water

not sure–OR–Knot Sure

in Articles / Flyfishing Blog / News  by March 4, 2016 0 comments

not sure– OR– KNOT SURE

The most popular knot used by fly fishers to tie their flies to their leaders has to be the half blood knot or as most American anglers call it, the Clinch Knot. With a high knot strength and being easy to tie, it has gained almost universal acceptance as the go to knot for tying on our flies so it must be the best knot??.  If we observe experienced, clued in trout or salmon anglers it will become noticeable how often they check their flies to make sure that they are ok, and it is not just to check for weed on the hook point or wind knots in the leader. It is to make sure the problem depicted in the picture below has not occurred

As we can see, this half blood knot has pulled around to the side of the hook eye and this can happen no matter how tightly we pull the knot when it is first formed. This fly will not swim properly. The problem also happens with trout wet flies, dries, nymphs and streamers. Experienced anglers are aware of this problem and just resign themselves to the knots shortcomings. However, there are two better knots that we can use!

In the picture above we have a salmon fly with an upturned eye but it doesn’t matter which way the eye is turned because this knot will work. Pass the tippet through the eye and around under the shank of the hook.

Pass the tippet back out through the eye making sure you leave 4 or 5 inches of tippet outside to finish the knot.

Now all we have to do is make a normal half blood knot as normal and draw it up tight

When we draw the knot tight the bulk of the knot fits very neatly into the eye of the hook. Some anglers use a Turle knot or a double turle knot to replace the half blood knot to cure the problem of hinging, but this knot is neater and easier to tie as we are still using a knot that we already know to finish the knot.

Here we have a view looking down at the top of the fly and you can see how neat the finished knot is. As an experiment hold the fly and pull strongly on the tippet from different angles and you will find that the knot stays put, maintaining a perfectly straight joining between fly and tippet. I believe this knot was invented by Gordon Lesinger and the great Art Lee christened it the Tweed Clinch.

Now we have a truly effective replacement for the half blood knot especially for trout or salmon flies with a pronounced down turned or upturned eye and it will also ensure that our flies will always swim straight.

I came up with another knot many years ago as a replacement for the rapala knot when fishing small plugs for salmon or trout.It is very quick and easy to tie. It gradually dawned on me that my new knot might also be useful for salmon and trout flies as it would allow a lot more lifelike movement in my flies while still allowing them to track straight in line with my tippet. This knot,shown below, is basically a modified double overhand loop knot with the fly inserted in before we start. I have never given this knot a name so to save confusion with the overhand loop knot lets call it The Moy Loop.

Put the tippet through the eye of the fly and make sure to leave 4-6 inches of tag end to make our double overhand loop

Just pass the fly through the big loop twice

 

The fly has been put through the big loop twice

 Trap the loop behind the hook eye with your index finger and holding the two loose ends together evenly then pull in the direction of the arrow to close the loop

Pull the knot until it closes gently around the hook eye, don’t pull to tightly at this stage

 

Gently ease the semi closed knot from the side of the hook eye to the front and holding both lose ends evenly then tighten the knot fully

Clip off the waste tag and there we have it, The Moy Loop

 A buzzer tied on with the Moy Loop

When we fish very rocky rivers we may have to use tippets that are much larger in diameter than what we would normally like to use because of the likelihood of abrasion against these hazards. Flies tied to heavy tippets with half blood knots lose most of their lifelike movement but  we can now employ the Moy Loop which will allow our flies have maximum lifelike movement while still swimming straight and true.  Nymph fishing for wild stillwater/river trout is all about presenting our flies at the correct depth and allowing them to fish as naturally as possible and here once again the Moy Loop knot with its ability to provide the maximum possible free movement  will also match these requirements perfectly.

When dry fly fishing for trout on heavily fished rivers the trout can become very spooky as regards to our flies dragging on the water surface creating a wake  . Even the tiniest hint of drag (sometimes called micro drag) can put them off rising to take our dry flies. Here once again the Moy Loop knot with its maximum free movement capabilities would be a good knot option to use.

As fly fishers, we do not need to know how to tie dozens of different knots.  If we know how to tie 5 or 6 good ones for various applications/situations then we should be well equipped to tackle the vast majority of fishing scenarios. Now you have two more to add to your arsenal !!

All the best,

Paddy.

 

 

www.paddymcdonnell.ie

Salmon Lies (Part 2)

in Articles / Flyfishing Blog / News  by February 14, 2016 2 comments

SALMON LIES (PART 2)

All anglers can remember various influences during their fishing careers that have helped them in obtaining a better understanding of the complexities and little nuances that are involved in the jigsaw like puzzle that salmon fishing sometimes seems to be.  Every new piece of knowledge that we add helps us to form a more complete picture and also helps us to approach our fishing in a logical, confident manner. One of my own early influences was a book on salmon fishing by R.V. Righyni which was kindly given to me by my first mentor Ned Gallagher(now sadly passed on).   Righyni’s book (Salmon Taking Times-published in 1965) was a mine of valuable information  for a fanatical young salmon angler! . In the book there is a chapter on the behavior of water in rivers.  The first three diagrams in this article are based on the content of this chapter in Righyni’s book, and will really help us to have a better understanding of the salmons environment.  Reg Righyni was one of the best salmon angling writers of all time and probably never got the full recognition that the brilliance of his work deserved.

There are two different types of flow in rivers that are important to us anglers as we try to figure out the location of potential salmon lies, and in the diagram above which is a waterfall we can study water flow caused by suction.  In the diagram the water current at A is very fast but that is not due to the immediate gravitational pull at that point because there the pull is vertical and prevented from operating on the flow, other than to keep the water compact, by the flat rocky bed of the river beneath it.  At point B the force of gravity is able to assert itself and the water drops, and as it will not allow the formation of a vacuum, suction draws the water from A to replace it.  The impetus of the falling water is largely lost when it reaches the bottom of the falls, and what remains is deflected in all sorts of directions.  At the bottom in the falls pool the water has no inherent forward pressure to make it flow away.  Consequently, a slight dome of water tends to collect, but gravity will not allow this to build up.  The strong vertical pull on this extra surface water is deflected by the water beneath it (which cannot be compressed) into a much weaker, almost horizontal pull which causes the top layer of water to flow gently away.  The subsequent behavior of that water flow depends on the changes in capacity and character of the channel through which it must pass until ultimately the water is again taken over by the influence of suction.

 In this diagram above the more inclined fall results in a more gradual deflection of the movement of the water, and it loses considerably less of its impetus by impact with solid matter or other water than in our first diagram.  Consequently the falls- pool does not get washed out as deeply, and is more elongated.  Nevertheless, the back washes, and undercurrents still arise and the residual forward pressure is compelled to exert itself mainly on the surface layers.

 This diagram is a vertical section of an average sort of pool that is to be found on many rivers.  It includes all the same features of a waterfall, but everything is elongated even further with the head being a rapid rather than an actual fall.  Pools which are less well defined than the one depicted above are simply the same thing over again, but elongated still further, and the proportionate size of the component sections(Head,Neck,Main Body,Tail) can vary infinitely.  Gravity is, of course, responsible for all the inherent flow of the river, but the effects of it are modified by other factors which deflect or transform the vertical pull into horizontal flow.  When the gravitational pull can exercise itself forcefully on the water and is deflected by the slope of the river bed into horizontal or forward pressure, it is hardly possible in natural conditions for it to occur smoothly and evenly. Backwashes in all planes from vertical to horizontal are set up,and quickly,if not all together, the forward flow becomes concentrated in the level near and on the surface.  The movement of this layer is resisted by the pockets of slack and swirling water beneath it.  Unless some additional impetus is given to the forward pressure by a further drop in the bed of the river, it is quickly divested of its power, and the movement is reduced to no more than that required to equalize the level of the surface. It is necessary to try and visualize the essential differences between the two basic types of flow.  Runs through the necks of pools and the streamy water in the wider shallow stretches have a rough or popply surface.  The smooth surface water in glides and pool tails behave entirely differently.  Here the water moves along en masse owing to the pull of the suction created immediately below, where a drop in the bed of the river enables gravity to take hold forcefully.  As the smooth surface of the glide indicates, there is a minimum of turbulence at all levels, with the flow being nearly even from the bed of the river up to the surface                                                                                                                     The reason why we need to understand these different types of flow is because salmon will lie in both of them to varying degrees,but this will depend on many variables such as, time of year,time of day, light intensity, water temperature,oxygen availability,safety,water clarity, whether the salmon is a long or short term resident or just stopping for a short little breather as it runs upriver.                                                                                           Let us try and look at these two different types of flow in an even less complicated way and give them simple names such as  SMOOTH GLIDEY FLOW                                                                                                                  RIPPLED EVEN FLOW                                                   We can now add a third equally important type of water flow and lets call it                                    CHAOTIC TURBULENT FLOW    

 The first two we need to spend our valuable fishing time in and the third we need to avoid as there will be generally no salmon lying in Chaotic Turbulent Flow.  The vast majority of fly caught salmon are taken in water that is 6ft/2 mts or less in depth, so even if the flow type that we happen to be fishing in at any given time seems to be ideal it is also  important that it is not too deep.  Fly fishing for salmon in water that is 9ft,10ft+ deep is usually very unproductive when using normal fly fishing techniques.

With the aid of some photographs we can now have a look at these three types of flow

CHAOTIC TURBULENT FLOW – The red arrows points towards a very strong water current with its white tipped waves jostling for position!-too fast, too turbulent.  The yellow arrows point to swirling,boiling and up-welling water.  No salmon will lie in this type of water either. Fly fishing our way down through water like this is a complete waste of our valuable fishing time, and during the course of a weeks fishing holiday, it is a sobering thought to realize that we may have been fishing completely barren water for a substantial part of each day.

 This is an interesting pool.  The salmon run upstream from the pool below along the yellow line.  From the point of the yellow arrow you will notice a smooth area and this is the tail of a mini pool (Smooth Glidey Flow) that lies between the yellow pointer and the downstream point of the red line on the left.  This mini pool is fairly easy to spot in this instance, but other so called pools within pools are more difficult to spot, especially if the overall current is moving slowly.  The smooth appearance of the water surface in this tail is easy to see at distance and would be even easier to see if we were looking upstream from further downriver.  In fact all types of current flows along with all their varied little nuances reveal themselves much better to us when viewed from downstream looking upstream.  The first red line on the left marks two salmon lies in the tail of the main pool and at this point the suction from the drop off below is really beginning to take effect –Smooth Glidey Flow.  In low to moderate water flows running salmon will pause and hold here(along the red line), with some resting longer than they normally would in a pool tail because the overall speed of the river flow is moderate.  When the river level is higher and the current stronger some larger fish still pause here, but smaller fish start to find this lie too uncomfortable, and start to lie along the red line to the right where the depth and flow rate suits them better.  The purple arrow points at a whorl on the water surface caused by a large rock on the river bed.  The black arrow pinpoints where the rock is actually situated, and you can see that it takes a little time for the effects of the turbulence around this rock on the river bed to actually reach the water surface downstream from its actual location.

 The red line indicates the position of three lies in a Rippled Even Flow.  The yellow line is also in a current flow that is caused by forward pressure, but in this case it is too turbulent.  When the water level in the river drops down a little more, and the pace of the main current along the yellow line decreases, then there may be some places along this area that may become more evenly flowing and steady where a fish might possibly lie. Running salmon will occasionally lie in this type of turbulent,fast water, but only when a large rock, group of rocks, or something like a ledge of some sort set at a fortuitous angle happens to buffer the current to produce a relatively even, slower, pocket of current flow. These potential lies in turbulent stretches of salmon rivers can be very difficult to spot, but if we remember to look out for evenly flowing, or better still, smooth evenly flowing, areas in among all the chaos, then we may discover some valuable new lies that we might have previously walked by.  Not many of these fishy looking potential lies in turbulent water will actually hold salmon, because there are just to many things that have to come together perfectly to make a suitable lie in this hostile type of current, but enough of them will produce a bonus fish to make the effort of trying to discover them both enjoyable and worthwhile.                                                                                                               There is still more to cover on this subject of where salmon lie in rivers, and in the next article we will try to click a few more pieces of the jigsaw into place.  Until then, enjoy the spring salmon fishing, and remember don’t lift into those takers too soon!!

All the best

Paddy      

Hooking Salmon On The Fly (part 2)

in Articles / Flyfishing Blog / News  by January 24, 2016 0 comments

HOOKING SALMON ON THE FLY   (Part 2)

In part one we looked at a hooking system that works very well, and can be used with confidence for the majority of our fishing.  This involves ensuring that we keep our rod tip well up(about 45 degrees) as our fly fishes around in the stream, and when we get a take the rod is lowered in gradual increments as the fish tugs on the line.  When these tugs increase in strength to become positive strong pulls, and we begin to really feel the weight of the fish we stop lowering the rod, clamp the line for a couple of seconds while smoothly raising the rod back up to make sure the hook is fully set.  This taking process can be over very quickly with the fish almost pulling the rod out of our hands immediately, but because we had been fishing with our rod tip well up we had a nice drooping curve of fly line from the rod tip to the water, and this buffer allowed the fish to turn with the fly.  It is the versatility to cope with, and accommodate a wide variety of salmon taking behavior that makes this hooking system so dependable.

 the Rock Pool on the river Easkey

 

 

A windy day on the Rockhouse Fishery river Owenduff and this fly fisher has wisely decided to keep his rod tip low and fish off his well adjusted reel drag in the fast water

There are certain conditions where we may have to modify our approach and hooking technique, and one might be during spells of windy weather when our high held rod tip may be a disadvantage as it allows our fly line to be flapped all over the place, with our selected presentation being adversely affected.  In this situation we need to keep our rod low and fish off the reel.  There are many experienced, successful anglers who use this technique of fishing off the reel, which also works very well when fishing in fast water pools.  The taking salmon is allowed to pull line freely from the reel during the taking process, and when the fish stops taking line off the reel, the rod is then smoothly raised up to feel for the strong pulls and weight of the fish and set the hook.  Obviously the drag setting on the reel is set relatively lightly, but we must be careful that the drag setting is not set too lightly or we may risk an overrun on our fly reel, with our fly line ending up in a bird’s nest of tangled loops, and everything jamming up.  A good way to guard against this problem lies in the initial adjustment of reel drag before we commence fishing, and all we have to do is grip the line near the reel and give it a sudden jerk, if the reel overruns then adjust the drag setting until the reel gives line without overrunning.  There is a subtle margin of error between having the reel drag set too strongly with the salmon feeling excessive resistance during the take, and a fly reel drag that is set too lightly with the possibility of an overrun, and a jammed reel

 

Hans Bender landed this lightly hooked grilse because he was using a progressive action 7 weight fly rod on the Owenduff river

Fresh grilse are notoriously soft in the mouth and many are lost during the taking process, or during the subsequent battle. The problem of lost fish may not always be to do with the angler’s technique, but might actually be the choice of hook that the fly is tied on.  Treble hooks in the mouths of fresh grilse sometimes allow one prong of the treble to lever against another, with the hook rolling around the mouth, and eventually working free. If fresh fish are been lost on standard sized trebles (6s,8s,10s) then it may be wise to change to double hooks which are excellent for hooking, and staying well set in during playing fish.  Smaller size 14,16,18 trebles are also excelent hookers of Salmon.

Another area of tackle and technique that sometimes gets overlooked is actually the line weight, plus the action of the fly rods we use when targeting these soft mouthed fresh fish.  Sometimes when we set the hook in these fresh fish the hook hold we achieve is barely holding in, and if we are not careful during play then it is very easy for the hook to pull out, especially if we are using stiff rods and heavy fly lines.  We should try to use as light a fly line as will get the job done effectively, and use nice progressive action rods as opposed to ultra fast action rods.  With a lightly hooked fresh grilse we stand a much better chance of landing the fish on a progressive action seven weight than a stiff action nine weight rod, as the lighter outfit is much more forgiving, and absorbs the salmon’s lunges more smoothly and softly.

Jurgen Van Den Hout clamps the line tight for a few seconds to make sure the hook is set after he had already allowed this salmon enough time to properly take and turn away with the fly.

When a salmon takes a fly into its mouth it will feel resistance from the rod and line but that is ok as salmon are used to capturing prey that resist.  The salmon rapidly opens and closes its mouth trying to crush and kill its prey, with the occasional fish actually swallowing the fly.  Successfully hooking, and landing salmon on the fly has many important factors, but the most important one is giving the fish time to go through its natural prey killing behaviour, whether that takes two seconds or ten seconds

All the best

Paddy