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Flatwings

Flat wing flies are widely spread and I suspect well known by most fly fishers who fish for almost any predatory fish. Drawing on inspiration from the old long shank traditional streamers, Ken Abrames created a style of fly which is now know as a “flat wing”. The defining element is simply one or more feathers, usually in the tail of the fly, tied so they lie flat and not stand up. Like so many other influential fly tiers, Ken Abrames’ fly was based on keen observation of the bait fish the stripers eat in the North East of the USA.

The Salmon Situation

We’ve covered the seemingly dire situation unfolding in Norway this season. Very, very few salmon running on some of the big and famous rivers. So few in fact that Norwegian authorities chose to close 33 of them entirely. It seems that the situation has changed for some rivers as 16 of them have been opened for fishing again, which is very good news. Mainly for the salmon as it means that there’s a viable run, but of course also for the fishermen and -women. The locals can enjoy the fishing in their rivers and those travelling can do the same, as well as bring in the lift to the local economies. Of course potentially avoiding losing a week of prepaid fishing.

Small flies, big hooks

Sometimes we are asked if more hook models are needed, as we already have a justifiable number in our range. The answer to the question is both no and yes. No, because the hooks we have already developed cover the vast majority of situations that we fly fishermen can be exposed to. But the question can also be answered with yes, as new fly models are constantly appearing, but also ways to tie the flies on the hook.

Håkan Karsnäser has written this blog about the subject “small flies, big hooks”

Alternatives

Summer is upon us, which as so many other seasons offer new opportunities. Sea trout are migrating to the rivers and many really don’t start fishing for them until now – myself included. It’s fun fishing, often in the evenings and in the dark and that feeling of a sea trout grabbing a big, black tube fly in the surface often startles me. The big ones can sound like someone dropped a refrigerator on the fly and feel like it too.

Rigging madness

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

Big flies – big fish?

Photo: Matt Gymon / Freestone River Photography.

I’m sure there’s some truth behind that – to an extent, because it’s certainly far from impossible to catch big fish on small flies. However, this is about big flies and there can be little doubt that big, predatory fish mainly feed to bigger prey, mostly smaller fish. A dense hatch of bugs will bring any trout up, but a bif fly will tempt them consistently, all year round.

Train wreck

Photo: Undefined fly fishing project.

As the salmon season is developing at the moment, there is reason for serious concern. We publish this blog on Fridays and it’s always nice to be able to give the readers something good to start the weekend on. I don’t like it, but this one’s not good – it is, in fact, quite grim.

Weight on flies – or not?

For many, the epitome of fly fishing is a fly fisherman in a river who casts his dry fly and lets it drift slowly with the current until it disappears in a small ring and a nice trout tightens the line. And for many, that’s exactly what fly fishing is. However, many people like nymph fishing, and so you face a number of challenges to get the fly to fish correctly. A floating fly is easy to follow and correct if it behaves unnaturally. A nymph that is fished below the surface is much more difficult to handle, as you cannot follow the fly’s movement in the same way. It is also difficult to know how the current moves below the surface or how the fly is affected by the stream, rocks and deep holes.

3 Styles of Streamers

Today I’m pleased to present af blog text from Matt Redmond, who has kindly submitted this text about his awesome looking streamer flies and how he fished them. Matt Redmond is an avid fly angler and tier based in Northeast Ohio. He’s spent the last decade exploring the Great Lakes and their connecting waters with a special interest in steelhead, smallmouth bass, and freshwater drum.

Enjoy this!

It’s pod cast day

There are a lot of popular and big pod cast channels on fly fishing. We have our own pod cast channel, which, as of yet, doesn’t contain material we’ve produced ourselves, but hopefully that’ll change some day. Today we still have five no less than seven pod casts to present.