Traditionally at the start of the salmon season on the Wye (3rd March) fast sinking lines with heavy tubes, up to 3 ins. long are used because usually the river is deep, relatively fast flowing, cold and has some colour. Consequently the salmon tend to be low in the water, close to the river bed or banks, where the current is slower because of drag. They will often hold beside or in front of rocks or drop-offs for the same reason and so these are the main target areas. When the water is coloured an orange or black/yellow coloured hairwing tube-fly would be a good choice, whereas when the water is clear, black would probably work better. On sunny days a hint of flash or bright colour would be easier for the salmon to see because their eyes adjust for the brighter light and so their vision is not so precise. As the river begins to warm up the fly size is reduced accordingly until mid summer when flies as small as #14 or #16 can be used depending on the depth and clarity of the water.
The pattern that I have had the most success with, on the Wye and in Ireland, is the Verminator. This has a lot of trigger points such as the Willie Gunn tail (made from yellow, orange and black bucktail); a palmered, flourescent orange hackle; a black squirrel's tail wing and jungle cock eyes. For good measure I tie it onto a gold plated, double, Salar hook. The verminator can be fished throughout the season, whenever the river is at mean summer level or lower, in sizes of 7 - 9 (Partridge).
My friend Willie Holmes from Ireland, fishes for six months of the year in British Columbia using a Skagit line and very mobile flies, which are allowed to swim, dead drift, so that there is no tension on the fly-line. This, and the ability to fsh very deep, using sink tips, has proved to be a very successful way of catching salmon and so in 2012 I am going to try this technique at Wyesham, in the deep pools. The fly that I have tied up to use with the Skagit line was invented by Alberto Laidlaw, a friend of mine from Glasgow http://www.gameanglingscotland.co.uk and it is called the Alaskabou Gunn. The fly is tied onto a single hook, size 4 or similar, and comprises yellow, orange and black marabou with a guinea fowl hackle. Alberto ties the marabou in Spey style whereas I found that a dubbing loop was much easier to use.
Similar to many other rivers in the UK, by far the most successful salmon fly that has been used on the river Wye for the last few years, is the cascade, which is a derivative of the Ally's shrimp. But is has also been the fly that has been used the most and so this is not surprising. However, this fly can be fished with confidence which is one of the most important reasons for choosing it. A number of fish were caught at Wyesham in 2011 using the cascade tied onto a tungsten tube and fished deep. So this is something else that I am going to try in 2012. Note that this is a micro tube and so it is only 1/2 ins long (the picture is deceptive).
A trend in Ireland is to use micro tubes, both plastic and metal, approximately 1/2 ins long and so the following are two examples of flies that I will also be trying out in 2012.
The micro Willie Gunn
The micro silver stoat
Finally an old favourite which also seems to do well on the Wye and other rivers in the UK is the Francis.
So these are the flies that I will be trying in 2012 - I will let you know how I get on!