World Cup 2006 (III) - conclusions 1st round

So, the first round is wrapped up... Jeez, this tournament is a mixed bag indeed. The entertainment we expected hasn't been delivered. The gap between the 'smaller countries' (asian and african countries) and the european football is smaller again in terms of individual quality of the players. In terms of team play and tactics, there still is a considerable gap. Since many european countries showed poor play, the matches were hardly worth a mention in football history.

Big disappointments for me are: Sweden, France (big time!), Brazil, England, Holland (yep, tough but true...) and Croatia. Countries that surprised me are: Aussies with their huge mentality and, I hate to say this, Germany. I don't know if this Dutch manager Guus really has magic hands but he some how manages to get these very average players to play football. Their physical game and never ending mental power make the Aussies a tough team to play against. And Germany? Well, Germany seems to be made for tournament play. No matter how average the individual quality is, as a team they manage to improve their game along the way.

What about our Dutch team? The manager Marco van Basten always said that he wanted to play an attractive game with the typical Dutch wing attackers. During the qualification for the World Cup the Dutch team were never brilliant but picked up the points quite easily. Now at the World Cup, the intentions of the manager never really picked up. In fact, the Dutch team plays an 'unDutch' way: very defensive, slow and boring. Many key players seems to have problems with their physique and too many players are playing way below their usual level. Together with a very vulnerable midfield, it's looking like the Dutch team is having trouble to form a balanced team.

Our next match is against Portugal. The Portuguese team hasn't changed much since the last big tournament. This seems to result in a very well oiled team. We got our ass kicked at the last European Championship by Portugal, so we do have some revenge feelings. But with the condition of the current Dutch team, I'm not sure we will repay the debt...

World Cup 2006 (II)

Just back from the World Cup match Korea vs Togo. It was in a few words: hot, amazing atmosphere, hot and overwhelming enthusiasm. The match itself wasn't very good, barely average. But Korea won and that's what almost 60% of the crowds cheered for.

Rotterdam to Frankfurt is about a 4 hours drive. We ended up in a hotel in the city of Schwalbach am Taunus, just next to Frankfurt. How weird to find out that the hotel we booked via the internet turned out to be run by a Korean family. In fact, there seems to be a little Korean community in this area. It's funny to wake up in the middle of Germany and you hear people talking Korean outside. But we came here for a mission: the World Cup!

We decided to leave the cars at the hotel and travel to the football stadium using the underground. It sure was the fastest way, but boy a journey it was indeed! The underground was jam packed with fans heading for the stadium. Now I know how an anjovis feels when it's canned and gets ready for shipment! The security wasn't as strict as we thought. In fact, the tickets weren't checked on the correct names as we all were warned. Such an event is, besides a celebration of the game, especially a commercial event. The beverages we were carrying weren't allowed to pass the gates. Obviously the beverages and food bought inside the gates were the cash cows.

The Frankfurt stadium has a capacity of almost 50,000 attendants and it was filled to the roof. Outside the stadium the party was already going on. Both people from Togo and Korea were enjoying themself with cheering or making music. Let's start with the game!

The first group matches have been played and it's not really clear how the teams should be judged. Which teams are playing at their best and which teams will disappoint? The real battles have yet to start. Some really interesting few weeks are waiting!

FIFA World Cup 2006

The FIFA World Cup football championship has started. So, far the big countries didn't impress me. In fact, Germany and England played pretty disappointing during their first match. I mean Costa Rica and Paraguay aren't really what they call 'angstgegners'.

We all agree that the Brazilian team is the team to beat. I think they have a great team with big names, but as with big teams they tend to shine when all goes right. If things aren't working out, the machine tends to stumble since most big names aren't used to work for their money when things go wrong. The current Real Madrid team is a fine example of a team with all big names, but not playing as a team. But, there is a long way to go so teams might pick up the mood and improve their game.

Today our Dutch team will play their first match. We have a new manager who has some refreshing ideas about the game and the players he selected. But I dunno, the fresh approach was never really tested nor did was his idea really shown by the team. We'll see this afternoon when the Dutch team plays against Serbia Montenegro. Let's hope Marco doesn't make a similar big mistake Dick made in Portugal!

My guess is that the Dutch team might go through to the semi finals, but for the top score we lack the real quality in the defense. Especially our central defense isn't top notch. Our midfield is pretty good as are our attackers.

We will be attending the match South Korea against Togo in Frankfurt Germany on 13 June, so that should be fun! We will leave tomorrow for Frankfurt. The weather looks fine: sunny & warm. Stay tuned for some nice impressions of this big event!

The Adams Family travels (II)

Early April Bill Taylor and I were talking about the new fishing season (see posting of 4 April 2006). This resulted in having a little trip for the Adams family. Today Bill sent me some pictures of the Family taking a swim in the Clark's Creek in the Catskill region. Looks like Bill had a nice outing with his dad. That quad rod looks mighty nice indeed.

My next trip to the trouts will be a trip to the Czech Republic (formerly part of Czechoslovakia) during the last week of July. I've never been to the Czech Republic, so I'm really curious. There seems to be some nice streams filled with graylings. So, keep posted!

Thanks for the nice pictures Bill!

Knots: make sure you know them!

Sure we know how to tie a fly on our tippet. But do you know how to tie a streamer or a nymph which wiggles freely on a 3x (or thicker) tippet? I'm sure many of us know a knot or two but specialty knots are probably unknown to most of us.

Martin Joergensens' site Global FlyFisher is an excellent site with tons of information on fly fishing and tying. Martin's illustrations of the knots seems to be stolen so often that it's probably in the 'stolen without permission section' of the Guinness book of world records and Martin hates that! So I'll just put a link here to his site where the knot section is and you can have a look there. Thanks Martin!

Why do we love fly fishing?

Last weekend my buddy Rolf and I headed for the Weisse Traun in southern Germany. It was our first trip of the year and it turned out to be a very interesting trip indeed. The warm and sunny weather of the past couple of weeks was about to end. Of the three days of fishing we had one day of rain. But all together still a very enjoyable trip.

The gin clear water of the Weisse Traun still blows my mind away. Especially when the sun shines you can see how clear the water is. This also makes a bit hard to sneak up on the fish. Still we managed to catch some very nice sized fish. The second day turned out to be a very wet day. As long as it doesn't rain too hard, the stream stays reasonably clear.

We decided to fish a different stretch on the third day. Since we never really tried the Rote Traun, a tributary of the Weisse & Deutsche Traun, we gave it a shot. Especially since a new much longer upper stretch (4 km) of the stream was added (license wise) to the existing lower stretch (1 km). The lower and upper stretch is divided by a man made dam making interaction between both stretches impossible.

The difference between both stretches are pretty big we found out. While the lower stretch is well known for the nice sized fish, the new stretch appeared to be pretty much yet to be inhabited by the fish, at least any sizable fish. The Rote Traun is also a smaller stream than the Weisse Traun. A short (<7.5 foot) rod makes casting much easier. We were hoping to see some graylings in the Rote Traun, but as in the Weisse Traun we only caught rainbows and browns (= caught in the Weisse Traun BTW). Well, the change of scenery was nice.

We are trying to figure out how to add a video stream to this blog. We filmed some action on the Rote Traun with Rolf's video camera. Fishing with a video camera is really something different than with a (digital) camera since it's such a heavy load. Eventhough the current generation of video camera's came a long way from the huge VHS based trucks, my guess is that in the near future we will see much smaller video camera's. Especially video camera's based on small harddisks will probably make a big difference in weight and size. I won't be surprised if future mobile phones are capable of making really decent video shots. Well, we'll see.

As promised we tried the new yellow colored polarized sunglasses (see posting below) during the low light situations. And boy do they work! The additional contrast and just plain bright view during low light conditions has been a huge help. Just don't forget to take along your regular sunglasses because as soon as the sun starts shining, you're bound to have a very tired eyesight or even a head ache.

This trip showed us again why we love fly fishing. For me it's all about enjoying the friendship, enjoying the solitude and generally having a good laugh.

Polarized sunglasses for low light conditions

During low light conditions like falling dusk, the regular sunglasses are generally too dark. I've never tried photochromatic sunglasses (this feature only works with glass lenses I'm told), but as soon as evening approaches I have to take off my sunglasses to see where my fly is. Obviously this isn't recommended since sunglasses are also a protection for your eyes.

Couple of months ago I was browsing in one of those car accessory shops (for our Dutch vistors: Halfords). There was a shelve with sunglasses and the bright yellow ones caught my attention. Surprisingly these were polarized as well! These 'driving glasses' are supposed to give drivers a better view on the road by taking care of glare as well as giving additional contrast during low light situations. Well, whadayaknow?...

Today I bought one of those yellow polarized sunglasses. They are pretty cheap (about 15 euros / approx. 20 dollars). The quality of the frame is barely adequate. I had to rebend one of the legs since it was off position. But again I will use them only during a couple of hours at the end of the day. These yellow glasses REALLY does add a lot of contrast! Wearing them during sunny conditions will surely give you a banging head ache. But for low light conditions, they probably work great. Keep posted for feed back on this!


*** Update 10 June 2006 ***
I bought sunglasses which are both photochromatic AND made of lightweight polycarbonate glasses. I'll report on these after my trip to the Czech Republic late July.

My 'go-to' flies

Generally I'll fish with some kind of nymph during 80% of the time. Fish feeds for more than 90% under water so that makes sense. Most streams and rivers I fish contain some species of mayflies and caddis. Some streams also inhabits smaller stoneflies like the yellow sally. And of course insects that crawl around the banks and branches that hangs over the banks like hoppers, beetles and ants.

Over the years I trimmed down the numbers of patterns in my fly box to just a several patterns. Even the numbers of sizes are trimmed down to one or two sizes. Since most of the streams I fish in Europe are some kind of freestone type streams, fish don't have the time to observe whether the fly that swims down is the correct size.

My favorite nymph patterns over the years have been pretty consistent, both in European as US/Canadian destinations. Obviously, local patterns won't be neglected. Although I like to keep my fly boxes to a minimum I'll always have enough of these patterns:

* Bead head caddis pupa in some shade of olive.
* Pheasant tail type of nymph (I got rid of the wing-case to save tying time). I prefer darker shades for these nymphs.
* To imitate smaller type stoneflies as well as a general 'attractor nymph' a Prince nymph (with and without bead head).

Another variant on the general may fly nymph is a rubber legged version. I have used many rubber leg nymph patterns over the years and I found them to be very productive, especially when the regular nymphs aren't producing. My guess is that the fish are fed up with the same dish served by fly fishermen and are looking for a nice juicy cheeseburger.

I'll give the nymph a twitch every couple of seconds during a dead drift. This pattern is based on a general may fly type nymph. Basically any nymph pattern can be adapted to a rubber legged version just by adding some strands of rubber around the thorax area. Sizes 10 and up work great as stonefly nymphs.

The remaining 20% of the time, I'll try a dry fly (or a streamer) of some sort to play a different game. Especially spots with nice undercut banks, overhanging brushes and trees are potential areas to switch. Caddis patterns like the Elk hair caddis, CDC & Elk or even a small hopper pattern will work. Parachute style dry flies, both regular style as well as emerger / Klinkhamer styles, will do. The white parachute posts one usually sees in these patterns aren't visible as well as they should. So I changed my posts to a 'hot orange' color. This color is visible both during light and low light conditions. It's even visible when it rides a heavy current.

I just love the big strikes when fishing with hoppers. Last summer I changed my favorite hopper pattern. The Alien Bug is my hopper pattern to go. It's easy to tie, it floats and it's durable. I haven't tried it in Europe since I got back from my US / Canada trip, but I'm sure it will get its share of playing time.

The Humpy is a very versatile dry fly. It's a searching attractor pattern, it can be used as a beetle imitation as well as a general heavy current dry fly since it floats so well. Just have some in your fly box!

I must admit I've never given the good old ant pattern a try so far. Probably because they are so hard to see! There is no doubt that ants are available as a food almost year round. Probably the most common land insect of all. So, I tied a few dozen ants in sizes 18 to 22 this winter. We'll see what happens.

About streamers, I'll come back in a later posting. We have to wait for about a week before heading to southern Germany. Can't wait!

So which are YOUR favourite patterns?

Fly fishing season has started!

At last! The weather is finally warming up as more days have increasing sunny periods. We planned our first trip to the trout streams in southern Germany for the second weekend of May. Can't wait to go after those hungry trouts!

We'll get our appetite going by getting our fly boxes ready for the season. We'll post some pictures of the flies we use as well some new experimental flies we want to try out (at least for the European trouts).

Keep posted for more news on our preparation for our first fishing trip of this year!

The Adams Family travels (I)

I've always loved giving (experimental) flies away to friends who try them out on their favorite streams. After all that's what flies are made for. It's also an easy way to try out new (or altered) patterns in spite of not having a nice trout stream running in my back yard.

One of the nice memories is how my humpies fooled some nice kiwi browns and rainbows by a New Zealand guide. The idea of traveling to the other side of the world and fooling a trout almost makes up for not being there my self.

Well, for the mean time... Unfortunately those days were before the digital camera's. I must have some pictures of those trouts stashed away somewhere in my house.

Bill Taylor, maker of fine bamboo rods (Bill's quad rods seems to be really something else), told me that he was going to fish the Catskill area this spring. Since the Adams is one of the most well known Catskill flies we agreed to do a little all-expenses paid trip for the Adams Family.

The idea is to get these flies on the Catskill streams and do what they do best: fool fish. I tied half a dozen Adams in size 14 and 16 this week. They are now ready for shipment to Bill in a film container.

To be continued....






Update 8 April 2006:
The Adams Family has been shipped!

Update 22 April 2006:
The Adams Family has (finally) arrived at their destination! Pictures to follow.

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

Keep in touch with friends

I remember calling to overseas costing a fortune. Not sure how much exactly but it was high enough to keep the calls short. These days the phone prices came down to a level that it's slightly higher than calling to local numbers. Then came Skype. This program allows you to call other Skype users all over the world without costing a penny or to a regular phone even cheaper than your local phone calls. Calling to regular phone numbers using the Skype program you need to buy credits (called SkypeOut) from Skype. The prices for calling regular land line numbers all over the world are dead cheap. Calling over the internet is called VoIP (Voice Over IP) these days and it supposed to to be pretty big in the next couple of years.

The fun using Skype is that you get to talk to your friends much easier and frequent than you were used to. I got to talk to my buddy in Idaho just about every couple of weeks while we used to write letters (those were dinosaur days by the way) and e-mail. Since Skype is also an Instant Messenger like MSN Messenger or ICQ, it's also easy to track who is on-line or not. This is obviously not available for your contacts in the list who only have regular phones.

Skype has this neat feature called Conferencing. And it's just what it says: you can talk to more than one (the participants can be using Skype as well as regular phone) at the same time. Skype allows up to 4 people. So if you want to talk to your fly fishing buddies all at the same time, this is great fun!

There are similar programs now which work pretty much like Skype: Gizmo Project, Yak and Jajah (what's in a name?). Even Google has a program called Google Talk and guess what, Microsoft announced to come with a calling option in their future releases of MSN Messenger. Skype has the largest user-base so far and it's available for most platforms including WIndows, Mac, Pocket PC and Linux. Others are only available for PC and Mac while a few are PC only.


** Update Feb 2006 **
Jajah dropped the idea of using a program to call your friends. Rather they changed their application to a web-page where you enter your phone-number as well as the person you want to call. Jajah takes care of the the connection between the two phone-numbers. You will be charged with Jajah's own proprietary rate which is obviously (supposed) to be a lot cheaper than you regular carrier.

This is an interesting solution to the ever fast moving world of VoIP. Jajah's solution bypasses the idea of needing a broadband internet connection as well as the hassle of having to install a new application.


Gizmo users can talk to GoogleTalk users and vice versa! We need more of these inter-compatibilty pacts!

Another VoIP-like program appeared in the arena: SightSpeed. This is a program similar to Apple's iChat in terms of just offering a audio and videochat rather than including options to call regular phone numbers (like Skype and Gizmo). Recently a Mac version has been released next to the PC version. SightSpeed seems to be a solution to a problem which Apple never (wanted to) solved: videochat with both Mac and PC users.

Beauty of bamboo fly rods

As I wrote in my posting 'The Weisse Traun in June' I started appreciating nice bamboo fly rods several years ago.

I haven't seen and cast many bamboo rods so far (I guess about 10-12 rods: I remember a couple of Orvis'es, Winstons, several T&T's, Tom Morans, RK Bolt, Zumbrunn, Brunner, Bjarne Fries and Granger), so I'm no expert but there seem to be an understated elegance of these rods. Much more than factory built graphite rods, with bamboo rods little details are used to give the rod that personal touch. 

I've seen special wrapping details (like the single wraps on Tom Moran's rods), nice ferrules (wrapped ferrules on Winstons) or swelled butts on the T&T (also Tom Moran makes a delightful swelled butt). These details should not be overdone by the way.

Most bamboo rods aren't casting canons nor as light as graphite rods. But they aren't slow (unless made that way) or heavy as many think. In fact some rods (like Brunner) are so fast that I don't think they would make good fishing rods. I've cast some excellent casting bamboo rods. You won't see distance records with bamboo rods, but they have a way to handle a wide range of casting situations. Especially the ability to cast with just a couple of feet of line yet still able to deliver a 15 meter (50 feet) cast is amazing.

The possibility of altering or tuning the taper when building the rod makes bamboo an extremely versatile material. Much more than the way graphite rods are made, the maker can adjust the action of the bamboo rod. And of course, the journey the rod has made from bamboo pole growing in the Guangdong province of China to the workbench of a (master) builder who spent dozens of hours shaping the split bundles of cane to a fine rod is just inspiring.

Don't get me wrong. I really like my graphite rods and I will keep fishing them. Like the buttery smooth casting Orvis Trout, the first production graphite rod Orvis made (since 1974?). This rod casts like magic with a 5 weight line even though the rod was rated for a 6 weight. My Tippet is one delicate mother, yet still will deliver a weighted bead head with ease. I still own these rods with the original cosmetics (unsanded blanks) and brushed bright aluminum hardware. After 1986 (?) Orvis started to make the Superfine series with black anodized hardware (and the 25 years warranty). By the way, the current Superfine series with the sanded blanks are horrible!

Take the Sage Light Line series with their translucent burgundy red blank. This is an excellent rod for spring creek like conditions. I bought my Sage 490-4 LL at Craig Mathews' shop Blue Ribbon Flies in 1992. The Sage 586-3 SP with its swelled butt is one handsome rod and fishes equally exceptional. But a light bamboo fly rod (I prefer fishing with graphite for line weights above a 5 weight) has this spirit no graphite rod comes close. It has to be felt to understand but fighting a fish with a bamboo fly rod does feel different. Maybe it's just the set of mind?

Past fall I was cleaning up my fishing gear and getting them ready for their winter storage. While my rods were drying on top of a couple of chairs, I saw how nice they looked. It has been pretty cold the past couple of days, so here are some pictures to warm up. I'll share some pictures of my graphite rods in the future.

Humpy

Don't you just love the Humpy? I do! The Humpy is a fly that has achieved stardom in the western states. Very buoyant and the many tying variations on this fly makes it a very adaptable and wonderful fly for fast & furious water conditions.

I was fascinated (maybe obsessed? 😀) after I watched Jack Dennis' VHS video 'Tying western trout flies' back in the late 1980's. Unfortunately getting good deer hair (short tipped and not too coarse hair) for tying humpies was quite a challenge here. A few years later I met Chris Helm at the Dutch Fly Fair who helped me tremendously with getting good deer and elk hair for all kinds of flies.

The history of this fly has many stories, but it is believed that it was developed by Jack Horner in the 1940's. The 'Horner deer fly' or the 'Goofus bug' were names that were given by different people during different times. These days the fly is known as the Humpy. A great name it is!

The Humpy is quite a difficult fly to master. The different materials that is needed, handled and the tight margins of proportions it has to be tied makes it a fly that's loved and hated by many tiers.

Deer hair that is needed for the Humpy should be coarse but not too coarse (the tightening down of the 'hump' will cut right through the hair if it's too coarse or brittle). The tips of the hair should be short and even to give the wings that nice and neat silhouette. The hump should be neat, tight and even to show that typical part that makes the Humpy such a very recognizable fly.

The amount of hair that is needed differs from the size that is tied. Too small a clump of deer hair and it will look like a starving crane fly, while too much hair will mess up the balance of the fly as well as almost impossible to maintain the control of the hair going every direction but the right way. The best deer hair I've come across come from the brand Mission Mountain Hair. It's not readily available so it's kinda hard to come by. I've only seen this hair available at a fly shop I visited in Craig, Montana called The Trout Shop.

The right proportions of the Humpy is a crucial part of this fly. Ever slightest disproportional error will show up as a badly tied Humpy, more than probably any other (dry) fly. The balance between amount of material that is used, the size of the 'hump', a nice tail, the size and length of the wings and a nice full (but not too full!) hackle can make or break this fly from being a show-stopper in your fly box.

But if all goes well, this fly is a gorgeous fly to look at, versatile as very few flies can be (seems to be one of the 'must haves' when you want to fish the huge browns and bows in New Zealand) and just downright fun to tie. And the Humpy is a fly that can go as an imitation from anything from a fluttering caddis, beetle to an emerging mayfly.

Update March 2, 2026:

Jack Dennis dug out this video (partly on my request) of Andre Puyans tying a Humpy.

Really interesting how Puyans tied his Humpy!

Update Feb 12, 2025:

Jack Dennis uploaded a video of Jay Buchner how to tie a Humpy correctly.

Jay is the husband of Kathy Buchner. Kathy wrote an article on tying the Humpy in the late 1990's in the Fly Fisherman magazine.

Update Dec 25, 2023:

Update Nov 3, 2023:

I did a tying demonstration for April Vokey's website Anchored Outdoors.

Guess what I tied? 

Update Oct 30, 2023:

Gordon van der Spuy thought writing a book wasn't enough and came out with a 2nd book.

I wrote a chapter about the Humpy

Update Aug 12, 2023:

Another artist painted a Humpy for me.

This time by Cindy Day

Update April 16, 2022:

I received a package from Jack!

Update March 22, 2022:

Another video on tying the Humpy, this time by Jay Buchner.

Lots of information on the history of the Humpy too.

Here you also hear that André Puyans was the originator of tying the Humpy by tying the wings first.

Jay is the husband of Kathy Buchner. Kathy wrote an article on tying the Humpy in the late 1990's in the Fly Fisherman magazine.

Update May 15, 2020:

A Humpy swap with Charlie Craven

Update Jan 30, 2020:

Here Jack ties the Royal Humpy:

Update Dec 13, 2021:

Jack uploaded footages from his huge video collection on YouTube.

Here is the Humpy tying part from his 'Tying western trout flies':

Update Sept 3, 2021:

So what does the Humpy exactly imitate?

Update July 19, 2021:

More Humpies heading off to USA, with a comment by Jack Dennis.

Update June 29, 2021:

Check out the Humpies I tied for Ed van Put, the Catskill legend.

Update April 17, 2021:

Check out the rare Humpy tied by André Puyans I acquired.

Update Nov 9, 2020:

Jack Dennis is unmistakenly connected to my love for tying humpies.

Today Jack celebrated the 49th year being together his wife.

Update Feb 8, 2020:
Here's a framed Horner fly alias the Humpy tied by the man himself. Thanks Gary!

Update March 2014:
The brand Mission Mountain Hair is no longer available. I recommend Nature's Spirit for deer and elk hair now.

Trout Grass

Trout Grass is a documentary on the journey Tonkin bamboo, the material to make bamboo fly rods, makes from mainland China to Twin Bridges, Montana. I have read many articles and some books on bamboo fly rods, but none of them really gave much information on the area where the bamboo grows and how they are harvested. Trout Grass fills up this gap very nicely.

During the 45 minutes it shows how the Tonkin bamboo is harvested, transported down the hills and cleaned by the local people who make a living out of this amazing product of nature. This specific spieces of bamboo grows only in a small area in the Guangdong province of China.

The second part of the movie shows how Glenn Brackett of RL Winston Rod company crafts his famed bamboo fly rods out of the very few bamboo poles that made the cut during the selection proces which started all the way back in China. How amazing it is to know that such a plant (a family of the regular grass that grows in your back yard) ends up as a high priced and masterly crafted fly rod.

I really enjoyed this documentary. Too bad there is no 'The making of' or similar extra footage on how this documentary came together, interview with different people who worked on this, maybe some funny stuff on when things went wrong, etc.

This is not a how-to-make bamboo fly rods movie but a documentary showing how 'important' bamboo and the bamboo fly rod is for one half of the chain versus how bamboo has been a part of the Chinese culture for millenniums as source for many applications and is crucial for the local economy. You don't need to be a bamboo junk, but for anyone who wants to know more about this amazing journey of the Tonkin bamboo this DVD is a must see. More info (as well as some small movie clips) on Trout Grass and how to order can be found at the site of Trout Grass.

Ordered my first custom bamboo rod!

I just ordered my very first custom built bamboo rod!

I ordered a rod from Homer Jennings. The exact specifications aren't definite, but I want a 3 piece rod for traveling conveniences. I also want a slightly longer rod than the 7 foot rods I already own. Length longer than 8 foot seems to make bamboo rods uncomfortably heavy. My choice is a 7.6ft rod, but I might even consider a 7.3 ft rod. I want a rod which I can use for various conditions and is capable of handling dry flies, hoppers, weighted nymphs and maybe an occasional small streamer, so some authority is needed. I think a #5 rod would be more versatile than a #4 rod.

I have been reading a lot on bamboo rods the past couple of years. Although I still consider myself a rookie on this subject, I have seen that there is a large variation on tapers giving each rod a different action and feel. I do have an opinion which type of action I like best. I like a medium-fast to fastish rod. It should cast well close (10 feet, 3 meters) up to 30-40 feet (9-12 meters).

Homer told me that it will take about 14 months to deliver, so I have a lot of time to think about cosmetics (grip shape, hardware, wrapping color, etc.), so keep posted!


Update Feb 2, 2011:
Today my Jennings rod arrived! The rod was finished by Homer on Dec 27, 2010. That makes it a 6 year wait. It 's a 7.3ft 3 piece for a 4 weight with an extra (3rd) 3 weight tip. The rod looks like a jewel. The finish is simply superb.