You may have spotted these news on Facebook and Instagram already. If not – today is the official release of a new dry fly hook in the FW-series: the 504/505 Short Shank Dry Fly Hook.
Continue reading “Ahrex FW 504/504 Short Shank Dry Fly Hook”
You may have spotted these news on Facebook and Instagram already. If not – today is the official release of a new dry fly hook in the FW-series: the 504/505 Short Shank Dry Fly Hook.
Continue reading “Ahrex FW 504/504 Short Shank Dry Fly Hook”
If the fish are playing tricky, the best approach is sometimes to do something totally different (and often something that all the other flyfishers don’t do). And sometimes a big, high floating dry is the right way forward.
Our Swedish friend, Joel Skoghäll once again has provided us with some material for the blog that we’re very happy share. This time, a cripple-version of one of the most famous American dry flies, the classic Adams. The fly is a old one – from 1922, where Michigan fly tyer Leonard Halladay tied it on the request of his friend, Charles F. Adams. The classic Adams is a traditionally hackled dry fly with upright, hackle-tip wings. A parachute-version is a well known variation and here, Joel presents a crippled merger version.
I’ll give the word to Joel:
Every trout angler knows the satisfaction of watching a trout repeatedly rise to take the same insect on the surface. As you carefully note the trout’s position, you tie on a close imitation of the mayflies the trout is eating and as the first cast lands, out come is almost given.
The largest mayfly in Scandinavia are the Ephemera danica and it’s stillwater relative, the E. vulgata. The are the same size and the vulgata tend to be a little darker than the danica. They hatch more or less at the same time, and both of course offer excellent fishing. Our “house fly tier”, Håkan Karsnäser lives close to the Hökensås lakes in Sweden and fishes the hatch every year, so I asked Håkan for a few tips and tricks, and a couple of good flies. Over to Håkan…
Dry flies have one thing in common – they all float. Some float because they are tied of buoyant materials (foam hoppers for instance), some depend on chemical help in the form of a silicone floatant and some are designed to partially float (emergers and of course the legendary Klinkhamer Special). And finally, some are tied so they rest on the surface film as a result of their dressing.
If you live in Scandinavia, and fish for sea run brown in the salt, you’ve heard of Claus Eriksen – well known, some would say legendary, Danish sea trout fisherman.
The Europea 12 is a simple, beautiful dry imitation of a sedge or caddis. Originally it’s a French pattern, attributed to André Ragot – according to the Danish author Preben Torp Jacobsen. I’ve not been able to find out how old the pattern is, but Preben Torb Jacobsen has published it in 1976, so it’s older than that. Something tells me it’s from the 1960s, but that’s nothing but a hunch.