Fly Fishing and Fly Tying Forum by CudaFly - Blogs http://www.cudafly.co.uk/forum/blog.php Fly Fishing Forum and Resource. Fly Fishing reports, tying patterns, fishing reports and disscussion on all aspects of fly fishing en Fri, 18 May 2012 02:41:57 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.cudafly.co.uk/forum/images/misc/rss.jpg Fly Fishing and Fly Tying Forum by CudaFly - Blogs http://www.cudafly.co.uk/forum/blog.php Chat Rooms Now Available on the Forum http://www.cudafly.co.uk/forum/entry.php/48-Chat-Rooms-Now-Available-on-the-Forum Tue, 17 Jan 2012 23:37:26 GMT We have been trialing new software for our Forum and chat rooms are now available with pier to pier video chat enabled. This chat facility is open... We have been trialing new software for our Forum and chat rooms are now available with pier to pier video chat enabled. This chat facility is open only to our registered members.
When a registered member logs into the Forum you will see the below chat bar.

Click image for larger version Name: chat1.jpg Views: 841 Size: 4.9 KB ID: 134

If you have friends in your friends list and they are online this will be indicated in the bar and simply click this to start a conversation. You can create your own chat room and we have created some sample chat rooms for you to start.

We hope you all enjoy


Click image for larger version Name: chat3.jpg Views: 60 Size: 19.9 KB ID: 135 ]]> CudaFly http://www.cudafly.co.uk/forum/entry.php/48-Chat-Rooms-Now-Available-on-the-Forum We are finally on twitter http://www.cudafly.co.uk/forum/entry.php/47-We-are-finally-on-twitter Tue, 27 Dec 2011 20:49:30 GMT It's been a while coming to say the least but we are finally on twitter. We have done a few test tweets and everything seem to be working OK. We will be adding links to the main site for twitter over the next couple of weeks. In the meantime feel free to take a peak at.

https://twitter.com/cudafly


Click image for larger version Name: twitter.jpg Views: 241 Size: 21.6 KB ID: 129 ]]> CudaFly http://www.cudafly.co.uk/forum/entry.php/47-We-are-finally-on-twitter Welcome to the Bond Offshore Angling Club Blog http://www.cudafly.co.uk/forum/entry.php/46-Welcome-to-the-Bond-Offshore-Angling-Club-Blog Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:47:50 GMT Welcome to our new Blog. We will be content shortly Welcome to our new Blog. We will be content shortly ]]> Sheils http://www.cudafly.co.uk/forum/entry.php/46-Welcome-to-the-Bond-Offshore-Angling-Club-Blog What’s going on at CudaFly 3rd January 2011 http://www.cudafly.co.uk/forum/entry.php/8-What’s-going-on-at-CudaFly-3rd-January-2011 Mon, 03 Jan 2011 06:14:46 GMT We have been continuing the changes on the CudaFly website since October making the website more functional for our users. The Forum is now... We have been continuing the changes on the CudaFly website since October making the website more functional for our users.
The Forum is now complete and has full integration with Facebook. Anyone who has a Facebbok account can register on our forum in two easy clicks and any registered members can upload their posts and threads straight to their Facebook wall. CudaFly now also has its own Facebook page. This can be found at http://www.facebook.com/pages/CudaFly/162956140414969
As per post in the “CudaFly main Forum registered users now gain points for posts, threads and even reading content. These points can be redeemed for forum goodies or fly tying materials and flies. For more information on this read the post at http://www.cudafly.co.uk/forum/showthread.php/243-Get-Free-Fly-Tying-Materials-and-Tools-with-Forum-points
We have been continuing with the tabbed descriptions on the CudaFly.co.uk website and reducing prices where we can. All tying products are now complete and we are over half way through the flies. All flies are still 6 for 5 except custom flies.
Those who have not been on the CudaFly site in the last couple of months will notice two major changes. The first is the mini cart display by the CudaFly logo. This has the facility to quickly see cart contents and go to checkout. Unfortunately due to the differences in browser compatibilities the shopping cart items facility only works consistently in internet explorer 8. This can be overcome by pressing the “View Cart” button to see items added. The second major change is the “Wish List” functionality in the side bar. This gave the webmaster headaches for about 3 weeks and is now fully functional. Some uses have at first found it difficult to understand and therefore we plan to construct FAQ pages in the next few weeks to explain how to use this feature effectively.
A minor change has been the inclusion of a chat facility. This facility has proved popular over the Christmas period and therefore we will continue to use this during high demand times such as holidays. At other periods we will disable this facility as it slows the load time of web pages. When the service is active it will be manned late afternoons.
Two major accounts have been sourced. The first is “Flybox” who produce the best Fritz on the market today with their Gel Spun products. We have a number of their products in stock and will increase the range over time. The second account is Lureflash. We have started stocking their UV products which are becoming extremely popular for many trout lure applications.
The 4th January sees a rise to 20% in the rate of VAT. This means that our costs as a company rise, however, we realise how much people are struggling with this recession. Unfortunately after reviewing the 2011 price lists from our suppliers many have taken this VAT rise as a cue to raise their prices also. Some flash materials have increased by 20% with Turrall crinklefalsh micro increasing by 300%. Where trade prices have not increased we will keep the current retail price therefore reducing our profit margin by the 2.5% VAT increase. Prices that have increased from the suppliers have had to be increased accordingly. Due to the amount of products we have we have started this process and Turrall tying materials is complete.
One good outcome for our registered members is that many tying products and flies are being discontinued. We have moved these items into the “members only” section under “info and members pages” and are selling these at less than trade price. These are first come first served items and when out of stock no more will be available. Check out these saving early to avoid disappointment.
As ever we will keep you updated with further changes and news as they happen. ]]> CudaFly http://www.cudafly.co.uk/forum/entry.php/8-What’s-going-on-at-CudaFly-3rd-January-2011 The Meadow Buzzer http://www.cudafly.co.uk/forum/entry.php/7-The-Meadow-Buzzer Sun, 10 Oct 2010 19:00:32 GMT ---Quote (Originally by CudaFly)--- Attachment 49 (http://www.cudafly.co.uk/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=49) *As promised in the Meadow...
Quote Originally Posted by CudaFly View Post
Attachment 49

As promised in the Meadow Fisheries fishing report here is the fly tying pattern for the Meadow Buzzer. As you can see from the photo's the fly has been pretty chewed by quite a few rainbow trout.

A few years ago I was experimenting tying buzzers for different venues and when you get in the flow tying different variations you end up tying more flies than you can actually try, especially in the winter months. This was one such fly and consequently stayed in the fly box for many years to come. When fishing Meadow fisheries recently, during one of those days where for some reason all the old favourites don’t seem to work, I noticed the fly sitting forlornly in the box. First cast a fish. The fly has now proved successful during buzzer hatches on a few waters and I am sure will catch well in others. The fly pictured has had more than a few fish and as you can see is on its last legs. When I get time I will tie up new ones to provide better pictures. Tie a few up of these buzzers and post back any comments, as I would like to know if this fly works on your local water.

Tying Materials

Hook – Grub #10 - #14
Thread – Black
Rib – Brown flexi floss
Breathers – Orange flexi floss
Wing Cover – Pearl Flat Tinsel

How to Tie

Cover the hook with a layer of thread and return the thread near to the eye of the hook. Tie in the brown flexi floss and whilst applying tension to the floss continue wrapping the thread three quarter around the bend of the hook. Return the thread to the eye of the hook. Again with tension wrap the flexi floss in equidistant turns towards the eye of the hook, tie off and trim. Tie in a section of pearl tinsel on the top of the hook and a small piece of orange flexi floss underneath. Build with tying thread a bulbous area or the head of the buzzer and bring the previously tied orange flexi floss up to the top of the hook shank, tie off and trim. Fold the pearl tinsel over, tie in, trim and construct a neat head. Whip finish the fly and apply two coats of superglue to finish.

How to fish.

As with all buzzers fish this fly with a slow retrieve or static on a floating line.
Attachment 48
]]> CudaFly http://www.cudafly.co.uk/forum/entry.php/7-The-Meadow-Buzzer What’s going on at CudaFly 8th October 2010 http://www.cudafly.co.uk/forum/entry.php/6-What’s-going-on-at-CudaFly-8th-October-2010 Fri, 08 Oct 2010 23:13:14 GMT We have two great offers currently running on the CudaFly site. Due to all the changes we have been doing on our site and as a “Thank You” for your... We have two great offers currently running on the CudaFly site. Due to all the changes we have been doing on our site and as a “Thank You” for your support, we are offering all our registered customers 5% discount on all products that CudaFly sell. This offer is available for life giving you long term discount on our site. The second offer is buy any 6 flies and get the cheapest free (excludes custom flies). Therefore if you buy 6 flies you pay for 5, if you buy 12 flies you get 2 free and so on. This offer also never ends and is our way of saying Thank You to those customers who prefer not to register.
The webmaster is still hard at work implementing both the design changes and content. Since the last post a “carousel” feature has been added to Best Sellers, products recently added and also bought lists on each product page. This means that you are able to see all available products on each page easily.
Social bookmarking has been added to each of the product pages such that you can share any products that you like on Facebook or twitter and you can email links directly to friends. Due to the email functionality of this we are removing “Email a Friend” tab on the tabbed sections of product pages. It is still ongoing incorporating the tabs on these pages so bare with us during this process. Until the tabs are completed those customers who are using FireFox will notice that the product pages don’t display correctly. This will take approx four weeks to complete.
Our newsletter is nearly finished ready to be posted. The newsletter is currently only being sent out every quarter. We may increase this if our customers ask us to, however we feel that other companies bombard customers with emails, and this is something we don’t agree with.
We will be starting our competitions again next week. Up for grabs will be a Turralls Bamboo box with a selection of Stillwater essential flies. As ever the competition will be free to enter and all you will have to do is review any of the products on the CudaFly.co.uk website. All review entries will be put into a hat and one lucky winner will be drawn. More details of this will follow in a further post and on the homepage of the CudaFly website.
We have taken on two more tiers for Steve’s Custom Fly shop. Our first tier is Jorden Loftus from Ireland. Jorden has some great nymphs and traditional Irish wet flies on offer. We have received his flies and are in the process of photographing these. Once done we will announce on the Forum and post a few pics. Our second tier will be supplying innovative saltwater flies. Once we get the flies we will post more information.
Metz are no longer supplying their cock neck grizzle dyed capes grade 3. As we buy so many Metz capes we have arranged for Metz capes to be specifically dyed for CudaFly. The capes are currently on the site however we do need to do the photographs. When done we will post pics as the quality of these capes are fantastic and are in a colour range that would make great reservoir competition drys and crunchers with the fluoro pink capes being ideal for grayling patterns. Remember that you can only obtain these capes from CudaFly and are in short supply.
A few of our customers were having trouble completing their orders through the shopping cart. Through investigation the Perl application on the server needed upgrading. This has now been done and has been stable for the last few weeks. Throughout this there was no impact on our security systems, the server would just intermittently crash during checkout or adding to cart.
There are two tying videos ready for uploading to the server. The first is tying a red tag spider and the second is tying the tangerine dream wet fly. These will only be put on the cudafly site and not on you tube as we need to get a HD camera. The quality for non HD videos piped through you tube is quite poor which has led to this decision.
That's all for now and we will keep you posted as further news comes in. ]]> CudaFly http://www.cudafly.co.uk/forum/entry.php/6-What’s-going-on-at-CudaFly-8th-October-2010 <![CDATA[The Bullet Dry Fly has arrived at Steve's Custom Fly Shop]]> http://www.cudafly.co.uk/forum/entry.php/5-The-Bullet-Dry-Fly-has-arrived-at-Steve-s-Custom-Fly-Shop Thu, 23 Sep 2010 20:39:04 GMT Image: http://cudafly.co.uk/acatalog/Bullet1.jpg As per previous posts Steve has now completed tying the variants of the bullet dry fly. You can...

As per previous posts Steve has now completed tying the variants of the bullet dry fly. You can find all variants at http://cudafly.co.uk/acatalog/Buzzers.html all at £0.90 each. We have included the write up for the fly as below

The bullet dry fly pattern was commissioned by a CudaFly customer following the outstanding article in the September issue of Fly Fishing and Fly Tying Magazine (pages 44-47).
Tied on a size #14 hook with Petitjean CDC and has been pre treated with 2 coats of floatant to the Elk Hair wing.

The original fly pattern was devised by Chris Sandford (Thanks Chris this fly is great) and the article states that his inspiration for the fly came when tying para-duns with CDC. The resulting fly was the bullet. Chris has tested this fly over many venues with his friends and believes that this dry fly is one of the most successful dry flies for both rivers and still waters.

Over the years I have heard many claims of such flies in magazines and many of them don't match their claims. This one is different. As above this fly was tied as per a custom fly order and extras where tied for both testing and for the CudaFly shop. On a recent trip to the river Dee in Wales this fly proved to be truly remarkable. The wind that day was very strong gusting to 50 mph with a chill in the air. Consequently very few fish where rising and from the looks of the rises they where mainly salmon par. Not a typical day for dry fly fishing. As soon as the fly hit the water with the first cast there came a nice river brown to this fly. This continued throughout the day with over 20 brown trout of which all where returned. The fly is that good that it will be difficult who will get these flies when I tie them. The shop or me!
The Bullet trout fly pattern is available in 4 variants - The Bullet, The B100 Bullet, The Bullet Hopper and the Bullet Buzzer.


How to fish

Fish the fly with a minimum of a 9 foot tapered co-polymer (floating) leader making sure that the leader has been de-greased. Floatant should be applied to the Elk hair wing regularly only, for the fly to sit correctly in the water. Once a fish has taken the fly, the fly must be dried with a "dry shake" product. I personally use Shamazaki Dry shake (http://www.cudafly.co.uk/acatalog/Ti...Dry-Shake.html) which I find superior to others. Do not apply further coats of floatant once a fish has taken the fly, as due to water already being soaked in the fly this will result in the fly sinking. Eventually the fly will be drowned with fish slime to such an extent that the fly will have to be replaced. The article states to fish the flies static on still waters letting the fly drift on the wind, and on rivers to match the speed of the river flow. For rivers I also found this the best approach. On the Dee I fished this fly on a 2lb breaking strain dropper with a micro bead size #18 hares ear on the point with spacing of a minimum of 18 inches from dropper to point fly. ]]> CudaFly http://www.cudafly.co.uk/forum/entry.php/5-The-Bullet-Dry-Fly-has-arrived-at-Steve-s-Custom-Fly-Shop We have listened to you our customers http://www.cudafly.co.uk/forum/entry.php/4-We-have-listened-to-you-our-customers Mon, 20 Sep 2010 15:13:20 GMT Whenever one of our customers fill in the short questionnaire on check out we have been collating all feed back to improve our services to you. Here... Whenever one of our customers fill in the short questionnaire on check out we have been collating all feed back to improve our services to you. Here are a few of the points that have been raised and how we are addressing each one of them.

1. The CudaFly website is difficult to navigate.
Approximately 6 months ago Google had stated that it would not index products through froogle unless each product had an individual page. This was implemented and the combination of so many web pages plus nearly 2000 products made the site difficult to navigate. To overcome this we created our section pages to give a list of buyable products and included an accordion menu such that all sections can be accessed via the L.H.S. navigation bar. A price high / low system has also been incorporated. In essence this has made navigation of the site quicker and easier. Also should you click the “More Info” link or product image within the section pages this will view the full product page with detailed information for that product.

2. We would like to see images of individual product colour variations.
Through investing in extra software we now have the ability to show more than 1 image of a product. We believe that we are the first in the fly fishing industry to offer this. All manufactures of fly tying materials only offer 1 image per product. Therefore to complete this we will have to re photograph every product that we offer. This as you can imagine takes a lot of time and we are working hard through this process. In reality this will take at least 6 months to complete as there will be over 10,000 images on the site.

3. Images of some product such as Turrall are of a very low quality
As in point 2 we are currently re photographing every product.

4. Can you supply more information including product dimensions?
We have invested in tabbing software to give us the scope to include as much information as possible for every product. Manufactures again supply little information on their products so consequently we have to create a write up for every product. With the amount of product this will take over 6 months to complete. In the meantime we have a reviewing function on each product. If you have used any of these products before write a couple of lines. We will publish all reviews including any negative experiences as we only delete “spamming” comments. This not only helps other customers but increases the knowledge of fellow fly fishers.

5. Can we see more fly patterns
We are currently tying new fly patterns for both the main CudaFly site and the forum. Steve is also tying new patterns for Steve’s custom flies and Steve will be creating tying patterns as well as some videos for this purpose. The videos themselves will be submitted to You Tube such that they can be viewable on the Forum and to a wider audience via You Tube. On the CudaFly site we will stream these direct from our server such that you can view these in a higher quality. We will also have these available for free download.

6. The blogs and Forums have not been updated.
As you can see from the above we have and are extremely busy addressing the points you have raised. This has unfortunately led to both the forum and the blogs being side lined a little. Now that the bulk of the construction is completed we hope to post more articles. Remember also that registered members can also post and guests are always free to post comments.

7. Can you reduce you prices or can we have discount?
We feel that all our prices are very competitive in the market place. We are however re addressing some of our pricing structure. For registered members (CudaFly account holders) we are giving 5% discount for life. This discount is applied on every order post granting of you account. To obtain this discount you must log on to your account before ordering. We cannot apply this discount post your order due to this extra costs in personnel time this would involve. For all customers we are offering buy 6 flies get the cheapest free. This is limited in groups of trout flies, saltwater / pike flies and salmon flies. For example if you buy 6 trout flies you get the cheapest free however if you buy 4 trout flies and 2 saltwater flies no discount will be applied. This discount is also available for life.

In Conclusion
We can only improve our web site and products with your help. If you have any ideas, products or suggestions let us know via the various contact forms and we will endeavour to include these on our website. Those of you who have made suggestions, many thanks as always for your time and effort. As ever and keep them coming.
On a personal note, fly fishing and more so fly tying has been such an important part of my life. Primarily CudaFly has to be a business to survive, especially in the current economic climate, however I want CudaFly to be much more than just another online business. I fervently want to promote all aspects of our sport and the respect for nature one gets when one becomes passionate about our true art. Fly fishing and tying will change as do all aspects of our life, but we need “fresh blood” and passionate anglers to continue. That way our grandchildren will be able to experience the same thrills and contentment we fly fishers enjoy today.

Tight Lines and Take care

Steve Beacall
CudaFly ]]> CudaFly http://www.cudafly.co.uk/forum/entry.php/4-We-have-listened-to-you-our-customers Whats Going on at CudaFly 16/09/10 http://www.cudafly.co.uk/forum/entry.php/3-Whats-Going-on-at-CudaFly-16-09-10 Thu, 16 Sep 2010 20:52:28 GMT As regulars will notice we have been doing a lot of changes on our website, forum and blog. More of that in the next post. This week we have been... As regulars will notice we have been doing a lot of changes on our website, forum and blog. More of that in the next post. This week we have been dealing with our webmaster making our web services more enjoyable for you. As you can see we have loaded the new forum software on our server. We hope that you enjoy the new features this software can bring to our registered members. As you can imagine there is a lot of work involved so bare with us whilst we complete this work. Once complete we will inform you all of all the free services this software can bring to you.
The blog on our forum here will be used to keep you up to date to what’s going on at CudaFly. Remember registered members can also create their own blogs if they wish, again free of charge.
Our other blog, which we shared with Barracuda Guiding, has now ceased to exist in its current form. We had been using that service for the last four years and it was extremely successful. However over the years it began to look very tired. The company who hosted that blog could not update their software so we have now started a new blog to replace the old. This is located at http://www.cudafly.co.uk/blog/ . Those of you who saw the old blog will see the changes immediately. The design is far cleaner and gives much more scope for media content. It has taken a long time to get it to the stage it is now and we are in the final stages. All of the posts from the original blog that is still of interest to readers has been migrated. In future posts on this blog will be dialog and insights written by Steve from CudaFly.
We have been commissioned by one of our customers to tie, through Steve’s custom fly shop, a new great dry fly pattern called the bullet. This pattern, which has four variants, was published in the September issue of fly tying and fly fishing magazine and was devised by Chris Sandford. Steve has begun tying this order and will be tying extras for the CudaFly shop. On a recent trip to the river Dee this pattern was used to great success. There are four variants of this fly and once complete we will be providing tying instructions for this pattern.
Steve also has tied a number of new great trout patterns for the CudaFly shop. These will be available within the next few weeks.
If you have any comments regarding our website changes feel free to PM or post. ]]> CudaFly http://www.cudafly.co.uk/forum/entry.php/3-Whats-Going-on-at-CudaFly-16-09-10