As promised let me share some things with you all, that’s more fun too and perhaps it will take away the itchy feelings in my hands too hihihi. I want to start with my home country, then going through some of my favorite European fishing countries and finish with some of my expereinces and destinations in Canada.
But now… Let me show you first some fly fishing as we do in Holland a lot. We have no wild salmonides anymore in Holland (all died by polution in the fifties and sixties) so we fish a little different then most fly fishermen in Europe.
Oh… don’t misunderstood me, we have great saltwater reservoirs in Holland, (one is even very famous with monster steelhead and trout) and some nice put take and catch and release still waters that are stocked but what I actually mean is fly fishing for our native fish. It’s not easy… sometimes well many times hihihi
Here I just playing a BREAM (Abramis brama) caught on my leadhead
and this is how a nice size bream is looking. They feed on the bottom and we mostly catch them with heavy nymphs. I never ever caught one on dry fly but I also caught them with unweighteted nymphs
Below another species and this is one of my favourites because they love BIG dry flies and they feed very well and agressive on the surface. The biggest one I ever caught was almost 70cm and that gave me an awesome fight.
This is called in English Ide or Orfe (Leuciscus idus) This one was caught on my Ugly Bug.
More on the paterns later…
First watch the colourful flies on my vest… those are mainly leadhead’s tied in fluorecent colours. They work well in colourded water and I also will gone experiemnt with them tied in shrimp variations on the flats in January hihihi
Now a little Dutch nostalgy [:D]. Every Dutch fly fisher and fly tier is proud at one of the most special fly fishing and fly tying events in the world. The most recent info is from 2008 but our Dutch fly Fair is once every 2 years so keep watching the website because the 2010 famous Dutch Fly Fair will be helt at May 29 & 30 of 2010
thanks for sharing! Hope someday to visit the Dutch Fly Fair… it will really be an eye opener! I really enjoy viewing various species being caught on fly. the ide in Holland are huge! the amur ide i’ve seen while fly fishing in China are only about 100~200 grams.
Nice fish you got there Hans.I would love to catch them as well cos this fish reminds me of the Malayan mahseers we caught in a freestone river in Sabah on fly gear.You should try catching them when you come down here cos they fight just like bonefish …oh and have i told you of the mysterious malayan hill trout?Cheers .
Well I might have seen them … who knows… I climbed the Mount Kinabalu.
Have been in Sabah twice. Great part of Malaysia. Also drove around the peninsula in 3 weeks wow that was hot… Sabah was a lot nicer for me in temperatures.
ok as promissed, lets go into the flies now where I caught these nice fish with above.
The bream was tricked with my leadhead.
Of course it is fished up site down
It’s a great fly a bug actually (personally I call it a bottom bouncer) You easily can improve and change it into many ways and sub patterns, many colours and using lots of different materials as well. It is a very simple fly to tie and it even drove Oliver Edwards completely mad when he used it in his home rivers like the Warfe and ure. It succeed for him when all the other failed. His improvement …the peeping caddis is quite famous all ove rthe world today.
This year the leadhead in real big sizes (6 and 8) did all the dammage in my saltwater fly fishing in Newfoundland. It was the fly that always worked and with great success. (guess a kind shrimp imitation too)
I really gone change this bugger into some experimental flies for bonefish… I think you should try with me and see what we can make together ou tof it.. perhaps even a nice bonefish fly hihihi… wow that looks like a certain stimulation, or is it motivation???
Nice pattern… I love it… I’m sure the action of it will be the killer for bottom feeder species like carp and even bonefish…
Just one silly question… in the leadhead, you have a fluoro green flexibody tie at the end…why you had green tie on… why not others colours…?
If I would change it to pink… add a bit of flashabou… put in mono eye… cover the top with a few strain of pink craft fur or zonker… It will be a shrimp pattern… will be a good Bonefish pattern…
If I would to add in mono eye… a pair or craw.. some hackle as legs… it will turn to be a beautiful crayfish pattern…
If I would replace the hackle with long strip of zonker… put in a pair of epoxy eye… it can be fish as a minnow pattern…
Your leadhead looks great. I like it fishing upside down like a clouser which will reduce snagging on the bottom. I’m tying a bunch, and wish I get a chance to try them for Grayling in 2 weeks time when I visit the UK. However, not having any green fluro flexibody, I’m substituting it with sparkle braid. Hope the fishes are not put off by the slight green sparkle effect…many thanks again for sharing.
I’ve also tied a variation with 2 leadheads spread out clouserlike. I believe this will be even better fishing hook up, esp. retrived after a down stream cast. What do you think? Will it work?Hope I’m doing the right thing and not murdering your fly Hans.
Nice pattern… I love it… I’m sure the action of it will be the killer for bottom feeder species like carp and even bonefish…
Just one silly question… in the leadhead, you have a fluoro green flexibody tie at the end…why you had green tie on… why not others colours…?
If I would change it to pink… add a bit of flashabou… put in mono eye… cover the top with a few strain of pink craft fur or zonker… It will be a shrimp pattern… will be a good Bonefish pattern…
If I would to add in mono eye… a pair or craw.. some hackle as legs… it will turn to be a beautiful crayfish pattern…
If I would replace the hackle with long strip of zonker… put in a pair of epoxy eye… it can be fish as a minnow pattern…
Hans…What a fantastic pattern you have created…
Dron,
The reason why I have 90% tied with the beautiful green coloured flexibody is easy to explain…
I tested dozens of different colours but the green simply caught most fish [:D]
Although I can have awesome fishing days with poor catch we all love and prefer catching above a blank right???
Flexibody was so popular because it was UV protected so that means it is very durable… It’s hard to get nowadays.
Your leadhead looks great. I like it fishing upside down like a clouser which will reduce snagging on the bottom. I’m tying a bunch, and wish I get a chance to try them for Grayling in 2 weeks time when I visit the UK. However, not having any green fluro flexibody, I’m substituting it with sparkle braid. Hope the fishes are not put off by the slight green sparkle effect…many thanks again for sharing.
<><ICHTUS><>
Oh you absolutely should try in the UK. It’s a killer for Grayling. I am 100% sure that would have been one of my favorites when I had join this Mongolia trip!!!
This leadhead saved a trip of a lifetime from a very good friend of mine who spend a lot of money for a trip to Patagonia.
I’ve also tied a variation with 2 leadheads spread out clouserlike. I believe this will be even better fishing hook up, esp. retrived after a down stream cast. What do you think? Will it work?Hope I’m doing the right thing and not murdering your fly Hans.
<><ICHTUS><>
Tony,
I wouldn’t go heavier then a BB leadshot for European river fishing!!!
Love the leadhead bug, seems simple enough to tie and i can see why it would be deadly when fished in a jigging style. I’m sure it will be a killer for the bones as you don’t need to do much except twitch it a bit fractionally.
I agree with Dron, i think if you could extend the partridge feathers a bit, tie burnt mono eyes on it, maybe palmer it a bit and add a few strands of crystal flash/flashabou for that bit of passive action, or even some sili legs… presto! you have a fly that suggests crab or shrimp.
However, the leadhead jigging style may not be so useful for most of our shallower lakes here unless it’s one that has less vegetation… our year round tropical sun ensures that there is plenty of underwater foliage… even unweighted nymphs and streamers will catch some weed… aarrgh! explains why i prefer to use poppers here for giant snakehead(toman), jungle perch(sebarau), and peacock bass whenever possible!
if we go to mongolia again next year, the leadhead bug will definitely be in my flybox for the grayling and sharp-nose lenok!! i think i remember a spot where we it will come to good use, haha!
You surely should take with you some Klinkhamers and my Caseless caddis too. They work very well in Mongolia. Two friends of mine used them last year with some great success.
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