Sportfiskemässan 2015

Sportfiskemässan is Swedens biggest gathering for fishing. This year it was time to go back to Jönköping for the fair, last year it was held in Stockholm. The fair is getting bigger and bigger every year, and this year was off course no exception. I have been responsible for being the one to put together the flytyers row for a few years now, lots of work but a task I enjoy very much. For this year me and my friend Anders Grünning (se photo below) went down early Wednesday to build up the area.

We also got help from two of our friends, David Stenström and Markus Hoffman, thanks guys.

We had a nice workday without bigger problems, might be that we have done it a few times by now so the routines have been set. Above a picture of me and Anders mounting the scenery. When the evening closing up on us we were done and ready to leave the fair area to meet up with the other tyers at the hostel, Sjöhaga Pensionat. We try to arrange so that we live together so we really can meet and take care of each other, its like having a second family. We had a pretty calm first eveing as we were going out fishing river Baltak on the thursday. Below a nice picture of my friend Markus Hoffman taking the first trout of 2015.

We had an amazing day with really nice whiter and most guys catching fish. Well yes even I caught a nice fish. Below a picture of me trying to get some attention.

We finished the day at the afternoon to meet up at the hostel again, now time to meet more of our fellow flytyers. For this fair we had gathered 22 tyers, from Norway, Sweden, England and Ireland.
Thursday evening we had our annual Sjöhaga hostel Peasoup, panncakes and Punsch to go with that, as usual very nice. After the dinner our Norweigan friends had made a nice little challenge for our friend from the north, the hillbilly the wicked Stefan Larsson. Stefan is awesome on whiskey, I must say knowing nothing about whiskey but how to get a headache, I was really impressed. He could by smelling and looking say pretty much all you needed to know about the whiskey, he almost nailed the name of it, almost... next time Stefan :-)

The evening continued and we had a great time, Richard and Eivind took care of the entertainment

Well of to bed, we all had a long three days of tying flies at the fair. Below a picture of me concentrating to start up the tying.

 Ulf Hagström using his nose to hold his flies.

 Flytyer extraordinaire Mr Barry Ord Clarke in action.

Well the weekend continued at the same speed as above, I can only speek to myself but I had  ireally good time. Meeting some new aswell as catching up with some old. A big thanks to all involved.

As you all proborably understand, its impossible to make such arrangements as this without help. I want to take this moment to say thank to the ones responsible making this event possible. Thanks Niklaus Bauer at Vision/Flydressing, Stephan Nielsen at Sporting, Mark Hamnett at Partridge of Redditch, Markus and Mårten at Hökensås and offcourse Agneta Brunell at Sportfiskemässan.

Now we´ll rest for a few weeks and then start planning for Sportfiskemässan 2016.

A few Athertons

Today was a tough day, didn't feel that good so I actually went home earlier from work and crashed into bed. Woke up 3 hours later feeling slightly better, took a long walk with Dennis, our dog. After this I felt better and sat down to make another fly for my friends Catskill collection.

The first fly I made for the collection was an Atherton No:1...

Hook:   Allcock W170 #12
Thread: Textreme 8/0 Black
Wings:  Medium Dun hen tippets
Tail:   Medium dun cock cape fibers
Body:   Very light fox belly fur
Rib:   Oval Gold rib
Hackle:   Cock cape Light Cree

... but I felt I also needed to add my favorite Atherton fly aswell, the Atherton No:5. This fly is the most common in John Atherton serie of flies.

Hook:   Allcock W170 #12
Thread: Textreme 8/0 Black
Wings:   Woodduck flank
Tail:   Cock cape Cree fibers
Body:   Hares ear
Rib:   Oval Gold rib
Hackle:   Cock cape Cree

This fly has given me my finest dryfly fish, I took a really nice trout last summer on a size 14 Atherton No:5. The fly is slightly buggier than most common Catskill style flies, I like it.

Mr Red Quill

Must say I love this little project of tying my new friends collection of Catskill Flies, it feels like it gave me a kind of "mojo injection", which I really need with Sportfiskemässan (our biggest fishing fair)coming up in just a few weeks. I managed to stretch the day a little further, just enough to manage one more fly to the box.

 

The fly  I decided to tie was he Red Quill, one of my favourite Catskill Style dry flies, one of the most beautifulll flies there is, asccording to me anyway. This fly imitates the male version of the Ehemerella Subvaria, and it was originated in 1933 by another Catskill heroes Mr Art Flick. A somewhat juicy detail is that initially he claimed to be the first to use hackle quills for bodies, but unfortunately he was mistaken, well he did excuse himself by saying he´s not entirely sure but..

 

 

 

In H.G. McLelland’s book How to Tie Flies for Trout (complete title The Trout Fly Dresser’s Cabinet of Devices or How to tie Flies for trout and grayling fishing (1898) as it happens, you can read: “Another kind of quill is that obtained by stripping a long hackle or saddle feather of its plume on either side. It makes a very natural looking body, which, so to speak, tapers itself automatically in the forming; the quill used being tapered, and so the joints of the body becoming wider and thicker as the winding proceeds from tail to shoulder. “A friend, to whom my first acquaintance with this material was due, makes a very beautiful red spinner of the shaft of the saddle feather of a dark red game cock.”

 

Not that it matters, just another "there isn't much new to find in the art of flytying.

 

Red Quill (As tied in the picture)

Hook:  Allcock W170 #12

Thread:   Testreme 8/0 black

Wing:   Woodduck flankfeathers

Tail: Cock cape Dark Dun

Body:   Stripped hacklestem from Rhode Island Red

Hackle:   Cock cape Dark Dun

 

Now comrades... Off to bed.

 

 

Mrs Hendrickson

The Hendrickson is proborably one of Americas earliest imitations of the Ephemerella Subvaria. the imitates the female version of the species. A problem for the fly fisherman who likes to match the hatch is that you need two flies to be able to do just that. 

Art Flick writes in his Streamside Guide 1969.. ‘‘As a rule, the male will emerge on one riffle, the female on another, and trout are usually selective to such an extent that they will only take a Hendrickson if they are feeding on the female, or a Red Quill if the opposite is the case…. Often I have been unable to raise fish to a Red Quill, changed to a Hendrickson, and had good luck. To prove the point, I have again changed to the Red Quill, have not been able to raise another fish, and have again gone back to a Hendrickson, and again caught fish.”

The originator of the fly is no less than Theodore Gordon protage, Roy Steenrod from Liberty, New York. teenrod was taught tying flies by Theodore Gordon, Gordon gave Steenrod not only a vise and fly tying lessons, but also inspired him to give his skills and knowledge on two the younger generations of fly fishers.

Steenrod tied his first Hendrickson in 1916 after a fishing trip with his buddy A.E Hendrickson. The fly proved very successful, but he had not given it a name yet. Later A.E asked Steenrod for the name of the fly that they had been fishing so successfully, Steenrod looked at him for a while and replied: “ It’s a Hendrickson”. In that moment he most probably didn’t realize that this fly would become the best imitation of the Ephemerela Subavaria, and also one of the most popular American dry flies ever. It is most revealing that through the years people even started calling the natural insect “ Hendrickson”.

Steenrod tied his Hendrickson in various colour shades as to imitate different upwinged flies, just like Gordon his teacher had done with the Quill Gordon. When fly fishers speak of Steenrod’s fly today, they mean the Hendrickson, sometimes also named Light Hendrickson. This is to distinguish it from the Dark Hendrickson, a variation (not by Steenrod) getting popular later on. The Dark Hendrickson is tied with a body of dark grey fox belly fur.

In any case there has always been some lack of clarity around the naming of the Hendrickson. Well-known Preston Jennings for instance spoke of the Little Hendrickson aiming at the male Ephemerella Subvaria. This of course arose some confusion since today we are used to only name the female Hendrickson. Jennings did append that the male is also named Red Quill…

 

My Hendrickson as tied on the picture is tied by the recepie found in "The Dettes". The fly is tied to be in a batch of Catskill style Dry  flies for a friend that has caught the bug, the Catskill Style Dry bug, welcome to the madness Mr John Dunn.

 

Hook:   Allcock W170 #12

Thread:   Textreme 8/0 Black

Wing:   Woodduck flankfeather

Tail: Medium dun cock cape fibers

Body:   Red fox belly fur

Hackle:   Medium dun cock cape

 

PS.. The text written here is a part off an article I and Leon Links wrote same years back in the Swedish Flyfishing Magazine, Flugfiske I Norden.