Salmon fly - Ahrex Hooks

Closing the season

The Norwegian salmon season is coming to a close, so I’ll round things off in this blog, covering a few tips and tricks on how to fool the sometimes very difficult, late summer salmon. The river holds more salmon now. It’s usually a good mix between the now old salmon that entered the river early in the season and the late runners, which are usually the so-called grilse. Grilse are small, male atlantic salmon, still bright silver, but smaller. There are different opinions when a grilse can be called a salmon – some say over 5kg. I say three, because then I catch more salmon.

Midsummer Murders?

Not quite, but if Barnaby was as good as catching sea trout as he is catching murderers, he’d be an excellent fly fisherman. In Denmark tradition has always been that the big upstream migration of sea trout to our larger and smaller rivers being at midsummer. They do arrive earlier, the first ones, but it’s true that by midsummer, it pays off to intensify efforts.

June 1st

All season openings are exciting. The longer the closed season is, the more excited we are just to get back to, in this case, the big, Norwegian rivers. As the clock nears midnight on May 31st, the first fly fishers are at the ready, river side, the long rods strung up with heavy sinking lines, short, stout leaders and big flies. Hoping for one of the big, silvery unicorns many of us have been dreaming about since last season – or maybe since the last trip to Norway, maybe years ago. But always just happy to cast a line, feel the force of the river on both the line and the legs as you wade.

The colour of flies

There are plenty of subjects that flyfishers can discuss at length over the campfire at night. Some of them will likely even cause animated exchanges of words, in all friendliness. Rod actions, reels (from the need of a brake and upwards), lines, leaders, knots and at the business end, flies and not least the colour of them.

The Lady Caroline

The classic Spey flies are beautiful flies, and one could point to several flies, but among the most classic of the classics is The Lady Caroline. As stunning and beautiful as the “fancy flies” are, I find the Spey flies as beautiful in their simplicity and subtle nuances.

4 Weeks of Daylight

4 Weeks of Daylight is the title of a film by our friends at Fly Fishing Nation. A film documenting a unique experience. The kind of experience any adventurous fly fisher could only dream of. We had the privilige of beeing a part of sponsoring the project.

Chillimps

There are flies that are invariably associated with specific waters or places. Often, of course, those for which a specific fly might have been created. A clear example of this is a fly called Chillimps. A simple, orange palmer hackled wet fly for salmon.

New Release – HR412 Low Water Single

Home Run – either something to be achieved in base ball or a hook series from Ahrex. We prefer the latter, and the name of course refers to the fact the the Home Run-series is designed for anadromous fish. Fish that are born in freshwater, migrate to sea and return to spawn years later. Anadromous fish include atlantic salmon, steelhead and in general, most salmon species as far as I know.

Poul Jorgensen

DCP_0346

The Danish-American connection. Poul Jorgensen is a Danishman, who spent most of his life in the United States, where he earned quite a reputation as an excellent fly tyer. Being Danish he of course kept a connection to Denmark and he was, among many others of course friends with the Mad Veterinarian, Preben Torp (a well known character in Denmark).

Continue reading “Poul Jorgensen”

The Turkey

Turkey Feathers-01

I’ll leave today’s blog to Håkan Karsnäser and yet another of his material descriptions. Håkan is an excellent fly tier and even though he has a vast collection of materials, Håkan is always aware that it’s not always important to acquire new and specific materials. Often you can be creative and use what you already have by using materials in a ways they are not typically used for. Today Håkan provides some inspiration on how to use turkey tails fibres.

Continue reading “The Turkey”