lost salmon at weekend, help!!!

TimMac

lads
a bit of help/advice I was fishing the blackwater at the weekend & because it was so low I said id tie a shrimp pattern fly onto my wee 10ft fly rod with 7/8 floating line on the reel and two foot of 8lb breaking strain leader.

after about ten minutes fishing a narrow spot with a ripple on the river I thought I was stuck on weed & gave it a little tug. A 7lb (approx) salmon leapt out of the water with my fly in his mouth. I played him for about 5 minutes then he broke my leader & went on his merry way. I caught a trout and salmon already on the fly both around 1.5lb & released.

my question is what did I do wrong? Is my gear not up to the job, should I put stronger breaking strain line/leader or would this affect the performance of the reel?

cheers
TimMac

Octopus

Set up sounds fine. I use exactly the same 10foot 7wt rod.

2 foot of leader?? Is that attached to a length of heavier leader before the fly line?
If thats straight to your flyline its very short and would have very little stretch.
I generally use 10lb line this time of year (12lb for spring fish).
Leader length/strength would not have a massive effect on the overall balance and casting of the fly rod/line.

TimMac

ya two foot of leader I thought thats all id use as there was only two foot of water and a lot of weed.

I have a shakespeare alpha 7/8 reel would it mess up the performance of the reel putting heavier line on it?

Octopus

when you say put a heavier line on it do you mean put a 9wt line instead of the 7/8 wt?
Stick with the recommended weight of line for the reel, anything more or less will upset the balance and affect your casting.

Increase your leader length to about 8 foot and use 10lb (8lb would probably be fine but if it's weedy you would have trouble with the fish running through weed and getting tangled).

Water depth does not translate directly to leader length. Your leader will sink at an angle from the floating end of the fly line to the fly (fly sinking fastest pulling the leader down). Water speed will also affect sink rate of fly and hence leader.
Once theres some flow on the water you should be fine.

TimMac

ya thats what I mean my main line, I also have a spare spool I think ill put some more of the same 7/8 weight line on it after what you said.

would you put on slow sinking or fast sinking line?

have you caught many big fish on your fly rod?

thanks octopus very helpful only got the rod a month ago, so all info is a help.

Octopus

All depends on water depth, temperature time of year.

If you two spools load a floating line on one and possibly an intermediate on the other. If your fishing two foot of water the floating line will be fine as the fly will get down to where the fish are.
If you are fishing in springtime you would have more use for sinking / sink tip or shooting head lines (google these).

Google salmon fishing, you can read forever, check out some of the salmon forums but mainly get out and fish, observe others and pratice. Chat to other anglers most are happy to give you a few pointers.

ironbluedun

when salmon fishing with single handed rod i prefer a 10foot 9/10 wt, you have more power and control than a 7 weight...just a personal preference.....a two foot leader is too short...i would go for a leader 8-9 feet long of 12lb clear mono.

TimMac

cheers lads looks like ill be hitting the visa card again!

DryFlyFishing

TimMac wrote: »

cheers lads looks like ill be hitting the visa card again!

stick with your floating line . you don’t need a second line for the deep water if it ever rains , and just buy a super fast sink tip add on leader they are only about €8 . only use 4-6 feet of it or find what best suits your cast style... they come 9feet long or 6feet and #for line size... it will drag the floating line down fast.... and it will give you the effect of having an intermediate line... and it will be easy to lift the line to cast.

it will unbalance your line for over head casting a bit, but you can fix that easy if you snip off 2 feet of the main line... but this will also stop the line sinking as deep.I dont snip off any of my main line as i spay /role cast all of the time. Just cut the sink tip to your preference to balance the line.

I use the same combination of sink tips... (Slow/Inter/VeryFast) on my single and double rods... keeps the cost down and also i can fish inches from the bottom searching for that sitting fish in any water level.

if i had to buy multiple lines for every rod i would be nama.

Also if you spay cast you don’t damage your knot as over head casting does. If you spay cast you can use lighter mono/fluro/tippet and maintain the lines strength all day)

use a braided loop on the end of your main line.. easy to switch sink tips then..

ironbluedun

airflo polyleaders are a good option for various sink tips they come in 5 and 10 ft, 10ft ones are better....no need to buy loads of flylines........

DryFlyFishing

ironbluedun wrote: »

airflo polyleaders are a good option for various sink tips they come in 5 and 10 ft, 10ft ones are better....no need to buy loads of flylines........

my preference is Hardy's polyltips as when i used airflow polyltips the loop broak ... well... once bitten twice shy... im sure airflow is fine ... its all about personal preference....

ironbluedun

never had them break.

TimMac

Cheers for the advice lads.
with the rivers being so low I was thinking of trying a shrimp fly pattern again, what sort of set would you reccomend on a 10 ft fly rod with floating line?

ironbluedun

depends upon the water you are fishing.

TimMac

for a pool with only about 6ft of water?

ironbluedun

TimMac wrote: »

for a pool with only about 6ft of water?

There are many different systms to try if you want to get the fly down try a 10ft sinking polyleader attached by loop to loop connection to your flyline.;)

TimMac

thanks ironbluedun

experimenter

I use a DI 5 sinking line, which has a rate of 5" per second.

Also I find the sinking line very productive when there's not allot of activity on the surface.

TimMac

experimenter wrote: »

I use a DI 5 sinking line, which has a rate of 5" per second.

Also I find the sinking line very productive when there's not allot of activity on the surface.

thanks experimenter
what does di stand for?

DryFlyFishing

TimMac wrote: »

for a pool with only about 6ft of water?

how fast is the flow of water in the pool of 6 feet where the fish lie?

TimMac

always slow its a huge pool

coolwings

There is an advantage for a floating line then.
Since the water is slow, use of a heavy fly (brass tube, or simply a double or treble) with a floating line will still get down if you want that. On the other hand, if you want to fish higher and move it over their heads, which is usually far more effective with salmon, then the floating line with a lighter fly on a single hook, or a heavily dressed, long tailed, or long hackle pattern on a double will fish the required few inches under the surface, and not deeper than that.
So the floater covers both options so long as the water flow is a reasonable speed.

A fast current will make you prefer a sinking line to overcome the lifting effects of the flow.

Sunshine on the pool would be another reason for wanting to fish lower in the water and a good reason to choose a sinking line over a floating line.

TimMac

Thanks coolwings very helpful

DryFlyFishing

TimMac wrote: »

Thanks coolwings very helpful

from what i gather, since you only use a single hand rod, use a float line.

and buy two sink polytips of differrent weight. and just match weight/size of hook/flys to the speed of water.... & (Depth)

river level low - size 14-16 treble or Double or singles - no sink tip / or maybe you do need one ( slow)
River level medium - size 10-12 treble or Double or singles - slow sink or inter
River level high - 6-8 treble - super fast sink tip

presume you cant cast big copper tube flys and all that lark .... with a #7/8 single hand ...

What colour is the blackwater right now? did it go into a proper flood or what is the story?

much fish being cought?

how are the upper beats doing?

is cappoquinn fishing well?