fly tying with monkey hair

Spring is a popular season for Atlantic salmon fishing, as this is when the fish begin their migration from the ocean to their spawning grounds in freshwater rivers. Spring rivers with Atlantic salmon can be found in various locations, including North America, Europe, and Russia.
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When fishing for Atlantic salmon in spring rivers, anglers typically use a variety of techniques, including swinging flies, nymphing, and stripping streamers. The choice of technique will depend on the specific conditions of the river, including water temperature, flow rate, and visibility.

It's important to note that Atlantic salmon are a prized game fish and are typically released back into the water after being caught. Anglers should also be aware of any local regulations regarding fishing for Atlantic salmon, as there may be restrictions on the number of fish that can be caught or kept.

Overall, spring rivers with Atlantic salmon offer a unique and challenging fishing experience for anglers looking to test their skills and enjoy the beauty of these magnificent fish in their natural environment.

Spring rivers with Atlantic salmon are highly sought after by anglers due to the unique fishing opportunities they offer. Atlantic salmon are anadromous fish, which means that they live in the ocean for most of their lives but return to freshwater rivers to spawn. In the spring, as the water temperatures begin to warm, Atlantic salmon will begin to migrate upstream from the ocean to their natal rivers to spawn.

Spring rivers with Atlantic salmon provide anglers with a unique opportunity to catch these prized fish using fly fishing techniques. The spring run can provide some of the most exciting and challenging fly fishing of the season, as the fish are typically larger and more aggressive during this time.

Anglers typically use a variety of techniques when fishing for Atlantic salmon in spring rivers, including swinging flies, dead drifting, and nymphing. The most popular fly patterns used for Atlantic salmon fishing include traditional wet flies, such as the Green Highlander, Silver Doctor, and Jock Scott.
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Spring rivers with Atlantic salmon are often found in colder climates, such as Russia, Canada, Scotland, and Norway, and typically have clear water and rocky bottoms. Many of these rivers are also located in remote wilderness areas, providing anglers with a unique and peaceful fishing experience in a natural setting.

I spoke recently with Markus Hietala who posted this fly in the facebook group for monkey hairwing flies and asked if i could post this fly on the blog here, and lucky for us, he agreed.

Markus says; "It doesn't have name yet. I just get idea for the fly on yesterday. But I sure do have expectations and hope it will give me some success on next summer".

I think the strongly brushed white dubbing with orange and shades of metal gives the fly a great contrast against the black wing with strong silhoutte" 

I believe in this fly, and i also believe you will have succes with this in the summer.  Tight lines!
 
 The recipe:
 
 
Tube: 1” aluminum tube.
 
Butt/Hitmark: Hot orange yarn, ensured with glue.
 
Body: 1/3 of body Holo tinsel and 2/3 of body with super bright white dubbing
 
Rib: soft wire copper
 
Hackle: hot orange cock
 
Underwing: orange polar bear
 
Throat: Black soft hackle
 
Upper wing: Four times colobus monkey with some flashabou.
 
Cheeck: Jungle Cock

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This Monkey fly is created by Sami Markus and we are happy to be able to share this with you all. Thank you, Sami for sharing  “The Markus Monkey” with us. Below you will find the tying description and recipe. 

Sami says the tube is 1-inch copper with clear inner tube. Hit mark (butt) is hot orange yarn, ensured with glue. I use copper tube as body, but I make ball from SSS phatakorva bronce dubbing to raise the wing and hackle up. The wings are built from four sections, pink artic fox, two purple temple dog and obvioulsly the Colobus Monkey hair on top. First hackle after dubbing is a pink soft hackle and the second hackle between the two temple dog wings, is purple Guinea fowl. Also, there is the SSS Alta gold flash between the two temple dog wings. Peacock herl on top of everything and jungle cock to side of fly.
Cheers Sami.
 
The Markus Monkey recipe:

Tube: 1-inch copper with plastic inner tube.

Butt: Hot orange yarn, ensured with glue.

Body: 2/3 cobber tube, 1/3 SSS Phatakorva copper dubbing. Dubbing is made as a big ball to raise the hackle and wing up.

First hackle: Pink soft hackle.

First wing: Pink arctic fox.

Second hackle: Purple Guinea Fowl.

Second wing:  Purple Temple Dog.

Flash: SSS Alta gold.

Third wing: Purple temple dog.

Fourth wing: Colobus Monkey hair.

Top: Peacock herl.

Cheeks: Jungle cock.

 
What months are best for catching the most prized Atlantic Salmon - a Springer Salmon?

As the title “Spring Salmon” or “springer” in common, we would suggest the spring months of March, April and May. And although we fish and catch nice fresh springers in the months of January and February, it's not until March that it really picks up.

There are many good February days, particularly on the River Dee – but even here the bulk of fish, the beginning of the main run does not appear until the end of March through April, peaking in the end of May and then tailing off through June. This is a general thump rule on most Scottish rivers.
 
So how about catching a springer?
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There are many opinions about how to do this this, almost as many as there are Salmon fishermen. Here are some ideas you can have in mind.
Let’s assume that the water is cold and high In March and April. The fish will normally not run very fast in this condition and when it enters a pool, it will most likely be in the bottom half of the water column. So, it would be very nice to know the depth of the pool you are fishing and then adapt your fly and choice of line to this.
Let us assume you are fishing a pool that is 6 feet deep, then the fish would be likely to lie 3 feet or one meter from the surface.

We suggest you start with a nice Dee Monkey fly
tied on an aluminum or perhaps a cobber tube depending
on the speed of the water. If its not fast use the alu tube,
If faster use the heavier cobber tube.
​Don’t be afraid to use a fly with some size on it 8 cm or more.

Read more about the Dee Monkey fly here!

​You can find the step-by step guide to tie the Dee Monkey fly
here!


If you have seen some new fish entering a pool and nothing happens the first time you fish thru the pool, change the depth and experiment by increasing the speed of the fly and try to fish closer to the bottom the second time thru the pool. Depth and speed are crucial to success. Remember to wade safe this time of year, you don’t want to take a swim. If not something worse happens, it will certainly ruin your fishing for most of the day.
 
 
                     Middle Blackhall on River Dee is a big fish beat. Here is Lars Terkildsen with a 26 lb Springer!

(above, Sunray Shadow fly and photo by Jonas Erbs)

The idea behind this fly is, that its tied to be fished in the suldals gate (Suldals river in Norway). Here the water is crystal clear, ice cold and also regulated to water magazines in the system. All the stones etc. in the river has a greenish shine, so many flies fished here, has a greenish twist to them. Especially the Sunray Shadow is a must in the fly box up here.
 
Jonas says, "Since I'm a fan of the polar bear/monkey hair combination, it was obvious to tie a good bunch this year going to suldals in late September". 

Here is how Jonas ties his Suldal Sunray Shadow:

So I took a piece of 3 mm clear tube (future fly) of 5 cm.
On the body there is a tiny piece of opal tinsel.
The greenish underwing is the home-colored polar bear i made, so the color should match the Suldal´s river's stones.
Then there is a beam of pastry flash in olive on each side.
Then a nice long overlap in a 15 cm monkey hair wing.
Completed with junglecock on each side.
The head is first painted 3 times with clear lacquer. Then lacquered twice with black lacquer and finished with several layers of clear lacquer.
The painting itself takes about 3 days to make sure it hardens well!
When the head has completely hardened, I take my skin knife and cut my head in the middle so it will be nice and short. in the end i add some superglue just to secure the thread where i cut the head.

After a lot of looking and consideration, we have finally chosen this fly made by Jose Heinänen 

Jose has tied a very modern fly but still with clear references to the classic fly tying. The proportions are perfectly displaying how to make a well balanced hairwing with monkey hair. You can just Imagine the beautiful swing this monkey hairwing wil make in the water. The long jungle cock and the neat wonderfull body work, with references to the classic fly tying is perfect, and the color combination is extreemely nice for "Salmon weather". The overall proportions of the fly is very fine and makes this fly a very likely "first choice" from the fly box!

​Thank you all for your fine contributions. We hope you had fun tying and seeing all the flies in the challenge. Soon we will post a step by step description of Jose's fly with photos and recipe.  

Thanks to Art Merk for sponsoring the nice fly wallets. Please check out his nice work here: https://www.facebook.com/artmerkartworks/ 

Tight lines!

Here is an update on the Monkey Challenge, showing you all the 24 contributions from the Monkey Fly Tying facebook group. All are wonderfull and great looking monkey flies.  Now we are going  choose one fly.

Thank you all for the nice contributions. You have all made really nice flies, that serves as great inspiration to fly tyers around the world! 

The winner will recieve two fly wallets from Art Merch and a very nice piece of monkey hair from the web shop 

Here is an update on the Monkey Challenge, showing you the contributions from the Monkey Fly Tying facebook group so far in the photos above.  We already recieved a lot of great contributions. So many great monkey flies. We hope you will find inspiration in these flies and post your own best take on a monkey fly. Remember the challenge goes on til end of may 2018.   You can read all about the challenge and the prizes here!   Tight lines!

Show us your best monkey fly and win nice prices. (photo and flies for inspiration by: Ismo Lintula)
We challenge you to tie and show your favorite Monkey Fly.

Show us your best version of a Dee Monkey, Sunray Shadow, Samurai or a free-style fly of your choice. 

The Prizes are:

One super deluxe top-grade piece of monkey hair from yours truly.
Two hand made leather wallets from Art Merk. 

The prize value is more than Euro 400,- 

The Challenge runs from 16 April til may 31. 

We will select only one fly from all contributions.

We are looking for a fly that compliments the monkey hair in the best way possible.
Rules are simple:

1. The fly must be tied on a tube with a Monkey hair wing.
2. The fly can be one of following:
3. DEE MONKEY.
4. SAMURAI.
5. SUNRAY SHADOW.
6. FREE STYLE MONKEY FLY OF YOUR CHOISE.

You must post the fly in the Monkey fly tying group with a note in the post saying very clearly: Monkey Fly Challenge.

In short - post your flies here in this group: The Monkey Fly group and write MONKEY CHALLENGE in the post. Thats it and you are in :) 

If your fly is selected and to qualify, you must agree to write down the recipe and make a step by step tying guide with reasonable good photos on how to tie the fly.

You will find the Monkey Fly group here!


We are proud to present art merc as a sponser. Below you see some of his hand made leather wallets and a nice piece of monkey hair.