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Three Flies

We have decided that we’ll start running a series of blogs with the same theme – Three Flies. These won’t be the usual “if you could only have three flies…”, but more as an inspiration to those starting fly fishing or venturing in to new species and locations. We’ll try and mobilise some of our Ahrex ambassadors and ask them about three essential flies for their fishing and local conditions. Since we’ll depend on the good will of our ambassadors and others as well, they won’t be regular entries, but ones that we’ll run every now and then. They’ll be seasonally relevant as well.

Gartside’s Gurgler

I’m generally very reluctant to use the word, “iconic”, but in the case of Jack Gartside’s Gurgler I think it fits. Gartside died in 2009, but has left a legacy of so many flies, for so many different applications. Many of them all-purpose flies that are at home on a bass lake as they are in the salt.

Salmon Season Ended

Photo: Undefined Flyfishing Project.

It was only a few weeks into the salmon season that everyone realised that something was wrong – something was off. The salmon weren’t there. It has happened before that the initial early season run s delayed and that was what everyone hoped for. As the season progressed hope began to fade as most rivers still produced very few salmon.

I’m not in love

It can sound a little strange but you’ll never hear me say that I love fishing, trout or something like that. To me the phrase love is reserved for human beings, my loved ones. That said, there’s a few things around fishing especially fly fishing and fly tying that are so close to my heart that it resembles love. Sitting in the evening sun with my fishing buddies, they are among my loved ones, catching a strong trout or spending a whole cold winters day in front of my vice, brings me a joy I can’t live without. The latter got a twist. I’m, if not in love, then pretty intrigued by a feather.

This artickel is written by Danish photojournalist Søren Skarby

Sea Trout Fyn

I don’t think it’s a surprise to many of our readers here that the sea trout fishing on Fyn is exceptional. That is a result of many factors coinciding in many ways and that has brought thousands of thousands of sea trout fishers to Fyn over the last three decades.

Essentials

Photo: Matt Guymon / Freestone Rivers Photography.

If you’re fly fishing for trout and grayling, you won’t get far without a good imitation of both mayflies and caddis. In the books and online there are literally hundreds of specific patterns and styles to choose from. Some of them we’ve featured here on the blog and some on our YouTube-channel, but I don’t think we’ve ever touched on the X-Caddis and the Sparkle Dun.

Daddy Long Legs

“Wake me up when September ends” is a song by Green Day, but if you happen to sleep through September, you’re missing out. Septembervej is a great month for a lot of reasons. But one of them is the Daddy Long Legs. They are busy right now, because it’s getting late for them to mate and lay their eggs. Much like mayflies, they don’t live for long after they emerge from the pupa, although a mayfly would think they live forever. Some mayflies live for just hours, Daddy Long Legs for up to two weeks.

Sea bass

Fishing sea bass along the west coast of Denmark is becoming increasingly popular. It’s not new – it was in the mid to late 1990s that I first heard of a couple of pioneers targeting this unusual species. They can be found along the entire west coast, but the fishing seems to be best along the northern shores.

Sonic Tube Muddler

Spinning deer hair around a hook or a tube can have different purposes. Depending on other choices muddler heads can make a fly float, wake or push water or fished on a sinking line or weighted. We’ve had a lot of rain in Denmark the past few weeks and I decided that I wanted a fairly small fly, fast sinking and one that sinks fast, so I don’t lose too much swing while waiting for the to drag the fly down.

HOLY MACKEREL

The question is not how to fish, but why you do it. The author and his fishing buddies do it out of necessity. It’s more important than life and death to them to escape the human world, step in to water and wave a stick. Left on the shore is their misery and worries. Standing in the water they find freedom, healing and occasionally a fish.

Battles are lost and won with tongue in cheek and always celebrated with mountains of cake and an endless stream of fresh espresso coffee. To the band of brothers it’s more important who you fish with than how big the fish is; except for the ones lost.

You may not learn a lot about catching more and bigger fish, but reading these stories is like holding a mirror up in front of yourself getting a little wiser. The small why is a big one.

Please remember you can find many of the articles as podcasts on our PodBean channel here:

This artickel is written by Danish photojournalist Søren Skarby