Tweed Angling Fair

Tweed Angling Fair - New Spey Casting Distance Record Set
These pictures and information were posted on Spey Pages Discussion Group by Spey Valley

At the Tweed Angling Fair in Kelso, Scotland, Gordon Armstrong set the new world record of 73.33-yards! What an amazing achievement. The competition was held on the famous Junction Pool of the River Tweed at Kelso. The casting competition was held on Sunday May 6. There was a great buzz about the casting competition, as the weather in some instances was horrendous with strong, gusting winds. The results:

1st Gordon Armstrong 73.33 yards, new world record
2nd Scott Mackenzie 71 yards
3rd Gerard Downey 65 yards
4th Ruairi Costello
5th James Chalmers
6th Knut Syrstad

73.33-yards = 219.99-feet.  Rods were limited to 18' in length.

To see and hear: George Cook. Check out this video shot by Fish & Fly Magazine at The Sandy River Spey Clave.

This will give you an idea of the expertise that you will be offered free of charge at the Oregon Fly Fishing Festival.

Forceps are lightweight, self-locking pliers that are used in the surgical profession for holding needles, stopping the flow of blood and many other delicate operations.  Forceps are used by anglers to remove hooks, to tie knots and generally to help hold onto small, delicate, sharp objects.  A small fly is often easier to tie to a leader if it is held firmly in a forceps.  Dr. Slick supplies the best made,

affordable stainless steel forceps available for fly anglers.  Pictured below is Belizean Guide, Derek Muschamp unhooking a Permit for fly angler, Mark Bachmann.

Dr. Slick Features
Each Dr. Slick tool on this page is precisely constructed from high grade stainless steel.  The tools are made in Pakistan, a country long known for its ability in working metals.  These tools are the best available of their kind at the prices listed.  Each forceps comes with a strong, smooth operating boxed hinge for maximum strength.  Each forceps also comes with a strong, sharply pointed needle enclosed within the limbs of the tool where it is most effective for cleaning head cement from the eyes of flies.  Every model also has large comfortable smoothly polished finger loops. 

Dr. Slick Forceps, Curved Points, 5.5-inch

 This high quality, smooth operating forceps is made from satin finished stainless steel.   It is built with large gold finger loops and fits medium to large size hands.  The stiff limbed design affords a powerful grip. Jaws are smooth at front 1/2 and serrated at rear 1/2. The smooth points tends not to damage small hooks, while serrated rear one-half of the jaw holds larger hooks tenaciously.  Many experienced anglers feel that the

popular curved point configuration provides a more secure grip than straight points.  If you only have one forceps to help with most kinds of fly fishing, it could very well be this one.

The Difference In Points
The Curved Points Forceps (pictured above) and the Spring Creek Forceps ( pictured below) will overlap in tasks preformed, but are designed for slightly different tasks.  Both are shown with a #18 mayfly spinner. The Curved Points Forceps performs the task of holding the fly, but is a little bulky.  The Spring Creek Forceps holds #14-#24 flies.  The Curved Point Forceps works best with hook sizes #16-#2.  The jaws of the Curved Point Forceps is part smooth and part heavily serrated to provide a very strong grip.  The Spring Creek Forceps has smooth jaws so it is gentle with tiny, delicate hook points.  Both tools come with a hook-eye cleaning needle.

Dr. Slick Forceps, Spring Creek, 5-inch

This Dr. Slick Forceps features a design for full size hands, but with slightly softer limbs and slightly finer point for handling smaller flies. It is called the Spring Creek model, because that is what it is designed for; fishing trout with small flies.  Jaws are smooth. The smooth points tend not to damage small hooks, while serrated rear one-half of the jaw holds larger hooks tenaciously. Also is very handy tool around the

fly tying bench for performing a variety of tasks, such as grasping wire, or even picking up hooks.

Dr. Slick Forceps, Barb Clamp, 4.5-inch

Designed for mashing hook barbs and also for removing hooks from fish. It will grasp hooks as large as #2/0, and will mash barbs on hook sizes #2 - #20.  The short stiff limbs and short smooth jaws give a powerful controlled bite to mash barbs flat, but seldom breaks hook points.  Stainless steel construction assures durability and large finger loops add comfort.  Compact design stores easily in a vest or on a work bench.

About The Cutting Edge
Dr. Slick Scissor/Pliers tool pictured below is designed to not only to grab and grip, but also to cut all manner of things that normal scissors, knives or clipper tools can't handle.  The business end of the Scissor/Pliers is shown below (magnified).  The jaws are part smooth and part cross-hatched with texture, so that a variety of tasks can be performed. One cutting edge of the powerful scissor is serrated to keep slippery materials from sliding.

You will want to add a Dr. Slick Scissor/Pliers to your fly tying bench. as well as your fishing vest and boat bag. As demonstrated here by Josh Linn, this tool greatly aids the tying of Scandinavian Tube Flies.  After the fly is tied on the tube, cut the tube off on an extreme angle.  Be sure to leave more than 1/2" of tubing exposed.  The serrated jaw holds and slices through the tubing easily.  Push the pointed end of the tube through a cone-head from the rear.  The tapered end of the tube will protrude from the front of the cone.  Grab it with the smooth front part of the jaws and pull cone-head up the tube until it stops against the other material.  Trim the tubing straight off about 1/16" from the front of the cone and heat the tubing with a flame until it swells, thus preventing the cone-head from coming off.  Flies tied in this manner are very effective for steelhead and salmon.

Dr. Slick Forceps, Scissor/Pliers, 5.5-inch

This is the multi-tool designed for the majority of fly fishing vests. It grasps all manner of small objects, cuts leader, cuts yarn strike indicators, trims flies and hair bugs, cleans hook eyes, fastens and removes split shots and even tightens screws.  This is an effective hook remover, even for light saltwater and steelheading applications. Jaws are smooth at front 1/2 and striated at rear 1/2. The smooth points tends not to damage

small hooks, while serrated rear one-half of the jaw holds larger hooks tenaciously.

Field Testing The Sage 7136-4 Z-AXIS Continues!

Angling has been a bit slow on the local Willamette Valley rivers such as the Sandy and Clackamas, due to water flows being about half of the 10-year average.  The fish are just beginning to get here.  Reel maker, Joe Saracione and I fished together Monday, and Joe landed a small steelhead and I lost one. Joe has caught quite a few steelhead, but always with a single-hand rod. Joe is getting used to spey casting and borrowed some of my tackle to try.  He is pictured here with Sage's 7136-4 Z-AXIS rod.   Joe is famous for his American Classic Fly Reels, which are cherished collectors items.  The rumor is that Joe is working on a brand new American Classic S-handle production reel.  I'll bet one would look nice on my 7136-4.  (hint, hint).