Fly fishing small rivers

[macsalmo]

I live near a small tributary of the river Lune. It is high up the system so is quite small ( average 6-8yrds ) it is wider in certain pools. Because of the mild weather there has been a number of Salmon caught already this season. In years gone by I have caught the odd fish on worm and spinner but Ive always fancied a go on the fly. Ive fished the fly on larger rivers regularly away but wondered if the tactics need to change on the small (tiny) rivers in autumn. Does anybody out there fish the little rivers for Salmon with any success at the back end?

Cheers,

Gary

[salmonking]

gary,.i think stealth,single handed rod,and of course a spate,chuck in a bit of luck,and fish small flies,size 12 or 14,
hardest task is finding where the fish are,they usually run very hard in these rivers,i live near 1,and my sucsess has been very limited.


col.

[elwyman]

I had some success on the Elwy a few years back.

Fishing a single handed rod, floating line and 5' vfs braid and 2 flies. Best on a falling spate, fishing obvious holding pools but also places where fish rest while running or might get trapped in the falling water.

Fish all such likely spots well, i.e. don't rush, as I've often caught fish from such places after covering them a few times.

I caught 3 salmon in a week, and all wanted the fly fished slow and deep. Size 10 Willie Gunn & Munro's Killer worked for me, but another rod did well on Allys.

good fun, and a pleasant change from the doublehander!

[macsalmo]

Thanks for that gents, I will give it a bash (if I can sneak off for a couple of hours)

Gary

[macsalmo]

Ive met that many customers lately I dont know how Im going to fit them all in

[exerod]

macsalmo said:

...is quite small ( average 6-8yrds ) it is wider in certain pools.

Thats not small! Nearly all my fly caught salmon have been hooked at a range of ten to thirty feet.
Anyway, the upper reaches of the Exe are about that size or maybe a little bigger. Fishing there the only time I have had to use small flies in autumn is in low water. In spate size 6 allys or 2.5" templedogs work fine (they are still smaller than flying C's). The fish here definitely want the fly coming across the stream slowly or better still actually held directly over their heads. This may be because the pools are so small the fish don't feel comfortable leaving their lies to follow the fly? Most of the takes are from fish coming up behind the fly and sinking straight back down without turning. Dibbling is always worth a go.
I always use a sinker to reduce skating in the fast pool heads and because I think a white floater shows up to much, I don't suppose the salmon really care. Because the pools are so small a even a fast sinker never has time to sink far before the cast is fished out. If you want extra depth just push the rod tip underwater.

Andy

[macsalmo]

Thanks again fellows, I sneaked off this morning up my little river (upper wenning). It was up about 8" and falling still quite coloured when 'voila' this little beauty took:



It was about 7lb fairly coloured and took the old famous cascade conehead (1.5") fished on a floating line with a 5' intermediate poly leader on my 10' single hander ;D

Roll on the next lift.

Cheers for the advice lads.

Gary

[macsalmo]

Theres nothing dodgy with the super glue (honest) it just fell out of my pocket when taking the photo

[hadrian]

Gary,I'm sure there are better ways of keeping fish still when taking a pic.
Nice fish.

T.

[macsalmo]

I thought it was a good way Tony, uhu glue takes ages to work!! ;D