere in the world. Thats not even $2.00 per fly! All the flies are of framing quality, and tied by me. Each dozen will contain a mixture of dry, nymph, wet, emerger, classic and modern … Continue reading 30 years of flies…

A great Halloween fly tyers gift!

A new batch of sculls now available… The feather benders home grown and hand crafted fly tyers wax scull’s. It’s not that long ago that pre-waxed tying thread was not readily available, and tyers, especially of the more classic stile patterns resorted to various types of wax to make tying more easy and the natural threads such as cotton and silk more durable. Because the majority of tying threads available today are pre-waxed, the practice of waxing your own tying thread has been somewhat neglected or almost forgotten for most fly tyers. Apart from the obvious advantages as mentioned above, … Continue reading A great Halloween fly tyers gift!

Fly fishing the Shetland islands

584 lochs that are larger than one hectare and trout swim in 98% of them. Thats what drew me to the islands that lie between the North sea and the Atlantic Ocean. The flight to Sumburgh Airport on the southern point of Shetland took a little longer than anticipated, due to fog. I was informed that when there is a heat wave on main land UK , there will be fog on Shetland. Looking at the BBC weather forecast while waiting in the departure lounge of Inverness Airport, they reported several deaths due to heat stroke in southern England while … Continue reading Fly fishing the Shetland islands

A new batch of sculls now available…

The feather benders home grown and hand crafted fly tyers wax scull’s. It’s not that long ago that pre-waxed tying thread was not readily available, and tyers, especially of the more classic stile patterns resorted to various types of wax to make tying more easy and the natural threads such as cotton and silk more durable. Because the majority of tying threads available today are pre-waxed, the practice of waxing your own tying thread has been somewhat neglected or almost forgotten for most fly tyers. Apart from the obvious advantages as mentioned above, waxing your own thread makes easy work … Continue reading A new batch of sculls now available…

The Bee’s Knees!

The feather benders home grown and hand crafted fly tyers wax scull’s. It’s not that long ago that pre-waxed tying thread was not readily available, and tyers, especially of the more classic stile patterns resorted to various types of wax to make tying more easy and the natural threads such as cotton and silk more durable. Because the majority of tying threads available today are pre-waxed, the practice of waxing your own tying thread has been somewhat neglected or almost forgotten for most fly tyers. Apart from the obvious advantages as mentioned above, waxing your own thread makes easy work … Continue reading The Bee’s Knees!

Grayling patterns my absolute favourites

Keeping on a grayling theme heres one of my absolute favourites, Not only to fish with but also to tie. All these patterns from bygone days are remarkably simple, but still require a degree of  technique to master them precisely. One of the peculiar characteristics of the grayling is that they have a preference for flies dressed with a hot spot of red in their make-up, probably the most famous is the red tag, but here are a few more, older patterns that still get the job done. How to tie Bradshaw’s Fancy  Bradshaw’s Fancy pattern recipe Hook: MustadThread: Veevus … Continue reading Grayling patterns my absolute favourites

Rute und Rolle

For all my German friends. In 2014, I will have deliverd fly tying step by step articles for the the top German Magazine ‘Rute und Rolle’ every month for the past twenty years! In december this year they will publish a whole special fly tying issue, with over 40 of my step by step patterns and a free pack of five of my favorit Mustad hooks. Danke Rute und Rolle! Continue reading Rute und Rolle

All in one… a three minute dun mayfly pattern.

To find a simpler dun mayfly imitation  will be difficult.  All you need in the way of materials is one long fibered CdC feather and a short foam cylinder and a hook. I named the fly “All In One” as the whole fly is tied with the same one CdC feather. You need to practice a little if the techniques I us are unfamiliar too you, but with a little practice or after you have tied a half dozen or so, it only takes about two minutes to tie this simple but effective pattern.  All in one floats fantastic as … Continue reading All in one… a three minute dun mayfly pattern.

Bug Bond Thunder Creek streamer

The original Thunder creek streamer series came from the vice of American, Keith Fulsher. In the early sixties, not satisfied with the regular head and eye size of streamers, he began experimenting and chose the reverse buck tail technique for his Thunder creek patterns.  This technique involves tying the buck tail, as the technique suggests, the opposite way and then folding it back over the hook shank and tying down to form the head. The simplicity of this pattern and the minimal materials needed to tie it, is fly design at its very best! He achieved his goal, a slim … Continue reading Bug Bond Thunder Creek streamer

Drift boat fishing in Trysil whit Petitjean

My pale yellow mayfly imitation that was easy to see on the dark water, drifted perfectly 7-8 metres from the boat, quickly approaching two rolling grayling in the next pool, that we had had our eyes on for the last 80 metres or so, drift. When without warning another, previously unseen fish rose from the depths of a dark pool and enthusiastically disappeared with my mayfly. Espen began pulling on the oars to slow our decent and dropped the anchor. I lifted my rod and it immediately assumed the golden arch position with the grayling diving deep into the pool. … Continue reading Drift boat fishing in Trysil whit Petitjean

Elasticaddis in the house!

House building caddis larva are available in most waters all year round, and are an important segment of the diet of trout and grayling.  There are many techniques that have been developed over the years from fly tying benches all over the world to imitate the house of the caddis larva, but this technique really gives the right impression.  This is a pattern I believe was developed in the US, but other than that I cant find any other information about it.  The great thing about this pattern is if you trim the rubber legs close to the body you … Continue reading Elasticaddis in the house!

Contre-jour Fine art photographic prints

The 32 images in this coming exhibition endorse Barry’s love and passion for the sport as a fly fisherman, photographer and artist.  The viewer is taken on a journey into the world of fly fishing that is rarely seen. On first encountering these beautiful images, they are sufficiently recognizable as images of fish and fishing, but as you approach and view them at close range, they transform into a graphic and sometimes abstract, overlapping of organic patterns and colour. All images are for sale, signed and numbered by the artist. Barry is also making a series of limited photographs with … Continue reading Contre-jour Fine art photographic prints

How to tie Shrimp for all seasons

From late autumn until early spring the majority of bait fish around our coastline leave the shallows and head out for deeper water where they will be protected from the bitter cold of winter. Many of the species of shrimp that can be found on the other hand move into deeper tidal pools and onto shelves were the coastline is steeper. Therefor shrimps are on the coastal sea trout’s menu the whole year round, and are found in great numbers all over Northern Europe’s coastline.  These are particularly important to fly fishermen because they mature in the shallows where we … Continue reading How to tie Shrimp for all seasons

Mayflies and More Chris Sandford book

Mayflies and More A fly tyers Guide to the Chalkstreams Chris Sandford Chris is better known in the UK for his many years work as an actor and his numerous appearances on TV and in Film.  More recently for his international angling TV series, Just Fishin’ on the Discovery channel. Mayflies and More, is an elegant, well presented little book and DVD combo, that covers the tying techniques for ten modern patterns, that Chris recommends for the English chalk-streams. Although these patterns will work just about anywhere else as well! If you are relatively new to fly tying and wish … Continue reading Mayflies and More Chris Sandford book

Minnivallalækur Icelands prehistoric monster trout

After a short drive, south east from reykjavik, a small farm road leads us the last few kilometers to the fishing lodge at Minnivallækur, the weather was perfect, for September. A little overcast, with small patches of blue, a slight breeze and 14 degrees “dry fly fishing was written all over the sky. Jan and I where so hyped, we could almost hear heavy brown trout rolling in the surface and sucking in size 22 midges, over the sound of the engine of our four wheel drive hire car.  But in true Icelandic fashion, by the time we had pulled … Continue reading Minnivallalækur Icelands prehistoric monster trout