Lars Chr. Bentsen - Ahrex Hooks

Christmas

Christmas is fast approaching – here at Ahrex HQ as well. We’re always a little more busy this time of year. The accounting for the year has to be done and there is always a little more to ship as the dealers stock up for the Christmas shopping. Some lose ends to tie up before we go on holiday and charge up for 2024. There’s also a little planning to be made – hopefully with you, our readers, as well. It’s not unlikely that there might be some new hooks next year as well.

IFTS, IFF and Trey Combs

Steve Silverio and UK flytyer Paul Little discussing hooks and flies at the Irish Fly Fair.

On November 11th and 12th, we attended the International Fly Tying Symposium in the US and last weekend we were at the Irish Fly Fair. Being based in Denmark, fly shows always require some travel, so we’ve been busy. Morten was at the IFTS, Søren and myself at the Irish Fly Fair.

Beast Fleye

Bob Popovics and Steve Silverio at the IFTS 2023.

Last weekend, Morten and Steve Silverio were at the International Fly Tying Symposium in Somerset, NJ. We were in place on Hareline’s stand and we want to say thank you to everyone who came by and said hi.

Pike flies and dubbing brushes

From last years International Flytying Symposium; Brian Shumaker, Steve Silverio and Bob Clouser.

Before we get to that, let me remind you that we are attending the International Fly Tying Symposium in New Jersey tis weekend. We’ll be there so if you’re there, please come by and say hello.

New podcasts

We’ve slowly been making our way into the podcast format and we will continue to do so. We aim for a variety of podcasts. Some will be stories on why we fish, on the total experience of the hobby, even lifestyle for some. Others will be interviews with known fly fisher, even legends, some will be with virtually unknown fly fishers, who has something special on heart. Whether it’s on methods, strategies or flies we hope you’ll enjoy them all, maybe even consider sharing them? It’s been a bit quiet on the podcast channel since we uploaded the first ones, but we’ll fix that today.

New sizes, autumn and shrimps

We’ve added a few new sizes to our SA 250 Shrimp hooks. The SA 250 maybe be called “Shrimp” and it’s designed specifically for that and it is indeed excellent for tying shrimps, more on that below. t’s one of those hooks that has a name that does imply a very specific usage, but is really more versatile than that.

Waste in waders

Waste is a huge problem in the modern World! In many parts of the World a lot of effort is put into minimising waste, be it food, recycling plastic and metals and much, much more. I think most fly fishers, and fisherwomen and -men are environmentally aware and do their bit. Pick up waste on the beach or along the river on the way back and so on – and generally try to act responsibly.

Nymphing for salmon?

Do salmon eat nymphs? Yes, at least as younglings in the river, before they enter the sea, they do. But I think it’s common knowledge that once they enter the rivers, they stop eating. How they manage to survive for several months and not least why they take our flies is a subject for another blog. However, it’s clear that salmon do take flies that imitate large stoneflies nymphs and even ones fished upstream and dead drifted past their lies.

It’s show time!

Two weekends ago we attended the British Fly Fair International, which was, as always, an excellent and very well organised event.

New hook – Anadromous Nymph HR416

*Big sizes salmon calls for a strong hook. Photo: Jesper Lindquist Andersen*

Fishing for migratory fish – anadromous species – such as salmon, sea trout, steelhead or rainbows and trout both from the sea and the great lakes on their way to the spawning banks has been the purpose of this new hook that we have been looking forward to introducing to you.