January 2018
By Henrik Kure Nielsen
“Nieren”. A classic fly pattern from River Karup.
The local anglers at the legendary River Karup, have through several decades supported a wide range of good and effective sea trout flies. Flies like Klods Hans, Torp, Resen, and especially the fly with the most distinctive name, Den Tropiske Gråspurv, has through my time as a sea trout angler been a great inspiration. However, there is particularly one fly, which really has obtained a permanent residence in one of my tube fly boxes.
And that is Alf Pedersen’s fly, “Nieren”. I will allow myself to describe it as beautiful and elegant. Of course, it makes me think back to the first time I met Alf, and his magical sea trout fly.
We met because of my job back then. We held a course about flyfishing and strategy, and Alf turned up by the river, wearing a woolen sweater and waders. Our talk about the fishing and the big sea trout in River Karup, was to me both cozy and inspiring. However, when it was time to draw out the fly boxes, it really became interesting.
“This is the one I use”, Alf said, while holding a 10-12-centimeter-long tube fly right in front of me.
“It can catch them” he proclaimed, probably because I looked a bit surprised!
“Good heavens”, is what I probably thought. They are huge, and long. Alf told me that they were tied by horsehair which, at that time, was a very popular material. Especially for Islandic salmon flies.
Alf has unfortunately, passed away several years ago, but since River Karup was a pivotal point in his life, I find it natural that his magical sea trout fly deserves to be mentioned here on RIVERFISHER.
Here is my version of Alf Pedersen’s magical sea trout fly, “Nieren”. Beautiful, elegant and extremely effective.
“Nieren”, variant.
- Thread : Black.
- Tube : Pro Flex tube 40/40 orange. A traditional orange tube can naturally also be used.
- Tag : Oval silver tinsel, do 5 turns.
- Body : Black wool or black dubbing.
- Ribbing : Oval silver tinsel, do 5 turns.
- Hackle : Body hackle. Long fibred brown rooster, do 5 turns.
- Wing : White, orange and black Marble Fox.
- Hackle : Front. Long-fibred brown rooster.
- Cheeks : Jungle cock.
“Tight lines” by the river.
Henrik Kure Nielsen
Henrik Kure Nielsen was born in 1966 in Nexø on Bornholm. Over the past 36 years, he has lived and breathed for fly fishing. It is often coastal sea trout, who gets to sink their teeth in Henrik's flies, but the fish in the rivers of Jutland also regularly get a taste. In the ' 90s, Henrik often visited River Karup. For example, he visited the “Buus” beat each year. The visits to River Karup came along during guiding events, booked through the Swedish shop “Lennart Bergquist” from Göteborg. In 1999, Henrik moved to Copenhagen, to make a professional career out of his hobby. In the year 2000 he finally fulfilled his passion for tube flies, by publishing his first book on that exact topic, “Rørfluer”. 10 years as a professional fly freak in various shops in Denmark quickly went by. Later on, he became a “Master Tyer” for the American company “Rainy's Flies”. For the moment, Henrik is associated with the Danish hook manufacturing company “Ahrex”, as a field tester and photographer. Henrik mostly enjoys fishing technique, and creating life like flies with lots of dynamics in the water. Furthermore, he has a good eye for the many nature experiences, that fishing trips offer, and he strongly believes that the size of the fish is less important.