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.
Spinning deer hair around a hook or a tube can have different purposes. Depending on other choices muddler heads can make a fly float, wake or push water or fished on a sinking line or weighted. We’ve had a lot of rain in Denmark the past few weeks and I decided that I wanted a fairly small fly, fast sinking and one that sinks fast, so I don’t lose too much swing while waiting for the to drag the fly down.
Continue reading “Sonic Tube Muddler”
Flat wing flies are widely spread and I suspect well known by most fly fishers who fish for almost any predatory fish. Drawing on inspiration from the old long shank traditional streamers, Ken Abrames created a style of fly which is now know as a “flat wing”. The defining element is simply one or more feathers, usually in the tail of the fly, tied so they lie flat and not stand up. Like so many other influential fly tiers, Ken Abrames’ fly was based on keen observation of the bait fish the stripers eat in the North East of the USA.
Summer is upon us, which as so many other seasons offer new opportunities. Sea trout are migrating to the rivers and many really don’t start fishing for them until now – myself included. It’s fun fishing, often in the evenings and in the dark and that feeling of a sea trout grabbing a big, black tube fly in the surface often startles me. The big ones can sound like someone dropped a refrigerator on the fly and feel like it too.
Continue reading “Alternatives”
Photo: Matt Gymon / Freestone River Photography.
I’m sure there’s some truth behind that – to an extent, because it’s certainly far from impossible to catch big fish on small flies. However, this is about big flies and there can be little doubt that big, predatory fish mainly feed to bigger prey, mostly smaller fish. A dense hatch of bugs will bring any trout up, but a bif fly will tempt them consistently, all year round.
Continue reading “Big flies – big fish?”
Today I’m pleased to present af blog text from Matt Redmond, who has kindly submitted this text about his awesome looking streamer flies and how he fished them. Matt Redmond is an avid fly angler and tier based in Northeast Ohio. He’s spent the last decade exploring the Great Lakes and their connecting waters with a special interest in steelhead, smallmouth bass, and freshwater drum.
Enjoy this!
The question is not how to fish, but why you do it. The author and his fishing buddies do it out of necessity. It’s more important than life and death to them to escape the human world, step in to water and wave a stick. Left on the shore is their misery and worries. Standing in the water they find freedom, healing and occasionally a fish.
Battles are lost and won with tongue in cheek and always celebrated with mountains of cake and an endless stream of fresh espresso coffee. To the band of brothers it’s more important who you fish with than how big the fish is; except for the ones lost.
You may not learn a lot about catching more and bigger fish, but reading these stories is like holding a mirror up in front of yourself getting a little wiser. The small why is a big one.
Most of us probably have too many fly tying materials. Do we really need it all? Certainly not, not least because some materials are good for many different flies if you are a little creative. Finding substitutes for original materials became necessary already around the turn of the century, because many materials became hard to get.
It happens that the staff here at Ahrex HQ goes fishing (regularly, in fact), but sometimes further from home than usual. Last fall Morten accepted and invitation from Gary Dubiel and our US representative, Steve Silverio, to join them both on a trip chasing huge redfish on the Neuse River.
For most in the Northern Hemisphere winter is either here or fast approaching. This doesn’t mean that fishing is over, but I believe that most of us fish a little less and some not at all, perhaps depending on how diverse you are in your fishing. Here in Scandinavia, lots of fly fishers fish for several different species. In the salt, early winter is actually a very good time to chase for one of the elusive, chrome sea trout that skip the spawning run. Pike are also in season and are hungry, busy feeding and getting ready for the slow winter months and cold water.
