Accidental shopping and some medicine

Today I visited the new fishing store in Helsinki called Ruoto with Heikki. Only things I was going to buy were a new pair of scissors and some white goose feathers. It didn't quite work out so easy. I ended up spending around 100€. They had some nice amherst and golden pheasant tail feathers and I just had to buy a pair of both. I also bought some peacock wing feathers and grey drake mallard. We spent over 2 hours by just checking out the new store and chatting with the staff.

When I finally got home I started tying some Hugh Falkus's Medicines. Can't figure out a more simple plate winged fly than that, but still it is such a fun fly to tie. Especially when you have good quality materials. I picked up some good mallard for the wing from Ruoto and it was almost too easy to form the wings properly.

Here's the recipe.

Hugh Falkus's Medicine

Hook: Mustad SL73UBLN

Thread: Sheer 14/0 white

Body: Flat silver tinsel

Throat hackle: Light blue cock

Wing: Grey drake mallard (2 layers)

Head: Thread and red varnish

Tomorrow I probably won't have the time to tie flies because of a long day in school and wrestling practice in the evening. On tuesday I am going to my angling clubs meeting that concerns an upcoming rod building class I am probably going to host. If people are interested on the class I will take their orders on rod blanks to add to the order on CTS.

-Niilo

Single malt whiskey and plate winged salmon flies.

Today I started my task on plate winged salmon flies. I started with a classic fly called Bridge. It was first tied by Colonel Bridge in England in the 19th century, and has been known to work well for landlocked salmon. Also there are some stories that this pattern has worked for big salmon on the river Tana, (Teno in Finnish) the border river of Finland and Norway. As for trout, Bridge works well too. Here is my own version of the fly.

Bridge

Hook: Mustad SL73UBLN

Thread: Sheer 14/0 black

Tag: Oval silver tinsel (xs)

Tail: Golden pheasant crest

Rib: Oval silver tinsel (s)

Body: 1/3 Burgundy or claret seal fur, 2/3 black seal fur

Throat hackle: Black cock

Underwing: White tipped squirrel

Wing: Bronze mallard (2 layers)

Head: Thread and black varnish

After I was finished with tying Bridges, I changed to Green Butts. I lost a nice salmon from a double hook Green Butt last summer and had a few strikes too. It is a really simple fly that has earned a fair reputation of a really effective fly in the clear waters of northern Norway and Finland. A year ago I was asking for some "must have salmon flies" from more experienced anglers, and almost every one told me to tie some sort of Green Butts. I did, and got convinced on the first day on the river. I'm going to tie these on #2-#8 hooks and propably in both heavy wire and light wire hooks for different conditions. Here's my version on the heavy wire hook.

Green Butt

Hook: Mustad SL73UBLN

Thread: Sheer 14/0 black

Tag: Oval silver tinsel (xs) and bright green silk floss

Tail: Golden pheasant crest, dyed chartreuse

Rib: Oval silver tinsel (s)

Body: Black silk floss

Throat hackle: Black cock

Underwing: Black squirrel

Wing: Black goose shoulder feather (2 layers)

Head: Thread and black varnish

 

Another fly that has almost the same amount of trust from people in the north is the Blue Charm. It is a classic English pattern by Colin Simpson. It is well known to work on clear water and as a dark bodied but bright hackled and winged fly, it has been effective both on bright and cloudy days. Blue Charm is a fairly simple fly just like the Green Butt and doesn't take too long to tie. That surely is a bonus, since I'm tying these too to #2-8 hooks, both heavy and light wire. I might also tie some hair winged ones, but those are for later. 

Blue Charm

Hook: Mustad SL73UBLN

Thread: Sheer 14/0 black

Tag: Oval silver tinsel (xs) and yellow silk floss

Tail: Golden pheasant crest

Rib: Oval silver tinsel (s)

Body: Black silk floss

Throat hackle: Light blue cock

Underwing: White tipped squirrel

Wing: Mottled oak turkey

Head: Thread and black varnish

Last flies for today were a set of Lady Carolines. A classic spey fly from the 19th century was tied to meet the conditions of the river Spey in Scotland. It uses a long barbed heron feather as a hackle to give it a nice motion in the water. The developer of this pattern has been lost in the times of history and no one knows if Lady Caroline was an attractive maiden, but the fly sure is. I took the last sip of a 15 year old GlenDronach single malt whiskey and started tying these on a #2 Partridge bartleet traditional hook. It has a really nice curve to tie spey flies on. 

Lady Caroline

Hook: Partridge Bartleet traditional

Tail: Golden pheasant red breast feather

Rib: Flat silver tinsel and oval silver tinsel (crossed)

Body hackle: Natural brown heron

Throat hackle: Golden pheasant red breast feather

Wing: Bronze mallard (2 layers)

Head: Thread and black varnish

Tomorrow I will rather be tying flies again, than going to play ice hockey in the cold (-27°C tomorrow), so there will probably be some more pictures and recipes for you to check out.

-Niilo

Beauly Snow Fly - Step by step

I finally got my order of Mustad hooks today and started tying on them as soon as I got home. I still have to get some Junglefowl for some of the plate winged flies, so I started out with something different. Komagelva has some nice slow flowing pools (and a lot of fast ones too) so I decided I should work on some lively spey style flies. I tied a series of 3 Beauly Snow Flies on #2 Mustad SL73UBLN hooks.

Beauly Snow Fly

Hook: Mustad SL73UBLN

Thread: Sheer 14/0 Black

Tag: Flat silver tinsel

Rib: Flat silver tinsel and oval silver tinsel

Body hackle: Dark grey heron

Body: Light blue seal fur

Throat hackle: Blue eared pheasant

Wing: A bunch of peacock herls

Collar: Bright orange seal fur

Make a thread base

Tie in the flat silver tinsel for the tag

Wind the tag and lock the tinsel. Don't cut it!

Tie in the oval silver tinsel and the heron. Tie the heron from the tip, so that the longest barbs are in the back.

Dub the body.

Wind the hackle evenly.

Wind the ribs. First the flat tinsel, then the oval goes on the back edge of the flat tinsel.

Tie in the Blue eared pheasant

Wind the throat hackle and force it to face down.

Attach the wing. Do not cut the wing tips even.

Dub a collar from seal fur and brush it puffy.

Make the head and finish the fly. Add a drop of varnish. I prefer clear for this, so the collar won't turn black.

Finished fly from front.

I have always liked the looks of the Beauly Snow Fly and have wanted to try one for a long time. I didn't have the materials to tie this for summer 2012, but now I found some good quality heron that was small enough for a #2 hook which is the largest one allowed on Komagelva. Tomorrow I'm gonna tie at least Lady Carolines and Green Butts.

-Niilo

Red Frances Shrimp - Step by step

The Frances is one of my favorite flies to tie for Atlantic Salmon. It's said to be very effective in Icelandic waters, where it was originally invented be Peter Deane. I personally have had good experiences of the black variation, but nothing on the red one. Anyway I like the red one better looking, and have to give it more time next summer. Last trip I had these tied on plastic tubes, but they swam too near the surface, so I decided to try out the Esmond Drury trebles in sizes #6-10. I had some Green Highlanders tied on that hook, and they performed well in the rapid currents of Komagelva.

Here's is the recipe anyway:

The Red Frances

Hook: Esmond Drury black treble

Thread: Red Uni 8/0

Feelers: 6 cock hackle feather stems

Tail: Brown calf tail

Rib: Oval gold

Hackle: Furnace Brown cock

Body: Red Uni yarn

Head: Thread and varnish

Start with the thread base:

Tie in the feelers. Spread them evenly around the hook. 2 in each gap:

Now the calf tail about the length of the body (sorry for the bad quality):

Tie the hackle and rib firmly:

Form the butt part of the body:

Wind the rib and hackle. 2 turns is fine:

Form the rest of the body in the shape of a carrot:

Wind the rib all the way, form the head and add a drop of varnish:

Now you just need to trim the stems to wanted length. I like to keep them 2-3 times the body length.

I'm going to try these out in Vancouver Island too. Ofcourse not these trebles, but tube ones with single hooks. Heard shrimp flies work well for pacific salmon too. Have to go and see.

Now some more...

-Niilo

 

Doubles, doubles, doubles...

Just finished tying my double hook salmon flies for next summer. Well, I still might tie some more if I get a sudden inspiration somehow. Anyway, I tied series of General Practitioners, Black Bombers and Sarvijaakko's (in olive and brown) on Kamasan b270 double hooks sizes #6-12. The #12 turned out to be quite tricky to tie neatly, but I'm pleased with my work. Let the salmon be the judge.

Recipes for the flies are following:

General Practitioner

Hook: Kamasan b270

Thread: Fl. Orange nylon

Tail: Orange bucktail and 2 strands of krystal flash orange, on top of them golden pheasant tippet and red breast feather

Rib: Oval gold

Body: Orange seals fur

Hackle: Orange coc

Wing: golden pheasant tippet and red breast feather

Head: Thread and varnish

Black Bomber

Hook: Kamasan b270

Thread: Black Sheer 14/0

Antennae: Black cock, stripped and cut to shape

Tail: Black nutria

Rib: Oval silver

Hackle: Black cock

Body: Black Uni yarn

Head: Red Uni yarn

In order  #6 to #12 from the top.

Sarvijaakko (Olive and Brown):

Hook: Kamasan b270

Thread: White Sheer 14/0

Antennae: Cock hackle, stripped and cut to shape

Tail: Nutria

Rib: oval (gold for olive and copper for brown)

Wing: Nutria

Collar hackle: Cock

Head: Lagartun flatbraid, Fl. Chartreuse and Fl. Orange.

First the olive ones. In order #6 to #12 from the top.

And the brown ones:

I tied 3 of each size General Practitioner and Black bomber, and for the Sarvijaakko's I did 8 per size, 2 of each head color and general color.

Now I'm waiting for my order of single hooks to start tying some feather plate winged flies on them.

Should have come today... Maybe tomorrow?

Here's a pic of my fly box at the moment

Getting dangerously excited about the season... Next time I'll be able to cast a rod will be early march on the GoExpo fair in Helsinki. Can't wait to try out some awesome new rods!

-Niilo

Rod building. Vancouver Island in mind...

About a month ago me and my long-time friend Heikki were talking about the possibility of taking our hobby to the next level and traveling abroad for fishing (further than scandinavia that is). We had a few options but decided we wanted to pursue our new passiong for salmon and try out the pacific cousins. Next few weeks went on with active searching for the right equipment and fly patterns. The location was easy to pick. Vancouver Island was an obvious choise since there is quite plenty of information available about it. I also consulted a local fly fishing website for some tips. People were very willing to help me out!

Soon we began to realize that we needed to get some new rods for these fellas. I already have a Sage Z-axis 7136-4 spey rod that will without a doubt be traveling with me. Heikki has a similar kind of rod from Vision (the new Siks series). Those rods are ideal for skagit heads and worked well last year on Komagelva.

Nevertheless I found out that most of the rivers could be covered with single handed rods so we thought that why not get some new blanks from CTS in New Zealan
d. I started asking around for people who would be willing to join the order and in no time we had a bunch of people in need of winter time activity in the form of rod building. I will order a 8-weight 9 foot single hander and a 11 foot 7-weight switch. Heikki will go with the same set, topped with a #9-10 15' Salmon pole. I think I will also buy a blank to build a rod for my fathers 50th birthday.
I already have a blank from CTS to start building a 15 footer so I wont be needing one of those anytime soon.

Still waiting a few days for more people and will put the order in place!

As with the reels and and lines I will be going with my Danielsson L5W 8Twelve loaded with a skagit head and a shortspey for the Z-Axis. For the switch rod I planned on using my Danielsson Original 3W. It has no drag of any kind on it so it means sore fingers and skinburns! The single hander still needs a reel. I'm still not sure which to purchase. I don't own any propper sinking lines except the one for pike fishing, so i will need to get one for the single hander. The switch rod cries for a skagit head.

-Niilo

Tying flies for Atlantic Salmon

Finally I managed to start my project on salmon flies. This year I'm going to tie mostly hook flies and leave only a few patterns for tubes. I also plan to tie a lot of classic feather wing flies just for fun
and to test their fishability. some patterns just look better on doubles and trebles in my opinion, so I will tie them also.

I had a short session with General Practitioners which I tied with almost exactly the same recipe as Davie McPhail in his video on YouTube. I tied them on Kamasan b270 hooks. they are a heavy wire down eye double series of hooks. Quite a nice looking hook if you ask me.

After the GP:s it was time for a fly called NITRO. I don't really know much about this pattern, but heard it works well in the crystal clear waters of Komagelva, where I will be heading most likely in august. Below is the recipe for the NITRO variation I tied.

Hook: Kamasan b270 #10 And smaller
Body: 2/3 lagartun fl. chartreuse flatbraid, 1/3 black spectra dub
Wing: pearl flashabou
Head: black thread and varnish

I hope it will bring me some nice fish next summer. High hopes!

I also began tying some Black bombers, but after the #6 hooks I felt kinda bored and had to stop. More tomorrow!