Rainbow trout - Ahrex Hooks

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.

Hökensås Trout Safari

About a month ago we posted a blog about this years Trout Safari at the Hökensås fishery I Sweden. You have seen dozens of pictures from the place. It’s Håkan’s home water and a place where Morten likes to bring his camera. Small forest lakes with rainbows and a varied fishery. A great place for beginners as well as the experienced. Here you can gain your first experiences casting and fishing a fly as well as hone your skills on specific techniques.

Nymphs

Mayflies, caddis, damsels, stone flies and other water insects appear in a variety of sizes, colours and shapes. What they all have in common is that their nymphal stage lasts a year (for some more), while the winged, adult stages are very short in comparison. Logic dictates that the nymphal stages of different water insects are far more important as a good source on a yearly basis than the winged, adult ones. Many of us prefer catching trout and grayling when they’re visibly rising, but nymph fishing is just as fun and will catch fish when the dry fly doesn’t.

Weighted softhackles

Soft hackles, also commonly called spiders, are traditionally unweighted flies fished on, in or just under the surface film. Simple flies most often consisting of only a body and a hackle, every now and then a rib. They can be as deadly as they are simple.

Caddisflies

The sight of a beautiful trout or grayling rising majestically to the surface inhaling an insect is the highlight of many flyfishers dream – the sight that drives us off to the water again and again.

Phryganea Grandis

Many flyfishers are looking for the time when the big mayflies, E. Danica and E. vulgata, start to hatch in late spring and early summer. The image of a big newly hatched mayfly dun swirling down the stream or standing on the surface of a small lake, is for many of us the true picture of what flyfishing is all about. And it is great fun to see, when also the biggest fish lower their guard and start chasing those big flies. But in Stillwater, there as time that are even more fun to experience and that’s when the big Caddis flies begin to show, running the surface to safer ground.

The Mayfly

Not mayflies as such – but the mayfly, the E. Danica and it’s stillwater relative, E. Vulgata are hatching now – or will be in a matter of days. Writing a blog can be many things and repetitive to a degree is one of them. There are seasonal highlights that deserve a spot on the blog every year and I believe we’ve covered the big mayfly hatch every year since the blog began.

Pop-pop-pop

There are many fly fishers and many have different tastes and preferences. Salmon on the hitch, grayling on a deep nymph, trout on streamers and so on. But I think all fly fishers enjoy visible, vicious takes on the surface, whether on a foam beetle or a popper. Right now is perfect pop-pop-pop-time.

Old Wets

To me there are few flies that embody the whole essence of “a fly” as old, classic wet flies. There are plenty, hundreds, to choose from and I’ve featured some of them in previous posts. A few decades ago, most new fly tiers began with a Red Tag and once the basic techniques were in place, next on the agenda was learning to tie feather wings. Usually the subject was a March Brown wet. It’s simple (until you get to wings), catches well and challenges the fly tier. Hen pheasant wing slips aren’t hard for the experienced fly tier, but they’re not the easiest either.

Gary Borgers Strip Nymph

The fly on the blog today features two legends in one. We maybe close to Christmas and far away from the trout fisher’s high season – the Danica-hatch, but it’s never too late to prepare, and probably never too early either. And if it goes as it usually does, Danica-season will be upon before we know it, so here’s a little inspiration to look at.