Atlantic Salmon

The fish:

In the coastal rivers of Ireland, the Atlantic salmon run the rivers from early Spring to Fall on their annual spawning migration. In the spring, a fair run of "springers" enters the rivers, with the run starting very early in the year. In fact it is traditional to celebrate the first salmon caught on January 1st. This run of springers peaks about March or April, depending on the rains.

Then the main large run of salmon and grisle enters the rivers starting in June and peaking about late August.

But the run continues through August and into the Fall. Some of the largest fish are taken then, supposedly because they have had the chance to fatten longer in the sea.

Grilse are "one-salt" fish, or fish that have spent only one year of their adult life cycle in the sea. They are often precocious males. Nominally, if a fish, like the one in the above picture, is under 6 pounds, he is called a grilse. Larger than that and he is called a salmon.

The salmon are late fall spawners, usually dropping eggs and milt in November, and then slowly dropping back to the sea. The kelts (spawned-out fish), often called "black salmon", are seen in the rivers for a few months after the spawn.

Whatever the season, the fish are mighty fighters and jumpers. Send the hook home in the jaw of one and you will see how it got its Latin name, salmo salar, which means "leaping salmon". Perhaps the trickiest of all salmonids to entice to the fly, the Atlantic Salmon is truly a trophy when caught by this most sporting of methods.

Flyfish Ireland strongly encourages live release of all salmon in order to ensure the propagation for future generations of this magnificent wild fish native to our Irish rivers .

Equipment:

Flies are traditionally all wet flies, although there are many styles and techniques used with them. Most often the flyfisher uses more than one wet fly on his cast (leader) at a time, with a three-fly cast being fairly normal. He fishes these flies "down and across", casting across stream or slightly downstream and swinging the cast over the suspected lies or prospecting by overlapping these fanning these casts as he moves down the pool.

Because the fish are so recently in from the sea, the flies imitate food species they were feeding on just before ascending into fresh water. Shrimp patterns are very effective, and there are many variations on this theme.

While the above example is tied on a single hook, double and treble irons are also common, with the most used sizes being #8 down to #14, depending on the sizes of actual shrimp in the estuary at the time.

Rods suitable for salmon fishing in these rivers are longer than commonly used in the US, with a 9 footer being the absolute minimum. A rod of 10 or even 11 feet is better. Line weights from 6 to 8 are suitable for salmon.

There are many pools in which speyfishing is a very useful technique. Two-handed or "spey" rods of 14 feet and up are useful, as well, as the extra length is valuable for mending line and controlling the drift of the flies in the cast from a bankfishing position, even if traditional speycasting is not used.

Reels should hold substantial backing and have a drag system that is smooth and weatherproof.

Fly lines can be floating, sink-tip, or full sinking, depending on what conditions require. With a floating line, an add-on sinking section or sinking leader is often required to get the flies down to the depth needed to entice the strike.

Clothing for the flyfisher usually starts with a waxed cotton coat, and underneath the coat is a traditional heavyweight wool " jumper" (sweater) when the weather necessitates.

Footwear is most often rubber knee boots (wellies) because wading is not often done, although breathable waders, either hip or chest high, are useful to keep one dry hiking the banks through damp heather.

We highly recommend that you buy your wax coat and woolens and wellies upon arrival.

A cap of wool or waxed cotton to top it off is all one needs.

Fishing vests are not all that common, as thousands of flies and equipment is not often neessary.

A wading staff is a very good idea as well, more for getting over the pastures to the river or hiking up the hills to fish a remote hill lough for trout.

You may email us at: grzlyhkl@jxbreslin.com

Or you may phone us in the U.S at: 815-488-0989

Or phone us in Ireland at: 086-3374406

Breslin's Donegal Holidays, LLC, dba Flyfish Ireland, John X. Breslin, prop., is a US company established under the laws of the State of Illinois.

page last modified 01/31/2007 09:51

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