If he were with us today, Werner Klemperer (who played the beloved Colonel Klink on Hogan’s Heroes) would surely have used this great fly pattern on the Connecticut River: das “KLINKHAMMER“!

Our man Jon Howe was first introduced to the Klinkhammer earlier this month while on a fishing trip to the Magalloway River in Maine, and it was quite the fly from all of the reports. It worked so well that Cindy had Vermont’s Chuck Kashner (check out Chuck imparting wisdom on fishing the Black River in the new issue of Eastern Fly Fishing) tie some up for us.

Use them – they verk!

So, he tried them yesterday on the Connecticut River and did very well – in fact, he said that the fish were racing across the pool to get to the Klinkhammer. Both colors were working for OMR, so I’m not sure if there’s a rhyme or reason to it. The secret supposedly is in the shape of the fly – the downturned hook gives the appearance of an emerger to the fish, but the parachute helps it float high so that we can spot it on its drift, and it has a great “buggy” appearance.

It is described as a “searching” pattern – when you’re not sure if there’s fish in a particular spot, you might want to tie this on and see what happens. You might be pleasantly surprised with the results.

Jon was sickeningly giddy with yesterday’s success, so you should try it – after all, you don’t want to look like this guy:

Schultz from Hogan's Heroes
“I know nothing!”