Peace in Corona

It’s January 1st and time to wish all of you, our readers, a very Happy New Year. And not only that – also a very big and sincere thank you for all the support you’ve all given us in the past year. We are grateful and humbled by it.

It’s been a bit of a crazy year, and I’m sure every last one of you not only agree, but also are tied of reading about in various sum-ups of the year.

We got this very nice piece from Charlie Keyser, and we thought you’d appreciate it, so despite the above, I’ll now hand you off to Charlie.

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Burned Wings

Mayfly - Imago-01

The perfect may fly imitation has haunted fly fishers, probably since the dawn of fly fishing. At least we know that as modern dry fly fishing evolved on the chalk streams of southern England in the late 1800s (with Marryat, Halford et al.) the development has never seized.

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New Release – HR 418 Bomber Hook

_Art Hook Only 1-0-03

It’s hook launch time – again! We’re come close to ending 2020 (I think most of us look forward to that), but we decided to just go ahead and throw a proper New Year’s Bomb(er) to you.

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Dry fly fishing for stillwater fall rainbows

DSC_4463

It’s fall and conditions are changing, but not (yet) for the worse, if you know what to look for and when and where to find the fish. Andreas Larsson sent us this piece on fall fishing for stillwater rainbows – and you don’t need to pack away the dries just yet, maybe just change them out. I’ll let Andreas give you the details.

Thank you, Andreas!

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Ahrex FW 504/504 Short Shank Dry Fly Hook

Green Butt Deer Hair Ismo by Kim Mäki-07

You may have spotted these news on Facebook and Instagram already. If not – today is the official release of a new dry fly hook in the FW-series: the 504/505 Short Shank Dry Fly Hook.

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The partridge

The ultimate game bird for fly tying? Maybe not, but the different feathers from a partridge are amongst the most versatile for nymphs, flymphs, wet flies, spiders and soft hackles. Soft pulsating hackles with an attractive marking that offers plenty of life and movement to the fly.

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Feathers galore

Brown Bodied Parachute by Jan de Haas-03

Brown Bodied Parachute tied by Jan de Haas.

We’re fly fishers and fly tiers – that’s why me make fly hooks. Being fly tiers we love quality fly tying materials (almost) as much as we love quality fly hooks. There are so many high quality materials available today that it’s hard to believe – natural materials, synthetics, furs, hairs, silicone products, rubber. But in some way the quintessential fly tying material is the feather. The simplest of modern dry flies – from the Halford-era consists on a tail of hackle fibres, a dubbed body and a front hackle. Even the very first fly in written sources mentions the use of feathers.

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Terrestrials – or land insects

Gunnison Hopper-03

The trout season is coming to end end, at least if your’re a topwater/dry fly fisherman and many rivers and lakes close down for the winter. But it’s still September and although there are very few mayflies hatching now, there’s still some caddis, but also an abundance of terrestrials – or land insects. They are at their prime now.

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Caddis or sedge

Brown Caddis - Stefan Larsson-04

Two words for the same insect – an insect that is quite important to the trout- and grayling fisherman. In fact probably even more important than the mayflies since there are so many more species of caddis than there are mayflies. Like the mayflies they are important both as nymphs, emergers and adults and imitations are plentyful.

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