i know very little about fishing for salmon... (and not much more about trout! :lol:)
if you had to recommend a one-stop guide for a novice, which book/author woul you go for?
Shug Falkus "Salmon Fishing" is a very good book
Also commit the following essential credibility phrases to memory and shout them loudly while strutting confidently down the left hand bank.
TOP HOLE WIVER OLD BEAN!
I SHOULD SAY SO!
DO YOU PLAY CWICKET?!
HAVE YOU SEEN WUPERT?!
:lol:
Falkus seems to be the de facto book to get. Not everyone agrees with his writing though.
There is also Neil Graesser
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&search-alias=books-uk&field-author=Neil%20Graesser
I haven't read one. I've got several (Olglesby, Balfour-Kinnear, Falkus etc) but they are very dated and of questionable value. Flies and tactics have changed drastically in very recent years. If there is a good book on modern salmon fishing I'd hazard a guess that it will have been written by a Scandinavian.
FWIW I'd say look at DVDs for casting if you can't be with someone.
The things that have changed massively are the lines with a lot of use of shooting heads and spey lines both of which are combined with interchangeable tips.
Might be worth asking on the Salmon Fishing Forum.
It doesn't have to be a new book does it?
The library, or abebooks.co.uk have plenty of access to older titles.
Righyni covered a lot in a sensible way long ago.
Crawford Little describes methods quite well.
If you fly fish for salmon in rivers and have not read "Flying Salmon" by Balfour Kinnnear you are not fully clued in.
And if you fly fish salmon in lakes then Sidney Spencer becomes an education.
For an up to date, just published last year salmon fly fishing book you could do a lot worse than to try
Paul Marriner's Atlantic Salmon from http://www.galesendpress.com/
(http://www.galesendpress.com/AS.gif)
cheers guys!
i asked on here as i knew i'd get some sensible answers and not have to put on my posh voice or tweeds :lol:
fred, you missed a couple:
get orff my land!
bally kayakers ruined the fishing again
i'm also thinking the double-hander might work quite nicely for the salt, which would at least keep me closer to my working class roots!!
Here?s another useful one Dave, but on no account use it later than August 11th or they'll suss you out as a fraud:
If there?s not much doing fish wise just shout Never mind chaps it?ll soon be gwouse time. :D
like it, andy! :lol:
problem is, my local river's the spey.... :roll:
Don't you listen to those anti-snob snobs Dave. DH casting is an art form in itself a worthy of any amount of study. In fact I have been fishing the Fife Leven with a single hander (it is a small overgrown river) and wishing I had a DH to get round the obstructions. i also found I would get a sore shoulder with the SH 7 weight that would never happen with a DH. Where backcasting is limited DH is the way to go. That is what a fighting butt is for IMHO
Bookwise I really can't add to the list so far but I must emphasise what Exerod said. Local knowledge is paramount. Find the good lie, get there as often as you can and drop a fly/spinner/worm at that place. Then worry about depth, speed and size. As Exe said timing and luck are paramount. Find a pal who can show you round.
Get a few DH lessons as well. There is a higher basic skill level than a single hander. I should add that after that I think that a SH is ultimately more difficult but that is probably just me.
Once you get whacked on the back of the head with a 3" brass tube with a #8 treble attached you appreciate the finer skills of double handed casting :)
zeolite
You can spey cast with a single handed rod to :)
I found this video of Falkus's quite handy he shows double and single handed rods.
http://www.angling.tv/fishing-videos/free-fishing-technique-videos This is just a clip.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Falkus-Fly-Casting-DVD-Hugh/dp/B000CCE2BY
Sandy
I think you meant to say "One can spey cast with a single hander"! I find it much easier with a double hander. :shock:
I think it has to do with the extra length as much as anything. You can reach round overhanging bushes and a wee flick or two does the job with the DH whereas I have to put some power into the SH.
I use DH and singlehanders depending on the river. It's a compromise, isn't it? A double hander will generally cast bigger and heavier flies better and can reach over currents an obstructions. However if you are casting from overhanging trees and under overhanging trees then a single hander wins every time. It's also a lot easier to cast further in restricted spaces with a single ander as you just double haul the line to create extra line speed rather than having to rely solely on the rod arc. On my local river using a double hander would severely limit the fishing.
I would get one of the books by Alexander Baird Keachie, they are a bit more up to date.
cheers, guys! i've ended up with one of oglesby's books :shock: as i managed to pick it up for 38p... i think it's worth that :lol:
it would appear that once i've mastered the principles of "down and across", that's salmon fishing pretty much sorted. of course i'll then have to write volumes telling you how clever i've been catching more fish than my companions, even though i claim to have no insight as to why a particular technique works :roll:
mind you, i've still got to work out how to identify a salmon.... :8)
Quote from: corsican dave on August 15, 2010, 09:39:11 AM
it would appear that once i've mastered the principles of "down and across", that's salmon fishing pretty much sorted.
If only....
There is up stream nymphing, big dry flies and of course stripping a lure, the list goes on and on. Some times the traditions in the UK are a barrier but not, I suspect for you dave :D
Norm
It would seem in the mystical east,most anglers are using shooting heads and stripping,down and across is hardly done,it would seem.(though most fish are taken on spinners,even when the booking clearly states fly only) :worms
Quote from: Clan Ford on August 15, 2010, 10:07:15 AM
Some times the traditions in the UK are a barrier but not, I suspect for you dave :D
Norm
too true, norm! it's all about getting food to fish at the end of the day :lol: and yes, burnie: i'd noticed that 90% of the catches round here are on spinning rigs :roll:
Quote from: Clan Ford on August 15, 2010, 10:07:15 AM
If only....
There is up stream nymphing, big dry flies and of course stripping a lure, the list goes on and on. Some times the traditions in the UK are a barrier but not, I suspect for you dave :D
Norm
Some people have tried the bombers for dry fly - quite extensively too but they don't seem to work too well in Scotland. The big bright nymphs we use for grayling sometimes seem very sucessful usually after the end of the season in my case!
corsican dave
Very interesting reading through the posts on this topic.
IMHO, there is no book out there to compare with what you can learn via the Web and the various forums that abound.
I have fished with all sorts of peple for Trout and salmon - from the unemployable up to the top end of the social scale. In my experience, there are only two types of angler. Those that like to share knowledge and those that don't - the Givers and the Takers, you might call them.
As a working class Scot, I feel it is a part of my cultural heritage to be able to fish for Trout and Salmon. You can get an awful lot of fishing for the price of an annual subsription to a Golf Club or even following your favourite Football Team over a Season. It is the cost of travel and accomodation that is the Killer now costwise.
My local Club has a Season Ticket @?30.The River Clyde Angling Associations offer Salmon fishing at very reasonable prices for what is good fishing over a 1000 Salmon and Sea Trout, last year, I understand. The River Kelvin also had a great season with over 800.
However, sometimes it is just a better day out when you fish a 4 rod beat @, say, ?60-70 a day. it is all fishing and no waiting on people fishing out a pool.
I have just come back from 2 days on the Tweed, where I fished really good fly water etc. The chances of a Spring fish were slight. The party of 4 had 15 Kelts, Baggots,Rawners and one clean fish! It was good value fishing all things considered, and certainly great craic.
Salmon fishing is all about fishing when the fish are there and in the mood, not when it suits your diary.
tb
Quote from: tweedbunnet on February 20, 2011, 08:36:38 AM
Salmon fishing is all about fishing when the fish are there and in the mood, not when it suits your diary.
tb
tb, couldn't agree more!
i'm just enjoying "salmon on a fly" by lee wulff.here's a little snippet:
"
one man i took to a high place on the bank from which the whole floor of the pool was visible. from that point of vantage it was easy to see that there wasn't a fish in the pool. instead of being grateful fo my keeping him from wasting any more time there, he was exceedingly upset because i had spoiled his fishing"
You might like to try these too Dave.
http://www.archive.org/details/daysnightsofsalmscrorich
http://www.archive.org/details/lifehistoryhabit00mall
http://www.archive.org/details/anglerscompanio00stodgoog
wow! that's a really handy link. thanks! :D
Do you own any ebook readers Dave? Sony, Kindle or the like? You can download the books and upload to the reader and take them wherever you are for a read. I also have a link to a program that converts the different formats so they can be read on different readers.
no, i don't sandy: i'm more of a dead-tree man, myself! :lol: but i love the ability to scan those archives. excellent resource. i will be delving further...
As am I Dave, but between my wife and I we have 53 books on the Sony and it is easier to get in the suitcase :8)
easier to smuggle them in, too :lol: i'm pushing my luck on the "been on the shelves for ages, dear.." front! :roll:
Dave
A wayward thought about Fishing Books.
One book I re-read every year since I was a kid is
"The Boys Book of Fishing"
By Major General RN Stewart
Try Amazon
An oldie but a goldie. It is from different time and age (Public Schoolboys and the Empire) but the smell of the river/fish comes off it when you open the pages and start to read!
tweedbunnet