You Raise Me Up

One of the few pleasures of the fly fishing off-season that runs from October to April, is the anticipation of a new season coming as spring starts to get near. This sense doesn't happen until well after New Year, and with the current weather and freezing temperatures, it is hard to believe it ever will.

I stopped work at 6 today and after lighting a fire, I suddenly had the urge to tie a trout fly or two. Not as good as fly fishing itself of course, but a good displacement nevertheless. I use this little table to set up my vice on, which though not ergonomic, just feels good, because it is the base from J's old high chair.

The only downside is that MrsB hates the general smell of the moth balls that you get whenever I open my fly box. These are in there of course to protect the fur and feather. This material was acquired gradually (a combination of purchase and dare-I-say, road kill finds) over nearly 30 years. MrsB grumbled again tonight as she made tea. Oops.

The decision over the first fly to tie each year is always easy. It has to be the undisputed king of all dry flies, the Klinkhåmer Special. I know I have mentioned this one before, but then I would because it is such a classic. Created by a Dutchman called Hans Van Klinken, it is actually an 'emerger' that floats whilst sitting deep in the water film to represent emerging or waterlogged caddis.

Caddis live their larval stage on the river bottom and metamorphose into the flying insect whilst splitting their larval shucks and rising up through the water. Trout can't resist this artificial caddis, and a little tweak of a drifting fly over a fish lie will often raise up even the most stubborn of fish.

Technically, my pattern is a variation and I could give it it's own name. The reason is that my white 'tag' that acts as the flotant and visual indicator is made from a loop of natural Sheeps wool instead of Han's own artificial polypropylene. I think this wool gathered off barbed wire and full of lanolin makes my own fly unsinkable. The other materials are ginger cockerel hackles, peacock herl, and dubbed hares ear fur.

Simply brilliant, there is no other word for it, and Van Klinken is a total genius. (put him on that Dutch pedestal with the equally wonderful Van Persie).