Sunday 21 July 2019

Salmon fly fishing tips for low slow water.

   
          
The water is so low that the flow is all over the place with loads of back eddies and mixed currents, it's very hard to fish the fly through the pools without getting caught up on some of these new rocks as they are everywhere. Having studied the flow or lack of it I used some of my techniques to control, feel and in most cases speed up the line and fly through the pool.
There are a few subtle techniques in the video that will help keep you in contact with the fly when fishing slow water and some will help put a bit of speed and life into the fly especially with grilse about as they love a lot of movement in the fly. Another tip is to use a small fly with a long sparkly tail that moves and pulses in the eddies and if you are getting plucks from grilse and no takes put up a short tailed version of the same fly and you will definitely get hook ups. The fly size is very important as salmon have definitely started taking much smaller flies lately probably due to their new feeding habits at sea, so a size 13 or 15 double is ideal for summer water. I use a size 15 double all season and still hook up to both early springers and later season Autumn fish with some grilse thrown in for good measure. The days of just going out and throwing any old fly at salmon are gone, now one has to work at it by using new techniques, flies and lines to hopefully hook up to a fish. All it takes is one good pull to make a good day on the river and a release to make a great one.