20

April 2018

By Allan Nørskov Johansen

Americano.

American fly patterns for fishing in River Karup.

American fly patterns for fishing in River Karup.

Camo Squid
and
Dirty Hoh

These last couple of years, I have been checking out some North American Steelhead patterns. Especially from their Intruders and Leech flies, there seems to be quite a lot to use as a source of inspiration, when creating flies for use in Danish River Karup. 

Comparing the tying technics used by the Americans with the Scandinavian approach to tying flies, there is a lot of common features and differences as well. We tie many of our seatrout and salmon patterns on tube, while the Americans love to tie on different types of shanks, with a single trailer hook attached in power braid line or wire.  

Camo Squid
and
Dirty Hoh

These last couple of years, I have been checking out some North American Steelhead patterns. Especially from their Intruders and Leech flies, there seems to be quite a lot to use as a source of inspiration, when creating flies for use in Danish River Karup. 

Comparing the tying technics used by the Americans with the Scandinavian approach to tying flies, there is a lot of common features and differences as well. We tie many of our seatrout and salmon patterns on tube, while the Americans love to tie on different types of shanks, with a single trailer hook attached in power braid line or wire.  

A devoted flyfisher

and a true “Steelhead pioneer”.

Jerry French is one out of many skilled American flytyers, who stands out. He has been pioneering Skagit Steelhead fly fishing for many years, and has contributed by developing several iconic fly patterns. Many of which are today used as standard patterns on many of the good steelhead rivers “over there”.Listing all his patterns, and the cool variations he has done on other people’s flies, would be way too much to cover in this blog entry! One of the key features in his tying, is that he likes to incorporate a lot of synthetic materials in his patterns. This provides a sharp contrast to the Scandinavian approach, where most of the materials used are of natural origin. 

Flies on display

Americano Flies

To put it short, I simply find his approach to fly tying very interesting, and his flies look killer….. I am a fan for sure :-)

Since I like to experiment a lot in my own fishing, I decided to take a couple of Jerry’s flies for a test swim in River Karup. The flies I have chosen are his “Camo Squid”, and his “Dirty Hoh”.

 

Flies on display

Americano Flies

To put it short, I simply find his approach to fly tying very interesting, and his flies look killer….. I am a fan for sure :-)

Since I like to experiment a lot in my own fishing, I decided to take a couple of Jerry’s flies for a test swim in River Karup. The flies I have chosen are his “Camo Squid”, and his “Dirty Hoh”.

 

Camo Squid

I have tied different versions of this pattern, but ended up preferring it on a 3 mm plastic tube with a conehead. This provides a light and very lifelike fly, where especially the long hackle tips on the fly moves dreamlike in the currents of the River Karup. 

See how to tie a “Camo Squid” in the film

Material list and SBS

  • 3 and 2 mm plastic tube clear, UTC 140 white thread, Zap a Gap glue.
  • Flatbraid in silver, Cactus chenille 15 mm Pearl, Senyo’s Aqua Veil chenille Mountain Blueberry, Grizzly Flutter Legs Black barred clear UV pearl.
  • Kingfisher blue Firestar/Ice dubbing, Senyo’s barred predator wrap, clear. Blue Polar fox. Ripple Ice fibers, Smolt blue.
  • 4 hackle tips Grizzly, Lateral Scale flash, Pheasant Ringneck Rump feather, and Guinea Fowl as front hackle.
  • Silver conehead # medium.

Season 2017

I tried different color combinations for it, and seeing as the fly provided me with the catch of some good fish during the test, I am obviously quite satisfied with the fly. It has earned a place in my fly box for sure, and will be used for fishing in daylight or twilight conditions along the river :-) 

You can check out a couple of fish, caught on the “Camo Squid” last season in this film clip :-)


Press the YouTube Logo, to view the film with sound :-)

 

Flies on display

Gallery Camo Squid

View photos of the pattern here

Dirty Hoh

After closing the 2017 season, I have found time to whip up a handful of the Sculpin pattern “Dirty Hoh” (*supposedly named after high and dirty water level conditions in Hoh River).In my opinion, this zonker fly pattern presents itself best when tied on a shank and fitted with some heavy dumbbell eyes.  Thereby staying in accordance with the original way to tie it “American style”. The steel shank and the heavy dumbbell eyes ensure, that the fly gets down deep easily, and presents itself with a lifelike jigging motion.

See how to tie a “Dirty Hoh” in the film

Material list and SBS

  • Senyo’s Articulated/intruder shank 25 mm black, Owner SSW # 4, 50 lbs. power braid, yellow dumbbell eyes # Small. White UTC 140. Head cement and wax.
  • Micro pulsator rabbit zonker strips, black barred blue/white. Pearl Cactus chenille 15 mm. Grizzly Flutter Legs, black barred UV/pearl, Kingfisher blue Firestar/Ice dubbing, Senyo’s barred predator wrap, clear. Blue Polar fox. Ripple Ice fibers, Smolt blue.
  • Pheasant Ringneck Rump feathers/natural, and Guinea Fowl front hackle.

Season 2018...

I plan to try out this pattern thoroughly throughout the season 2018, and I reckon it will do just fine. I am counting on a couple of crushing bites in River Karup on this one :-)The color combinations of both patterns in this blog are endless. You can also opt for tying a bulky version of the Camo Squid, for some night fishing action. Fished on a floating or an intermediate line, the fly will position itself right below the surface. Your imagination is the only limit.

Flies on display

Gallery Dirty Hoh

View photos of the pattern here


General info regarding fly patterns for River Karup.

Most anglers by the river have their own favorite fly. Or more precisely, maybe a handful of different patterns, suiting the various conditions met by the river.Fly Fishing in River Karup is not exactly an “imitation game”, as supposed to so many other forms of fly fishing. It is a varied and exciting form of fly fishing, where your aim is to provoke a fish to bite by use of different techniques and flies. Therefor it is not necessary for the fly in itself to represent a natural prey for the fish, although it probably does not do any harm either, if you are very keen on such details :-)This makes for lots of room for experimenting with patterns and techniques, and trying to think of new ways to present the flies to the seatrout. 

Flies on display

Gallery of different fly patterns

A small selection of different flies, all of which will perform well in River Karup under various conditions.

Obviously, this means you can get by, by using only one or very few patterns along River Karup. But if I as a flytyer had to tie the same pattern over and over again, honestly… I’ll get real bored at my tying vise :-)To no big surprise, I also carry a small handful of favorites, always present in my fly box along the river. But I like to learn to tie new patterns, or types of flies. Allowing yourself to be inspired by the patterns created by others, and learning how to tie them, raises the level of difficulty in your fly tying, and helps develop your own tying skills along the way :-)You can view all three films from this blog, in the film gallery below. “Tight lines” in 2018 :-)Allan Nørskov Johansen

See some fishing in the river, and SBS on the flies here in this gallery

Film Gallerry

Americano

Allan Nørskov Johansen originates from the city of Odense, and he is born 1976. Today Allan resides with his family, close to the river. Allan ”caught” his interest in fishing early on, with brown trout fishing in the small local streams near Odense. Later, many hours along the beautiful coastline of Funen went by, in an ongoing pursuit fly-fishing for the beautiful sea trouts. He visited the River Karup for the first time in the late summer of 1998, and immediately lost his heart to the beautiful countryside, and the river fishing for huge sea trout. Allan prefers a fly rod in pursuit of the beautiful River Karup sea trout, and therefore uses a great deal of time on fly tying as well. The "best experience" by River Karup is often when something unexpectedly and surprising happens on the fishing trip, and the fish suddenly act in a way you did not expect! It creates very memorable experiences. Allan also really enjoys helping others "cracking the code" with fishing tips or flies, so that others may experience catching one of the difficult sea trout from the river. His own best catch from the river is a male fish of 92 cm and 11.0 kg, caught at the end of June 2015. The fish was his second trophy fish from River Karup, surpassing "the magic 10 kg" mark, and gave him a long and memorable fight on his single hand fly rod.


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