DIY Priest

This is a priest i machined a few years ago, while studying to become a CNC-machinist. It's made of 5 separate pieces of brass and aluminium which have been threaded and screwed together and then machined as one piece. If done with adequate precision you will end up with a smooth finish without any gaps between pieces. It was then polished to a high gloss, which besides making it look good has the added advantage of making the material more resistant to oxidizing and corrosion. 

My favorite fly for pike

I've never liked hot melt glue very much, but it has its advantages. It's cheap, durable and not too heavy. The downside, at least for me, is that it takes some practice before you can make good looking heads. My solution is to encase the glue in a short length of drinking straw. This gives a smooth and very durable head, which can then be wrapped in whatever nice and shiny material you can get your hands on!

The variant shown above has been my most productive one so far. It's hard to see on this picture, but there are a few strands of pearl flash along the side. 

One of many healthy autumn pike caught on this fly.

Longing for spring!

Just a few pictures to help my Nordic friends remember what nature looks like without snow... :-)

I want to go fishing now!

More yarn experiments

These are some variations of the Boa Yarn Leech, with which my brother has had great success fishing for perch. Although not depicted above my preferred colors for perch are yellow, red and white. I also make a heavier version with barbell eyes.

Glass bead Chironomidae

As you've probably realized by now I'm all about finding new and interesting tying materials. I really enjoy being creative, using things in ways they where never intended, and I take every chance I get to apply this  to fly tying. 

I found these clear glass beads with colored holes and love the effect they give on small flies, especially chironomidae imitations. 

Brassies!

Colored metal wire from crafts and hobby stores is great for creating simple brassies.

Yarn gammarus

I tied some simple gammarus immitations yesterday and I'm pretty happy with the result.

The body is made of the yarn I mentioned in an earlier post. The shell is made of a semi transparent scoubi sting which has been cut open lengthwise.

I love this yarn!

I recently got my hands on some really nice multicolored yarn.

I like flies that look good and are easy to tie. And it doesn't get any easier than this. Just yarn and copper wire/colored metal wire.

Fishing without(?) prestige

Me and my brother (blog in Swedish) have an ongoing competition about who can catch the highest number of different species with a fly rod. Since he has been a fly fisher for about a decade longer than me I have some catching up to do. But I have one catch that I am particularly proud of, namely the rudd (Scardinius ertythropthalmus) I caught a few years back.

Usually the common rudd doesn't get bigger than 20-25 cm in Sweden but it can grow to about 48 centimeters.

This one was caught with a white marabou booby fly in a certain lake, by my previous parents-in-law weekend cottage, where the cyprinidae are especially well nourished...

I really enjoy this kind of fishing and I highly recommend that you try it. Every new species provides a new challenge and you learn a lot, especially if you're competitive like me. So go challenge someone for the upcoming season!

Purple Nymphs for Grayling

Some Gold Head nymphs I'll be using when fishing for grayling. Purple seems to be a successful color in my home waters. A gold head is always a good addition in my opinion.

These flies will be just as good if you tie them on standard wet fly hooks. Caddis hooks look better in my view, but the graylings won't care.

These flies also work well in natural colors, with or without gold heads. Make them as complicated or as simple as you like.