Flies for Scotland - spring salmon fishing

Did I say I was going to Scotland? Here's a prediction: I will fish all week and catch nothing. The Upper Scone beat of the Tay is pretty reliable in that respect at this time of the year. It doesn't hold many fish. They're all speeding upstream. You can see the catches here. Not a big total so far on the Tay. But that's how it's been on a river these past few years where the riparian owners moved too slowly to introduce conservation measures. It was the ghillies who instigated the hatchery, not the owners.

If a fish is caught in the week it will most probably come from the boat or from a spinner. I expect I will be the only one thrashing away with the fly. Mostly I'll just work on my casting but I think I'll work quite a bit with a sunk line rather than a floating line with a sink tip.

I had wanted to tie up some tungsten flies but the tungsten heads hadn't arrived before leaving. If I have time I might try to make a drowned mouse. This is a fly invented by the late Francis T Grant who wrote an excellent book called Salmon Flyfishing, The Dynamics Approach. Key to the fly is a red tail, not because of its colour, but because it helps the fly sit horizontally in the stream while imparting movement. It is not so very different in style from a cascade tube or a Willie Gunn tube apart from the tail.

Here's a list of flies I'm taking to the Tay and then to the Dee two weeks later:

Cascade Tube (good colours)
Pot belly pig (good for movement in the bristles)
Black and red frances (Icelandic mainstays, for origins read this)
Snaelda (ugly weighted black thing used in Iceland)
Various tubes (Willie Gunn etc)

All of these are weighted. Unless the water warms up dramatically I'm going to try fishing quite deep, at least the first week. That is the method that paid off most often when I used to fish a "broon and gold" devon spinner. The Tay is a big river. It's not possible to wade far out in the spring and it's impossible to cover the water that is covered by a harled Kynoch lure that's in the water constantly. I'm getting my excuses in early.

I'm sticking a 20lb leader on as well. There have been a few big fish recently. My only concession to spinning will be to try out some of John Gray's Spinheads with the fly rod. He assures me that they do not twist the line to any degree.

I shall also, now and again, sit in the boat with the ghillie and chew the fat and if my rod bends I'll play the fish and enjoy it. The Tay has a first fish back voluntary code. I'll go along with that if it happens, although it's a long time since I took a fish so, if I'm lucky enough to get two, the second one might get knocked on the head, unless it's a beast in which case I'll put it back to make more beasts. There I go - two fish in mind already and one of 'ems a monster. Dream on. This is the lower Tay in April. It's not going to happen.

A bit worrying this morning when I took my salmon rod out of the bag where it spent the winter. It's looking pretty beat up, a bit like its owner. I hope it lasts.