Flies for land locked salmon

[Moshup 0]

I have never fished for land locks before and I live within driving distances of a couple of small rivers that lead out of regional lakes that support a fall run of land locks. Supposedly the best time is late Oct early Nov after a good bout of steady rain. Can anyway recommend some flies that they have found to be successful under these circumstances ? Thanks.

[carpflyguy 0]

I hate fishing with them in almost every situation, but classic bucktail streamers work. Worm flies can do the trick as well.

[Dave G. 0]

I have never fished for land locks before and I live within driving distances of a couple of small rivers that lead out of regional lakes that support a fall run of land locks. Supposedly the best time is late Oct early Nov after a good bout of steady rain. Can anyway recommend some flies that they have found to be successful under these circumstances ? Thanks.

I know what works where I fish for them but you didn't mention where you fish for them.. Unlike carpflyguy, LLS are perhaps my favorite species to fish for. You must not be where we go because the season ends at the end of Sept, just as the salmon fishing gets best !

 

If where you fish for them is like where I fish for them, they are in spawn season during the fall months and some of your bigger fish come in from the lakes they like during the summer months. They tend to be more out to kill prey in the fall than feed on them, so your hook set needs to be pretty quick and you're bound to have some misses. If there are any hatches still going on in your area they might come up on top to feed or feed on emergers though. We have caught some of our biggest catches of LLS in the fall ( well till late Sept). In the spring where we fish they like more muted color schemes but in the fall they are attracted and want to kill brighter patterns. Fall is the time for red tags , maybe tie with red thread on a pattern you normally tie with black thread. Candy caned red and silver tinsel bodies. White marabou instead of grey etc... That said, they might take a big black woollie bugger with a peacock herl body on it.

[carpflyguy 0]

Dave, to clarify, I love LL salmon. I hate classic bucktail streamers. Probably my least favorite flies to fish.

 

It's that time of the year to fish for them, and I can't wait! Dave, I suspect we fish similar water for them, if I recall where you're from correctly. I'll be heading west to check the rivers again this week.

[Dave G. 0]

Dave, to clarify, I love LL salmon. I hate classic bucktail streamers. Probably my least favorite flies to fish.

 

It's that time of the year to fish for them, and I can't wait! Dave, I suspect we fish similar water for them, if I recall where you're from correctly. I'll be heading west to check the rivers again this week.

Yeah I use some bucktails too. But Purple Peril can be pretty good, so I spun a bucktail off of that and made sort of my own creation, then converted that to Syn Yak fibers. White pink and purple, red tag tail of yarn, silver tinsel body.

[Moshup 0]

Thanks for the info Dave G.

[Dave G. 0]

Thanks for the info Dave G.

Forgot to mention the Wood Special, it's a good fall pattern. You can fish them dry or wet. If dry they will only float for so long and then sink but you never know at what point a salmon will take these. Also ours is not like the one in this video, I'd say the video is more generic and ours more specific to the area we fish. We use FL orange chenille or yarn on the body and natural mallard flank wing, no jungle cock eyes ( he did say that was optional anyway though). Good fly, when they take these it's with a vengeance:

 

 

My son ties a white crystal chenille beadhead woollie bugger for land locks that is or can be effective in the fall. White marabou tail, white crystal chenille body, i believe grizzly palmered hackle and it calls for the bead head but he uses a gold cone. You could customize that for your area.

 

LL Salmon like oranges, reds, blacks, yellows, pinks, purples. Some people swear by the Black Ghost where we go. But I more prefer a Gray Ghost variant a local came up with , where the floss body is half burnt orange and half red ( half yellow and red works too). In the fall the head is red instead of black and tied smaller than the traditional. Carrie used like an 8x long #2 hook on her original, we tie these on 4x long #4 or even #6 hooks. I also tie a marabou version. I have no idea if these will work where you fish and there are a fair number of steps in them if not LOL.

 

I tie an all black palmered marabou streamer with olive head. It's nothing more than three turns of marabou on a short shanked #6 bait hook ( make sure the fibers stream back as you wrap forward). I cut a slip out in the center barb on the tip end of the feather and tie in by the tip end of that center barb/quill and wrap forward. If you have crappy marabou the head will have a kind of thick barb to tie down, so sometimes I use mono chord so I can really yank on it. It wouldn't be inconceivable to put in a few strands of crystal flash. I don't , I fish these at sunset and they clobber some big fish. The streamer is all marabou, it flows and swims in the water unbelievably well. Because it's all marabou you might get a wrap every now and then casting but I find that risk is outweighed by the quality of fish it takes.

 

Yellow Muddlers can be good in the fall ( Ha, my kid caught his first LLS on a yellow Muddler back in Sept 1989), and his second on the Gray Ghost variant I mentioned above ), as can red squirrel Muddlers be good year round..

 

For now these are all I can think of that might work generically regardless of your water vs mine.

[Dave G. 0]

Tip on fishing LLS in the fall. Do the usual suspected spots, runs and pockets and behind big bolders and rocks but don't neglect the shallows and back washes. They might be in there laying eggs or searching out spots to lay. And if it's a spot they have selected they will try and kill any intruder , including your streamer fly. They might be in spots you usually wouldn't think about and we have found that a wet Woods Special is good for chucking into those spots. Dry WS is better out on the slicks or behind the bolder pockets or on top of swirling eddys fished as standard food.. A big Royal Wulff is good for that too or a good sized Stimulator. Not so sure about late Oct on that though, it works in late Sept at least.

 

You're probably going to be best off concentrating on wets and streamers. But you just never know .

[vicrider 0]

I tied this for a breast cancer donation. I showed it another board and one of the guys copied it in a larger size and says he and friends have made it a go to fly for sea run dollie varden and cutthroat trout. Not much bigger than mine either. Mine were 12s on barbless light wire hooks. He used heavier hooks in 12-8.

Pink thread, gold tag brought forward as ribbing over pink thread. Pink ostrich herl collar (he used pink dubbing) and white hen soft hackle in front locked down with the pink thread.

[Moshup 0]

Dave thanks for all the useful info. Do you have a purple peril pattern that you prefer. Vicrider as I mentioned before that is one good looking soft hackle . Does she have a sister ? Lol

[Dave G. 0]

Mogup, the Purple Peril I used to tie used angora goat with a silver wire rib or fine mylar tinsel. At the head I put the goat in a loop and made a collar of the same material. The exact pattern is not critical, my purple bucktails I outlined earlier work as well. Here is the kicker about fishing that fly and don't ask me why it works like this but it just does. I learned this about the fly from an 80 yo local up in Maine on fishing these things. Don't drift it, you won't catch a thing, but cast it quartered up stream and across stream and rip it as fast as you can strip, even add rod action into the strip but strip it down stream in the current and hang on. He used full sink line and I did at one point in time as well, then sink tip. In recent years I've done ok with floating line though.. It's an action fly used on active fish. I've had 21 " land locks explode in the air on them, both the Purple Peril and my bucktail.. Don't tie it too large, I like a size 8, even 10.

[Moshup 0]

Dave just got finished tying this sz 8

[Dave G. 0]

Dave just got finished tying this sz 8

That's a good beginning, you can fish that as is, i'd personally shorten the wing back to the length of the tail but that's me..

 

I have a totally optional thought on improving it, in the middle of that silver tag at the back of the hook add a red band or even make about half of it red ( you pick which half, it's your fly LOL). If you are feeling really ambitious mix some red, white and pink or purple bucktail into the bundle you use for the wing.. Mix it up so it's multi colored, I don't mean to layer it but to make it actually a multi color bundle ( there is a fly they sell in the shops in Maine that is tied that way and the name totally fails me at the moment), or change the color of that bucktail on a few to see how it performs against this one. But that will fish as is. And incidentally, rainbows like this fly as well. but in short experiment with it.

 

Another hint: I sometimes weight the hook shank a little. I've tried bead heads, the jury is still out on that one but my inclination is that I like the weighted shank better.

 

Another variation on this would be a single wood duck or mallard flank feather wing. I've never done that personally but I know that it is a variation out there.

[Moshup 0]

Like that Woods Special Dave and will make an attempt to tie. Another purple peril taking in some of your suggestions. The shank has a .20 lead wrap. I kept the bucktail spare. Any possibility of some spare flash in the wings and how bout some small JC eyes. Thanks for all the advice. May I ask what tippet strength you are using for these guys ?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dave just got finished tying this sz 8

 

That's a good beginning, you can fish that as is, i'd personally shorten the wing back to the length of the tail but that's me..

 

I have a totally optional thought on improving it, in the middle of that silver tag at the back of the hook add a red band or even make about half of it red ( you pick which half, it's your fly LOL). If you are feeling really ambitious mix some red, white and pink or purple bucktail into the bundle you use for the wing.. Mix it up so it's multi colored, I don't mean to layer it but to make it actually a multi color bundle ( there is a fly they sell in the shops in Maine that is tied that way and the name totally fails me at the moment), or change the color of that bucktail on a few to see how it performs against this one. But that will fish as is. And incidentally, rainbows like this fly as well. but in short experiment with it.

 

Another hint: I sometimes weight the hook shank a little. I've tried bead heads, the jury is still out on that one but my inclination is that I like the weighted shank better.

 

Another variation on this would be a single wood duck or mallard flank feather wing. I've never done that personally but I know that it is a variation out there.

[Dave G. 0]

I've never used flash but again,it's your fly ! Those both should catch something though. I've seen PP patterns with JC eyes but I always kept mine rather simple. It really was more about how I fished it. But of course my purple, pink and white bucktail with red yarn tail on it has an all silver tinsel body and that catches lands lock proficiently where we go and it broadens the retrieve spectrum a little.

 

That Woods Special is just something they like to kill in the fall, no idea why but I've even ( in late Aug) trolled those over a ridge out on the lake and whacked big fish on them.

 

We fish these streamer and wet fly patterns on 3x and 2x tippet ( generally Maxima Chamleon, though my 4x is Climax right now but that is for a different time of year anyway ). I'd use 2x and if you get too many misses or no takers then drop to 3x. These things, if you get a good one, are strong, can be aerobatic at times or otherwise tumble over the surface etc. They're nuts in the fall anyway.