floating salmon flies

[scotty]

hi guys, i was thinking about trying floating salmon flies on a fast sinker later this year, as the river i fish is small and bits are pretty deep so you need to get down fast but without hooking the bottom, fished on a short leader mabye 2"-3". the flies would be tied similar to a "booby" type fly with a foam head. the main reason for this thinking is so that i fish the fly as slow as possible without snagging the bottom.

anyone tried this before?

scotty. ;D

[castlikeaghille]

We've been experimenting with this type of set up for 3 seasons -please note it is banned on a number of Spey Beats and other places where the intermediate and ally's is still cutting edge so check first

Observations:

Best fished with a shooting head, I use anything in a sink range of Type III - VIII depending on the water (I have tried it on a Teeny, but it doesn't seem to work so well)

Leader - I'd use 1.5 ft because the line is below the fly and any longer makes it hard to control the fly - if you use less than 23lbs Seagur there will be becuase the leader is far more exposed to rocks and ledges

Flies - we use the popper heads for bodies and a fox/marabou tail. These are good because you can make them like a tube or simply put a single hook through them. Colour in with marker pens and then put a couple of layers of hard as nails over them and you have a very durable fly. So far have only tried flies about 1 1/2" plus tail. Not sure how the smaller versions or bigger ones would work, but no reason why not.

If you invert them they swim like a Kynoch and are deadly.... but definitely check whether you beats considers them flies ....eh...Southpark Kenny (the future state of salmon fishin' KC and the Sunshine band luv a bit of that)

Style of fishing obviously depends on the water you are fishing. The shooting head gives you the flexibility to feed out slack to get depth. Rather than go through all the permutations of where you should cast, how far and at what angle, I thought it would be easier to focus on what you are trying to achieve.

There are two main approaches. Either you are trying to hover the fly in front of salmo's neb two inches from him (like in Czech Nymphing) or you want to suddenly flash the fly across his sight plane (Like a diving Rapalla). I like to think of salmon as kittens with a piece of wool. Let it sit in front...arouse curiosity....suddenly pull away...pounce

Whichever way you are going to have to work the fly and fly line. I will say this method suits pools best where the fish are spread across it as it gives you time to work the fly. If the fish are hard on the far bank this method doesn't really work because you don't have the time for the fly to get in the fuishies window (there are much better ways of covering these fish).

Takes - so far the salmon have walloped the fly, unlike in Czech Nymphing where you can have some very gentle takes indeed.

Finally, this method works at any time of year, but comes into its own for low water fishing in summer and early autumn.

Good luck, and you will need more patience to master this because you need to know exactly where the fish are and also depth, speed of current, obstructions etc. It's also very hard work...so I only resort to it after my tactical kip....

I look forward to hearing how you get on.

Now as it is the mother of all Sundays, better do my duty.

Later fuishies

CLaG

[elwyman]

I remember reading that some anglers had had great success fishing the deep dubs on Tweed, using methods similar to that described by CLaG. Very fast sinkers, short leader and a light tube.

I have to say it sounds like a very boring way of fishing to me, but I can imagine that it will be a lethal method in low water conditions in the autumn, when the deep dubs could be full of fish.

I would also imagine that foul hooking fish could be an issue at times, which is probably why extra fast sinking lines are banned on some beats.

[castlikeaghille]

E

Boring? Mais Non. To do this properly you have to be thinking and working the line the whole time...knackering..oui

Foul Hooking? The obvious link, but don't always think the obvious. A bouyant fly is the last thing you'd want to foul hook a fish. When you pull it the fly goes head first hook trailing behind and up pointing downwards completely the wrong direction and angle to foul hook a fish, and I never have done so using this. Ask our friends in Walkerburn about foul hooking; they are the real experts

Big Dubs - agreed. But one of the most successful exponents of this art does it on the Whiteadder - it can be used on any river, although on smaller ones a single hander with S/H is better. I have, so far only used it on the Dee, Lochy and Tweed

Regardez as almost late for mother of all Sundays

CLaG

[greenbanks]

[quote author=castlikeaghille board=tierscorner thread=1174213765 post=1174216379

If you invert them they swim like a Kynoch and are deadly.... but definitely check whether you beats considers them flies ....eh...Southpark Kenny (the future state of salmon fishin' KC and the Sunshine band luv a bit of that)
CLaG[/quote]

When i saw ths lure i thought now there's a man who thinks out the box. ???Can't wait to see how we get on when the Sailfish start to run ;)would imagine they would be fun double hauling on a 9 foot 9 weight rod, might cadge some for going to Cuba in Janvier 08, think the Tarpon would want to hoover them up or even better kick the living sheeite out of them ;D

Later CLaG

[rpsalmon]

Slip a coloured polystyrene ball or 5mm round small section poly tube on the leader with a needle. Bingo, you have a booby fly of whatever kind. Use a stop knot up the leader to keep the poly ball away from the fly, adjust it to 2 or 3 foot away from the fly and the motion on the fly fished in streamy water can be astonishing.

Also, say you had a ten foot leader. Put a split shot three foot down from a floating fly line, a poly ball stop knotted two feet further down, leaving the fly 4 feet on at the end (you can mix up these distances to experiment). The resulting action in streamy water can be useful at certain times, but of course can put down the fish. Just another weapon in the armoury.