Introduction

Many people suggest that Atlantic salmon fishing is the pinnacle in freshwater fly fishing.  It was, after all, the pursuit of this species that fostered the historical beginnings of fly fishing.  While most top atlantic salmon anglers are secretive, subtle, and sometimes a little unsocial, they are nonetheless held in high regard in the fly fishing world.  Regardless of the truth in the "pinnacle suggestion", the goal of many fly fishermen whom have discovered and explored the many graces of atlantic salmon fishing ......is to hook a truly huge fresh Atlantic salmon.  Today this is a difficult challenge on most of the best atlantic salmon fisheries globally and on many rivers local anglers fish a lifetime and land but a few 25+ pound salmon.....or none. 

Being a mere lad of my mid-thirties, I do not profess to know much about catching Atlantic salmon despite having caught hundreds of them and having spent thousands of hours trying to catch them.  I suspect that at age 70 I will still be learning new things weekly if not daily (I hope).  Ironically, rather than counting numbers of fish landed I often tend to judge my success by the amount of new information and observations I make by the end of the day.

Atlantic salmon fishing seems to be a dying sport and I hope that this essay helps encourage a few anglers to start their addiction or continue with it and teach others what they have learned.  So, I humbly pass along information that was taught to me either the easy way (by a truly magnificent atlantic salmon angler) or occasionally the hard way (using my own limited brain power while getting very little sleep). 

Many a trophy atlantic salmon has been landed by doing just the opposite of what I outline below, but here is how I see it... today, that is. Some of the points listed below are STRICTLY adhered to by local trophy salmon anglers and guides that land in excess of a dozen trophy salmon annually... and in excess of 100 atlantic salmon annually.  Skunked days are indeed rare for these guys. 

Like the United Kingdom, atlantic salmon fly angling was developed in Newfoundland and our little Island has some truly great anglers - one or two of which you may meet in your travels with us.  Take note of any subtle suggestions these chaps make.  I hope that from this short essay that you can learn from some of my mistakes and inherit some of the information that was granted to me by a class of anglers who are notorious for keeping secrets.

Finding a Trophy and Then Catching it Every Year

First you have to find a lay that holds a trophy salmon. Notice I didn't say a trophy salmon but rather its lay.  This is the single most important part of catching a trophy fish but will not make up for a lack of experience once you have the fish coming for the fly.  A lay that holds a trophy fish for more than a few hours is likely to hold a trophy fish every year. 

The Lower Humber has hundreds of these lays.  Most lays will hold specific size fish and the biggest salmon will usually be in the same lays year after year unless the river changes.  That is to say, some lays usually only hold grilse weight fish, others teen weight to 25 pounders, and still others 25+ pounders, etc.  The trick is to figure out which ones the top 0.01% of the biggest fish use. Then, like a few locals here, you may put a 60+ pound fish in your hands (or at least the peduncle of the tail!). 

Some lays are "permanent" and will be used for many weeks while others are only used during certain water levels, for a few days, or during a run of giant salmon and are temporary lays used for minutes.  The better lays will hold salmon for days or weeks, but the best lays are the running lays as the fish are fresh and active and take a fly much more quickly (the fish's hormone called thyroxin is very high and it is agitated and hyper).  The trick is to guess when a run of large salmon is about to happen (hint: watch for a big rainfall).

Some rivers are small and some are large, but both can hold huge salmon. One thing that I have noticed about all of our prime fly fishing salmonids including Atlantic salmon, Arctic char, brown trout, and brook trout is that larger rivers in general have greater numbers of trophy fish. However, this is a generality and everyone knows that some huge rivers never had any significant numbers of trophy fish historically despite the size, or an amount proportional to the population size of any river, while others historically were known for a high percentage of huge fish. 

One observation I have made is that the largest anadromous fish are usually found in the greatest concentration in the lower section of the river. They come in to the river as a school most often as they sort by genetic strain and age class in the ocean and hold in the lower section and then gradually spread themselves out over the system.  I have found this to be the case for all the salmonids listed above from dozens of rivers throughout Newfoundland and Labrador - south from the Torngats in the arctic of Labrador, east from Canada's eastern most point in Newfoundland and north of the southern coast of Newfoundland - 75% of the latitudinal coastline of eastern Canada. So, basically what I am saying is to look for them from large rivers or those traditionally known for big fish and close to the ocean.

Eventually I learned to chase grilse and teen weight salmon up river following a school as it migrated in a good sized river and have had great success in doing this on foot and in a boat. If a large school went by us we would move upstream to chase them. However trophy sized fish can, and most often do, migrate very slowly and may be in an area for days or weeks before moving. Then, they may move less than 100 yards upstream unless a big rain has occurred. They do this even in rivers that are very large without any obstructions to migration. Once they find a lay they like and are ready for a resting period they will defend the lay against other smaller salmon.

I have followed large salmon, char, and trout up various rivers in Newfoundland and Labrador. These fish had unique scars and were unmistakable. Most trophy salmon that come into the river in summer will do one of two things: return to the ocean after a short stay in the lower stretch of the river and then return later, or they will hang around in the lower stretches of a river and only make the dash to the spawning grounds with the fall rains. It may take them a month to move a few hundred yards.

"Home pools" are usually named this for one of two reasons.  The first is because it is next to the lodge, home or a small town. The second and more frequent is because they have a large concentration of holding fish that are resting before the next stage of the migration and it is thus the "home of the salmon". This can be at the very upper reaches of a river near the spawning beds or "home", at the mouth of a tributary stream, or at the outlet of a large lake or steady that salmon hold in and become concentrated. 

If the pool was named after the fish and not a door step, which is usually the case if the name is very old, then take note and scout around. Trophy fish will hold there if the river has any huge salmon in it. Try fishing in the very late evenings, when a run is happening and the big fish have to drive the little ones away, and windy days in the river mouth after you learn the lays the monsters use. They will use the same lays each year unless something changes the river flow or structure. Most often the biggest fish will not lay with a grilse or teen weight fish in a small or tight area. If they are forced to, as rarely happens in some home pools, then you have a slim chance of hooking the fish and one of the smaller ones will likely grab the fly first as they will likely out number the trophy fish.

If this is the situation I have found it good to wait for a good rain and fish the pool when it is nearly empty of fish....except the biggest ones that didn't move. Once it is full of fish again, you may wish to more to another spot to fish for huge fish.

I have had the pleasure of spending many hours sitting in a boat or on a high bank watching salmon and arctic char in a pool or running along a migration route in both small and large rivers.  It is quite interesting to watch the migration of the fish through successive lays at various water levels and the interaction of the fish. 

As a lad, I trapped mink very heavily and once read in a book that if one mink on a river travels over a bridge instead of under the bridge, then 99% will take the same route for decades. Why this is done is still a mystery. Watch where you see large salmon jump or show on the surface - try and mark the spot. Salmon often come to the surface after leaving a lay or being disturbed by another fish entering the lay (usually the smaller fish jumps).  You may not see another large fish show in that spot for days but where you saw the fish, take note. Large salmon don't show on the surface every hour or even every day.

Some lays I have figured out took me 3 to 5 years to pin point and I might only see one trophy fish show or jump from the lay in a season while the fish was in the lay for a month or more or, the lay was used by nearly half the trophy salmon swimming up river! Set-up close to where the salmon is laying and wait and try and get a better idea exactly where the fish is laying (warning....this may take days!).  The other option is to scan for the fish with a fly. This almost never works well unless the fish is very fresh and eager for a fly (it happens).  Casting over her tail all day is of little use.  Scanning sweeps on holding large salmon are probably ok on very fresh fish but make it difficult to catch staler holding fish.  Lining a fish with a fly line or a noisy pick-up from the water surface while scanning for the fish doesn't help either.  However, if the lay is in shallow water you can float down over it very quickly in a boat and see exactly where the fish is laying on the bottom.  Then, figure out an optimal spot to position yourself for a presentation and stick a tent peg in the bottom.

Next mark all observations... in a small "marble book" that is kept in a safe spot.  I mean exactly how many rod lengths of line the fish is from your marker and on what angle beacause when the water rises or drops the water surface may look different and you'll miss the lay.  I started an "outdoor journal" at age 18 when I first started guiding and have the same small tattered 8" ring binder today.  Trappers often do this, but many fly anglers don't.  Eventually one learns the position of the lay well enough in various water levels.  However, remember that casting over her tail or lining her doesn't help so you had better know the exact square foot her head is in. Once this lay is learned you can wander or drift from the peg a little more and find another lay, and so on. The peg is only your reference co-ordinates.

Many times I have seen very large fresh fish up to 35+ pounds hooked from lays that were only 2 to 4 feet deep when water that was 10+ feet deep was nearby and regularly used by trophy fish.  Fresh large salmon will "sun bathe" on very shallow shoals in mid day.  This is no different than when  fresh smaller fish move to the tail end of a pool in mid day.  One might suggest that this allows the melanocytes (camouflaging pigment cells) in the skin of the fish to change color to match the surrounding river bottom.

Perhaps very large salmon have little to fear from avian predators such as ospreys.  Nonetheless, the biggest fresh fish sometimes takes the shallowest lay available during mid-day with the smaller fish taking what might be considered less desirable and deeper lays.  I have often seen a group of fresh trophy fish start to "fight" for lays during 11AM to 2PM. This is usually only done in spots with deep water nearby - for example the edge or corner of a shoal that provided a deep water escape route. However, they will sometimes forego the protection of deep water, as I have also seen them in lays 2.5 feet deep 100 feet up on a shoal with a deep pool with other staler trophy fish 100 feet away in nice deep pools.

The converse in regards to daily movements is also true.  Fresh and stale large salmon often lay in deep water lays during early morning and late evening. However, they may start to migrate (if the water is rising hard) or travel around a small area or pool to familiarize themselves with the various lays available so in late evening and early morning large fish may be caught in very shallow water if they have just arrived in those areas. 

Finally, stale fish will often set up for spawning weeks in advance on a very shallow shoal and become very territorial which can help with hooking the fish with a sinking line.  Most anglers will not fish a pre-spawn or paired fish.

Many trophy fish will use 2 or even 3 different lays throughout the day, so if she is not in the lay it may not mean she has migrated up stream. She may (and more likely if it didn't rain) have moved to another nearby lay. A lay that holds one of the largest fish I see every year is usually empty after about 11AM (many times she'll jump or high rise when she leaves) and the fish moves to a lay about 80 yards away on a shoal. Then before nightfall she moves again to another lay about 80 yards upstream in the deep water below a shoal on a break line. The following morning she is back by the original lay at 'epidermis'!. If you doubt this, buy one of the new castable fish finders.

The best lays are those that hold a single or only trophy fish. Ever try and catch one huge fish mixed into a school of dozens of smaller ones? The lay you want is a trophy lay that virtually only trophy sized fish use. Moreover a very shallow lay seems to be harder to actually hook the fish in ie less than 3 feet deep. This is also true for smaller fish. Ideally the lay should be 4 to 8 feet deep. To catch them from very deep lays requires a very long drift and consistent timing of presentations. This allows the fish to time the rise and enough water over which to chase the fly. 

As one might expect, the lays vary in structure.  Some are merely currents meeting in the middle of the river, some are in the out wash of a cold feeder brook, others are pocket lays behind a series of upwells which lessen the flow rate along a migration route, others are alcoves along drop-offs, some are behind or in front of shoals or points, etc.  Major obstacles often have lays below them that hold very large salmon.  The best locations allow you to present to multiple lays for trophy fish from a single point. Our Humber river has many spots like this.  Next you have to read the water and figure out if a dry fly or wet fly will work best. Then you can adjust the fly line to suit the lay and fly being presented.

So, you've gone and done it... you have found a trophy lay... shhhhhh... I don't even tell the other guides that work for me or my best friends... I don't brag about it, fish it every day, or give them away like favours.  Even letting everyone in town know what you are truly capable of is a mistake. 

I once knew a guy who came home with 5 geese one day (a real trophy around here and something he regularly did) and desperately tried to sneek them into his hunting buddies house. The next weekend one of the neighbors followed him at 4AM to the "secret spot". 

Most anglers fish a lifetime of summers and never land a 25+ pound atlantic salmon... even if a river that produces hundreds of them is in their back yard... if you have found a lay nobody else fishes then all the more reason not to brag...? 

I once directed a local hunter who was after a moose with his little boy to a "gimme" spot at which he would have a near perfect chance to harvest the cow moose he told me he was hoping to kill on his either sex license.  He was having such a hard time I felt for him and wanted the boy to get his hands on his first moose stalk. I told him I was chasing a trophy bull that was with the "lord" of the valley, and after reassurances by him that he only wanted a dry cow for meat I told him where to sit and when.

The next day he shot my trophy bull and my sport went home empty handed.  I had filmed the trophy bull moose since the first of July and it was shot in November. I still wince about that one.

Many of the trophy salmon anglers in our area will not even fish a lay that holds trophy fish if someone is around.  And if the lay is one "everyone" knows, then the trophy fish that lays there has likely already been hooked and released within a short period of it entering the lay. Some lays that a handful of local trophy salmon anglers all know, I do not fish. Repeatedly hooking trophy fish is not very sporting or conservation minded.

The Ultimate Goal

Most people will agree that atlantic salmon angling is a very challenging sport that takes years to get good at even if you live on the banks of one of the worlds greatest salmon rivers with 3rd generation anglers living next door. 

It seems that many are drawn to the sport by four factors: its hard earned knowledge, the extreme stamina, jumping abilities, and speed of an atlantic salmon.  Everyone has their own opinions as to the premium way to catch a trophy anadromous (ocean going) atlantic. For some it is tiny flies, some a dry fly, some a fresh fish, some a big river without confining pools, etc. For many it is simple: A fresh fish on a good sized river without confining pools as this will produce the strongest fight and gives the fish the biggest advantage. 

If you can do it with a dry fly, light leader, or tiny hook... well then... you have it all! Note, I don't recommend trying this until you have gotten a few fresh 20+ pound salmon under your belt.  No sense in making it more difficult than it already is. 

Here is where a lot of guys from mainland Canada will get upset. Catching a huge very stale colored fish with a sinking line and heavy leader is probably the opposite end of the spectrum.  Finally, catching a huge "post spawn", "spent", "slink", "crimson visitor", or "black" salmon on spinning gear is truly a different sport than traditional atlantic salmon fishing.  Virtually nobody in Newfoundland and Labrador fishes for spent salmon.

Gear and Stuff

Right... let's talk gear. Hooking an atlantic salmon of immense proportions and not being prepared is an unforgivable sin that will give you repeated nightmares and will break any guides heart. Sometimes, I have had to fish all week knowing full well that when we hooked the trophy we had a very slim chance of landing her because of a conflict of ideas with my sport. Oh well... there are many things that I had to learn the hard way so why argue intensely?

Flies

Clean flies work better than old mouldy flies. That is not to say an old "super deadly" is worthless - just keep it clean. You don't need to soak them in shrimp stock, just keep them clean. Remember salmon have noses and often chase flies with their nose an inch from the fly.

Salmon like silver bodied flies with blue and red in them, they like dry flies, they like green, yellow, and red  flies, and black flies. They also like jungle cock cheeks (flat to the SIDE of the fly). Other than these few observations, I really could care less what pattern you tie on your leader - with a few exceptions. 

We use a dry fly in calm water (its just so nice to see her rise to the fly), and use silver flies on bright and dark days (tubular mylar glints more than tinsel), Phentex (a wool company) recently stopped making a great color wool called kelly green that is worth finding.  Use synthetic wool rather than floss and paint your hook shafts white or tye in a first layer of white synthetic wool or tinsel to keep colors bright and true when wet, use fluorescent butts on flies (salmon see in the UV and flourescent light spectrums), and finally have a few with bright red heads. Borrowing your wife's home decorating "color wheel" will help you understand the concept of contrasting colors and also help the salmon see your flies! Tye your bombers with caribou body fur and use the most wrinkled calves tail you can find for the wings.

Finally, use very little hackle on bombers and make sure the belly of the bomber is flat or slightly concave so it sticks better to the water surface tension. A dry fly that is floating on hackles like a Mac Intosh, Wulff, etc, is too easily moved by a rising fish and some fish will actually move the fly too much when rising and miss it.  See below for further discussion.

It is better to have a dry fly very stuck in the surface tension and a wet fly below the surface.  Short wings on dries will land more grilse and use a #10 to #6 - but no larger (grilse salmon have small mouths). For big fish this mouth size problem is not an issue. For trophy sized salmon, tye your wet flies with materials that sink easily; not hollow hairs such as moose. Again, see below for further discussion.

Hooks

First the hook. Size 6 to oversized 3/0. We shy away from size 8 and higher as the hooks are a little too small... unless you are really feeling sporting or plan to kill the fish and play it a long time.
We like stout forged hooks and extra strong tempered heavy wire hooks. We do not like to use hooks

Traditional barbless or "wrinkle barbs" are very hard to find in hook strengths and sizes large enough for trophy class atlantic salmon. Please email me if you find a good source eureka@nf.sympatico.ca

Leaders

Always check your leader or tie on a new one if you have time. If you even think you may have a wind knot be sure to stop and check it.  A figure of 8 knot may not be terrible but a half hitch or over hand knot is deadly and may reduce line strength by 85%.  Twenty cents worth of nylon has broken many a heart. 

Hmmmm....here is where I'm really going to ruffle some feathers.  We dislike tapered leaders and we have learned this dislike from experience.  Yes, they roll the fly over in the wind and are great for the large flies we use on the giant salmon, BUT they cause more wind knots if they are not knotless, and if they are of the knotless variety they generally have poor quality control in the manufacturing or are too brittle with only the last foot or so providing any stretch. 

If you want a tapered leader make your own from Maxima or a similar stretchy nylon using double surgeons knots or blood knots.  Forget about Super Strong, Drennan, Ostger, and similar abrasion resistant non stretchy nylons, various braided leaders, copolymers, fluorocarbons, and kevlar lines like Fireline. You want stretch in your leader for atlantic salmon.  Forget about virtually everything you learned while fishing the pacific versions of salmon.  Fresh Atlantic's are fast and sudden and brittle leaders will cost you fish.....you'll just have to trust me. 

Now that you have loads of stretch in your leader you're almost there.  Now the only problem with Maxima and other "old fashioned" nylons is that they like to float and show a large surface dimple on the water. Fish dislike this and it is magnified by the time it reaches down through the depths to the fish (just watch a shadow from a leader on the bottom). So, use some Gherke's Xink on it ( only after tying the fly on ) or soak it in water for a while prior to using.  Beware the Xink on synthetics as it is an oil based product and will melt some synthetics that flies are sometimes tyed with. 

Monofiliment floats on top of the water when dry but it will soak up water like a sponge.  Of course, always wet your knots prior to cinching them tight. Next, what pound test to use. We use 10 pound Maxima "brown" or Chameleon on trophy fish.  If you go above 10 pound test you risk breaking the backing off if it is only 20 pound test.  Try this experiment with a friend: Have your friend peel all your fly line and 100+ yards of backing off your reel and head straight across a current of about 3 to 5 knots on a  good sized river.  Now, attach a set of scales to the leader, and slowly move 30 yards down river and then the same distance up river from your rod and you'll be amazed at how much strain is on the line while the fish is merely meandering up stream or simply laying still in the water!  Next bind your drag tight, have the "leader end" head down river, and pull on the rod and watch your 20 pound backing break before the 10 pound leader!  Fly lines can produce a tremdous amount of drag. 

Maxima test weight on the spool is always a lot lower than the actual breaking strength: 10 pounds breaks at 13 pounds. Never use Maxima if you are after an IGFA record you'll be sorry (like one of my sports was one day, sorry Bob, at the time I never knew the difference). If you lose a trophy salmon on 10 pound Maxima then either the hook broke or straightened (it happens) or something bad happened that is likely either your fault or the guide's.

Sometimes however, the leader simply breaks. Always check your leader prior to casting it at a fish of a lifetime. I have had to throw away two entire commercial sized boxes of brand new Maxima (20 spools in a box)... all of it was rotten. The quality control is also very bad in Maxima and test strength is based on 3 meters of line (I was told). Many times there are weak spots in the line.

Fly Lines

Fly lines... hmmmm what to say... We hate to use a heavy sinking line on Atlantic salmon and literally stick the fly in their mouths, but in times of desperation, people do desperate things. 

Most guests refuse to fish like this and suggest that you might as well snag them like a king salmon.  Some suggest that the thrill is in getting the fish to chase after the fly.  For the most part a full floating CORTLAND 444 line is used but we also use intermediate lines, and the Rio Versi-tip systems with floating, intermediate, and class I to III sinking tips. 

One has to be EXTREMELY careful when using sinking lines so as to avoid snagging the fish.  Moreover, sinking lines increase the drag and strain on a large salmon that is hooked and this drag is very uncontrollable. 

Many rivers that hold trophy sized salmon have deep spots with fast current.  If the current is above 4 or 5 knots you will have a much slimmer chance of landing your fish. 

If you are fishing in an area that has some deep moving water of 2 to 4 knots then by all means try using just the shooting head only from your Versi-tip system or a cut off 20 to 25 foot long front section of a weight forward floating cortland fly line (be sure to seal the cut off end) and then attach this to backing or similar very fine diameter running line. This is a common steelhead technique but I have never seen anyone fish big atlnatic salmon using this method. Try it, you will land ALOT more of those huge salmon.  If deep water (more than 4 or 5 feet) and above 3 knots in speed is handy then a salmon will likely make a down stream run and without you being aware of it the fish will change directions 50 to 200 yards down stream and head upstream or across the current at terrific speed and after coming up from the depths at an angle jump into the air or surface slash. This is the time when most big fish are lost.  The problem is that the fish has induced a large bow in the line across the current and is travelling upstream very very fast. The thick bowed fly line induces an extreme amount of drag and the fish is able to break the leader or tear the hook out of its relatively soft jaw bone. God help you if you are fishing with a 10 or 11 weight Spey line!  In my experience you can forget about manuvering the boat to prevent this from happening like they sometimes do with saltwater big game fish. Its all going to happen in seconds and once you are fighting the fish on the backing it is hard to even know where the fish is in the river let alone if it is headed down stream or up stream! The solution is simple, use fine diameter backing and a shooting head sans a fly line.  The drag induced by the backing is much less than if it were a fly line. This large bow in the fly line has cost anglers more trophy salmon than any other reason I can think of. 

Cortland makes the most supple flyline for our cold water; while Orvis and Scientific Anglers are terrible and have bad memories and Rio is not much better. Loop seems to be the only company that realizes why large salmon are seldom landed and often tear free... ahhhwww the Swedes... why are they so darn good at everything they do?

Rods, Reels and Backing

First make sure you have taken the fly line off the reel and strung it through the guides correctly.  We have had a number of horrible experiences where 150 yards into the backing the line bound tight.  The line was crossed when it was first taken off the reel and strung through the guides but it went unnoticed.  Ever try and hand line a fresh huge Atlantic salmon with the backing... all I can say is wear thick gloves. 

We like a medium-fast or fast action rod of 9+ feet in length and generally dislike very very high modular graphite rods IM8+.  They break too easily.  Beware if you strike the rod with the fly while casting or have to haul ashore a huge fish.  The disadvantage of a super stiff rod is that when the fish comes for the wet fly as it swings across the current the line is tight and the rod has little flex in it. As the fish tries to suck in the fly there is no give in the line or rod and the fly doesn't get sucked deep into the fishes mouth.  This has caused more misses than I care to remember! 

Mind your fly line if your rod has a fighting butt that doesn't snap on/off - ever try screwing in a fighting butt or unwrapping a line from one while attached to a 20+ pound salmon?  Spey rods are nice but are difficult to cast without making a lot of noise, use heavy fly lines, can easily produce too much strain when fighting fish, are hard to cast using short lengths of line and tend to result in anglers fishing too long a line (which will cost you fish), so basically we dislike them.

We like large arbor disc drag reels that have simple or no extra moving parts.  The bigger, the better. Make sure you have AT LEAST 200 yards of 20 pound backing (400+ yards of 30 pound gel-spun backing is recommended) and have a motor boat very handy if fishing a navigable river.  A large arbor reel is recommended as this will circumvent having to constantly adjust the drag of a small arbor reel as the fish blisters 200 yards of backing from your reel and the arbor size changes dramatically during the run and thus the amount of drag per turn of the spool.  It also allows for a faster retrieval of the line.

Right, so you have a huge reel which is up to the task and fully loaded with tightly wound backing.  Note that loose backing can allow the fish to countersink line that is coming off the spool as it runs so be careful to wind up the backing TIGHT both before fishing AND as you play the fish. 

My Hardy Viscount 10/11 has 625 meters of 30lbs backing and there have been times I wished I had more. Many of us who have fished the Lower Humber have seen blistering 700+ foot runs. We generally leave the drag set lightly until the 20 minute mark in a fight at which time we start to really work the fish hard. If you put too much pressure on the fish too early you will likely increase the hole size in the fishes jaw while it is fighting and moving very fast and then lose the fish on a jump or late in the fight. Let them race around dragging fly line and back for awhile and hope they tire a little before making them work for the line. Usually (but not always) you can tell when to really start putting pressure on the fish.

Knots

Never use a riffling hitch on a huge salmon.

Try this one. The knot supports 100% of the line breaking strength and the gap points down when fished....helps hooks'em deep and in the lower jaw a higher percentage of the time (thanks Bud, Barry and others that finally beat it into my head!).

Fishing for Giants

Strategies

I landed my first salmon at age 10 from the Miramichi at a place called Slatey's Rapids and have been hooked ever since, but when I moved to Newfoundland at age 11 and landed my first salmon in Newfoundland from the Lower Humber at age 12... well things started to change.  I have a friend who has been salmon fishing for a long time (since I introduced him to it and fly tying at age 14 or 15). 

I have had the pleasure of fishing with this chap (Brad Andrews) since we were lads and Brad lands dozens and dozens annually including 3 monsters this year alone with many more monsters lost or pricked. The largest was estimated at 35 pounds...and strangely he has photos this time as he agreed to take a trainee with him (the trainee got a 30 pounder the next night)... only a few photos in 25 years should tell a fellow something about sneaking off alone and not bragging or photographing.

A local trophy salmon guru that usually lands the first monster of the season once said to me "Bill, the big ones are no different than the grilse, just slower and anti-social"....there was wisdom in that statement and experience and if you doubt it....well... how many 50+ pounders have you landed with photos? His biggest was 61" by 38" in girth! I have been fishing the Lower Humber since 1981 and I'm not embarrassed to say my total is "0" despite having seen and hooked some horrendous sized fish (I'll never forget Sept 17 1999... I never thought they grew that big). 

This chap annually lands as many or more monster salmon than anyone in North America I'm sure. He's a 3rd generation master you'll likely never hear about and definitely will never see any photos of his fish. Seeing, hooking, and landing 20 to 40 pounders is a different thing though. My "system" is simple, if the trophies are running then set up in a good spot just before dark as they will start moving some time just before black.  Pick a spot that has the most monsters funneled along a migration route, some of the migration routes I fish are 10 inches wide in a river which is over 100 yards in places, some are no more than 2 feet wide, while others are 4+ feet wide but nearly every monster swims through it. During the day I have a few choices.

The first is to focus on two or three areas, pools, or shoals and memorize which fish have been there all week rising, which ones have been hooked, and which ones are new fresh fish that are rising and "jump on the fresh rising ones" once they start rising. You don't have to stop because it is hot and sunny during mid-day if the water is cool, but try and not work your guide or yourself to death (pace yourself).  Trophy fish often shift lays to very shallow lays sometime during mid day (11AM to 2PM) if the water is cool enough. 

If there are a number of fish all trying to get into the same lay/area they can start to fight and you'll likely hook one. Watch the tides and have a flick on the change in the tides.  Watch for changes in lighting (clouds repeatedly blocking out the sun, sun goes behind a mountain, etc) as this can trigger a take.  Fish very hard on cloudy calm days.

Another approach is to start miles up river and hit every top quality lay you know for about 20-40 casts each with various presentations, angles, speeds, dry and wet fly, etc.  Some lays have presentations that almost never work and some that will draw a trophy fish very often.  Try and figure these spots out by experimentation. Most lays will only hold one fish but some will have 2 to 6 in them.

Don't waste time spending a hours on one fish... hit 'em all. Then return to the ones that gave chase or rose.  Usually the action will happen in the first 10 casts and often on the first cast. This is one of the most common strategies used by local trophy "cracker jacks" that land in excess of a handful of world record class salmon annually.  This approach is also used while grisle fishing when the fish are not running to you. Hit the deep holes in early morning and late evening and the shallow lays during mid-day...I know it sounds crazy, but just try it.

The least most successful approach is to pound one fish or "permanent" lay to death. Some fish will never take and from some lays the fish are rarely hooked. Ever try to catch a single huge salmon for a month? I once asked a local trophy salmon guru, "why doesn't anyone fish for those huge fish rising down there by the beaver house?" "Dunno", was his reply, "they just don't... and that tells me something." I guess after decades of trying them they learned not to bother! Similarly, I know of a great lay that I have hooked some huge fish from, but have never landed a single one! The water was just too fast and the fish tore free everytime. I've stopped fishing this lay, but "wasted" many hours before learning the hard way about trying to land monsters in very fast and heavy water.

Timing....(aka Good Luck)

We quickly learned to fish until the legal maximum of 1 hour after civil sunset and have landed many very large fish in the black of night. Try the shallow spots of a pool or shoal during mid day. Watch for the highest tides of the month, double high tides of early morning and late evening, and of course rain. Ask around about when people start seeing the big ones come in. This is usually early spring or late season. Most of the early spring runs of trophy fish have been all but wiped out globally.

Setting Up

First, never wade directly upstream of the fish... as you know - they have noses.  I hate wading anywhere near the fish because, like caribou, one spooked fish can alert the others and you must wait for them to settle again. Second don't wade into the water unless you absolutely have to and if you do have to don't move around a lot. Third don't make a lot of noise; sound travels 5 times faster in water and much clearer over background noise.

Ideally you want to be able to cast to more than one giant at a time and a dry fly will be your greatest assets in accomplishing this. Next, if fishing from a boat or canoe have two rods ready, one with a dry fly and one with a wet fly.  Park your boat on a short anchor rope if possible, so you can pull it up in a hurry if you need to chase the fish or drift back with it. A fish you drift back with thinks its escaped the force pulling on it and settles a little bit. Make sure you have an anchor puller or line stop on your boat for pulling anchor.  This device locks the rope with every pull upward of the rope and thus a man can pull anchor in heavy current with one hand and still hold the rod. 

It is almost funny to watch one of the local "cracker jacks" single handedly fish for a trophy salmon. Once hooked they must pull anchor, start the motor, and maneuver a boat while fighting the fish (remember this has to be done with one hand!). Don't try and tail or net a large Atlantic salmon from a boat in general (like they do for the pacific salmon) - you will be sorry. Try and get the fish out of any harms way and away from any nearby heavy current.  Be sure you have a couple of good calm spots up stream and down stream to land the fish already scouted and cleaned of debris and vegetation.  I have found freshly stirred up clay from the river bed can be used to help calm the fish when getting ready to tail it.  I have found this so good that I have even carried a couple of buckets of clay to areas without it.  It really blinds the fish to the approach.

The Presentation and Take

First I would like to suggest something that many atlantic salmon guides will not like.  Hold your fly line tight once the fly lands on the water.  Apparently many guides from Europe and New Brunswick or Quebec, Canada suggest to not do this.  However, I have seen too many salmon that were missed or quickly lost because a novice angler was not able to get a fast and hard enough hook set on a fish.  When the guest lifted the rod to strike all that happened was the reel let line off or worse - back lashed.  Make sure your drag is set just tight enough to prevent backlash. 

Trying to "muscle in" a freshly hooked fish with your drag is a mistake that will cost you a trophy fish one day.  "Man-handling" a freshly hooked 20+ pound salmon with a fishing rod is impossible - either the hook will tear out or something will break.

A very shallow lay seems to be harder to actually hook the fish well in ie less than 3 feet deep. This is also true for smaller fish. Ideally the lay should be 4 to 8 feet deep. To catch them from very deep lays requires a very long drift and consistent timing of presentations. This allows the fish to time when to start rising, the time to rise, and enough water over which to to chase the fly after finally coming up from the bottom.

This is where everyone makes a mistake sooner or later, so rest assured you are in good company WHEN this happens.  Large salmon are very forgiving when taking a fly and thankfully so as some grilse in fast water are terrible to try and hook.

Dry flies....the ultimate. A dry fly, unlike the wet fly swing, can be presented from all points of the compass but one, straight upstream.  You will miss and foul hook many salmon if you fish it straight up stream. The fish often rises and allows the fly to float back into its mouth, or rises down stream of the fly and moves forward on the fly with its mouth open.

If your leader is over its head it will either halt the rise when the leader touches it or move the leader and fly as its head rises above the surface. The dry fly, once mastered, will result in deeper hook sets in the jaw and you will "prick" less fish.  Set the hook on a dry fly correctly ... this is virtually impossible to teach with mere words so I won't bother to try.  My best advise is to try and get some experience on grilse first but be sure to give the slower trophy fish time to finish eating the fly - they usually eat a dry fly much slower than smaller salmon. 

A salmon quickly realizes it has been fooled and rejects the fly from its mouth.  The fresher and smaller the fish the faster it seems to eject the fly from its mouth.  You will move many salmon by twitching a bomber or skating it across the water surface as the original tyer suggests it should be fished, however we fish bombers on the Humber more often than any other river I am aware of and we all know you will catch more salmon dead drifting a bomber than you will by skating it. 

Skating a bomber will move many big fish, but to catch one, dead drift it between its eyes. A local trophy salmon guru (Eric Cranford) once told me a story about the largest salmon he ever landed (you won't believe me if I say how big it was so I'll say: 40 pounds... most guys can swallow that).

"Bill, I had moved the fish twice that morning so I figured it was a 'taker' and new it was bigger than the many many 25+ pounders I have landed and guide for. We rested the fish all day. In the evening we threw a 'box' of wet flies at it, then skated, hopped, and twitched the bomber over it...the evening wore on, but the very first time I dead drifted the bomber over it the fish smashed it like a grilse...it was one of the most savage takes I ever seen from a big fish...you wouldn't believe it." 

Here is a theory:  A salmon has spent much of its life in a river catching flies.  Parr know that a moving fly is hard to catch and will strike at a dead floating fly much sooner than a moving fly. They learn that moving flies are more likely to escape attack while dead or very busy flies that are not moving are easier prey. Conjecture sure; but it makes sense to me.  Don't move your fly around a lot trying to get it into position "right between" the fishes eyes. 

This is all seen by the eagle eyed atlantic salmon and it is a little less likely to come to the fly. Rather, wait until the drift is finished and well behind the fish before retrieving and casting again and this time to the the correct spot so the fly drifts between the fishes eyes. 

Never false cast over a salmon.  The deeper the fish is laying the farther away it can see a fly on the surface in its peripheral vision. I have seen many a 30 pound salmon power up on a fly that is 10 to 20 feet away and slightly upstream of it or turn so that it can get the fly in its binocular view from both eyes and thus get a 3D look at the fly and the distance between it and the fish.  However, at all times the fly was below the surface film.

Here are the most common wet fly mistakes: If you have a large pressure wake build behind your fly, don't stop moving the fly.  So, it didn't take that time. Second DON'T strip more line off your reel in your excitement getting ready for the next cast, and third if you are a long way away from the fish... move a little closer to the fish if you can without spooking it.  Then, give the fish at least 2 minutes (5 minutes preferred) between each time you cast to it - if you don't it may continue to chase the fly to another lay and you will have to find the fish all over again. 

Let the fish settle back to where it wants to lay.  Cast back to the original spot/cast you made when you first moved the fish - not where it stopped chasing it.  If you don't do this, then once again, you may cause the fish to change lays.

Don't fish a wet fly too slowly - you'll catch either less fresh fish or no fresh fish.  As a general rule make sure your fly lands with the leader straight on the water or pull it tight right away; otherwise your fly will not fish correctly or "swim" in the water and you will catch less or no fish at all.  If you are fishing a level leader of 10 pound maxima and it doesn't always land nice and straight do not worry about it; just lift your rod to pull it tight before it reaches the spot you are fishing. 

Salmon like to chase things.  If it is moving too slowly it will not induce a predatory attack or the fish will pick at the fly or try to gently suck it in and not be forced to make a full blown attack (the line is already tight and the fish won't be successful at gently sucking it in or you will prick the fish). The exception is when fishing for stale salmon that have been in the river over 4 weeks at which time a nice slow wet fly swing or simply hanging the fly in front of the fish may work.

There seems to be a correlation between the size of the fish and the likelihood that the fish tried to ingest the fly by primarily using a vacuum force. My guess would be that as the fish gets larger the vacuum action induced by the fish gets more effective at drawing in food. Hence, trophy sized salmon tend to chase after a wet fly and then try and vacuum the fly into the mouth more often than an attacking grilse or teen weight fish. This is a problem for the angler as a wet fly is fished with a tight line. The fish is expecting the fly to be drawn in to its mouth by the vacuum it creates with its mouth, but we have it attached to a tight leader and fly line with little or no stretch - at least not enough such that can be stretched by the vacuum from the mouth of the fish. The fish tries to inhale the fly but it doesn't move and get drawn into the mouth, but continues racing across the current in a normal wet fly swing.

Here are some ways to help you hook the next monster that offers. Some anglers like to put a small coil or two in the "memory" of the butt section of the monofiliment leader. The fish sucks and the line stretches those precious extra two inches as the coils straighten. Still others use short casts and soft action rods that bend easily, but many people just get short takers and/or pricks and blame it on the fish and bad luck. Remember, everything a salmon does consistantly can be used to an anglers advantage.

Fishing with a floating line will help you see even the smallest grilse coming as it chases your fly across flat surfaced water during a wet fly swing. One can slowly (whatever that means) and steadily lower the rod tip from a  45^o angle to horizontal as: the fish meets the fly, you feel a gentle pull, or you watch it flare the gills to suck in the fly. Then lift it back straight up and enjoy a deep mouthed hook set. A more detailed discussion is below.

A large salmon that has to eat a fly from the top of the surface film can miss the fly if it rises rather lazily or does not suck hard enough to inhale the fly. Trophy salmon are of a large enough size to push the water around its head or mouth as it rises and thus the fly that is sitting on top of the surface film can roll off the fishes nose as it surfaces and causes a wake or out of the mouth at the last second as the water is pushed aside by the fish.

A guru once said to me, "I've seen them nearly turn themselves inside out trying to double back on their cheek to make a second smash in the same rise on a bomber that had escaped. The fish had obviously not wanted to miss or play with the fly".

Subsurface wet flies also decrease the chance of a foul hooked fish. If the fly is subsurface then it does not become trapped in the surface tension of the water and moves into the mouth of the fish more freely, but this too has draw backs as we will discuss.  That is not to say that dry flies are not any good for trophy fish; rather it just means the fish will miss sometimes when it never wanted to. Try and make it easy for the fish to eat the fly once it it interested (even if you have to move to do this) but not too easy - remember salmon like to chase things and this "running away" by the fly is the predatory trigger that catches some salmon. 

Having a salmon race after a fast wet fly on a floating line that is presented nearly perpendicular to a fast current is a thrill worth trying for sure, but most fish that are not very fresh will only do this a few times and then will give up on trying to catch the fly. If this occurs it is time for a nice dead drifted bomber, but be ready for a water opening savage take after teasing a fresh monster.

A trophy salmon guru who has landed dozens of trophy fish including a number over 35 pounds from our Lower Humber once said to me, " Bill, I hate to see the big ones coming.  Even today I tend to occasionally pull the fly away from them, so I close my eyes when she comes and then open them when she is on the line." I too must confess that I would love to have hooked all the trophy salmon that would have eaten mine or my guests flies if we had let them.

So, the fish powers up on the fly and you see her coming as a large pressure wake behind the wet fly.  Then, you feel the gentlest pull on the line and you try and set the hook... only, there is a short instant of pressure on the rod or simply nothing. Here is likely what happened:  Large salmon eat things like herring, squid, capelin, mackerel, krill, sand lance, etc.

Like most fish they use the vacuum of their gill covers to suck in food. The gentle pull was the fish opening it's mouth to suck in the wet fly that was only an inch or two from its lips.  This accounts for at least 50% of all the wet fly takes I have experienced while guiding for trophy salmon. With the line fished correctly (tight in the water) you will often barely hook the fish in the extendable upper lip flap when it tried to suck in the fly or on the very edge of the jaw.

To solve this problem have the fish as close as possible....ideally no more than 35 or so feet away. Then present the fly from slightly upstream and past the fish in such a manner as the fly passes the fish in the very beginning of the swing or lands in front of and near the fish but not out past it (sometimes 12 feet is close enough and sometimes 2 feet is too far... usually the closer the better). Keep you rod tip at a 45 degree angle in the air! Then, as you feel the first inkling of a pull, or when you figure the fish is about to eat the fly, lower your rod tip and then moderately fast but strongly lift it back straight up. This will let the fish suck in the fly and a modest hook set will help in the chances of not upsetting the fish until you get ready to fight it. 

I used to tell people to "hit'em hard" not wanting to risk too light a hook set -  especially on the fuzzy and big body of a bomber, but we have had a few fish go crazy when struck hard and we lost them. Besides a sharp hook only needs a few ounces of pressure to sink the point of the hook and anglers tended to pull on the fish too hard once hooked instead of hitting them and then quickly relaxing pressure.  The hard hook set and heavy pressure afterward often upset the fish and "all hell would break loose" instantly. 

Generally, the larger the salmon the slower it is to both take and reject the hook from its mouth - so don't worry about lightning reflexes like you do for grilse.  If you are fishing a full fly line you will be a little less successful at this than if the fish has to suck-in/move only 15 to 35 feet or less of fly line. A second technique is to hold a foot of line in ones fingers and drop it the instant a pull is felt and then set the hook by lifting the rod in the air fairly quickly but not like lightning and with 50 pounds of pressure.

The "shooting head only" technique or a chopped off WF*F line has two advantages (as discussed above it helps prevent the fish from tearing free) and it will help you accomplish the very necessary task of getting the fly deep into the fishes mouth as the fish has to move or effectively suck-in less fly line as one lowers the rod. Many fish that are missed in fast current are missed because the fish tried to suck in the fly but the line was too tight in the heavy current with little or no give in the line. Many fish that are hooked without doing this will be a) pricked and never really hooked, or b) barely hooked and quickly lost. The major draw back of truly making sure the fish eats the fly are gill hooked fish. Sadly, it happens.

Here is another type of take everyone makes mistakes on. The fish powers up on the fly and is swimming behind the fly. It opens it mouth and then overtakes the fly and keeps on swimming in the same line of travel, then rejects the fly. This is most common in grilse and teen weights but on occassion the fiesty big ones will do it too. The angler feels a very gentle tap on the line and the fly hits the back of the fishes mouth and the angler doesn't set the hook.

So, you've hooked a big fish and didn't drop line, coil leaders, lower the rod, or set the hook when it overcame the fly eh? Well, then you never hooked the fish... it hooked itself as it ate the fly by opening its mouth and swimming over the fly and turned down stream or slowed quickly after eating the fly... lucky.  Or you just got lucky that the fish sucked hard enough from an angle relative to the fly such that it was able to inhale it as it was drawn sideways in the water.

The longer it chases the fly the less likely this "typical" hooking is to happen. Most big fish are hooked like this, but many are missed because the take was like one of those outlined above. I'm betting at this point a few readers are reflecting on some large pressure wakes that were very close to their fly but that were never landed despite feeling a gentle tap or pull on the line. Ahhh... you'll never catch them all and the better you get at drawing them to your fly and hooking them the more you will want to kick your own butt when you make a mistake! I pulled the fly right out of ones open mouth last year and so did the oldest guide on our river; you have company.

Sometimes a guide will distract you just as he/she figures the fish is about to power up on the fly, please forgive them, they're only trying to help. Last year, a guest hooked a 30 pound salmon with a guide on his 3rd cast in the river on the first day. The guest was disappointed because his "trophy" guide didn't want to join him until 1PM on a sunny day. When expressing this to me I winked and said, "with Barry, it doesn't matter what time of day it is."

In the meantime Barry was waiting until the fresh trophy sized fish came up into shoal water. He never knew what he had hooked until it jumped for the first time, nor did he see it eat the fly 20 or so feet from him....thanks Barry Carter (guide)...you are "the master!"

Finally, if the wet fly is chased up to the last 1/4 of the swing, pull the fly away from the fish. At this point the fly has slowed enough for the fish to pick at it without racing up to it and sucking it in hard while swimming over the fly or the line will be too tight for the fish to suck it in as the fish too slows down behind the fly once the fly is in the "inhale zone" right in front of the fish. You will be back to merely striking the fish or losing it early in the fight. It takes a lot of guts to do this but is worth it... The closer you are to the fish the more likely you are to get a good hook set into the fish and it is actually easier to hook them on a dry fly (once you know how....evil chuckle).

On a conservation note. Please don't fish for giant salmon that have been hooked and landed in the recent past or when the water is warm (above 18^oC or 64.4^oF). They WILL take but the fight will be much lesser and further stresses the fish. A released fish will often return to the lay it was hooked in to recover (sometimes for weeks....beware).

The Play

Do the same as you would on a smaller fish except that you want to try and keep the fish in as calm a piece of water as is available. The heavier the current the more likely you are to lose the fish.

Don't move until the fish has more than half of your backing. Many times a huge salmon will change direction after 100 yards or so and head in the other direction. If you know for certain that the fish is headed straight down stream (you're fishing a shoal and the nearest deep water is 350 yards down river), then pull your anchor and float down with the current. Most times this will be sufficient (unless there is virtually no current). Once the boat starts moving the fish may relax a little and stop running so check every 100 yards or so by stopping the boat.

A fresh or running salmon that has chased your wet fly and was hooked is likely hooked on the side of the mouth you are fishing toward (see figure to the right) and if possible you should not change sides of the river once the fish is hooked. That is to say, a salmon almost always slows and turns up river after chasing and eating a normal or quickly presented wet fly.  These are the fish you see coming after the fly as a pressure wake chasing the wet fly (another advantage of using a floating fly line).

The best study I can find is of nearly 500 trophy salmon landed from the Alta river in Norway (E.B. Thorstad et al Fisheries Research 60 (2003) 293-307 email eva.thorstad@nina.no for a copy of this amazing hook,catch and release, and radio and regular tagging study) has shown that about 48% are hooked in the lower jaw, 40% in the upper jaw, 5% in the mouth cavity somewhere, and 7% in the throat. However, if the wet fly is presented very slowly or the fish has been holding in a lay for a long time then all bets are off - the fish may make a brief attack and turn down stream and effectively hook itself while returning to the lay. 

Try and watch which way the fish turns as it takes the fly and then judge which side of the river to fight it from.  This also helps prevent the leader from scrapping scales off from around the edge of the gill plate and head (see the photo at the start of this essay) or line cuts on the fish's snout.

Many times a trophy sized fish will be racing around with a lot of line dragging behind it. If your line all goes slack in the water you should not assume that the fish is free. Reel as fast as you can to gain contact with the fish again but beware as the fish is likely in the middle of a quick change of direction and the line will often very quickly and abruptly come tight as one is furiously reeling in slack line....be ready for it.

This "slack line with fingers on the reel" has cost us some truly huge fish and I have seen some aweful purple thumbs after the leader broke. If the guide says "reel as fast as you can but be ready for it to come tight and want to unwind quickly", then perhaps you should do it, if nothing else just to allow him the simple pleasure of being wrong. Most fights with trophy sized salmon have at least one time at which all the line goes slack in the water.

If you put too much pressure on the fish too early you will likely increase the hole size in the fishes jaw while it is really fighting and moving very fast and then lose the fish on a jump or late in the fight. Let them race around dragging fly line and back for awhile and hope they tire a little before making them work for the line. Usually (but not always) you can tell when to really start putting pressure on the fish.

So, you've hooked an enormous salmon and have been fighting it for awhile. Then to your horror, it sits on the bottom of a deep pool or in heavy current and you can't move it. Yes you can. Here are three techniques: First, heave on the rod while a little down stream of the fish. Once the head turns - heave harder.

If this fails, start throwing rocks in the water, slapping the water with a paddle, or otherwise make a lot of noise. One local angler has a metal butt on his rod and taps it with a rock which sends a shock wave down the line to upset the fish.  Finally, if that doesn't work, and you have a straight leader or (god help you) a knotless tapered leader and a smooth leader to fly line connection you can try something else. Move a little way upstream of the fish (the slower the current the farther upstream you should move) and slide a safety pin or small light washer with a slit cut through it down the line. When this reaches the hook it will "ping" the fish on the snout and should get it to leave the current or lay it is using. Be ready once the fish moves as it will likely have had a rest and be ready for battle again.

Landing One

Remember the minute per pound rule, and as scary as it may seem, head

Once the fish is played for 20 minutes it's usually time to start putting "the wood" to the fish. Many anglers are nervous about putting a tremendous amount of strain on a "fish of a lifetime" even if it is a tired fish, but remember the minute per pound rule...and of course 25 pound fish like the one in this photo are strong....so when its time....bend that rod!! What is more embarrassing??, loosing a fish or returning to the lodge with you (and the guide) knowing you killed it by playing it too lightly and too long? On a very rare occassion, at 2AM, some locals have had to break off the biggest fish of their life! Sometimes they win....

Good Luck with YOUR Giant;

Bill Bryden
Newfoundland Guide