Salmon Fishing Ireland June 2013

           
The water had dropped a few inches since my last session so i decided to use a floating line and a 3.9 inches per second sink tip with a 10lb flurocarbon tippet instead of the intermediate line which i had used previously. Fishing down the pool i had two short takes so i went back up the pool to give myself a wider angle which would allow the fly to stay in the area for a few seconds longer   Approaching  the area that i had got the short takes i hit the fish which rolled a few times and then headed upstream towards me, on seeing me it ran downstream taking line from the reel but i quickly took control of the fish and brought it towards me and kept the fight close in. Landing the salmon i noticed that it had female sealice on it and being less than one hour out of saltwater i took the salmon, a fresh fish of about 7lbs.

The second fish was a coloured salmon of about 16lbs which launched itself downstream taking a lot of line on its first initial run, after that it wallowed in close but gave some very explosive lunges that would have broken most lines but due to the fact that i was using a 6wt switchfly rod , it took the sting out of the surges and dampened the shock to the line. Landing the big fish i noticed that it was marked on the tail but there was no doubt that it would survive till spawning. Resting the fish for a few minutes i released it to swim away strong and just to prove me right it launched itself about four feet into the air sending water everywhere. There are a large number of large coloured salmon in residence which can be spectacular when they start pitching into the air but they move the fresh fish on by holding the lies. I saw a few grilse starting to show but they seemed quite small, some were only a couple of pounds in weight and were playing with the shrimp fly, tugging at the tail and coming short. Over all there seems to be a good number of salmon in the river but as i have said the majority are stale coloured fish.                                                                   

Salmon Fishing Ireland 2013 ( HD )

                     

                       
                       
I had only fished the Dam fishery twice since May 15th due to the extremely low water and was glad to see that the water was up a foot on my arrival. I was only too eager to try my new Switch fly rod which was made for me by Tony O' Sullivan to my specifications. With a good flow on the river i put up an intermediate fly line with a sink tip ( 5.9ins per second sink rate ) not a great casting combination but a good fishing one and a size 15 Ahilles double shrimp fly. I met quite a few salmon while fishing beat four but all were taking the fly short so i moved up to beat one and hooked and landed the first fish of the session, a nice fresh sea liced salmon of about 7lbs. On releasing this fish i hooked and lost a smaller grilse of about 4lbs, they were so fresh that they were playing with the fly and pulling it by the tail. Even though i use a size 15 Ahilles shrimp fly i tie in a nice long calf tail to give the fly great life and movement in the eddies and boils as it fishes down the lies. I know that sometimes it can be annoying when salmon keep plucking at the long tail but i'm always happy to be meeting salmon when others aren't so the tail stays.

Moving down the beats i caught and released two more salmon of about six pounds each, very fresh and covered in sea lice and then i met a very large coloured salmon in the high teens which threw the fly in a backward spiralling cartwheel. Just as darkness was arriving i met another salmon that passed me by and spat the fly at my feet and on swimming away gave me the fin, there were a few choice words exhaled but all in all it was a great days fishing. The question is whether to shorten the tail and maybe not meet so many fish but hold onto them or leave the tail and meet fish with a chance of losing them , i will have to ponder over that till the next time.

Salmon Flies, From Old To The New.

 Here is a selection of salmon flies going from the oldest at the top of the picture to the most modern at the bottom. The older flies were very large and tied on big single hooks then it moved on to the tube patterns which were tied on either copper, aluminium, brass or as in the picture plastic tubes, Then came the treble or double hook shrimp versions and on to the Possum cascade patterns and finally we have my modern size 15 double salar switchfly patterns which i now catch most of my salmon on.

                                               The large salmon fly is bigger than any 28gr Toby.

                                          Plastic Tubes are great when used on a sinking line.

                                          Possum Flies have the most life of any salmon fly.

And in the last picture we have my Switchfly salmon flies which catch most of my fish. Some of the bigger salmon that i caught last year fell to these patterns in size 15 salar doubles and once the fly went in there was never any issue with hook strenght or holding capacity. To think that they were using such large patterns years ago and successfully catching salmon and now we are using small shrimp flies or tubes to catch them makes me wonder whether the salmons diet has changed or the food that it is feeding on at sea is now smaller.