Back again. This time from Kolding Flyfestival. I was there together with friends from deaddrift.org nice beer and rod casters from Lithuania.

Some years ago together with Egils we passed fly casting exams here, so for me this festival has an historical background also. 24 hours of traveling in one direction was worth to see how fly fishing is developing in Scandinavia.  This is one of the biggest fly fishing festivals in Northern Europe, so it is a must to see what happens there.

News are following.

Tackle. Festival was as big as always, but this time almost each company had casting pool outdoors for testing purposes. Of course Scandinavians was represented with all companies, and there was also some Americans there.

Main Hit what was marketed this season was so called switch rods. Small double handlers or longer single handlers with extended fighting grip. These rods are designed to handle mainly river conditions but will perform equally well in other types of fishing. If you are using 11 ft single handed rod for streamer fishing in rivers it may be to heavy to handle it with one hand, so you can grab it with two and switch the line on stream. Yeah, these rods are not designed for lot of false casting, but to reposition the fly on stream with one or too false casts or just with single move if you are performing some water casts (switch or roll). In spite of fact that it will take some time to get used to these rods, first impression was so/so.  I think that i would like to use such a rod in some cases, but generally i would choose in between real single or double handler. Let`s wait and see.

I spend some ours to test new Zpey rods, and while the blanks was quite nice, i did not find the purpose for Z handle. This was my second and last attempt – if i used it us described, rod stop was too low to form tight loops.  Even more – i did not recognize anyone who was using the rod as this is promoted – even casters from Zpey did not. So they say – redefining flyfishing – i would say – not so fast..

In general best tackle was from Scandinavia,  as well as a casting. In this show it was easily noticeable that average casting level is higher in this part of the world, and i was happy to see that we do belong to this level.  Also in this event i met Christer Sjöberg from LOOP, and I`m from now working with them. LOOP tackle was always on the cutting edge of fly tackle design worldwide, so i`m happy to be with them.

Also there was one interesting rod from Norway, made by unknown freak. These double handlers feature moving upper grip that facilitates double haul action while casting with both hands on the grip. Upper hand moves up and down with the grip – looks are funny, yet hard to say if effective. I was casting much better  with this rod in the usual way,  so i cannot say that it was effective for me, but again, lets wait and see.

Fly tying was on its glance with a lot of well known tyers working in the central part of hall. What can be  new in fly tying? Everything and nothing in same time – no doubt there was lot of nice fly`s tied, but in this time I was more focusing on Salmon fly`s. There was a plenty of tyers to see, and more less scandinavian tubes where dominating. Also this festival is the perfect place to update your material collection.

Mikael Frödin, as WW recognized tube fly dresser was showing his techniques. Hence i have very similar thoughts about Atlantic salmon fly`s I was lucky to talk about different details on this subject with him. For instance i was always wondering why it is necessary to dress  tubes body with complicated materials?  It is covered then with hackle, so it is covered from view and to be more precise – for scandi tubes 90% of looks are from wing. Mikael had similar opinion, but he told that he likes dressed tubes , because it serves some more contrast and colors on the fly. His fly`s are accurate but quite simple as one can see – of course because these are designed for fishing. Wings are quite thin, because light must penetrate wing and play a little with flash. He uses flash almost on every wing he ties. I like the way his fly`s are tied, and i think they behave  like a live.

Another story is about PRO tubefly system.

Scandinavian tube system designed by Morten Bundgaard is like a Lego for salmon fishermen. There are also some items similar to Frödins F.I.T.S system, but it is lot more of the components available than any other tube fly supplier has. There are discs –  plastic and  rubber, unique shape cones up to magnificent size, Pro bulet tube system and even superb Propellers, that can be mounted on your tippet directly to achieve vibration on stream. Pro tubefly system now is represented by Destinata for eastern Europe, so components will be available soon in Internet and shops too. Tomorrow i will post an article about this system, so do not miss it.

Finally I would like to thank dead drifters from Lithuania for funny time – they are not only beer lovers, but they can also handle a fly rod. More pictures about show on the deaddrift.org.

See you back soon.

RR

Tags: Festival

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 23rd, 2009 at 18:19 and is filed under Beyond. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.