news/editorial

31 July 2016 News/Editorial

I am no technical salmon fisher, more in the school of those who put a fly on in September and leave it on all autumn, regardless of conditions, until it falls apart completely or becomes virtually hairless, with exception perhaps for a new-found willingness to try hitching or a sunray shadow, when the fish are there but won’t take my (increasingly decrepit) “normal” fly.

There are two instances where the “technicians” get it spectacularly wrong, both a result of overthinking salmon fishing in the endeavour to tilt the scales of success in their favour.

First, they use fluorocarbon instead of good old fashioned nylon (Maxima preferably).

Secondly, they use a breaking strain less than 15lbs (I always use 20lb).

So... fluorocarbon first.

If you have some, bin it.

There are those who have used it for ever and never been broken by a salmon. They are lucky. I bought a roll of 20lb fluorocarbon about 10 years ago, hooked a biggish fish, it shook its head during the fight, and broke the 20lb leader. The rest of the 20lb roll went in the bin quicker than you can say “snap”.

In the view of many, it is too brittle, it breaks when the fish you are playing makes a sudden jerk, or jumps and jerks the line tight. It has happened here so often, I could cry (and it did again last week). We ban it here in the interests of not leaving fish with hooks in their mouths, the one man fishing with it last week escaping our attention until it was too late. I am told on some beats of the Alta in Norway it is also banned. The problem appears to be that it doesn’t stretch as ordinary nylon does, it is too rigid in coldish water, so any sudden tightening during the fight, especially with a big fish, can be fatal.

Which brings us to the second mistake, fishing with too light nylon. Salmon are not especially gut-shy, or if they are, I have yet to see it. They may shy away from a badly cast, splashy fly in low water and sunny conditions, but it isn’t the nylon that frightens them.

I hear some say that the fly, especially a small fly, swims better with 10lb nylon rather than 15lb. I have looked over a bridge and watched a fly being fished below me, and I have seen my own fly, when the light is right, on small, more highland rivers…...and I always use 20lb nylon, and I can’t detect any difference in how it behaves…..and anyway how is the fish meant to know what the fly is supposed, by the technical angler, to swim?

And we had an example of this last week too, of 12lb nylon I am told, not fluorocarbon, breaking when playing a biggish fish.

So that is two salmon in one week, left with flies in their mouths, because of using a leader which is either fluorocarbon or nylon which is too weak.

So please don’t come fishing here with anything less than 15lb breaking strain, consign your roll of fluorocarbon, whatever strength, to the nearest bin….. and go and buy some bog standard 15lb, or stronger, Maxima.

No doubt some tackle shop or fluorocarbon manufacturer will say I am talking rubbish, but all of us here will never, ever, use the stuff again…..because of the numerous examples we have had that it breaks and leaves hooks in salmon’s mouths.

Which is unforgivable, once you know it is quite likely to happen…..

which you do now.

--oo--

To the Findhorn last week, lucky guests of most generous friends, to Dunearn, one of the Lethen beats, the cream of Findhorn fishing.

Others, “experts”, would no doubt have caught more, but one from the Hitch Stream gave me huge pleasure and excitement, in such a wonderfully dramatic river with a series of lovely, and very different, pools.

The joy too of only having to cast 20 yards max, whereas here even 40 yards might not quite cover them all.

If you ever get the chance to go there, take your climbing boots to get down to some of those lovely pools, and your “hitching” and “dibbling” skills.

And, like me, you will love it.

--00--

And, finally, back here on the Tweed, we are in the “upstream flying condom” time of year, when those who do nothing else but spin, seem to descend on us (not here, we don’t allow it, but elsewhere on the river), between now and 14th September before, mercifully, it becomes illegal.

I suspect most of those caught last week in the blackish water were caught spinning, even though the river was very low.

It is a loathsome way of fishing when it is perfectly possible to fish with a fly. I am told I am elitist in saying such things, that I am spoilt and in a unique position of being able to fish a lot…….all of which ignores the inconvenient fact that there are 1000s of salmon fishermen, not as lucky as me, who think the same.

Spinning in low water should become unacceptable as it is on other rivers. Can you imagine someone lobbing an upstream flying C into one the Delfur pools on the Spey in July or August?

It does not happen there, nor should it here, and the proprietors and boatmen on the Tweed who both allow and even promote it, should think again.

In the meantime, over the next 6 weeks, I wonder how many of our wonderful salmon will fall prey to that ghastly lure, the (upstream) Flying C, or, almost as bad , the rapala, in low water?

Acceptable in coloured high water; in low, perfectly fly-fishable water, spinning both upstream and down is a disgrace (with exception only for those who cannot wield a salmon fly rod, because they are old, infirm or very young).

It should stop, as it does post 14th September, and everyone quite happily, from then on, catches them on a fly.

If then, why not before?