Classic reels

Large arbor reels are the buzz these days. The advantages of these reels makes sense and they look great on graphite rods. On classic graphite rods and bamboo rods, there's arguably no discussion that classic reels are the ones to match. Classic reels have this distinctive look which no modern (large arbor) reel comes close. For my fishing with bamboo rods I use an Orvis CFO III or a Hardy Perfect 3 1/8 inch RHW (Right Hand Wind). The vintage look of these reels just look right on a nice bamboo fly rod. I use the CFO for lines up to 4 weight. The Perfect will be used for 5 & 6 weight rods.

Orvis started selling the CFO since 1971. A design by Stanley Bogdan, the CFO has been linked to Orvis as the Big Ben is to London. The original CFO's were made by Hardy for Orvis. During the 1990's another british reel company called BRF (famous for the Dragonfly reel series) took over the manufacturing. This year the CFO's design has been changed (oh no!) and manufacturing has been shifted over to the far east.

Hardy started making the Perfect in 1891. Until the last Perfect in the 1980's, the original design hardly changed and stood the test of time. Another reel I like is the 3 inch version of Hardy's St. George. And of course, the ever beautiful Lightweight series made by Hardy. These reels have been made by Hardy since the 1951 and have been a big hit ever since.

Update 9 june 2007:
Here's a nice overview of the history of the CFO reels.

Update Dec 2009:
Hardy has reintroduced their classic reels, Perfect and the St. George. These reels are just gorgeous! Especially the 2 7/8 inch and 3 1/8 inch Perfects and the 3 inch St George are perfect for trout fishing. Get one while they last. You won't be disappointed.

No Fly Fair this spring

The Fly Fair (the original!) which was supposed to be held this spring (May 6 & 7) in The Netherlands has been cancelled. The first Fly Fair was held in 1985 in a tiny town called Hattem and since then the idea has been copied many times by other fairs all over the world.

It seems that there is a serious lack of commercial interest from the (Dutch) shops who attend the fair and pay a big part of the bill. The reason behind this boycott is still not spoken out loud, but it is suggested that one (or more) of the initiators of the Fly Fair has mixed commercial interests.

Well, it's just all too bad for all the people who were looking forward to some good old fashion fly fishing fun. We'll see what happens next year.

Dahlberg divers

It must have been sometime in the late 1980’s. I watched this badly copied VHS video called ‘Fly Fishing for Pike with Larry Dahlberg' about fly fishing for pike using floating bugs. Although the image quality was awful what I saw really caught my attention. This fly nowadays known as the Dahlberg diver (the original pattern and name Larry used for his diving bug is Mega Diver and was tied with a long haribou and flashabou tail rather than hackles used these days which mimics frogs) was making those pikes go nuts. By strip retrieving, the bug dived like a plug and came up if you stopped the retrieve. This action was achieved by the unique way the head of the bassbug was shaped.

Many years later I found the article called Super Fly! in Fly Fisherman magazine (September 1983 issue) where Dave Whitlock writes about Larry Dahlberg introducing the Dahlberg Diver to him on a fishing trip on the St Croix river in Wisconsin.

During the early 1990's I watched another video called Tying Bass Flies with Jimmy Nix. Jimmy Nix is a well known fly fisherman and tier of largemouth bass and saltwater species. I’ve watched this video endlessly. Another video I can recommend is Fly Tying Bass Flies with Dave Whitlock.

During the early 90's I also met Chris Helm. Chris is, besides being a very nice guy, a master with deer hair. His tying video's are world famous. Chris also runs a business selling quality deer hair. He sent me patches of deer hair I couldn't get here in The Netherlands. I started experimenting with muddlers, hoppers and humpies. Bassbugs was just a logical step.

So, what's so great about this bug? It's just plain fun to tie these colorful critters. Using different colors of hair you can make very colorful creations, only limited by your imagination. Especially using the stacking technique, very realistic (or wild, depending on colors used) color patterns can be made. Using a good pair of sharp scissors (I love those ice tempered scissors) and razor blades you can shape the ball of hair to any shape you want.


Here are some essential tools I use when tying my bass bugs:

• A pair (a curved version as a second is nice) of ice tempered scissors (I use Thompson scissors which are no longer available. Anvil makes good scissors too).
• A long nose bobbin (I prefer the Materelli bobbin).
• Tying thread I prefer Danville's Flymaster Plus (a good alternative is Uni-thread's Big Fly, which is a bit thicker than Flymaster Plus). Some prefer gel GSP thread.
• A large hair stacker.
• Double sided razor blades.

Here is an excellent article by Chris Helm about selecting deer hair for various purposes.


Update May 2012:
Here are two of the Dahlberg Divers shown above now framed together with a little deer hair mouse I tied for Rudi Heger. The framed box hangs on the wall of the fly shop.








Update Nov 2, 2018:
Larry Dahlberg himself approved the diver