[Mike Barrio]

Will it be this hat? ...... looks a tad chewy

[Matt Henderson]

I'm sure he'll have one of these ready to wash it down with

[Iain Goolager]

NICE!!!

yeah, come on Michael, what's the story?

[Mike Barrio]

Yeah, where's the Windyknot when you need him?

[Michael Buchan]

Started fishing at Alford before, 8 river looked good crystal clear and hopes were high. Fished there  till 12 the highlight of the morning was watching a lovely 2-3lb brown come up and nap a sedge 5 feet infront of me unfortunatly on the salmon front only saw one the whole time.

At 12 moved to a beat further upstream and managed to catch my first Don salmon and probably the 3rd biggest salmon ive taken around 14-15lb caught it on a black and orange shrimp flie fished with a 10ft fast sinking polyleader   What made the fish even more memorable was that i was using my 9ft 6# Scott S4 and a home made shooting head.  First salmon on a single hander and it was awesome.  Was using 23.5lb seagar flourocarbon and i was sure my rod was going to go before the leader was it was bent double throuout the fight, definatly one of the best angling experiance ive had so far still chuft

Sorry guys i would have like to see Iain munching on his hat also 

Will post a photo of the fly used later

[Mike Barrio]

Great stuff ..... well done Michael

Pity about the hat

Cheers
Mike

[Jim Eddie]

Aye well done 

 

Jim

[Ben Dixon]

Good shit Michael 

Doesn't really get much better than that.  How your S4 handle the fish?  Biggest I've landed on a 6wt is 12lb4oz and that came in in well under 10 mins, dragged in a 9lb fairly fresh fish in 4 minutes on 18.5lb tippet.  What head set up were you on?


Cheers

Ben

[Matt Henderson]

Well done I hope I can emulate your success soon!

[Michael Buchan]

S4 handled the fish really well i was lucky in that the fish choose not to run downstream to far as couldnt follow him.  Knowing i had on stong leader and rod had a guarantee  meant he was in quite quickly under 10 mins and was fresh as a daisy when he went back. Definatly have no reservations about using the rod for salmon again as i doubt the fish would have been in any quicker using a DH rod.

Setup was an old DT 10 Shakespeare Floating line cut back to about 20feet. attached to Vivarus floating running line. The business end i had a 10 foot fast sinking polly leader and 3feet 23.5lb Seaguar fluro leader and cone headed blak and orange shrimp tube.  Took a few trips out to get the length of the head right but happy with it now.

Michael

[Michael Buchan]

Just managed to blag this afternoon off so a repeat of Satuarday would be great    Will report back how i got on

Michael

[Matt Henderson]

Just managed to blag this afternoon off so a repeat of Satuarday would be great    Will report back how i got on

Michael

tight lines.  Can I volunteer to put Iain's hat on the line again?

[Ben Dixon]

Setup was an old DT 10 Shakespeare Floating line cut back to about 20feet. attached to Vivarus floating running line. The business end i had a 10 foot fast sinking polly leader and 3feet 23.5lb Seaguar fluro leader and cone headed blak and orange shrimp tube.  Took a few trips out to get the length of the head right but happy with it now.

Michael

Any idea what the weight of the head is in grams?  My floating heads are 26' long & I use a 7' polyleader, weight of head is 15g for a #6 rod.  Bit heavy overhead but great for Spey casting with.
You'd probably have taken longer to actually land the fish on a DH rod, unless you have the luxury of a nice place to beach a fish (rare on the Don) it is a real pain to try to get fish to hand with a long rod on your own.

Cheers
Ben

[Matt Henderson]

Setup was an old DT 10 Shakespeare Floating line cut back to about 20feet.

Sorry for the stupid question but I take it you trim from the rear taper rather than the front taper?

[Michael Buchan]

MDH its up to yourself you can leave the front taper on and the head will present the fly better or you can chop it off and it will turnover more ubruptly.

Sorry Ben no idea of the weight will maybe invest in a scales as i have an old sinking line i fancy making a head out of it. 

Started fishing today around 1230 conditions looked good it was nice and dull when i started, saw a couple fish while i was tackling up.   Got to the head of the pool where i got the fish Sat and hooked one on my 4th cast maybe 4-5lb but it came off  Unfortunatly within an hour the sun came out and never saw or felt another fish the rest of the day. 

Great day to be out and beat working for sure 

Michael