Salmon on the Fly.

       
          
I have only fished a few hours here and there during the past few weeks not really putting in the time due to the low water conditions and I must admit it is the first year that I have not put in a full day's fishing for salmon. The water was up by about two feet and had plenty of pace to it so i decided to use a 3.9 ins per second sink tip and a small tungsten tube just to get the fly down into the mid layers. The  7/8 wt switch rod isn't really meant to cast heavy sink tips and tubes but it dealt with the weight very well and had very good turn over and great presentation. Moving down the pool I spotted a small salmon head and tail so i placed the fly well above the fish mending a few times which allowed the fly to get down a bit deeper and straight away the line was pulled out of my hand and i was into a fish. The salmon jumped and headed upstream against the current so i put plenty of side strain on the fish bringing it into shallow water so i could see it and straight away i noticed it was a small grilse but with the strong flow it was able to hold in mid river making it harder for me to bully the fish. I allowed the fish to move downstream with the current and then ran it back up stream just above me which gave me a better angle to fight the salmon, running it in circles i was able to beach the fish on top of some weeds and after a few minutes of resting the fish it was released.