Hans van Klinken lives in Harskamp, a little village in the center of
Holland. He is a veteran instructor
and teacher for the Dutch army. Hans began bait angling at the age of six in
a nearby lowland brook. Seven years later, during a family holiday in Norway
and while using a spoon, came his first salmon (9 kg). In 1971 he began
fly-fishing for Arctic char and Atlantic salmon using his father's cane rod
and by age sixteen he was travelling alone to fish in Scandinavia. As a
schoolboy with plenty of spare time, Hans spent most of it in the northern
part of Norway, Sweden and Finland and developed an addiction for the
outdoor life. His greatest outdoor experience was during 1975 when he stayed
for almost four months in the wilderness of Northern Lapland. Here he
learned how to survive in the forest and on the tundra. His teacher was an
old Lap and they communicated with their hands and feet.
Hans began fly-tying in 1976. By the early eighties he was creating his own
designs, mostly parachutes. This preference eventually led to several
unusual patterns and tying techniques! It would be another four years before
he fully recognized the value of other flies, like nymphs, streamers and
emergers. Unlike most European fly-fishers, Hans' first salmon and sea trout
were caught on dry flies. Thus, he was forced to go his own way, and he
credits his twenty-eight years of Scandinavian experience for much of his
fly-fishing and fly-tying skills.
After nearly ten years of fishing in Scandinavia, Hans began travelling to
other European countries such as Ireland, the UK, Germany, Belgium,
Luxembourg, France and Switzerland. The success of the large patterns
developed for Scandinavian fishing was immediate. In 1981 he moved for his
work to the north of Germany. Now even closer to Scandinavia more time on
the water was possible and fly-fishing became an obsession. A result of this
additional experience was involvement in writing about flies and his
travels. Then, in 1986 Hans became a member of the editorial staff of the
Dutch Fly fishing magazine and Dutch-area secretary of the Grayling Society.
After 15 years working for the Dutch Fly Fishing Magazine he quit and
started to intensify his lectures, tying demonstrations and workshops. Hans
is well known for his excellent guiding service and teaching qualities,
especially at the riverbank. For the last six years he has travelled to
Canada to give workshops and to test his patterns on Canadian Atlantic
salmon, Pacific salmon, pike, steelhead, lake trout, shad, grayling, white
fish and small mouth bass.
Hans' favourite patterns are parachutes, emergers and realistic nymphs. He
enjoys sharing his knowledge about fly-fishing and fly-tying and is
particularly skilled in the taking of Atlantic salmon and grayling on dry
flies. Although having dabbled in the classic salmon fly world for about 10
years, by 1990 he was concentrating on workshops for river fishing and tying
classes for realistic and effective fishing patterns. Since 1986, Hans has
participated at many fly tying shows and has been given several lectures,
classes and workshops in the U.K., Belgium, Germany, Scandinavia, Canada,
Asia and U.S.A. He has written for many international and club magazines as
well as contributing to books by his friends, such as Tying flies with CDC
by Leon Links, The World's Best Trout Flies by John Roberts, Fly Tyers
Masterclass by Oliver Edwards, The Complete Book of the Grayling by Ron
Broughton, The Complete Book Of Fly Fishing by Malcolm Greenhalgh, Modern
Atlantic Salmon Flies by Paul Marriner and many more. Today Hans write his
own columns in international magazines and producing awesome photo cd's from
his fishing trips. He also works on several new ideas and is fanatically
supporting wildlife and environment projects that are close to his heart.
Hans van Klinken's best-known known patterns are the L.T series, the
Klinkhamer Special, Leadheaded grayling bugs, the Caseless Caddis, the
Remerger, the Para-poly sedge, the Baetis nymph, the Once and Away, and the
Culard series. Less well known are his productive series of salmon patterns,
of which many are dries.