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.