So You Want To Start Spring Salmon Fishing?
- Details
- Published on Wednesday, 06 August 2008 13:05
- Written by Ian Cowie
Really, you do? I often wonder if it is a form of masochism. I mean fishing for trout gives you blanks often enough, but spring salmon are so rare these days, what is the point?
The weather is cold and frequently rainy, if not snowy and deep wading with ice rafts looks distinctly dangerous (where is that risk assessment?) The tackle is HUUUGE. Big rods, big lines and LOOK at the size of those tube flies. These are brass and imagine the damage if you hit yourself with one? What are those? Ooooh “spinning lures” eh!
So why does anyone do it at all and why are some prepared to pay large amounts of money for the privilege? To answer that I will have to tell you what it means to me.
My first cast of a doublehander was on the Dee in autumn. Through a contact I was out “helping” to catch hens for the hatchery and I just turned up to be given a 16 foot fly rod. I hadn’t a clue but half an hour with a ghillie had me single speying in a comfortable manner. I didn’t catch anything but I loved the feel, sound and rhythm of the speycasting. 
I was hooked, as we say, and proceeded to tackle up as best I could on a limited budget, I was in a middle of a get “married and buy house stage.” Once I got the minimum, I started to look around for regular fishing and soon discovered just how expensive salmon fishing can be. I also realised that some very expensive beats can be very inexpensive in the spring. I also realised that fishing when it is quiet meant you got more attention from the ghillie with the benefits to your casting and general fishing knowledge that they impart to you. Therefore, I decided to get out in the spring and learn the craft, the logic being that there was no point in paying a lot for a good beat at a good time just to turn up and be unable to fish it.
I was fortunate, at the time I was beginning, to be living near the Dee and to have contacts working on the Dee estates, so I got on some very nice water for very little money.
I just loved being out on the water. I had purchased neoprene chest waders and I found them to be a revelation. Rain, hail or snow I just didn’t seem to get cold when out fishing. I loved the big water as well. You can hear the banging of the stones as they bump down the river and there is a distinctive smell at this time of year that I can’t really describe. A freshness that fades as the vegetation starts growing and starts grabbing your flies.
My favourite thing is, of course, the tackle, big rods, big lines and big lures. What isn’t there to like? I mean, I quite like faffing about with a wee rod and a size 18 dry Greenwells, but you just can’t beat swinging a 15 foot double hander with a #10 sinker into the teeth of a whiteout blizzard, in February, on the Tay or Dee. The flies are special too. Psychedelic fluoro colours on 2-inch tubes. Your tackle box is a riot of hot orange, bright purple and electric blue. Just looking at them makes your head spin.
As usual when you go fishing you meet other anglers and ghillies and I can honestly say, I have not met anyone I didn’t like on the water. Some great craic from all types of people with the head clowns being the ghillies. I reckon there is an entertainment section to ghillie school.
In summary, I love spring fishing for salmon, but I realise it is not for everyone. You have to be able to take the cold, have the stamina for the big rod and like big flashy lures. Although the main thing I suppose is not to be too concerned about catching anything.
Ian Cowie lives near Leven in Fife with his long suffering and fellow angling wife, Yvonne. Ian qualified as a geologist but now helps oil companies to even greater profits but helping them put their oil wells in the right places. Ian is an opportunist angler and will have a go at most types of wild fishing but really loves the Spring salmon season.