Post by conwyrod on May 4, 2008 17:58:48 GMT
As we know, whacking it oot and letting it swing round is a fine and relaxing way to fly fish for salmon. Unfortunately salmon don't always respond to these tactics, particularly when they have been in the river a while and have seen hundreds of flees and even spinners passing over their heads.
A tale to two salmon caught on Boleside, May 2005.
This is the Hart Pool at summer low. It was a Wednesday, the last day of my 3 day visit to Boleside.
I was on a bit of a roll - my first Tweed springer had come from the Meetings pool on Monday afternoon - a bright silver 9lber. Two more fish had come to my flees on Tuesday evening from the lovely Glenmayne pool, as dusk fell, both around 7lb.
I had fished Hart on Monday morning and the other rods had fly fished and spun the pool each day, but no fish had been caught.
I remembered that Nigel the gillie had said most fish were taken from the slack water behind the steel croy.
I fished it down the usual way, floater, slow sink polytip and size 10 fly,with no takes. The water was at summer low and very little of the pool was actually fishable at that height. I decided to start experimenting, mainly to pass time as I knew conditions were fairly hopeless.
The current was whizzing past the end of the croy, so I decided to put a 15' No 8 (super fast) sinktip on my rio line, a short 18' leader, and a Templedog on a 1" copper tube.
I waded to the centre of the river, 15 yards or so above the croy, and cast a long line down river so the fly landed in the slack water behind the croy.
I can't remember if it was the first or second cast, but a fish took the fly as it swung deep and slowly into the fast current and the fish took off downstream, stripping line from my reel. I landed a slightly ccoloured 7lber
- note my line is coming out of the reel the wrong way - I had just changed reel, I hadn't fished like that all week!
The second fish took from the same spot very next cast,and was identical in size and colouration to the first.
I returned to the hut at 5.00pm and the other anglers were staggered to hear I had caught 2 fish in those conditions.
Just goes to show, if the fish are there they can be caught, and it often pays to show them something different if the usual fare isn't working.
Let's hear some other tales about difficult fish caught, or unusual tactics that saved the day.
A tale to two salmon caught on Boleside, May 2005.
This is the Hart Pool at summer low. It was a Wednesday, the last day of my 3 day visit to Boleside.
I was on a bit of a roll - my first Tweed springer had come from the Meetings pool on Monday afternoon - a bright silver 9lber. Two more fish had come to my flees on Tuesday evening from the lovely Glenmayne pool, as dusk fell, both around 7lb.
I had fished Hart on Monday morning and the other rods had fly fished and spun the pool each day, but no fish had been caught.
I remembered that Nigel the gillie had said most fish were taken from the slack water behind the steel croy.
I fished it down the usual way, floater, slow sink polytip and size 10 fly,with no takes. The water was at summer low and very little of the pool was actually fishable at that height. I decided to start experimenting, mainly to pass time as I knew conditions were fairly hopeless.
The current was whizzing past the end of the croy, so I decided to put a 15' No 8 (super fast) sinktip on my rio line, a short 18' leader, and a Templedog on a 1" copper tube.
I waded to the centre of the river, 15 yards or so above the croy, and cast a long line down river so the fly landed in the slack water behind the croy.
I can't remember if it was the first or second cast, but a fish took the fly as it swung deep and slowly into the fast current and the fish took off downstream, stripping line from my reel. I landed a slightly ccoloured 7lber
- note my line is coming out of the reel the wrong way - I had just changed reel, I hadn't fished like that all week!
The second fish took from the same spot very next cast,and was identical in size and colouration to the first.
I returned to the hut at 5.00pm and the other anglers were staggered to hear I had caught 2 fish in those conditions.
Just goes to show, if the fish are there they can be caught, and it often pays to show them something different if the usual fare isn't working.
Let's hear some other tales about difficult fish caught, or unusual tactics that saved the day.