Dry fly fishing for Atlantic salmon?

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SalmoNewf
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Re: Dry fly fishing for Atlantic salmon?

#21

Post by SalmoNewf »

Looks good, Marterius! Should work just fine.

JFL
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Re: Dry fly fishing for Atlantic salmon?

#22

Post by JFL »

A little tip on that bomber, at least when it comes to Atlantic Salmon in Northern Norway and small rivers. Swap the hackel with Coq DeLeon, two wrapps for higher floating. Size 6-8 on a Mustad Single Salmon hooks. It makes all the difference in the world here. Then again, I have also caught Atlantic Salmon on size 14 mayflies.

I have used Tufts & Batson 8'6" and and 8'3" #5 rods with a Godfrey Paradigm Ausable and Phoenix Silk line.

Sorry for the blood on the fish, but this one ended up as a quick dinner.

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Image
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Marterius
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Re: Dry fly fishing for Atlantic salmon?

#23

Post by Marterius »

JFL wrote:
11/11/20 14:22
A little tip on that bomber, at least when it comes to Atlantic Salmon in Northern Norway and small rivers. Swap the hackel with Coq DeLeon, two wrapps for higher floating. Size 6-8 on a Mustad Single Salmon hooks. It makes all the difference in the world here. Then again, I have also caught Atlantic Salmon on size 14 mayflies.

I have used Tufts & Batson 8'6" and and 8'3" #5 rods with a Godfrey Paradigm Ausable and Phoenix Silk line.

Sorry for the blood on the fish, but this one ended up as a quick dinner.

Image

Image
Thanks JFL! So they should ride high on the water? I intend to try them in western Sweden, and southern Norway if you let me in this summer. :)

No need to apologize for me, such delightful food!

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Re: Dry fly fishing for Atlantic salmon?

#24

Post by JFL »

In my experience yes, they should ride the waters like the Catskill flies. And I do hope you get to visit Norway next season. If you have the opportunity to north, do it! :)
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Marterius
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Re: Dry fly fishing for Atlantic salmon?

#25

Post by Marterius »

JFL wrote:
11/11/20 18:25
In my experience yes, they should ride the waters like the Catskill flies. And I do hope you get to visit Norway next season. If you have the opportunity to north, do it! :)
Thanks! Yes, but no plans for going up north this time. My friend and I have a week on one of the private beats on the Bjerkreimselva in July. :)

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Marterius
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Re: Dry fly fishing for Atlantic salmon?

#26

Post by Marterius »

I am trying to get a grip on the literature on the subject... I presume that classical texts are by La Branche, Hewitt, Bates and Wulff? Are there any other interesting books on dry fly fishing for Atlantic salmon?

Regards,
Martin

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Re: Dry fly fishing for Atlantic salmon?

#27

Post by SalmoNewf »

Those books you list are a good start and provide a background on the development of dry fly for salmon. They have, to a certain extent at least, been superseded by more modern techniques which don’t have full books to describe them, rather chapters of more generalized books. I would recommend the following:

Gary Anderson, “Atlantic Salmon and the Fly Fisherman”
Topher Brown, “Atlantic Salmon Magic”

When I say the older books and techniques have been superseded what I mean is that the Edwardian types like Hewitt and Labranche were of their age and liked to quantify and qualify things to what now seems a bizarre extent, such as only using a dry fly when the water temperature is between x and y and the air temperature is z or higher is one example and another is the necessity of landing the fly in one very precise inch of water in order to instigate a rise. The fact is that different things can and do work in different places at different times and the newer writers recognize that. Dry fly fishing for salmon is also evolving every season and different flies and the way of using them are developing in different areas. YouTube is also your friend!

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Re: Dry fly fishing for Atlantic salmon?

#28

Post by mac7x »

In Salmon on a Dry Fly, Derek Knowles describes his experiments with tiny tube flies.

Off topic here, but his Yellow Badger is a wet that should be in your fly box.

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Marterius
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Re: Dry fly fishing for Atlantic salmon?

#29

Post by Marterius »

SalmoNewf wrote:
11/25/20 09:29
Those books you list are a good start and provide a background on the development of dry fly for salmon. They have, to a certain extent at least, been superseded by more modern techniques which don’t have full books to describe them, rather chapters of more generalized books. I would recommend the following:

Gary Anderson, “Atlantic Salmon and the Fly Fisherman”
Topher Brown, “Atlantic Salmon Magic”

When I say the older books and techniques have been superseded what I mean is that the Edwardian types like Hewitt and Labranche were of their age and liked to quantify and qualify things to what now seems a bizarre extent, such as only using a dry fly when the water temperature is between x and y and the air temperature is z or higher is one example and another is the necessity of landing the fly in one very precise inch of water in order to instigate a rise. The fact is that different things can and do work in different places at different times and the newer writers recognize that. Dry fly fishing for salmon is also evolving every season and different flies and the way of using them are developing in different areas. YouTube is also your friend!
Yes, I see you point. I guess it can be said that those older authors have a "pre-Wulff approach".

Among other things on the net, I have found two very nice articles by Hans van Klinken, with whom I also previously have exchanged some letters. A fine gentleman! Links to those two articles:

http://flyfishinggazette.com/a-few-simp ... ic-salmon/

http://flyfishinggazette.com/lessons-le ... servation/

And also by van Klinken:

http://flyfishinggazette.com/my-way-with-salmon/

http://flyfishinggazette.com/my-way-with-salmon-part-2/

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Marterius
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Re: Dry fly fishing for Atlantic salmon?

#30

Post by Marterius »

mac7x wrote:
11/25/20 10:24
In Salmon on a Dry Fly, Derek Knowles describes his experiments with tiny tube flies.

Off topic here, but his Yellow Badger is a wet that should be in your fly box.
I had completely forgotten about Knowle's book - thank you! I have handled it when visiting a friend with a good library some years ago. Definitely on my list now. :)

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Marterius
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Re: Dry fly fishing for Atlantic salmon?

#31

Post by Marterius »

I just found a section on Derek Knowles and his method in "Salmon Fishing" by Hugh Falkus. They fished together. Mr. Knowles owned a large estate in Northern Scotland with some decent salmon pools, apparently on the river Mallart.

There is a picture of Mr. Knowles in the link below, I like the way he dressed:
http://www.fishmadman.com/newsletter/ne ... k-knowles/

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Marterius
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Re: Dry fly fishing for Atlantic salmon?

#32

Post by Marterius »

I am reading Hewitt, and I am surprised by the thin leaders he was using: down to .006" at a regular basis, it seems. What are your experiences with leaders for salmon dry flies. Or bombers for that matter (which I guess is a somewhat different matter)?

I like his writing, there is a certain self-confidence which is a bit unusual in fishing books. :)

Kind regards,
Martin

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Re: Dry fly fishing for Atlantic salmon?

#33

Post by gt05254 »

Marterius wrote:
12/12/20 13:33
I am reading Hewitt, and I am surprised by the thin leaders he was using: down to .006" at a regular basis, it seems. What are your experiences with leaders for salmon dry flies. Or bombers for that matter (which I guess is a somewhat different matter)?

I like his writing, there is a certain self-confidence which is a bit unusual in fishing books. :)

Kind regards,
Martin
Martin:
You are going to get a zillion different answers on this one, from "I just use 10 feet of 10 pound" to "I start with a 30 pound butt tapering down to an 8 pound tippet." You will find that a great many salmon anglers (me included) don't fret the decimal system, going instead by the claimed "poundage" of a given spool of material. Personally, I find that 8 pound Maxima (the brown one) as the tippet turns a good size bomber over pretty well. My bomber leader is (for my single handers) tapered and 9 feet long. I do know quite a few salmon anglers that go up to 10 pound tippet.
The first of the many 2 cents you're going to get on this one!
Gary

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Re: Dry fly fishing for Atlantic salmon?

#34

Post by SalmoNewf »

#2 toward the zillion! Have always used the brown Chameleon Maxima, usually in 8lb. and as a tippet on a tapered leader though sometimes move up to 10 or 12lb test Maxima if using a bigger (#4 or #2) Bomber or Wulff in high winds, sadly frequent around here. This past season I used a fluorocarbon tapered leader with a 10lb tip in clear water and it seemed to me that I was getting more rises than with the Maxima but more research is required on that! An 8lb tippet is plenty strong enough, every salmon over 20 lbs I’ve ever landed ( about a dozen) has been landed, quickly, on 8lb breaking strength. I put lots of pressure on to get the fish in quickly as they will be released and I want to minimize the stress put on the fish by playing them. The only breaks I’ve had have been attributable to one spool of 8 lb Maxima I kept too long.

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Re: Dry fly fishing for Atlantic salmon?

#35

Post by Doug K »

oddly enough 8lb Maxima is what I've always used too.. landed a 48" chinook salmon on it once, ended up hand-lining the fish in as I couldn't move it with an 8wt rod.. but the leader held up fine.
Note that 8lb Maxima will typically test closer to 10lb than 8lb breaking strain..

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VanfromMaine
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Re: Dry fly fishing for Atlantic salmon?

#36

Post by VanfromMaine »

20 years ago when we could fish for Atlantic's in Maine, my bomber leader was the Heavy Orvis Braided with 3' of 10lb Maxima this worked great, also used the same setup to cast Garthside Gurglers for Stripers

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Re: Dry fly fishing for Atlantic salmon?

#37

Post by mac7x »

Interesting. I was hoping to try a Gurgler for Atlantics, before the border was closed. But as an old Red Sox fan, I'm very familiar with the mantra, "wait 'til next year."

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Marterius
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Re: Dry fly fishing for Atlantic salmon?

#38

Post by Marterius »

Many thanks for the input! Your answers confirm the impression I have formed so far, given the use of lighter tackle. Gary rises an interesting question about the preference for the decimal system compared to claimed "poundage". Here in Scandinavia, we almost always talks about leaders in terms of diameter and in thus refer to the decimal system. But the practical issues are of course the same: We want the leader that will carry the fly nicely and it must neither too weak nor too heavy.

Maxima is indeed a classic here as well and I have used it on occasion. I have myself been through a lot of various flourcarbon materials, but I am back with Orvis Superstrong as my favourite.

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