Portraits - Ahrex Hooks

The platoon of misery

The question is not how to fish, but why you do it. The author and his fishing buddies do it out of necessity. It’s more important than life and death to them to escape the human world, step in to water and wave a stick. Left on the shore is their misery and worries. Standing in the water they find freedom, healing and occasionally a fish.

Battles are lost and won with tongue in cheek and always celebrated with mountains of cake and an endless stream of fresh espresso coffee. To the band of brothers it’s more important who you fish with than how big the fish is; except for the ones lost.

You may not learn a lot about catching more and bigger fish, but reading these stories is like holding a mirror up in front of yourself getting a little wiser. The small why is a big one.

This artickel is written by Danish photojournalist Søren Skarby

Høtyven

Shrimp flies have always been popular for fly fishermen and especially for saltwater fly fishermen they are a “must-have” in the box. The Scandinavian coastal fishing for sea run brown trouts is now one of the cornerstones of Danish fly fishing and the Danish sea trout love shrimp flies. In this week’s blog, we’ll focus on a new pattern that has gone from strength to strength and proven its effectiveness to coastal sea run brown trout.

Fly Fishing Show in Lancaster & Fly Festival in Kolding

*“The Italian Gang” – Luca Barosselli, Enrico Fantasia and Fabio Federighi at the Danish Fly Festival.*

Such a blast ! Last weekend we participated in two different fairs – a huge thank you to all those who came by our stands and greeted, talked hooks, flies and shared stories from the waters, we enjoy being at fairs and meeting other fly fishermen and fly tyers.

It’s show time!

Two weekends ago we attended the British Fly Fair International, which was, as always, an excellent and very well organised event.

Trout fishing in Dalarna

The great grayling fishing in Älvdalen draws fly fishers from all over Sweden, but many remain unaware that the area also offers excellent trout fishing. Älvdalen is Swedish and literally means ”the valley of rivers”.

When it comes to my home water, Österdaläven, it’s mostly known for its large population of grayling, which, as we all know, is a great fish to chase with the fly rod. Also, they are quite willing to rise to a well-presented dry fly, which most fly fishers appreciate. The excellent grayling fishing has pushed the trout a bit in the background. The trout population has been under pressure by a big dam and timber rafting. They have survived and the population has grown strong and offers high-quality fishing.

Cry Wolf

Countless saltwater flies have been named the key to success when it comes to catching sea trout in the salt. This time, however, the wolf is actually coming. Martin Votborg is the originator behind The Wolf and has been fishing it and tweaking the design for over 20 years. He says without any uncertainty that The Wolf catches sea trout all through the year.

By Peter Lyngby

(this artickle has been published in the danish magazine “Sportsfiskeren” and the online magazine “In The Loop Magazine”)

Sam’s One Bug

We have just passed Christmas and started the new year when a package arrived at the office – a nicely decorated package box containing a belated Christmas present from the USA with contents that really impressed us. Two nice decorated boxes containing some very nice, brightly colored and especially foam flies – the famous Sam’s One Bug that have been developed for bass fishing in the USA.

*Even the box was decorated with a beautiful drawing of the Sam’s One Bug*

*What an amazing package from Wade Bleven – son of late Craig “Sam” Blevins.*

The package came from the late Craig “Sam” Blevins son Wade Blevins, who is working to continue the story of one of the most famous foam flies for bass. We’ll turn the word over to Wade Blevins:

New Year

*The Ahrex Hooks salmon fly tied by Håkan Karsnäser*

Well, not quite yet. At the time of writing this, it’s a good 24 hours away, but it’s close enough to send you all a sincere Happy New Year from Ahrex HQ. We deeply appreciate the email, the interactions on social media, the tags, the mentions and so on. In short – thank you!

Boston Harbor striper on the fly

Fishing for stripers is incredibly popular in the US and we were lucky enough to meet one of the many skilled fishermen who enjoy this species. During the International Fly Tying Symposium in November, we met the talented guide and striper-fisher Joe Cordeiro, whom we persuaded to write a little about his fishing for what can be called the USA’s national fish – the striped bass og just stripers.

Dahlberg Diver – by Andreas Andersson

Did you catch our recently published video with Andreas Andersson? It’s a very detailed instruction on how to tie the famous fly, the Dahlberg Diver. You can tie the fly however detailed you want, but I think it’s safe to say that Andreas’ instruction is among the best and most detailed you can find on YouTube. There’s no need to go into as much detail as Andreas does. Andreas is also among the best with deer hair, so I think it’s also safe to say that no matter how detailed you want to tie your fly, there’s a lot to learn.