Lars Chr. Bentsen - Ahrex Hooks

Game Changers

Game Changers are a relatively new style of flies, tied on a number of shorter or longer shanks, connected together with small eyes. The shanks themselves come from just a centimetre in length and upwards. Linked together like a chain, the style and technique is excellent for tying big flies, long flies and even smaller flies with plenty of built in mobility.

Gary Borgers Strip Nymph

The fly on the blog today features two legends in one. We maybe close to Christmas and far away from the trout fisher’s high season – the Danica-hatch, but it’s never too late to prepare, and probably never too early either. And if it goes as it usually does, Danica-season will be upon before we know it, so here’s a little inspiration to look at.

Marabou Pike Fly

Winter has arrived in Scandinavia. We have snow in the northern Denmark and in Sweden. At Håkan’s there’s quite a bit. Snow and cold is a bit of a showstopper when it comes to fishing, but here in Scandinavia, not always. A drop in temperature in the salt usually sends the rest of the spawners up river – and the big, shiny sea trout are left. December is usually quite a good month. The temperature obviously drops in the lakes as well, but that’s not necessarily detrimental to fishing either. Pike spawn in the spring, so they have to keep themselves well fed during the winter and a drop in temperature often seems to get them eating.

Chillimps

There are flies that are invariably associated with specific waters or places. Often, of course, those for which a specific fly might have been created. A clear example of this is a fly called Chillimps. A simple, orange palmer hackled wet fly for salmon.

The small stuff

The importance of a certain food item for trout and grayling and other species can be ascertained in several ways. You can get on the water with a seine and check what’s available to the fish, but you can also have a look at the number of imitations of a certain insect or other prey.

Snap, rigs and wires

We have a large program on hooks for toothy predators, cleverly named Predator Series. Big predators like muskies, pike, perch and zander simply are easier to land on proper, specialty hooks. The Predator Series is close to our hearts and roots, not least because Morten Valeur was one of the pioneers on pike on the fly in Scandinavia. He has in fact written a book dedicated partly to pike flies.

New Release – PR354 Popping Skipping Bug

It’s fall and fall is the same as new hooks in the line-up here at Ahrex Hooks. We’ve been very busy that last couple of months packing the new hooks for shipment, but that doesn’t hold us back releasing new hooks. This one in the Predator-series, the new PR 354, is a bit of an odd one. I’m quite sure that many of our seasoned readers are familiar with this style of hook, or may be able to figure out its use.

New Release – HR412 Low Water Single

Home Run – either something to be achieved in base ball or a hook series from Ahrex. We prefer the latter, and the name of course refers to the fact the the Home Run-series is designed for anadromous fish. Fish that are born in freshwater, migrate to sea and return to spawn years later. Anadromous fish include atlantic salmon, steelhead and in general, most salmon species as far as I know.

Jigs and zonkers

It’s not uncommon for new flies, styles and patterns to emerge from combinations of other well established ones. Some turn out really well – some not quite as well. But when you combine the superior mobility of a zonker with the basic principle of the upside down properties of a a jig hook, I say we’ve got something good.

New Release – XO 750 Universal Stinger

We released the first hooks in the XO-series almost exactly a year ago – on October 23rd 2020. And while it might have been an extra ordinary accomplishment to release the second hook in the series almost exactly a year after the series-release, it is of course completely unintended.