 |
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
IMPORTANT
SITE UPDATE:
Visit the relaunched
Fish & Fly at fishandfly.com
Spring
Salmon Fishing
Our February 2001 contribution from Ally Gowans
Despite the scarcity of springers and the lottery of weather during the
early months of the season spring salmon fishing is still my favourite
sport. Often days go by without seeing a salmon, winter can return at
any moment but still there is that movement, however slowly creeping towards
longer and warmer days and the anticipation of the countryside once again
bursting into life. Then eventually comes that deep throbbing sensation
of the first contact with a springer, then the glimpse of a glistening
deep flank shining from the depths. With luck a deep silver fish is brought
to hand, pristine, strong and fit. Carefully it is kept in the river recovering
from its latest ordeal. The hook is removed, perhaps a quick photo is
taken to remind me of the moment before it glides off into the depths
again free to continue its epic migration. I sigh a sigh of relief and
grin broadly, today I leave the river with a new spring in my step. For
me spring has arrived at last!
In
UK spring fishing starts in January and extends through to May. Clearly
we can expect a vast difference in climate between the start of this so-called
spring and a fine warm day in May. In between times almost any type of
weather is possible, freeze up, flood, snow and in between perhaps a share
of these balmy spring days when the water is perfect and the weather looks
promising. There are times that fishing is impossible due to floods or
(less common nowadays), freezing. And so the salmon angler has to be prepared
to fish at with almost any combination of fly and line to suit the conditions.
But how do you go about choosing?
Thankfully there are a few guiding principles, generalities that narrow
the margin for error when choosing lines and flies. Starting with really
cold water, it is important to get down deep, close to where the fish
are lying and offer them a fly that will switch them on. Their blood is
cold and their senses are dulled so a fairly large and colourful fly will
not be out of place. A smaller sober pattern may not be sufficient to
awaken them. Yellow is possibly the best colour in really cold water,
Tadpole, Yellow Dog, Black and Yellow and Green and Yellow are good combinations.
Give the fly a swim in the river if you can see it clearly a couple of
feet down, then it should be all right. The size of the fly chosen is
partly conditioned by the speed of the water, in slower water the fly
will hover near the fish for longer and a size smaller may be more productive.
It is fairly safe to say that with the addition of Willie Gunn dressed
with copious quantities of yellow hair you don’t have to change flies
much until April. Up to that time a selection of tubes between inch and
half and three inches is usually sufficient.
Choosing
a line boils down to either local knowledge or trial and error. A balance
has to be struck between snagging bottom and loosing flies with all its
inherent frustration and riding high and fast with little chance of catching
fish. The answer is to experiment. If the line is swinging at a nice not-too-fast
steady speed presentation may be perfect. If you really want to know whether
you could safely fish deeper put on a faster sinking line and try again,
if it snags regularly or hangs dead in the water, the first choice is
probably best, if however it swings nicely but deeper keep it on. Should
it touch bottom now and again without causing too much trouble then you
know that you can’t do much better. Type 2 and Type 3 sinking lines
are probably the most popular during springtime. On heavy flows a type
4 is useful in smaller rivers or during low water a Type 1 (intermediate)
or fast sink tip line is handy.
The angle of the cast and whether or not you endeavour to get more depth
by allowing the line to sink further before tightening up and starting
the fly-fishing correctly also influence speed and depth. The more squarely
that you cast, the faster the fly will traverse the drift, conversely
the longer that you cast downstream, the slower it will swing towards
the bank. Altering the angle of the cast is commonly practised as a pool
is being fished down. In the fast water at the head the line is put steeply
downstream and as the pace slackens the angle is increased to keep the
fly moving. In really slow water the line may be cast slightly upstream
so that the belly pulls the fly around. Extra depth can be obtained by
holding the rod tip high as the fly lands to create slack line. Then an
upstream mend is made before the line gets a chance to sink and then the
slack line is allowed to tighten before the fly is fished round.
Usually
sometime in April conditions start to change. Water temperature rises
and once it reaches the magical band between 6 and 8 degrees salmon become
much more active and it is unnecessary, even counter productive to scrape
the bottom for them. Now a smaller fly fished mid water to top is attractive
and my favourites are the long tailed shrimp flies such as Tummel Shrimp,
Cascade and Ally’s Shrimp. My own choice is not to use larger than
size 4 dressed flies, when a bigger offering is required I use tubes rather
than large hooks. Size range 4 to 8 is usually sufficient to keep me going
until the end of May and I tend to use 6s and 8s more than 4s. The Type
2 sinking line can still be useful in faster streams but as the water
warms I increasingly shift towards sink tips or intermediate lines with
sinking attachments.
I started by mentioning the vagaries of spring weather. Salmon anglers
can do nothing about conditions so they have to adapt to them. If the
weather gets warmer early, tactics must change. Similarly an April freeze
up put you back to down and dirty with large bright flies. Success is
sometimes luck but usually it is a case of assessing the conditions and
casting the combination that gives the best chance, a case of playing
percentages.
If you have any questions please feel free to contact
me or visit my website at http://www.letsflyfish.com/
Ally Gowans
During the late spring and summer period I would feel deprived if I did
not have a few of the following flies at my disposal... Ally
Gowans on salmon fly selection
A few anglers cut their teeth with salmon but for most of us trying to
catch a salmon becomes an ambition during the later years of our apprenticeship
Advice on catching that first elusive salmon
from Ally Gowans
Based in Perthshire, Ally is a regular contributor to Fly Fishing & Fly Tying, Trout and Salmon, Atlantic Salmon Journal and others. He's also a qualified instructor, holding both Advanced Professional Game Angling Instructor (APGAI) and Salmon and Trout Association National Instructors Certificate (STANIC) qualifications.