Klinkhammer

With summer in full swing in southern Africa, we thought now would be a good time to share some of our absolute favourite patterns to use when sight-fishing to smallmouth yellowfish at the Makhangoa Community Camp in Lesotho. First up in this short series is one of our absolute favourite patterns – The Klinkhamer.

The Klinkhamer is a popular emerger used in fly fishing to catch grayling and trout. It is most popular within Europe, but has a growing interest in North America as well as Africa where it is a very popular pattern for targeting smallmouth yellowfish. The Klinkhamer, originally named LT Caddis (light tan), now officially named Klinkhamer Special, was devised by a Dutch angler Hans van Klinken in the early 80’s to imitate an emerging caddisfly to catch grayling and trout which feed on them as they float in the surface film. This pattern has proven to be an extremely effective fly.

Klinkhammer Features

Klinkhamer patterns are different from many other parachute dry flies in that the thorax of the fly is designed to hang down ‘through’ the surface of the water to imitate an emerging insect. The abdomen serves as a trigger point which penetrates the surface film, which gets noticed by trout from great distances, even before any resulting surface footprint features. In all variations of this fly, the abdomen of the fly is underneath the surface of the water to attract the fish and improve hookups, while the parachute hackle and foam or wing is on or above the surface of the water for visibility and flotation.

If you would like to learn more, or would like to fish at the Makhangoa Community Camp, please click here to get in touch.