Let’s get through the Semperfli materials that I will used most extensively in 2025 and 2026 for my fishing, and in my workshop and classes that I am preparing right now!
Peacock Quill Subs
It is available in 5 different sizes and in black peacock or green peacock colour options. The extra small size is perfect to tie Perdigons and it goes to a very nice and wide 1.5mm braid for streamers, medium/large nymphs and even salmon flies. A lot people use it with a layer of resin. I love it mostly for the nymphs that I make for harbour fishing in the Netherlands in wintertime.
Nano silk (thread) 20D (24/0)
This is the best substitute thread that you can use to replace the original Spiderweb that I always using to tie of my parachute flies in the past. It’s perfect for using with kids and people who have problems with the weakness of Spiderweb thread. I love the white colour because with a marker it is easy to colour once you tied off the flies. I also love it for trico’s and mini nymphs or small dry flies. The big different with original Spiderweb is that nano thread have several fibres and Spiderweb only have 1 thread of plain nylon. Nano have its strength, Spiderweb its extremely thin in diameter, even thinner than nano 20d. Spiderweb is also bit harder to get nowadays so the nano is what I suggest and advice at this moment for general use for small flies and tying off parachutes with my special tying technique. For specialist (like the late Oliver Edwards, Leon Links and me) Spiderweb was and still is a great thread to play with too.
Nano 6/0 and 3/0
This size of nano silk is indispensable for me to use for my pike and saltwater or big streamers.
Classic waxed thread 6/0 and 8/0).
My number one tying thread when I need to make dubbed bodies or tie streamers. Because I use an electronic dubbing twister I need this thicker thread. Love it and love the colour range!
Classic waxed thread 12/0 and 18/0
My most favourite thread for most of my dry flies and regular nymphs. I use it permanently and it let me wrap with lots of pleasure and enjoyment and of course when I using it I always have a big smile on my! Love the colour range.
Pure Silk Thread
I love to play with silk threads. I have many colours, brands and sizes. However, the pure silk thread from Semperfli is bit thicker and very strong and that’s why I exclusively use it for ribbing on my dry flies, especially mayfly imitations. Why? Well, wires change colour and often get dull when its used intensively. Real and pure silk keep their colour, even when you used the flies for days. Another reason is that I don’t like any materials on my dry flies that are heavier than water. Silk thread is much lighter than ribbing!
Poly yarn (polypropylene yarn)
When I tie wings on my flies I use poly yarn exclusively. To be absolutely sure that I obtain the proper yarn with the correct specific gravity I cut a little piece, make it a pellet and drop it in a dish of water. There must be happen two things. It MUST absorb water and it must stay and hang in the surface. When you pull it down it most return back to the surface because its lighter than water. Notice that for my way of thinking the wing material must absorb fast and well.
Polypropylene is a thermoplastic polymer and was discovered in the early 1950s by an Italian textile consultant and chemist by the name of Guilio Natta. He even won a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1963, together with Karl Ziegler, for their work on high polymers. Polypropylene managed to survive the legal process, and two American chemists working for Phillips Petroleum, J. Paul Hogan and Robert Banks, are now generally credited as the "official" inventors of the material. It is a fiber with a specific gravity of .94, whose end uses are clothing, carpeting, industrial fabrics, transparent plastic sheeting, film and even Australian banknotes. It is also used to make packaging material, plastic bottles, textiles, luggage, ropes that float, and is additionally used for items that must be sterilized, due to its high melting point (250°F/121°C). It is also resistant to bacterial growth, making it suitable for disposable syringes and other medical equipment. Much of the poly fiber on the market today is polyolefin, in which the fiber-forming substance is any long chain synthetic polymer, composed of at least 85% propylene.
In the fly tying material market, Doug Swisher and Carl Richards made the first mention of poly fiber in their book entitled Selective Trout. They felt its specific gravity was extremely important for dry flies.. It is a consideration that has been debated many times, and may or may not be true. I fully agree with them, no matter what others would say, but remember my words very well now: poly yarn tied on a hook has to be treated with a high quality floatant or the fly will sink easily when the poly catch water and the extra weight of the hook will pull the fly down rather quickly. Poly Yarn absorbs water extremely well so it also will absorb a floatant really good what also easily makes it water resistant too. Even when wrote it thousand times, many people still don't seem to know this.
Poly yarn also has some other problems. It is only available in limited colours, and a lot of these colours are not useful in fly tying. Polypropylene is unusually resistant to many chemical solvents, bases and acids what makes it almost impossible to dye.
Testing poly yarn: Cut off a small piece of yarn and make a small pellet. Drop it in a dish of water and check if it remains floating on and stays the surface film. Unless it floats, such an inferior yarn will be useless, not only for the Racklehanen, but for several other types of dry flies and wings as well. Many fly tiers who are not familiar with materials, will use a yarn or dubbing for floating flies which sinks straight to the bottom. Therefore, I seriously recommend doing this test.
At my last few workshops and lectures I had at least 15-20 people showing me perfect tied Klinks but all complained the flies were sinking after a fish had taken it. Just one question: what did you use for wing material: All answered the same: Antron, because it was advised by their tackle dealer. In my way, a dealer who have absolutely NO knowledge about materials because Antron is heavier than water and is a completely different material. The complete wrong material for wings for parachute flies and my Klink. YES, YOU can use Antron on bodies for floating flies and high hanging emergers but never use it for wings!
A few words about Antron (In SemperSeal and Sparkle Dubbing)
The globules of air shimmer and sparkle as they reflect sunlight, creating a highly visible triggering characteristic. This sparkle is the key to imitating the emergent caddisflies.” An added benefit for all fly fishers was Gary’s Lafontaine “discovery” of a synthetic called Antron, a trilobal nylon filament developed by DuPont for use in carpets. As the name suggests, the filament is 3-sided developed to reflect as much light (and make stains less obvious) as possible. Gary discovered that, when combed out and tied so that it envelopes the body, the material traps air bubbles and reflects light like no pattern had ever done. These experiments resulted in the Deep Sparkle Pupa, and the Emergent Sparkle Pupa.
Dry fly poly yarn
The material that comes out my intensive dubbing tests with the longest floating possibilities. In my noble opinion, it’s the best floating material on the market today. Its even better than Kapok. So if I tie big dry flies on heavy hooks to catch really big fish I ALWAYS use this yarn. It keeps the heavy hook much longer floating. Its available in many wonderful solid and blended colours perfect for bodies on bigger dry flies.
Dirty Bug Yarn
The opposite from Dry fly poly yarn because it sinks and therefore perfect for creating nymphs and streamer bodies. Next to my own made dubbing this Dirty bug yarn is my most favourite wet fly yarn in my assortment today. The reason is very simple. I love the colours. But notice well, it’s a yarn so once it wrapped on the hook shank, PLEASE use a dubbing brush to let the fibres picked out what makes the nymph far more attractive to fish.
Ice Dubbing
This is one of my most favourite materials for making own dubbing. I cut off small pieces and mixing it with other dubbing in coffee blender. Try it and you know exactly what I mean.
Semperfli Predator Fiber
Not many will know it but predator fibres are poly yarn too. Just do the poly yarn test I mention above. That means that all predator fibre you can perfectly for wings on sedges and as wings for parachute flies too. A simple statement: with floating using it for wings and without floatant use it for predator flies. Because it absorbs water so well it gives beautiful action sunder water.
SemperFlash
I use all flash materials for saltwater flies, streamers and pike flies. In my big selection of streamers for catching monster trout in Finland I use it either with many flash or very sparsely with only two stands of flash on each side of the streamer wing. In salmon hairwing flies in which I use flash, I only use it sparsely!
Semperfur
I love to use in saltwater flies for bonefish
Synthetic Peacock Herl 2mm and 1mm
This is for sure the BEST of the BEST product that Semperfli launched in 2024. I was so lucky to test it intensively in 2023. My most spectacular result was 15 grayling above 50cm in one particular rive rin the south of Lapland. With normal peacock herl my fishing pall caught more fish but all smaller.
Suede Chenille
My most preferred material to use during kid classes in fly tying all over the world. It’s easy to wrap and it makes beautiful bodies and all kids gets so happy with it and it is simple to work with
Straggle string, Ice Straggle, Straggle Legs and Pearl Chenille
The most used material to tie my most spectacular and most effective nymphs for the coloured waters in the Netherlands. (many known as Ijssel nymphs) Its deadly for species like ide, rudd, and asp. I even caught 9 mullet with these flies in same day.
Kapok
MANY people have problems with using Kapok dubbing. The main problem is that they use TOO much of it. I prefer a good sticky wax on the tying thread and apply just enough to cover the underbody or hook shank. It’s a dry fly product and I love to use it for size 16 and smaller. Great colour assortment too!
Synthetic Marabou Chenille
It quite new material still experimenting with it for streamers
Micro Organza
I love it for making sedge wings while using wing burners
Flat Braid
I use it a lot bonefish and streamer
Foam Tubes 3mm.
Love it for tying sight indicators on backs of ants and beetles to make them more visible in the water.
Biot
Use it a lot in my special stone dry flies for spring in Finland.
Foam sheets 2,5mm
For tying my ants, beetles and hoppers.
