The Klinkhåmer Special (fifteen
years later)
By Hans van Klinken
Abstract
When I look back in my diaries I always enjoy the old stories
and it keeps my memories close and alive. I read them quite
often. Sometimes I just read the fishing part and get a lot of
pleasure from the notes about my trips but there are also
times that I only search for the comments which I wrote during
my tying experiences. For me it is very important why and how
I came to a special pattern and why I use certain materials.
When I read my notes I start to realise more and more how
powerful this information from the past can be. I have a good
number of flies but I am not a collector. I love to read the
old stories in which I can find the thoughts and tricks behind
a pattern clearly. I own a lot of old and interesting stuff as
well; manuscripts, private letters about fly tying and
articles from magazines like the Fishing Gazette and those I
collect with pride. I have designed quite a lot of patterns
and it is really handy to have a good source to take the
correct information from. I also like to read the same kind of
stories from others and with a few of my closest friends we
often swap our dairies or notes. I read a lot about flies and
many are designed as fancies, others arose accidentally and
loads are close copies from insect imitations but I often miss
some good stories behind the flies. I like to know the
feelings from the originator and why he or she came to certain
thoughts, tricks or techniques. I saw how flies do lose their
names and changed so much that the history and the original
dressing just fades away in only a few years.
Misunderstandings
 It is not a secret that parachute flies belong to my most
favourite patterns for almost 20 years now. My own experiences
started with old traditional English shoulder hackle flies and
it was just a coincidence that I met a very nice Swedish
angler who has been responsible for a lot of changes in my
fly-fishing and tying experiments. It was the "Rackelhanen"
that set me free from old traditions , made me innovative and
allowed me to think differently. In Scandinavia the "Rackelhanen"
is still a very popular fly but worldwide this fly has never
got the attention it surely deserves. I have no idea how my
fly-fishing would look today without the discovery of the
Rackelhanen but that wonderful sedge imitation gave me
enormous self-confidence and inspiration to start a complete
new way of fly-tying. I like it very much when fly tiers are
innovative and creative but it doesn't mean that the real
story has to be changed too. I like to tell people from where
I got my inspiration. Text easily can be changed and I have
experienced it quite often myself when somebody wrote about
one of my patterns and I was not able to recognize my own fly
anymore. It happens a few times with the Klinkhåmer Special
too. I have seen it tied on straight hooks, with tails,
different wings and bodies bigger then the thorax. Once a good
friend of mine sent me a story in which the author made a 100%
copy of the Klinkhåmer Special, changed the name and claimed
to be the inventor. That happening today only creates more
misunderstanding. Wrong interpretation, different tying
techniques and changing of materials surely lead to many
questions. I am sure that's why I got so many letters with
questions the last three years. I also got several requests to
do some new stories and I think it is an excellent opportunity
for me to put a lot of misunderstandings right.
The past and the present
It's been more then 15 years since my first Klinkhåmer Special
landed in the surface film of the mighty Glomma River and a
lot has been happened since. In the last 10 years I read 43
Klinkhåmer stories written by others and some were really good
but most of them became a perfect example about how even
authors misunderstood the thoughts behind the fly. It is sad
and even when they gave me a lot of credit there always will
be a lot of readers who still don't know how to tie, use and
fish the Klinkhåmer Special in a proper way. As a fly tier it
even hurts me when you see how one of your best patterns has
been described in a completely wrong way. Some stories were
about some clever improvements and different colour variations
but if it affects the durability and floatability then I don't
see it as a real improvement. In this story I will try to
explain where most people make their mistakes.
The credit
Before people give me all the credit for the Klinkhåmer
Special they should know that I was not the only one struck
with the idea of designing deep surface hanging parachute
flies. Unknown to me at that time, Tomas Olsen, a famous
Swedish fly tier, had created a similar pattern just one year
before. With his melted technique (the best and most durable
technique to build a parachute fly) he developed a similar but
wingless fly, and in the USA Roy Richardson developed an equal
emerger in 1986 without knowing about our flies.
Mike Monroe (also
from US) made a similar fly even 4 years before any of our
patterns existed and in a time that we hardly knew what was
going on at the US tying scene. He called this fly the 'Paratilt'. Mike wrote an article about
his new design that was published in the summer of 1979 so
probably he was the first from all of us unless new
information will show up. Therefore I find that all the others
deserve as much credit for their creations as I got it for my
Klinkhåmer Special or L.T. Caddis.
The name
( I think) I never have seen any pattern before that has been
written wrongly about so much as the Klinkhåmer Special. At
least 30 different names I know about today. Some people
didn't know because in the mid-eighties I often sent
information by handwriting and misunderstandings easily could
happen but in the nineties several people changed the name
purposely. I have no idea why? In Germany they call it the
Nordischer Hammer or Klinki in the States they prefer the
Clinck and I often get questions about all kinds of Hammers
from which I have never heard about before. I guess I have
seen Pinkhammers, Yellowhammers and even Bluehammers and those
just three out of many. Of course I can't deny that I felt
really good when the Klinkhåmer Special got so many good
reviews but I was most proud about the fact that it was nobody
else than Hans de Groot who invented the name that actually
give it the power. During the last 12 years I probably got
about 200 letters about name and especially what it meant!
There is a big mountain in Sweden called the Hammer close
where I used to fished a lot and other people think the fly
hits so hard like a real hammer. Nothing of this all has
anything to do with it! The real name actually was the LT
Caddis which was just one fly from my large LT series
developed in Scandinavia between 19980-1990. So the Klinkhåmer
Special is just a name Hans de Groot and Ton Lindhout came up
with. Probably after some drinks!! Both were also members of
our editorial staff at that time. They didn't like the LT
Caddis name for such a powerful fly so they rename it probably
also to tease me a bit. I was absence that meeting! Because my
preferences for fishing in Scandinavia they tried to give the
name a bit of Scandinavian feeling or look. We always had a
lot of fun when we had an editorial meeting and this was just
a result of it and so the name was born.
The real thoughts behind the Klinkhåmer Special
I think before tying a Klinkhåmer Special people should know
the real thoughts behind my pattern. Although my first own
variations from the Racklehanen did extremely well I wasn't
really satisfied with them. The reason was simple! At that
time I didn't know Kenneth Boström who designed the fly and I
made some essential tying mistakes because I never had seen
the proper tying techniques. Those mistakes prevent the fly
from floating the way Kenneth invented it. My copies landed
not always, as they should be and for some people a fly like
that will be seen as a big failure or just an unsuitable
pattern. I was lucky to fish the original fly at the first
place so I know it has to be my own mistakes and I did my
research and found the source. I had tied them with a single
and much longer wing and sometimes they float in a wing-flat
position through which they lost most of their effect. I also
used too much floatant and in a wrong way as well. Fish rose
for it like crazy but I simply missed too many takes. I
probably landed only 3 out of 10 takes. To solve the problem I
just add a hackle around the wing as I had seen it in the book
by Eric Leiser and my first parachute pattern became a fact.
After this improvement the flies floated as I wanted but it
was not the only reason why I stayed with parachutes. Around
the same time I discovered that flies that floated in the
surface produced much more fish then patterns that were
drifting on the surface. I also made another discovering and
that probably was one of my biggest discoveries in my fly
fishing so far. It was the Lady of the Stream that brought it
to my attention. At that time I still used shoulder hackle
flies a lot and I tied many with a nice strong tail and solid
hackle. I like the way they floated high on the surface and I
could see the flies very well. I loved it to see how the
grayling came up for them but then on that certain day when I
presented my fly not far out I saw how the fly has been pushed
beside quite often by an aggressive taking grayling. I gave it
a closer look and I frequently saw how they push it up and
sideward.
Today I know a lot more about the grayling, her biotope and
feeding behaviour. Most of the time she will feed on the
bottom and she is built for it. For me this is the reason why
I missed so many fish with shoulder hackle flies. Grayling can
come up at very high speeds to take flies from the surface
film, but because of her protruding upper lips, she is
actually is a perfect bottom feeder. Those lips are ideal to
pick up snails and larva from the bottom. Still the grayling
found a beautiful way to rise to floating and emerging
insects. Sometimes they even jump out of the water and take
their prey from above. I have seen it hundreds of times.
Concerning dry fly fishing I believe that it is a combination
of the shape of her mouth, the speed of rise and way of taking
the fly, which is responsible for the sliding away high
floating surface flies at the moment of taking. This problem
reduces enormously with parachute flies and even more with
deep surface hanging emergers. I proved my theory right many
times after the invention of the Klinkhåmer Special. The
iceberg shape solved the problem and eight out of ten fish are
always hooked well in their upper lip.
Why fishing IN the surface
 Fly fishing with parachutes has many benefits. It already
starts with the presentation. A well-tied parachute fly
doesn't land only perfectly on the surface but also floats
well the entire drift. In my personal opinion it is one of the
most stable flies and with a good knowledge about fly tying
materials you can use them in riffles and strong currents
without any problems. The idea of a parachute fly is to
present it in the surface that gives it also a better
appearance to imitate insects and creates a wonderful
silhouette as well. Maybe another reason why we usually have
better results with parachute flies. When we try to imitate
insects only a few points seems to be important. We look at
the size, the shape, the colour and the mobility but I guess
there a still some more points of interest. I still search for
them every day. Several years ago I started to think different
and when I hold my classes and workshop today I tell and
explain to people about the silhouette a fly can produce. I
don't mention the shape anymore. I just try to look and see it
in a different way. Wind can improve mobility and we already
include it in our tying but how many people realise the effect
from the sun on the fly in the water. I know it is important
and it even has a great influence on patterns like spiders. I
also have no other explanation why some selective fish take a
fly when the sun sets or rises.
Tying problems and misunderstandings
I guess we now are coming to the main reason for this story. I
have to write about it because I have read and seen too many
mistakes in other stories. I know not everyone will agree with
my explanations but I will try to explain why I have my
reasons to use certain materials, a curved wide gap hook and
using different tying techniques to secure the parachute. I
also will try to explain why I still use the same materials as
15 years ago and why I prefer it above all the others. Of
course I know what I am talking about because I have tried to
make dozens of improvements myself but not a single one proved
to be better or more effective over the years.
The hackle
Unlike what most people think you need the best quality
hackles from your cape when you building parachute flies.
Several fly tiers and authors assert that the leftovers are
ideal for parachutes but I disagree totally. Just think
logical and you will easily agree with me. A parachute fly
floats in the surface mainly because of a perfect balanced and
well-tied horizontal hackle. A tail can be helpful but isn't
really necessary. The worse quality and the softer the hackle
fibres the easier the fly will sink. There is also another
important reason why you should use hackles with stiff fibres.
Just think about the casting and the power that goes together
with it. A parachute hackle tied with soft hackle fibres will
easily lose the horizontal shape. The casting power will bend
and reshape the fibres in an upright or vertical position
before you even know it and it really takes not long. You will
discover it quickly because the fly will go down faster and
after a while it becomes impossible to keep it floating at
all. I have seen stories with great pictures and many
beautiful variations of the Klinkhåmer but not one of the
flies I even would dare to suggest or advise people to use or
try. I have some very strong arguments for these comments as
well because a parachute hackle made from just two or three
hackle windings simply will not work. Even a try will be
already a catastrophe because a weak hackle like that never
will be able to hold the heavy hook in the surface. If you
read carefully then you will notice also that you need a long
hackle as well. You have to be able to make a lot of turns.
Depending about the size of the fly it can go up to seven or
eight and even more. If you tie flies you have to do it
feelingly and a simple dish of water will tell you quickly if
you are doing right or wrong. Even after tying thousands of
flies I still use my dish of water today because I want to see
the result and see how much the fly can handle before it will
sink. I think I will finish these comments about hackles with
another important fact. For parachute flies you can use large
hackles very well. I have tied a whole bunch of Klinkhåmers
especially with what seems an oversized hackle at first. I
don't know what it exactly imitates, it could be a spider but
I can assure you that it works well. I don't know why but when
I am in a group and when we put flies together mine seems
always bigger.
The wing
Lets have a closer look about the wing material now. I wish my
eyesight were much better for long distance. Then I would
certainly use Tomas Olson's melted wing technique for many of
my parachutes. Unfortunately it is not and in some way I was
very lucky. So when I started to produce parachute flies the
wing became the most valuable part for me, and it even created
a nice matter of minor importance later. My first priority was
to see and locate the fly easier in broken water. When I
started to use the Klinkhåmer Special more frequently the wing
created an unbelievable benefit for catching grayling that
suck the flies from the surface without leaving any trace. The
same happened with the Atlantic salmon and so here comes my
luck that returns for my poor eyesight. It was so simple
because as soon the big white wing was missing I knew a sucker
took the fly. I landed hundreds of fish this way. A few
important facts for my choice of wing material was that it had
to be lighter then water, that it was not slippery and that
you could pull the hackle windings far into the material. When
you tie a lot of parachute flies then you will quickly notice
that wing material, hackle and tying thread has to co-operate
in perfect harmony. Does the thread or hackle slip of the wing
easily then the parachute wouldn't last long. The biggest
mistake that some people make who try to copy the Klinkhåmer
Special is not realising how important the floatability from
their yarn of choice should be. I have seen people tying huge
Klinkhåmers using wing material that sunk almost as fast as a
little stone in the water. If you use big hooks like me you
never can let? the fly floating when the wing and dubbing
isn't lighter then water. I usually advice people to check it
out before they buy it! Just cut off a tiny little piece of
yarn, wrap to a little pellet and drop it into a dish of
water. If it floats on or in the surface you can use it
without any problems and if it sinks just don't buy it. The
best available materials I use are Silicone yarn from Niche
for very small parachute flies and the original poly-yarn from
Wapsi for normal and big sizes. The latter one is available in
many colours and the siliconised yarn only in 4 colours. If
you use yarn test the fly and search for your own preferences
about how many pieces and how much yarn you would like to use.
It also depends the waters you want to fish. For rugged
streams and big flies I usually double the amount. I have
tried often to use alternate materials like foam and used it
with some success as well but I always grab back to the yarn.
Today there are many people using foam instead of yarn. It
works great for the floatability but decrease the durability a
lot. So if you don't mind that little trout will damage the
wing and have no problems with changing the fly more
frequently you should be happy with it. There is also another
good reason why so many people start to use foam for parachute
flies! If you cut the foam shortly above the hackle it will
expand and will push the hackle fibres downwards and it will
surely give many parachute flies a much better appearance and
floatability as well. So that means if you ever would run out
of yarn use foam instead. About the length of wing size I have
seen many variations too. Most examples in the stories had a
rather short wing. I work the other way around. A wing that
turned out to be too long easily can be shortening so that's
why I keep my wings long at first.
The body material
I think I don't need many words for that. I mainly use two
kinds of dubbing material for most of my parachutes. For
normal and big flies I use extra fine Fly Rite poly dubbing
and the answer is simple because I never could find anything
better. The beautiful solid and perfect mixtures of blended
colours will help you to imitate any insect body. You can make
your own mixtures as well and the material is lighter then
water so easy to use in combination with heavier hooks. The
second material, which I mainly use on small flies, is from
Wapsi too and is called Super Fine waterproof dry fly dubbing.
It is much finer then fly rite and ideal for very little
creations. Before I forget there are a few other essential
points to remember. At first: in many Klinkhåmer stories I saw
people using an amount of dubbing that I probably use for 4 or
5 flies. The slimmer the body the more successful the fly!
Believe me I tried all tricks and a bulky body always had
produced less fish. Another point of interest is that if you
were generous with dubbing, don't cut it but try to use it as
under body for the thorax. It also helps giving a good
alternate if the less durable peacock herl seems to disappear.
I destroyed more flies by unhooking fish then by playing,
casting or fishing itself so a good reason to fish barbless as
well. Realise that if you tie the Klinkhåmer in a proper way
it has to have a nice tapered underbody and I will explain
later how to achieve this.
The thorax
Just a few months after I tied the first Klinkhåmer Special I
discovered that a nice thorax made from peacock herl makes the
fly a lot more effective. At first the herls seemed to be very
fragile but I found a very good solution to improve their
durability. Dubbing (if darker then the body) works great as
well but I think I just like it the way it is and peacock is a
great colour anyway. Oliver Edwards explained in his workshops
to tie in the peacock at the tips to make the tying easier and
he is right. Some other people twist the peacock before
winding and they also increase the durability so you just try
it yourself. I just stay with the old technique because it is
much quicker and I secure the peacock well by pressing a drop
of thin varnish into the base of the wing to secure, wing,
thread and thorax. You only need a good varnish applicator and
it works perfectly because the varnish will spread out into
all of them.
The hooks
I know everybody has his own preference for hooks. Mine will
be a hook with a wide gap. My first Klinkhåmer Special was
tied on the partridge K2b known better as the Yorkshire caddis
hook and at that time it was available in a much finer wire
then today. A huge hook when you are comparing sizes. There
were two reasons I changed the hook: the thicker wire and the
up eye. I wanted a straight eye, especially when I am tying
parachutes. I also wanted to keep the fine wire but also
wanted my wide gap what gave me the best and easiest hooking.
So this is how I kept on searching and I finally came to my
own hook the Partridge GRS15ST. Many people write to me and
tell me they have serious hooking problems with a Klinkhåmer
Special, which they don't understand. They got many takes but
miss a lot of fish as soon they set the hook. When I ask them
what kind of hook they are using it turned out mostly that it
is one of those smaller nymph hooks, curved but with a very
small gap. So the answer is easy for me they miss a lot of
their hooking potential. Then concerning hook sizes I discover
that still most people believe that only small flies would
work for grayling but I tell you this is not so. Grayling will
come up and take flies up to size 6 and for wets they go even
after bigger.
Spiderweb and the tie off technique
After so many years tying parachute flies I think the best
idea with my parachutes is the use of Spiderweb for securing
and tie off the parachute. It is made by Danville and very
easy to obtain. I have demonstrated it so many times and shown
how easy it is to secure a parachute wing well. For many
people parachute flies looks difficult to tie but when I have
my classes maximal felt up? I just need an hour and everybody
is amazed that he or she can produce a parachute fly so
quickly and easily. I have no clue why so many people still
tie off the parachute in the old fashion way. It is much more
complicated and the parachute fell apart more quicker too. I
specially use spiderweb to prevent trout teeth damage to the
hackle quill or thread windings. My greatest problem with my
first parachute flies was that I was not satisfied with the
securing and durability of the hackle. Although I fished
intensively for grayling it sometimes happened that I hooked a
trout. Those trout often destroyed the parachute 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 those
sharp little trout teeth. In this period of experiments and
improvements I also looked for a much easier way to tie off
the parachute hackle. Most people tie off the hackle at the
eye of the hook. Using this method you have to pull away the
hackle fibres first which makes the tie off more difficult.
There are some special finger techniques possible to prevent
this problem but I haven't seen many tiers using them.
Although this is a solution to make the tying easier I still
don't like it. It has no effect on the durability of the
hackle. The hackle quill goes still directly from the wing
post to the hook eye, which makes it easily breakable by the
sharp teeth of a trout. In my opinion it is a fragile
construction because when the quill breaks, the parachute
comes off very quickly. It happened to me quite often while
using my first parachutes. During other improvements I tried
to make some extra windings through the thorax before securing
the hackle. This makes the hackle more durable indeed, but
also the tying more complicated. New is probably my idea to
use Danville's spiderweb to secure the hackle. My method has
been designed to make winding a parachute a simple operation,
while forming an effective, durable fly at the same time
without damaging any of the hackle fibres. With normal thread
you never would be able to get the same results.
The dressing (Klinkhåmer special)
Hook : Partridge GRS15ST, size 8-18 for grayling and trout.
Partridge CS54 size 6 and 4 for salmon
Thread : Uni-thread, 8/0, grey or tan for body
: Spiderweb for parachute
Body : Poly 2 dubbing any colour of preference
Wing : One of to 3 strand of white poly-yarn depending of the
size and water to fish
Thorax : Three strands of peacock herl
Hackle : Blue dun, dark dun, light dun, chestnut all in good
combination with the body
colour.
For flies tied on the CS 54 I double or even triple the amount of Poly yarn,
Peacock herl and hackle windings.
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