On Sunday 2023 is over and 2024 is upon us. We’ve had a good and busy year as always, working on all fronts. We enjoyed every second of it and will continue to do so. Let’s take a quick look at what we’ve done on 2023.
Our primary outlets on social media are YouTube and Instagram. We’ve realised a video a week, featuring nearly every imaginable style of fly. If you’re not subscribed yet, we’d really appreciate one on your YouTube-channel here:
We have new plans for our YouTube-channel for 2024, where we’ll diversify the content even more, so stay tuned (and don’t worry, we won’t be doing cooking shows, even if Håkan is a master on the grill). All of our YouTube-videos are of course add free.
I haven’t even tried to count the number of Instagram posts and shorts, but it’s a lot. We appreciate every follower we have and if you’re not following us, please have a look on our Instagram here. You’ll find the same diverse content as on our YouTube-channel.
Some of us here at Ahrex tie quite a few flies, but it’s obvious that we don’t and never could tie all the flies for both YouTube and Instagram. So I will take this opportunity to thank all the people who’ve visited our studio to record fly tying tutorials and all those whose flies and skills we’ve had the pleasure of being able to feature. If you can, please consider giving our contributors a follow or a like.
The blog has also been as busy as it always has – 52 posts, one for each Friday (and I apologise that this one didn’t come online before Saturday). On the blog we also try to cover as many different aspects of fly tying and fly fishing as we do on YouTube and Instagram. The blog is also a place where we are lucky that others sometimes submit texts and photos. They also deserve a big thank you for their participation. It’s much appreciated. The blog is usually more in depth features of flies, fly tying and of course where we do the more detailed introductions, when we release new hooks.
On the subject of hooks, let me remind you all that we have data sheets on each and every model of hooks, where you can get the detailed information on wire dimonsions, hook gaps, shank length and more. Here’s an example on one I tied a few flies on last night – the Home Run Progressive Double HR420:
And I’m not using that just to please Søren, who designed it and because it happens to be his favourite hook – it’s also my own favourite amongst our double hooks. Please make a silver version as well, Søren – thanks!
A little more on the subject of hooks. I think we’ve released fewer new model than previous years, but if you measure in weight, we’ve done well. The Bob Popovics Beast Fleye SA290 and SA292 are not only big, they are also incredibly strong with a heavy wire. When we add the new sizes of the SA210 Bob Clouser Signature and not least the new, bigger versions of the Shrimp SA250 and Chris Adams’ Bendback SA258 and PR358 I think we might actually have transported more wire in terms of weight than in previous years.
The CA Bendback PR358 and SA258 together with a beautiful bendback pattern tied by Steve Silverio.
Thank you to all our contributors and to all of you, our readers, for an incredible 2023 and we hope to see you all in 2024.