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In Danish this shrimp fly is known as Den Fynske Reje, and it’s been successful in its basic form as well as in several variations

Fly tying really makes beautiful books! 12 saltwater flies that catch fish!

My shrimp patterns have always been pretty impressionistic. That was until I saw a video using some pre-made legs… then I dug into my stash, and a fairly realistic shrimp emerged

Coming up with new fly patterns is essentially like coming up with new dishes: it’s basically impossible. Everything is a variation of a variation of something that has been made before - even The Yarn Thief

How to tie the fly pattern that I "invented" in connection with a discussion about coming up with new fly patterns.

A simple, small squid pattern aimed at all the fish that enjoy eating little, cute cuttlefish

This fly was originally a colorful bream fly from the southern US called Bead Butt or Jennifer Lopez. I transformed it to fit my needs and named my version Josephine Baker

The Kavik is a simple zonker-based streamer, well suited for a lot of different fish, and easy to adapt in color and material choice

Dave Stewart from the podcast "Wet Fly Swing" contacted me for participation in one of his podcasts, and it’s now online to enjoy.

The classical Danish coastal flies Magnus and Grey Fred have been an inspiration for many derivative patterns as well as hybrids. This is their story.

I had known Magnus for many years, the fly being a stable fly in my flybox. But it was only later that I met the man Magnus "live".

A really simple and easy little baitfish fly, which will work for a lot of different fish and can be varied endlessly

This article in the series on fly patterns for particular coastal water conditions in the Baltic deals with the season upon us: winter.

This is a simple streamer, which was one of the first decent flies I ever put together myself. I still like it and enjoy tying it.

Raccoon – or Vaskebjørn – is a highly successful and good looking Norwegian sea trout fly.

We always say that sea trout in the ocean are opportunistic and will take almost any fly. This pattern disproves that thesis

This is the first part of a small series dealing with various coastal conditions in the Baltic. We'll look at flies for clear, but turbulent water. Lots of visibility, but also lots of turmoil – and food.

This is a classic UK wet fly for stillwaters. Good looking, easy to find materials, easy to tie. Why not tie it for the Baltic sea runs?

This is a new take on another new take on the classic British stillwater pattern the Cat's Whisker

I found a 10+ year old fly in a fly box and liked what I saw. The reconstruction of the fly was named the Talisker Touchdown

A small shrimp from the hands of Allan Kuhlman who plays with eyes, shells and legs.

The Fair Fly is in many ways a perfect zonker: large, very fishy looking, simple to tie. It's a very good sculpin imitation and an excellent large streamer.

A simple hairwinged streamer in old school Danish coastal streamer style... with a twist... literally... of copper wire

This is the true story of Klympen - a sea trout fly pattern, which I witnessed being created - and have seen evolve into something surprisingly far from the original.

This is a fairly complex shrimp pattern, a little difficult to tie, but also durable. It fishes upside down and is tied by Danish Mads Schmidt who has had great success with the fly.

Flies are becoming more and more realistic - even the saltwater flies. Gammarus with transparent backs and scud patterns, shrimps tied with clear legs, looped tails and pulsating mouth parts and antennas. Now it is time for the bait fish.

As the year changed from 2014 to 2015, the Danish sea trout community suddenly started buzzing about squid. And I buzzed along and developed Martin's Mundane Squid, soon to become the Squid Plus Three

Sometimes a fly-tyer thinks out of the box, and suddenly the complex and difficult becomes very simple - like tying a great clam worm fly.

First there was The Collie Dog, then the less famous Charlie Fly and now the Oscar Fly.
A traditional palmered wet fly in greyish colors - with a secret and rare smoke colored body. See how to tie it and why Flemming prefers them in small sizes.

As a Baltic sea trout angler you can never get enough shrimp patterns, and this one was tied as a result of access to some really fine mallard feathers.

There's absolute nothing original or innovative about this fly. On the contrary: it's super simple and has probably been tied in a gazillion variations before. It was inspired by some nice mallard feathers brought to one of our fly-tying and fishing trips.

Shrimp flies are very much en vogue in the Baltic region, and keep on getting more and more complex. This one is simple and dead easy to tie - and still a very good imitation.

These books are in German, but since we have quite a few German visitors, I thought a review was in place anyway

Thomas Vinge's Danish books on seatrout flies have been translated into German, and have just been published. I cannot recommend them enough!

Having seen, tied and fished shrimp flies for many years, Martin feels a need to do a little lecture on the real appearance of shrimp, especially targeted at fly tyers.

This book has been underway for more than 6 months, and I have worked on and off on it for a long time.

Bright, colorful and visible. A perfect fly for slow fish in cold or murky water. It earned its name because the creator hooked his own nose with it on its maiden voyage! Seatrout like it, but other trout will too.

I met the Rolled Muddler in BC while fishing for Pacific salmon, but like it so much that I'll tie up a bunch for my local seatrout, and I'm sure they will work.

The seatrout season will soon be upon us here in northern Europe, and Martin thought he'd expand his horizon a bit and add some new seatrout patterns to his flybox before the 2012 season.

The Brenda is a beautiful, harmonic and productive seatrout pattern from Danish fly tyer Ove Monrad. It features a brass bead to add some weight and a sexy, jigging motion.

An extremely lightly dressed and delicate fly that imitates a mysid originated by Danish fly tyer Per Karlsen. Per has made the Variant himself, and it's really simple!

I just finished a new self-published book "Favorite flies for Baltic Seatrout" and ordered my own first two copies.

This is the lazy man's muddler, the sloppy tier's muddler, the beginner's muddler.
It's actually quite close in style to some of the first Muddler Minnows tied by Don Gapen back in the 30's.

The Killer Shrimp hardly looks like anything. It's gray and translucent, sparsely dressed and inconspicuous. But it catches fish. It's a great fly for those bright and calm days where sea trout seem to be unwilling to take any fly.

A small, soft baitfish imitation that will do a very good job standing in for a sculpin, but can be adapted to look like almost any small fish. Learn to tie it here using easily available materials - 

This fly is primitive close to being embarrassing. It's even ugly. It uses one material only and a crude and synthetic one at that. But... and there's a but... GFF partner Martin Joergensen has to admit that it's an efficient fly. It catches a lot of fish.

Very inspired by the Clouser style as well as the Thunder Creek, but not tied quite as any of the originals. The Clouser-ish will still go in the Clouser Deep Minnow category, and as all these flies it's an excellent and easy-to-tie fly.

Flies for fishing deep. Not my ususal kind of flies, but sometimes you need weight.

If you have been a regular on GFF for any time during its long existence, you will know that my everyday fishing is chasing sea run brown trout - we call them sea trout.
There has been lots of books and a number of videos out on the subject of sea trout fishing, but most of it in Danish. There is some Swedish, Norwegian and even German material out there, but very little in English.

Klympen is a simple and efficient fly for sea run browns, which should be able to catch many other kinds of fish. Originated by Henning Eskol, this fly has seen many variations since its birth.

Few flies are as classical as the Red Tag, which was originated as a dry fly for grayling, but has been adapted to many other kinds of fishing. The fly dates back to the 1850's where it came out of the vice of Martyn Flynn. This variation is for sea run browns.

Frida is the little sister of the beloved Grey Frede, and that alone is a recommendation. It's a small and compact, yet shiny fly meant for sea trout, but definitely useful for other species too - panfish in small sizes, bonefish in larger.

Kelvin Kleinman shows us how to tie a really different saltwater fly based on the freshwater spider style, adapted for cutthroat stream fishing and then reversed to become a saltwater shrimp from outer space! A very special but also efficient pattern.

Sand eels are very common in most waters around the world. This is a very simple flatwing style sand eel that can be tied easily with very few, common materials, and make a great imitaion that is easy to cast on a light rod.

Flatwings - "the new black" in Denmark and Sweden. Are they really that good. Not too big for casting? For the trout? Will they twist? Are they better than other sand eel imitations? Are they better suited for pike? Kill your skepticism and take a

A realistic, perfect swimming shrimp imitation for both hot and cold water and a big variety of species.
The fly has many neat details and is a great upgrade from those quickly tied flies. It makes your fly box look great and keeps you away from the TV.

Many flies were developed from the Woolly Bugger, German Raoul Kempkes got back to it and created a very simple pattern which is extremely durable and very easy to tie. Only a few materials are needed to tie a great pattern which is highly versatile. The perfect Woolly Bugger!

Fish must be stupid to mistake this simple and efficient pattern for something edible, and luckily they are and they do. Danish Per Gade leads you through the paces of tying and fishing The Fluff.

The White is a stable pattern in originator Rasmus Hansen's coastal sea trout flybox, He uses it as a provocation (read: attractor) or as a shrimp imitation, and prefers it for turbulent water and autumn fishing. The fly is simple, one color only, and one of these universal flies that can catch anything.

The Charlie Fly was inspired by the underfur from the originator's Chocolate Lab. Ken Bonde Larsen's dog has unwillingly become the material manufacturer for this great sea trout producer. As it often is with Danish with sea trout flies it's a small, generic pattern.

If one particular fly was to be celebrated as the Mother of all the typical Danish, gray, nondescript hackle flies it would have to be The Magnus. Originated in 1973 in Denmark it has become a goto-fly for Many Danish as well as foreign coastal anglers.

A classical pattern originated back in the sixties - here adapted for Scandinavian sea trout fishing, but probably also useful for bass and other species as well as the brownies it was originally tied for. The fly is fairly easy to tie and we have made it even simpler.

This fly is originally meant to be an imitation of a small clamworm like a small Nereis, but can be considered a generic pattern more than an exact imitation of these polychaetes. It takes its outset in the red body feathers of the Golden Pheasant.

A true classic on the Danish coast and a very universal small fish imitation, which has not only caught thousands of sea trout, but would very likely also be able to catch almost anything that has scales and swims.

A jigging fly for almost any predatory fish originated by Bob Popvics. After a trip to Danish island Bornholm in 2007 Kasper Mühlbach wanted to tie and try this successful pattern and ordered a special color. But someone else came first and bought his custom dyed bucktail.

If one day you should lie on the bank pounding your fists into the sand in frustration over the lack of fish and someone sneaks around the corner offering you a chartreuse coloured fly, perhaps it's German Kai Nolting who brings you the fly that will save your day.

A bit about the flies that we use for fishing for sea run browns in the salt

This strange popper came out of Martin Joergensen's vice recently and has already proved its value several times. See why it might be interesting to you, how to tie it (in meticulous details) as well as how it moves - and in video too! And learn why it's called Burning Man.

A very strange contraption left my vice the other day. I have great expectations.

Originally this was a classic style wet fly with a feather wing, but it's easily transformed into an excellent sea trout fly. Black, red and silver are perfect together and makes the fly very visible. See tying steps and lots of pictures and 

Maybe you found the tandem worm too tandemnised and would be better of with a one-hook-only fly.Then the fly The Wiggling Jigging Worm shown beneath is a good alternative.

It is strongly inspired by the fly Sandiglen (The Sand Leech) originally tied by René Hansen.

Every year in March and April the rag worms emerge from the bottom to secure the next generation. They swim freely in the water, wiggling from one side to the other. Sea gulls feed on the from above and many fish species seem to focus on them from beneath.

There are thousands of shrimp patterns in the world, made from the same template. This pattern is a time consumer, but it makes it more interesting tying shrimp flies. The eyes, proportions and legs gives this pattern some kind of magic.

The first meeting among GFF fans and contributors took place on the Danish island of Fyn in pursuit of sea trout. People of many nationalities met and fished for a nice September weekend, and had a fabulous fishing with a large number of fish caught.

Since the 1960's the mullets have visited the Danish and South Swedish waters from late May to late October. They feed on green weed, are easily spooked and do not pay interest in flies - most of the time. Impossible - but in 2005 Kasper Mühlbach hooked one fish.

The Mickey Finn is one of the first streamers many beginning fly tyers learn to tie. Kasper Muehlbach never used it and for years a yellow and orange fly was missing in his fly box. Last year he was inspired to tie a replacement.

A Christmas Tree out of season

Minnow, sand eel, fry. This little fly will imitate most small, transparent fish. Based on a now-classical Danish sea trout fly with an added zonker strip, there is little new under the sun. But it does catch fish as pictures in the article will show you.

Every year fishermen from all over the world visit the swedish shores and rivers, hoping their exertions will be rewarded with one of the large sea trout. Spin fishing is popular and effective. Is fly fishing possible or is it "Guru Meditation #8400001 - Unknown method"?

A fly tied for sea trout in the Baltic area. It proved to be efficient in other places too. Translucent and yet colored. Tie it in olive, rusty or tan and you can imitate any camouflaged mysis—and it will stand out from the crowd. Can be tied by seniors too...

Until now The Epoxy Miracle has given me quite a few fish and still is my favorite baitfish imitation. It is perfect under most circumstances.
But, sometimes it seems too small for the big sea trout, which come close to the South Swedish shore from January to March.

The Global FlyFisher staff wishes everybody a very merry Christmas - and a happy New Year if we don't see you before then. A Christmas Fly saw its way into Martin's fill-the-box-project. A slightly more colorful variation of his usual drab and dull flies.

"I have severely neglected my day-to-day flybox for more than a year" writes GFF partner Martin Joergensen. Now he sets out to fill a box with hundreds of sea trout flies in preparation for the coming spring. He envisions rows of uniform and neatly arranged flies.

This is a strange kind of saltwater fly for sea trout - nothing like other flies - sparse and skinny, tied on a treble, only two materials. But it works says GFF partner Martin Joergensen, who is almost embarassed to tell how to tie this über-simple fly.

A few photos to give you an idea of how GFF partner Martin Joergensen spent his domestic fishing days in the first part of this year - primarily in pursuit of his beloved sea trout, but also out to get some pike and other species.

This fly recently changed its name from The Copper Camel to The Danish Pastry Fly for reasons that are revealed in the article. It's an efficient and simple pattern for sea trout, but is very likely to be just as able to catch bass, bonefish and many other species.

Combine the Danish killer patterns Frede and Copper Bully with a Woolly Bugger... Not surprisingly a deadly combination

I highly recommend using small flies for fall fishing for sea trout and rainbows in salt water. The fish have been feeding all summer and can be picky and veeery slow and reluctant to take any fly offered to them.

Bjarke is a fly that I primarily designed to make use of these very webby feathers that always seem to be left over on the necks and saddles, when all the 'good' feathers are used.

Dalby is a place in Western Sealand often fished by Danish coastal fisher and photographer Mark Vagn Hansen. For one of his trips here, he tied a fly using a couple of brown hackles and an orange hot spot on the back of the hook.

Just some flies that passed by the table and lens of GFF partner Martin Joergensen. No strings attached, no patterns, just nice to look at.

This is my fly box. The very box that I carry in my chestpack when I go fishing on the Danish coast. It's a hand made Schweitzer mahogany box, if you're interested - the most stylish type of fly box I have ever owned.

This was one of the first flies I tied with a rabbit skin I got dyed with picric acid. The innovations found in this pattern are limited - to put it mildly - not much new under the sun here. The color is also far from any color found in food items digested by sea trout.

A conehead muddler/zonker

A muddler pattern

This pattern was originally made one evening when I was tying with some friends. My friend Henning had some light SLF left over from one of his flies. I scavenged the SLF and started a fly on a heavy Tiemco hook. The tail was casually made from some natural bucktail that I had brought.

This is a steelhead pattern, normally made with black or purple rabbit. But with natural rabbit it makes a very good pattern for the coast. By cutting a narrower strip of rabbit and choosing natural colors a lighter dressing is achieved. Good for spring fishing and fishing in current like over reefs.

The Grey Frede is a surefire pattern for sea trout. It's a very versatile and robust fly that has become very popular. I decided to tie a darker version of the same fly.

This is an old favorite. Good under almost all conditions and with a lot of trout in its history.

Again a 'classic' Danish fly. Actually only uses one significant material: a piece of mylar tubing. Body can be covered with yarn or floss to add color. A really good fly for cold or unclear water. Fish deep and slow in the winter.

Anybody can see that the Crazy Dane is really a Crazy Charlie - a very common salt water fly from the U.S. This type of fly is rarely seen in our part of the world, and I know no other fishers that use it.

Even though the pattern was inspired by a technique showed to me by Davy Wotton, it's not named after him, but after my little brother David.
The material is rabbit fur in tufts, tied in on top and under the hook shank.

This fly is a larger and more imitative variation of the Squirrel Zonker. The addition of the eyes and the heavy hair hackle makes the fly more fishlike and the Fair Fly is a good imitation of a sculpin.

"My, what an ugly fly!" Henning glances with disgust at the brightly colored foam fly shining from the hook rest on my 5 wt. Learn more about the Morrisfoam Diver for sea trout.

I had the distinct pleasure of meeting the Danish shoreline fly fisher Peter Loevendahl, who is a discrete man. He goes around quietly in his native western Seeland and catches fish. A lot of fish.

I've had little experience fishing with this fly which is quite recent in my collection. It has all the characteristics of a good night fly, it's fast and easy to tie and durable too. It should be a fly worth having in you box.

What else would you expect to find in a lab...?
This fly is one of the many that I seem to crank out at random. Most of them end up as garbage and never even find their way into my fly boxes, but this one had something. Just a little something.

The sand eel or lance - called the tobis in Danish - is one of the most common fish on the Dansih coasts, and is an important part of the diet of especially larger sea trout and cod for that matter. Because of that it is an interesting fish to imitate.

This fly was originally developed by Henning Eskol, a member of the Bananaflies - my fly tying guild.

The fly will probably look like something the cat dragged in, when it's been cast a couple of times. But still: I'll give it a try. I've always loved tying with golden phesant (GP) feathers.

The least dressed fly of all. The classic spider fly has to be one of the least dressed flies of all times. A slender body and a thin hackle - and that's it.

Muddlers are mostly used for dusk or night fishing in the summer. Muddlers will work in the surface, streaming, making a wave wich can be seen by the fish against the light sky.
Muddlers move a lot of water and form a good profile. Almost any type of muddler can be used for this fishing although dark and black patterns seem best.

Ken Bonde Larsen's now-classical Danish sea trout pattern.

An imitation well suited for inshore fishing.

This small streamer is as neutral and ordinary as can be. It's a small trout fry pattern, that can be used in fairly clear water in spring and autumn. Retrieve in short, fast jerks.

Most dog owning fly fishers have probably combed their dogs and been struck by the fact that dogs' hair would make a fine dubbing material. Danish fly angler and photographer Mark Vagn Hansen did so with his dog Mia.

A selection of saltwater patterns from Chris Edghill

A large surface muddler for all fish that eat in the darkness.

A simple fly for sea trout.

An all time classic which here is tied for sea trout in ocean and stream.

The Idiot - or 'Idioten' in Danish - is another typical Danish sea trout pattern. The story of this fly is quite well known and documented. A team of Danish fly fishers including Erik Døssing were fishing in Norway when one of the company stated that he had never caught a sea trout on fly in the stream Karup Aa - probably Denmark's most productive and famous sea trout stream.

The first fish I caught on the Morrisfoam Diver was a small sea trout which I took on a nightly outing with Maj-Britt and Henning

I have been experimenting a bit with stream patterns for sea trout. One of the results has been a larger and more salmon fly like version of the Umbrella - a salt water fly that I have used with good success.

This fly was made as an imitation of a very numerous and common group of small crustaceans/isopods, that are present on the menu of sea trout. The animals are very small - a few millimeters - but still the trout will eat them in great numbers. This is especially in the late summer and autumn.

A small and simple sea trout fly

This fly used to be a twist fly like the yellow Twist of Lemon, but it changed and eventually lost the typical twisted body. It has a normal tinsel body and a thorax of peacock herl, but looks much like the Twist of Lemon.

An almost naked fly with almost no materials.

This muddler is tied on a small stainless Mustad hook using orange deer hair, orange dyed grizzly hackle and natural rabbit dubbing with a bit of orange flash mixed in. A small beauty indeed and sooo easy to see at night.

Magnus is a 'classic' on the Danish coast. This small anonymous fly and its very similar brothers the Frede, Sandshrimp and many others, are probably the most catching flies on the coasts of Denmark. The eyes and the palmer hackle are the prime characteristics of the Magnus, which is mostly used in clear water.

I used to hate zonkers; those pre cut rabbit strips were like hell to tie with: too thick skin, too long hair, too wide strips. I stopped tying them until someone told me how to cut my own strips.

This has been my most successfull trout fly in the autumn of 1995. I've caught most of my trout from a float tube, and I believe that one of the keys to the success of this fly is the fact that it's weighted. This and the fact that it's actually very nymph like tells me that it would probably act fine as a stonefly nymph imitation, and this has given the fly it's name 'My nymph' or 'Mymph' for short.

This fly is in a way my 'signature fly'. It's a beautiful fly (in my own humble opinion), and even though it's heavy - very heavy, actually - it's a good fishing fly, that dives deep and overcomes current and turbulence.

Sometimes you can fish a location where the water is crystal clear and the surface is as a mirror, and sometimes exactly the same location is marred by hard wind, heavy waves and water as hot chocolate with marshmellows (yuck!).