In 2020, we did a Fishmadman blog page on Salmon bugs Called The Missing Link Salmon Bugs, covering a few fine points on the bugs used for salmon fishing. In this newsletter, we wish to further the details on salmon bugs and give you some first-hand usage tips based on my experiences with
What are Salmon bugs?
Bugs are small miniature salmon flies, mostly made with a deer hair body, tied on # 8 – 12 single hooks. Either low-water salmon hooks with an up-eye or stronger down-eye trout fly hooks. It is a fly designed to be fished as a so-called dead-drifting fly on the surface. Just below the surface or across the river as a form of hitch/commotion fly, bugs may be fished below the surface as a traditional wet fly.
The Glitter Bug with a brown-orange hackle is the author’s favourite for green-tinted forest rivers.
Body like a segment of an insect
The deer-hair body on bug flies is often shaped like an insect thorax. (in entomology, the thorax is the middle section of an insect’s body, between the head and the abdomen, bearing the legs and wings.)
Going somewhere soon?
Bringing hooks on a flight could be a problem.
Most airlines do not allow you to bring your flies with hooks on board. Do instead as we do: use tube flies and get them on board in your hand luggage (alongside your favourite fly reels); this way, you won’t be without flies when you arrive at your fishing destination.
Southern sea trout
The sea trout’s elusive nature and the thrill of the catch of a monster-size trout make Argentina and the Rio Grande River in Tierra del Fuego a dream destination for sea trout enthusiasts.
Anglers often use a variety of streamer patterns and nymphs to mimic the prey that sea trout feed on in both freshwater and marine environments. Still, anglers visiting Argentina have also learned that sea trout are eager surface feeders who will go to great lengths to intercept wake, riffling hitch, and dry flies.
For many years, we have made such surface flies for people fishing for sea trout in Argentina, but for this season, we also sell some of the most favoured nymph and streamer patterns.
In the photo: TDF sea run brown trout (sea trout ) caught by experienced sea trout angler Mr Robert Holt from the US …Smoke and Flies Robert Holt.
The climate is changing
The climate is changing, and so is fishing for salmon. The last decade has been unusual with radical weather changes, and dry and hot summer weather has been dominant in large parts of the north – 2022 was no exception and rivers in the north saw weeks without rain – and again, the season brought new challenges – or opportunities.