The Danish-American connection. Poul Jorgensen is a Danishman, who spent most of his life in the United States, where he earned quite a reputation as an excellent fly tyer. Being Danish he of course kept a connection to Denmark and he was, among many others of course friends with the Mad Veterinarian, Preben Torp (a well known character in Denmark).
I’ll leave today’s blog to Håkan Karsnäser and yet another of his material descriptions. Håkan is an excellent fly tier and even though he has a vast collection of materials, Håkan is always aware that it’s not always important to acquire new and specific materials. Often you can be creative and use what you already have by using materials in a ways they are not typically used for. Today Håkan provides some inspiration on how to use turkey tails fibres.
Steve Silverio is our coordinator for the North American Ahrex Pro Team and in general a great help and friend to us, here at Ahrex HQ. Steve often offers invaluable advice on many levels and he was very much the man behind our HR 418 WD Bomber hook. Below Steve has written a Little on squid flies for striped bass. Just now, in the early summer months squid are coming close to shore to bredde and behind them follow big, stripes bass.
In their very origin, streamers are American and it’s of course been decades since they moved across the pond to Europe. And for a good reason. Streamers are excellent fish catchers, catch fish (big ones) that other flies rarely catch, they imitate prey that are on many predatory fish’s menu and they are great fun to fish and tie.
The bold statement would be: “After tonnes of requests from customers worldwide…”. However that wouldn’t be true, but we have had some requests for this. A chart where you – our customers – can get a quick comparison between our hooks, with a short description of their intended purposes and main characteristics.
One can almost hear how this fly got its name after it began gaining some popularity. “What did you catch it on?”. “Oh, just the usual one…” So what is Den Vanliga (Swedish for The Usual)? It is an unusually effective salmon fly that we usually tie on tubes, no-body style and with a built in weight.
“Kært barn har mange navne” – a Danish proverb for “Beloved child has many names”. And that of course is also true for the Green Drakes, the largest of may flies that hatch in Europe, an important hatch as it’s the trout- and grayling fly fisher’s best chance for some of the river’s largest fish on a dry fly. The Danica/Vulgata hatch is one of the season peaks we all look forward to.
I’m not sure how many of the younger generations of fly fishers are familiar with the name Hugh Falkus? When I was new in this hobby, Hugh Falkus was a giant. One of Britain’s most well-known, well-respected and revered fly fishers. He was a prolific salmon- and sea trout angler, living almost on the banks of the Cumberland Ask with other hallowed streams within easy reach.
However I try to spin it, I don’t think I ever had a fishing trip that became worse after catching a fish. Not necessarily much better either, but worse? I don’t think so. After all, it is why we go out. Catching a fish is nice. Catching a big fish is even better. Catching a big fish in a spectacular way is certainly going to improve any trip.
In November 2019, we released the news that we had acquired the Flexistripper from our long term friend and developer of the Flexistripper, bamboo rod builder extraordinaire, Bjarne Fries. We haven’t regretted buying the rights to the production from Bjarne one second since then. We still believe that the Flexistripper is one of the best and most versatile, allround line-management-gizmos on the market.
