Simo Lumme - A man with a way with flies

The Finnish flyfishing community was shocked in early November 1998 by the sudden death of Simo Lumme at the age of 69.

Lumme was the best known contemporary Finnish flytyer and flyfisher. His main interest was in imitating caddisflies, which are very common in Finland. The most famous of his flies became extremely popular. The ingenuous multi-purpose dryfly Nalle Puh (or Winnie the Pooh) was first tied in the late -60's as a representation of an egg-laying caddis fluttering around just above the surface. The curly bear hair wings give a good impression of transparent caddis wings in constant motion. It's a very durable, well floating fly for fast caddis water, that can also be fished as an attractor or a skater. It has also been used in many other types of fishing with great success.

The SL Pupa is an impressionistic caddis pupa imitation from the early -70's. It was one of the first flies ever tied to use the reflective trilobal man-made fibers. While the fly seems to be rather simple, to tie it well takes both time and patience. SL Pupa was named after Lumme's initials by Preben Torp Jacobsen of Denmark, who was one of Lumme's many international friends.

As an skilled architect, Lumme could draw excellent pictures of fly tying sequences and fishing situations. He co-authored the most popular basic book about tying Finnish fishing flies in 1990 (Lumme & Pusa: Perhonsidonta. Otava 1988, Finland).

Simo Lumme was a true flyfishing gentleman of the old school. He knew well the traditional British way of flyfishing but at the same time he was also impressed by the more modern American fishing styles. Combining these two he was one the major figures in creating the modern Finnish styles of both flytying and flyfishing.

Fishing ethics and ethics in general were important to Simo Lumme. There really was much more to his fishing than just catching fish.

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