The Great Lakes Charter Association

Fly Fishing Tips


DRY FLY SALMON FISHING !!!!

Fishing salmon with dry fly is little bit different than trout dry fly fishing. That is why I have made a list of things to keep in mind when starting to fish salmon with a dry fly. This list is not perfect and complete, but hopefully helps to make your fishing trip more pleasant.

    1. make the pool or fishing area familiar to yourself
    2. look for the best places the fish to stay or rest in water
    3. make minimum disturbance, don’t let the fish know you are there
    4. Pick your fishing spot ideal concerning the sunlight
    5. pick your fishing spot high enough
    6. try to cast as well aimed as you can
    7. rather fish the fishes you can see in water
    8. let the fly float freely
    9. make your cast so the fly goes direct above the fish
    10. if you loose sight to the fly, make a new cast
    11. make enough casts to the same fish
    12. after you spot a fish, change the colour and size of the fly
    13. when fish rises to the fly, don’t rush and panic
    14. to caught the fish in hook lift your rod up
    15. let the fish decide for rhythm of tiring it out in first seconds
    16. keep your rod up during tiring the fish out
    17. don’t let the fish rest
    18. check the place where your are going to offshore or pick up the fish
    19. tire the fish out properly
    20. knock the fish out and drain the blood out in first things you do
    21. always use polarized glasses

With these advises you get started with dry fly salmon fishing and hopefully reach the point 20.
More you fish , more to learn and don’t give up, the big one will rise...

If these points arises questions, I will explain them little bit more if you want. The explanations are listed below.

DRY FLY SALMON FISHING TIPS EXPLAINED 

    1. make the pool or fishing area familiar to yourself
    2. walk the fishing area or pool from edge to edge and don’t rush to the water, you have time to cool down think little bit how to fish
    3. look for the best places the fish to stay or rest in water
    4. same time you look for fishes, you can observe essential factors in you fishing environment. colour and depth of water etc.
    5. make minimum disturbance, don’t let the fish know you are there
    6. disturbed fishes are not so likely to rise for fly even they haven’t left their spot in river. Keeping quiet and cautious is always better than making noises in nature
    7. Pick your fishing spot ideal concerning the sunlight
    8. sunlight is one of the most important aspects in dry fly fishing. pick the best spot according to the sun. If there’s no light, fishing is kind of hard
    9. pick your fishing spot high enough
    10. from higher place observation is easier, because reflections from water are lesser. you see better how fish reacts to your fly.
    11. try to cast as well aimed as you can
    12. good aiming is important. There is no point casting places where fish cant see your fly...
    13. rather fish the fishes you can see in water
    14. if you can see the fish, you can place your fly in right position and you don’t need to cast the every corners of river
    15. let the fly float freely
    16. in my experience, free floating fly gives best results in normal conditions but there is always exceptions
    17. make your cast so the fly goes direct above the fish
    18. salmon is very lazy fish to move sideways especially when biting the fly. Best results are when fly floats directly above the fish to get it rise.
    19. if you loose sight to the fly, make a new cast
    20. when fishing with dry fly, toss the fish catch a fly is essential. That gives you best possibility to caught it. Only by sound or feeling the fish is hard to caught it
    21. make enough casts to the same fish
    22. salmon may keep you waiting when trying to get it rise. It may do it in first cast or later. Cast a long time a fish you can see, changes are better.
    23. after you spot a fish, change the colour and size of the fly
    24. if the fish doesn’t response, first change size and after that colour. Try to find a combination that gives best result.
    25. when fish rises to the fly, don’t rush and panic
    26. usually if you start hurrying, you will draw the fly out of salmon mouth before it has closed his mouth
    27. to caught the fish in hook lift your rod up
    28. best way to hook the fish in your fly is to lift your rod up and same time pull 20 cm from line. this way you won’t do the hooking too rough
    29. let the fish decide for rhythm of tiring it out in first seconds
    30. worst thing you can do after hooking is panic the fish. Take it easy and let the fish lead the first step of dance. this gives you time to thing your next moves.
    31. keep your rod up during tiring the fish out
    32. this way you have all the power of the rod in use. rod will smooth the pulls that fish makes and fish has to fight against the rod. This will wear it out faster, because fish has to use it’s neck muscles which it has not been used to.
    33. don’t let the fish rest
    34. salmon will retain it strength very fast. After 10 sec break it has 75 % of its strength back. Keep the fish in move and it will wear its strength off
    35. check the place where your are going to offshore or pick up the fish
    36. checking out places for fish pick-up makes easier to get it out of water especially when you are alone against fish (only fair way to fish is man against fish, no hooks) check spare places too, because fish won’t agree with you in first time
    37. tire the fish out properly
    38. when tiring fish properly, it won’t take so many hot sprints in last minutes and fish pick-up is easier to do. Tired fish is easy to pick-up from it’s tail
    39. knock the fish out and drain the blood out as first things you do
    40. the fish will taste much better if you knock it out and drain the blood out. Good fisherman don’t let the fish suffer more than necessary if you going to keep the fish (read: eat the fish, don’t take more than you eat)
    41. always use polarized glasses

Polarized glasses makes easier to read and see the fishes in water. More than that they protect your eyes from failed cast and flying objects like dry fly.

There is no curtain or right way to do dry fly salmon fishing. These tips has helped me to make my fishing trips more or less successful (more more than less) so tight lines and hopefully dry fly fishing opens for you too...

Heikki Anttonen alias Mr. Pompero

HELLO FELLOWS !
Here is my favourite dry fly for salmon catching.
I have named it "Pompero".
In my opinion Pompero is the best dry fly for salmon. I have 22 years experience in salmon dry fly fishing.

I use it for salmon, trout, brown trout, rainbow and grayling with success.
Here is receipt for it:

  • hookPartridge Single Salmon 4 - 10
  • threadwhite
  • tailwhite calf tail
  • bodygrey polypropylen in a form of a fat havana cigar
  • hacklepalmered blue dun cock
  • wingwhite calf tail forward ground fan
  • headwhite thread

Click to view full size

Very easy dressing and shinings killing.

Click to view full size

Tight lines

Heikki Anttonen
heikki.anttonen@pp.inet.fi
FINLAND


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January 23, 2010
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