photo : eugene hoyano

the workspace : note drying rack, angled 360 vise and T-bar for silks, tinsels on L

welcome ...

"Silver Shadows" ... presents topical information about the recreational sport of atlantic salmon fishing ... several friends have been urging me to write ... so look ahead to some interesting posts - vignettes : anecdotal, informative and some purely humourous episodes ... a blend of 33 years of pro-tying experience and 36 years astream ... visit the margarees in 2022 ... the perfect learning venue .... many of our guides offer on stream casting tuition : spey or single-handed, as well as guided salmon fishing experience .

alas, most of my confreres have left the planet ... over past 40 years, I experienced the salmon wars of quebec, the low ebb of 1970 salmon stocks to 2010, changing demographics and technology impact on fly fishing trade ... Veniards has greatly reduced stocks...   Mustad owns Partridge... what remains ? go fish !!!

I am now retired as a pro-tyer ... my collection of materials is available .  make an offer ...

locally Alex Breckenridge  continues ....

3 ANGLERS ...

seal pool  - gary atkinson  mack strathdee phil turner

, 

 Harrison house Grand Cascapedia QC

SALMON DRY FLY

Major J A FRASER

return to the river ...

fly fishing has been called the "contemplative man's sport" ... in fact, there are only so many seasons in a lifetime of an angler ... at this moment, one can contemplate the first morning's rising mist over the river ... the golden glow of a warming sun, penetrating the landscape ... or perhaps, remember past day's success with friends ... anticipation of the start of a new season also kindles a readiness ....

for newcomers to the sport of salmon fishing : the experience goes beyond learning the basics of casting, reading water, hooking and landing of salar ... each salmon river offers a unique natural eco-environment, and association of men and women - all to be appreciated ...

deeside ...

http://www.theriverdee.org/news.asp

read all about it ....   I ran about the banks as a youth, but on visiting Sharpe's was told salmon angling was out-of-the-question to canucks....

spey casting basics ... and tackle

spey casting is not beyond any angler's ability ... and the basics can be learned in quicktime astream ... the water itself acts as anchor to the casts, and helps extend and draw the line ... so book a few hours with your favourite guide (ghillie) or instructor of choice ... speycaster.net offers some downloadable files in 3 formats ...

the outfit : spey rod and a reel setup will cost more than a normal fly outfit ... in the range of 1000 CAD for intermediate equipment ...

Lee's "infinity" stonefly ...

Lee gifted this pattern to me in his last year ... it is one of his unique injection molded series of stoneflies ... I do have 1 of the original bodies remaining, so I will replicate and fish the pattern over salar ...

the dry fly for atlantic salmon is one of the most exhilarating moments to experience astream ... if you have not already viewed : "soliloquy to a salmon " is it a masterful piece of film ... the "triangle taper" flyline is also well suited to dry fly fishing for salmon ... using a roll-lift, the water is undisturbed ...

"look there... a salmon just rolled ! "

the "MacIntosh" of Nova Scotia ...

Dan MacIntosh, Sr designed and fished this fly on the St Mary's and the Margaree rivers ... at an early date : 1940-50s... the original had no body, a red (pine) squirrel wing and furnace hackle ... the pattern was fished at and acute downstream angle of cast, and dead-drifted a yard until it was then snapped under and fished across from the salmon lie ... the underwater "light-effect" caused many salmon to lift and follow the fly until a strike... today, several variations exist with wool body and hackles of various colours ... Dan MacIntosh, Jr followed the tradition...

historically, Dan Sr guided Lee Wulff on the Margaree: one of Lee's first encounters with salar.

speycasting terms ...

Simon Gawesworth explains the terms of speycasting ... this will assist novice to expert speycasters to understand the techniques of DVD tutorials ... now is the time to refresh your own style and technique before the season begins ....

here also is a source for DVDs on the subject ...

AJ's stonefly ...

this pattern of Al Jenkins appeared on the margaree within past years ... it is a cross between a "bug" and downwing stonefly double tail and wing, with para-hackle... smooth-running and effective ... Al has fished widely in Cape Breton, and guides during the season ...

innovative salmon dry flies ...

fly innovation requires thought and testing ...

the excel at right I developed and introduced to eastern waters in the 1980s and proved itself as a downwing stonefly ... black, golden olive and orange with flourescent tags ...

the excel2 soon followed with extended mylar body (flourescent and phosphor braid) ... several colour variations ... see side and top views ... again these proved successful...

salmon stoneflies ...

I was fortunate to know both Bill Coffey and Lee Wulff in Montreal, QC ... as tiers both men, featured "stoneflies" as part of their repertoires for atlantic salmon ... which patterns predate the other is unknown... the Coffey series, I reviewed for the Stewart book on "Atlantic Salmon Flies" ... Lee formed the buctail wing and para-hackle over a PVC post as part of injection molded body ... wings varied : white or brown / badger hackled ... Bill's patterns : were formed using a brass pin bent as a "poppy" post, with wings of white, brown green or black ... the blackstone featured a grizzle hackle; badger otherwise ... today these remain effective on many salmon rivers ... introducing these on the margaree some years ago ... also proved successful. Royal Wulff has today replaced the original molds for black salmon hooks ... Lee always used a bronze hook ... the secret of the badger hackle is visibility on the water ...

a western pattern : the "Telkwa Stonefly" is tied using moose thruout, and is tagged and ribbed with orange flourescent floss ... all stoneflies should be fished dragfree ... the coffee stonefly series, however, are also effective wetflies tied on doubles ....

the angling times ...

my early reading covered many years of this journal of british angling ... the salmon and trout hooks of the modern age were designed in the years 1875-1930, when many works were active in manufacture ... Willis, Sealey Bros, Allcock et alia ... the debate on hook design ran over 30 years... as the "eyed hook" predominated ... gut-loops were phased out gradually ... design awards were much sought by tackle makers, as were pattern collections of experimental flyfishers of the day ...

Halford sent his dry flies to Theodore Gordon in NY, which formed the basis of the "Catskill School" ... a Nova Scotian, GE Skues broke tradition on the Test waters, by fishing the upstream nymph or emerger ... the debate between these two continued for years ...

finding original documents on salmon fishing, proved more of a challenge ... Crosfield, though a contemporary of AHE Wood, wrote infrequently about his methods ... most fly sets that did appear in the Hardy, Farlow or Sharpe catalogs pre1945 ; and that proved signifigant - were also part of authored salmon books ... Waddington, Hale and others

fly line design and maintenance ...

species specific flyline designed tapers have been in vogue for some time ... many are 2-toned or colour coded to reveal the proper pick-up-point astream ... the wear-and-tear section is behind the taper in the runningline section ... be careful of lines with finer diameters than 0.39 ... constant turnover can erode this section, as will fly-repellants (DEET), and stepping on a line over sand or gravel is deadly ... once the finish is abraded, it should be removed and reconnected with braided loops ...

my preference for adhesive is urethane (3m UltraFlex : Aquaseal or Aquasure (UK)) ... I no longer apply shrinkage tubing, as the urethane bond is adequate alone... carry an onstream kit of glue, braided loops and a wire pull-thru ... this will keep waders sealed, and allow for onstream repairs if forced to replace a loop connection ...

choice of variable density should be the lightest for depth and velocity being fished...0-4.5 ips sinkrates ...the salmon fly must swim at moderate speed ... tackle breakage and loss will result from too high a density choice ... carry modular sections in a vented line wallet ... the 15foot addon section is the norm today ... but I still favour 30ft #8 shooting heads, applied to a full spey-taper for heavy water environments ... to explore the anatomy of flyline tapers : visit here...

note the staged gm wts or each line format ... handy if fine tuning your lines ... and simpler than converting grain wts ...

forerunners in salmon conservation ...

... in Canada, the Atlantic Salmon Association founded in Montreal, QC was the start in 1947 ... Percy Nobbs was the man of vision ... seeing the need for restoration of salmon rivers : the Richelieu project failed, whereas the Matane river project succeeded ... the Matane became the school for many of today's anglers providing about 45 miles of public waters ... the top tyers and guides all started there ...

... from high school days and beyond, I would enjoy many chats with Winnifred Wright ... Percy's secretary and editorial assistant ... I remember the retrospective of Percy Nobbs held at the McCord Museum ... architect, fencer, salmon fisher and an amazing flytyer ... all was done in excellence ! He authored one book on salmon fishing : covering QC and NS waters ...

origins of the salmon dry fly ...

at right ... an early "canadian" salmon dry fly ...

... the earliest post dates circa 1908 ... Majour J R Fraser detailed a set of 6 salmon dries on double hook up-eye hooks : 2 were of golden pheasant tippets tied as sedges, 4 were fan-wing mayflies ... Fraser's recommendations were : apply no oil (floatant) , fish upstream and wait for the salmon to "close its mouth" ... captures were on rivers of Eire and England...

Hardy of Pall Mall, released a second set of 6 in the 1930's ... these oversized "Halfordian" flies resembled again mayflies, but on single eyed hooks ... and no doubt were fished on the Test and Itchen waters ... I once discovered a mint unfished set in Montreal, within an enamelled flybox ... bargaining continued for many weeks with my good friend Claude Campbell of Montreal ... alas, Alf Walker of Toronto won the bid with 6 brass hand-gaffs ...

my early experiments in Gaspe : parachute winged mayflies, fan-winged bivisibles and later squirrel tailed palmers with flourescent tags... all proved successful... but the gaspe rapids demanded more robust creations as the QC-style bombers, double-hackled for extra bouyancy...

later experiments : the "excel" series ... downwing stoneflies with flouresent tags ... the excel2, featured mylar tubed extended bodies with flat buctail wings and para-hackles... see "innovative salmon fry flies" ...

the early years of salmon fishing in Canada ...

before online library catalogs existed, I could be found in spare hours in the main catalog at McGill researching "salmon topics" ... surprisingly, the earliest canadian writings lay within forestry journals ... suppliers of fishing tackle and salmon flies to the Dominion of Canada, were few in number ... Malloch's of Perth Scotland and Farlow's of London, both predated Hardy's of Pall Mall ...

the early modes of travel to the salmon rivers of Quebec were : steamship and locomotive. the Molson family of Montreal ran a steam vessel for many years until she grounded... the Harrison house in Cascapedia, QC has a another model steamship over the fireplace : she voyaged from the Baie de Chaleurs to Montreal, Quebec City and Boston ...

to reach the middle and upper salmon camps ... the canoe and guide, transported the "sports" and gear for the sojourney ... on the York river in Gaspe, one the earliest fisherman's huts was made of spruce and birch bark ...

quite a contrast today ...

next : the origins of the salmon dry fly ....

not every lie is a taking lie ...

moving waters are described as pools, runs, flats and riffles ... therein, lies salar ... the topography of salmon rivers varies in the canadian provinces ... in cape breton, the relative absence of clay deposits and predominance of terminal moraine (glaciation) - define the possibilities ...

as stated, depending on water level on a given day, or time of day ... salmon circulate and reposition themselves ... salmon can show interest in a salmon fly from deep water lies, but this is a more difficult challenge to the angler ... usually, moderate depth of 0.5-2.0 meters depth, with moderate flow is where to focus...

fly speed : should be constant in wet-fly fishing ... salmon that hold in slow water parts of the river can be fished over, but generally speaking the "taking lies" are zones of increasing velocity ... a rise of water, increases these stations in a matter of about 8 hours ... and usually, the ascending salmon will move to these stations ... I have seldom observed an entire group leave a pool all at once ... they move as individuals ... discovering the exit and entrance ways, improves the odds of success ...

in conclusion: a close study of each section of water in varying levels and times of day ... will build a bank of knowledge astream ...

I once proved to myself that salar does hold even in the heaviest of broken rapids ... casting broadside to the flow with a large buctail, I achieved a spectacular rise from beside a rock ... the salmon surfaced like a an airborn torpedo, fly in jaw .... intuition and success !

homage to a legend ....

Richard Adams of Matapedia, QC 1911-2006.03.03
I first was introduced to Richard in Montreal, by Mac Morrison ... Mac was my instructor in salmon fly-tying at roundtables, orgnanized by Cliff Joudrey ... Mac was a regular fisher of "Richard's Pool" on the Matapedia and the Cold Spring Camp waters .... always remember, Richard's great smile at table of the Montreal ASF dinner's ....

a salmon guide, and mentor : he will be remembered and cherished by countless salmon anglers ...

the power of observation ...

... there are several important aspects of salmon fishing that go unrecorded ... observation is an important element. an angler I knew years ago, would take days off - and search and explore the river's pools before even launching a fly ... a salmon's local environment changes with river levels and temperature, light conditions and the populations of other anadromous species, depending on month ... note also that salar has daily habits as man ... activity and rest ...

wherever and whenever possible... the angler's best tactic is repose ... finding a comfortable stone or log, or grass mound ... sit and reflect ... observe the pool closely: looking first for a landing place, possible snags .... walk the bank, taking note of structure of the pool, possible lies, salar at rest ... hatches that appear... ascending salmon entering the tail , or exiting the head of the pool ... the most active salmon are the most likely to show interest in the fly presented ... if the pool is being fished ... follow the line of other anglers ... have they missed key lies ? not shown the fly in a salmon's window of vision ? have they overwaded ?

the right fly ... in the right place ... at the right time ...

observation: creates an awareness and sharpens one's approach ....