predator - Ahrex Hooks

Three Flies

We have decided that we’ll start running a series of blogs with the same theme – Three Flies. These won’t be the usual “if you could only have three flies…”, but more as an inspiration to those starting fly fishing or venturing in to new species and locations. We’ll try and mobilise some of our Ahrex ambassadors and ask them about three essential flies for their fishing and local conditions. Since we’ll depend on the good will of our ambassadors and others as well, they won’t be regular entries, but ones that we’ll run every now and then. They’ll be seasonally relevant as well.

Gartside’s Gurgler

I’m generally very reluctant to use the word, “iconic”, but in the case of Jack Gartside’s Gurgler I think it fits. Gartside died in 2009, but has left a legacy of so many flies, for so many different applications. Many of them all-purpose flies that are at home on a bass lake as they are in the salt.

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

Depth Probing for Perch

The founder and owner of Ahrex Hoooks, Morten Valeur, loves to fish for perch – especially on the bigger lakes where he has spent countless hours refining his flies, strategies, and techniques. In the following, Morten will present you with a fly tying tutorial for his most recent super fly, the Flash Tail Beast, and tips on how to fish it.

By Peter Lyngby

(this artickle has been published in the danish magazine “Sportsfiskeren” and the online magazine “In The Loop Magazine”)

Floating sub-surface

*Another rainbow-trout that couldn’t resist the floating Booby fly fished on a sinking line.*

There’s nothing new about fishing floating flies on sinking lines and I talked a little about it earlier this month, when I was preparing for the Hökensås Trout Safari, where I am right now, writing this blog entry. Booby flies are very popular on the Hökensås lakes and following a discussion in the car on the way up here from Denmark, I had to write a friend to get a little bit of the history behind the fly.

Snap, rigs and wires

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.

New Release – PR354 Popping Skipping Bug

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.

NEW RELEASE – PR 378 GB SWIMBAIT

Yes, we’re not done releasing new hooks this fall, and today we’re releasing a really exciting project.

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Esox Only – Christian Drost

DFL 18-10-05

We’re proud of our Scandinavian roots, so hooks for Scandinavian saltwater were the first we released. Pike on the fly also has a long tradition in Scandinavia, and I know he’s not going to like this, but it has to be said – Morten was one of the pioneers over 30 years ago and has been very influential in developing the fishing and the flies, so pike hooks were just as important to us.

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Pike – final rounds

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It’s Friday the 13th (!!!) and that means roughly two weeks left before pike are protected for a month or more (in Denmark, April 1st – April 30th in freshwater, April 1st – May 15th in saltwater – be sure to check your own areas and waters). So if you have the urge, maybe it’s time to get out there and see if you can find a couple of hungry pike.

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