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.