Salmon - Ahrex Hooks

The Salmon Situation

We’ve covered the seemingly dire situation unfolding in Norway this season. Very, very few salmon running on some of the big and famous rivers. So few in fact that Norwegian authorities chose to close 33 of them entirely. It seems that the situation has changed for some rivers as 16 of them have been opened for fishing again, which is very good news. Mainly for the salmon as it means that there’s a viable run, but of course also for the fishermen and -women. The locals can enjoy the fishing in their rivers and those travelling can do the same, as well as bring in the lift to the local economies. Of course potentially avoiding losing a week of prepaid fishing.

Train wreck

Photo: Undefined fly fishing project.

As the salmon season is developing at the moment, there is reason for serious concern. We publish this blog on Fridays and it’s always nice to be able to give the readers something good to start the weekend on. I don’t like it, but this one’s not good – it is, in fact, quite grim.

Instant classics?

Some flies just become instant classics. Usually of course because they catch a lot of fish. Often also because they are marketed or promoted by some one well known – who catches well on them. In turn they catch even more fish, because lots of fly fishermen begin using them. It happens that it spirals completely out of control to a degree where certain, essentials materials become hard to get.

Stinger

Not the missile – at all, but a hook. A stinger hook is defined by it’s shape (as most hooks), it’s placement in the fly and the way it’s attached to the hook. Stinger hooks are short, have a fairly deep bend and are up-eyed. The up-eye is important and I’ll get back to that. Stinger hooks can be used a different ways. They can be the one hook and a fly or they can be used as a two-hook-setup, most commonly on long flies.

Thunder and Lightning

Perhaps the most famous of the classic salmon flies? Perhaps the one with the most variants and modern interpretations? If one ever were to answer that one question that no fly fisher ever wants to answer, the answer could be Thunder and Lightning. Let’s take a closer look at this beautiful combination of black, orange, blue and dark brown, colours.

Tubeflies – big and small

A century ago it wasn’t uncommon, in fact it was the norm, to fish for salmon with huge hooks. Size 2/0 was a small one and when hauling from boats, size 6/0 up to 8/0 were used. Although the rods were long and made of green heart and the lines heavy, I doubt they could cast an 8/0 salmon iron from the bank. On the other hand, a certain Alexander Grant made a witnessed 65 yard spey cast with a double handed green heart rod. So who knows?

Two books

Today we would like to present you with two books, both very recent releases. We all like fish and one is on fish and fish alone and is a quite spectacular project. The other is about flies and we all like flies.

Our salmon hooks

When we started Ahrex we were of course painfully aware of the hooks that needed to be in our program. Salmon hooks were of course among them and since the beginning in 2016, we’ve been expanding the range and we’re not done yet. I’ll present a new hook at the end of this blog, so please read along.

Nymphing for salmon?

Do salmon eat nymphs? Yes, at least as younglings in the river, before they enter the sea, they do. But I think it’s common knowledge that once they enter the rivers, they stop eating. How they manage to survive for several months and not least why they take our flies is a subject for another blog. However, it’s clear that salmon do take flies that imitate large stoneflies nymphs and even ones fished upstream and dead drifted past their lies.

New hook – Anadromous Nymph HR416

*Big sizes salmon calls for a strong hook. Photo: Jesper Lindquist Andersen*

Fishing for migratory fish – anadromous species – such as salmon, sea trout, steelhead or rainbows and trout both from the sea and the great lakes on their way to the spawning banks has been the purpose of this new hook that we have been looking forward to introducing to you.