I got to know Gunnar and his patterns pretty early on when fishing in Norway. I met Gunnar for the first time on  a fishing show in the Forestry museum in Elverum. It must have been 7 years ago. He is one of those fishermen you meet and instantly have this - “That guy knows what it is about” - feeling. He is certainly not a man of many words, but one look in his calm eyes and one does not question at all what he´s doing.

Gunnar was born 1958 in Hamar, Norway and now lives in Haugedal not far from his birthplace, close to the famous Rena river. 

His father, a fly-fisher and fly tier, took him under his wing in all aspects of the sports. So Gunnar can not even remember when not having fished with the fly.

I recently had a conversation with him and asked him a few questions. His answers were typically Gunnar - short and precise. 

Gunnar, tell us what your favourite type of fishing is:
I have tried most of the fishing method of the inland, but my favourite is dry fly fishing, anytime late evening when the big trout come close to the bank to pick caddis. 

When did you start flyfishing?
Fly fishing has been from day one, since I was old enough to be with my father in smaller rivers. We used bamboo rods and fly lines not much longer than the rod, and a meter of leader and two flies. A very effective method for trout in small rivers when casting behind and in front of rocks. This way I really got to know the rivers.

Do you remember your first self tied flies?
My father was busy tying all these years. So as a kid I tied a lot of weird creations, but I got more serious in the mid eighties.

Who are you influences?
My father of course, otherwise it has Staffan Lindstrøm and Paul Krågvold.

What is the story behind the “dyret” (beast)?
It is quite simply a mixture of Superpuppan and Devilbug, Superpuppan "lacked" something in some situations, Devil-bug was efficient but fragile so I ended up blending the two.

 

Dyret by Gunnar Bingen

pictures by Gunnar Bingen
feel free to visit Gunnars Facebook profile for more fly patterns 

... image below shows the original "design sheet" from yesterday, meaning 1991 ...




The tying of the "dyret" is very straight forward and simple.
A small clump of deer hair covered with dubbing of your choice and palmered with a cock hackle feather, colour ad lib.
I personally do not clip the hackle under, but I have seen many who do so, Gunnar included.

Here is the "original" step by step from Gunnar:


stack a small clump of deer hair in a stacker


tie in the deer hair at the bend of the hook


fix the deer hair to the hook as shown and .....


.. tie in a a hackle feather by the bend
cover the thread with dubbing and ... 


... cover the deer hair under body with it.


Palmer* the fly with the hackle.
*Palmer referes to covering a length of fly body with hackle in a 30 to 45 degree open turns.



tie off and snip off remains, and trim the head.

some variations

hi-vis version for the evening (or the elder fishermen)


all pictures above by Gunnar Bingen (c)

Many thanks from Paul and me to Gunnar for sharing his work with us.

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picture by Al Pyke 

Thomas Züllich, or - “t.z.” as most call him - is a German flyfisher & flytier living in Norway. His flydressing is based on old traditions as well as very modern and innovative methods of creating flies. You can book Thomas for guided trips, flytying classes and presentations. He regularly gives speeches and demonstrations at fly fishing fairs. Thomas is member of the ProTeam at Partridge of Redditch as well as Regal Vises. 

www.tzflyfishing.no

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