For excellent results, try the Hook
A deep slow retrieve works well in the lakes. Photo by Heimir Óskarsson.
We are getting very excited in Iceland as the season seems to be just around the corner. With this depressing economic recession hanging over us, thank god for fly fishing for trout and salmon to offer some respite. So recently we have been browsing through our fly boxes. There we found a unique totally local trout fly that we wish to share with you.
It is known simply in Icelandic as: Krókurinn, translated: The Hook. That is just about as basic a name as you can get for a fly. As seen on the photos, the Hook is a trout fly. More to the point it is a nymph and it is at its very best when fished upstream with a strike indicator. It has been known to wreak havoc in pools filled with brown trout and sea char as both species are known to be unable to cope with its presence. It is also excellent for the slow deep retrieve on lakes.
The Hook was originially tied by Icelandic fly fisherman Gylfi Kristjánsson and is manufactured by his brother Stefán‘s fly tying firm, Krafla.is, website: www.krafla.is Gylfi died last year, quite unexpectedly. We knew Gylfi and he was at the top of the league of nice guys. Always ready with some advice. Always willing to help.
The Hook in closeup. Photo from www.krafla.is
He tied his first Hooks several years ago and they were an immediate success. In an interview some years ago he smiled and joked that while most nymphs are tied to replicate some sort of bug stage, the Hook was in fact not tied to replicate anything he could think of. He had simply tied a fly that his momentary whim had told him to tie. The outcome was the Hook, which has not changed a bit since. „It looked ok to me so I tried it the first chance I got. It did well and I soon gave it to a few friends. Then one thing led to another,“ Gylfi said in the interview.
The Hook has since established itself as an outstanding nymph for Icelandic trout fishing. It has long since aquired a reputation for producing catches when other flies and/or nymphs have been firing blanks. One tale to tell is this one:
The editor of this web knew Gylfi quite well and his brother Stefán even better. We all used to work as sports journalists for rival news papers years ago. Stefán has for years insisted on supplying me with many of Gylfi‘s flies. Once I came upon a small delicate pool far upstream on a Northland sea char river. Positioning for upstream fishing was easy and the massed ranks of sea char were in clear view several feet upstream. I started with a Peacock, another great favorite for Icelandic trout fishing, but there were no takers. The char were so close that I could see the nymph drift among the numerous char but there was no interest. A Phesant tail was next up. Another brilliant fly for Icelandic waters. But this time, no.
Gylfi‘s flies from my most recent „restocking“ from Stefán were in a seperate fly box, which I pulled out next. On went a Hook, sized 14. Over the next fourteen casts, I hooked thirteen char. Landed twelve of them and lost one. On the one cast that missed, actually at least four char set upon the Hook but got in each others way, so the fly sailed through unscathed. The „one“ that was lost was of course a brute of a char, the biggest one in the pool by a mile and easily 5-6 pounds. Perhaps even a 7 pounder. It jumped, ran, jumped again and then bolted upstream, out of the pool and up the fast water, where it made a sudden sharp turn to come back which resulted in snagging the leader on a jutting rock. And it snapped. It was the thirteenth hookup and at that point I decided to call it a day on that pool.
This was just one of many examples of the Hooks deadlieness. On numerous occasions it has been the fly that mattered. Yet, it resembles nothing. A simple black vinil rib, a bead head, red tag and brown jutting feather.
