The Klinkhammer

The Klinkhammer on a size 12 curved shank hook

One of our go-to flies. With various sizes

imitating midges to larger caddis and mayflies, they are very versatile flies. They imitate emerging flies, mimicking their most vulnerable period, the transition from water to air, which is why trout go mad for them. They are especially good on the really flat calm days when insects are struggling to escape the surface film.

Klinkhammers were a revolutionary dry fly pattern designed by Dutch angler Hans van Klinken in the 1980s. The fly's parachute hackle and buoyant body keep it riding low in the water, with part of the fly submerged to mimic an insect's emerger stage.

Semperfli straggle string is fantastic for legs. The klinkhammer hackle sits perfectly on the surface film, with the nymph-like body underneath the surface

A trout's-eye view, note the hackle giving the impression of dappled water from a struggling insect, and the lack of post visible from underwater.

We make Klinkhammers from size 18 (a tricky tie!) to a size 10. the larger sizes are used mostly for the "klink and dink" method, where a buzzer or nymph is suspended below the fly, great for static or really slowly fishing a nymph at distance on the edge of shallow weedbeds. We tie them usually with a grizzly hackle, which really looks like movement of a fly when viewed from underneath. The body is usually some peackock herl, or dry fly dubbing, but our secret pattern is a few turns of fine Semperfli straggle string around the body that really looks like legs of the shuck (shedded exoskeleton the adult fly is emerging from).

The post the hackle cannot be seen by the fish- just check the underwater image!

So colour doesn't matter too much, but we usually tie them in yellow or white for visibility to the angler, with some in black for the small black ones used in very low light conditions.

We tie the underwater body in a variety of colours, ribs and thicknesses. It doesn't seem to matter too much, more of a choice of how buoyant we want the fly (or how delicately a client can land it..).