Mayfly for salmon?

Mayfly for salmon?

Viking Lars | Saturday, 29 September 2018

I was watching a video of my good friend, John Rasmussen, on the Ahrex YouTube-channel. John ties a Danish river sea trout pattern called Elveren (which in Danish can both the The Elf and The 11 - in this case, The 11 as the fly caught an 11 pound sea trout on its first outing). It's a really nice pattern and I wanted to tie a few for myself (and a few for a friend).

And so I did, and I wasn't even done with the first one until my mind began to wander, wander towards a yellow, a red, and maybe a yellow and red version for salmon.

The original (link to video) is geared 100% towards night fishing for sea trout with its purple front hackle (purple disappers later than blue, Paul), purple body and black hackle. I've written before that yellow (especially sunburst yellow) and red a hot colours in Scandinavia for salmon. And since I really enjoyed the style of this fly, I decided to experiment with a few yellow versions.

It was a few days before I got to it, because I needed some yellow mallard flank and yellow gadwall (mallard for hackles on larger flies, gadwall for hackles on smaller flies) and in the meantime, a package from Thoft & Kjaer (the top quality seal's fur dudes) containing some silk and samples of excellent quality boar bristles had arrived. And among the samples were both sunburst and hot yellow dyed boar, so I thought that would look cool as feelers/tails.

I tied the fly (in the PoD) and that's of course when I noticed that in these colours, it might as well be a upsized classic, Irish mayfly imitation. This is a size 4 salmon hook. None the less, I have great belief in this pattern and will premiere it next week (if the bloody wind will calm down, thanks).

I believe (I know) that yellow and red are good colours (red variants to come) and I believe that this is a style of fly the salmon in Denmark aren't used to seeing, and I believe that matters (with all this belief, I should have the Sunday slot). None the less - tied on hooks for the added elegance and sleekness, but I'll also be experimenting with some some version on tubes in order to add some weight. Even though hooks do sin much faster than tubes.

Have a great weekend!

Lars