Landlocked Atlantic Salmon Flies


a nice buck with an unfortunate lamprey scar 

There is something magical about landlocked atlantic salmon fishing that just can't be put into words. I have wondered why I am so drawn to the sport. It could be the beautiful classic featherwing streamers we tie to seduce them to take or the mysterious, dark, swift waters in which they hold. Maybe it's their eagerness or lack of to take a fly or is it their acrobatic displays once they do?

Preassembled wings drying

Carrie Stevens' style featherwing streamers


A big part of my allure are the flies we tie and how we fish them. Landlocked atlantic salmon or Ounaniche, main food source are forage fish such as smelt, shiners, and alewife. There are many patterns one can tie to imitate these forage fish. From the elegant Carrie Stevens' patterns like the Gray ghost to trout streamers like the Mickey Finn. Swinging or stripping a streamer across the tail out of a pool gets the heart pumping!

Mickey Finn does it again 


A Wawas (ounaniche), diet is not only made up of forage fish. They will take insects, leeches, crayfish and whatever else their environment can provide. For those who wish to pursue them with trout tactics, it can some times be more successful when they are acting "trouty". A midge, mayfly, or caddis hatch can provide dry fly fishing opportunities, so having a few trout flies handy is a good idea.
Swinging soft hackles is also a good bet if they are not inclined to break the surface.

 trolling and casting streamers


We must not forget that they are atlantic salmon and they will behave as their ocean going cousins. We can tie and fish the same Blue charms, Silver Doctors, or any other Atlantic salmon fly as we do in the rivers that hold them!
So there it is. A species that you can choose to fish for in any way with any fly that your heart desires!
I guess I do know why I am so drawn.........












Comments

  1. Unknown4 October 2016 at 10:49

    Hello Giovanni - I read your comments on landlocked salmon and wanted to share a interesting story about such - It comes from Newfoundland and landlocked salmon near the mighty Exploit River - Here some water hold great numbers of landlocked Atlantic salmon. Guide and personal friend Terry Byrne told us about his brothers fishing for landlocked - using our Monster Tube Caddis dry fly... how they caught great numbers of salmon on the dry fly - but how they caught less fish when the strands of Flashabou was pulled from the fly... The Monster Tube Caddis pattern only has 2 - 3 strands of Veniards Peacock flash in the tail...protruding 1/2 # from the bulk of the body... As soon as a new "fresh" fly was deployed catch rates was back to normal... A great story I thought...

    Tight lines from Jesper - in Denmark

    To see the fly in question...Look here http://www.fishmadman.com/dry-fly/monster-tube-caddis/

    ReplyDelete

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