You keep your eyes focused on the big chartreuse diver – while it’s popping, diving and sliding – and in a seemingly helpless way trying to swim past the cluster of lily pads. Every twitch makes it dive a few inches and pop back on the surface. You know there’s something lurking deep down there… cause the surface tingles with that mysterious excitement that can’t be explained but still feels real and unnerving.
Continue reading “Popping, sliding and diving – for pike, musky and bass”
When tying pike or muskie flies, you are faced with the laws of physics. You want to use a big fly in order to get the attention of the top predators. But you still want to be able to handle that fly on a single-handed fly rod that you are able to cast all day. In fact the same challenges are equally relevant when tying any kind of large streamer fly… for predatory trout or most kinds of saltwater fly fishing. But for this blog… let’s stick to flies primarily designed for pike and muskie.
Today we direct the big curious magnifying glass at Swedish saltwater fly tier par excellence, Jonatan Ternald. Jonatan was one of the first tiers that started using our hooks, and he has been a fabulous inspiration for us ever since.
Water covers just around 71 % of the Earth’s surface. Being an angler, that is a very comforting thought. And while the Earth keeps turning, the rivers keep flowing and waves breaks repeatedly as they hit the beach – the underwater drama of life and dead never stops.
Continue reading “Give the baitfish a break – swing some streamers”
Today we put the spotlight on one of Sweden’s most talented and productive fly tiers. Håkan Karsnäser has been tying flies for more than 30 years, so he is by no means a new kid on the block. He fishes in the ballpark of 100 days a year, and spends even more time on fly tying. He is a versatile and well-travelled fly fisherman but loves fishing for rainbow trout in his home waters of Hökensås in southern Sweden.
Today I want to show you a style of fly that I’ve been playing with for a couple of years. It’s nothing revolutionary. Just a combination of elements that work well on flies tied for migratory fish.
Continue reading “Playing with styles – translucency, colour and movement”
This Friday the blog is going world travelling. We want to welcome a couple of new distributors, take a look at a remarkable catch – and we have a brand new fly tying video from one of our favourite Swedish streamer dudes, Andreas Andersson for you as well.
Pike season is on… even here in Denmark where the large predators are left undisturbed during the breeding period in April. Our top picture on this blog is from a fishing trip yesterday… so it is definitively fresh from the memory card in Morten Valeurs camera. The happy fly fisherman in
the picture is Omar Bo Gade from Denmark Fishing Outdoor Lodge.
This friday our blog is written on the road somewhere in the southern part of Sweden. Morten and I are on our way home from a great week of filming and making photos of streamer fishing in the beautiful River Rena in Norway.
Continue reading “Streamer fishing in River Rena – field report”
Small fish are eaten by bigger fish that just happen to be hunted by even larger monsters. The streamer game for trout is changing. If we go back a few decades very few fly fishermen tossed flies longer than 2 inches for trout. The tandem trolling streamer style from the Maine district was an exception – but these flies were – as the name implies – mostly trolled behind a boat and very seldom used for traditional fly casting and fly fishing. And part of that game was focused on landlocked salmon as well.
Continue reading “Size matters – no matter what they say ;0)”
