OK OK, I still have plenty more patterns! I can?t mail out whole blocks of stuff, there is just too much of it. I know a few people miss my website, but unfortunately nothing lasts forever.

I will post patterns to the board here, and you are quite welcome to copy them. As it was a special request here is my number one salt water pattern;

This is one of my absolute top salt-water flies for many occasions and species, but mainly sea-trout in the Baltic. It has taken a number of species since I first designed it, including sea-trout, cod, pollack, mackerel, herring, and various flatfish, and despite trying variations and "improvements" and weighting schemes over a long period of time, the original has still proved to be best. It should work anywhere where shrimps are found;

The shape is mainly due to the hook used which is a Gamakatsu LS-3113R bait-holder hook with a curved and sliced shank. If you wish, you may press down the slice in the shank before you begin dressing the fly. At least you should avoid cutting the thread on the slice!


You CAN bend various hooks to this shape if you have to, but I prefer to avoid bending hooks if I can, especially when they are going to be used on large powerful salt water fish.

You may dress the fly with weight if you wish, but I don?t. I prefer the more lively action of an unweighted fly in this case.The dressing is quite simple and uses cheap and readily available materials. These are some of the main criteria for all my flies. You will need:

THREAD: White or light yellow thread of your choice. You may also use red thread for darker reddish patterns, or even black thread for shrimps with a dark "core". The finished fly is quite transparent when wet, and looks even more lifelike.

HOOK: Gamakatsu LS-3113R in the size you wish to dress. This is a size 4, but you may dress them in various sizes. My most used size is a size 2. At one time I only carried this fly in size 2, but have found a few occasions where I needed a smaller one.

FEELERS AND CLAWS: A couple of cheap Indian Cree or Grizzly hackles, depending on general colour scheme required. Any hackles will do of course. I prefer marked hackles for most of my flies, but you can use single colour hackles if you wish.

EYES: Optional. Burnt mono or similar. These look nice, and improve the lifelike effect, but are not strictly necessary. The fish don?t care much it seems.

BODY : Mixed dubbed hare body or mask fur.

BODY HACKLE: same as claws etc. Cheap cree or grizzly cock hackle tips.

RIB: Copper wire. The wire MUST! be varnished. Most wire sold on reels is lacquered. If it isn?t it will corrode very quickly in salt water, and may also react with the hook metal in salt water. The hooks used here are protected with a very tough red finish. Affix your hook in the vice, and attach the thread as shown. Take the thread down to the position for the feelers etc. Don?t be tempted to go too far around the bend.

Select two hackle tips, strip the fluff and waste to size, but tie in some of the fibres as well, these act as "feelers", and tie in.


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