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 […]

Salty gammarus

We are getting close to Solstice and winter is on our doorstep. When the temperatures are dropping my approach to sea trout fishing in saltwater typically means downscaling. Small shrimp or gammarus flies in hot colors are my go-to winter flies. Last winter my friend, Staffan Lindstrøm, sent me a package containing a lot of […]

Shades of Green – my favorite sea trout fly

Flies that are tied in-the-round like palmers, Woolly Worms, Wooly Buggers and many Baltic sea trout flies has a vibe of simplicity. They are just effective with a workman-like vibe. And I use these flies a lot for saltwater as well as for freshwater fishing. This spring I made a new pattern. It was nothing […]

Experimenting with Amnesia running line

Today I received a package with Sunset Amnesia running line. I’ve been interested in trying that classic flat monofilament out for years, but never really got around to actually ordering the stuff. Well now it’s here, and I have done some lawn casting with different fly rods and shooting heads. I am freaking excited about […]

Back when Fenwick fly rods were the hottest sticks in town

The fly tackle business is a battlefield where every tackle company (just like the mad lab mouse Brainy) is trying to gain world domination. World domination, I guess, should be gained by making the best products and delivering the best service and customer support. But more and more often I get a feeling that the […]

Tying and Fishing the Booby Fly – Firetail Booby – Sample from the book

Firetail Booby I invented this pattern more than a decade ago. I was inspired by flies like Jack Gartside’s Soft Hackle Streamer and a lot of the colourful steelhead flies. What I wanted was hot colours and flash, but I also wanted it to be a little bit subdued. The solution was to hide the […]

Tying and fishing the Booby Fly – Meet the Booby Fly – sample from the book

Meet the Booby Fly – Top producing outlaw with a catchy name It has a funky name, it is kind of goofy looking – but it is one of the most efficient and consistently top producing flies for trout… and pretty much anything else that swims. So effective, actually, that it has been banned from […]

Shoot to kill

Well I finally surrendered. I’ve never been a big fan of the line basket, but lately I found myself getting pissed more often than usual when fishing for sea trout. Wind, loose seaweed, algae and just plain old line tangle seemed to collaborate in an effort to mess up a fair percentage of my casts. […]

Saltwater fly tying with Allan

Had a fabulous evening tying flies and photographing tying steps with hot shot saltwater fly fisherman, Allan B. Pedersen, tonight. Or… more correctly: Allan did all the hard work while I took the pictures. Allan tied two of his favorite streamer flies and this very tempting dry fly. The flies are aimed at saltwater fishing […]

Olson’s Crab (Mic’s variant)

Sometime back in the late 80’s I came across a saltwater fly in an American magazine. It might have been American Angler and Flytier or Fly Fishing. Anyway… the fly was a pretty simple crab imitation, made with bead chain eyes and glo bug yarn in rather subdued colors. I didn’t have any glo bug […]