Life of a Chalkstream: Klinkhamer Special is the Greatest Fly of All Time

Greetings!

I feel very lucky because Hans van Klinken, the inventor of the fly you voted The Greatest of All Time, the Klinkhåmer Special, contacted me a few days into the voting.

Over the years I have occasionally corresponded with Hans who is a regular reader of this Newsletter, and it was in my mind to ping him an email because, as early as 36 hours into the vote, the Klinkhåmer was already building up an apparently unassailable lead.

It became clear as we emailed back and forth that your vote means a great deal to him ahead of the 40th anniversary of the fly which has 27^th June 1984 as its official birth date. It also became clear that much of the information out there in the public domain about the origins of the fly and how it should be tied, along with some extraordinary claims and counterclaims are, frankly, wildly inaccurate.

Hans, in preparation for the 40^th birthday, has provided me with an account of how the fly came into being, the name, its evolution, the lessons provided by grayling and, for those of you who like to tie, a definitive guide. I am very grateful to him for his trouble; he tells me that he daily has 150-200 emails seeking advice and with questions to answer.

I did toy with trying to precis Hans’s writing, but I could not do justice to what he calls his short account; a full book is due out along with some lengthy magazine articles, so I am grateful to him for this sneak preview.

Even if you are not a regular Klinkhåmer fisher this is a fascinating insight into the evolution of a game changing fly and the intense thinking of somebody who sees a fly in relation to fish and fishing in a manner quite unlike us mere mortals.

THE GREATEST FLY OF ALL TIME POLL RESULT

1) Klinkhåmer Special – 39.8%

2) Pheasant Tail Nymph - 21.6%

3) Gold Ribbed Hare's Ear - 15.9%

4) Adams - 15.6%

5) Greenwell’s Glory - 7.1%

Poll ran February 3rd-10th. 1066 votes cast.

Hans with his creation

Cartoon of the Week

I think many would agree that The Telegraph cartoonist Matt is the pre-eminent living purveyor of a trade that, when done well, can so absolutely encapsulate an issue. Sometimes his cartoons are laugh-out-loud funny, other times, like this one edging more to gallows humour.

You may have followed the Telegraph’s Clean Water campaign that has run for a year or more which seems to have set off, in a good way, other national dailies. The Times this week launched their Clean It Up campaign and The Independent something similar.

Why? Well, for any newspaper it is the gift that keeps on giving with the industry, regulators, and government apparently terminally incapable of doing something as simple as providing water and processing waste. It has kept me in column inches for many years, so it’s a topic that will be meat and drink for professional journalists.

The Times is of the opinion that that pollution will be an important issue at the next General Election. I am sure they are right though personally I doubt it will feature in the first tier of voter concerns. I think the difficulty will be finding some point of difference between all the parties. Surely, nobody is going to disagree that as a nation we are badly served by our ‘betters’ in caring for our rivers and coastline?

Look out for plenty of promises about beefing up regulation and environmental oversight. Unfortunately, I suspect most of the debate will descend into an emotive private vs. national ownership contest which will do nothing to address the underlying problems that have bedevilled water and waste management for a century or more.

The REAL story behind the Klinkhåmer by Hans van Klinken

“I discovered that flies that floated deep in the surface produced more fish than patterns that drifted high on the surface.”

When I look back in my diaries, I enjoy the old stories; they keep my memories close by and alive. I read them quite often. Sometimes I just read the fishing parts and get a lot of pleasure from the notes about my trips, but there are times that I only search for the comments I wrote about my fly-tying experiences. It is very important to know why and how I came up with a special pattern, and why I use certain materials. When I read my notes, I realize more and more how powerful this information can be. I started tying flies in 1974, failed 3 times but finally cached it up again in 1976 and succeed. Since 1981 I have designed and improved quite a few patterns; it is handy to have good sources of correct information about these flies.

I also like reading similar stories from fellow anglers, and a few of my closest friends and I often swap our dairies and notes. Many flies are designed as “fancies,” others arise accidentally, and a lot are close copies of insects that I developed on the riverbanks. In many stories, I often miss the stories behind the patterns. I like to know the feelings from the originators, and how they discovered certain tying tricks or techniques. I often see how flies lose their names and change so much that their original histories and the original dressings just fade away within a few years.

As tied by the inventor

Setting the Record Straight

I see exact copies of my Klink and no credit ever was given and the writer even changed the name totally. In the past, I was furious but now I not even react anymore at all. I just ignore it.

I like it when fly tiers are innovative and creative, but this doesn't mean we should change the real stories behind our patterns. I have experienced these changes with my own flies a lot. When l read something about one of my patterns written by somebody else and put on the Internet, I am often no longer able recognize my own flies anymore. This has happened especially with the Klinkhåmer Special a lot. I also have seen my Klink tied on straight-shank hooks, with tails, with different wings, and abdomens larger than the thoraxes and the writer even proudly call it a Klink. More often, however, I see exact copies of my Klink and no credit ever was given and the writer even changed the name totally. In the past, I was furious but now I not even react anymore at all. I just ignore it. These changes create more misunderstandings, and for many years I have received letters asking questions about this fly. I think the winning of this contest is an excellent opportunity to correct a lot of misunderstandings about the Klinkhåmer, I also will allow me to give you an update about the pattern, and together we can celebrate its ALMOST 40th birthday that will take place on 27th June next year!

My first Klinkhåmer Special landed in the surface film of Norway’s mighty Glomma River on June 27, 1984. A lot has been happened to this fly over the past four decades. During the last 30 years, I have read a lot of stories about the Klinkhåmer; some were really good, but most exhibited misunderstandings about my thoughts behind the fly. This is sad; even when those authors gave me credit for the pattern, there were always a lot of readers who didn't learn how to tie and fish the Klinkhåmer Special properly. It hurts me when I see a good pattern described incorrectly. Some stories about the Klinkhåmer described clever improvements and different colour variations, but unless they affect the fly’s durability and floatability, I don’t see them as real improvements. Good improvements only will be proven by the number of catches with the improved or change flies.

Before I will take all the credit for the Klinkhåmer Special, you should know that I wasn’t the only one who struck on the idea of designing surface-hanging, parachute-style flies. Unknown to me at that time, Tomas Olsen, a famous Swedish fly tier, had created a similar pattern just one year before I did. And in the United States, Roy Richardson developed a similar emerger in 1986 without knowing about our flies. Mike Monroe, also from the United States, tied a similar fly even four years before any of our patterns existed; at a time, that we hardly knew what was happening at the American fly-tying scene. Mike called his fly the Paratilt, and he published an article about his new design in the summer of 1979. All these other tiers deserve as much credit for their creations as I have gotten for my Klinkhåmer Special.

What’s In a Name?

The name of the Klinkhåmer Special is often misspelled; I have no idea why.

The name of the Klinkhåmer Special is often misspelled; I have no idea why. In Germany, they call it the Nordischer Hammer or Klinki. In the United States, anglers seem to prefer calling it the Clinck. And I often get questions about all kinds of Hammers, most I have never heard of: Pinkhammers, Yellowhammers, Bluehammers, and many others.

Curiously, there is a large mountain in Sweden called the Hammer close to where I used to fish, and some anglers said that the fly hits the water like a sledgehammer. None of these things have anything to do with the name of the fly. The original name for the fly was the L.T. Caddis; it was just one fly from my large L.T. series of patterns that I developed in Scandinavia between 1980 and 1990. Hans de Groot, Franklin Moquette and Ton Lindhout changed it to the Klinkhåmer Special, probably after some drinks, when they edited my first fishing stories that I wrote for the Dutch Fly Fishing Magazine. I was fishing in the UK when they edited my story during one of these great editorial staff meetings I couldn’t join.

If you are tying a Klinkhåmer Special, you should know the real thoughts behind my pattern. It was easy for me to find my totally free and own way in fly tying because we had no fly fishing history in Holland at all. It was Kenneth Boström’s fly called the Rackelhanen that set me free from old tying traditions, my numerous fishing in Scandinavia in combination of my new way of tying made me more innovative and allowed me to think totally differently than most other fly tiers did. The Rackelhanen is still very popular in Scandinavia, but worldwide this fly has never got the attention it surely deserves. I have no idea how my fly-fishing would look today without discovering the Rackelhanen, but that wonderful sedge imitation gave me enormous confidence and inspiration to start a completely new way of tying flies better known as parachute flies. That happened in the early 1980s.

Although my first variations of the Rackelhanen did extremely well, I wasn’t really satisfied with them. The reason was simple: I didn't know Kenneth Boström at that time, and I made some essential mistakes when tying his fly. My error prevented the pattern from floating properly, and my copies did not always land correctly. I did some research many years later and discovered the problem: I tied them with a single and much longer wing so they sometimes floated incorrectly and lost most of their effectiveness. I also used too much floatant and in a wrong way. Fish rose to my flies like crazy, but I missed too many takes; I probably landed only three out of 10 fish. I only got into my problem when I had lost all Rackehanen given to me and tied my own copies. To solve the problem, I added a hackle around the wing as I had seen in a book written by Eric Leiser in his chapter about Parachute flies. That’s how my first parachute pattern was developed and created. After this improvement, the fly floated as I wanted, but this wasn’t the only reason why I stayed with parachutes; around this time, I also discovered that flies that floated deep in the surface produced more fish than patterns that drifted high on the surface.

Learning From the Fish

The iceberg shape of the fly solved the problem ……

The Lady of the Stream—the grayling—brought another problem to my attention. At that time, I still used hackle-collared flies a lot, and I tied many with nice strong tails and solid hackles. I liked the way they floated on the surface, and I could see them very well. I loved seeing grayling come up for them, but then, one day, I noticed that aggressively striking fish often pushed the flies up and to the side.

Today I know a lot more about grayling. Most of the time these fish feed on the bottom; their mouths are built for it. This is the reason I missed so many grayling using my collar-hackled dry flies. Grayling can rise at very high speeds to take flies from the surface, but because of her protruding upper lips, they are perfect bottom feeders. Those lips are ideal for picking up snails and larvae from the bottom, but grayling have found a beautiful way of rising to floating and emerging insects; sometimes they even jump out of the water and take their prey from above. I have seen this hundreds of times. But I believe that it is a combination of the shape of the mouth, the speed of the rise, and way of taking the fly that causes a grayling to push away a regular floating pattern. That’s probably also why very light dressing often works a lot better for Grayling too. A parachute-style dry fly reduces this problem, and an emerger that hangs deep in the surface works even better. I proved this theory many times after I had designed my Klinkhåmer Special. The iceberg shape of the fly solved the problem, and I solidly hook eight or even 10 out of 10 fish, mostly in their upper lips; typically, I hardly miss a fish with my Klink.

When we tie imitations of insects, only a few points seem important. We consider the size, shape, colour, and mobility of the naturals, and replicate these in our patterns. But I think there are more points of interest, and I search for them every day. For example, in the 1990s I started thinking differently about fly design, and today I teach my fly-tying students to consider the silhouette a fly produces instead looking at the shape.

Tying Problems and Misunderstandings

We are now coming to the main reason for this little update. I have seen too many mistakes in other articles about the Klinkhåmer Special, and I want to clarify how to tie this pattern. Not everyone will accept my explanations, but I will try to show why I still use the same materials as I did 40 years ago, and why I prefer them above all the others. I have tried to make dozens of improvements, but only a handful of material changes was able to improve the original design.

The Hackle

A proper parachute hackle also requires more than just two or three wraps. Use a long feather so you can make a lot of wraps. Depending upon the size of the fly, you might make seven, eight, and even more wraps. Placing a fly in a dish of water will tell you if you are doing it correctly. Even after tying thousands of parachute flies, I still use a dish of water because I want to see the results and how long my flies will remain afloat.

And finally, use oversized hackle for your parachute dry flies now and then. I have tied a lot of Klinkhåmers with what seemed like oversized hackles, and I can assure you that they worked well. I don’t know why they work so well, but when compared to other parachute patterns, mine always seem a lot larger.

The Wing

When I started using the Klinkhåmer Special, the visible wing created an unbelievable benefit for catching grayling that suck the flies from the surface without leaving a trace. The same happened with Atlantic salmon, and some trout and char. As soon the big white wing disappeared, I knew a fish took the fly. I landed hundreds of fish this way. The fish I call suckers.

The wing must be lighter than water, not slippery, and allow you to pull the hackle wraps far into the material. When you tie a lot of parachute flies, you will quickly notice that the wing, hackle, and tying thread must cooperate in perfect harmony. If the thread or hackle slips off the wing easily, the parachute won’t last long. The biggest mistake people make when copying the Klinkhåmer Special is not using the correct yarn for the wing. I have seen huge Klinkhåmers tied using wing material that sinks almost directly to the bottom. If you use big hooks like me, you can’t float the fly when the wing and dubbing aren’t lighter than water, and when not using a good floatant.

I have seen wings of various lengths. Most examples in the articles had rather short wings, but I work the other way around. A wing that turns out to be too long can be easily shortened, so I tie longer wings.

Poorly Floating Klinkhåmers

Some people will discover problems in keeping their Klinkhåmers floating. The main reason is because the original polypropylene yarn absorbs water. Polypropylene yarn is indeed much lighter than water, but after it absorbs moisture, the hook easily pulls the fly down. When fishing, always apply floatant to your polypropylene wings to keep the flies afloat, and also apply floatant to the hackles of your slim and normal-sized Klinkhåmers. One word of caution: Do not use floatant on the bodies (especially on small sizes) because it can prevent them from breaking through the surface of the water. This is extremely important to the success of this unique pattern.

The Body Material

I usually use two kinds of dubbing material for my parachute dry flies. For normal and large flies, I have found nothing better than extra-fine Fly Rite Poly Dubbing and Kapok sold by Semperfli. The solid and perfect mixtures of blended colours from Fly Rite will help you imitate any insect body on the globe. With Kapok you can blend your own colours as well, and the material is lighter than water so you can easily use heavier hooks.

Just a few months after tying the first Klinkhåmer Special, I discovered that a peacock herl thorax makes the fly a lot more effective. Proven it by got much more caches. At first the herl seemed very fragile, but I found a good solution to improve its durability. Some people twist the peacock before winding, and this increases the durability. I prefer pressing a drop of thin varnish into the base of the wing to secure the yarn, thread, and thorax at the same time when I finish the fly. A mixture of cellulose lacquer diluted with acetate (a 50/50 mixture) is perfect for making the most durable fly. The best substitute for natural peacock is Semperfli’s black Straggle string.

Hooks

I know everybody has his own preference for hooks; mine is a hook with a wide gap and fine wire. My first Klinkhåmer Special was tied on the Partridge K2b, better known as the Yorkshire Caddis Hook, and at that time it was available in a much finer wire. However, when Partridge changed that hook—they started using heavier wire and added a turned-up eye—I changed hooks. I wanted straight-eye hooks, especially when tying parachutes. I also wanted fine-wire hooks. I wasn’t able to find the hooks that I needed, so I designed what was called the Partridge Klinkhåmer GRS15ST, later renamed and redesigned as the 15BN and 15BNX. Sadly, the 15BN and 15BNX were also changed quite a bit from the original shape and wire.

I eventually worked with Anglers Sport Group, who distributes Daiichi hooks. When we set up our new partnership, we agree that the Daiichi Klinkhåmer hooks would follow my exact design from the 1980’s. In amazing short order, the first prototypes of the new Klinkhåmer hook passed all my field tests and were an exact copy of the original design from the 1980’s. They are on the market in sizes 20 to 8 in two versions: bronze (Daiichi 1160) and nickel (Daiichi 1167). The new hook is most suitable for tying Klinkhåmers, emergers, and special nymph patterns. Many companies have copied this exact size again and also made them barbless.

Spiderweb Thread and the Tie-off Technique

The greatest problem with my first parachute flies was that I was not satisfied with the durability of the hackles. Although I fished intensively for grayling, I hooked trout. Those trout often destroyed the parachutes, and from that moment my interest in making more durable parachute hackles became my highest priority. It took me a whole winter season to find a technique that protected the hackle against sharp teeth.

First, Danville’s Spider Web is the best thread for securing and tying off the parachute. I use Spider Web to prevent trout teeth from damaging the hackle quill or thread windings.

I looked for an easier way to tie off a parachute hackle. Most people tie off the hackle at the eye of the hook. Using this method, you have to first pull away the hackle fibres, which makes tying off the feather more difficult. I also tried adding extra windings through the thorax before securing the hackle; this makes the hackle more durable, but it makes tying the fly more complicated.

My idea for using Danville's Spider Web to secure the hackle is probably new. This method makes winding a parachute a simple operation while forming an effective, durable fly without damaging any of the hackle fibres; you’ll never get the same results using regular threads.

After 40 years, I still tie the Klinkhåmer Special. I have used this pattern around the world with great success. I am pleased to show you the correct way for making this terrific pattern.

Hans van Klinken February 2023