Elusive salmon

Tom7515

Hi, ive been fishing for over 5 years or so, ive had good sucees of late and im am fairly handy with the fly rod. ive caught many brown trout and sea trout but im desperate to catch a salmon, ive tried spinning and worm fishing but with no luck, i havent even seen one on in the feale, when spinning where is the best spot to aim for in the river, just off streams and eddy or in deep holes?

Spear

Moved from N&F.

Tom7515

im new to boards, ull hav to explain

thehamo

Just means that the post was moved to a more suitable forum is all. Has been moved to Angling from where ever you posted originally

Compton

upstream and downsteam work, but i prefer casting upstream and winding it slowly back along the bottom.

Tom7515

Ive tried both on the feale shblob, but to no avail, do the salmon hav to running or are u just waiting for one to pass by and just being patient, there is one hole int the river where i often trot a worm even in low water i reckon its my best shout as there is fast water and the fish will stay there in low water, are u covering the river from bank to bank or just tails of pools?

coolwings

Tom,
First you must fish where the salmon are.
If you don't know where they lie, or don't have a friend who will freely give this knowledge, you must be prepared to go out early.
Get to the river at dawn, and watch the likely pools from a place where you can see a lot of water. Compare what you see before 8AM with what you see after 9AM and decide when the fishing must be done!

Tom7515

Hey coolwings, there is one spot i went with my mate spinning, he said the best time is 5am, but i was too lazy the two times i he went, i started fishing one spot down river but i reckon that my a new spot upstream holds the fish better, do the salmon lie in similar spot to the sea trout as i have caught a few of them.

Compton

Running and stale fish take all baits. They are just not an easy fish to catch in general. If the water is clean, prawn is your best bet, but I have never fished the feale and it may not be allowed.

Also, why would fish stay in fast water low water this isn't true, they are more likely to be holding in pools, but some will stay just off the main flows of the river too.

Cover anything that looks fishy.

coolwings

Salmon orient to flow with cover from being seen.
The flow is the stream, stream within the stream, or faster side of a slow section.
The cover may be ripple in shallows, shade, rocky area, or just depth.
When running they accumulate downstream of obstacles, and in the pools for 500 metres below the obstacle, until they overcome it, or stop running and pool up again as the flood drops and clarifies.

Find a place with all the boxes ticked, it will be occupied by salmon.

Sea trout prefer slacker water on average than salmon.

If you don't go out early, you probably should fish for trout due to better chance of success.

Tom7515

Ive caught a nice few sea trout fly fishing and spinning flies at nite in slack water, ill try to get up early this week as their is a flood in the feale and that will be coming clean. Was spinning down the clack water just there, seen one salmon rolling but had no luck with a red flyin c, thanks for the advice.

Compton

try black and silver if the water is clear. the rolla flying cs are excellent.

slowburner

Tom7515 wrote: »

Hi, ive been fishing for over 5 years or so, ive had good sucees of late and im am fairly handy with the fly rod. ive caught many brown trout and sea trout but im desperate to catch a salmon, ive tried spinning and worm fishing but with no luck, i havent even seen one on in the feale, when spinning where is the best spot to aim for in the river, just off streams and eddy or in deep holes?

Local knowledge. That's the key.
In every salmon river, there are lies where salmon are known to take more freely. Some lies are better for certain lures or baits and these lies change with different water heights. Some of these lies will have names - although, sadly, too often these names become forgotten.
'Reading' a river - figuring out where a taking salmon is likely to be - takes many years of experience. And then salmon can be peculiar, a place which looks perfect might never hold a fish and place which you might think looks useless could be very productive.
You need to find an angler who knows the lies on your river, has caught plenty of salmon from them and who is prepared to tell you about them. It can take a lifetime to get to know the lies. So, before you wet a line you need to do some research. Chances are, your local fisheries officer would know of such an angler

seamusmcspud

Keep at it Tom... usually if you put in the time for Salmon you'll eventually get the reward. Personally i fish a small river for the last 20 years and could tell you most of the salmon lies at this stage but unfortunately for me it took years of watching others at it and then when i did hook my own i kept loosing them but now i seem to be luckier. I find on the river i fish Salmon lie in dark (with lots of trees) deep swift moving holes. often very hard to see. sometimes if they are they and if they are fresh they'll attack your bait and you might not have even seen them, other times they just don't care. It's a savage adrenaline when you catch them though. :eek: ...best of luck!

Tom7515

Thanks for all the encouragement and advice lads, hopefully persistance pays off and i get a bit of luck and land a nice salmon.

john mayo 10

i have been fishing the river moy witch is a 3 minute walk from my house for years . i started fishing a stretch of water last year that nobody really fished before and it produced a lot of fish both fresh and lying fish. the reason it was never fished was because anglers said that the water was to deep and too slow but they have been proved wrong. it can take years to find the right pools on a river that hold salmon and you will need a hell of a lot of patience but when you hook a fresh salmon on the run, its well worth the wait

ironbluedun

salmon are quite an easy fish to catch once you locate the holding pools or where the fish lie. And as said before knowing where to fish is the key, with a bit of legwork and time its straightforward.

Compton

ironbluedun wrote: »

salmon are quite an easy fish to catch once you locate the holding pools or where the fish lie. And as said before knowing where to fish is the key, with a bit of legwork and time its straightforward.

this is not true, no matter how good you are they are never 'easy' to catch.

slowburner

shblob wrote: »

this is not true, no matter how good you are they are never 'easy' to catch.

They are easier to catch if you know the lies. Sometimes, salmon are impossible to rise, even when all the conditions are perfect and the water is stuffed with fish. Then there are times when they can behave like mackerel taking anything that moves.
Their moods are mysterious, for sure, but that's one of their many attractions.

Compton

slowburner wrote: »

They are easier to catch if you know the lies. Sometimes, salmon are impossible to rise, even when all the conditions are perfect and the water is stuffed with fish. Then there are times when they can behave like mackerel taking anything that moves.
Their moods are mysterious, for sure, but that's one of their many attractions.

I agree, sometimes you get them one after another, sometimes you couldn't buy a take.

fisherking

If you REALLY want to get one pay the money for a day in ballisodare... youll pick one up for sure

shblob wrote: »

slowburner wrote: »

They are easier to catch if you know the lies. Sometimes, salmon are impossible to rise, even when all the conditions are perfect and the water is stuffed with fish. Then there are times when they can behave like mackerel taking anything that moves.
Their moods are mysterious, for sure, but that's one of their many attractions.

I agree, sometimes you get them one after another, sometimes you couldn't buy a take.

slowburner

fisherking wrote: »

If you REALLY want to get one pay the money for a day in ballisodare... youll pick one up for sure

Fishing that well, is it?