Portraits - Ahrex Hooks

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.

Internation Fly Tying Symposium 2022 – II

We’re back from a hectic weekend in Somerset, NJ. The short story is that we were happy and privileged to be a part of it, we have a great time and it was a pleasure to participate in this legendary and international event.

International Fly Tying Symposium 2022

IFTS is an abbreviation for the International Fly Tying Symposium – an annual show that has been running for 31 years. The show is an institution on the international fly-show-scene and one that has attracted some of the biggest names in the fly tying world. We, Ahrex, are going this year for the first time and we’re excited and proud. Please come and say hello, we’re hanging out at the Regal & Keough stand.

Rounding off Hökensås

As you know from last week’s blog, a handful of us were at Hökensås Sportsfiske last weekend. Søren, Martin and myself together with some friends, Kirsten, John and Klaus and we had a great time. We enjoyed the fantastic nature reserve that houses the some 25 lakes that Hökensås Sportsfiske manages. And of course the high quality fishery and fish. Stocked lakes, yes, but far from easy. We ended on Sunday with dead calm conditions, which made the fishing quite difficult for everyone (except Håkan and Marcus, of course). I spent the better part of the day, wasting time I’ll never get back trying to catch a trout on a dry fly.

Rounding off

… the Swedish sea trout season. Unlike in Denmark, where fishing for sea trout along the coastlines is open all year, Sweden has a season opening January 1st and closing September 15th, of course to protect the trout migrating to the rivers to spawn. We received a little report from Mr. Trout, Peter Alexandersson, who’s had a good season. Here are his words on the 2022-season and a series of pictures.

Tied flies…

I assume that if not everyone, then the vast majority of the readers of this blog tie flies. For most fly fishers it’s a naturally, integrated part of the hobby. Most like to put their own touches on known patterns, many have personal favourites of their own design. And some of course have completely secret flies that nobody ever gets to see. But there’s a fair number of fly fishers out there, who don’t tie their flies themselves. Maybe they can’t find the time, maybe it simply doesn’t appeal to them, maybe they can’t find the time to learn.