Stuart Foxall is back again with more advice to help you up your King Salmon game. This week, instead of giving you pointers on things to do, he is going over a crucial thing to avoid doing! Please share Stuart!
“Every year at Alaska West I see the same common mistake made again and again…….Wading too deep!!!!!
This common fault may not only be responsible for landing fewer king salmon but applies to other species on other catchments also. We all get that obsessed by casting to the far deep seam that we tend to forget that we may have structure or a drop off right in close to us. By the time our fly has swung through the juice it has lost it’s speed as it approaches our bank and basically “stops fishing”. Salmon run up both sides of the river as they enter the river so don’t always target the fish on the other bank. The other thing that can happen is if we wade too deeply we can push out the running sockeye salmon…….who push out the next band of fish which are chum…….who push out the next band of fish which is the king salmon. Ideally we want to make things as easy for us as possible and if we can keep king salmon in shallower water we have more of a chance of hooking them. Have you ever had a run of losing fish that take on the “hang down”?….You’re possibly wading too deep. Just back up and only wet your toes. The extra few feet of faster swing should result in more aggressive takes that should result in more fish landed!!!!!
Just to confirm:
- Back up out of the water………..
- Not all fish are on the other side of the river
- You are less likely to spook fish away from you
- You will get a faster swing of the fly into your bank resulting in more positive grabs
- As you will have less running line in the water when casting, you will have less drag on your held coils so you will actually cast further anyway
- Back up out of the water………have I mentioned this one before!!!!
More From Stuart Foxall:
Very relevant information, I witness countless numbers of Fly fishermen entering the water often too deep without thoroughly searching the water right under their noses first and do not show patience whilst searching every likely seam and drop off for trout hanging deep in fast running water.