Salmon on the Fly.

   
          
The water was moving at a nice pace ideal for the fly so I went in with a floating line, a 2.6 ins per second sink tip and a light 10 lb flurocarbon tippet with my trusty Ally's hot orange shrimp fly. The run at beat 1 has been badly altered so the flow is now all over the place with confused water not allowing the fly to fish naturally down the run, instead the fly is now being  pulled into eddies and high rocks. I now just pass this area and start fishing further down the run and this puts you on top of the fish which is bad especially if you are trying to get some depth to get the fly down to the salmon. The old lies are now vacant and the salmon have moved further up river towards the dam all due to the change in the hydrodynamics of the water. When you have a bit of flow like today it stops the confused water keeping it on a straight momentum and this does make the fly fish better giving it plenty of life as it fishes through the pool. Having seen a small grilse head and tail off the rock I fished slowly down the pool allowing the fly to get depth just before the rock and with a long slow retrieve I moved the fly out which can normally entice a response especially from fresh grilse. The fish took the fly and with a very fast turn of speed passed me up and headed for the submerged rock but with plenty of side strain I was able to bully the grilse back down stream. Seeing that it was a small fish of about five pounds I played out the fish fast and released it back into the river none the worst for it's encounter with me. At this time of year when the water is warmer it is better to get the fight over with as fast as possible so that when releasing the salmon they have a better chance of survival after being released, even holding the fish a bit longer in water helps it to recover better so that it goes back strong.