Sea bass

Hollow Sik

For many years, bucktail – deer tail hair – was a fairly inexpensive and easy-to-find material. Recently, however, it has become both costly and difficult to source. The reason is simple: demand has surged, especially among tiers who create flies for predator and saltwater fishing. As so often happens, much of the inspiration comes from the United States and the popular coastal fishing found there. In the pursuit of large, powerful predatory fish, fly tiers developed patterns that rely heavily on bucktail. Its properties and length have made it extremely popular, allowing tiers to create large flies that are still relatively light and move beautifully in the water. Even very large flies—such as Bob Popovics’ famous “Beast Fleye,” which can be tied up to 20–30 cm—remain castable with a fly rod.

Bucktail-legend Bob Popovich showing one of his Beastflies.

River Ythan’ Seatrout

The alarm rings, and at first, I wonder where I am. It takes a few moments before I remember that I’m not in my own bed but in a bed, in a small room, in a tiny house in the village of Newburgh in Scotland. My confusion can partly be explained by an early flight the day before and the fact that the clock shows only 3:45 a.m. However, it doesn’t take long before I’ve twisted out of bed and started getting dressed, realizing that I’m about to go sea trout fishing in a setting that is nothing short of spectacular.

By Håkan Karsnäser

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

Baboon – the red butt shrimp fly

Frequent users of Instagram and YouTube know that Morten Hansen, also known as Coastfly, likes realistic imitations of shrimp. None the less his favourite shrimp fly is simple and features no feelers, shell or eyes. Follow along as Coastfly explains how he ties his Baboon Shrimp.

Ever present

We’re heading into the cold season and when fly fishing for sea trout in Scandinavia, most fly fishers turn to provocative flies. Chartreuse, orange and especially pink are important colours. This really is a development that began taking place in Denmark in the late 1980s, particularly in and around Mariager Fjord in the middle of Jutland.

Fishing sea bass along the west coast of Denmark is becoming increasingly popular. It’s not new – it was in the mid to late 1990s that I first heard of a couple of pioneers targeting this unusual species. They can be found along the entire west coast, but the fishing seems to be best along the northern shores.