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 –