Soft hackle flies are some of the most universal and, for me at least, some of the most important in my trout/grayling flyboxes. I fish them as teams of two in the rivers and I often use them as droppers in stillwater. While the old, English masters of the tradition actually were quite specific on which insects their dressings imitate, they are often good year round.
Continue reading “Soft Hackle Flies – The Swedish Tradition”
It’s January 1st and time to wish all of you, our readers, a very Happy New Year. And not only that – also a very big and sincere thank you for all the support you’ve all given us in the past year. We are grateful and humbled by it.
It’s been a bit of a crazy year, and I’m sure every last one of you not only agree, but also are tied of reading about in various sum-ups of the year.
We got this very nice piece from Charlie Keyser, and we thought you’d appreciate it, so despite the above, I’ll now hand you off to Charlie.
Photocredit: Fly Fishing nation – @flyfishingnation
Salmon season is over and in general I think it’s been a fair season over most of Northern Europe and the UK. Instead of taking a look at season statistics, huge fish, happy stories, stories of the lost fish, I’ll turn you over to Stephen Carella, who in this nice story takes a look at something important that sometimes happens when you go fishing. Making friends – an important aspect of flyfishing.
Brown Bodied Parachute tied by Jan de Haas.
We’re fly fishers and fly tiers – that’s why me make fly hooks. Being fly tiers we love quality fly tying materials (almost) as much as we love quality fly hooks. There are so many high quality materials available today that it’s hard to believe – natural materials, synthetics, furs, hairs, silicone products, rubber. But in some way the quintessential fly tying material is the feather. The simplest of modern dry flies – from the Halford-era consists on a tail of hackle fibres, a dubbed body and a front hackle. Even the very first fly in written sources mentions the use of feathers.
On southern Fyn (the isle in the middle of Denmark, which happens to have some extraordinarily good sea trout fishing) you’ll find a rarity – at least in Denmark. No, it is in fact something as ordinary as a fishing lodge. There plenty of fishing lodges around the world, and yet, Denmark Fishing Lodge on the edge of Helnæs Bay on Fyn was the first, full-service fishing lodge in Denmark.
Garfish is one of those fish, where the best fishing weather actually is nice weather. Clear skies, a light off-shore breeze, 20 degrees and blazing sun and garfish are almost a guarantee. They are fairly easy to catch and they are often present in numbers. They are the quintessential good-weather-fish on the Danish beaches. That presents a unique opportunity to bring the family out – lets the kids and/or your spouse catch a garfish or let them hang out on the beach while you spend a couple of hours in the water.
At his time of the year the trophy for the coastal flyfisher is silver-coloured.
Over 20 years ago, I was visiting a small fly shop here in Denmark called “Fugl & Fjer Fluebinding”. Directly translated that means Bird and Feather Flytying. The shop was run by my good friend, Jens Pilgaard, and was essentially a specialty shop for materials for classic salmon flies. I didn’t tie classic salmon flies back then, but Jens’ shop was always a treat to visit, because one would always stumble over something new or strange to tie onto a hook.
The blog this week is about the amazing fishing in Scotland. Two scottish anglers, Fraser McIntosh and Andrew Herkes have started a project named Angling Scotland. We have been talking to the guys behind and here is their own words about Angling Scotland.
We have a saying in Danish, which directly translated goes “Dear child has many names”, which is another way of saying that we have many different ways of talking about the things we really love. Among the simplest of flies – perhaps the simplest of them all, except for Oliver Kite’s “Bare Hook Nymph”, which was a hook with a copper wire thorax, are the softhackles, also knwn as flymphs (flymer in Swedish), spiders and perhaps most correct as North Country Wets.
Continue reading “Softhackles – spiders – North Country wets – flymfer”
From all of us at Ahrex, we wish everyone of you a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
