Bright summer salmon hooked on a salmon dry fly fished at dead drift

Drifting a salmon dry fly , skating a Chernobyl Ant or hitching a tube fly is foremost visual sports…On this page we will show you some images that might guide you at the river

The taking spot Salmon. Dry fly pioneer George M. L. La Branche wrote in his book The Salmon & The Dry Fly In 1924; one should find places in the river where the currents would drift insects to the waiting salmon.

La Branche, who also was an avid trout fisherman, was of the firm belief that the salmon would choose to rest at such spots in the river and would then only react to a fly presented through a very accurate cast delivering the fly in these feeding lanes or groves as La Branche would call them. We now know that it isn’t necessarily down to that particular cast. The salmon isn’t always online, and the much fruitless casting is an expected part of the sport, actually, the casting can be used as constructive groundwork in preparing the salmon to bite.

The shallow spot

Read about Snell’s Window here

The exact spot every time

Much like the trout, the salmon will stay in given places in the river year after year. These places may change when the river drops, the riverbed or the water flow is altered. Some of these places will be so-called taking spots. Places where salmon, for different reasons, will rise and intercept your dry fly. Once such a spot is found, try to remember it – salmon might be their next time you come around.

In the eye of the pool

Salmon dry fly inspectors

Dapping the salmon dry fly

Anglers pursuing Atlantic Salmon with dry flies like Bombers will often fish the fly at dead-drift and not wake it as steelhead anglers do – But small patterns of the Bomber can be efficient when waked, and we have designed miniature versions of the Moose Turd Bomber made by Mr Bill McMillan – done on our Riffling Hitch Tube. 

See these miniature Moose Turd Bombers in the Fishmadman Shop

A fantastic 3-D film made by animation wizard Mikkel Strøbech

The Take

To the salmon dry fly angler, the core of fly fishing lies in the take.  The enthralling and hypnotic experience of seeing a fish coming to the surface to hit the fly can`t be matched by much.

Some salmon will take the salmon dry fly savagely wild and furiously fast. Others will take their time and rise slowly and finally suck the fly from the surface – Bigger salmon in the 10 – 15 kilo range will generally be slow starters and will need a well-presented fly to allow them to work their way up to the surface. Working out the correct tactic to use is very much a matter of experience, and when presenting the fly, the angler will need to consider river depth and river flow. The eyesight of salmon is built to look for insects in a cone-shaped 96-degree window upwards (Technically termed Snell`s Window) – If it finds interest in your drifting fly, it will start its rise with precision so it cuts right into the path of the fly when it is above it lies. These things aren’t always specific terms, and salmon will sometimes act in unpredictable ways – Some can follow the fly closely for many meters downstream before grabbing it – Some fish will jump high out of the water and then grab the fly from above.

Jumped out of the water to take the salmon dry fly from above!

14-kilo salmon on a salmon dry fly

Norwegian angler Jan Harry Årsen with + 14 kilos (+ 30 lbs) – Fish jumped out of the water to grab big Bright Green Tube Bomber ™ from above – Fish caught in Lakselv River in the very north of Norway August 2012. Cloudy conditions. Water temperature 11 degrees Celsius (51.8 degrees Fahrenheit)  Hook used: Owner STN-36BC Treble #8 –

Photo The Tube Skaopper with courtesy of Mr Adam Tavender ©  www.adamtavender.com

Skating flies and Riffling Hitch flies are both members of the wake-fly group – Flies designed to skate, glide and work in the flow of the water surface, but wake-flies are commonly associated with flies that make a significant wake or commotion in the surface – as opposed to the riffling hitch fly that makes a smaller wake and less commotion – this is not the black & white truth. The angler will naturally use wake flies, much like Riffling Hitch flies work and visa versa.

Wake-flies is commonly associated with flies that make a significant wake or commotion in the surface

The wake fly is associated with a large group of salmon and steelhead flies that is rooted in the surface hunting abilities of the Salmonidae family and the insects they eat.

Photo: The super effective Steelhead Beetle wake fly, tied on a Fishmadman Hitch tube. Fly designed by Mr Rob Brown from Terrace in BC.

What does a wake fly represent?

Juvenile steelhead and salmon find their food within the river system and have developed skills to detect and track the various groups of insects and other water animals. Some are found in great numbers, others when they occasionally visit the river.

Right: a newly hatched Caddisfly is heading to safety on land.

It could be that some of these accidental visitors make wakes on the river surface – but it is foremost the inhabiting aquatic life that creates revealing wakes that get salmon & trout going. Both the Stonefly and Caddisfly is known to make wakes when they leave the river to become fully mature insects – and later again when they return to lay their eggs.

Other things that fall into the water

Other animals than insects attract attention from fish, and everyday anglers around the world will tie on surface bait made to resemble animals like rodents and frogs. US tackle makers like Heddon, and Paw Paw Bait Company have produced a long line of efficient bait for spinning and fly rods.

The wake flies in European fishing history.

A 1960`s original Hugh Falkus Surface Lure. Made out of a 1.5-inch piece of cork. Bulky surface flies like this one was also fished just below the surface using a sink tip or intermediate line. Fly was then stripped in fast.

The first wake fly I learned of was a fly made by seatrout anglers in Wales, where I spend my summer holidays in the early 80s – an old sewin angler (Welsh for sea-trout) pulled a big and very filthy looking wake fly out of his fishing bag – The fly was made up of half a wine cork tied to a big single hook, other hooks connected to the wire was protruding from the cork – left and right – nothing more – The angler told me that the fly was so effective that it was banned on many rivers in Wales – Such wake flies was produced in many shades or rather shapes. The famed angler and author Mr Hugh Falkus helped popularize the use of the waking fly among seatrout anglers in the UK. In his book Sea Trout Fishing, he dedicated a whole chapter to this special and very productive sport.

A wake fly made for Danish sea trout

Fishing with a wake fly for seatrout is a nocturnal sport, and the general guideline is to keep the fly in the box until one cannot see one’s hand. Using it in those golden hours on warm summer nights when the fish was thrashing through the dark surface.

Even though night-time still considered to be the right time for surface lures, Danish anglers will use the wake fly during daytime and catch sea trout regularly –

Right: Black Dog Wake Fly from Fishmadman is tied and designed by sea-trout specialist Mr Dan Karby – who fish the Vejle River in Denmark where big sea-trout is plenty – and surface fishing with a big wake fly is a favoured sport – Fly 60 millimetre – Buy flies 

Sea trout in Argentina are surface feeders.

Sea trout (sea run brown trout) in the Argentinian rivers supposedly derive from strains of sea trout from European rivers brought to Argentina by British anglers – Sea trout in these southern rivers are just like their Northern ancestors very orientated on the surface and what goes on here. It is well worth the effort to swing wake flies on these fish.

Here it is, fly angler Mr Fracer C Heston, who fished the Rio Grande using our Flashback Bug wake to fly on floating lines in the calm of the morning.

The Flashback Bug a Fishmadman wake fly pattern designed for steelhead rivers in the North West – but with great abilities on South American sea run brown trout (sea trout)

Buy flies 

A Finish surface fly extraordinaire

Finish anglers are likely to be some of the most devoted and meticulous anglers found in Scandinavia.  This applies to anglers spinning and trolling and fly fishermen, especially those fishing on the surface.

The Surffilauta 1995 (The Surfboard) is a famous Scandinavian wake fly from the hands of Finish fly-tier and author: Mr Pertti Kanerva. The fly is designed to skip on the surface with the big eye gazing downwards like a scarred fry…Please read about this highly specialized wake fly series in one of our newsletters.

A tributary to the mighty Skeena river in BC – the holly grail of surface fishing for steelhead. Photo Mr. Loren Irving

Steelhead on the surface

A diminutive Moose Turd fly… designed for Atlantic salmon

Anglers pursuing Atlantic Salmon with dry flies like the Bomber will often fish the fly at dead drift and not wake it as steelhead anglers would do – But small patterns of the Bomber can be efficient when waked, and we have designed miniature versions of the Moose Turd Bomber originated by Mr Bill McMillan – done on our Riffling Hitch Tube 

See these miniature Moose Turd Bombers in the Fishmadman Shop

Another great rodent fly to be waked across the surface is the Morrish Mouse fly. Here, we have made this great pattern on a tube. The Morrish Mouse is a famous Canadian surface fly on rainbow trout originally devised by master fly tier and manager with Fly Water Travel. Mr Ken Morrish

See the Morrish Mouse on tube in our shop

Big Taimen caught on our Tube-Rat ™ See the Tube Rats in our shop