flytying - Ahrex Hooks

JUST ONE MORE SNACK

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.

This artickel is written by Danish photojournalist Søren Skarby

Christmas

Christmas is fast approaching – here at Ahrex HQ as well. We’re always a little more busy this time of year. The accounting for the year has to be done and there is always a little more to ship as the dealers stock up for the Christmas shopping. Some lose ends to tie up before we go on holiday and charge up for 2024. There’s also a little planning to be made – hopefully with you, our readers, as well. It’s not unlikely that there might be some new hooks next year as well.

Season is over

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.

Pike flies and dubbing brushes

From last years International Flytying Symposium; Brian Shumaker, Steve Silverio and Bob Clouser.

Before we get to that, let me remind you that we are attending the International Fly Tying Symposium in New Jersey tis weekend. We’ll be there so if you’re there, please come by and say hello.

New podcasts

We’ve slowly been making our way into the podcast format and we will continue to do so. We aim for a variety of podcasts. Some will be stories on why we fish, on the total experience of the hobby, even lifestyle for some. Others will be interviews with known fly fisher, even legends, some will be with virtually unknown fly fishers, who has something special on heart. Whether it’s on methods, strategies or flies we hope you’ll enjoy them all, maybe even consider sharing them? It’s been a bit quiet on the podcast channel since we uploaded the first ones, but we’ll fix that today.

New sizes, autumn and shrimps

We’ve added a few new sizes to our SA 250 Shrimp hooks. The SA 250 maybe be called “Shrimp” and it’s designed specifically for that and it is indeed excellent for tying shrimps, more on that below. t’s one of those hooks that has a name that does imply a very specific usage, but is really more versatile than that.

Stinger

Not the missile – at all, but a hook. A stinger hook is defined by it’s shape (as most hooks), it’s placement in the fly and the way it’s attached to the hook. Stinger hooks are short, have a fairly deep bend and are up-eyed. The up-eye is important and I’ll get back to that. Stinger hooks can be used a different ways. They can be the one hook and a fly or they can be used as a two-hook-setup, most commonly on long flies.

A love/hate relationship

I suppose there are many of those – I think all fly fishers have them, in one way or another. One of mine is definitely midges, mosquitoes, knot in Swedish – whatever you call them. Some of them are really small, bite and will at one point get under your clothing. And when they’re out, they’re usually out in bi-zillions. There are others that don’t bite, but they cal still be a nuisance when they hatch, because they always do so in great numbers. They do however also produce some really interesting, good and not least challenging fishing. Trout like feeding on them. One can wonder since they’re so small, but the numbers make them a good meal for a trout. Trout also know (well, trout don’t know anything, but you know what I mean) that especially as emergers they are an easy meal.

East Coast Magic

We have once again received a contribution from Billy Scott, whom we featured on the blog before, where he told a little about his sea trout fishing. We pleased that Billy Scott once again has shared a little info with us.

Mackerel in the summer

It’s high summer which isn’t ideal for many of the “traditional” species coveted by fly fishers. Salmon, trout, sea trout, grayling, even pike really don’t like sunny, hot weather. Fishing for perch can be really good – they like it hot and sunny. Another fish that like it hot and sunny – and one’s that’s a summer guest in nordic waters, is mackerel. Mackerel is a popular fish, but it is often hard to reach from the shore. Fishing for them from large jetties is very popular and can be very effective.