Viking Lars | Saturday, 3 March 2018
For most of us, fly fishing is always moving forward - a hobby or way of life, where you can learn for ever. That is one of the asåects that make fly fishingso interesting - and giving. Perhaps through my profession as an archaeologist, fly fishing's long and rich history is another important aspect. A history which seamlessly unites with fly fishing anno 2018. For example, I love the long story, the beauty and the eccectiveness of the sparse North Country Spider - 200 year old creations that do as well now as they always have - even at the terminal end of my space-age fly tackle.
That interest in the history of the hobby has had me looking forward to my friend, Michael Jensen's latest book release - "Tying and fishing the ABU Optic Flies". Michael struck a name for himself as a writer as early as 1996, with the ground breaking "Havørredens byttedyr" (Prey for the sea trout) - a book with focus on what sea trout eat during the year. Michael's latest book gathers the history of the ABU Optic Series of streamers and salmon flies. Michael has a well-known affection for old, classic ABU tackle and that was of course what sparked his interest in the ABU Optic Series.
They were streamers with new, daring names (Call Girl, PlayBoy etc) with a common trait - ball chain eyes. Michael has traced the origins of the fly back to an Eric Swan (an empoyee at ABU) and just the fact that ABU sold 80.000 flies the first year of marketing tells a significant story.
After going through the history of the flies (and his own history with the flies), there's a section with tips on when, how and where Michael has had succes with the flies. Then follows a detailes section with step-by-step sequences of each fly. There are the ABU Optic Streamers, ABU Optic Tube Flies, ABU Optic Salmo (and then the ABU Optic Chillimps, which seems to have a catagory for itself).
The book is riddled with beautiful photos (by the author) and thus captures a small piece of Scandinavian fly fishing history and at the same time, lifts it into the 21st century. Michael has done a beautiful job of showing us that these flies still deserve a corner in the fly box.
The book is 95 pages, in English, 29,43 euros, ships all over the world and can be acquired here.
Get if before your fishing buddy :-).
Lars