Swinging Salmon Flies for Trout (and other species)

Yesterday I got a bit of an itch to practice my spey casting. Fall is not so far away, and considering how cold and wet a year we've had thus far I won't be surprised if the salmon rivers are high enough to make spey casting a preferable method; so I went out to the only really suitable water to do some practice. I'm still no expert, but by the end of the day I was feeling much better about my single spey cast and snap-t and effectively throwing long casts.

I wasn't really trying to catch fish, but I messed around with a few salmon flies so I could practice my swinging technique, since swinging isn't something  really one of my strengths. Every once in a while a fish jumped on the fly. For the most part they were small. I actually picked one up and threw it into the anchor... ouch! I felt kinda bad for that little guy.

It wasn't until  decided to swing a buck bug that I had some trout grab my fly. Show a buck bug to most fly fishers and they will mistake it for a bomber, but unlike the bomber, which is very similar appearance, bug bugs are fished wet. I had a lot of success earlier this year on buck bugs for trout but I thought it could mostly be attributed to the naivete of the freshly stocked fish. Maybe not... yesterday the buck bugs were the only flies that got hit by salmonids. The takes were really jarring, even on an 11'6" 8wt rod! 

Next time you are having a hard time figuring out how to catch pressured trout, tie up some buck bugs and give them a whirl. It might be just the ticket!