May salmon fishing – not always short-sleeves and floating lines
On the River Dee, we expect the best fly fishing of the year in May. The birch trees are in full leaf, the summer migrant birds have all returned and are busy with their nests. We can anticipate fishing floating lines with small flies long into the never-ending dusk. This year was a little different. There was still snow on the hills, topped up while we were there. The wind was set firmly in the north and we had cold squally rain every day. It was March fishing without the respite of stopping at 5 in the evening!
Successful flies were long-tailed shrimpy patterns in size 8 and 10, with the usual colour combinations of black, orange and yellow working well. We fished the flies on intermediate tips or short sink tips. Unusually we only had one evening fish, on the Toucan of course.
For once I had a photographer on hand for one of my fish, a beautiful fat 12 pounder from “Twenty Nine”, so there are a few action shots to convey the excitement of playing, landing and releasing a strong Dee springer.
