Fly Tying: The Klinkhopper

FLY TYING:

The Klinkhopper

It was 35 years ago in Norway, on the 27th of June 1984, that the first Klinkhåmer Special was born, from the vise of my old friend Hans van Klinken. Designed for fishing grayling in the river Glomma. Now re garded as a modern classic and an absolute standard pattern, for all trout and grayling fishing the world over, it is probably the best and most adaptable emerger to date. The Klinkhopper is my adaptation of the original for a Hi-Viz grasshopper pattern that gives a very nice footprint/profile and it has worked extremely well for me.

By BARRY ORD CLARKE // WWW.THEFEATHERBENDER.COM

Firstly, when tying the Klinkhop per, the correct hook should be used. This should have a curved shank, wide gape, slightly heavy wire and a straight eye. Hans has his own Klinkhamer hooks designed espe cially for this pattern, Daiichi 1160.

The post has several functions, its an up-right wing that, in combination with the slightly heavy wire hook, keeps the pattern on an even keel when fished, it’s a quick sight indi cator, that helps immensely at a dis tance, in low light and in rough wa ter conditions and it’s also the anchor point for our parachute hackle.

The rear of the post, if trimmed cor rectly, will also be the foundation for our slender tapered dubbed body. When wrapping the base of the post, in preparation to accommodate the hackle, this needs to be nice and firm, a drop of varnish or head cement will help with this.

A problem with the ‘traditional par achute hackle’ is finishing it neatly, you always have to wind your tying thread forward through the tho rax and hold the hackle fibres out of the way when you whip finish. This method avoids all that and results in a para-perfect hackle.

Your saddle hackle should be pre pared by stripping off 10 mm of the fibres from one side and 60-70 mm of the fibres from the other (step 11). This will ensure that when wrapped the hackle fibres will have maximum surface contact when fished, keeping the body and thorax of the fly, just under the water where they belong. Before you begin wrapping the hack le, re-position your hook in the vice, from it’s original horizontal position to vertical. This makes wrapping a parachute hackle as easy as wrapping a traditional collar hackle!

Using the correct hook is im portant, I am using a Mustad C49S.

Re-attach your tying thread at the base of the post, and wind it down, close into the thorax. If you have a material clip on your vice, once your thread is secure, hang it out of the way (step 19). Now wrap your hackle as you would a traditional dry fly col lar hackle, taking care that each turn of hackle is close to the previous, all the way down into the thorax.

When you reach the thorax, release your tying thread from the materi al clip and make one wrap over the hackle and one wrap under to secure it. Trim away the surplus hackle. Now trim your post to the required length, take your whip finish tool and make one whip finish, between the hackle and the thorax, taking care not to trap any hackle fibres. Before you make the second and last whip finish place a small drop of var nish on the tying thread closed to the thorax. This varnish will be drawn into the whip finish as you tighten, and secure it. The result should be a perfect parachute hackle.

Material List//

Hook: Mustad C49 6-14 Thread: Sheer 14/0 Brown Post: Para-post Body: Chartruse dubbing Rib: Tying thread dubbing loop Wing: Yellow dyed partridge hackle Legs: Yellow pheasant tail fibres Thorax: Olive ostrich herl Hackle: Yellow dyed grizzly hackle

Cut a bunch of your post material, relative to your hook size. Tie this in as shown at the correct position for the post. Make sure that you have enough para-post at the rear of the post to hold.

Even the body with tying thread to a slight taper. At very rear of the hook make a dubbing loop and return your thread back to the post base.

Make a few turns with tying thread tight into the front of the post, so it rises 90 degrees from the hook shank.

Select and prepare a hackle by strip ping off the fibres from the base and along the right side.

Now tie in the hackle at the base of the post. Leave a little bare hackle stem at the top of the post base. This will help you steer your hackle cor rectly when starting to wrap. Return your tying thread

Finish the dubbed body a few mm be hind the parachute post.

Now using the dubbing loop that you made earlier, twist the loop together so it makes one strand of tying th read and wrap this in even open turns, up over the body to make the rib. Tie off and remove the excess.

Select a nicely marked yellow dyed partridge hackle.

Coat the hackle with a high viscosity UV resin as shown.

Now fold the hackle along the stem and make a small ‘V’ cut at the end.

Select your desired colour of phea sant tail for the hopper legs.

Cut two small bunches of pheasant tail fibres and tie a knot in each to make the legs.

Tie in the wing as shown on top of the hook shank close to the post base.

Attach one leg each side of the wing. Take care that they are both the same length.

Once the legs are secure, take hold of both legs and trim to the correct length.

You can now remove the excess legs material at the hook eye and secure with a few wraps of tying thread.

Wrap the herl forward over the tho rax and tie off behind the hook eye. Whip finish and remove your tying thread.

Remove the hook from the vice and replace as shown. Now re-attach your tying thread to the posts base and wind down close to the thorax. Wrap your hackle down the post keeping each turn close to the previous. Tie off the hackle between the thorax and the last turn of hackle. Remove the surplus hackle.

Remove your tying thread and the klinkhopper is ready to fish…

Klinkhopper from the side.