Salmon fishing
Unfortunately, our runs of salmon have been very poor over the last 5 years. Ten years ago we had good runs of grilse in August, a few would be caught sea trout fly fishing at night. Not now though.
Most salmon seem to enter our river in the last two weeks of the season depending on water conditions i.e. the last between October the first and seventeenth. The irony is that the river can be full of salmon after the season has closed, pools can be black with fish. This is especially true after Christmas. Some of these are huge 40lbs.+ . In the bridge pool I have seen fish as big as any King Salmon I have seen in Alaska. The poachers must have fun! Quite often at this time of the year there are also fresh run sea trout - I have seen one jumping at 7 o'clock in the morning in the Bridge Pool one early February - a beautiful bar of silver, about 4lbs. in weight!
Worm, Spinner, Prawn, Fly are the main methods used to catch salmon. I was hoping that someone else would write this article since really I tend to catch salmon by accident, very rarely do I go out and fish specifically for them.
Certainly the best time for fly fishing for salmon is just as the water clears after a flood - shrimp fly, general practitioner, anything with red in it - even a totally red fly. The pattern should be sparsely dressed and on quite a small hook, even down to size 8/10 - or a small double. Towards the end of the season, first thing in the morning as day breaks is a good time.
Spinning - which I personally hate! sorry, is very effective just after the river falls, even up to three days after a very big flood. Mepps seems to work best.