The fly wallets are filled – now off to Russia!
Finally it’s time to get north to the Russian tundra off to what I think is the best salmon fishing in the world. I have fished Kharlovka and Litza more than 20 years, spent over 40 weeks and have loved every minute of it. Every trip long or short need some new flies – the more the better. Now I am off for a longer trip with sinking lines so I need a lot of new babies!
It’s not very much new maybe but there are more TTT than ever. They are easy to tie and they fish so bloody effective. The ASR rivers have a tint of humus to them and Pahtakorva and Sierrakorva is always very good. Black and green flies are superb and also the lighter colours for sunny conditions. Now when I am delayed a bit I worry that my collections have too many big flies. On these rivers the temperature rise quite fast and the fish turn away from the big flies. At 9 degrees celsius we can go on floaters which is colder than on most places. From 9 and warmer the flies are most effective between maybe 4-8 cm. Not to bulky and flashy. The green samurais (boxes are full already) is then hard to beat.
When I tied the flies for ASR this year I must say that besides the TTT in all sizes and different colours the new whiting Coq De Leon Hen soft hackle with Chicabou has been super useful. The long fibred mottled soft hackles are superb for my TTT flies. On the big ones I hackle with an ostrich followed by one of these new ones and then a Chicabou. That works really good and gives a mobile but yet translucent fly. On the smaller ones I use the new whiting hackle and a Chicabou. The smaller fly wants less hackle.
It’s the night before I leave, I will sneak into the tying room and do a few last flies… hmm BGH 5-6 cm on the small TTT and a couple of big Zebras on the large TTT... that’s how it will be!