Growing up, I was told that when the water was big and coloured I had to fish with worms or spin with a copper spoon or yellow Flying C. When the water cleaned and was between 1 and 2 foot, I should fish fly. When the water was low, it was back to worm and spinning. I honestly believed that too. How glad am I that I tried the fly in the 'unsuitable' conditions too.
I've really grown to enjoy fly fishing in low water as it is the most visual of all forms of salmon fishing. A light rod, light line and low diameter leaders. Creeping about, delicately casting so as not to disturb the surface. Almost like casting dry flies for the most easily spooked of trout. Seeing a salmon rise at a fly is something to behold. Rising up to the surface, a flash in the water, a boil on the surface, while you're standing there waiting on the line tightening, which more often than not it won't, it gets the heart pounding and the goose pimples standing on end like nothing else in salmon fishing. That is what I fish for.
A 'wee' cascade.
The prime time for this sort of fishing is from June to August. From mid-August on, you really start to see the evenings shortening and getting darker earlier. As the evenings get shorter, so does my interest in fishing.
I don't fish much at all after August. The very odd day in September if we get big water.
Big water fishing is my next favourite type of fishing. Casting into a fast current of water and trying to slow the fly down. Looking for the eddys and back waters where a fish might be resting up. Even wading in big water is so relaxing. You can almost lay your weight back into the current and it's like sitting on your favourite arm chair fishing. 'The Take' in big water can be heart stopping. The fish turning with the pressure of water behind it almost feels like you've hooked a shark, only to discover it's a wee 4lb grilse. We very rarely get big, fishable, water on the Faughan now. We get a flood that is completely filty and by the time it cleans that water has gone.
Some of my most memorable days fishing have come in big water. I remember heading to the river one morning around 20 years ago with a big brown flood on. There was one pool I enjoyed fishing worm at the tail of and you used to see fish 'heading and tailing' as they entered the pool. It was back in those days when I used to take two rods to the river. I had fished with worm and hadn't got a touch. I tied on a big yellow Flying C and hadn't got a touch either. I was all set to go home when I thought I'd try the fly rod. I'd already wasted a morning so a few casts with the fly rod wasn't going to do any harm.
I was fishing from the bank and my poor attempts at a roll cast were only getting the fly out to the middle of the river. I only had a few casts when the line tightend and I had a fish on. It was safely landed and weighed around 8lb.
My biggest fly caught salmon also came when conditions were less than favourable. I went to the river one morning to find it rising. I wasn't sure of how much rain there'd been or how much it would rise so I didn't want to cross the river just in case I had an even longer walk home again. The water was colouring too and I thought the colour was coming out of a burn upstream so I thought, if I got above that, the water would be more fishable. When I got to the burn, it was just as dirty above it as it was below it. I might as well go home. I'm only wasting my time.
I don't fish from this side of the river much. As I'm walking home I come to a stream that I very rarely fish. There's a nice movement on the water, this is usually flat calm, so I thought I'd give it a throw to see how the line fished round in that height of water. I was about half way down the stream when I cast to the far bank and was allowing the fly to come round to my side again. About 4 foot from the far bank, the line tightened and I had a fish on. With the current of the rising water, I wasn't completely aware of the size of the fish. With the colour in the water, I couldn't see the fish at all. I got it across the current and about 10 feet blow me and I could see where the line entered the water. Suddenly, this huge tail gave a kick about 3 feet behind where the line enetered the water. It was then I started panicking.
It seemed like an eternity, in reality it was probably only ten or fifteen minutes, when I got the fish into the net. It was over 15lb in weight had had taken a relatively small size 8 'Editor'. How it even seen such a small fly in the dirty water, I simply do not know.
I remember going to the river only a few years ago when there was still a lot of water on the river and it was far from clean. It was dropping and starting to clean but again, they were less than ideal conditions.
It was dodgy enough crossing the river in that height of water. The current was still very heavy but I managed to get across and get to one of my favourite 'Big water' pools.
As I was getting into the neck of the pool, there was a guy fishing from the far bank further upstream. I had only ever seen him fly fishing but he had a spinning rod with him and was spinning away. I gave him a wave and he called to me "...it's too big and dirty for the fly". I called back "If I can't fish fly, I can't fish at all". I literally hadn't taken six casts when I had a fish on! It wasn't big, probably around the five pound mark, but it fought hard with the help of the extra current in the water. I got it into the net, hook out and released it again with the minumum amount of fuss. I looked upstream to where the guy had been fishing and he was down on his two knees beside the fly rod, almost tying himself in knots trying to get the rod set up so quickly!!! I hooked another 2 fish after that but lost them. It was one of my most memorable days at the river.
A Bann Special in larger sizes can be a very good
choice in coloured water
While it is possible to catch salmon on the fly in bigger water, please do not put yourself in any danger. I would not even consider wading somewhere that I didn't know well. There are places that I know very well that I simply would not set foot into when the water gets above a certain height.
Looking back to the advice I was given growing up about when I should fish fly, those conditions are now probably my least favourite for fishing now. As, I've said previously, my fishing is pretty much finished by the end of August. I do fish the odd day in September if I get 'Big water' but for the most part, my rods and reels are usually cleaned and away by the middle of September.
Fishing in a foot of water towards the end of the season, that's filling up with leaves and waiting for the line to tighten, really does nothing for me. I could catch fish, probably catch more than I have in the summer months, but for me, it is not all about catching fish.
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