 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:
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.    This is the “Rusty Monkey”. A Phatagorva variant tied by Simo Rytsy from Kälviä in Finland. Simo likes to fish the Rusty Monkey in the northern rivers of Norway when the water is up and a little bit dark. Especially in the early mornings. Simo fishes the rivers, Beiarelva and Saltdalselva in Norway with this fly. Every month we pick a fly from members post in the group: Monkey Fly Tying. The fly is featured here in the blog and the tyer allso recieves a free piece of monkey hair as recognition of the work. The "Rusty Moneky" Recipe: Body: 1" copper tube with veevus holo tinsel rusty brown on it. Under wing: First layer: Orange polar bear. Second layer: Orange temple dog. Hackle: Orange cock Middle wing: Black fox. Small abount of tinsel flash. Top wing and finish: Three layers of monkey hair. Capercaillie hackle. Two more layers of monkey. Jungle cock. peacock herls. Enjoy!  (A couple of "Rusty Monkeys") The River, Saltdalselva runs in the northern part of Norway and has around 65 km of salmon fishing waters. Salmon fly fishers from England has been fishing here since the middle of the 18,th century. They came and fished from june til August every year. Salmon up til 20 kilos was not unusual. You can find more info about this river and the fishing here.   (Photo above; Per Stadigh's fly, "The Swedish Poacher" was featured earlier this year.) Read more about this killer here. Every month we pick a fly from members post in the group, Monkey Fly Tying. The fly is featured here on the blog and the fly tyer also receives a free piece of monkey hair as recognition of the work. To qualify for this, you must be able to deliver the recipe/tying description, a couple of fairly good pictures and a few words about the fly. You are welcome to join the group and post your take on a Monkey fly. If your fly is chosen we will contack you on facebook messenger. You will find the Monkey Fly Tying group here! Happy fly tying – tight lines! (photo below; Monkey fly of the month february 2018 the” kaninkuopan Monkey” tied by Joakim Storbacka)   The salmon season is up! Anglers are getting their gear ready and dreaming of the silver in the rivers. This time of year, is really when fly fishers start to feel the blood pumping and many suffer from severe cases of Salmon fever! Spring time is here! (all most). There is but one cure for the Salmon fever, standing in the river casting the line. However, you can momentarily ease the pain by tying up your favorite flies at the vice. (Photo: River Dee - The Banchory beat) One of these flies will be the Dee Monkey Fly. It has become the first choice for a huge amount of fly fishers, especially in Scotland for the spring fishing. The fly originates from the Dee River in Aberdeen shire Scotland. The Dee Monkey Salmon fly has become one of the most popular salmon flies in recent years. The Dee Monkey was created in the beginning of this century by Danish angler Jimmi Lauridsen and even though it was recently invented, many already consider this fly to be a classic. It has since spread widely among fly tiers, not only on the Dee, but throughout Scotland. It combines the favorite color combination of black and yellow with a deadly long wing. Mind you, it is not just a fly for springers and will take fish throughout the season. You do not want to leave home without one. (Photo: The classic Dee Monkey)  The Dee Monkey Fly is a perfect choice for a good height of early season water - its designed for the Dee river by Danish fly fisherman Jimmi Lauridsen and named after the Colobus Monkey from which the hair for the original fly was used. The black and yellow Dee Monkey fly is probably the deadliest color combination for spring salmon fly fishing - it is certainly one of the most popular color combinations fished in February and March on the Dee and on most other early Scottish rivers. The sharp contrast in colors with additional Jungle cock gives this tube a real presence in the icy deep waters when sunk line fishing. The black and yellow Dee Monkey is a must have spring fly! You can find the recipe and a step by step guide for the Dee Monkey here! Join the Monkey fly tying group here for posting and inspiration! Tight Lines! (Photo: Dee River - The Lower Dess beat)   This is the” kaninkuopan Monkey” tied by Joakim Storbacka from kokkola in Finland. The fly is specially tied for the famous river Tana and the pool called kaninkuopan. The Englis translation is "The Rabbit Pit" or "Rabbit hole". Joakim says, this will work very well in the beginning of July. Every month we pick a fly from members post in the group: Monkey Fly Tying. The fly is featured here in the blog and the tyer allso recieves a free piece of monkey hair as recognition of the work. Joakim has made a very nice fly combining the classic look with contemporary tying and materials. It would be nice to have a coupple of these in the box. The recipe: Butt: Holographic gold Tail: Hot orange gp crest Belt: Hot orange ice dub Body: Back half Spectra dubbing mixed no. 96,239,39 Front: half Ice dub peacock Ribbing: Large oval gold Hackle: Pheasant spey hackle banana olive yellow Underwing: Black squirrel Wing: Monkey hair Sides: Jungle Cock The Tana river, in northern Sami called Deatnu and in Finnish Teno. The Tana is a 348 kilometer long river, the fifth longest in Norway. The Tana runs through the municipalities Karasjok and Tana in Finnmark county. 256 kilometers of the river make out the border between Norway and Finland.   There are many great flies invented thru out times. The one that always seems to find its way in to my fly box, is the Sunray Shadow. The Sunray Shadow, is in my opinion one of the most famous tube flies ever made. It was designed by late UK angler Mr. Raymond Brooks in the 1960´s. And if you ask me, The Sunray Shadow is a must-have for anglers pursuing fresh Silver Salmon in any river. Brooks Sunray Shadow is a mythical fly and has a special room in my salmon fly box. In the early 1960´s Ray traveled through Norway to find the perfect salmon river. He did so with his wife Margit, and eventually they found the rivers in the districts of Møre (Moere) and Romsdal, where they fished for many years. Every summer the Brook´s would fish the fantastic River Årøy (Aaroy), the river that held the highest average weight of salmon on earth. However, their favorite of river was the majestic River Lærdal (Laerdal) that runs to the Sognefjord. A river that had a historic run of big Atlantic Salmon and Sea-Trout. It was exactly on the bank of the River Lærdal in Norway, that the Sunray Shadow originally was created. Like most fly tiers Ray was always looking around to develop his fishing and fly tying. One evening in a friend’s cabin, Rays eye caught a rug in the living room, a rug with long black hair. Ray took a piece from a ball pen and tied the long smooth hair on it – bingo! The simple tube with the long hair was made. The rug was made from Monkey hair and it turned out to be exactly right for the long wing. Soft enough to make the fly come alive and stiff enough, not to collapse in the stream. Even more so, the monkey hair would sometimes become a little curly when it got wet. you are welcome to join the facebook group the group where people talk about the flies, share ideas and trade. Every month we will pick a monkey fly from the posts in this group and it will be featured on this blog. You will find the group here. Very fast Ray found the fly to be extremely efficient and quickly developed the pattern. Ray tied the fly with three materials: white-tipped squirrel, monkey hair and peacock herl. The stiff squirrel would lift the long wing free of the hook, the monkey would create the very long mobile wing and the herl would accent the fly. Ray found a supplier of the monkey hair needed for production and finally also made a registered pattern on the fly that he named: The Sunray Shadow. The Sunray Shadow fly was tied commercially for the Brooks family by Danish company Lawcock and later with fly tiers in Singapore. Sunray Shadow very quickly became extremely popular and widespread, since the little tube with the monkey hair proved so efficient. Today the fly is made in numerous variations all over the world. The inspiration for the Sunray Shadow came essentially from The Collie Dog Fly - perhaps the ultimate smaller salmon fly. The Collie Dog is just a bunch of black hair from a Collie's tail on a tube, invented somewhere in the UK in the eighteenth century. Ray Brooks just enhanced the Collie Dog Fly with some materials, the stiff under wing, the herl and the most essential - the long Colobus monkey hair for the long wing. The Sunray Shadow was born. You can find the original monkey hair for the Sunray Shadow in our web shop here! The Sunray Shadow is an extremely simple and efficient fly. It does the job with a minimum of extras. The fly is a long, black monkey hair wing on a tube with a stiff underwing like polar bear (my choice), to keep it from hooking itself and then a little flash.  The Sunray Shadow is not a big challenge to tie, and if you are a beginner to tube flies, this is a very good place to start.
Sunray Shadow Recipe: Tie the fly on a 1 – 1 ½ inch plastic tube. Tie in a small bunch of squirrel, bucktail or polar bear wich is slightly longer than the tube. Top that with the colobus monkey hair. For the finish, tie in a couple of peacock herl on the wing and you are all set. You can add a cone head if you like to fish a heavier fly, or use a brass or bottle tube. Many will prefer to fish the light version in the top of the water, which will give the fly more speed. As with any other salmon fly, you will like to have a selection of the Sunray Shadow in various sizes from around 3” to 6” inches long hair wings. Some claim, that the Salmons reaction to a Sunray Shadow is similar to a cat’s instinctive behavior to flash out a paw on a string that is flicked in front of it, it simply can’t help it. It just instinctive reaction. The Sunray Shadow with Colobus monkey hair is a legendary Salmon fly! I will also be chasing the silver dream this season and the Sunray Shadow will once again be a trusted friend in the river.  Tuomas Yli-Rahnasto from Seinäjoki in Finland says, "this fly works everywhere and anytime in all Scandinavian rivers". We know for a fact, that Toumas took a +1 meter Salmon in Lakselv in Norway on a fly like this! This is a fly that many would tie with a wing purely of temple dog hair. Tuomas has enhanced the fly very nicely with monkey hair as last layer of the wing. This fly was chosen as one of two winners of the monkey fly competition. Congratulations and thank you for this nice contribution Tuomas! I hope one day to meet Tuomas on the riverside so I can pay his flybox a visit :) You can join the group where we post and discuss moneky flies here. Every month we choose 1 monkey fly to be featured on this blog. The tyer will recieve one free piece of prima monkey hair. Recipe for the Phatamonkey : Tag: Pearl Tinsel Butt: Fluorocent orange silk Tail: Orange fluorofibre Body: Holo Gold Flatbraid and SSS Rainbow from Hell dubbing (half each) Rib: Oval Gold (Medium) Body hackle: Orange cock Front hackle: Black cock Wing (from bottom and up 4 layers): 1. Fiery Brown Polar Bear. 2. Gold and copper angelhair + fiery Brown Polar Bear. 3. Gold angelhair + fiery Brown Templedog. 4. Black Monkeyhair. Cheeks: Jungle cock    Per Stadigh from upsala i Sweden says, This is my best Monkey fly! The Russian guides on the Kharlovka named it "The Swedish Poacher". It has given me and friends many thousands of salmon in Russia, Norway, Sweden and Scotland. Tie it sparse - fish it fast! With this Sun Ray Shadow inspired fly, Per shows us how to tie a simple but very deadly fly with the monkey hair. The Swedish Poacher has proven its worth in many rivers and i am sure good old Ray Brooks gladly would fish this fly also! This fly was chosen as one of two winners of the monkey fly competition. Congratulations and thank you for this nice contribution Per!. The recipe is: Plastic tube: clear, 40mm long for a 12-13cm long wing. Tag: fine oval silver. Butt: red uni-strech flame. Body: uni-strech over flat silver, fluo yellow or chartreuse. Under wing: A sparse amount of chartreuse bucktail with a few strands of the brown bucktail mixed in. Main wing: Sparse amount of 12 - 13 cm long colobus hair including any possible guard hair. Mixed in are two strands of Flashabou, rainbow colour. If you are looking for monkey hair for your flies, you can find it here!  AWe have desided to give away some free pieces of fine monkey hair to some of you guys. We will in the first weekend of February 2018 pick 2 people, whom each shall recieve free 100 cm2 of hair! Conditions are: you must post in the comments field on the facebook post, a good picture of your fly with a monkey wing together with a description/recipe and a few lines about what river you had in mind for this fly. We may use the pictures etc. on the blog here. Plese share this with your fellow fly tyers. Tight Lines - we are looking forward to see your jewls. You can go directly to the post by clicking here! You can also take a moment and check out the shop here!  Have a look at these killer monkey flies. The fly tying is by Tuomas Yli-Rahnasto from Finland. Im not really sure why, but it seems our fly tying brothers in Finland are ahead when it comes to deadly Salmon flies. Toumas tied these flies for hes own fishing trips in the middle and northern Salmon rivers of Norway. Be sure to check out the body work on these flies, it looks stunning - is it silk thread on the green flies? Just to make sure these flies really are killers, Toumas is showing off a +100 cm fresh Salmon from one of the best northern rivers in Norway - Lakselva.     |
|
RSS Feed