Three flies for Trout and Grayling.

The Fish

Brook trout - Salmo Trutta Fario

Grayling - Thymalus Thymalus

Trout come in three varieties in Sweden.
First, head of the family is the seatrout, searun brown or archetype for the family. Salmo Trutta and the fishing for these are conducted either like that for Salmon in rivers or at the coast with onehanded rods. I won't cover these in this post.

Then there is the Salmo Trutta Lacustris or Brown Trout, the regular model so to speak.
Local morphs can be found and they often move between lakes and river systems.
A fish of 3-4 kilos is considered a trophy fish

The third one is Salmo Trutta Fario or Brook Trout. They are generally riverbound and tends to be the smallest morph.
A fish of about 40 cm is very nice.
They are not to be confused with what Americans call Brookies, those are Salvelinus Fontinalis, a relative of our own Arctic Char, Salvelinus Alpinus.

The Grayling is another salmonoid distinguished by it's grand dorsal fin.
They also have morphs all over the world but our tends to be silver with a red and purple dorsal.

While trout,and especially the lakerun variety, can become pescavore grayling and brook trout tend to eat insects their whole life.
They inhabit the same waters many times and can be caught on the same flies, hence the shared post.

The Gear

As i mostly fish small waters with fairly small fish i find it more fun and more usefull to use a 8' #4 rod with a floating line.
When the water is really high or if i'm fishing a lake i sometimes use a 9' #6 also with a floating line, in the case with the high and/or cold water i use a light skagit setup to deliver the flies deeper. None of these flies will be covered here though as most of this fishing is going on in the summer when the fish gladly rise to the surface to sip floating insects.
Thin leaders is a must here but i never really used anything thinner than 0.18mm.

The Flies

Choosing just three was incredibly hard as this is a couple of species that eat a variety of insects (and even small fish in the case of the trout) but i concluded this was my top pick.

Elk Hair Caddis

This one was an obvious.
Half of my box is composed of these buggers.
Tied to imitate any of the Caddis species i find that it works well generally from early season to late autumn,they seem to imitate a wide variety of insects.
This one is my own variety with a dubbed head or torso.
I always tie a different colour on the body and the head though sometimes the colours are reversed.
I fish them in streams free drift and in lakes i tend to give a bit of movement by raising my rodtip up high and wiggle it a bit and the fly looks like an insect struggling on the surface.

Materials used in this fly are:
Body -  Moose Ear, Dark gray
Wing - Deer hair, Rusty
Head - Moose Ear, Light Gray
Hook- Kamasan B420 Sedges #12

Purple Nymph

When you're not fishing a dry you better have something to get down a bit.
There is a great variety of nymphs and the imitations are as complex and diverse as the dry flies.
I find however that something that was NOT adapted to blend in to the rocks and debri of the underwater world is a lot easier to get the fishes attention with.
I tie these in a couple of different colours but purple is by far the best of this sort,especially for grayling.
I usually fish it dead drift upstream in rivers and creeks and jigging in lakes.

Materials used in this fly are:
Tail - Peacock neck feathers
Body -  Purple silk
Rib - Copper wire
Wing sack - Purple rabbit
Head - Tungsten bead
Hook- Kamasan B420 Sedges #12

Chernobyl Ant

This one is a bit modern and will probably raise an eyebrow on any Cane fisher or imitation purist.
It is made to look like an ant,grasshopper or beetle.
I started using it as a unsinkable fly for skating.
I cast cross stream or 45 degrees down, let the current pick up a big chunk of line to give this speed.
It imitates not the bug itself to me but the movement of a bug flying over the surface.
The strikes are usually violent and sudden, not the slow sip you get with an EHC.
It can be tied with endless combinations of coloured foam though i use cut up kneepad and find it to work perfectly.
The rubber legs should be short and respond to all the small changes in the current.
As i said, i mostly skate this fly and i never use it in a lake.
I once caught 11 trout and 8 grayling in one summer night on the very same fly.


Materials used in this fly are:
Body -  Black foam
Belly - Orange chenille
Legs - Barred Orange sili-legs
Hook- Kamasan B420 Sedges #12

That is all for this round!

Three flies for Perch

To kick of "Three flies for Sweden" i'm gonna go ahead and talk about my favourite flies for Perch.


The Fish.

The European Perch, Perca Fluviatalis, is a smaller predatory fish.
A fish above 1 kg is considered very nice and the Swedish record is just above 3 kg.
The main bulk of the population is about 2-6 hg and these are the ones i mainly target when i fish for perch.
They can be found in both fresh and brackish water.
It's a great schooling fish, incredibly fun and for me they take me back to when i first started fishing, angling with a worm when i was little, back to the simple joy of cathing a lot of them.
When you find a school you usually hook multiple fish in very few casts.

I think this is one of the best species to start your fly fishing career with.
They can be found in almost any water, hungry and give a good fight and you oftentimes have lots of room for casting.
Watch out for the spikes on the dorsal fin and gill flaps though.


The Gear

Depending on where i fish for them or rather the expected size i go for a couple of different rods.
When fishing in small forest lakes or ponds where i can expect them to be smaller i usually use my #4 rod to get a bit more fight.
Fishing in a bigger lake i usually use a #6 rod to be able to cover more water.

The line is almost always a floating line, sometimes i use a sinking tip but as these fish can usually be found in the shallows or hunting the top water a floating line will do fine.

The Flies

Zonker

The fly i use most often is a rabbit zonker fly.
Rabbit is a soft material that moves great in still or slow flowing water wich is where you'll find these redfinned buggers.
The wing is tied in just at the base to give greater movement and the beadchain eyes gives it a jigging action.
Some flash under the wing to catch the sunlight and get them going.
It imitates a small fish or a leech and can be tied in any colour, perch respond great to gaudy colours.
Tie it on any streamer hook you like.
Somewhere from 4-8 cm in length depending on the size of fish you are targeting.

Materials used in this fly are:
Body -  Black woolen yarn
Rib - Stainless wire
Wing - Dark purple rabbit zonker and pearl flash
Head - Fur from the same skin as the zonker.
Eyes - Beadchain.
Hook- Kamasan B180 Low water Salmon #6

Crazy Charlie

Crazy Charlie was first invented as a Bonefish fly to fish on the Carribean flats.
It is however a fantastic fly for perch when you find them really shallow.
The eyes are tied on the up side of the hook flipping it over.
I fish this fly on a long leader at depths of 0.5-1 metre and let it sink to the bottom, pull it home and let it stir up mud, let it sink again.
Tied on a maggot hook, the type you use for icefishing, the hook point faces downward and the fish are securely hooked in the upper lip.
This is a fairly weedless fly as well.

Materials used in this fly are:
Body and Wing - Pearl thread
Rib - Copper
Eyes - Beadchain.
Hook- Mustad Maggot hook #12

Perch Popper

Popping for perch is not something you get to do every day unfortunatly.
It's reserved for the heights of summer but when you get to throw poppers it's the most fun fishing you'll ever get.
The main goal here is to generate sound and movement and trigger fish that are hunting the top water to hammer it.
Tie it fairly big, you want to make it worth their while (but not to big unless you target the biggest fish. This one is about 6 cm)
The marabou and schlappen tail gives a lot of movement and volume while the rubber offer even more.
The head is made out of a kneepad that i use a 10mm leather gauge to punch out and then paint with waterproof marker.
There are lots of nice popper heads do buy out there but i use these, simple to make and really cheap.

Materials used in this fly are:
Tail - Green marabou, pearl flash
Collar - Black Schlappen
Head - Kneepad 10mm popper head.
Hook- Kamasan B180 Low water Salmon #6

That concludes the Three flies for Perch!

Is the pike premiere getting closer?

Well of course it is.
But is it in the forseeable future?

I think so.
This weekend i'm heading south for a meeting and i'm hoping to be able to squeeze some pike fishing in to these days.
Not very likely but i just might.

In news from my own river the ice is starting to creak and crack and there's been some waterflow on it, weighting it down and hopefully soon enough it'll release its grip.
Next week promises up to +9 degrees,hopefully that'll be the end of winter.
If so it'll be an exceptionally early spring and a very long pike spring season!

I've been tying some more, ran out of Big Fly Fiber and i really want some more of it, it's a great material and the flies look awesome.

Big Pink:

Pike flies with Niklaus Bauer.

Yesterday was a fun evening (though a bit short)
Pike flyfisher profile Niklaus Bauer visited our local flytying club and showed a couple of patterns.
Nothing out of the ordinary but some neat tricks for handling materials.

What i liked most was that he gave away his pike fly to a young guy aspiring to start with pike on the fly.

I got some inspiration,got to talk some matierials and have a look at all those fancy ones i want but can't afford.
Nice to see what's out there anyways.

Notes on curing skins to use for fly tying.

Some of us live in areas of the world, or travel to, where there's hunting going on wich usually means that it's not overly complicated to get hold of some furs and skins.

This is one way of curing the skins so that you can use the furs for tying.
I've do this mainly with the "scrap" parts of the animals, parts that don't really have another use.

I've used the inside of mooses ears (the outside is great for warm hats or mittens but the inside has less hair and really only the edges of the ear has a use) and with a hare mask.
The same principle can be used with any skins from game or fowl.
The hare, by the way was supplied by a neighbour. Came knocking on the door and asked if i wanted a hare.
And out came the knife. It was a great dinner.

Anyway.

You need a couple of things.

1. A sharp knife for skinning. Go to a hunters forum or such for skinning lessons.

2. A slightly dull knife for skraping the skins (I use a special tool but as not everyone have tanning gear at home we'll make due with a dull knife.

3. Salt. Regular salt.

Start by skinning the animal and cutting away the piece you want to save for tanning and scrape them, put them in a freezer and then proceed to the pieces you just want to cure.
Mind that you don't cut holes in the skin,you want a pretty product.

Scrape the skins, get rid of sinews and meat.
Wash them in Cold water (always use cold water when dealing with raw skins, they can get rock hard from warm water) with some soap or such to get rid of the blood.
Wringe them to get rid of excess water.

Scrub the meat side with salt.
Seriously, a lot of salt, you can't really overdo it.

Place the skin somwhere with a lot of air circulation.
Not nescesserily warm, just an airflow that helps lift the moisture out and away.

The hairs will probably be lumped together but no worries.
Once dried you can just brush the skin a bit and it looks great.

This is one of many methods to cure a skin.
You wont get a smooth and flexible skin, that takes different tanning methods and softening etc.

But it's great for fly tying.

Winter hare. About an hour of work, enough fur for hundreds of flies.

Bombs away

First of, i'm a bit sorry for not posting in almost a month.
On the other hand, i've been out fishing.

Anyways, here's my newest fly and newest idea.
I noticed that the trout in my local river more often than striking the fly while it was drifting attacked fiercly when it was beeing stripped home.

I started fishing my flies in this way on purpose but they all got drowned and sank and didn't give that nice V pattern on the surface.
I thought to myself that maybe it's the action of the fly, not the pattern that triggers the strike.

So inspired by patterns such as Goddards Sedge and salmon bombers i came up with these.
Basicly boiled down to nothing more than a deerhair cone.
Floats well and is meant to be fished striped or skated, crosscurrent or right upstream.

I tried them out and they work amazingly well!
The fish strike them with such ferocity that they jump out of the water.
And if they miss they come around and strike again or they chase they fly, one of them struck the fly three times before it got it proper.

I call them Micro Bombers and i tie them on hooks about #12

New materials.

 Today i donned the usual viking outfit (yes, there is one) and went down to the local yearly mediveal market to have a few beers with a mate, play some games and have a look around.
As usual i was on the lookout for flytying materials, there's always an abundance of feathers and furs to be found in those markets and way below fishing store prices.

I payed in total 200 swedish crowns or about 20 euro for all of this.
One big piece of dark red/purple fox that turns black at the tips.
One fairly large piece of blue/black racoon.
One very dark purple whole rabbit skin.
One lepard dyed whole rabbit skin.
A whole peacock sword.

The sword is neatly cut into bits to fit my tying box.
As you know it's a versitile material used for tags, nymph bodies, dryfly torsos and also goes in classic flies like the Sunrays Shadow among other things.

Rabbit is another material i really like.
It makes a great wing for streamers and has a way to almost vibrate in the current.
To strong of a current and it will collapse though.
It still makes a good swung fly and is excellent fished in still water.
The hair also makes an excellent dubbing for nymphs.

I like those moment when you buy those odd materials in an odd place and the salesman wonder what it's for and you reply with "fly tying".
That usually sparks some conversations.

Feathers and furs.

Rabbit zonker sculpin for seatrout or large browns.

Hairwinged salmon fly quickly named "Nightmare".
Peacock tag, silver body with thick silver rib,
black rooster, fox and racoon wing and guinnea fowl hackle.

I like adding a bit of  a silver body to my salmon flies, i have a theory that states that a swung fly should in some circumstances have a bit of material that gives a bit of reflection to catch the attention of the fish.
Not that i fish for salmon and seatrout a lot but they are fun flies to tie.

Top water pike flies

I don't often tie from books, of course i do take inspiration but this time i did tie a true topwater classic.
The Dahlberg Diver.
Two colours, yellowish and white.
Two different sizes.

It was a while since i cut any kinds of muddler heads but i'm fond of the second one, the white one.
The purple wing is purely cosmetic.

Spring is comming

It's been warm the last week and almost all the snow is gone.
Some rain and heavy wind should probably make short work with the ice.
I went to a small river some days ago and it was a proper spring flood, brown raging water!
It'll settle down soon and hopefully the water will rise.

In the meantime i've gotten some new materials for my tying.
Grizzly saddle and epoxy eyes from Taimen.

Here's some new stuff!

Pike fly with trailing feathers and rubber legs.

Spent Danica.
This is a work in progress using deerhair for boyancy and for wings.

For this project i shape the hooks to really look like a dying drake.

Fierce orange EHC with rubber legs.
One of my best grayling flies is the Orange Attacker (pic in the post) and i thought "what the hell, might as well try one as a dry.
You can clearly see the grayling taking an interest!

New stuff from the vice.

Todays fly tying consisted of big nymphs and larvae.
And a Caddis dryfly as well.

Got really into crocheted bodies and made these three glowbug caddis larvae and then went on to crochet the body on the dry as well.
It was a fun technique that i plan on keep using and develop my skill in!

Glowbugs

Big caddis with crocheted body.

The days collection.

Simple but nice.

A day of diverse tying

I've done a couple of diffrent flies today as well as a floating tip for my skagit setup.

First of some bushy Monster Caddis.
The are actually better looking in real life,on the photo they look a bit sloppy but still, i like them either way.
On the other hand, first try ever at this fly so i'd say it's still allright.
Tied on tubes.

Then a scaledown of an old pike-fly that i realised is to small for pike but might prove good for seatrout or steelhead if i ever get to fish for them.
I downsized it and added eyes to fit my normal 2hand fishing as well.

Lastly, a pike one.
Nothing fancy really, just got carried away with tying.

A plan missfired

So, two days ago my hopes were high for some spring pike.
Those hopes where not only dimmed but blotted out as i discovered river Våmån is completely frozen solid.

So no pike there for me, maybe next time we go up to visit.
On top of that the weather forecast is promising snow this afternoon.

Since we are gonna be here a couple of days i might try to locate a water close by that is not frozen solid.
The larger rivers around Mora and Orsa seems to be open though they are deeper and lack the vegetation suitable for pike.
Nothin much to do but curse and tie more flies.

On that note i'm trying out a sort of traveling pike kit.
Since i'm gonna go abroad for pike in may i want to try some flies now and see what materials i might be missing or find myself wanting.
The kit now consits of:
Flash in many colours
Fox hair, many colours
Holographic eyes
Rubber legs
Glue
Hooks
Vice and other tools
A newly aquired rooster saddle with barred feathers. (still not that Whiting Grizzly i'm so longing for but it's something at least.)

Got any ideas, something you could not do without?
Remember,this is a lightweight project, if i wanted to have everything i'd bring my entire kit.
And a separate bag just for that...

Pike Premiere

It's been a long winter.
But now,finally the warming rays of sun is starting to do its job proper and the snow is melting.
The ice is still on the lakes and rather thick to add to that.
Some rivers and streams are opening up though and with easter break comming up me and the lass is planning to go up to her parents, stay a few days, take care of our house and get it sorted for moving in and i plan to make my pike premiere of the year up in river Våmån, specificly in the lower regions.
The upper are still iced over and the pike are in low stock anyways.
Up there it's mostly grayling and brown trout and the season start for those are not until the sixteenth of May.

So pike it is!
Hopefully the river is fairly open and that some pike will have started moving up in preparation of spawning.
Might as well bring a rod anywhere you go,wouldn't you say?
There's always some fishing to be done.

To that end and in general preparation for the pike season i've tied some more glitter ones.
Experimented a little bit with fox hair and added rubber legs to a couple ones.
The all-hair ones are way to small for my tase in pike flies,only about 10 cm(over all they are a bit small, brown/orange flash/hair fly is 15 and YES that is a bit small), but the hairs lenght has its limitations.
Gonna have to get my hand on some Big Fly Fibre or Craftfur or something like that, tying with just fox hair is a bit expensive...
I do however like to look of the flies, especially the monochrome one.

Here's to hoping and a good comming pike season!

News from the vice

So i've been looking around a bit for inspiration.
I find that when i tie flies for rainbow,seatrout and salmon i almost always resort to hairwings.
Quick and easy to tie, look good andthey work.

But i want more, i want to stir the pot and give a bit more attitude to the flies.
So i combined elements from classical salmon flies with the rude look from intruder type patterns and nice wing from the furwinged ones.

Silver tag, dubbing, palmered soft hackle, fox hair wing, bead eyes and schlappen.
Tied on a single.

Tic-Tac-Toe.
Blue,Orange,Green.

Windy closeup

A bit more attitude.

I paid a visit to Capricorn, a "local" fly fishing-only shop and got some new materials.
These included rubber legs.
Here's some more contemporary ones using sili legs as well.
I must say they really lift the fly and a pack contains about a hundred strips.
These are all tied using only one strip.
Tied on double.

Bunny Zonker, Fox hair and Bucktail

Closup.

Zonker with rubber legs and schlappen.

What's new?

Dries for the summer.
Skater Wooly Bugger with foam top.
Hares ear Streaking Caddis.
All time favourite Elk Hair Caddis.

So. What's new?
First of it's February.
We are slowly progressing towards warmth,spring and eventually summer.
The days have gotten longer and a bit warmer and i spent a couple of wonderfull hours down by the river today swinging flies for rainbow trout.
No takers but i couldn't care less, the weather was amazing.

Unfortunatly one of my line-guides are busted and in need of repair and i'm looking in to how to do it,where to get new guides etc.
Got a couple of broken loops on my shooting line and T-17 tip respectivly so i'm gonna take care of those as well.
Mayby i'll upload a little tutorial of my way of making new loops.

And of course there's been some fly-tying!
Mainly new dries for the spring and summer, some for the twohander,some for my smaller rods.
Some of them you can see above.

Lastly there's been an icefishing session with my girlfriend.
Nothing caught, we tried for rainbow trout angling with shrimp.
They are there in the lake but they are very spaced.
I thought we'd catch some perch at least but no luck there either.
Ahh well...

Happy couple.
Notice the ice dubbs,very important to stay safe on the ice.

What's down there?

Keep on fishing, the spring is almost here!

Flashy fly experiment

The latest fly tying experiment concists of playing around with flash.
Nothing new in that sence, i've tied my pike flies in this manner for a couple of years.
These are on tubes and a bit smaller, targeting rainbow trout and sea trout.

I'm not entirely happy with them.
I have an idea about how they should look but it's not really all the way there.

So this post is basicly to say; I'm alive, this is a work in progress and that not all the flies that we as fishermen tie turn out the way we want to.

More intruders

Tied another one, purple this time.

I'm finding that i'm lacking a lot of feather materials such as hackles and saddles of different sorts.
The flies are all right but not all the way there.

New flies for Stockholm

Inspired by a picture one of my co-fishermen in Stockholm sent me i tied up a couple of colourfull big ones for the cold waters of Scandinavian winter.

So here's my first try on intruders, did a couple of different colours with and without chain eyes.
I like the aestetics of these big gaudy bugs.
Not your classic nor contemporary hairwings but a good way to get to use some of those seldom used materials, fun combinations and go nuts with colours.

Orange. Best one in my opinion.
Went for a more "dirty orange" look and added some black.

Blue and silver with chain bead eyes.

Tube fly adapter kit

The pellet and the egg - a fly tying story

So.
The egg pattern is a well known and insanely simple pattern that i'm sure can be complicated and perfected in many fascinating ways.
Here i've just tied it with one material, orange antron yarn.
I also tied a black pellet for those newly escaped farmed rainbow trout that hasn't really adapted to feeding on living things yet but find this black depressing blob to be a worthy feast.

While some fisherman might not like the idea of catching a fish on a pellet imitation (i'm not entirely sure either) it is in fact imitation fishing.
Find out what the fish eat and then present that to them.

However these 1 cm balls of dubbing have another application as well and that is combined with other,more elaborate, flies!

Adding to the body.

 Sometimes you may find that the fish is indeed biting but you tied your fly on a short tube and simply need a bit more body on the fly.
Slide on a dubbing ball of suitable colour (or more than one,depends on what you want) and voliá,you now have a longer fly with the hook set further back.

Instant leech

When it comes to the egg it is already part of the well known Egg sucking Leech pattern.
And here you can see i've just slid the egg on in front of the fly to create an ESL from a different one.
Can be usefull if you want to fish a specific fly but just need a little bit of a striking point for instance.

Other interesting adaptations can include hackle collars or deer hair heads to give your fly a little bit more movement in the water or turn it in to a skater fished with a dry line.

Slide the hackle in front of the fly to add colour,slide the deer hair behind the fly to get some volume and lift and fish it with a sinking line or exactly match the current worm hatch size by stacking upp hackle segments until you reach the perfect lenght.

I'm sure you can all think of thousands of applications for both saltwater and freshwater, both flowing and still!

Last piece of the pussle

So here's the last piece of the swap.
The nymph "The Orange Attacker", one of my very best patterns that very seldom fails to deliver fish.
A pure attractor pattern wich sinks fast and fishes deep.