GFF logo





  

Kai's Green Terror

If one day you should lie on the bank pounding your fists into the sand in frustration over the lack of fish and someone sneaks around the corner offering you a chartreuse coloured fly, perhaps it’s Kai Nolting.

By Kai Nolting

  
Kai's Green Terror
 Kai's Green Terror 
Kai Nolting
 
It was late October 2004. Two of my friends stayed with me on Fyn, a small island in the middle of Denmark. We had a week full of fly-fishing ahead of us and were keen on doing the first casts. The weather was warm; the sun was shining from a clear blue sky and the wind was almost calm.

We stayed in the area near Bogense in the north of Fyn, in a comfortable house. Everything was nearly like we had expected it.

Everything except the fish.

Especially their behaviour regarding taking the fly – or unfortunately not taking the fly.
We saw sea trout splashing and saw their dorsal fins and tails close to the edge of the water.

We fished large flies and small flies. We were retrieving the line in fast strips and in slow strips. We were changing places and tried every tactic we could think of, but couldn’t get a single take at all.

Terror regime
Kai Nolting



  
Step 1 - thread
 Step 1 - thread 
Kai Nolting
Step 2 - tail
 Step 2 - tail 
Kai Nolting
Step 3 - hackle
 Step 3 - hackle 
Kai Nolting
Step 4 - varnish
 Step 4 - varnish 
Kai Nolting
Step 5 - chenille
 Step 5 - chenille 
Kai Nolting
Step 6 - body
 Step 6 - body 
Kai Nolting
Step 7 - final wraps
 Step 7 - final wraps 
Kai Nolting
Step 8 - trim chenille
 Step 8 - trim chenille 
Kai Nolting
Step 9 - trim the tail
 Step 9 - trim the tail 
Kai Nolting
Step 10 - brush chenille
 Step 10 - brush chenille 
Kai Nolting
Step 11 - trim body
 Step 11 - trim body 
Kai Nolting
Step 12 - body shape
 Step 12 - body shape 
Kai Nolting
Step 13 - wind the hackle
 Step 13 - wind the hackle 
Kai Nolting
Step 14 - trim hackle
 Step 14 - trim hackle 
Kai Nolting
Step 15 - glue hackle
 Step 15 - glue hackle 
Kai Nolting
Step 16 - whip finish
 Step 16 - whip finish 
Kai Nolting
 
After two fruitless days I felt a strong resignation. With a sobbing sound I fell to my knees close to the water and pounded my fists into the sand.
After 10 minutes lying there in pure desperation, something from deep down in my weary angler's head told me to consult my fly box one last time.
After a coffee break I followed this miraculous inspiration out of nowhere and found two unbelievable ugly flies – bright green body, orange tail and a grizzly-hackle tied around the body.

After storing my wet handkerchief in my pocket, I took a closer look on the illuminating flies and swore to do good for every desperate angler I’d meet, if these flies caught me a fish.

Making sure no one saw me, I tied the forbidden fly on.

With a feeling of “if I’m in guilty I will pay” I entered the water, made a few casts and – immediately caught my first sea trout!

Not a big one, but a fish!

Happy as rarely before I climbed out of the water to find my friends. Free from tears and frustration I stumbled around the next cliff and saw my good friend Rüdiger lying on the ground, pounding his fists into the sand. After an infusion of a good amount of coffee a gave him a green fly...

Since that day I’ve caught so many fish on this green fly, which Martin has called “Kai's Green Terror”, that I always carry a good amount of these flies in my fly box.

So, if one day you should lie on the bank pounding your fists into the sand in frustration and someone sneaks around the corner offering you a chartreuse coloured fly, perhaps it’s me.

But if you would like to tie some of these flies yourself (since I can’t hang around the world's waters all the time), please read the instructions in this article.

About Kai's Green Terror
TypeCold salt water
Originator
Kai Nolting
Year of origin
2004
Difficulty
Easy
Target species
Sea trout (sea run)

Materials
HookStinger hook, size 2-6
ThreadGreen
TailRed or orange yarn
BodyGreen flash chenille
HackleGrizzly
HeadThread

Tying instructions
  1. As usual – start your thread on the hook shank
  2. Tie in a patch of orange or red yarn for the tail
  3. Now position a single grizzly hackle.
  4. Protect the the hook shank with a layer of varnish. Necessary or not?
  5. Tie in the chartreuse body material.
  6. Wind the body material forward in very close turns
  7. Leave enough space for the head
  8. Cut the body material after having secured it with the thread
  9. Now cut the tail off In my experience it has proven very well to: - let the body material end in the position of the hook point - and end with the bobtail where the arch is Following this instruction you get a rather small fly in comparison to the size of the hook. But as long as I fish these flies I got more hook-ups and lost quite less fish then before. And on the other hand it seams to me, that a larger hook doesn’t bother the fish at all
  10. Comb the body material with a brush.
  11. Normally I gave the body a torpedo like shape
  12. Now wind the hackle round the hook
  13. Again, leave enough space for the head knot
  14. This is crucial! Secure the hackle separately with a good amount of glue; otherwise it will obviously come lose within a few takes
  15. Make the whipfinish knot
  16. Secure all again with glue





User comments
From: K Burke · keithfburke·at·gmail.com
Submitted September 10th 2008

Finally a website that finally gives step by step instructions for fly tying with good quality close-up pics.
I hope to tie Kai's Green Terror and try it salmon fishing.

From: Charles Grosch · cjgrosch99·at·yahoo.com
Submitted March 19th 2008

Here in the U.S.A. we call this a wooly worm and tie them without trimming the hackle. Also weighted and unweighted. The longer hackle has a lot of movement in the water. It can be fished wet or dry

From: Al Osmond · salmontech·at·yahoo.ca
Submitted November 24th 2007

Very similar to the one I use here in eastern Canada. Works very well with brook trout in rivers and brooks. I also tie them weighted.

From: Kai Nolting · kai-nolting·at·web.de
Submitted November 22nd 2007

Hi guys,

Sorry for my late responds, but a bad flu brought me down.

Normally I fish the fly wet, directly under the surface, because of no weight.
But one time, during my summer holidays in Denmark 07 in the very early morning, I saw rainbows cruising around just under the surface and try to fish it dry – and it worked properly.
But I think this was a quit an unusual behaviour.
When fishing the fly wet, I retrieve it in small strips and from time to time I diversify the speed from low to medium low.
Until now I’ve got very low experience with fishing the fly in rivers and lakes, so perhaps it’s up to you to help with some practise and please let me know of your results.

Kind regards

Kai

From: younggun · droussanidis·at·hotmail.com
Submitted November 18th 2007

It hooks steelhead aswell, caught a 6lber last weekend

From: younggun · droussanidis·at·hotmail.com
Submitted November 18th 2007

It hooks steelhead aswell! caught a 6lber on it last weekend

From: Andriy Konovalov · konovasha·at·gmail.com
Submitted November 16th 2007

Thanks for the fly!
Few question: what is the way of fishing this fly? Was it tried in salt water only? What about lakes or rivers?
Thanks in advance!
Andriy

From: Sebastian Vermolen · bas_vermolen·at·hotmail.com
Submitted November 14th 2007

Do you fish it also as a dry fly?

From: Anonymous
Submitted November 14th 2007

Agree with the name of the fly. I had a chance to hook couple of fish :)

cheers

Roolis


Want to comment this page? Fill out the form below.
Comment
Only comments
in English
are accepted!
Your name Your email

All comments will be screened by the GFF staff before publication.
No HTML, images, ads or links, please - we do not publish such comments...
And only English language comments will be published.
Name and email is optional but recommended.
The email will be shown in a disguised form in the final comment to protect you against spam
You can see other public comments on this page

If you want to submit a private comment, not for publication, use this form

 
Did you find the above interesting?
People who looked at the above also looked at:

Fly patterns

Section: The best fly patterns from all over the globe

South Swedish Sea Trout

Every year fishermen from all over the world visit the swedish s...

The Grey Fred

A true classic on the Danish coast and a very universal small fi...

Epoxy Miracle

A wish for a generic bait imitation was what made Kasper Mühlbac...

Salty dreams and glassy shrimp

Chris Edghill writes: "Fascinating to se how they worked togethe...
These other stories The silvery sea run brownies might also interest you:

Glitter Shrimp

Sea trout: A killer fly in the right hands on a cold winter day. A very simple shrimp pattern for Danish sea trout and many other targets. See it here.

Derek from SA

Cold: South African friend Derek goes to the Danish coast to try some sea trout fishing. Since he always comes during Christmas, it is bound to be cold. See the images here

More about Sea Trout
A few random articles for your entertainment