All over the world, salmon is a prized catch amongst anglers from amateurs to prize-winning pros. And that’s with plenty of reason. Salmon, even if it’s not the famous King Salmon of Canada and Alaska, is a beautiful fish which will give you a great battle, often leaping right out of the water and struggling around on your fishing line for twenty minutes or so before you can master it and bring it home. Salmon is a wily adversary in the water so if you want to stand the most chance of getting the better of it, you had better do your homework beforehand.

The best time of day to catch salmon is when the light is low or on cloudy days. Salmon don’t seem to like bright conditions and they will hide away from it in deep holes on the river bed where it is much darker.

What is important for you to appreciate in salmon fishing is that salmon don’t eat while they are in the river. When they do take your bait, it is due to an instinctive behavior. Before they reach the river, in the lakes, they are predatory and aggressive.

It is important to set your hook well for salmon fishing. You should do this by yanking your rod downstream three times. Try not to lift your fishing pole straight up out of the water as this can often tear the fly straight out of the salmon’s mouth. Their jaws are pretty tough and so if you want to hook in a salmon, you need to make sure your fishing hooks are thoroughly sharpened for the salmon fishing expedition.

A good tip for salmon fishing is to fish with a partner; that way you can both look out for those salmon. A good way to do this is while one of you is fishing, get a friend to stand on the river bank watching how the salmon react and where they go. You will find polarized sunglasses are very helpful in minimizing the glare of the sun on the water.

If you can find (perhaps with the aid of your watcher on the shore!) a good fishing hole where the salmon hide out, you can stay there and fish all day! Your weight and the tippet length should be adjusted to the hole in which the fish are hiding.  Make sure the weight does not pull on your fishing line; it should only touch the bottom occasionally. 

Chuck-n-duck is the most usual method of fly-fishing for salmon. You can use a variety of line formulas for chuck-n-duck fly fishing for salmon.