Unlike the Rainbow Trout, we do not catch salmon because it wants a fly as food but because we are stimulating its predatory nature. We can trigger the salmons predatory nature using traditional flies like Green Highlander or Silver Doctor imitative flies like Ally's shrimps designed by Ally Gowans which resemble shrimp based patterns through to modern flies like sunray shadow tube flies and monkey tube flies which usie ultra-mobile materials like cashmere goat for maximum movement that may look like a small fish to the predatory salmon.
Salmon flies
Salmon Flies - Hook Based Flies
Salmon flies come in all shapes and sizes and vary accoring to hooks, salmon single hook flies, salmon flies and salmon treble hook flies. Depending where you are fishing and the club or water rules you may be allowed to use salmon doubles or trebles or may not. More waters are restricting the types of hooks for the benefit of the salmon.
Salmon Flies - Tube Flies
One of the most successful and flexible salmon fly fishing method is undoubtedly using tube flies. Salmon tube flies can comprise aluminium salmon tube flies, copper salmon tube flies (which have more weight to go deeper faster) or nylon salmon tube flies which stay closer to the surface. There are then modern tube fly systems like Tubeology which are even more flexible allowing you to take a aluminium salmon tube fly to the water and interchange heads for hot spot colour and size / weight allowing the same salmon tube fishing fly to vary the depth and spped at which it descends in different parts of the salmon pools. Salmon tube fly patterns vary from traditional flies like green highlander through modern flies like pot bellied pig tube flies and the ultra mobile sunray shadow tube flies and monkey tube flies using materials like cashmere goat for maximum movement.
Salmon Flies - Size & Use
Sizes for hooks vary throughout the year. In early season as this Tubeology recommended seasonal fly chart shows early season size 4 hooks with green flies are better for catching salmon, mid season sees variation running through yellows (try Allys Cascade Shrimp) to oranges (try Allys Shrimp) and as the season progresses flies should get smaller, in the peak of summer you may be using salmon fishing flies as small as size 16. At the tail of the season red flies (try Allys Shrimp Red) to purples (try Allys Shrimp Purple)
Salmon Flies - General
Remember the salmon stops eating when it moves into fresh water from the sea to breed, it is literally dying to reproduce until it is able to return to the sea and vast quantities of salmon die in the act of reproduction. Because of this we are not catching salmon because it wants a fly as food like the Rainbow Trout but because we are stimulating its predatory nature. We can trigger the salmons predatory nature using imitative flies like Ally's shrimps designed byAlistair Gowans known as Ally Gowanswhich unsurprisingly resemble shrimp based patterns or the red francis which using boar hair again looks like a shrimp through to modern flies like sunray shadow tube flies and monkey tube flies using materials like cashmere goat for maximum movement producing ultra-mobile flies which may look like a small fish to the predatory salmon.
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