A Soft Dog on my trail

Recently I got hold of a bunch of Whiting Soft Hackle with Chickabou patches – more precise the Coq De Leon hen saddles. All of these had markings resembling the partridge body hackles – and some were dyed in subdued pastel colours. I immediately saw the possibilities for making some beautiful soft hackle spider wet […]

Hair hackle flies for sea trout

Last Christmas I received quite a few books on fly fishing- and fly tying. One of these was Hair Hackle Fly Tying by Gordon Mackenzie. Gordon has found his own rather unique style of fly tying, using hair hackling almost exclusively. Even though I really would not want to quit using feathers (being a traditionalist […]

Remember the ABU Optic flies anyone?

Here is one for the squirrel tail theme. Do you remember Callgirl, Streamtease, Pin-up and Playboy. Well if you grew up in the sixties and seventies you probably do. My first rod and reel was a spinning outfit, and at that time spinning tackle didn’t get any better than the products made in Svängsta, Sweden. […]

Hairwing flies and squirrel tails

When I started fly tying more than 3 decades ago, squirrel tails were used in a lot of the fly patterns that first caught my eye. I tied some quill-winged wet flies as well – but, lacking tying experience, these pretty much sucked. The hair-winged flies, however, turned out right most times. I used a […]