Soft Hackle Flies – The Swedish Tradition

Soft hackle flies are some of the most universal and, for me at least, some of the most important in my trout/grayling flyboxes. I fish them as teams of two in the rivers and I often use them as droppers in stillwater. While the old, English masters of the tradition actually were quite specific on which insects their dressings imitate, they are often good year round.

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The Royal Coachman

RoyalCPic12

Another of those quintessential flies that embody everything that most people think of when thinking of “a fly”. While the classic Coachman is quite beautiful in its simplicity, the Royal Coachman is a bit more flashy and striking with its dash of red between the peacock herl parts.

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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 – FW 554/555 CZ Mini Jig Hook

_Pink Jig by Håkan Karsnäser-01a

Pink Jig by Håkan Karsnäser on FW554 CZ Mini Jig.

Yes, another hook release – believe it or not. We’ve been busy! This time it’s a new jig-hook. We of course already have a jig hook – the FW 550/551. So what’s the big difference, I hear you ask? Well, that takes about as long time to answer as it does to ask the question. Hook length!

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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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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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