Superflybuys

WITH the salmon season under way and the trouting about to start, my Facebook is flooded with pictures of “musthave” flies.

It’s the same every year – there’s a new twist on an old pattern that’s absolutely deadly and you’d be wasting your time wetting a line without one on the end.

Aye, right. It makes you wonder how those old guys in the black and white photos with dozens of silver tourists lying dead at their feet ever got a bite in the first place.

The truth of the matter is that if a salmon’s in a taking mood, it’ll take pretty much anything that’s presented to it at the right depth and speed.

And that’s the key, more than the right fly. It’s all about presentation.

The most successful salmon fly fisher I’ve ever seen – naming no names but he caught two at Newtyle on Wednesday – is a case in point.

I’ve only ever seen him fish one pattern of fly with just a slight variation in size and colour. Tied on size 8 doubles, they consist of nothing more than a sparse hackle, a body of gold or silver flat tinsel and DUNFERMLINE angler Liam Campbell took 15 minutes to haul this massive pike out of “a very big Scottish loch”.

It fell to a 40g green bulldog lure fished in 45ft of water on a windy morning and tipped the scales at 26lb – a new personal best.

Congratulations Liam, you will shortly be receiving details of your fantastic prize courtesy of top UK tackle makers Daiwa, our Fish of the Week sponsors. a wee bunch of bucktail at the back.

Even in heavy water in the early season, when most of us would be trying out the latest coneheads with go-faster stripes and all the trendy bells and whistles of the day, he’ll persevere with the same fly – and catch more fish than anybody else.

As I’ve said, it’s all about the presentation. Guys like this put out a lovely straight line with every cast, turning the leader over so the fly is fishing correctly the second it hits the water. They’ll angle the cast appropriately so the fly isn’t swimming too quickly or too slowly.

And having read the water well before they start, they’ll know just where to put in a wee mend or two.

The one thing they will change is a sink tip to get the fly fishing at the right depth, and such is their instinct that other anglers who watch what they’re doing and copy it will catch more fish too.

So forget about those fancy new flies that everybody seems to be catching loads of fish on.

The only reason loads of fish get caught on a particular fly is that loads of anglers are fishing with it.

Do yourself a favour and tie yourself a dozen simple flies like the one I’ve described, then take the money you would have spent and buy a full range of sink tips.

Then get out there and work on your casting. Time spent practising is never wasted, even if there isn’t a fish to be seen.