They are in the house! We are very happy to announce that the Ahrex Freshwater Series fly hooks arrived this week. In case you wonder what 3.5 million fly hooks look like – well… they take up real estate the size of your average classic VW hippie van – and they look absolutely great – well… if you are a bit nerdy I guess;0)
So the A-team is busy right now. Unpacking and repacking. Everything in the headquarter is a chaotic, crazy and absolutely wonderful mess. But we expected that, and we are dealing with it.
The best thing about it: Freshwater Hooks are on the way. Going through distributors worldwide and hopefully landing in a fly shop near you in near future.
The cradle of fly fishing
Fishing in freshwater with dry flies, nymphs and wet flies for trout, grayling and a wide range of other species is by far the largest fly-fishing scene in the world. Even though we fish for a lot of cool species in saltwater as well. Freshwater actually only represent about 2.5 – 3 percent of all water on planet Earth. The rest is saline and ocean based. Even then, just 1 percent of our freshwater is free flowing, since much of it is trapped in snow and glaciers. Never the less, freshwater is important to most fly fishermen. Might be caused by history and tradition. Freshwater rivers were the cradle of fly fishing. And then there’s the whole environmental thing. From tickling wells and clear mountain creeks to ponds and all the way up to lakes the size of oceans. Most important: mayflies, stoneflies, caddis flies, trout, grayling and other beautiful creatures live, breed and feed in streams and rivers.
9 models – and you have a barbless option on all our Freshwater Hooks
So far, we have spent our time on developing hooks for Nordic Salt, Predator, Home Run and Trout Predator – important hooks for sure and close to our hearts, but now it is time to release The Freshwater Series. For a lot of anglers tying and fishing dry flies represent the cream of fly fishing – so it is with a feeling of awe and respect we bring the FW series to the market. We took a close look at what is out there and listened to many experienced fly fishermen around the world.
Nine hook models – all of them available in both barbed and barbless versions – are the result so far.
But this is only the beginning. You can expect many new entries in the FW series in the years to come.
The finish on the new hooks is black nickel – which gives a smooth and strong surface and adds a bit of versatility. We know, that you guys are creative when it comes to using hooks in crossover setups. Some of these models probably will see some use in saltwater as well – and there’s no reason why they shouldn’t.
Overall our vision about design, points, sharpness and tempering is exactly the same as it was when we designed the other series in our line-up. Check out our previous blog To the point – tech talk on that subject.
But right now… get a overview on the Freshwater Series right here. Or check out the individual hooks on the links below.
Freshwater Series – Line Up
Classic looking Dry Fly hook with all the features you want from a standard dry.
FW501 Dry Fly Traditional – Barbless
Classic looking Dry Fly hook with all the features you want from a standard dry. Barbless and Black Nickel makes this hook look beautiful.
Same design as the Standard Dry but with some added hook gape for better hook ups, when fishing small dries.
Same design as the Standard Dry but with some added hook gape for better hook ups, when fishing small dries. Barbless.
Put some curve into your dry fly hook. On some patterns, the curved design adds to the realism of the fly.
FW511 Curved Dry Hook – Barbless
Put some curve into your dry fly hook. On some patterns, the curved design adds to the realism of the fly.
The same design as the Curved Dry Hook but with some added hook gape for better hook ups, when fishing small dries.
FW517 Curved Dry Mini – Barbless
The same design as the Curved Dry Hook but with some added hook gape for better hook ups, when fishing small dries.
Classic looking emerger hook.
Classic looking emerger hook – barbless.
Slightly curved and longer dry fly hook for caddis/sedge flies and stoneflies.
FW531 Sedge Dry Hook – Barbless
Slightly curved and longer dry fly hook for caddis/sedge flies and stoneflies. Barbless
The beloved curved nymph hook design, which makes almost all nymphs, look good.
FW541 Curved Nymph Hook – Barbless
The beloved curved nymph hook design, which makes almost all nymphs, look good. Barbless.
Classic looking nymph hook with the added benefit of the Black Nickel finish.
FW561 Nymph Traditional Hook – Barbless
Classic looking nymph hook with the added benefit of the Black Nickel finish. Barbless.
Strong Wet Fly hook with a nice bend for those beloved wet flies and larger nymphs.
Strong Wet Fly hook with a nice bend for those beloved wet flies and larger nymphs. Barbless.
And a bunch of new videos
Being Friday and all, we have new videos as well. Today you can see our talented and speed tying friend Håkan Karsnäser tie up 3 flies on the new Freshwater Series hooks. New videos are in the making and will appear during the coming weeks. Enjoy!
Finally… to all of you guys. We sure hope you like the new models, and we can’t wait to see how you chose to dress them up.
Have a nice weekend :0)
Michael