Viking Lars | Saturday, 1 July 2017
I think we all know that once a fly has caught one or two or three fish, it not only starts to catch better, it also looks better. A little battle worn is good. So that's why (and I didn't invent this, just to make that point) I made myself one of my most used flytying tools many years ago (20 years+). I call it the "500 Sea Trout Teeth in 5 Seconds".
Because, why not simply start fishing with a battle worn fly? Sure, it's a pleasant task to get the first three on a fly, but if it was pre-battle-worn, my reasoning was that I could maybe get five in the same time.
It is, of course, the velcro-on-a-lolly-pop-stick. It's used to work over a dubbing body to add translucency, volume and I also use it to clean out the butt ends on artic fox and other hair materials to get rid of underfur. It's a great tool, and one of the most used ones in my kit.
There are two in the PoD - my old one, around 20 years old, and my new one. There simply weren't many hooks left on the old one, and it wasn't very effective, so I took the plunge and forked out the one-pound-fifty for a icecream and the stuck on some sticky-back velcro and trimmed it to the shape of the stick.
The effect of a few seconds with the tool is obvious. Sure, this is a nice fishing fly, but it's not quite there yet.
After "500 Sea Trout Teeth in One Second", it's now a fishing fly - one of my favourites for the salt in spring, "Helvedesfluen". Directly translated that means "The Hell Fly", introduced to me *many* years ago by my friend, Hans Schmidt.
Have a great weekend!
Lars