Salmon Fly Fishing

Salmon Fly Fishing

These come in all shapes and sizes and vary according to hooks used. Depending where you are salmon fly fishing and the relevant club or water rules you may be potentially allowed to use double hook or treble hook salmon flies. Frequently clubs are restricting the types of salmon fly hooks used for salmon fly fishing for the benefit of the salmon.  Arriving with flies that cannot be used for salmon fly fishing would be horrific. If unsure takesalmon fly tubes as salmon flies based on salmon tube flies mean that you can swap hooks according to local rules.

Salmon Tube Flies

Tube flies are plastic or metal tube with standard/traditional salmon flies partterns tied to them. Copper tube salmon flies(which have more weight to go deeper faster) or nylon tube salmon flies which remain closer to the surface. Modern tube salmon flies can be tied on salmon fly fishing systems like Tubeology that are even more flexible. These allow you to take aluminium tube salmon flies to the water and swap heads for hot spot colour and size / weight enabling the same Tubeology tube salmon flies to vary the depth and speed at which it descends across different parts of salmon pools  giving more flexibility to your salmon flies. Tube based salmon fliespatterns vary from traditional tube salmon flies patterns like green highlander through newer salmon flies like pot bellied pig tube flies and the ultra mobile sunray shadow tube salmon flies and monkey tube salmon flies using materials that give maximum movement like cashmere goat.

Recommended Salmon Fly Fishing Size & Use 

Recommended shook sizes vary throughout the year. In the early season as this Tubeology seasonal flies chart illustrates in early season size 4 flies,  green colour are more successful . During the mid season flies colours change from yellow flies (try Allys Cascade Shrimp) to orange  (try Allys Shrimp) and as the season progresses salmon flies should get smaller. During the height of summer you may be using salmon flies as small as size 16. At the end of the salmon fly fishing season red flies (try Allys Shrimp Red) then purples colour flies  (try Allys Shrimp Purple).

Salmon Fishing - General Notes

The salmon stops eating when it moves into fresh water from the sea for breeding, it is literally "dying" to  breed and reproduce until it is able to return to the sea. Indeed vast quantities of salmon die in the act of reproduction.  Because of this we are not catching salmon because it wants a fly to eat to satisfy hunger like the Rainbow Trout we are catching the salmon as we are triggering its predatory nature. We can stimulate the salmons predatory nature using imitative flies like Ally's shrimps designed by Alistair Gowans which resemble shrimp based salmon flies patterns or the red francis which using boar hair again resembles a shrimp . There are then  modern flies like monkey tube and sunray shadow tube flies using materials like cashmere goat for maximum movement producing ultra-mobile flies which may look like a small fish to the predatory salmon. Salmon flies come in with an amazing name range from collie dog, green highlander, blue charm, green brahan ,  jock scott,  munro killer, stoats tail,  thunder & lightening, willie gunn,  sunray shadow, monkey and  fatback. Salmon flies have been changed over the years. Don't forget roe egg salmon flies are useful for other species when salmon are breeding!