Cumbrian Spate River Salmon On The Fly
I make no apology in stating that I
feel
I am very very fortunate to live where I do here in West Cumbria, and
one reason being is that Im fairly geographically central to at least
Seven Salmon/Sea Trout rivers of varying degrees,
all within a radius of around 15 miles from my home. Ive grown
up in an area which not only has these rivers, thankfully it also
offers a wide variety of fishing for
any angler who wishes to broaden his horizons from just Game
fishing, and to completely fill an angling season, utilizing these
other opportunities is essential, because when it comes to spate river fishing there are drawbacks. Firstly when constantly
reminded of the numbers
of fish entering and being caught in the Sea Trout rivers of Wales or the Scottish Salmon
rivers each year, the days of what can be regarded as highly
prolific
runs of Cumbrian anadromous fish have long gone and usually local
anglers
find nowadays that we've become accustomed to what can be described
simply as a reasonable run
of Salmon, and secondly, these Salmon what do appear are geared towards mostly entering the rivers during the late summer and
autumn months given good water.
Not too long ago a good friend was talking to me about the impending opening season on the 15th of January for Salmon on his river "Eden", and how he was looking forward to it, more so, on that day I know there would have been every chance of him catching his first fish of the season too, and yet as it was December, it only seemed like yesterday that I landed my last Salmon of 2007, even though the season up here begins on the 1r st of February, in the absence of a true spring run of Salmon, it wouldnt be till late July given water until we saw the next fish, at least..!
To write in order to try and justify my predominantly Cumbrian based salmon angling pursuits, given that most elderly anglers know its "not what it used to be" and mostly geared towards "the back end anyway" when my local rivers do come into there own, the sport can be fantastic and they are there right at hand for me, for this I am thankful.... Furthermore, one main aspect which sees me favor Spate River fishing over going away to bigger "and expensive" rivers, is that no amount of money can buy being able to stand in an elevated viewpoint to observe these fascinating creatures on a daily basis, from what is only a few feet away.
Not too long ago a good friend was talking to me about the impending opening season on the 15th of January for Salmon on his river "Eden", and how he was looking forward to it, more so, on that day I know there would have been every chance of him catching his first fish of the season too, and yet as it was December, it only seemed like yesterday that I landed my last Salmon of 2007, even though the season up here begins on the 1r st of February, in the absence of a true spring run of Salmon, it wouldnt be till late July given water until we saw the next fish, at least..!
To write in order to try and justify my predominantly Cumbrian based salmon angling pursuits, given that most elderly anglers know its "not what it used to be" and mostly geared towards "the back end anyway" when my local rivers do come into there own, the sport can be fantastic and they are there right at hand for me, for this I am thankful.... Furthermore, one main aspect which sees me favor Spate River fishing over going away to bigger "and expensive" rivers, is that no amount of money can buy being able to stand in an elevated viewpoint to observe these fascinating creatures on a daily basis, from what is only a few feet away.
"Daily Reconnaissance"
For the most, our Spate rivers have
been relatively untouched by man, and the typical set up will be a steep, fast
flowing, tree lined on one or both banks watercourse which can
seemingly run off as quick as it floods following a storm .."Up in a shower, down in an hour".., with
surprisingly deeps pots scattered about here and there and with undercut
banks and overhanging trees which serve as excellent cover for running
fish to pull into for a brief rest. These rivers local
to me all emanate from the central wheel of the Cumbrian mountain
range, and make their way seaward by meandering down some of the most
spectacular scenery in the UK, running through individual valleys of
differing character, and yet only a few miles apart. The average length
is between 9-15 miles from Source
to Sea, and when taking into account the evidence presented in past
angling
literature of sea liced fish being caught in excess of 25+ miles
upstream on larger rivers, its fair to say that it wouldnt take long
for a determined fish to reach the spawning grounds from the estuary if
the conditions were right, you can probably appreciate by now that
to be successful requires the need to be in exactly the right place at
exactly the right time.
When taking a closer look at two of our rivers, namely the Irt and the Ehen, you will see that they are not pure spate rivers, both are fed by rain, yet not exclusively as in the Duddon, Annas and the Esk, because at the head of these rivers the water levels are cushioned by a lake of which they emanate from, the Irt begins in Wastwater, Englands deepest lake, and the Ehen starts out in Ennerdale. This will see that these two rivers should fall into the category of Freestone rivers, and will hold water levels for slightly longer than the Duddon, Annas and Esk, this will in turn increase the time that they can be effectively fished following a flood.
"The conditions for Salmon to be able to return into this river are that they must encounter a spring tide in conjunction
with river flood conditions, in this image both requirements are almost fulfilled, thus the fish can soon probably go over the shingle bank and proceed to enter the system"
"overkill with a double hander?"
When taking a closer look at two of our rivers, namely the Irt and the Ehen, you will see that they are not pure spate rivers, both are fed by rain, yet not exclusively as in the Duddon, Annas and the Esk, because at the head of these rivers the water levels are cushioned by a lake of which they emanate from, the Irt begins in Wastwater, Englands deepest lake, and the Ehen starts out in Ennerdale. This will see that these two rivers should fall into the category of Freestone rivers, and will hold water levels for slightly longer than the Duddon, Annas and Esk, this will in turn increase the time that they can be effectively fished following a flood.
"The conditions for Salmon to be able to return into this river are that they must encounter a spring tide in conjunction
with river flood conditions, in this image both requirements are almost fulfilled, thus the fish can soon probably go over the shingle bank and proceed to enter the system"
When thinking of Salmon fishing in general, it is all to easy to
imagine happy days wading down a scenic beat on a Scottish river with a
mighty 15ft Speycasting rod, a full floating line maybe topped of with
6ft of sink tip, with a nice ghillies hut located
just down the way, and maybe an angling friend or two wading down
through the run behind you, and when fishing some
of our rivers I find that anglers that are seemingly lost in these visions and
are using the exact same tackle set up as if they were fishing the Spey
in September. This always puzzles me as the angler working his way
along the high banks of such a small river, wielding a 15ft rod,
overhead casting about 15ft of line
cannot be fishing effectively, and more importantly without good water
craft. The sight from a long way off of an angler approaching with a
huge rod, splashing down his line and fly, letting it swing
momentarily, then ripping it back off into a back cast will generally
see the Salmon temporarily fleeing for cover. Given the width of the
river, the actual amount of time the the fly is effectively fishing
will be reduced to a minimum too, take into account that this angler
will also be restricted to the area he can fish because he needs
sufficient space to make a back cast, it does make
one wonder why they insist on fishing this way, further to this, on
these rivers I don t buy into arguments that a rod of this length is
needed for line mending, hanging the fly on the dangle somehow better,
or even essential in playing and landing a fish once hooked...
"overkill with a double hander?"
Personally I prefer a good quality 9ft single handed rod rated for
and 8# line and to utilize the ability to really "fish" for a Salmon,
in this regard what i mean is that I have enough line beyond the rod
tip to not only load the rod for making various casts, but to also
really work a fly into and through a pool, trying different speeds,
approach angles and depths. When I see anglers fishing through with a
double hander, the drill is pretty much the same and the actual fishing
process appears to look quite uninteresting "I often think that the fish must think the same".
What I believe to be is the biggest disadvantage of the angler using a
double hander is that the lines that are on the market today are far to
long in the head, even for an 8 or 9# Double Hander, the angler,
although he can pick up quite easily the length of line that will see
his fly into the far bank, and bar of course the fly simply swinging from the far bank to near, the angler has
not any line to really "fish" with once the cast is made, plus the
timing that the swing takes to complete happens all to quickly on such
small fast water.
Considering the pool above in this rather unflattering image taken
during the winter, we can see that on the far bank we have overhanging
trees which touch the water, the pool deepens on the far bank as
the river bares left, and fish can be found just in front of the bend
near the opposite bank and back towards the tail which is out of the
picture.
This image is the typical problematic scenario we are faced with when
trying to catch a salmon. Although we can stay low and thanks to a
clear bank we can keep out of the water too, the first obstacle to
overcome
when trying for success in this pool, is one of achieving pinpoint
accuracy and optimum distance from your forward cast. The trees on the
far side do
have gaps in them, just enough to drill a fly into so that the line and
leader can land within a few inches of the far bank, looking to achieve
such accuracy with a double hander would be quite tricky in the absence
of being able to haul the line into a tight loop or cast the loop off
the rod tip at an alternative angle to something other than near
verticle. Looking at the water now, i also feel compelled to write that
this stretch of water fishes better with at least another 6" of water
on, so we would have the extra speed and depth of current to take into
account too, if fish are lying more towards the opposite bank and we
can only fish this side, then we have a matter of seconds to get the
fly underneath the surface and across the fish before the fly is
hanging beneath us. For this job I find that the most adaptable line
for this pool and many others like it is simply a level section of
Tungsten core "T14" made into a shooting head of around 25-27 ft in
length..
This head made of such construction may raise a few eyebrows, however I simply cannot find another line which suits the conditions encountered of which will guarantee the presence of a possible taking fish. In considering that when a cast is made we obviously do not want the line and fly to catch up on the branches straight away, it needs to sink immediately and get under any branches which may protrude slightly beneath the surface, also the fly needs to be down at least 8"-1ft as it passes near the fish for them to even show a slight modicum of interest in it, and it has about all of 3 to 4 seconds in order to get down to this depth. Given the speed this water runs at when it is at its best fishing height we need to ensure we are well within what I have come to know as "the effective fishing zone" for as long as possible. Anglers who in similar circumstances retort to using fast sink tips on a floating line are basically reducing this zone to a very small shallow angled wedge which nears the very end of the cast, the floating "belly" of line although great for mending and tracking the progress of the fly etc, simply impedes the rate at which the fly must sink, and if fish are not lying tucked up on this bank then the whole process is simply time wasted.
The casting of these heads is an affair of incorporating a roll cast to raise the head, followed by the simplest of spey casts, yet made at an angle greater than 60 degrees to where the fly ended up from the previous cast, also as the loop is unrolling out we also usually utilize an upstream reach mend which further bides us essential drag free "sink time". What is also worth noting is that we can also to some degree get away with an anchor crossover as we cast, without the tangle up which usually ensues. If I may elaborate, In aiming the cast just over or even outside of the anchor point of our set up "D Loop", we can through the use of such a short head "cheat" the usual principles of casting laws we teach and make a cast outside of our anchor point, with the head of the line being well up and out of the way before the fly becomes airborne and negating the threat of a casting collision. Two more essential traits of this fantastic head are that we can generally fish all depths within the pool, by simply altering the angle at which it is cast and the magnitude of post cast mends we make to bide slack, and finally because the line is level taper it has the payload to not only turn over big flies, it also kicks if cast with excess power, this is fantastic for inducing what we call "Hook casts". If you can imagine a right handed caster fishing the left bank, and making a spey cast with an angle change of anywhere between 60 - 80 degrees, whilst utilizing a side arm delivery, the line tends to continue to hook around after the side on unrolling loop completely straightens, this simply makes for an extra upstream mend in the end of the line, and again more essential drag free "sink time".
The above method is just one example of just how much
thought can go into "inducing a pull" and this has taken many hours to
perfect on very tricky water, because of this, as just one of many
reasons, I find it more satisfying to fish here than anywhere else.
This head made of such construction may raise a few eyebrows, however I simply cannot find another line which suits the conditions encountered of which will guarantee the presence of a possible taking fish. In considering that when a cast is made we obviously do not want the line and fly to catch up on the branches straight away, it needs to sink immediately and get under any branches which may protrude slightly beneath the surface, also the fly needs to be down at least 8"-1ft as it passes near the fish for them to even show a slight modicum of interest in it, and it has about all of 3 to 4 seconds in order to get down to this depth. Given the speed this water runs at when it is at its best fishing height we need to ensure we are well within what I have come to know as "the effective fishing zone" for as long as possible. Anglers who in similar circumstances retort to using fast sink tips on a floating line are basically reducing this zone to a very small shallow angled wedge which nears the very end of the cast, the floating "belly" of line although great for mending and tracking the progress of the fly etc, simply impedes the rate at which the fly must sink, and if fish are not lying tucked up on this bank then the whole process is simply time wasted.
The casting of these heads is an affair of incorporating a roll cast to raise the head, followed by the simplest of spey casts, yet made at an angle greater than 60 degrees to where the fly ended up from the previous cast, also as the loop is unrolling out we also usually utilize an upstream reach mend which further bides us essential drag free "sink time". What is also worth noting is that we can also to some degree get away with an anchor crossover as we cast, without the tangle up which usually ensues. If I may elaborate, In aiming the cast just over or even outside of the anchor point of our set up "D Loop", we can through the use of such a short head "cheat" the usual principles of casting laws we teach and make a cast outside of our anchor point, with the head of the line being well up and out of the way before the fly becomes airborne and negating the threat of a casting collision. Two more essential traits of this fantastic head are that we can generally fish all depths within the pool, by simply altering the angle at which it is cast and the magnitude of post cast mends we make to bide slack, and finally because the line is level taper it has the payload to not only turn over big flies, it also kicks if cast with excess power, this is fantastic for inducing what we call "Hook casts". If you can imagine a right handed caster fishing the left bank, and making a spey cast with an angle change of anywhere between 60 - 80 degrees, whilst utilizing a side arm delivery, the line tends to continue to hook around after the side on unrolling loop completely straightens, this simply makes for an extra upstream mend in the end of the line, and again more essential drag free "sink time".
When
taking a closer look towards the main pool body and toward the tail, we
can see that the main stem of flow at the surface seemingly juts
through the center of the river and over on the far bank off the bend
we have a slight back eddy, when utilizing the tackle and technique
described above what we will have is a cast that presents a
fly as near to the far bank as possible, and because we have used
a short shooting head we will have delivered some "shooting or running
line" too. The head will have laid onto the water in what appears to be
a nice upstream bowing curve, maybe with a hook into the last few feet,
and we have a fly that will now sink very quickly as it enters the
water. The fast flow running through the center of the river will not
get a hold of the line to the point where it becomes detrimental as the
bow in the line will counteract that, the fly now sinking very quickly
as the heads looks to dredge its way through the swing. Fish which are
laid up will now be faced with a fly that is heading right towards them
from above and the side, at a very steep angle which i feel they
sometimes find very uncomfortable, more so when the tension in the line
increases as we either retrieve slowly or allow the line to become
taught and the fly suddenly changes direction dramatically right in
front of their nose, perfect!.
The square shaped pathway that the fish normally take when they wish to avoid a lure cast towards them now suddenly becomes a chase of which the salmons mouth can be seen to be opening and closing as it homes in on the fly, thankfully we can further annoy the fish by twitching the line towards us as we have "shooting line" in hand to fish with, and the take generally comes in the area where the sink tip angler has just about got his fly to the right depth..!!
The square shaped pathway that the fish normally take when they wish to avoid a lure cast towards them now suddenly becomes a chase of which the salmons mouth can be seen to be opening and closing as it homes in on the fly, thankfully we can further annoy the fish by twitching the line towards us as we have "shooting line" in hand to fish with, and the take generally comes in the area where the sink tip angler has just about got his fly to the right depth..!!