The Soft-Hackeled Fly.

" allow the fly to advance naturally with the current...check its progress gently by ceasing to follow it with the rod...the water will do all that is necessary to make a fly deadly if it is properly tied."

James E. Leisering
The Art of Tying The Wet Fly,1941.

 I've seen these flies show up now and then in magazines and old books, thinking that in the old days they had to manage with very simple patterns that did not look like the real flies ... or did they ...... how good were these flies. Do not know if I'm starting to get old and weird....(canehead), but I think it has with the enthusiasm for bamboo-flyrods ... that the interest for this old fly patterns is getting stronger and stronger. So after I found and bought two wonderful books about soft hackled flies written by Sylvester Nemes, I have not become less curious on these flies.
The way he writes passionately about these flies qualities and advantages makes me really inspired to tie these flies for next season.

Sylvester was a great writer who brought back and made popular the soft hackle fly. Sorry to say he past on to the great trout streams in the sky.
If you have an interest in fishing them and tying them i think the books from Sylvester will put you well on your way.

Cold night's, sunny days and Bibio Pomonae.

Time for a new post on the blog, and it is with a smile I look back on yet another great trip to the land of the midnight sun. This time with a new 7' 3wt Morgan taper to be tested towards the wild trout in the wilderness in the North of Norway. This trip we were also lucky to experience a tremendous swarming of the fly Bibio pomonae Fabricius....actually it was just too much of them the last few days, it seemed almost as if the fish were satisfied.

Bibio.....lover's

These are treats for a hungry trout.

Bibio's in the air.

The 7' 3wt Morgan taper did the job against this lovely 1,4 kgs trout 
 ... almost too big but it went well.

 Cold nights and a nice atmosphere in the evening.

Happy blogger with a gorgeous 2.2 kgs trout taken on a 7'6" 5wt Morgan taper ... can not get better than this.

 

There is more to Flyfishing than just catching fish....

Bamboo flyrods, silk lines and old flypatterns from the Cattskills and the "recent" discovered north country spiders. My hardcore graphite fishingbuddys just smile and shake their heads when i mention the old stuff from the past.

North Country style and Cattskill style.

 It's not like the old patterns have taken over completely, my favorite pattern when Mayflies hatch is still the cdc nohackle, but there is something special about the flies and the story behind the old flies such as the Red quill, Hendrickson and the old spider pattern Patridge and Orange among others....and they still catch fish.

Skater

 So when this year's trip to the northern parts of Norway is approaching, it is with a new wooden fly box filled with old patterns.

Wooden fly box made by Lars Andersson of Sweden.

Happy boo brother with his Young Para 14.

The magic month of June.

With pictures like this from the last trip buzzing around in my head, knowing that the hatch is in full swing, it is not easy to concentrate at work. So when my wife said yes, it was time for a new trip for the second time this week.

Different colored trout in this river, this one was like a silver bullet.

A beautiful trout with the right colors.

Time for a well earned break for Mr. Young and Morgan.

Same fish as above.

Both fishes stood under the trees and had a feast on all the mayflies that came drifting in the stream under the trees.

A couple of trout's and some nice surroundings.

Quite beautiful, I think.....

A mountain brownie.

Waiting for the hatch to start.

Can never get enough of this.

The Ingvar Nilsson reel and the Terenzio silk line works perfect on the P.H.Y. Perfectionist rod.

Just like turning on a switch.

Even if the ice disappeared on the lakes for nearly a month ago, there is not much going on before you get to the last half of this month. So after several trips without much result on the lakes around Oslo, it was finally time for the first trip to a small trout stream that is known to have a really nice and early hatch of the mayfly Baetis Rhodani. And since this Mayfly is known to like really shitty weather, and the weather forcast says heavy rain the next day- it was time to prepare for the first trip to a trout river.

 Baetis Rhodani.

Previous experience with this Mayfly is that it is approximately around half past twelve (noon) it starts to happen, especially if it starts to rain. So when the whole morning had passed without any insects on the river, and the clock approached 12 .... it started to rain. And belive it or not, it started to popp up Baetis in large numbers. And when the sun reappeared, there were several fish that were busy eating  Mayflies.

The fish was eating mayflies just outside the large tree on the otherside.

Allways something special with the first decent fish in the beginning of the season.

A little skinny maybe, but nice colors.

Nice little river, perfect for  using a small bamboo flyrod.

 

Not just rodbuilding parts.

For me, nickel silver ferrules and agate stripping guides are like beautiful jewelry on a bamboorod.

Ferrules from GW and Tony Larson, agate guides from GW.

The real thing for the guides, Gossamer Pearsall's silk.

The new binder.

Well the new binder from J.D.Wagner came and it was time for testing and fine tuning the binder before gluing and binding the strips. Now it was just trying to find the right tension on the tensioning disc's. After some test binding without glue - it was time to just go for it with the glue. And I must say the binder did the job, the blanks came out pretty much strait with almost no twist's and bends.

The binder setup for Degere-Style, endless belt binding.

The blanks after some days in the drying cabinet, ready for sanding away the glue.

The binding tread removed and it's time to get a closer look at the blanks.

The first sanding.....nice feeling.

Binders and Reel seats.

Well it's about time to wake up from winter hibernation and be a bit active on the blog again. Back from a wonderful holiday in Thailand, it's time to continue working on the rod's. Have two rods waiting to be glued but have played with the idea to build a new binder inspired on the Garrison model. I have used two different binders until now, the first a very simple binder, where you use a cradle to lay the rod in and do the wrapping by hand. But with this method you easily become tired in the hands not to mention the twist that can appear in the rod.  When the glue is dry, I do not want to use too much heat to straighten out the twist in the rod. Titebond is a good adhesive but I do not think it is so fond of too much heat. The other is a model based on Bob Milward's binder using four threads in equal & opposite directions works great when tuned right. But I'm ready to try out something new, so to make it easy for myself, I ordered a brand new J.D. Wagner binder from the USA. I am very excited about this as it may be used in three different ways. So in the meantime I'm working on with rod number three, a 7' 4wt Eustis W. Edward's taper. Parts for the Rod's has also started to show up, first out three beautiful reel seat's and bronze snake guides from Mike McCoy and Snake Brand.

The first binder. Wrapping by hand.

Boo Brother Geir's binder. B. Milward's model.

Reel seat's, maple burl and spalted maple...beautiful.

Tiny strips and a Happy New Year.

Finally one can breathe out after a long Christmas celebration. It was not so much rod building as I had planned. But now it's the start of the new year and the plane blades are razor sharp and ready for action. I managed to get some hours in the workshop, so the tip section for the 7' 3 wt rod is finally ready for gluing. The planingform are set and ready for the but section. So now it's just to get started with the planing.

The tiny strips for the tip section.

Always a good feeling when control measurements show that the taper is correct.