Fly Fishing

kory_k · Location: New York, NY

Ok so along the same lines as the caddis posts, this has got me thinking about flies. Aren't flies what it is all about? We call it fly fishing and the flies are probably the most important aspect of the sport. Anyway, I have quite a bit of experience fly fishing for steelhead swinging wet flies on the west coast and bc. Since moving out to NY I have done quite a bit of it out east as well. What I still have yet to do is fish for Atlantic Salmon. I order a lot of flies here in the fly shop for Atlantic Salmon and know some of the basics but would like to hear from some of the guys on here that have spent time fishing for Atlantic Salmon and hear their thoughts. With Steelhead, a lot of times it is about finding a color that shows well with the water conditions and the pattern itself isn't all that important. Certain aspects of the pattern like how well it sinks in the case of wet flies or how well it "wakes" in the case of dry flies or size in certain scenarios are often very important as well. The actual pattern is less important than some of these aspects. The steelhead aren't feeding (at least on the west coast) so you aren't "matching the hatch" and the ytake the fly out of aggression or instinct so you can get them to take a wide range of flies. There are exceptions to this, but as a general rule the pattern doesn't matter that much. So my question is, with Atlantic Salmon is it a similar scenario? What are your favorite Atlantic Salmon flies and why?
Thanks!

jeremy · Location: Portland, Maine

I have not done a whole lot of atlantic salmon fly fishing. Infact, I have only fished 3 rivers for Altantic Salmon and caught a few fish. The Penobscot River in Maine, The Miramichi In New Brunswick Canada and The Cains River in New Brunswick Canada. I can tell you this, from my experience, the Atlantic Salmon are one of the strangest species of fish I have ever fished for in regards to the flies that I used. If anyone on earth can tell my why the "hot fly" when I was on the Miramichi was a very small pattern called "The Green Machine" - well, I'd love to hear it. It doesn't look like anything at all in terms of bait or anything like that, its very small and not big and obnoxious as you would think a fly that was built to irritate a fish and entice them to bite it out of frustration might be. The fish are not in the river to eat .. and so on and so forth. So, one of the things that I loved most about my experiences with Atlantic Salmon is that "The Flies" are really kind of a mystery in many respects and unlike trout where "matching the hatch" is the name of the game for the most part .. that does not apply with Atlantic Salmon.

In my limited experience I was able to summize a few key points that I gathered from talking to old time atlantic salmon fly fisherman. The "general" rule seems to be "The higher the water, the bigger the fly" and "Keep Your Fly In The Water"- With that said, my favorite flies are:

1. The Green Highlander
2. The Green Machine
3. Black Bear Green Butt
4. General Practioner
5. Shady Lady
6. Green Bomber

greg · Posted: Fri 07/24/09 8:53 am Post subject: Atlantic Salmon

Every year I chase Atlantic Salmon in Gaspe Canada, Cape Breton Canada and in Maine, when there was a season! Before discussing flies, I should mention it is now the law in Canada to crush barbs on your hooks. This is taken seriously and you want your hooks barb less as the fish and game people do check. That said, the right fly for water clarity and water levels is as important as bringing your rod. I am told that Salmon will hit a muddler or even a caddis, not for me, so I stay pretty much with the highest probability flies based on my personal experience. Your personal style, to some extent, increases or decreases your effectiveness with particular flies. Considering this and depth and clarity, My favorites are:
1. Bomber. For dry fly action.
2. Rusty Rat.
3. Blue Charm
4. Black Bear Green Butt
5. Magog Smelt With heavy hook for high water.
6. Purple Grape
7. Tiger Ghost
8. Pompeii
9. General Practitioner
10. Ally Shrimp
This is by no means an exhaustive list but the flies I use the most. I pick up patterns here and there as they look good but it isn't cost effective.
Some of the above should come in smaller sizes and double hooked, as the small sizes in shallow water reduces your chances of a god hook set. In high water you want heavy or double hooks to get the fly further down in the water column to get the fly where the fish can see it.
I will leave for Canada in October to fish for these great fish and use mostly the above flies and probably add a few more because I had freakish luck with something new.

kory_k · Location: New York, NY

Thanks for the input Jeremy and Greg! i have always wanted to hit the gaspe peninsula sounds pretty incredible from the stories and pics that i have seen. I would just love to hit a chrome bright atlantic wherever it happened to be. That is exactly how it can be for west coast steelhead Jeremy, who knows why they seem to be so tuned into certain patterns. Certain colors show up well in certain water conditions and certain flies have better profiles in certain water types etc, but why they ultimately take the fly is only speculation. I am familiar with many of the patterns that you guys mentioned, but a few I haven't heard of. I will have to keep this as a hot list of atlantic salmon flies for the time that actual get to fish for atlantic salmon.

gudis · Posted: Tue 08/04/09 5:33 am Post subject:

Hi,

I havent been fishing in the US for Atlantic salmon, but I live in sweden and I do quite alot of atlantic salmon fishing here.

I just have 5 minutes to one of the nicest runs here in the south of sweden.

We are saying like this..

It doesnt matter what color your flie have, as long as it is black...

Black are the color that almost always work. Most of our rivers are humus (brown) colored so black, red and brown flies are mostly used.

Atlantic salmon are not so picky about color, but SIZE does matter more.

You can have big fish taking a small 2cm flie on top of the water.

kory_k · Location: New York, NY

Gudis,
You are a lucky man to live that close to prime atlantic salmon fishing, i am envious!

That is interesting what you say about black flies. On the west coast for steelhead, many people say the same thing. One old guide that had spent his life on a northern british columbia steelhead river always told me "it doesn't matter what fly you throw as long as it is black leech". I can definitely say that i have had very good success with black over the years. Just out of curiosity, you say that your rivers are brown or humus colored. Have you ever tried blue? That seems to work quite well at showing up in that type of color water. Just curious. Thanks for the input