Salmon on the Fly 2015.

  

       

Knowing that the water was going to be off i decided to try an evening session on the fly at the Dam fishery, starting at beat 1 i noticed that the water clarity was low maybe only two feet or even less and the flow was   very slow around the salmon lies. I spent much of my time retrieving line in a slow strip just to add speed to the fly otherwise there would be little or no movement in the fly as it fished through the pool. I was constantly having to bring the shooting head inside the top eye of the rod and this didn't make re-casting easy but the end justifies the means as i hooked into a nice fresh sea liced salmon on that slow strip causing the salmon to take the loop out of my hand and head off down river in a near perfect take allowing me time to lift into the fish as it was heading away from me. After the salmon felt pressure it then headed upstream towards the dam and there i was able to control the fish with ease and beach it in shallow water, i noticed that the fly had been well taken down by the fish and in fact it was completely swallowed, having difficulty retrieving the fly i quickly despatched the fish knowing that it would never have survived  being returned back to the river. The salmon was about 10lbs covered in sea lice and a hatchery fish. Seeing another salmon head and tail i noticed that it was lying in shallow water only two feet deep so i changed over to a tapered leader to avoid getting caught up in the bottom and also to allow the fly to fish more freely.

When fishing shallow or slow water i use tapered leaders for better turnover of the fly but there is also another benefit, if you want to stay higher up in the water column use a mono tapered leader but if you need a bit of depth a flurocarbon tapered leader can be used either way both tapered leaders will give more movement to the fly and that's important in slow water. Having a longer tail on a small fly dressed very lightly will always give plenty of movement and this in conjunction with the tapered leader and slow retrieve can induce a take from fresh salmon. The second fish hit hard and fast and threw a number of times before i could gain control of the fish but as has happened a lot recently some anglers bear down on me to either view the fish or get a sneak view of my fly and this moves the salmon out causing me to stop filming and having to tell them to move back away from the fish . I landed the fish in the shallows and after a few minutes of resting up the fish released it back into the river.  When i'm fishing i never run up on another angler playing a salmon or even come within casting range of them but for some reason these days a lot of people feel the need to walk right up to where your trying to land a fish and this is bad bank etiquette putting pressure on the angler and fish. I must definitely do a post on proper bank etiquette  because this might help young anglers understand proper bank manners but in saying that most of the people encroaching on me recently  and getting in the way of me making videos are middle aged and should know better. 

Spinning in High Water.

           

I decided to give the Dam fishery a full day's fishing because i had only been there a few hours over two evening sessions and having lost a couple of fish knew that i had to give it a bit more time. Having slept out i arrived at the fishery late around 10 am and was fishing by 10.30, the water was on full load and moving very fast with visibility down to three feet so i decided to use my Hardy Sirrus 10ft spinning rod and my Shimano Stradic 6000 spinning reel because they are the ideal set up for spinning in high water. The first salmon hit very hard but stayed stationary for a couple of minutes before cartwheeling downstream with the strong current, i put quite a lot of pressure on the fish to bring it back under control and force it back up river. The salmon then decided to wrap itself in among the heavy weed and i had to force it to the surface and play it out high up in the water column not allowing it get back in around the weeds. The first salmon was an extremely fresh sea liced fish of about 12lbs just in off the tide and being a wild fish it was released. Within minutes i was into my second salmon almost identical in size and after playing the fish hard i landed it only to find that the spinner was very deep inside the fish and knowing that it would not survive being released i took the fish.

Having fished on for about half an hour i got another take but that fished missed and fumbled the spinner but it quickly recovered itself and hit it again just feet from the bank and then screamed off downstream using the heavy water and strong current to it's advantage. Using braid i am able to feel every movement of the salmon and this is vital because you can really shorten the fight time when you feel the fish tiring by putting that extra bit of pressure on at the right moment. I like to control and dominate the fish very quickly and run it in circles because this tires it out very fast and allows me to return it in good condition.The third salmon was about 10lbs and a hatchery fish extremely fresh and there were sea lice present so it had also come in off tide earlier that morning. The fish was well rested and released back into the river in good condition. Fishing on i got one more take in low water on the fly but the salmon quickly let go of the fly but i can't complain after having such good sport that morning.

P.S.      the following evening i caught 2 salmon again very fresh on the fly in low water on my switch fly rod the video and report will be up this evening on my blog, one fish was about 10lbs and the other 8lbs covered in sea lice.

"Salmon on the Fly"

   

       

The fishing had been quiet lately due to the very high water conditions and the fact that any salmon that had ventured up towards the dam was passing through and not holding up due to the constant water being put over the top sluice. This extra water over the top acts like a magnet for the salmon as they can hear and feel the turbulence and this draws them into the fish pass and off up to the upper catchment. Having had a few short takes on the fly i noticed that the water was moving in towards the near bank and not down the centre channel as normal so i started mending into the near bank and this definitely moved the fly faster through the pool but still no really positive responses just the odd pluck at the fly and really when using such small salmon flies as i do the takes are normally very aggressive as the fish don't even realise that they have been hooked.

I decided to cast above the lie and hold back the fly with the normal outside mend allowing it to sink well into the slower water and then i started to strip the fly with a long and positive stroke which moved the fly out of the lie with some nice pace to it and this proved deadly as the salmon hit the fly very aggressively and almost pulled the line out of my hands, allowing the fish to turn away from me i then put more pressure on the salmon setting the hook with a sharp lift of the rod and then we were off to the races. Sometimes salmon will hit a fast moving fly and come at you so its better to allow them to turn first before lifting otherwise you are just pulling the fly out of their mouths as the fish are facing you when your lifting. I was using a 6ft Rio sink tip ( 2.6 ins per second sink rate ) on a floating line with an 8lb flurocarbon tippet so i had to be very careful not to put too much pressure on the fish and after a few powerful runs i was able to turn the salmon and run it in circles allowing it to tire out quickly and after a few minutes i was able to land the salmon. The fish was chrome bright with sea lice markings fresh from the tide so i decided to take the fish. Having caught and released a few salmon recently i always like to take the odd very fresh salmon for myself. The amazing thing is that i stripped the fly the day before and retied the same pattern back on to the old hook and then resharpened the hook because i had felt that it was after getting a bit dull in colour from over use but i always like to keep flies that have caught salmon because i have more faith in them over brand new flies. Always remember to use a blooded fly( a fly that has taken a fish) first when fishing  through a pool as you will have more confidence in it rather than a new fly fresh out of the box. I always tell young anglers to have two fly boxes one for the large selection of salmon flies that you start out with and the second a smaller box just for the productive flies that have caught salmon, there are two reasons for this  (1) to get them retied so that you don't lose them and will always have a killer pattern and (2) is that its the the first fly i always start fishing with because again it has proven itself and fishing a pool with confidence in your tackle does work a lot better then pot luck.