The Helmsdale produced 7 fish last week with the highlight being a brace for Graham Nichols on beat 6 out of Little Rock and Vale of Tears. The Association water also produced its first fish caught in the Flat pool by Jim Forsyth. Some real stunning fish are now coming off many rivers, the most notable a 26 pounder from the Spey at Kinnermony. Angling pressure is obviously still painfully light and the whole country is full of anglers dreaming of when they can next jump in the car and get that first cast of the season outwith their regional boundaries.

This however is a very exciting time of the season so we are going to take the opportunity to talk tactics using one of the deadliest flies,the Monkey fly. Check out our Monkey fly selection below and have a read on how to use them.

Ron Sutherland owner of the hugely popular Helmsdale company is going to put some “meat on the bone” on how best to use some of his most successful fly designs. Let’s begin with our Solar Monkey and Monkey tubes in general. If you have heard of them but not fished them, you are missing out. The monkey is a fly you need confidence in to let swing at pace and there is no better time to deploy this tactic than now as water temperatures start to slowly creep up. Salmon are predators at sea and specialists at hitting high speed prey, that is the trigger anglers look to exploit when fishing long winged tube flies. It is not rocket science, salmon are hot wired for the chase so be prepared for some heart stopping and savage takes.

So, let’s imagine the water is good and flow brisk on a favourite pool of yours. Water temp is hovering around the magic 50 degrees in this instance. At this point you have an interesting choice, fly density, fly length and fly colour. The Monkey tube works because it’s footprint is big so do not be shy in good water to tie on a tube with a hairwing of around 3.5 - 5”. I like the fly to be sub surface to the tune of around 1ft so the chosen model is a 4”conehead Solar Monkey fished on an intermediate 10ft sinking poly core leader. Next step, how do we fish this fly? Well, if you are on the left bank of the river the aim is to cast almost square and the key once this has been executed is not to mend your line as we do not want to check up or slow the pace of the fly on the swing, as the fly swings round draw the rod tip towards your bank to complete the swim, take a step down the river and repeat, it is that simple. This is a fairly ideal scenario where the Monkey fly will fish very well. However there are many other situations that suit a monkey tube in different sizes and I’ll give you a few examples and rule of thumb.

As we know all pools generally have faster water at the head, a relative dead zone in the middle and a pickup in pace towards the tail draw of the pool. The monkey works everywhere so at the head of the pool you might choose a copper or tungsten tube to cut through the turbulence for better presentation and towards the middle and tail of the pool you are often better to swap for an aluminium or plastic tube. One thing is for sure, whenever you feel the water flow struggling to carry the fly you should mend your line towards your own bank to generate more pace or strip line if needs must, bottom line is keep the fly swinging at pace and you will maximise your chances. Pools vary hugely in depth and flow, try to read the water and calculate how best to fish the pool, the choice is yours. You can vary the fly depth at any time by changing your sink tip and tube density. Heavy water may require a fast sinking tip and Tungsten monkey to fish properly. A shallow run off at the tail of the pool will often suit a smaller plastic monkey tube fished closer to the surface.

A word about the different patterns. The Classic Dee Monkey in black & yellow is the cast iron favourite colour combination in Spring along with the RS Solar Monkey As the season progresses all colours can work and black/orange starts to become more popular as we drift into autumn. Helmsdale Co has every size you will ever need as we know how advantageous it is to have a range of wing length and tube density in your flybox. The picture shows a snippet of the explosive selection we have available. You can buy the selection below or simply grab some individually anytime right here - https://www.helmsdalecompany.com/monkey-tubes.html

So, if you have never used this mesmerising fly, now is the time, You know where to find them and how to fish them. Have a great season when lockdown ends.

We have added 2 of the very best new salmon selections you will see and at a big discount for a limited time. Check them out below...

New RS Pro Monkey selection - buy now here https://www.helmsdalecompany.com/new-monkey-pro-choice.html

New RS Pro spring selection - buy now here https://www.helmsdalecompany.com/new-rs-spring-pro-choice.html

The Helmsdale was surprisingly quiet last weeks as water levels dropped away, as far as I know there were no fish off so we are taking the opportunity to show you a few of our best selling conehead salmon fly designs.

Please click on the youtube link here and Ron will talk you through some of his unique and super popular salmon flies - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qv1756ItMMQ

We have also been tying some new RS designs and you can see one of them below using our favourite tying thread and synthetic jungle cock both from Semperfli which we have for sale on our website.

The stunning New RS Black & yellow Spring Alistair copper tube - Semperfli FL Red waxed No 8/0 + JC Synthetic Natural large.

We are migrating the website to a new server this weekend so please be patient if access is intermittant, apologies but drop in again very soon and we will be fully up and running again to get your tackle to you.

The Helmsdale has had a good week as the springers have arrived with 4 lovely bars of silver off the river. Most of the bigger rivers have been struggling with contunued massive snow melt but the Helmsdale has been fining down to a great height all week and local anglers have been taking full advantage.

A beautiful Upper Torrish springer for Andy Sutherland (below) taken on the Golden Angel tubefly which is a mix between an Alistair and Garry Dog. Andy caught his biggest ever salmon (30.5lbs) on a Garry Dog tube on the Spey at Arndilly a few years ago so colours he likes and so do the fish! A mix of orange & yellow bucktail has always worked well in the spring, add a sparse outer layer of black and you have the fabled Willie Gunn which is the "go to" tubefly for many in clear spring water.

A full range of classic coppertube RS design Willie Gunn Special from 2" to 1/2". You must grab a few of these for your box!

Deadly RS Coneheads from raking 6" to tiny 0.25" covering all options, you know you need them!!

The first fish was hooked and landed by (Borrobol ghillie) Glen Macdonald in Lower Caen beat 1, No 2 quickly followed by (guess who!?) Andy Sutherland the next day on Upper Torrish beat 3. Ronnie Ploughman grassed another classic springer in the Tail of the Bay pool beat 3 again and the week was perfectly rounded off by Alistair Jappy another local expert netting yet another bar of silver perfection on beat 4 Stoney Point on an Alistair TigerTail. All fish were estimated at around 9 - 10lbs

Alistairs fish from Stoney Point and the deadly RS design fly below.

The RS Alistair TigerTail tube ( we have loads! ) and you can buy them on the website with all our other RS killers.

Prospects are looking very good for the week ahead on all rivers as a high pressure is set to dominate the weather and settle things down.

It is a pity that travel is still so restricted for angling and everything else for that matter but it is more important at this stage in the Pandemic that we still take the greatest care and caution in every aspect of our lives and get this measured lockdown exit right. Our own health is more important than fish right now. It is tough to sit it out, but, I can tell you that we have never sold so much fly tying materials for spare time flytying and if this year is anything like last there will be an explosion of hungry anglers on waters all over Europe soon as restrictions begin to ease.

So, on that basis we are continuing with our popular 3 + 1 deal on all salmon flies and I will be adding another short video soon showing you a few more of our deadly offerings. It is a great time to freshen up your salmon fly boxes with sparkling new flies. Don't forget to throw out old nylon and grab some Gaelforce sinking tips which are super handy until things warm up. If you really want to spoil yourself I would hugely recommend a Gaelforce floating line in Spey or shooting head to really get you going. Carron Jetstream are also very popular and both will get you launching very long lines across the water in no time.

Take care, stay safe and I hope you get on a river somewhere very soon.

Ron talks you through 3 of our best spring flies (click on the link below)

https://youtu.be/VC3bU21rvLE

The first fish was caught on the Helmsdale by Kildonan ghillie Glen Macdonald at 9lbs from beat 1 Lower Caen and a nice first fish off the Thurso caught by Hugo Ross at 11lbs

Hopefully things will ease on the ice grip this week and rods will get on the water after a long spell of freeze out. The weather forecast is showing much warmer temps and rivers may be high initially but things will start moving. Hopefully anglers will have a little more room for manoeuvre too.

We still have our 3 + 1 deal on all salmon flies running to get your flyboxes refreshed a little.

Funilly enough anglers are buying all sorts especially spring flies bit these little beauties are moving too...our deadly summer RS Cascade Alistair invented by Ron a few years ago.

Please put code 3 + 1 in our comments section when ordering.

Fresh springers are now being caught on the Dee and Tweed. Gavin Brown got his season off to a stunning start by netting 3 lovely fish on the fly from the Junction pool, the fly was tied using synthetic JC so I think that tells us that Natural JC versus Synthetic can be put to bed!

The Helmsdale is still quiet but angling pressure is very low. But, we are now running a spring 3 + 1 deal on our salmon flies. If you buy 3 you get 1 free unless your order is ober £100, then you qualify for our very special 2 + 1 deal. please put either 3 + 1 or 2 + 1 in the comments section when ordering to secure your superb fly deal.

3 of our best below - RS Blue Ass willie Gunn, RS Black & Yellow feeler & RS Willie Gunn Special.

Start your shopping for free flies right here - http://www.helmsdalecompany.com/latest-flies-in.html

Tight lines

The Salmon fishing season and hunt for that highly prized spring salmon gets a little more serious tomorrow 1/2/21 when another 2 of the big 4 open for business, the Tweed and Dee. Let’s hope the fish bite harder than the frost and lots of local anglers get on the water.

Helmsdale Co will be running a buy 3 get 1 free on all salmon flies from today and we have some of our best flies back in stock for the start of the season. Grab some of the latest in right here before they sell out - http://www.helmsdalecompany.com/latest-flies-in.html?page=all

Please put 3 + 1 in our comments section when ordering.

Tight lines to all.

Hi there
We hope you are safe and well. This is a copy of tha latest block email we have circulated....and a of pic below of a couple of our best spring flies which are now available again.
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You may be pleased to know that we have many of our best selling flies in stock now and they will sell out quickly so if you want some you might want to be fast on the draw!

RS Micro SuperSnaelda
RS Black & yellow feeler tube
RS Solar Monkey tube in 3 sizes
RS Willie Gunn Special copper tube
RS Spring Frances conehead
RS Posh Willie Gunn
RS Cascade Monkey Conehead
RS Alistair TigerTail copper tube
RS Willie Dog conehead
RS Posh Monkey Copper tube and coneheads
RS Mylar superSnaelda copper tube
RS Black & yellow mylar copper tube
RS Alistair original aluminium tube and gold coneheads
RS Chartreuse Monkey Conehead
RS Dee Monkey copper, tungsten and conehead tube
RS Cascade gold tungsten conehead
RS Naked Alistair gold conehead
RS Naked Willie Gunn gold conehead
RS Willie Gunn Gold Body copper tubes

And many more.....

Lockdown will not last forever so we are all desperate to get back out on the water soon with our favourite salmon flies.

The season so far on the Helmsdale is very quiet as only a few rods on the water and mainly the Association water - odds on for the legend that is Andy Sutherland to hook up right there - we have both had numerous Jan and Feb springers from the Flat pool at the top end of this beat so look out for our fishing reports.

Stay safe and get your gear and flies ready for better days ahead on the rivers we all dream about fishing.

You can shop here now - http://www.helmsdalecompany.com/

The river has been very quiet during opening week as there have been little or no anglers on the water. So, not much to report yet!

On the fly front, we have started to use some superb new synthetic junglecock on one or two of our flies. Check out the new Alistair design from Ron (below) which is tied on a bare gold double using the award winning Semperfli tying thread and synthetic JC from the same company. We really like the look of it. Real JC or not is a big question and one that has been bouncing around for years but as access to real JC is becoming more restricted the synthetic sub is becoming more and more prevalent. Opinions differ but generally I am feeling that the mood is swinging away from the very expensive real JC, but only just!

Real JC is indeed the real deal but are the salmon interested in the slightest? it is a subject that books could be written about but at the end of the day the angler will decide until real JC becomes impossible to access. personally I hope that day never comes but if it does I do not think we will catch less fish as many of the most successful flies already swim without it.

Let me know what you think of the Alistair below, same fly in 2 different pics with synthetic JC.