The Shank

No materials at all - but still good for sea trout

By Martin Joergensen

The Shank is a fly that will be both small and large at once. It's actually just a tuft of hair on a hook shank, but the hair cosen is fairly stiff squirrel, and will give the fly some volume. Still when there's current or you retrieve it a bit faster it collapses to a narrow strip.
The Shank also uses natural flash - peacock herl in stead of my beloved flash straws. A good autumn fly.

Hook	4-6 curved nymph/emerger hook
Thread	Tan
Body	Natural squirrel underfur taken from the butts of the hairs used for winging the previous fly.
Wing	A few peacock herl under a tuft of squirrel tail hair. I use red or gray Siberian Squirrel. the hair is longer, softer and more curled than most squirrel seen.
Head	Color of thread

1. Dub the front third of the hook to a small eliptical body. Mostly ment to support the wing.
2. Tie in a few peacock herl almost double hook length.
3. Remove underfur from a tuft of squirrel tail hair.
4. Tie in wing on top of herl. The wing most be almost double hook length.
5. Cut the surplus and form a head.

The squirrel can be tricky. I usually catch the material in a loop of thread over the hook before passing the thread under the hook. In this manner the hair is kept together in a neat bundle and will sit on top of the hook shank. Also I varnish the hair when I have trimmed the butts - before adding the finishing wraps and making the head. After finishing the fly I varnish it as I usually would.

Did you find the above interesting?

This other story related to "sea trout flies" might also interest you: Danish gallery Pictures: 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. See the pictures here. Click to see other stories with the keyword "sea trout flies"

A few random articles for your entertainment The Underwater World of Trout There is simply too much information in these DVD´s to condense in a single review. If a picture if worth a thousand words - then how much is a couple hours of moving pictures like these worth? More than I can guess. November 20th 2006 Iceland, 5½ days Iceland is best known for its salmon fishing, but the island has some of the world's best brown trout fishing too... and arctic char... and sea trout. So GFF partner Martin Joergensen and his friend Asger Olesen had 5½ great days of fishing the summer of 2003. February 13th 2004 Better fishing pictures: Underexpose This might sound like a strange piece of advice, but GFF partner Martin Jorgensen writes: "Trust me: you generally want to underexpose your digital images. Almost every single one of them. " October 16th 2006 The Trout Bum Diaries The Trout Bum Diaries marks a change in fishing DVD's as far as double reviewers Michael Smith and Martin Joergensen can see. They take their turns in reviewing this fast paced and extremely entertaining DVD. They agree that it may not be to everybody's taste but both love it. September 30th 2006