My first dedicated salmon trip coming up

[jt]

Hi all,

Lets face it - I'm really a trout/sea trout fisherman (some SWFF in the mix too) and I feel a little out of my depth with my trip to the South Tyne only a week away....

I've never caught a salmon, not even had a particularly large sea trout on the line either (well the small ones taste better anyway!). I'm going to have to go purely on instinct should I get one on...assuming that should happen.

Casting:

I've had a morning's spey-casting tuition, some disasterous sessions on grass and a half-decent session on the Teifi for a couple of hours - using up the remainder of my ticket to practice, practice, practice. Still very much a beginner - thank God I'm a big b*gger and can use brute strength if needs be!

Kit:

I've now got two rods (13' and 15' - both Oracle IVs) which feel awkward and cumbersome. I'm tying some nice looking flies, but have no idea how to really fish them, haven't a clue on sizes to use and when.

Tactics:

Given that there's a lot of terminology I haven't gotten round to figuring out yet Christ knows! - I s'pose in essence: find a pool with a feature, tie on a fly based on how pretty it is (note to self - I need to learn the Turle knot!), put a cast square or 45 deg down, mend as best as possible...and hope for the best. If I get one on then I'm just planning on holding on for dear life!

I'm not actually sure what the point of this post is other than to say I'm very much looking forward to 3 days flogging some water in a search for the fish of my lifetime (which would be grilse-sized at the moment) and I feel like I'm back at my very first day of school.

Wish me luck (and feel free to pass on any last minute essential gems of wisdom if you have any)

Best regards

Jon

[jo]

Good luck Jonners. And I hope it rubs off.

[jt]

Hope you've mastered your spey casting left hand up as the top pools are fished from the right hand bank.

B*gger.

Any chance of an overhead cast instead?

[Tyne Angler]

Jon

Take no notice, a nice double spey will be fine off the right bank.....

There have been some good runs of sea trout on the South during the last couple rises, proper Tyne sea trout averaging around the 4lb mark.

[Fruin]

Good luck on your trip and just make sure that you enjoy it!!!

Pray for good conditions, take your time with your casting, and everything else should fall into place.

[daveh]

JT, I'm in a similar situation, first time salmon fishing next week on the Annan. I fish for sewin in north wales mostly, so I've already got loads of flies for lowish water (stoats tail and similar doubles). Tied some brass tubes but haven't yet tried to cast one!

I bought an Oracle IV 14' but take care:

thank God I'm a big b*gger and can use brute strength if needs be!

I spent a day on the Welsh Dee perfecting my speycasting. Ended up with a very sore shoulder. I would have struggled to fish the following day. No doubt this was due to my bad technique but if you don't have an experienced caster to see how you're doing it's all too easy to just give it more welly when it all goes wrong.

best of luck

dave

[jt]

DaveH - agreed and thanks.

Springer - yer a star man, thanks for all the help thusfar.

Jon