Traditional Atlantic Salmon Fishing Methods

Traditional Atlantic Salmon Fishing Methods

There are more wives tales, outdated traditions, and total misinformation about fishing techniques, types

of flies, appropriateness of gear, weather and water conditions and even how one should dress when it

comes to Atlantic salmon fishing than any other kind of fishing on the planet. Why is this the case?

I believe that the main reason that new fishing techniques have taken so long to evolve is that the Atlantic

salmon is very difficult to catch. So even in rivers that have great numbers of fish it could take days of hard

fishing to hook just one fish. But the fight is so spectacular and the prize so valuable that it is worth the

effort! To catch just one is a fantastic achievement- an event of a lifetime for some. And in Europe where

it all began it was a sport of kings. The rivers and pools or “beats” were owned by the wealthy ruling class.

The flies were very elaborate and colorful — perfectly tied with great precision — created by very skilled

artisans, they were intentionally too expensive for the average person. Tweed jackets, neckties and

personal assistants to tie on flies and land the fish. 

In America, the working class took to fishing along with the wealthy, and they improvised out of necessity,

replacing matched feathers with animal hair wings. It is said that the riffling hitch was created by guides

who got the discarded broken gut eyed flies and tied them to the tippet with a couple of half hitches

behind the varnished head. It skittered across the pool making a wake as it bounced along and the fish

came to it. A new method was discovered because of an accidental occurrence. No science was involved,

no great mind thought it up, it was not an intentional attempt to attract the fish. It was simply the case that

a fly tied on crooked skittered on the surface and that action, for whatever reason, stimulated the salmon

to rise and take it. No experienced salmon angler would have ever tried this method — in fact under

normal conditions if a proper Atlantic salmon fly came to the surface and skittered that way it would

immediately be reeled in and retied to get it to swim correctly just below the surface.

There are really only two ways to learn how to catch Atlantic salmon. You either learn how to use some

particular technique on your own by trial and error or you learn it from someone else. You can learn a

thing or two on your own but it would be next to impossible to learn everything about catching Atlantic

salmon without some help. Even if we are only talking about techniques and not requiring you to invent

the fly rod, fly reel, line and leader you still have a difficult road ahead. Even if someone taught you how

to fly cast and which flies to use and what pools to fish in, you still have much to learn. You watch others,

you ask questions and you read books. But remember that the people you watch and ask questions also

learned from others. The authors of salmon fishing books either learned something on their own or they

learned from others. The great fisherman and authors, in my opinion, are those who experimented and

developed new techniques or improved upon existing methods. They are the inventors and creators. They

are the ones who have given us the most. I’m thinking of Hewitt and LeBranch who fished together on the

Upsalquitch and watched the salmon react to various techniques and methods. They spent many hours

filming how a fly looked from beneath the water. They tested leaders and various materials and were f

ortunate enough to have many salmon to experiment on. Their books are well worth reading. Lee Wulff

flew his little single engine plane to Newfoundland and Labrador and spent many hours on rivers that

contained many hundreds of fish that had never seen a fly. He filmed his adventures and wrote about the

successful techniques he discovered. There are many other writers who contributed to the learning

process but the knowledge took many years to develop because of the traditions that were brought to

North America from Europe in the eighteenth century were held onto dearly.