Atlantic Salmon: Tuning in Your Skills and Gear

One of the things that I have always loved about fishing is that there are no hard lines that define what is right and what is wrong. It really is all about how you want your fishing experience to be. Ultimately, that determines how you fish and the tools you use.

By EIRIK FJELLDAL

Fly fishing is a lifetime sport and we are all on different personal fly fishing journeys. Your journey into fly fishing – how you were exposed to the sport for the first time – was probably different from mine. Or maybe not. It really doesn’t matter that much. What matters is that at some point in that journey, you decided that chasing anadromous fish with a fly rod was something that resonated with you and a spark was lit…

We all have different reasons and motivation for doing this sport and we all have different approaches to it. Everything ranging from just wanting to be outside in nature with good friends or family fishing some nice stretch of water a few days a year – to the hard-core angler who lives and breathes fishing 24/7, 365 days a year. It’s about the adventure and being outdoors. It’s about the chase and being the hunter. It’s about doing something challenging and satisfying. It’s about acquiring skills, knowledge and experience.

And no matter where you are on the learning curve on your fly fishing journey, you, like the rest of us, have had your «AHA», «WOW» and «WTF» moments and still occasionally do every time you pick up a fly rod.

In between fish…

One of the things many might find difficult when getting into fly fishing for salmon is that there isn’t a whole lot of fish, so you can’t get feedback on your technique on a fairly regular basis. Either that or they simply won’t grab your fly for other various reasons, so you don’t get the benefit of fish giving you some positive feedback as much.

We have all been there out in the river and wondering – am I fishing this water the right way? Am I using the right lines? My leader? My flies? My technique? Is this a good water to fish right now? These are the kinds of things we end up obsessing over and they can frankly make you wonder where sanity ends and something else takes over. You will learn a thing or two when you catch a fish, but you will learn and experience so much in between fish.

When I talk with beginners or even anglers who’ve been at it for a while, I sometimes hear some form of “I want to be able to feel better when I’m fishing” or “I want to be able to enjoy my time on the water more...”.

Answers like that might sound kind of semi-retarded at first, but they are not. Of course, most folks enjoy being outdoors in beautiful nature with good friends fishing – I mean, what’s not to like about that? But it is not about that. It is about feeling good about what you do when you are standing waist deep in the river fishing. Some may, for example, just want to be able to cast further, but I suspect much of the answer to a statement like this is rooted in wanting to be able to have that cast go out there, exactly how they want it to, more often.

Fly fishing will for me always be about a feeling and rhythm. Connecting with the right feeling where everything just flows and feels right. The rod, line and leader almost feel like an extension of your arm and everything is done with the right timing and in an unconscious state. I am “Happy Gilmore” in my happy place. I’m just doing what I do without thinking about it and my focus is solely on how the fly is working the water.

But how do you get to the point where you get connected to that feeling where everything just feels right – where you fish with confidence, where you can almost sense a tug before it’s coming and are almost elevated into your own little private yoga or Tai chi session?

Consistency of presentation

There is unarguably something damn sweet and insanely satisfying about anchoring up a nice big fat capitol D, then rocket a tight loop against the far away bank and landing that fly on a straight leader exactly where you want it to. Distance is always a sexy thing, but it is not as much about distance, but more about presentation and control. I have been lucky to fish together with some really good anglers close to almost three decades now. You learn a lot by hanging around and fishing with experienced anglers, so never miss out on any opportunity to do just that. It is hands down invaluable and will turbo charge your own learning curve.

In my opinion, an important part of what really differentiates top-notch salmon anglers from the rest is the consistency of their presentation. They are excellent casters. They throw a nice straight and tight line that immediately puts the fly under tension and gets it swimming. Not only that, but they also stay connected to the fly – meaning that with every swing of the fly, they know exactly where the fly is in the water column and exactly what it’s doing, and it’s doing exactly what they want it to.

Many folks throw a cast that is not very straight or tight, they are not getting that fly under tension and they are not really controlling the swing with the rod tip. Either getting ahead of the line to pick up speed or staying behind the line to slow it down.

You can fish the swing after a crap cast too – a lot of salmon have been caught on crap casts and crap presentations. I see that every summer. Nevertheless, if the fly does not turn over – by that I mean the shooting head extends, the leader comes tight and the fly actually lands tight – your chances of catching a salmon just went down far more than you will appreciate. A fly that is swimming is by far much more effective than a fly that is not. That’s one of the key elements if you want to increase the number of encounters you have with salmon.

Get access to growth

Sure, everything starts with learning the fundamentals on how to cast and then practice casting – that’s your ticket into the whole game, so to speak. You need to reach a certain level of proficiency in your casting to be able to have further access to growth. Fishing is not about casturbation, it’s about how well you fish the cast. So, what it boils down to is being efficient and making things easy. You should not spend years figuring out how to cast, so you then in turn can figure out how to fish.

You evolve as a fisherman. I’ve heard somewhere that first you want to catch a fish. Then you want to catch some fish. Then you want to catch big fish. Then you just want to catch fish the way you want to fish. I think there is some truth to be found between those words.

Some fish single hand rods, others do switch rods, but the majority use double handed rods for salmon. Some prefer short rods, while others prefer long rods. Some are into the early season fishing with heavy sinking lines on big rivers, while others only fish a floating line at the back end of the season in small rivers. Some do Skagit lines and some prefer hybrid lines, some long belly lines while others only fish Scandi lines. In addition, you will find those who do everything i just mentioned and a whole lot more.

A Spey rod doesn’t know it’s a Spey rod and a single handed rod doesn’t know it’s a single handed rod. They are levers that bend when we ask them to bend – it is just physics! Once you have learned the concept that a Spey cast is just a roll cast and that everything else is basically just a set up for the roll cast, you are in a place where things really starts to get interesting. You are learning about the importance of a good early pick up, anchor placement and not to use too much range of motion in your casting. From a switch cast you move on to changing direction by doing a single Spey cast or a snake roll to make even larger directional changes. Or you can progress to other Spey casts like the double Spey, snap t or c casts - that is for you to decide.

Whether you are doing overhead casting, Spey casting, single hand, double hand casting or switch rod – the better caster you are, the more up the rod you move. As people get better casters they start feeling how to control further and further up the rod. If you can get to the point where you can control the tip ring of the rod and make that tip ring move as you want to – then you have entered masterclass casting.

The perfect marriage

Designers of rods have a particular intention when they design a fly rod. They envision that rod in its happy place – a specific fishing application that the rod is intended for and where you will get the most out of it. The same goes for designing fly lines. Now we could discuss resins, recovery speeds, cheap and cheesy components versus high end components, fast flex profile rods versus soft flex profile rods, brand this versus brand that.

What it all boils down to is that there are very few really bad rods out there today – mostly just bad line and rod combinations. It is the pairing between rod and line that is crucial to what it is you want to do. Certain rods will respond better with certain lines. The line and rod relationship will play into how happy that rod is doing what it’s doing.

All rods are designed to cast a certain weight of fly lines and each rod has a “line weight window” if you will. Most manufacturers also provide easily accessible information and recommendations on line weights to each rod they make. Rods in this day and age have a relative high tolerance to line weights, so it’s equally as much about the line profile and how you will be casting that specific line profile that’s important.

Use a Skagit and a Scandi line as example. Most rods are similar in that there is going to be a sweet spot for the both of them. All rods will be able to cast both Scandi and Skagit lines, but some rods are better suited for a specific task. Sure, a rod is a simple lever that just deflects – but within that deflection there are going to be certain characteristics that may or may not play to what you want to do and how you want to fish. The only way to find that out is for you to spend some time trying them both out on the same rod and making up a subjective opinion based on how you like the rod to behave. That’s part of the learning experience to find the perfect pairing that works for you.

When your mission is to dial in the perfect pairing between a line and rod, the key factor to look for is the balance between maximum line speed and the feel of the rod load. You want that perfect marriage between maximum line speed and rod load where one doesn’t rob from the other.

Important tools

Every part of your fly fishing kit is important. Everything is connected in every sense of the word, and it all needs to be well balanced. Optimizing and tuning in every part of your kit will just make the end result better one way or another.

And that’s where you want to be – you want to set yourself up for success, fish with confidence and get connected to that feeling when everything just feels right, the casting is effortless, and your fly swings perfect in the current.

Good flies are important and so is a good shooting line, a good rod that matches your shooting head, a good reliable fly reel and so on. But in this whole equation of connected parts if you will, I would argue that the shooting head is probably the most important tool in your fly fishing toolbox. Not only is it the means of delivering the fly out there in the river where you want it, but also the most important tool to present the fly at the right depth and speed.

Presenting the fly at the right speed and depth is key and essential to being successful in salmon fishing. The fly is what the fish see and react to of course – but if you can’t present that fly under all scenarios and conditions, the way the fish prefer to induce grabs, you are likely to miss out on many opportunities.

The perfect setup?

There is not one perfect shooting head that can do it all in salmon fishing – and I doubt there will ever be one. Why?

Making any fly line or shooting head will always be a compromise between mass distribution/line profile, length, the technology available, density etc. Versus where I fish, under what conditions I fish and how I want to present the fly. These factors are subject to change all the time.

This is how I think. I need different series of lines – or in other words, different “families of lines”. I might want a selection of short lines with different densities to deal with smaller rivers, deep wading and casting in tight positions.

I might want a selection of longer lines with different densities for bigger rivers where I have good space and need a longer casting distance.

Now, the reason I use the phrase “family of lines” is not coincidental.

If I want a system of lines where I can use the different densities in a way that actually makes sense – it’s important to get a system of lines and densities from the same manufacturer, same brand and within the same line family. A Sink 5 line from one manufacturer is not necessarily a sink 5 for the next.

I want the different steps in densities to make sense and sink the way I want them to, and I want the lines to have the same length on the sink section of the line. Only then does having a system of shooting heads make sense. Only then can I actively use for example an Intermediate/sink3 line and change over to an Intermediate/ Sink5 line and know for sure that I get the properties I need in a fishing situation when going from sink 3 to a sink 5. It’s about having options within a series of lines. Then I will always have one line that is perfect for any condition or situation.

Where the magic happens…

When I hit the river, I always have 2-3 swing sticks rigged up with different lines. Often meaning different densities, but also different profiles, for example if the wind is really nasty. Then I might prefer a Skagit set up over a Scandi rig. Usually those rods are 14´#9, 15´#10 or a 16´#10, my set up is determined by the conditions I meet, where I will be fishing and how I want to fish.

There is a rule of thumb in Spey casting - you gain or lose about 10 feet of distance pr 1 feet of rod length. So, if you have an 11´#8 and a 14´#8 rod, you probably get a 30 foot longer cast with that 14´ #8 with a similar set up and similar casting stroke on both.

Since I usually fish relatively big rivers, it makes all the sense in the world to have those bigger rods. More importantly, those longer rods also help me to easier mend and control my swing for better presentation if I’m waded out deep. If I just wanted the best fish fighting tools for big salmon, I would definitely go for shorter rods with better leverage and pulling power. But everything is a tradeoff and you have to make conscious choices all the time. You gain some features that is more important than the features you lose.

How I choose to fish a pool depends very much on the character of the pool, water temperature, water level and where I expect the fish to be holding. Under more normal conditions I often first cover the pool with a close to surface type of line to see if I can get a fish to rise. Maybe a Float/ Intermediate or Intermediate type line – visual takes will just never go out of fashion!

Then I might swap rods and go for a heavier line, for example an Intermediate/sink5 to dig the fly down, presenting it closer to where the fish may be lying. Then I might even go deep down and dirty with a full black line after that.

I always try to read the waters, consider the conditions, and the situation I’m in, and then come up with a plan. Always have a plan you can intentionally work around and apply your shooting heads and flies to from all angles so to speak. Don’t be afraid to use heavy density lines if the salmon don’t respond to a close to surface presentation of your fly – dare to go heavier than you initially first thought was necessary. Give the salmon two options – move or take the fly!

I guess my main point is to vary your approach and vary in a way that really makes a difference. Don’t just change a 5cm fly to an 8cm fly – go from 5cm to 15cm. The same goes for how to use your shooting heads. Don’t just go from an Intermediate head to an Intermediate/sink3 – go for an Intermediate/sink7, or why not a 750grain sink 8 line if you can?!

Use all the tools you have in your fly fishing toolbox actively. If you have one line, you have one tool. If you have 3 lines with different densities, you have 3 tools as options in your toolbox. Options in salmon fishing are not only nice to have – they’re essential to hooking up with fish under all conditions and throughout the whole season.

So, what is the experience you want out of your fly fishing? The river will always be your classroom, that’s where you learn and build up you’re experience.

It’s about dialing in what you want to do and how you want to do it. It isn’t necessarily about which rod, and line system will catch more fish, but rather which one will allow you to feel most confident in your presentation and enjoy your valuable time on the water the most. If that means only fishing a floating line the whole season will make you Happy Gilmore in your happy place – then that’s your journey.

But fishing isn’t just casting. It’s about thinking, analyzing, adapting and being intentional in what you are doing on the water. Spend time on the water, that’s where the magic happens.