Recent comments

Fly fishing for pike

Fly fishing for pike is starting to become very popular in the uk.We are getting a little bored with catching those stocked rainbows ! Pike have fascinated me since i was a little boy and i cant wait to get started ! Also , my eyesight is not very good, so tying up much bigger flies for pike will be much better for me.
Thank you very much for your most interesting article.

Best wishes
Stuart Duke

Soft hackles are pro

Soft hackles are probably the most effective flies there is. I have caught more difficult fish on soft hackled wet flies than any other . It is the most under rated flies in the world. You can fish them upstream dry fly with a bit of floatant and it looks like a seriously trapped crippled emerger/dry. Fish them as a unweighted nymph dead drift down stream. Czech nymph with them. Across and down on the surface as a egg laying caddis. Or sub-surface in the traditional North Country style, it will catch fish every way. There is no other fly that is this versatile.

Well you can count me in! It

Well you can count me in! It would be indeed a great happening and excellent platform to share experiences (for those you can share, of course :) .

Sea trout in Denmark

Martin, thanks.Yes, it was perfect. Beautiful countryside, nice people, interesting architecture, wonderful fishing. The fish we saw in Go fishing in Odense was unbeliaveble. Silver fish in perfect condition. Last year I spent a week on west coast of Sweden and I would say, that chance to catch a big fish is bigger in Denmark. So I would like to come back again in September. See also attached file with one of our most successful fly

Good trip it seems

Pike,

It seems like you had an excellent trip to Denmark. I have been at Helnaes a couple of times and fished on Fun a dozen times. It's a really nice island with lots of good opportunities for sea trout fishing.

Glad you enjoyed your stay here.

Martin

Congrats!

Hanzie,

Some fish! Fish in that size are few and far apart. The kayak is indeed a great way to get around and gives you some new opportunities.

I used to own one, but I sold it because I used it too rarely. I found that the "gear load" and the preparations were a bit too much and that I had to go to certain places where I could easily haul it to the water. And fishing alone meant that I had to lift it off and onto the car by myself. Even though it was a fairly light kayak, I found that cumbersome. But I really enjoyed the trips I had in it.

But I never caught a fish like yours from it. That might have convinced me to keep it! ;-)

Martin

Visiting Denmark

Hi Martin,
I came back this morning and we spent beautiful time on Fyn. We took part in Open Sea trout competition and one of my team mate was 9th with fish 62 cm long and 2,30 kg in weight. I caught only two fish (better one was 50 cm) but I am very satisfied and I like Denmark at all. We lived in Healnas camp a visited Odense Fjord, Toro, Kolding etc. We also met Steffen Henchely and had a talk with him. The book he wrote about Fyn and best spots for sea trouts is excellent and helped us a lot. Good job is done in his organization.
To summarize it, approx. 40 - 45 fish were caught by our group of 8 flyfishermen in 3 days.

That's a great fish, very

That's a great fish, very nice!

Wow...
THANK YOU, T

Wow...
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

I love traditional wet flies as well as soft hackles.
I am a beginner and have a beginner's question: will they catch fish, though? I mean, in places like the Housatonic, the Farmington, the Beaverkill and the Willowemoc, and as opposed to nymphs like the Pheasant tail? Perhaps it's just comparing apples and oranges.
Whatever the answer, THANK YOU once again for sharing your work with us - such beautiful creations! (I must get the Bastien DVD!)

Huge Fish

That is one huge fish. Sounds like I need to go fish for seatrout before I die. 😄

Count me in

Hi Vanuz,
great idea.
On the ROFF (rec.outdoors.fishing.fly) newsgroup often so called 'Claves' are organised. I joined 2 of them organized by Roger Ohlund. Bet some of you know him (it's a small ff world). They were held in the very Northern part of Sweden. It took me 4000 km to drive there from Holland! But what a big fun to spent a week with people from Finland, Sweden, France, USA, Australia, sharing the same interest. Only to look at all those different flies in the flyboxes.
Of course the 'meeting' should not necessarily be for a whole week. A weekend would be fine too. I'll leave that up to Martin.
Anyway: if I could, I would certainly join the club.
If any help is needed (I too would not know how, but anyway) let me know.
What I do not ubderstand: over 300 people looked at this post, but not 5 reacted.....??!! 🙄

please know that bot

please know that both of our magnetic rod holders (1.5 years old and maintained) just failed us and we lost 2 rods and reels to the ensewing road damage (to say nothing that i'm out $120 for the holders that are now useless). we were not speeding, were not on a bad road and had mounted correctly. a gust of wind created by a passing truck forced the holders off our vehicle. Be warned.

You are the best

You are the best.Thank you.

instead of using el

instead of using elastic rubber ( latex glove ) .
can you substitute the 2" piece you use to go through the
o-ring with vinyl disposable gloves ?
i enjoy the website , its very useful .

I think it's a genious idea!

I think it's a genious idea!
I know there would be a bunch of people from Sweden that's interested in this.

AND it would give Gff a big bunch of article/photo material.
I guess Seatrout fishing would be preferable, after all it think that many with me are interested in the fishing that Martin writes so much about!
best regards

I only use 1 fly, but I know

I only use 1 fly, but I know that others also use 2 flies. From norwegian flyfishing magazines I've read positive articles about using 2 flies. It's called "Opphenger".

My favorite fly for the night fishing is "SeaDuctive". It's very important that the fly is floating. Strip it gently home. Stop and wait for the take. It will make a perfect silluete against the sky.

My favorite fly for the daytime fishing is "Superflua". It's an illusion of a small fish. Very simple to tie. Consist of 6-7 cm of superhair bound on a tube and fished with a treble hook.

When the fish is sip-riseing you should try "Pink Shrimp". Small hooks. # 16-10. My experience is that the seatrout could turn selective during daytime and Pink Shrimp will solve the task.

I don't know if this is the recipe in Denmark, but it surely function on the south coast of Norway. Put some olive and brown wolly buggers into your fly box as well and off you go.

You'll find pictures of the flies on my web-page. Superflua is shown on my last video. 😉

Good lookin fishy's Kirk and

Good lookin fishy's Kirk and to get them on the fly is awesome. Congrats.

Thanks, yeah they are pretty

Thanks, yeah they are pretty fun and good fighters for sure. One more thing, those fish were released. (we don't usually keep bass anyway, but they are out of season). The bucket in the picture was for the crapies and bluegill we were planing on catching, we only hooked a few small crapies though, so no dice.

kirk

Re: How to store my flylines?

Hanzie,

Big coils is your solution. Don't spool the lines on any type of spool, but wind them in large coils on some kind of winder. I use a wooden yarn winder, normally used for unwinding yarn for knitting. Such a contraption is fine for fly lines, and allows me to make large, loose coils with a diameter of at least 30-40 centimeters or a foot and then some.

An image to show the apparatus and some coils in the background:
Error, the image cannot be shown: http://globalflyfisher.com/blog/images/8678.jpg

I secure the coils with bits of wire or pipe cleaners and store them in large ziplock bags.

When I want them back on the reel I unwind them using the winder in reverse: Unpack the line, put it on the winder, remove the wraps and spool it onto the reel. It is VERY important to use the winder because winding by hand almost certainly will put twist in your lines, which you don't want, and unwinding by hand will almost certainly create the largest bird's nest imagineable.

I also stretch old lines by tying them onto a window hinge in one end of the house and pulling them to the other end and back. Leave the line there overnight, and you have a line almost straight as a ruler.

Martin

Nice fish!

Kirk,

Those are really nice fish! Always wanted to try bass fishing, but for some reason I never got the chance.

Some day...

Martin

I would love to see

I would love to see some instruction on this fly. It would be great for the egg feeders...I'd just change the tail for something in a paler/almost white colouration. Has this been tried??

FlyBandit: Yes, you are true.

Pike,

Spring is here, and you may be lucky to run into some good weather! Post some pictures when you get back.

Martin

FlyBandit: Yes, you are true.

FlyBandit: Yes, you are true. 2 flies on leader. But I will prefer only one. We are going to Denmark today, so we will see. I hope some good sea trout will be caught

Re: Dropper fly in seatrout fishing

Hi Pike!

I don't know what you mean by dropper fly. Do you mean 2 flies on the leader? 🙄