Ian's Special Salmon Flies
Salmon flies tied to Ian’s original designs.
Salmon Flies can be varied and come in many different patterns. The Salmon Flies for sale you will find on this site are the product of more than 40 years in fishing, ghillying and guiding for salmon, mainly in Scotland, but also in Norway. Ian tied his first Salmon Fly at the age of nine and since then has used his own unique patterns to great effect in spring, summer and autumn. A general theme to Ian’s salmon flies, is “generally”, they have red heads and copper bodies. Ian is a big believer in – If something works then stay with it! As a rule of thumb, Spring and autumn patterns are generally more heavily dressed, with summer flies much more spare, something preferred by most Scottish Ghillies and fishermen.
Salmon Fly for Spring and Autumn
Salmon Fly for Spring, Summer and Autumn
Salmon Fly for Spring and Autumn
Salmon Fly
A great and popular Salmon Fly for Spring and Autumn
One of my best loved salmon flies. Great in low water
Named after a couple of friends who fished with me and could not stop catching Grilse and Sea Trout
Great all rounder both at home and abroad
Yellow is favoured by so many ghillies in the spring. This is the perfect fly for clear water in May and June
Orange Moose - The common theme in all the “Moose” patterns are their Guinea Fowl hackles. A good friend of mine has bread those for many years and so feathers are readily available. I begun fishing those with very successful results in the late 1980s, finding the “Orange” Moose particularly good as the river ran off after a small rise. Sizes 8 – 12 work well from May into the summer, with the orange fly best fished slowly on sinking tip.
A fly that I've had much success with on the river spey and tweed with a slight colour in the water
Red Munro - Classic Killer but tied on either a gold or silver single or double. Fish when the river is clearing, best tied on hook size 6 - 10. Finish this with a red head.
Foggy Moose - I created the various “Moose” patterns to be fished in clear low water and particularly at dusk and found all very good for Grilse when fished in those conditions. Tie very sparsely on a silver or gold double or treble size 8 - 12.
Copper Shadow – Similar to that of the Copper Stinchar but tied in my style with a tail, also black and orange bucktail mix. We caught so many fish on Knockando in May with this fly, amazingly good pattern. Hook size 6 – 12. A great fly to fish as the water clears.
My favourite spring fly, I named this fly “The Swallow” because it alludes to the spring and salmon like to do just that with it. One problem with this fly is fish tend to be hooked deep in the throat. I would suggest a set of forceps are not far away when fishing this. Best tied on Copper Tube or up to size 3 Double.
Copper Stinchar – Fly for the summer months, a variant of the famous “Stinchar stoat” but without the full orange hackle. I use this fly as the water begins to clear. Tie on a size 6 - 12.
A variant of the Willie Gunn, this is a classic spring fly on every river I've ever fished.
My favourite spring fly, I named this fly “The Swallow” because it alludes to the spring and salmon like to do just that with it. One problem with this fly is fish tend to be hooked deep in the throat. I would suggest a set of forceps are not far away when fishing this. Best tied on Copper Tube or up to size 3 Double.
Which Salmon Fly?
Swallow is a spring favourite and Rosey a great Autumn pattern, whilst Salmon flies such as Slum Dog are a simple, but very effective summer pattern.
Spring Salmon Flies
Are characterised by being larger and generally more heavily dressed. Those are tied on tubes made from tungsten, brass, copper, aluminium and plastic. They are also very effective tied as Intruder Flies which are easy to cast and provide good depth control on fast sinking lines.
Summer Salmon Flies
Generally are lightly dressed producing good movement when fished through riffles or when being stripped/retrieved by the angler. Almost all Summer Salmon Flies are tied on Partridge Patriot Hooks and are available sized between 6 and 12.
Autumn Salmon Flies
Those are tied on tubes or larger hooks and generally not as large as Spring Flies. Colours also differ slightly with red and orange being common when salmon fishing in Scotland during autumn.
Follow links to the shop for a full range of Ian’s unique patterns and also some old favourites.