Early July

A few days salmon fishing in the far north of Norway was interesting, to say the least. The Tana River, where I spent most of my stay, is an enormous waterway and remains one of the few rivers that produces fifty pound salmon every year. I will say no more now. Read about it in Fly-Fishing & Fly-Tying later this year.

The arrival of rain encouraged large runs of sea trout in the rivers of north-west England. However, the cool air temperatures have made fishing difficult once it properly gets dark (or at least that is my experience). I find under these conditions that it is best to ambush fish that are running from duak through to about midnight. I choose a nice pool tail above a length of thin, boulder-strewn white water. The sea trout must work hard getting through and as soon as they reach the deeper water of the pool tail they stop for a rest. These fish are very vulnerable to a fly fished across the pool tail. Let me give you a couple of instances.

1) Lower Bend Pool on the Grantown water on the Spey. Here the sea trout have to push hard to get through the fast shallows above Tarrig Mor Pool. They immediately pull in close to either bank in the slacker water. There, I wade waist-deep above the pool tail and, fishing a size 2-4 Black Stoat's Tail type of fly or a 3-inch tandem lure on a fast-sinking line and single-handed rod, cast the fly down and across with an upstream reach, and then slowly work it back as it swings over the lie. Very effective.

2) Many shallow pool tails on the Lune, Hodder, Ribble, Esk.
These are shallower and the flow not so powerful as the Spey. So I use either:
a) an intermediate line with a size 4-8 fly (e.g. Butcher), or
b) a floating line with a Muddler Minnow (size 4-8). Where allowed I often have a flying treble at the back of the Muddler.

This is very productive sea trout fishing, provided that fish are running. On occasion I have had 10-20 offers (not all landed) in the hour-and-a-half between 10.30 and midnight without moving more than a couple of yards.

Cool weather with a temperature drop after dusk has spoilt the evening rise on the reservoir. It has also, said my River Eden pal Paul Stanton, ruined the chance of a warm night's Bustard-fishing on his superb trout river. Please God, and the weather will warm up in the near future.

What is surprising, considering the cloudy weather with lots of rain, is that the Irish grilse run seems so far to have been poor. John Todd had Bob Cox, the great sea-bass man, across for three days this week. John can usually catch salmon to order on his rivers at this time of the year. Not this time!

I'm off to Sweden tomorrow morning. Dry fly and arctic char! Can't wait.

Malcolm Greenhalgh