The Munro Killer Treble Hook Salmon Fly
The Munro Killer fly pttern is in a strong position of winning the title Best Scottish Salmon Fly. The Munro Killer is regarded as a good summer and late season pattern, but I have had good results in the spring.
SALMON TREBLE HOOK FLY PATTERNS. Hook size 8 12 - $US each
A great fly which many would regard as indispensable. It is a modern variation on the traditional Thunder and Lightning used all over the world. Look for our Munro Killer Double Hook Salmon fly Munro Killer Treble Hook Salmon Fly and Munro Killer Salmon Alloy Tube fly. I have had great success with a Munro Killer when fishing for Salmon in Canada, Scotland and in Sweden. Bait fish have to move quickly in order to survive and your fly must do the same. Ensure you maintain your retrieve until you feel your line stop Salmon do not slam into the fly like trout or bass usually do. With Coho especially you will sometimes see a wake following your fly. Although it is exciting and can be unnerving it is important that you keep the fly moving. Do not be tempted to slow up and let the Salmon catch up. This is unnatural behavior for a bait fish and may spook your target fish into rejecting your fly. I have found Dead-drifting around the edges of swirling eddies also brings takes with this fly.
Salmon fishing on the River Spey with a Munro Killer
Last year my Scottish Salmon fishing trips started in April and continued through to May on some excellent stretches of the river Spey. In the beginning I used relatively large right coloured salmon flies like the Yellow Torrish and Green Highlander on an intermediate or medium sinking line. As time went on and the days got warmer I ended up using floating line armed with a smaller Munro Killer fly on the end.
It was deep wading and throwing the line just as long and straight as I could over the magnificent long and even flowing salmon holding pools. By the end of my Spring salmon fishing break I was feeling very happy with my straight forward approach. It had resulted in some spectacular takes.
I told myself that I had concentrated on the basics and the number of salmon that had been fooled by this approach seemed to show that I had got it right. I was getting a little bit too complacent. It would not last.
When I returned to the Spey I could only get a beat that had short sharp pools with fast run-ins and tail-outs. The same technique that had worked for me earlier in the year bombed. I had an empty day. When I returned the next day to the same location I was not hopeful. I noticed an older gentleman further downstream from me catching nice sized salmon. This was his second fish in twenty minutes. He had caught one as I had arrived on the river bank. I decided to pour myself a drink of coffee from my flask and sit and watch what he was doing that was so successful.
As minutes passed I found that I was not so much as learning as remembering back to when I was first taught how to fish for salmon. The memory was of a style that demands total concentration and drives all other thoughts from your mind. A style that demands the Salmon fly fisherman feel rather than see what passes on the riverbank. All his thoughts must concentrate on swimming his fly with deadly attraction and keeping his eyes on the patch of water four yards beyond the tip of his line.
This seasoned salmon fisherman was fully aware that in warmer water salmon would move to smaller flies fished close to the surface. The way the fly is fished is fundamental to success. The fly has to be controlled at all times. This is why a floating line is used. The placing and movement of the fly is more important than the Salmon fly pattern, but if you choose the right fly and fish it efficiently then you have the best chance of catching Salmon.
Many fishermen go by the belief that if in doubt about what size hook to use then go smaller to start with. Others approach warm water salmon fishing by selecting a thinly dressed size 6 hook pattern and reduce the hook size if the salmon will not come to that hook size until they find one that the fish take as acceptable. The basic rule any salmon fisherman can follow is that the warmer the water the smaller the fly but the faster the water the larger the fly hook.
Having just mentioned the speed of the water I must immediately correct myself. What I should be talking about is the speed of the fly through the water, which is altogether a different thing. The name of the game is control of the fly. We have to take the temperature of the water as we find it, together with the height of the water. These are variables that we cannot control.
The speed of out fly and the angle of its swim is something that we can control. We can accelerate the fly here or slow it down there. In theory at lest we could fish a fly through fast, medium and slow current, while maintaining its speed through the water at a constant and thus fish the pool containing extremes of pace with just one size fly. Not that I am saying this is necessarily desirable.
We do things by varying the casting angle, making up or downstream mends, casting a straight line or a snaky one, raising a rod tip here or giving a little there lead with the rod tip or hold back. The possibilities and permutations for an individual to use his intelligence and imagination in controlling the angle and speed of his fly through the water are virtually endless. How he exercises them will probably decide whether he fails to hook any fish, hooks into one fish or catches more.
Following the older fisherman’s example I fished at a rather shallow angle and made big upstream mends with a size 6 Munro Killer. I knew my fly was covering some of the best water. I thought of that deeply sunk, mysterious rock that could only be glimpsed in the lowest of low waters I had spotted last year in high summer. Mended my line, held the rod tip out and pictured the Munro killer hovering in the turbulent up-draught from the rock which finally burst through the surface in a boiling swirl. The hair wing pulsated movement caused by the water current would give the fly the semblance of life.
I glimpsed a wink of bronze-filtered silver flank underneath my fly. The flash of a raised but refusing salmon. Why had it refused? Was the fly in the wrong position, too slow, too fast or was it too big? The sun was out. It was getting near lunch time. I replaced the fly with a size 8 Munro killer treble hook and then cast the fly in exactly the same way as before. The pull became sure and strong. The warmer the water the smaller the fly seemed to be the correct approach.
Salmon fishing books
