Set Ups for Salmon Fishing, Fly and Spinning.

These videos cover most of the set ups for salmon fishing with a few tips thrown in that will save you time and money. There is a small section on clothing on the blog which will help with the cold wet weather just click on the link on top of this page to enter that post.Tight lines for 2019 and nice to see the first salmon caught and released early in the season.

Salmon Spinning set up.

           

Here is a simple video outlining the way I set up my salmon, bass and pike spinning outfit, basically the tackle is the same in all set ups except for the addition of wire traces for pike fishing. The rod is a 10 ft 15 to 60 gr casting rod, the reel is a 6000 class spinning reel and loaded with 13 kg high visibility yellow braid. Firstly I load 50 meters of nylon onto the spool which allows the braid to bed down well on the spool and stops slippage when the braid is under tension. I attach the braid to the nylon using a double uni knot which can be seen in this video https://youtu.be/NLYX1qwoO-0 . The braid is then reeled under tension onto the spool and filled to capacity to ensure very long casts when spinning. Before I start fishing with new braid I will always cast very far down stream and spin under tension allowing the line to bed down while wet and this also stops tangles from happening when fishing. Every 10 casts I will cast long and just reel up under tension allowing the line to rid itself of kinks thus making sure I have better fishing and no knots or tangles. I use size 4 chrome swivels and these work well for me also helping to stop the kinking and tangling of the braid. The spinners I use are Flying C's in sizes 3,4 and 5 Black / Silver or Black /Gold. In coloured water Yellow can be very productive and also Red but mainly the vast majority of salmon are caught on Black/Silver fished upstream. The size 3 spinners are normally used in medium to low water, the size 4 in medium to high water and the size 5 in high fast or very high water. It's easy to know when to fish the different sizes because if you are not rubbing bottom or taking weed then you need to put on a heavier size and if you are getting stuck constantly then you need to put on a lighter spinner. If you are not fishing at the right depth and covering the salmon lies properly then you are not going to meet fish so achieving the optimum depth is crucial to catching spring salmon in the early season because with cold high water salmon rarely move far to take a spinner or fly. The benefit of using braid is two fold namely direct contact with the salmon at all times and extra sensitivity while spinning allowing me to feel rocks and weeds before I get stuck, if using mono with the stretch capacity it has you are stuck in the bottom before you know it and less feeling during the fight. If you have any further questions on spinning tips just message me below.

Irish Fly Fair and Angling Show 2015.

I went up to Galway over the weekend to visit the annual fly fair in the Galway Bay Hotel, the weather was dismal to say the least with heavy driving rain and gale force winds not ideal for the fly casting demo's. The fly tying section was excellent with some amazing fly patterns on display, the fly tying experts were very helpful and friendly demonstrating the art of fly tying with all the new materials on show. All the tackle suppliers and dealers were there to cater for the good number of anglers that turned up and braved the bad weather. I wanted to try out some of the switch lines and rods and the guys from AM angling were very helpful showing me some of their new lines and  switch rods even in the pouring rain, sadly they haven't got a floating version of what i'm looking for but their short float / intermediate line looks good, ideal for low water conditions and grilse. Glenda Powell was on form giving a good casting demo even in the driving rain and gale force winds and also Hywel Morgan  and Charles Jardine were very entertaining demonstrating all the tips and tricks of casting again in bad weather conditions. Having tried some more rods and lines i was very surprised that all the casting was on grass and to be honest i'm not an expert on grass ( only water ) as it doesn't give a realistic feel or resistance to the line. In reality i'd say that a lot of anglers were put off by this and it definitely didn't show the rods and lines to their true potential. I must admit i have been using switch rods for many years and i'm still confused as to why rod makers are supplying dedicated lines for their rods that really don't do the job, my Oracle switch is a 7/8 and the dedicated line was very lack lustre in trying to turn over even the 2.6 ins rio sinking tips and when i asked about this at the stand i was told to use the 8/9 as it was heavier and would probably do the job. Really..... i now know why there is so much confusion with switch rods, the dedicated line is ok for casting tapered leaders but use a sink tip and all bets are off. I have a video that i'm finishing soon and hopefully this will help all switch rod fly fishing anglers, there are two lines for switch rods ... ( 1 ) Rio switch chucker as it will  spey cast most rio sink tips in tight areas that you have to cover during your salmon / trout fishing needs and ( 2 ) the Forty plus which will cover tapered leaders and intermediate tips with  single over head casting and a bit of spey casting thrown in. The Rio switch chucker line isn't for over head casting but it will put out and turn over sink tips and heavy flies in tight areas with little or no effort when spey / underarm casting and then to cover the trout fishing or single over head casting the Forty plus will do the job well just get the 8 wt line for your 7/8 switch and with this line you can use tapered leaders or even intermediate tips and it will spey / underarm cast them as well. Remember the switch rod is exactly that SWITCH it means you can under arm / spey cast and SINGLE  hand over head cast. It's great to be able to see and try out all the new tackle / lines etc., and really only for the fly fair that wouldn't be possible, so hopefully it will continue for years to come.

Spinning " The Monkey on your Back / Shoulder ".

 

 

 

 

 

 

Having fished for most of my life one gets used to knocks and falls while fishing, be it either falling down a bank or in a slippery river bed due to lack of traction we all get the odd knock or injury but casting a spinning rod or fly rod can cause other issues. Repeative strain injury comes from constantly casting and putting stress on ones shoulder muscles ( deltoids ) and also fishing in very cold weather or in my case pushing the distance out by hammering my fishing rod to achieve maximum distance. In tennis they have tennis elbow and in fishing we have anglers shoulder, to see if you have this issue all you have to do is raise your casting hand straight up in the air and if you get a slight pull in the shoulder then you have the starting signs of anglers shoulder. The more predominant signs are not being able to put ones casting hand as far up behind ones back as ones non casting hand or in bad cases having shoulder pain after an hour or so of fishing. There are three main areas that one can suffer pain from, one is the front deltoid the second is the side deltoid and the third is the area in your upper back between or around  the shoulder blade. This injury in my estimation was caused the previous season and over the winter months has shortened the range of muscle movement of the casting arm and as we all start fishing in the cold weather we are only irritating an already shortened muscle which tears and thus creating more shortening and damage. If you think of it as an angler i spend all day casting and in my case really pushing my rod to its limit so it is similar to an athlete throwing a javelin but in my case about 1,200 throws a day, i'd like to see the state of the athlete that can throw that many javelins.

To combat this issue one has to warm up ones shoulder muscles prior to fishing similar to any athlete before a race etc., but the best advice is that when one finishes fishing at the end of the season one should visit a massage therapist or physiotherapist and get one or two good rub down sessions to get rid of the knots or scar tissue that has built up over the fishing season and thus stopping the injury from developing any further. Having many years of weight training and martial arts under my belt i have a few exercises that strenghten and stretch the shoulder muscles but with using both fast and slow twitch muscle fibres while casting to the extreme one still needs a good manipulation session by a physiotherapist on those muscles to avoid further damage and the worst thing is i'm not getting any younger so injuries like those take longer to heal and my philosophy of life is prevention is a lot better and cheaper than cure.