The Klink, A Review by Keith Harwood for Classic Angling Magazine

£50. 352 pages. Published by Merlin Unwin Books.

If I had to restrict myself to using just one fly for trout and grayling for the rest of my fly-fishing career, that fly would be the Klinkhammer Special. I suspect that many others would make the same choice. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the birth of this superlative fly on the Glomma river in Norway. Since then, it has accounted for many thousands of fish: not just trout and grayling but over 40 species worldwide.

Since retiring from the Dutch army in 2012, Hans van Klinken, creator of this prodigious fly, has been able to commit himself fully to fly-fishing and fly-tying. It has given him the time to write his first book, in which he explains the reasoning behind the development of his Klinkhammer Special and some of his other innovative patterns.

Although this book contains simple step-by-step instructions for tying his ingenious patterns, it is far more than a simple instruction manual. Fly-fishing is about far more than catching fish for Hans,and when asked why he goes fly-fishing, his answer is always: Fly-fishing is merging with nature!”  He is a lover of the great outdoors, especially the wilder regions of Scandinavia, and is a keen observer of  the landscape and the wildlife that inhabit it. His close observation of the fish and their behaviour has led him to develop his creative flies.

The book comprises 12 chapters and charts Hans’s career from early experiments with a traditional hackled flies to his experiments with parachute hackled flies and the design of the Klinkhammer Special. Along the way, we learn the history of parachute flies. and I was surprised to discover that the firm of Alex Martin of Glasgow was selling them as early as the 1930s.

Chapter six, the book’s longest chapter, is devoted to the Klinkhammer Special. Since its inception, it has spawned thousands of imitations, not successful. His flyhas been much abused by being tied on straight-shank hooks, with tails, different wings and with abdomens thicker than the thoraxes.  

Hans is very particular about the materials used in the dressing and his use of these has evolved after much experimentation and observation of how the fly behaves in use. If you want to tie a Klinkhammer Special correctly, this chapter is for you. Hans goes into detail about his preferred hooks, tying silk, body material, hackle, length of wing, wing post, thorax and even fly-floatant.

This discussion is followed by step-by-step instructions for tying. It was designed to represent a caddis pupa on the verge of hatching but Hans discovered that the basic pattern also imitates emerging midges and many other species of upwing flies. It was originally developed for grayling, whose protruding upper lips often push a traditionally hackled fly upwards or to one side.  

Hans prefers to fish it downstream, finding it more productive to fish the fly in front of the tippet and leader. He believes that a lot of fish refuse flies when they discover the leader or the shadow formed by the leader.

The remaining six chapters deal with some of Hans’s other innovative patterns and I shall certainly tie up a number of his Para Poly Sedge flies to try on my local reservoir. Hans synthetic materials in his dressings, but he has also developed a couple of useful patterns, the Culard and the Once and Away, using CDC feathers. His detailed instructions  appear to be fairly easy to tie and they will certainly grace the end of my fly line.

Ants provide excellent food for fish, not just salmonids, and in chapter nine we learn of some of Hans’s favourites, including his Parachute Ant and the Ugly Bug. Chapter ten is largely autobiographical and we learn more of his army career, his love of Scandinavia and the river Somaa, where he caught his largest “black” grayling, and his growing interest in entomology, especially of the mayfly species.  During the early 1990s he developed his Green Glomma Dun series of mayfly imitations, for which detailed tying instructions are given.

In the penultimate chapter, Hans gives his own twist on tying Finland’s national fishing fly – the Nalle Pu. I must confess that  I had never heard of this fly, which was created in 1968 by Simmo Lumme, a Finnish architect.  Apparently Nalle Puh is the Finnish name for Winnie the Pooh and was originally dressed with a wing made of bear hair. It was designed to represent the fluttering adult and egg-laying caddis on fast-flowing rivers.  

While researching its history, Hans spent some time at the private Finnish Fish Library, the brainchild of Ari Savikko,  which contains over 53,000 books. Not surprisingly, he substituted bear hair wing for one of poly yarn and experimented with different synthetic body materials. He christened his variation Klinken’s Nalle Puh.  

This is a very impressive book and one long-awaited by fly-dressers and anglers. It is clearly written and lavishly illustrated with colour photographs.. Merlin Unwin Books is to be congratulated for producing a work that will take pride of place on many thousands of bookshelves. Keith Harwood