Viking Lars | Saturday, 6 October 2018
Right now, with less than two weeks to go before river season closes on the first rivers, the rivers are packed full of salmon and sea trout. And while they might have a better, fresher strike reflex early in the season, they really move around now. They get territorial, they annoy one another, falling and rising water make them move and it's generally a good time to get out.
But with rising water comes the challenge of getting the fly down. In Danish rivers, it's really imperative that you fish deep for salmon - you'll want to touch the bottom one almost every swing, or your not fishing deep enough.
Why? Well, fishing pressure is one factor, I'm sure, but another is water clarity. Danish rivers are never clear, sometimes visibility is good, but often humus, ocher and dirt particles colour the water, so a "surface near" fly will probably not be seen by salmon.
SInking lines is the way to go - I've often talked about that. Right now, sink 5/6 and 6/7 on the double handers is common and necessary. But some weight on the fly is also very important. If you rely on the line alone, you'll miss that first, all important 3-4 feet of the swing before you reach to right depth.
Not too heavily dressed single hooks arenøt a bad choice, They actually sink quite fast (when tied on a proper, heavu iron) and their narrow profile makes it easy for the line to pull it down. I use single hooks a lot in the late season, where small flies are also often the best bet.
But a tube fly today offers so many ways of weighting - and you can put on quite a lot of weight with the flies getting too bulky as well. Slim tungsten sleeves and beads, steel tubes, cone heads and much more.
An autumn favourite of mine if the Ullsocken, I've written about a few times. A good, simple fly and on a modern tube system, I can simply replace the forward body potion with a black bead, making the fly sink quite fast (I lost three the last time I was out).
And believe it or not, on a double hand outfit you really don't feel the weight of the fly (unless you hit yourself in the back of the head, of course).
Have a great weekend!
Lars