fly tying · 28. April 2020

The F-Fly is a slovenian pattern tied by Marian Fratnik in the late 80ies. It is one of the first CDC patterns which made it to legendary status. In order to play out its strengths you need lots of food and fishing pressure with C&R. Read more why in this blog post.

fly tying · 05. April 2020

The beauty of this fly is, that it consist of two fish catching materials: Partridge feathers and hare's ear dubbing. I added a tiny bit of flashabou for the extra sparkle. This catches the eye of the fisherman, which is important. Otherwise a fly will never end on the tippet, which would be a pity in this case.

fly tying · 01. April 2020

This wet fly is a real classic in minimal fly tying. Since wet flies are a little bit out of fashion nowadays, not every fly box contain flies like these. Just fish them like unweighted nymphs or even dry flies and strike to the boil. Great fun. Or use your tenkara rod, if you are into hipster stuff. I am and it is fun.

fly tying · 30. March 2020

Just a couple of pheasant tail feathers wound around the hook shank: The Teeny nymph catching fish since 1962. It looks ugly, but catches well enough. Jim Teeny fished no other fly and was doing as a western fly fisherman what the tenkara hipsters are doing now: One fly is all you need. If it is a good fly, of course.

fly tying · 26. March 2020

If there is now wind and waves, the sea trout fishing can sometimes get difficult. The fish are way more easily spooked and they often ignore large flies, e.g. Wooly Buggers with a long tail. In such a situation it can make sense to downsize the fly and strip in more slowly in order to reduce the casting. I downsize the fly not by decreasing the hook size, but with no marabou tail it is half the size of the Wooly Bugger. It is such a quick tie that sometimes I feel guilty.

fly tying · 25. March 2020

This fly is way more visible in the water than the grey scud. I use flies like these, if I can't get sea trout on my standard Wooly Bugger, but there are waves or the water is unclear, so that the fish likely won't see my grey scud.

fly tying · 22. March 2020

The Wooly Bigger is maybe the most known fly pattern on this planet and I wouldn't be surprised, if this would be the case on other planets, too. Nonetheless this is an effective pattern, especially in the salt. Sea trout don't have significant experience with flies, because we are talking about catch & deep freeze in most cases. The fish are hungry and don't have significant experience with artificial flies.

fly tying · 19. March 2020

Small black nymphs like these patterns offer a discrete silhouette, which can be important in clear low water or "educated" fish. No hotspot, no bling, just an insect like shape. If you can present this fly to fish you can see, it is a highly effective pattern.

fly tying · 18. March 2020

Nymphs with a gold head are a classic. Roman Moser promoted them heavily in the beginning of the 90ies and I still remember, that flies with a gold head where offensive back then. Pretty much like the squirmy wormy fly today.

fly tying · 16. March 2020

The F-Fly is a classic example of minimalistic fly tying. Just a thread and CDC, that's it. Even though this fly doesn't look impressive, it is highly effective when the small bugs are out. Quick tie and a proven fish catcher, what more do you want?