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!
Alignment of the wing and tail: not very important for the actual fishing, but I did enjoy getting it aligned like this.
Bottom view:
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