Frequent users of Instagram and YouTube know that Morten Hansen, also known as Coastfly, likes realistic imitations of shrimp. None the less his favourite shrimp fly is simple and features no feelers, shell or eyes. Follow along as Coastfly explains how he ties his Baboon Shrimp.
Continue reading “Baboon – the red butt shrimp fly”
We’re heading into the cold season and when fly fishing for sea trout in Scandinavia, most fly fishers turn to provocative flies. Chartreuse, orange and especially pink are important colours. This really is a development that began taking place in Denmark in the late 1980s, particularly in and around Mariager Fjord in the middle of Jutland.
Continue reading “Ever present”
Outside the office windows the inevitable sign of winter has dressed the landscape in white. It’s been snowing the last few days, which of course means that temperatures are dropping. It takes a while for the water temperature begin cooling down significantly, but with frost both day and night, it’s certainly under way. Dropping temperatures are not the best conditions, but cold water is not a problem as such. For the fish of course. It might be for the two legged creatures chasing them.
Continue reading “Snow and pink”
We’re usually not slow to let you know abut new hooks, but it seems that other blog subject have been more important, because we actually snuck in a new hook in the Predator series. It’s getting cold and once in a while, especially as it gets even colder, you sometimes need to pick up the fish on the bottom. On the bottom there’s usually a lot of debris, so fishing an upside-down hook can be a very good idea.
We have decided that we’ll start running a series of blogs with the same theme – Three Flies. These won’t be the usual “if you could only have three flies…”, but more as an inspiration to those starting fly fishing or venturing in to new species and locations. We’ll try and mobilise some of our Ahrex ambassadors and ask them about three essential flies for their fishing and local conditions. Since we’ll depend on the good will of our ambassadors and others as well, they won’t be regular entries, but ones that we’ll run every now and then. They’ll be seasonally relevant as well.
Continue reading “Three Flies”
I’m generally very reluctant to use the word, “iconic”, but in the case of Jack Gartside’s Gurgler I think it fits. Gartside died in 2009, but has left a legacy of so many flies, for so many different applications. Many of them all-purpose flies that are at home on a bass lake as they are in the salt.
Continue reading “Gartside’s Gurgler”
“Wake me up when September ends” is a song by Green Day, but if you happen to sleep through September, you’re missing out. Septembervej is a great month for a lot of reasons. But one of them is the Daddy Long Legs. They are busy right now, because it’s getting late for them to mate and lay their eggs. Much like mayflies, they don’t live for long after they emerge from the pupa, although a mayfly would think they live forever. Some mayflies live for just hours, Daddy Long Legs for up to two weeks.
Fishing sea bass along the west coast of Denmark is becoming increasingly popular. It’s not new – it was in the mid to late 1990s that I first heard of a couple of pioneers targeting this unusual species. They can be found along the entire west coast, but the fishing seems to be best along the northern shores.
Spinning deer hair around a hook or a tube can have different purposes. Depending on other choices muddler heads can make a fly float, wake or push water or fished on a sinking line or weighted. We’ve had a lot of rain in Denmark the past few weeks and I decided that I wanted a fairly small fly, fast sinking and one that sinks fast, so I don’t lose too much swing while waiting for the to drag the fly down.
Continue reading “Sonic Tube Muddler”
It’s the middle of August and some of us (myself at least) are looking forward to cooler weather and autumn fishing. Autumn is by far my favourite time of year and has plenty to offer in terms of fishing. One thing that some tend to overlook is the fact that hatches of both may flies and caddis can pick up a little and offer some surface action. At this exact time, I’d concentrate my effort in the evenings and early night. Just as sea trout, big browns like big flies fished just under the surface (just letting you know).
Continue reading “Burned Wings”