Rusty Rat

Hook: TMC7999 #1/0
Thread: UNI 6/0 Red
Tag: UNI-French Medium
Body: first half Lagartun Silk Floss, second half peacock herl
Rib: UNI-French Medium
Wing: Squirrel Tail
Hackle: Whiting Rooster Saddle Grizzly

The Rat series are classic salmon patterns that many variations and adaptations, this rusty rat I haven’t done before because I haven’t had the peacock sword, but with some in house I have to do a series of this as well. The whiting hackle is long and vibrant and will generate just the right movement in the water. A pattern that I should take down to some trout-size hooks as well, not just these big irons!

Blue Charm Wet

Posted on 26 January, 2015 by Håvard Eide 3399 floss french gp hen keough lagartun mustad saddle uni wet

Hook: Mustad S60-3399A #6
Thread: UNI 6/0 Black
Tag: UNI-French Medium Oval, Lagartun Floss-Silk Yello
Tail: GP
Body: UNI-Floss Black
Rib: :UNI-French Medium Oval
Wing: Black Underfur
Hackle: Keough Hen Saddle

Taking the blue charm down to a #6 trout hook I chose to substitute the wing from squirrel to black underfur and set the blue hackle in front of the wing due to the shape of the hook and the build-up that squirrel makes. But the main colors and composition from the blue charm remains. A great little wet that goes into the large amount of different blue charms I’ve created this winter!

Blue Charm Spey

Posted on 1 January, 20151 January, 2015 by Håvard Eide alec jackson bronze duck floss french lagartun mallard silk spey spirit river squirrel uni

Hook: Alec Jackson Spey #1.5 Bronze
Thread: UNI 6/0 Black
Tag: UNI-French Oval Medium, Lagartun French Silk Floss
Body: UNI-Floss Black
Rib: UNI-French Oval Medium
Hackle: Spirit River Spey Hackle Bright Blue
Wing: Squirrel tail as underwing, 2 layers of Mallard bronze shoulder over

A fresh start of the new year brings a large variant of the Blue Charm to this great spey hook from Alec Jackson! The squirrel underwing on this is generous to make the wing layer of Mallard sit nicely, that is also why the head became rather large, but not much one can do about that. I chose to not have a topping over it all, but for the next tie-up I’ll add that as well. I would also need some more of the blue spey hackle soon, or get a heron substitute to make some more of this for my box.

Happy New Year to all the readers I have here on dryfly.me!

Sunturn Spey

Posted on 21 December, 201421 December, 2014 by Håvard Eide alec jackson dubbing duck fly co foxtail french fur hen heron lagartun mallard mylar nøgne ø oval rooster seal spey uni veniard

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!

Blue Charm

Posted on 19 December, 2014 by Håvard Eide 7999 blue floss fremch gp hen keough lagartun saddle silk squirrel tinsel tmc uni utc wapsi

Hook: TMC 7999 #2
Thread: UNI 6/0
Tag: UTC French Tinsel Medium, Lagartun Silk Floss
Tail: GP
Body: Lagartun French Silk Floss
Rib: UTC French Tinsel Medium
Throat: Keough Hen Saddle Blue
Wing: Wapsi Squirrel Tail Blue/Tan

The blue charm with squirrel tail is one that shows up a lot of places when you start looking at salmon patterns, I have done some of them earlier, but then with a rather stiff cock hackle. This week I got some hen saddle and two different colors of squirrel tail, so I tied up these to go in my salmon box.

The blue charm is a great pattern that can work for both salmon and seatrout, it is not a very hard pattern to tackle, but make sure that the squirrel is tied in well: it has quite the slick surface on the hairs – use a waxed thread or ensure that it is well locked in before tying off!

lagartun

Rusty Rat

Blue Charm Wet

Blue Charm Spey

Sunturn Spey

Blue Charm

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