Quill Gordon meets FMAO crew

Evening my friends.. It just struck me.. Last fall my buddies Eric and Johannes from FMAO productions released a filmclip of me tying a Quill Gordon... But I have forgot to share it here with you guys. Some of you might offcourse already have seen it but anyway..

I am really proud of being a part of this, not so much for my part of it, it was my first time behind a camera so lots of improvement needed. But I must say that they really captured the feeling of flyfishing and flytying with the intro. The intro is in English but the tying is on Swedish, but the pictures talk for itself quite good I believe.
Follow this link..Quill Gordon

Over and out
Niklas

Mörke John -wrapping hackle and finishing a fly

Evening dear followers, today I played with a pattern called "Mörke John" ("John the dark"). The fly is a variant of the more famous "Europea 12", same fly but with different colour. The fly "Mörke John" comes from the vise of Harry Strandberg who comes from the northern part of Sweden. Harry is unfortunatly no longer with us, he passed away a couple of years ago. My friend Leif Milling has written a nice pieca about his friend Harry in his book "Länge leve flugfisket" (Flyfishing, may it last forever), Harry was actually one of the first professionell flytyers of Sweden.

I like the apperence of the pattern, and after fishing in caddishatches in the parts of where Harry was active I do understand why hw choose the darker colour.

While tying this fly I decided to take some pictures to tell my friends how I do the hackle and how I finish of a hackled fly leaving a decent head. As we all know this information is more for the eye than for the fish... I dont either think the fish cares if theres a bump at the head or if we have some hacklefibers sticking out here and there. But I do belive in the satisfaction a really nice fly in my flybox gives me.

To get an nice and straight hackle on your dry flies can sometimes be an pain. Well offcourse thereś a question of the quality of the hackle, but not just that. Some really nice hackle can have stems that are not entirely round and sometime the stems are kind of thick which also can make it harder. Well anyway, here I want to share some thoughts of mine that has helped me to get a slightly better hacklecollar on my flies.

I use the best hackle I can get, I use Whiting, Charlie Collins and I also have a Keough that was awful until my friend Roy Christie dyed it for me, after that the stems got softer and by that the hackle got easier to work with. When I started to tie I had som Indian capes, I have heard that you can find decent quality, but the nice ones that I have found dont have the length of the feathers in the sizes I tie. So I have given that up and I stick to the genetic stuff.

Well then, let me try to explain, start with making sure that you have a nice and even foundation, bumps can make your hackle slip. Tie in the hackle in and set it into an 90 degre angle towards the shank of the hook. Make sure that the hackle has a bare stem the first wrap, that will help us to not get any fibers pointing backwards.

Wrap the hackle in tight turns toward the eye of the hook. Secure the hackle with three hard turns of your tying thread, wrap the thread towards the eye of the hook.

Grab the hacklepoint and fold it backwards, wrap another three tight turns of thread but now backwards away from the eye of the hook. By doing this we have locked the hacklepoint.

Take your hacklepliar and attatch it to the hacklepoint, hold the thread tight as you start winding the hacklepliar. After a couple of turns the stem of the hacklepoint will brake off at the point of where we are have the preasure on the tying thread.

Here we can see the result after that the hacklepoint has gone. Now give the head two wraps of thread and finish it of with two whiofinish knots.

Cut the thread and give the head some varnish. Done, with a nice and clean head. Satisfaction on a hook... 

Hope you enjoyed it this little session,  I did.. 

Over and out../Niklas

Reflections

Last weekend  It was time for Swedens biggest fishingfair, the Sportfiskemässan at Kista, Stockholm. This fair is about fishing in common, but it has a reasonable amount of flyfishing. I have been there the latest 6 years as a tyer at the tyers row, well not hard to get a seat as I am the one organizing it :-). Anyway, this year  I decided that the crowd would get a chance to see someone else than my face at the row so Instead of tying at the row I helped my friends at Swedens greatest an most beautifull flyfishingmagazine, Flugfiske I Norden. And I must say as much as I missed my buddies at the row it was really cool to be tying alone at the magazine, i believe the crowd were calmer and not as stressed of neding to see all tyers at the same time, I had a busy and really enjoyable weekend, the saturday was maniac though 7200 people in one day. People really intested in this stuff should really learn to go on the friday or the sunday which always are more calm.

Here is how our wall looked, really nice with some really cool pictures taken by photografer Svanthe Harström.

We had a really great crew in the both, we were lead by the boss William Moberg Faulds aperson who puts loads of efforts in running the magazine, more than anyone can imagine. We had Mr and Mrs Gullstrand helping us out with selling subsciptions and other stuff. Lasse Hallberg our editor, wow he was one great salesman, calm and full of knowledge I was really impressed by him. Svanthe Harström a really funny guy, also a great salesman and ambassador of the magazine. Not to forget Joakim Blomkvist, Christer Holmberg who also did a great job during the whole weekend. We had some other guys aswell helping out parts of the weekend, Mikael Åkerlund for example. We got 50 new subscribers, and several of our subscribers who extended their subscription for another year.

Here is me caught in action by another photografer, Joakim Blomqvist.

I concentrated on tying Catskill style dry flies, here my Variant of the legendary Quill Gordon, I call it the Rough Gordon. I really love this one, appealing for the eye aswell as for the tyer.

Also whipped up a batch of Dark Cahills. I had one of my newly founded buddies Jan Johansson joining me during the whole process in detail of making one of these puppies, and boy itś cool to see that he in only a few days after that session has improved his Catskills loads. Offcourse he got the fly to bring home as a momory of our session. I really enjoy these moments when tying at fairs when you get to meet poeple with a genuin interest.

Also found some time to tie up some orders on my Steel Blue Quill. Itś great to after a while of tying 15 minutes flies just get crazy in making a batch of 3 minute flies :-)

Also made a batch of Gunnar Johnssons Kneckestorparen for my own fishing, I have never tried it but  I really like the idea of this fly.

A sad thin happened while we were buildning the tyers row, while my friends Anders Grünning and Markus Hoffman helped me out building the tyers row somebody breaked in to Anders car and stoled Markus bag containing a whole winters production of display flies and flies that he was supposed to be selling at events during 2014, I dont understand why there are people out there who has the need to do stuff like this, sorry for your lost my friend. If any one see a batch of really ice wooden boxes with flies for sale by suspicious people, dont hesitate to contact me. Another friend Eric Andersson lost his camera at the fair aswell...

Next year the fair will be held in Jönköping, south of Sweden. Weĺl see if I will be int the both of the magazine or at the tyers row. Havent decided yet..

Over and out
Niklas

Out of my comfort zone

A good thing now and then is to work slightly out of your comfort zone, both in real life and when conducting your hobby.  I do have a love/hate thing with tying flies with slip wings. I kind of get them right sometimes, well that isnt good enough is it... So tonight I was on training camp.

The pattern I played with is a really old pattern, a Red Quill. Well yes the same name as Catskill style dry fly by Art Flick. The fly was first tied as a wet-fly in 1803 by an English tyer Thomas Rushworth. The fly is later mentioned as a dry-fly by no other than F.M Halford. Halford writes that "the fly is one of the sheet anchors for the dry-fly fisherman on a strange river". So, the pattern has some serious experience catching fish.

I managed myself to tie three of these, It took some time but it was worth it, I got pretty satisfied with all of them. I choose the fly because I promised to send my buddy Chris Sanford some "Halfordian" flies to be auctioned of at a charity event on the Test later this spring. Hopefully they will ride a riffle on the Test, maybe at a one of Halfords favourite spots.

Over and out
Niklas

Preparations

Well.. Not long til itś time to start packing for the best event of the year, British Fly Fair in Stoke England. I have been tying at this event several times before, it was actually my first tyersrow. This year I managed to get my fiance to come with me aswell, exciting to see if she appreciates the people and atmosphere as much as I do.

I have wanted to make some nice display frames to bring to events, to show a selection of Catskill flies in a nice way. When working with dry flies it isnt that easy though, there are not that many frames suitable to hold a dry fly. Atleast I have had problems getting frames with a decent look. So this year  I took the time to buy some frames that I liked, and then I rebuilt it to fit my fry flies. And I have spent a week or so to tie the flies on old size 12 Allcock handmade hooks, the real deal.

And I must say... I am quite satisfied with the result..

And a close up on the flies

Conover

 Dark Cahill

 Deer Hair Coffin Fly

 Delaware Adams

 Royal Coachman Fanwing

 Red Quill

 Quill Gordon

 Whirling Blue Dun

There is also a March Brown and a Ginger Quill that I forgot to take photos of, sorry :-).. I made three frames that I will bring to the BFFI, so if anyone is interested, just tell me...

Over and out

Grey Fox Variant

One of the most significant characteristics of the Catskill style dry flies is the split wing of wood duck. There are, however, really nice patterns in the genre without the magical wing of wood duck. Here we will learn a little of one of those patterns, one of my personal favorites, the grey fox variant. The pattern was created by Catskill celebrity Art Flick. The fly was of what I heard one of the flies Flick had closest to his heart. Flick tied the Grey Fox Variant to imitate the green drake in his beloved Schoharie Creek. He says in his Streamside Guide, “So far the most effective fly to fool large trout feeding on natural green drake is a very large grey fox that has been tied with good stiff hackles”.

Art Flick at his vise

 

Many of those familiar with the variant patterns think that it was Art Flick who originated it however that is not entirely correct. Flick learned of the pattern by his master Preston Jennings, author of The Book of Trout Flies. Jennings’s book tells us that the variants originally came from an English tier, Dr William Baigent. So we could say that Baigent originated the pattern, Jennings discovered it and finally Flick made it known to the modern world by his book Stream side guide.

I meet the variant for the first time in one of our Swedish fly tying legends, Lennart Bergqvist´s book Flugbindning på mitt sätt (Flytying my way), Bergqvist writes that his friend Paul Jorgensen told him to tie some of the variants for an upcoming trip to the Catskills, he didn’t like them at first but after a while he discovered it as a great attractor pattern. At this time I was a beginner within the world of fly-tying, and this fly had it all, I loved it´s appearance and it was fairly easy to tie. I tied loads of these and after a while all my flies had bodies of stripped hackle stem. Actually this fly was the one that got me interested in the Catskill style dry fly. I use these flies on both trout and grayling, I like to tie them really small for the grayling, my favorite is a size 18 gray fox variant, and the grayling love them.

I tie my gray fox variants with a slightly shorter hackle and tail than what Flick did; I believe that the fly is better balanced this way. Flick mixed light ginger, dark ginger and grizzly for hackle but I used coachman brown mixed with grizzly, mostly because I don’t have dark ginger.  I fish the fly as free drifting as possible, now and then I make it move that can sometimes trigger the fish to strike, a great fly to use when there´s low activity on the surface. As some will notice I use a different way of hackling this fly than what most traditional Catskill style tier’s do, I tie in the hackle at the front and wrap it backwards, finishing the fly by securing the hackle with the thread. This way I belive that I get a slightly more durable hackle , this way also give the fly a neater head.

An important issue with making flies with hackle stem bodies is that you need a nice and even foundation for the body. I use Textreme 8/0 that is thin, strong and I can easily get it to lie flat on the hook. When preparing a lighter shade hackle stem for the gray fox variant I just rip the fibers from the stem, but when working with hackle stem of color, like a natural brown/red hackle, I burn the fibers away in a mix of bleach and water. If you rip off those fibers some of the colors also disappear.

This is what you need to tie a Grey Fox Variant, my way.

 

Hook:              Partridge SLD #12-18

Thread:        Textreme 8/0 White
Tails:             Spade hackle fibers Coachman Brown
Body:            Stripped hackle stem ”Ginger”
Hackle:           Cock cape Coachman Brown/Grizzly

Tie in your thread, start 1/3 down from the eye of the hook, tie thread down to where the bend of the hook starts.

 

Pick out 8-10 nice stiff spade hackle fibers as tails and tie them in, make sure they stay on the top of the hook. The tail need to be 2 times the length of the hook. Wrap the thread up to where you tied in your thread.

 

Tie in the stripped hackle stem by wrapping your thread down again to the tail, make sure you have a nice even underbody.

 

Wrap the hackle stem in tight turns towards the point where we tied in the thread from the beginning. I try to finish the hackle stem under the hook, secure it with a couple of turns and make sure to cut the excess close to the body to avoid too much bulk.

 

Measure the length of your hackle feathers, 2-2,5 the hook gape. Tie in both of the feathers just behind the hook of the eye. I tie it onto the hook with an X winding which leaves the feathers in a 90 degrees angle to the hook. I wrap the brown hackle first because of that I make sure that that feather comes first. Cut excess when done.

 Leave the thread where the body starts.

 

First wrap the brown feather, secure it with two wraps, and don’t cut waste yet.

 
Now wrap the Grizzly feather, make sure that you hold it quite hard and really work the feather through the brown hackle, and do not end the feather at the same spot as the brown hackle that will give you unnecessary bulk. Now make sure to spin your bobbin, we don’t want a flat thread when working the thread through the hackle, which will mess up the hackle. Now wrap your thread through the hackle, again a good tension on the thread. When at the eye of the hook make two knots with your whip finisher.

 

Now work with the hackle, pull it too straight out those irritating fibers. Cut of the ones who give you too much trouble.

 
Flick used lacquer to seal his quill bodies, I use UV resin instead which gives me much better control, less smell and dries instantly.



 

Now ready for the catch of your life.. 

Something different

Finished a frame this evening that have been in my mind since past midsummer. The frame was built in July, I have known all along which fly  I wanted to frame so I have been looking for a suitable background picture and a few weeks ago I finally found it, my buddy Per -Anders Nilsson posted a picture on Facebook of a really nice caddis so I asked him and luckily he let me borrow the picture for a couple of frames.



 

 The frame is not a boxframe from the beginning, it was hard to find a nice frame so I gave up and bought a nice frame that remade as a boxframe. Some work but totally worth it.

 

I decided to make two similar flies and position them in different poses and directions to make the fly as visible as possible.

A close-up on one of the flies, my Streaking Quill off course tied on a sexy Partridge SLD. This fly started me up as a flytyer, has since it´s birth been a dear friend of mine.

I made 2 frames this evening to see how my idea would work, I´m pretty satisfied and have decided that I will make 10 of them no more, no less.. So now I need to get my but away to buy some wood:-)

Over and out
Niklas