Spring is on our doorstep on the Northern Hemisphere. Here in the southern part of Scandinavia, we have been able to fish open water most of the winter. Some lakes and fjords have been ice locked though, and generally the winter has been colder than usual. Continue reading “Spring is here – now let’s bend some rods”
As fly tiers and fly fishermen we are able to choose from an impressive selection of hair materials: Calf Tail, squirrel tail and a parade of furs from fox, bear, goat, sheep and lots of others animals. And then there are the synthetics. All of these have their pros and cons – and their own place in any fly tiers bag of tricks and materials. But one of the oldest known materials still holds its own – and continues to catch fly tiers and fish as well. Let’s take a look at the bucktail.
Continue reading “Bucktail and bucktail flies – tradition, innovation and pure magic”
The late Jack Gartside was a fly tier who came up with a tremendous amount of effective fishing flies – most of which were tied using relatively cheap and easily available materials. His classic Soft Hackle Streamer is a good example of his approach – and his equally effective Sparrow is another. Continue reading “Jack Gartside and the Sparrow – a Swiss Army Knife fly”
The Ahrex team is busy this spring. Today and tomorrow (March the 23th to the 24th) Morten and Søren are joining the London Fly Fishing Fair. We feel honoured and exited to join this very cool event in one of the most important countries in hook making history. Continue reading “Ahrex Hooks in London”
A great way to build up anticipation, cure the cabin fever (or boost it) and meet friends that are just as crazy about angling as yourself, is to go to some of the angling shows, that seems to be everywhere in the late winter and spring. Continue reading “Meet us in Stockholm this weekend”
The Ahrex Hooks family is still growing – meaning that new distributors, new shops and new tiers are joining in every month. So today I will take a look on some of these new friends. And we have the results of the Trout Bandits/Andreas Andersson and Ahrex Hooks Giveaway. But for now let’s go to Italy.
Continue reading “Meet our Italian friends… and a new distributor”
If you follow Ahrex on Instagram, you will see, that we like doing collab with artists. You might also have bumped into the name, Trout Bandits a couple of time. The name sends subconscious images of outlaws, smoking guns and the wild west.
Ok, it’s still winter around here. We are going into another cold front, that should supply snow, frozen lakes, running noses and cabin fever. But spring is on our doorstep. In Southern Scandinavia that means seatrout will be back on the coast after the breeding season. It also means that the ragworms will start their breeding season – and as a seatrout fisherman that is not something you should miss out on. That is the start of a regular saltwater fishing bonanza. Continue reading “Ragworm season coming up – let’s get some hackles spinning”
When we design new hooks, we try to do our research up front. That means checking out what’s already on the market? What works great – and what sucks. And how can we improve on already existing designs. And in all these tasks, we try to get the help from creative and innovative fly tiers.
Continue reading “Meet Andreas Lium – Fly tier, fly fisherman, philosopher and hook nerd”
At Ahrex Hooks we feel rooted in the Scandinavian fly fishing tradition – but we never try to fool ourselves into thinking that Scandinavia played a major role in the early years of fly fishing. Our first claim to fame on that account probably was, that Victorian era English gentlemen visited Danish, Swedish and Norwegian streams to swing flies for our – back then – very healthy population of salmon and brown trout (sea run as well as stationary).
Continue reading “The Optic Flies – a book tracing part of the Scandinavian fly fishing heritage”
