Merry Christmas!!!

Absolute stillness and quite. Both kids asleep and my other half is at her parents. Having myself an ale and thinking about friends and family of now and the past.We all are who we are... and good or bad we are all very much shaped by the people we've had around us and the events that we have been trough...

I am lucky to have three people in my life that means a lot to me, but I also give a thought to all the friends and family out there that are no longer a part of my life. And even though christmas is a holiday of joy it will for a lot of us remind us of someone we've lost in a way or another... Christmases of the past and times that will never again be.

Cheers everyone! And a merry, merry Christmas to you all!

Tom Thumb

Some patterns you just stumble upon and realize that you have clearly missed out of something directly you see it. The Tom Thumb was such a pattern when I first saw it. Looks deadly simple and since I had been searching for a quick tied caddis puppa fly that was more visible than the Superpuppa I was very pleased when I found it.

I did a SBS at elmerfishing.com and since I feel extra lazy for the moment I will just link to it instead of putting it up here :)
http://elmerfishing.com/en/bindbeskrivningar/torrflugor/toms-thumb.html

Tiny CDC Mayfly

We all learn from each other don't we and this little CDC mayfly that I did yesterday combines a few techniques that I've been shown by other tyers this fall. I used the extended CDC body technique that Micke Gröndahl showed me with the wings that Gwilym Hughes showed me and came up with a tiny all (almost) CDC mayfly... I need smaller hooks to do smaller mayflies!

Deer creek sculpin head/hook

When I was in England I did manage to get hold of some of the materials from Deer creek, among others their very interesting looking sculpin head/hooks. Tonight I did my first stumbling tries at tying with them, came out alright but I think I can come up with something ever better after having played around with it for a while

Flies from my collection: Trevor Jones

One of the nicest things with tying at shows is to meet up with old friends that you only meet during these types of occasions. But it's just as nice when you meet new friends that you directly feel is gonna last a long time! When I was in England I did meet quite a few of those, and one of them was the extremely nice and friendly Trevor Jones!

Trevor has represented Wales in both European & Commonwealth fly-fishing internationals, he did also coach the 2006 South African fly-fishing team who were over in Wales for the Commonwealths. He has a few very good patterns in his arsenal, one is a very famous Nebo spider!

I don't have many salmon flies in my collection, but the ones I have I rate very high, and this one is no exception!

Fly tyers day at SFFC

So yesterday it was fly tyers day at Stockholms Fly Fishing Center. I got the chance to meet a lot of good friends, tie some flies and laugh a lot! Man I had a great time, too bad I couldn't stay over the evening with the whisky trials with Stefan Larsson, but hopefully next time!

Some photos from the day:

Henrik "Cobol" and Micke "Bluedun" with Leif Örtenholm in the background


Håkan Karsnäser had come also, world class classic salmon flies in his vise as always!



William Moberg-Faulds who is the host for a Swedish television show on fishing came by also


I learned a new way to make great wings from Micke and did a killer variant with it that I gave William

Tying the CDC caddis or the F-fly variant

CDC Sedge, or F-fly variant

Hook: Dry fly hook size 14-22
Thread: UNI 8/0 black
Body and wing: CDC

One of the most used modern designed dry flies has to be Marian Fratniks "F-fly" a geniusly simple CDC caddis that works so good in really small sizes. Personally I like a variant of it more, becuse it floats a little higher and are easier for me to see. I am not sure but I think that Johan Klinkberg might be responsible for this fly.

When I fished the Itchen in England Chris Reeves had tremendous success with this patter in a size 20 with black CDC. I like it in a brown variant as well and that is what I have tied in this step by step.

Dead easy to tie,it's almost impossible to fail with it, and you can easily tie up a lot of them in no time!

Step 1

Start with covering the hook shank with your tying thread.

Step2

Tie in one-three CDC feathers (depending on hook size) at the end.

Step3

Tie the CDC quills down on the hook shank forward to create a smooth underbody

Step4

Fold the CDC forward and tie it down with a couple of hard turns of thread

Step5

Fold the CDC feathers bacwards once more and tie it down with 3-4 turns of thread.

Step6

Cut the CDC to the right length (the wing should be slightly longer than the body), whip finish and varnish!

So easy, and such a nice pattern!

Tying the Fox Poopah!

I am a dry fly fanatic, that's just a fact. I fell in love with it from the first cast and I favour dry fly fishing over sub surface for start at any water. But yes, I do fish a nymf now and then and of course the odd big streamer, or why not a double set up with a klinkhammer on top and a nymf for a dropper?

Anyway, about four years ago I got some flies sent to me by my good friend Thom Sullivan in the US, one of them was the Fox Poopah, and I really liked to look of it! Once I tried it I liked it even more. I specially remember a small stream far north in Norway, I've been catching huge grayling on dry flies all week but had trouble at this spot. So I put on a fox poopah and started catching browns at every cast!

Originally created by Tim Fox almost twenty years ago, it's not a well known pattern but it should be!

Hook: any straigh hook size 12 and downwards. This is tied on a size 14
Body: Vernille over flat silver and ribbed with oval silver
Legs: Patridge
Thorax: black ostrich
Antennas: Wood duck

Start with sliding any type of bead head on, I like these with accentuated "eyes" on!


Tie in the oval silver tinsel all the way from the head to the hook bend. Keep a smooth underbody



Catch in the flat silver tinsel at the back and tie that one down the hook shank all the way up to the head again.



Touch the end of a vernille piece with a flame to taper it slightly to the end.



Wind the flat tinsel in touching turns, tie off and tie in the body here.


Rib the body and trap it on the top side of the hook towards the hook eye and tie off.


Trap in a stripped down partridge feather on the underside, make the fibers about half way between the hook point and the bend.


Trap in two fibers from a wood duck feather as antennas, let them stick out a bit behind the body.


Tie in a black ostrich herl.


Wind the ostrich forward, tie off behind the head and finish it there! Voila!




Here's one of Thom Sullivans interesting variants with a looped vernille for body!

Great SBS by my friend "Bluedun"

Just published a great step-by-step by my friend Mikael "Bluedun" Gröndahl for a great baitfish pattern at elmerfishing.com

Check it out here!

Ups and downs

Life is up and down... with a loving family beside you the downs will be so much easier to handle and the ups so much more rewarding

Drawing

My little tiger Kristoffer has all of a sudden started to enjoy to draw, and he doesn't seem to be able to stop, LOL! Just gotta share this great photo, this is how I found him when I walked into his room later tonight! :)

The death and resurection of 700teeth.com

This past summer I started a website called 700teeth.com totaly dedicated to pike fly fishing. It was lots of fun and I made a lot of new friends who came there, register and participated in the forum I had there.

Then came a lot of work with a new role at work, sickness in the family, preparation for BFFI, more work, flu etc. And all of a suddenly I felt like I had no time for 700teeth.com anymore.

For those who know me since way back you know that I have been involved in the Elmer Fishing movememt and the elmerfishing.com website.

So... the best solution to keep focus on 700teeth.com was to shut it down... and move the whole thing to elmerfishing.com instead where I will get help from 4-5 other administrators and will combine focus on fly fishing for several different species!

So if you baer with us for not having had time to translate all articles yet, or moved all content from 700teeth.com yet, you are very welcome to register at elmerfishing.com and help us get even better!

Tying again

Yesterday I was tying again for the first time since the BFFI. I did a few weaved caddis larva and then tonight a couple of foam mayflies.


Heavliy weighted, cuts down fast and hangs great as a dropper fly underneath a dry fly.


These small foam mayflies (AKA the SRM dun) have caught so many fish for me, especially for the grayling it's a great pattern even when there is no hatches around.

Flies from my collection: Roy Christie

I met Roy for the first time in 2007 when he tied at the show in Sweden, I have also been a member of the same fly fishing forum as he is and if there ever was a nice guy Roy would be the one! There is very few tyers that can say that they have their true original style of flies that they tie, Roy however can. He has a few patterns that are very special and that he developed more than twenty years ago, look for his reversed parachute or this fly on the photo below, the Avon Special!

Proud to now have three of Roys flies in my collection!

Yeah... weird! =)

Sky Sports feature from the BFFI

When at the BFFI I suddenly found myself interviewed by Andy Ford form SkySports show "Tight lines" and it was such a unreal feeling. But if that was unreal, imagine with it was seeing myself in the aired show tonigh! Weird, but so cool! :D :D :D

Check the whole show, but look carefully from 6.10 forward where you will first see some of my flies and then me talking about my beetle pattern. I look weird and sound even weirder! LOL!

http://www.skysports.com/video/inline/0,26691,13019_5707799,00.html

Sick

Oh man am I not feeling good.... this past night was terrible. Fever, Shivers, headache, running nose and pain all over. And both kids seam to be having the same thing... mabye its the Swine thing that has hit us?

Flies from my collection - Dennis Shaw

Now one thing that's great when getting the opportunity to get away and tie at different shows around the world is the opportunity I get to swap flies with other tiers and increasing my collection of flies. So I will take up this long absent category with some flies I got in England.

This first one was a bit surprising but very, very cool! This is a variant of my own "Ulf's Killer" mayfly patter, one of my oldest pattern actually. This one is a small copydex version of it signed Scottish fly tyer Dennis Shaw. Dennis is one of the masterminds behind the ukflydressing.com website, a great guy, really good fly tyer and... very short! ;)

Thanks a lot Dennis for giving this to me, I really appreciate it! Now I just need to figure out what this copydex is and how to use it! :)

Now isn't this a beauty!

Fishing the Lower Itchen

So one of the things beside the show in England that really, really was a great experience was to fish a English Chalkstream for the first time in my life. The Itchen is situated south of London and it was like a 1-2 hour drive to get there from Chris Reeves where I was staying.

So it was me and Chris and Teddy Pattlen from the US. I met Teddy for the first time three years ago when he tied at the big show here in Sweden, and he is a fantastic guy to spend some time with.

"The Gaters Mill cottage" - where we payed for the days fishing

The first thing that struck me when we got there was how slow flowing the stream seamed to be everywhere, not a single little fall or boulder sticking up anywere. And also how small it was! I was so used to the streams of Sweden up north and I hadn't really put my mind to how different these Chalkstreams are despite seeing them on videos and photos many times prior to me going there.

You could tell that Teddy were excited too to start fishing and we were three very merry men getting ready to go try our flies to the Graylings. Chris gave us some good advice aswell as handing out a couple of small pink grayling nymfs that he said would work great for us. Me being a dry fly purist took the fly but chosed to still start with a small foam mayfly that I though might fit for the PMD's that were rumoured to be hatching.

Getting ready!

Once I got down to the stream I got my next surprise, it looked so shallow everywhere! Then I realized that well... it was! But there is also the fact that it has such very, very clear waters so even at places on the stream (that we got to further upstream) that are deep you will have no problem seeing the bottom.

So I started fishing blindly with the dry fly moving slowly upstreams towards Chris. He just took a couple of casts and then landed a small grayling directly on the nymf. I was just enjoying every breath of air around this stream and so far hadn't even considered that well... I was supposed to catch fish also!

I came up to Chris and now the next cool thing occured to me. He pointed to a bright spot of gravel on the bottom to the far bank of the stream. "You see that spot of gravel" he asked me. And I relied that well yes I do. "Do you see that dark shadow at the top end of the gravel". I tried to see what he meant and then I saw a slender looking shadow where he pointed, and then realized that it had a tail fin! He just grinned and said "Nice three pound brown that is" !

Once I know what to look for there were fish to spot everywhere! BIG fish!!! My eye was not trained in seeing anything more than the fact that there were fish, I couldn't tell if it was trout of grayling and since we weren't allowed to fish for the trout I tried to learn the difference before casting to any fish I saw.

At one time I did cast my SRM emerger to what looked like a really nice Grayling, and on the third cast he suddenly rose from the bottom and just below my fly he turned and went back down and then I saw it was a trout, a really, really nice trout of about two kilos or something!

The stream bank was very neatly treated and even though we were just by the river bank very close to the fish on the bottom they weren't spooked by us standing there. At one point we come around the corner and Chris points to a large shadow saying "see that, that's a salmon right there". Just when I thought I couldn't get more surprised!

Chris landed a few more Graylings and the odd trout when blind fishing who got back quickly again. Somewhere around mid day there were a hatch of small dark mayfly, probably spurwing, and it got the fish to start rising!

Chris soon found that the one fly that the fish actually did rise to was a small size 20 dark CDC fly, and he gave me one who I placed high up in a tree on the first cast! Embarrassed as I was I still asked him for another one since I kept seeing him catch fish on it! This was the same fly that Johan Klinkberg had found worked so well fishing here the previous year.

So I went ahead upstream like 50 meters to a spot that I had seen a good sized fish rise a couple of time. I got there and starting casting to him downstream and he stopped rising as soon as I got there. There were other fish rising as well and I cast to them all before realizing there was a bigger fish rising twice behind me upstream, and when I looked close I saw a nice long shadow at the bottom just beside a spot of gravel! Now was it a grayling or a brown... I decided on a grayling and started casting the black CDC fly to him. After about ten casts without him moving to the fly I lost it in a back cast again! Now I couldn't go back to Chris asking for another one and since the fish hadn't showed any interest in the CDC I put on a size 18 SRM emerger instead.

First cast with it, I see the fish back off a little and then rise and takes the fly with confidence! Woho! Shit, it's a trout! It makes a good run, then turns to the river bank and stays there! I feel him at the end of the leader but still it's stuck, so I reel in and get down to the river bank. The leader has tangled up in some branches so I carefully take the fish in one hand and try to remove the leader with the other, all of a sudden he breaks loose and "spits" out the fly and goes away!

I would love to have had a photo of him, but it didn't really matter, I was so happy having landed a Itchen fish and the rest of the time I found myself just walking about with a smile, casting to sighted fish now and then and watching the other two fish.

Teddy cathes both a couple of Graylings and a nice brown doing blind nymfing and Chris keeps catching graylings on his CDC.

The hatch of the spurwing dies out and there are not many rising fish left as we reach the end of the stretch late in the afternoon. Chris tells me and Teddy to fish out the big pool below the "waterfall" with nymfs to see if we can lure some bigger fish before we end for the day.

I fish like 50 meter down from the fall when all of a sudden I see teddy hook something and then I hear Chris yelling "It's a salmon!". I laughed because I thought he was messing with Teddy because we knew Teddy had never caught a Salmon! But then I see him running with the BIG net and I realize he isn't joking at all!

The fight is dramatic to say the least! The fish shows itself early confirming that it probably is a Salmon or maybe a sea trout before going down deep again.

Teddy is fighting the fish with a big grin and a the cigar in his mouth!

All of a sudden the fish runs for the bank and then it's like it's impossible for Teddy to move it. He feels it at the other end but can't move it!

So operation "save the salmon" starts where Teddy tried to get as close to the river bank as possible, with me or Chris holding him by his back or neck making sure he doesn't fall in as he tried to play the line around whatever it's tangled around down there.

It's a three man job trying to life over the line over thorn bushes, grabbing Teddy, moving along the bank and trying not to loose our faith that the fish can be salvaged still!

Finally Teddy manage to get around the bushes and up on the bridge where he feels the fish finally giving in and start running free again! Success! So he moves to the far bank and eventually the fish is netted by Chris and landed!!!

To our amazement we find that the 7-8 pound salmon has taken the small pink grayling nymf and not the streamer on the dropper that we all though it had!!! So a size 14 pink larva is the Salmon fly of the day!

I am so happy to have been a part of it. And when I look at Teddy, a man who has fished for all his life, for half a decade, who has caught fish all over the world and fished with some of the best. The absolute look of total and utterly happiness over this one fish... that expression on his face alone will describe to anyone what fishing is all about!

I had one of the most pleasant fishing days of my life, and I will be back to the Lower Itchen as soon as I can, fantastic!!!

Photos from BFFI2009

Started out at Chris Reeves house in the morning of Friday, where I met his
wonderful dog!

Arrived in Stoke and checked out where I was gonna tie the next day.

'

Geoff "Tuppsy" from UKflydressing at the lodge on Friday, what a great
bloke you are my friend!

Saturday morning and the gang from UKflydressing starts setting up

One great thing was to meet some of the guys from my 700teeth forum,
here are the Clydesdales from Scottland!

David Woolsoncroft-Dodes tied some great pike flies there

Dave Wiltshire and Geoff at the bar in at the Premiere on saturday,
Dawe is a great guy who are gonna come over and tie at the show in Sweden next
year

Allun (to the left) and Paul (right) at the pub Saturday night

Niklas Dahlin and Stevie Munn from Ireland at the infamous chinese
dinner in saturday :)

Another great tyer that we are gonna have in Sweden next year is german
Peter Joest

Englishman Peter Smith ties some neat semi-realistic!

One of Teddy's great framed flies!

Chris tied at the "Clinic" and as you can see it was crowded all the
time ;)

The guys sitting to the right and left of me; Graham Ewins (front) and Martin
Stout (back)

Another great thing was meeting friends that I hadn't seen in a while,
like Roy Christie! Great meeting you mate!

BFFI 2009 - first reflections

So I have been trying to make all the impressions and all the experiences made from the past weekend sink in. It's almost impossible to grasp it all but my brief summary of the whole thing is that it was some of the most fun and rewarding time I have had! I met many old friends and made even more new once and the hospitaly and warmth I recieved from everyone was overwhelming!

Geoff, Dave W, Dennis, Paul, Duncan, Allun, Trev, Keith and the rest from UKflydressing. Stevie Munn, Gwilum Huges, the Dutch guys with Johan, Martin and the rest. Paul Little, Jens Pilgaard, Peter Smith, Mikko Stenberg, David Wolsoncroft-Dodds and all the other fly tyers I spoke to and watched tie (wish I could have watched every single one but I had to tie some myself also you know! :D ).

Special thanks to all who came by, showed interest in my flies and watched me tie them!

Extra special thanks to Andy Ford from Sky Sports! (more on this later)

Extra, extra special thanks to Steve and Bridgette and their crew for making it all possible!

Extra, extra, extra special thanks to my friends Chris Reeves and Caroline Emmet who had me in their house and took fantastic good care of me!

Also a HUGE, extra special thanks to Chris once more and Teddy Pattlen with whome I had one of the best fishing days for years fishing the Lower itchen on monday (more on that later aswell)

I have probably missed out on a lot of names, and a lot of people I can't remember the names of (I suck at remembering names!). But anyone who I spent time with, thanks for contributing to making it such a great weekend!

Here's a shot of me tying a SRM emerger that Dawe Wiltshire took. I will put up some of my own photos later tonight

Back from the BFFI

If someone would ask me to rank the ten best days of my life I am pretty sure these past four days would be high up on that list! I had the time of my life and will probably never forget it!

A full report will come later this week!

For the upcomming fishing

On monday after the BFFI I am gonna go fishing the Lower itchen! Apperantly there might be hatches of Spruwings and Pale morning duns. Here're some flies that I tied for using then: A size 18 "Killer" for the Spurwing and a size 18 Foam mayfly for the PMD.

A little off in the colours, but I am hoping for them to work along with a small SRM emerger!

Tying the Slightly More Sophisticated (SMS) foam beetle

There a few insects that make a more characteristic footprint on the surface than a beetle and for periods of time during a season there will be a lot of terrestrials around and on the water and beetles will be one of them. A classic foam beetle will give you great fishing, but if you want something more, a little more advanced and something slightly more sophisticated, then it's the SMS beetle you want!

This is a good example of flies I like to tie; flies that will impress both the fish and the fisherman. Flies like this will attract attention as soon as you open your box :)

Hook: Tiemco TMC 2312
Thread: Sheer 14/0
Body: 2 mm foam
Legs: Plastic broom bristles
Antennas: Black goose biots

Step1
Cut a piece of 2 mm foam into a square shape, 7 mm wide and 20 mm long.


Step2
Cut a small tag at one end.


Step3
Round of the corners towards the tag, making it look like this:


Step4
Cut it into a clearly tapered shape.


Step5
Now, tie in your thread at the back of the hook and tie in the foam body by the tag making it point backwards. Then go forward with your tread and tie down the foam at three points to represent the abdomen, thorax and the head. The thorax and the head together makes up about 1/3 of the body, and then the thorax makes up 2/3 of what's left. Those are good guidlines. Use just two turns of the thread at each point.


Step 6
Unwind the thread, but leave the tag tied in, you will now have three obvious markings from where the thread were tied in onto the foam.


What I like to do now is that I like to cut the foam at all three markings about 1 mm at each side of the foam, this will prevent the foam from curling around the hook a lot when tied in. You will now see the thread go "deeper" in the foam when tied in.



Step 7
Use plastic broom bristles from any broom (I have used bristles from a furniture broom). And tie them in at the hook shank so that the back pair of legs extend some where at the back third of the abdomen and the middle pair somewhere close to the thorax.




Step 8
Front pair of legs go in the middle of the thorax. And then a pair of goos biot antennas at the hook eye!


Step 9
Stretch the foam a little and tie down behind the hook eye to create a neat little head.


Step 10
Cut off the foam, and tie off the thread. Now colour the whole thing with a permanent marker.... now I hear you mutter "why the heck didn't he use black foam from the start instead, moron!" Well, being like I am I think you get a more realistic look with the marker and the secret treat that you will see in the last steps! :)


Cut a crease through the abdomen with a sharp knife.


Step11
Use a fine set of flat pliers or tweezers to flatten out the legs just where they extend out from the body, then start bending them to the right shape.





Step12
Bend the legs further and flatten them to make a more realistic look.


Step13
I like to flatten the "feet" of the beetle the other way, to make an illusion of them beeing more delicate.


Step14
There are two things that I like to do. To make it more realistic to the fish I like to heavily treat the underside with super glue, which when it dries on the marker will leave a shiny surface resembling of the almost metallic looking colour a lot of beetles have on their underside.

Secondly I like to make it more realistic to the fly fisherman, and treat the top side with two layers of matt water based varnish, making it look much more realistic, and this is also where the marker comes to life better!

A masterpice!

In my mail today I got what has to be one of the crown jewels in any fly fishing art collection. An amazing print from master Michael Simon depicting a Grayling ready to rise to a mayfly signed "To Ulf".... and imagine I sent him two SRM emerger... I gotta send him something much nicer after the BFFI.