Lars Chr. Bentsen - Ahrex Hooks

Boston Harbor striper on the fly

Fishing for stripers is incredibly popular in the US and we were lucky enough to meet one of the many skilled fishermen who enjoy this species. During the International Fly Tying Symposium in November, we met the talented guide and striper-fisher Joe Cordeiro, whom we persuaded to write a little about his fishing for what can be called the USA’s national fish – the striped bass og just stripers.

Irish Style Shrimp Flies

Many, if not most, of the Irish salmon-. And sea trout patterns include two or three hackles and no wings. They are tied on all styles of hooks – singles, doubles and trebles and on tubes. They do well tied and fished both small and large and some of the patterns are even popular flies for loch-style fishing for salmon. Their history is a subject for another blog – here I’ll take a look at the basics of tying them. They look deceptively simple, but there are a few pit falls to avoid.

Dahlberg Diver – by Andreas Andersson

Did you catch our recently published video with Andreas Andersson? It’s a very detailed instruction on how to tie the famous fly, the Dahlberg Diver. You can tie the fly however detailed you want, but I think it’s safe to say that Andreas’ instruction is among the best and most detailed you can find on YouTube. There’s no need to go into as much detail as Andreas does. Andreas is also among the best with deer hair, so I think it’s also safe to say that no matter how detailed you want to tie your fly, there’s a lot to learn.

International Fly Tying Symposium 2022

IFTS is an abbreviation for the International Fly Tying Symposium – an annual show that has been running for 31 years. The show is an institution on the international fly-show-scene and one that has attracted some of the biggest names in the fly tying world. We, Ahrex, are going this year for the first time and we’re excited and proud. Please come and say hello, we’re hanging out at the Regal & Keough stand.

Hökensås Trout Safari

About a month ago we posted a blog about this years Trout Safari at the Hökensås fishery I Sweden. You have seen dozens of pictures from the place. It’s Håkan’s home water and a place where Morten likes to bring his camera. Small forest lakes with rainbows and a varied fishery. A great place for beginners as well as the experienced. Here you can gain your first experiences casting and fishing a fly as well as hone your skills on specific techniques.

Closing the season

The Norwegian salmon season is coming to a close, so I’ll round things off in this blog, covering a few tips and tricks on how to fool the sometimes very difficult, late summer salmon. The river holds more salmon now. It’s usually a good mix between the now old salmon that entered the river early in the season and the late runners, which are usually the so-called grilse. Grilse are small, male atlantic salmon, still bright silver, but smaller. There are different opinions when a grilse can be called a salmon – some say over 5kg. I say three, because then I catch more salmon.

Predator and prey

Most predatory fish change behaviour over the season. They are found in different places and feed different times of the day. Why? They are predatory and follow the behaviour of their prey. So I suppose, in a sense, that you can say they have only one behaviour – they follow their prey. If you’re fishing for predatory fish, and I suspect most of us are, the key to catching them is often to understand what they’re feeding on and the prey behaves.

The colour of flies

There are plenty of subjects that flyfishers can discuss at length over the campfire at night. Some of them will likely even cause animated exchanges of words, in all friendliness. Rod actions, reels (from the need of a brake and upwards), lines, leaders, knots and at the business end, flies and not least the colour of them.

Busy Times

The last few months have been busy here at Ahrex. Spring and fall have always been our seasons for releasing new hooks. A few weeks ago we released the FW 538/539 May Fly Dry and we’ve of course been busy packaging and shipping them out and we’re pleased and thankful that they’ve been well received.

FRESH OR SALT?

Fishing trout in still water has a lot in common, whether it’s salt or fresh water. The trout live much in the same way: The feed and grow to maturity in the large still water and migrate to streams to spawn. Whether fresh or salt, the habitats also share some of the same types of prey – gammarus and baitfish/fry being two of the notable ones. In both fresh and salt water you can even be lucky enough to find trout feeding on terrestrials.