Sunturn Spey

Hook: Alec Jackson Spey #1 1/2 Heavy Wire
Body: 1/3 Lagartun Black Silk Floss, 1/3 The Fly Co. Yellow Seals Fur, 1/3 The Fly Co. Red Seals Fur
Rib: UNI-Mylar Silver #10, UNI-French Oval Small Gold, UNI-Mylar #16 tied reverse over the hackle
Hackle: Foxtail Hen Neck Red, The Fly Co. Yellow Rooster Neck, Black Heron. Order: red, yellow and finally black in front
Wing: Veniard Mallard Duck Bronze Large

Today is winter solstice, and here in Norway this marks the coming of more daylight and the start of a journey towards the spring where we once again will get to go out and flyfish for trout and salmon. One of my favorite beer breweries here in Norway is Nøgne Ø, and they have a tradition to brew a batch of Sunturnbrew on this very day. It is dark, has lots of flavor, fits perfectly with my tastebuds and is a massive 11% alcohol!

Some years back I bought some bottles to see how it matures, and I open one bottle every year, on winter solstice, the very day it was created. This batch was brewed back on 2010.21.12 and is batch number #573. Today I was inspired when I saw that the brewers are at it again and are creating another batch of this great beer! I sat down and thought about the taste, the label, the winter solstice and created this spey fly that I call “Sunturn Spey”, a homage to Nøgne Ø and their Sunturnbrew.

The main idea came from the white to yellow to red writing on the label, I also wanted to convey the darkness of both the beer and the time of the year that we have.

The flow of the hackle together with the seals fur dubbing represents the sun coming out of the darkness. I would like to get some clean Sunturnbrew labels and mount this fly in a frame together with it and send it to Grimstad to the brewers!

Detail from the body: the counter-wrap will ensure that the hackle stays in place

A double mallard wing on top:

I’m very happy with how this fly came out, and I could frame it, but the colors and shape of this fly makes it one that I will tie up a few of to have in my salmon box for when the summer comes!

Hends Spectra Dubbing

Posted on 16 June, 2013 by Håvard Eide dubbing hends nymph

This is one for the Czech nymps: long strands with lots of shine to it makes this a good dubbing for both small and large nymphs. I don’t keep too many Czech nymphs with me, but I always have them ready, both for fresh and saltwater fishing. My personal best for browntrout: 1.25kg, was on a Czech nymph in purple and red.

The long fibers will give a lot of movement to the nymph:

Applied to a UNI 6/0 thread and a TMC 2457 #8 hook

Two colors applied to the hook

Drag the fibers out with a toothbrush gives you long legs:

Since the fibers are so long you can also use it to form a tail, here on a Mustad 94840 #12:

Layer two different colors to form the tail:

Hends Musk-Rat Dubbing

Posted on 12 June, 201312 June, 2013 by Håvard Eide dubbing hends musk-rat

The Hends Musk-Rat dubbing is the other from Hends that I have, but compared with the superfine this one has some more longer fibers that stick out. These you can remove before applying to the thread, or keep them on to get a more dynamic body. Usage would be fore dry-flies or emergers.
There are not too many long fibers as you can see, and they are easily removable if you want to do that before adding to the thread

Dubbs nicely on the thread

And can be applied quite thin on the hook, here a Mustad 94840 #14. The long fibers are really long and on small hooks like this they really stand out.

Dubbing: Wapsi Natural Nymph Blend Squirrel

Posted on 29 May, 2013 by Håvard Eide dubbing hareline mustad wapsi

This nymph blend from Wapsi was one of the first dubbing packages that I bought and I have gone through quite a few packages, I don’t know if it is because I started out with this or if it is because I really like it! The blend is easy to work with and gives a life in nymphs (and slender emerger bodies) that I appreciate.

The blend is a good mixture between fine and long fibers

Dubbing on the thread is very easy: can be applied both in a thin and quite a thick layer on the thread

Dubbed on a Mustad 94840 #14 here, the long fibers tend to stick out and give lots of life to the body

On a Dai-Riki 135 #14 hook, with Hareline Scudback 1/8″ and Ultra wire wrapped. Here the blend comes through to its name and creates long nice legs on the fly

Fly-Rite: Extra Fine Poly

Posted on 16 May, 201316 May, 2013 by Håvard Eide dubbing fly-rite mustad sheer

The Extra Fine Poly Dubbing from Fly-Rite is made of polypropylene (on wikipedia if you want to read up some more on this) and is very good for slender bodies and dry-flies. The material is very easy to work with and goes on the thread with no problems. For now I only have this in golden yellow, but would like to get this in a few more colors to work with on emergers.

The individual fibers are very long:

It goes on the thread (here a Sheer 14/0) very easy and does not build up to something big and bulky

This is a Mustad 44840 #14, and I have tried to build up as small as possible: the body gets very slim and is just thicker than the hook.

Here you can see the reason why I like this on small flies: here on a Gamakatsu C12-BM #30, without much effort you get a body on even these small hooks

dubbing

Sunturn Spey

Hends Spectra Dubbing

Hends Musk-Rat Dubbing

Dubbing: Wapsi Natural Nymph Blend Squirrel

Fly-Rite: Extra Fine Poly

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