What is your favorite fly?
What is your favorite salmon fly?
One of the most asked questions we get over a season is; “What fly should I use?”
We always have an idea about what fly our guests should fish and where does that come from?
Look at the conditions
Experience
These are the two most used factors when choosing a fly.
Conditions:
Thumb Rules that are quite easy to remember:
Early season: Big flies
Late season: Smaller flies
Cold water: Big flies
Warm water: Small flies
Bright weather: Bright flies
Cloudy weather: Contrast flies
With that said; There are no rules!
In general I don’t believe that is the fly that makes the difference when I am fishing Baltic salmon at Kengis Bruk. That all stopped when I met an old danish guy back in 2017.
He was not used to salmon fishing and did not cast more than the shootinghead and maybe a meter of shootlingline. One morning he came up to me and showed me the most ugly fly I have ever seen. A few bad tied hackles on a big single carp hook and that was it. It was so ugly that I never thought it could catch anything, but I asked him; “Do you believe in the fly?” Short answer; “YES”
Later the same day he landed a grilse on that fly. I thought to myself; Then the fly does not matter at all.
Maybe in some conditions the fly has to be a special one, but most of the time it is about presentation and luck.
This summer I met a local guy at Kengis Bruk. All new to fly fishing for salmon. I went on the first round and nothing happened. I saw he was left handed and asked if he wanted to try my rod? He did, he hooked into a fish with the exact same setup that just left the water. So sometimes it's just about the right place at the right time.
Experience:
I have now fished the rivers in northern Sweden for some years and fished a lot at Kengis Bruk. I always have a dirty banana, willie gunn, den vanliga and black & orange in my box.
In different sizes, but all tied the same way. And that is simply because I have caught fish with these flies. And that gives me the confidence that they will work again.
So sometimes your choice of fly comes down to your experience in the water.
So what fly should you fish? The one you have the best experience with or the one that fits the conditions the best. If the salmon wants to strike the fly it will.
Tight lines & a great tying season!
Aslak Lund
Photos: Ted, Calle & Petri
