Flyfishing, flytying and hooks

Sunturn Sunrise

Hook: Partridge M2 #2/0
Thread: Semperfli 18/0
Tag: Silver, black silk
Tail: GP, red & yellow swan
Butt: Ostrich
Body: black, yellow, orange and red sealsfur
Rib: Silver
Throat: Red and black
Underwing: Black GP tippet
Wing: Kori, yellow, orange and red swan
Topping: GP
Head: Shellac

Another winter solstice and the third sunturn fly I have made: each year I grab a bottle of Nøgne Ø “Sunturn Brew” and create a pattern based on the fact that we are on the darkest day of the year. I still have some bottles left of this beer that Nøgne Ø brew only on this shortest day of the year, and this year it had been stored for just over 2 years before the winter solstice.

The past years I have created a pattern that, looking back at it, reflect the state of my progression in fly tying: the first year it was a spey, last year it was a ranger. This year I have done a lot of married wings and getting into the classic salmon patterns, so it was obvious what I had to do this year! With the dark days and the focus on the sun turning to brighter days it was again the focus on black/yellow/red colors that dominated the pattern, maybe more yellow/orange/red this year than the years before. This one will go into my collection as the blueprint, but I’ll create some more for fishing.

The beer is everything I want in a winter beer: dark with sweet malts and a long full aftertaste. The balance and complexity is great, so it goes very well together with flytying on a dark winter night!

 

https://flytyer.org/eide/pattern/sunturn-sunrise

The Col. Blyth

I follow Davie McPhail on youtube (something I would recommend to do), he publish a lot of good patterns and gives a lot of good insight on how to dress a fly. This one showed up not too long ago and the colour combination is one that immediately got my interest: a easy pattern to tie, and a pattern that will work in the river under the right conditions. I chose to tie on a up-eye salmon hook (Mustad 80500-NPBL #1/0) instead of the bomber hook that Davie tied on, but the pattern is the same. Instructions on how how to tie it in the video below:

You always need more than one:

flyhooks.org – New Mustad hooks

Following up on the recent update of hooks on flyhooks.org – today a look at some of the hooks that have been added from Mustad:

R90 #8

A 4xh hook that is built to hook large fish on the small sizes, this is the hook I tie small nymphs for salmon fishing up north with. Due to the weight it will also sink quickly in rapid streams.

3257B #12

A hook I’ve never tied on, and that I would love to get more insight on the background of its shape.

518B #1/0

A very short shank in large sizes, reminds me of a up-scaled spider hook. There is a 527 blind-eye from Mustad that I haven’t taken a picture of yet that looks very much like this.

3907 A #4

The start of the 3907 series

3907 B #4

The length of B is the same as A, but with a much heavier wire

3907 C #8

The third 3907 hook, would love to have this in #4 to compare all the three 3907 hooks in the same series.

79580 #2

Hooks like this and the R-75 follow-up makes it interesting to have historic hooks to see how a hook type have evolved over time. The 79580 evolved to R75, and you can see the similarity but also the difference in shape, bend and barb on these two

R75-79580 #4

The R75 have a much smaller barb than the 79580

94720 #2

Another comparison: but here the difference is really big – the old 94720 is much longer than the newer R79

R79-94720 #2

The newer R79 on the other hand, have a much heavier wire than 79580

It is interesting to see the difference between old and new versions of the same hook and hooks in the same series to see how they actually differ besides the name of it. If you have hooks that can fill in the gap of missing hooks, please contact me!

Francis #18

Hook: Partridge X2b #18
Thread: Sheer 14/0
Feelers: Boar
Tail: Brown Calf
Body: Sheer 14/0 Red
Hackle: Brown
Rib: Veevus XS

Every now and then you need to go small: the #18 francis is a example on just how small you can go when targeting salmon. I haven’t fished this small, but for the 2017 season I’ll have some smaller patterns tied up down to #18 to bring with me when I go north. The hook itself is well built when you have a closer look at it – for its size you can feel a strength that very few other hooks in this size can demonstrate. The small patterns is very popular on Iceland and up in norther Norway, so this is not something untested when targeting salmon.

 

flyhooks.org – streamers

With the recent big update on flyhooks.org I want to point you towards some of the streamer hooks that I received. I got a lot of these from a person that knows a lot about classic streamers and hooks, so getting a envelope full of hooks from him was like christmas and birthday at the same time!

Daiichi 2370 #2

Gamakatsu Russian River #2

The Russian River is a beast of a hook: the build quality is great and can only be described as one of the toughest streamer hooks I have ever had between my fingers (together with the B-17 below).

Gaelic Supreme M.M.C.S #1

A interesting hook since it exists in 3 sizes: 6xl, 8xl and this 10xl version, this makes it possible to track the difference in XL sizes across what is the same hook.

Mustad B-17 #2/0

Another streamer hook that I would trust for very large fish, but the pure weight of just the hooks, and the dimensions of this hook would make it hard to throw with a conventional flyrod.

Allcock BG3 #2

One from a legendary company, nice lines and a good quality build. Does not have a looped eye though, something I would do on a hook this size and dimension.

Sealey 1762.B #3/0

A interesting hook from Sealey: very lon shank with a wide gape compared to the other hooks in this category

Mustad 94720 #2

A nice Mustad hook that deserves a place here together with the other streamer hooks.

Take a look at flyhooks.org and the search to filter out the streamers or the where the shank length is longer than your traditional hook.