Can you target both salmon and sea trout in a river ?

if theres both in the system is it a case of targeting 1 or the other ? I know both are hard to catch ....

is there certain flies that work well for both Salmon & Sea Trout ? blue charm possibly ?

many thanks

mark

Hi', Mark. Although it may pay to target one species at a time for most of your fishing, when using some sizes of fly, you may well be appealing to several species at once. I have hooked salmon, pike and perch all on a trout fly; trout, sea trout, rainbow trout and grayling all on a salmon fly, and a grayling, a perch and a number of trout all on a smallish salmon spinning lure. And one day, while upstreaming with a tiny, Hardy, bullnosed, Devon minnow for salmon in a stream in low water, I accidentally hooked two or three salmon smolts. So, I got the heck out of it!!
If I had to suggest a method of appealing to both sea trout and salmon on the one fly, I would plump for a small salmon fly, fished for grilse in the tail of a pool at dusk, in summer, or up in the head stream in shallow water. Both areas are attractive to both species. It is some of the finest fly fishing for migratory fish that I have enjoyed -- at 'the magic hour' of last light. Cheers. TerryC

Try a shrimp fly or tube on the point and a Teal, blue and silver, black pennel, or wee double on the dropper. Fished down and across on a sink tip or intermediate, will cover you for salmon and sea trout.

It's amazing how many times the salmon take the smaller dropper fly.

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www.paypalsucks.com

Hi' RRW. I have often heard it said that you can't fish too small for salmon and you can't fish too big for sea trout. That is just a generalisation, of course, but you know what it means. In summer, some of the Carlisle lads used bigger sea trout flies at night than we used for salmon by day. That was when there were more sea trout and salmon about. TC

I’ve fished for years on the lovely South Tyne and I always fish for both at the same time. In the early days (late 1980s early 1990s) sea trout out numbered salmon but now it is probably the reverse but still I’m never quite sure what I’ll catch. Normally both – but rarely on the same fly. Of course if the river is running low and clear I fish at night for sea trout and have never caught a salmon then. Generally however I fish during the day in Autumn (and ideally) in a dropping sherry-coloured water (perfect!) I fish for both species by using a dropper.

My outfit is normally intermediate line or floater, sinking polyleader 8 to 10ft cast with a double on the dropper (Stoat’s tail / Cascade that sort of thing) and with a 2.5 inch wing length tube (Willie gun / black and silver / claret) . Even though the salmon take both and the sea trout take both, invariably the dropper takes more salmon and the tube takes more sea trout.

What is more interesting is that over the years I have noticed that if I catch more than one salmon in a day they all come to the same fly – either the dropper OR the point, and the same goes for sea trout. This is why I always fish the South Tyne with two flies. By fishing one fly (the wrong one) I may well have blanked and convinced myself: wind direction wrong / barometer falling / no fish / fish being dour / etc, etc! If I blank with two flies then surely its true: wind direction wrong / barometer falling / no fish / fish being dour / etc, etc!

Colin.

Hi Terry , great info thank you for giving me some of your knowledge ! I ended up with a Sea Trout lastnight !!! I will post up a pic in the photo section

rrw35 thanks for your input

cb , great info also , I have never fished a tube fly alone never mind with a dropper .... i will put it on my to do list !!

im limited to the stretches i can fish at night as i only really know 2 enough to feel comfortable in the dark !!

---------- Post added at 11:09 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:38 PM ----------

terry , what size do you go to for sea trout at night ? iv tied some size 6s and 2s for my night sessions but no-one out of 60 veiws has replied
Afew sea trout flies from me [& 2x salmon]