Inspiring volume

As I was thinking about Mikael Frödins style of salmonflies and I thought I should try to build some of his trademarks in my own flies. His flies is built with translucency, movement and - depending on the river - volume. I think my flies would need some extra movement and volume from what they have today.

This is my Lady Mary built as a fairly large tube, I used a blue spey hackle as body hackle and I hope this will give both volume and movement. Got to try it swimming soon.

A Saturday that inspire

As Saturday morning came the snow had been falling all night and meteorologists were warning everyone from taking the car. I did hesitate from going to Halmstad all morning but as the snowfall got lesser and the SMS got more frequent I finally got in the car and went down! The road was far from good and the ride took about half an hour more than usual, but when I met up with my fishing buddy and we started to talk about the day I know it was turning out to bee a good day...
firstly we went in to check out the fair and then I had to get some new fly tying material, we went up to Mats at Whitlocks – the best fly fishing store in Halmstad, and as far as I know in Sweden – I got some spey hackle and a few more things I had been missing for too long...
got some lunch bragging about all the fish we are going to catch this season. Then it was time to enter the fair, Johan Klingberg had already started to talk about fishing for big trout in the south of Sweden, the best place in his view – in my view as well – he was showing pictures on big trout caught mostly south of Göteborg. Most people go north for trout and grayling fishing but with some curiosity and help from fellow fly fisher you might bee surprised to what you hook...
Johan showed the first part of his film Mayfly madness, if one is fishing for big trout this is a very entertaining film.
As the room shifted to a fly tying workshop we went in the other room and talked to the represents from Guideline, they were showing a rod from their new series, a rod that seems to bee very interesting... I hope I will have the opportunity to try it during spring.
Mikael Frödin had a small but crowded table and was tying salmon flies, magnificent flies.
We where watching for quite some time but did not notice the time until Mikael had to run of and prepare the film Kharlowka! The film is more than can bee expected in a fishing film, if it ever comes to DVD it ought to bee in every serious fly fishers collection! The film is about the Atlantic Salmon Reserve founded by Peter Power, what Peter has done is amazing and so is the Kharlowka film! The filming is top quality and so is the fly fishing.
Arrangement was very good and to sum it up, Saturday was a good fishing day, just before the first cast

New rod for the season!

Friday evening and the weekend is starting in a very good way!
I got my new rod and three new lines. I spent last year fishing with a rod I could not become friends with... I was struggling the whole season but didn't understand the rod, the last day f the season I tried my friends spare rod, a Guideline Lpxe and all of a sudden my casting improved tremendous.
I had been fighting with my rod for an entire year instead of fighting fish.
I had been thinking about getting a new rod but the price for new equipment is often taking a big bite in the budget...
After quite some thinking about it, the choice fell on another rod from Guideline.
The rod is wonderful, at last I have a rod that will make my casting a pleasure instead of a struggle. This will hopefully allow me to concentrate a bit more at the end of my line an at the fish in the pool!

The rod? A Guideline LeCi 13,7 9/10 MF to which I already have a float/sink 1
and the new lines are: float, hover/intermediate and a sink 1 / 2.
These just need to be cut in right length an equipped with a nylon sock for connecting. The start of the season may seem far away but its getting closer and I am starting to feel ready!!

Mayflies

Winter is a good time to read some books and learn new things, as me and my girlfriend was out walking this weekend, I found a book with a very nice title... Mayflies
I am more of a trout fisher than I am salmon fisher, I have spent quite a few days trying to catch during a mayfly hatch. This book is written by Malcom Knopp and Robert Cormier both of them fishing in the US. It is the most comprehensive book of mayflies I have read (yet) with good and detailed drawings, not that much photographs but a few at least.
Many of the described mayflies differ from the mayflies I find in Sweden, but the book is still helpful.
The three mayflie hatches I fish the most is: Ephemera danica and E. vulgata. Those are the biggest mayflies in Sweden and can grow to about 3 cm! The third one is not as big but it lives where I like to fish the most – in fast water. Heptagonal sulphurea! it is unmistakeably bright yellow and some days occur in wast numbers.
None of those are described in the book but they have relatives living on the other side of the Atlantic. Behaviours seems to be very much alike the spices around my favourite waters. Good book!

Inspiring Saturday

Another inspiring weekend is approaching and this weekend has a trip to Halmstad on the schedule. One of the fishing clubs in Halmstad, Sportfiskeklubben Laxen, has set up a very exiting Saturday, starting with a open forum about fishing for salmon in Nissan.

Then a fly tying workshop hosting Johan Klingberg, a incredibly good fly fisher and fly tier who is well known for his delicate flies an large trout.

Guideline will bee there and present their news for the season.

This day has a great finally as the new Kharlowka film is being shown for the first time in Scandinavia - world premier in London the day before

A very nice weekend among fly fishing friends!

Winter all over

I was hoping to start the season early this year but it seems as the winter has got a strong hold of everything right now...
This is Nybroån about as far south as you get in Sweden, usually the winter here is a lot milder than the rest of the country, usually...