Fishing trout in still water has a lot in common, whether it’s salt or fresh water. The trout live much in the same way: The feed and grow to maturity in the large still water and migrate to streams to spawn. Whether fresh or salt, the habitats also share some of the same types of prey – gammarus and baitfish/fry being two of the notable ones. In both fresh and salt water you can even be lucky enough to find trout feeding on terrestrials.
Continue reading “FRESH OR SALT?”
Game Changers are a relatively new style of flies, tied on a number of shorter or longer shanks, connected together with small eyes. The shanks themselves come from just a centimetre in length and upwards. Linked together like a chain, the style and technique is excellent for tying big flies, long flies and even smaller flies with plenty of built in mobility.
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Winter has arrived in Scandinavia. We have snow in the northern Denmark and in Sweden. At Håkan’s there’s quite a bit. Snow and cold is a bit of a showstopper when it comes to fishing, but here in Scandinavia, not always. A drop in temperature in the salt usually sends the rest of the spawners up river – and the big, shiny sea trout are left. December is usually quite a good month. The temperature obviously drops in the lakes as well, but that’s not necessarily detrimental to fishing either. Pike spawn in the spring, so they have to keep themselves well fed during the winter and a drop in temperature often seems to get them eating.
Continue reading “Marabou Pike Fly”
We have a large program on hooks for toothy predators, cleverly named Predator Series. Big predators like muskies, pike, perch and zander simply are easier to land on proper, specialty hooks. The Predator Series is close to our hearts and roots, not least because Morten Valeur was one of the pioneers on pike on the fly in Scandinavia. He has in fact written a book dedicated partly to pike flies.
Continue reading “Snap, rigs and wires”
It’s fall and fall is the same as new hooks in the line-up here at Ahrex Hooks. We’ve been very busy that last couple of months packing the new hooks for shipment, but that doesn’t hold us back releasing new hooks. This one in the Predator-series, the new PR 354, is a bit of an odd one. I’m quite sure that many of our seasoned readers are familiar with this style of hook, or may be able to figure out its use.
Continue reading “New Release – PR354 Popping Skipping Bug”
It’s not uncommon for new flies, styles and patterns to emerge from combinations of other well established ones. Some turn out really well – some not quite as well. But when you combine the superior mobility of a zonker with the basic principle of the upside down properties of a a jig hook, I say we’ve got something good.
Continue reading “Jigs and zonkers”
We released the first hooks in the XO-series almost exactly a year ago – on October 23rd 2020. And while it might have been an extra ordinary accomplishment to release the second hook in the series almost exactly a year after the series-release, it is of course completely unintended.
Continue reading “New Release – XO 750 Universal Stinger”
It sounds a bit like a new direction in modern, Scandinavian cuisine, but it’s not. It’s a new hook in our Nordic Series. Do they ever stop releasing new hook, you might think. Well, not in any foreseeable future. Nordic Series was the first line of hooks we released, so named to mark that we are a Danish hooks brand. Most of the hooks are intended and designed for saltwater fishing in Scandinavia, but most of them are very versatile and will fit a number of flies for all sorts of fishing.
Continue reading “New Nordic Series”
‘I have always enjoyed the fall season on the coast. I particularly like the fall season, because the fish are always in good condition after feasting their way through spring and summer.’
Andreas Larsson has written this week’s blog for us – a few tips for fall fishing along the coast and a beautiful zonker fly for the season.
Most fly fishers know the style of flies called Matukas. They are a style – originated in New Zealand; a matuka is not a fixed pattern. In fact, their proper name shouldn’t even be matuka, but rather matuku. Matuku is the Maori name for the bittern, and it was the bittern’s feathers that were used for the first matukas (I’ll from here continue using the now common name).
Continue reading “Matukas”