Rackelhanen is an unusual fly, originated by the Swedish trout- and grayling legend, Kenneth Boström in 1967. Kenneth Boström is well known in Scandinavia and originator not only of this quite excellent fly, but also the Rackelhanen fly rod, which is/was a three-piece rod with a split cane bottom section and two carbon fiber tip sections.
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Signatures
A signature is something personal, be it the name you sign under legal documents, an artistic style, an icon, a sign, a seal – something personalised. In fly fly tying it can be a material, a style, a certain technique or a special fly.
Spey-i-fication
What defines a Spey fly? Two distinct features – the low brown mallard wing and the long, flowing hackles, often from a heron. So can you justify adding the “Spey” in from of a fly, which you modify using a long, flowing hackle rather than a more traditional cock- or hen hackle found on most traditional wet flies? And what if the long hackle isn’t even a heron hackle? I’ll steer clear of that discussion for now.
Night fishing in the salt
Fishing for sea trout during the warmest summer months most often means fishing through the night. Sea trout don’t like luke warm water, and if you don’t have deep water with lots of tidal current close by, fishing through the night is a great option. Not least because night fishing is a special experience. You can go about it in several different ways, and here’s how our Swedish friend, Andreas Larsson prefers to do it.
Trout Food
Every trout angler knows the satisfaction of watching a trout repeatedly rise to take the same insect on the surface. As you carefully note the trout’s position, you tie on a close imitation of the mayflies the trout is eating and as the first cast lands, out come is almost given.
Choosing the right hook
We are a relatively young hook brand. Ever since Ahrex was just an idea, one of our most important goals were to build a selection of hooks to allow you, the user, to choose the right hook for your particular fishing, from our selection. We’re not done designing hooks – we’re still getting ideas and there are still hooks we want to add to our range, even though we have millions (literally) of hooks in storage.
Ahrex Flexistripper
We’ve written about our Ahrex Flexistripper before. If you follow the blog you may remember we (re)launched it in September and it has of course been featured on the blog a few times. When I wrote about the launch of the Ahrex Flexistripper I called it “our latest child”, but the fact is that it’s not really our child at all, and when we launched it, it wasn’t even a child.
Ahrex on Greenland
Last summer we flew to Greenland to experience the epic char-fishery that GetAway Tours offers on the Erfalik Camp. The fishing really is spectacular, but landscape and the nature is equally breathtaking. Mountains, valleys, fjords – it’s all there.
Dark is the Night (at least somewhere)
Summer is fast approaching, and with it, lots of sun and higher water temperatures. Both contribute to a change in behaviour of the sea trout. It’s possible, by choosing the right spots and adapting your techniques and strategy, to catch sea trout all through the day during the summer. But there’s no doubt that concentrating your efforts in the hours around sunset and sunrise increases your chance of a hook-up to two.
Vulgatas and danicas
The largest mayfly in Scandinavia are the Ephemera danica and it’s stillwater relative, the E. vulgata. The are the same size and the vulgata tend to be a little darker than the danica. They hatch more or less at the same time, and both of course offer excellent fishing. Our “house fly tier”, Håkan Karsnäser lives close to the Hökensås lakes in Sweden and fishes the hatch every year, so I asked Håkan for a few tips and tricks, and a couple of good flies. Over to Håkan…