Essential Salmon Flies

[jeff]

Hi Iam new to salmon fly fishing and would appreciate any advice on which flies/type of flies I should be carrying in my fly box.

Also are the any good fly tirers on this sit who would be willing to make a box up for me.

Any advice would be a great help

cheers Jeff

[munro]

Graham-
To add to my existing supply of Cascade doubles Gordon Armstrong tied for me some beautiful 6-12 doubles of
Nessc (which I thought I would try instead of Ally's which have never done much for me)
Silver Stoat
Munro's Killer
I don't have any Blue Charm tho'- when would you use these?
P.S. Hope your operation went well

[munro]

Thanks Graham - I do have some Hairy Mary's (trebles) which seem similar to Blue Charm -do you think they would make an effective substitute or would I be better getting Gordon to tie me up some Blue Charm doubles?

If you're using these as droppers what would your tail fly be? Mind you I'm a bit wary of droppers after reading Ashley-Cooper!

[johnmac]

Just out of interest..... do you genearlly fish with a single fly?? or do you use droppers when Salmon fishing???

[Fruin]

I don't like droppers when salmon fishing. I used to fish them all the time in order to present more options to a fish. When playing a fish the fly that is not taken can snag on anything, including waders and nets I've lost a few fish through the dropper getting snagged, and still do when sea trout fishing.

However, if you are unsure of fly choice and fishing two patterns gives you more confidence then it may be worth the risk.

Essential flies:

Until you start to find your own favourites then you could do a whole lot worse than following the selection picked out by Graham.

[macd]

Im a fan of the dropper and use it a lot. I generally dont bother when speycasting as its a hassle.

I got into this on the thurso, and start with it in april and have used it successfully on intermediates and sink tips.

The thinking there is that a smaller fly on the dropper picks up residents and a larger brighter point fly takes care of the fresh fish.


In the spring I would use a waddington with a cascade on the dropper .

Later I would move the cascade or other longtail shrimp to the point and fish a hairy mary or thurso dog on the dropper.

I rarely change the dropper but do change the point fly.

I like it, but I can understand why it makes some fishers nervous.

macd

[ceilidh]

The main reason why most of us prefer particular flies is because we have been successful with them and therefore use them more often. I would agree with all the choices listed above, but have caught most of my fish on a Willie Gunn, a Munro, or a Silver (or ordinary ) Stoat, hence I usually start with these, unless conditions indicate something different, such as a collie dog or a PBP, Comet etc.
It is only when I have tried my favourites, without success, that I start to experiment with the miriad other flies in my boxes!
Interestingly, the variants of the Cascade seem to have been very successful recently. almost eclipsing the 'original' Ally shrimp, but I doubt if this has increased the overall catch rate!

[kercock]

I don't often use a dropper but when I do I always tie the dropper to the leader so as IF a fish takes the dropper fly, the dropper will slip down the line to the point fly. It may sound daft but it works. No chance of the point fly getting snagged, it does cut down the snag risk !