SALMON TUBE FLIES
Traditional salmon, steelhead and sea trout files were time consuming to tie. The hair-winged versions of these patterns are easier to tie and the fish seem no more reluctant to take them rather than the traditional dressed salmon fly. It was logical that this simplification idea was carried further using probably the most secure hooking device yet invented, the treble hook. The result was a range of tube flies which now account for as many if not more fish each season than do traditional single hook flies. During the early season when the water is cold, tube flies offer the fly fisherman a lure/streamer large enough to tempt what can be very dour fish.

The advantages of the tube fly is pretty impressive. Flies and hooks are separate so you can carry a lot of flies in your shirt pocket and the hooks in a film can. You can use non-stainless steel hooks (which are sharper and stronger) in salt water, just throw them away in a bin when you are finished fishing for the day. You can cater for barbed and barbed-less fishing. You can use treble hooks, or double hooks or single hooks. Most salmon fishermen use a treble hook but the beauty of tube flies is that you can choose what ever hook you want. You can vary the size and type to match the type of fish you are after, the water situation and regulations. If the hook dulls, just replace it instead of sharpening it on the water. The flies are more durable, because when you hook the fish, the fly slides up the leader away from the munching action of your quarry. You can tie huge flies without buying expensive long shanked hooks. Some say they swim better and look more natural

To tie the fly onto the end of your leader, simply pull the hook from the rear of the plastic tube, tie the hook to your leader and re-insert the hook into the tube. If the hook becomes damaged it can be easily replaced without disposing the fly. If you have problems of the hook inserting itself up the tube thread on a bead at the rear of the tube just in front of the hook eye. Always have spare hooks with you.

Winnie Morawski, whilst working for a fly tier Charles Playfair & Company of Aberdeen in Scotland in 1945, is credited with tying the first tube fly. While she was tidying up the turkey quills from her work bench she had a brain wave. She chopped the top and bottom off and scrapped the insides from the quills . She then dressed this natural tube she had created. One of the company's customers was a doctor called William Michie. He liked the idea of tube flies but suggested that cut lengths of surgical tubing should be used instead of the fragile and very brittle quills. Word got around and soon tubes were being tied in Norway, Sweden, Canada, USA as well as the United Kingdom. Saltwater tube flies appeared in the North American Pacific Northwest and were used in Washington State's Puget Sound in the late 1940s

It has been reported that Native North Americans used hollowed out bones as an early tube fly. The marrow was poked out and the bone left in the sun to dry. A long shank hook was then inserted into the hollowed bone unlike the modern tube fly. The bone added weight that sank the hook to the required depth. When it was retrieved through the water after the cast a stream of bubbles left the end of the bone. A few feathers or fur tied to the outside of the bone increased effectiveness. (Although not a tube fly you can see other examples of bone lures in the Honolulu Maritime Museum in Hawaii)

 There is one disadvantage with using tube flies. It is nothing to do with the effectiveness of the fly at catching fish but more to do with the wording of local fishing regulations. An example of this is that in America, Washington State a tube fly is defined as a lure and not a fly under their State regulations and therefore can not be used on fly only water. Their regulations define a fly as 'a lure on which thread, feathers, hackle, or yarn cover a minimum of half of the hook shank of the hook'. We only sell plastic tubes. The regulations in Eastern Canada forbid the use of 'weighted flies' for Atlantic Salmon. Metal tube flies are considered 'Weighted flies'. Consult your local fishing regulations before using tube flies to see if they are so narrow minded as those of Washington State.

On very cold days the water temperature seems to take the enthusiasm to feed or bite out of some fish. They head deep. In these circumstances you must get your fly down to the bottom with sinking or sinking tip lines. I have found that on the times when I have used heavy hooked regular flies they have become embedded in the bottom, snagged. I have found when I use plastic tube flies and a smaller shanked hook the fly rides higher. I have therefore noticed a great reduction in the amount of large hooked flies that I have had to leave adding to the decoration of lake and river bottoms. If you have spotted a large wise old trophy fish and need  some thing very large to attract him tube flies are ideal. Tie on two or three tube flies one behind the other. You now have what looks like a tempting big meal for a big hungry fish.

I prefer using these lighter plastic tube flies than copper or brass tubes. I find the lighter tube fly, in slow or medium flowing rivers, tends to flutter very attractively as it swings across the current mimicking the natural movement of bait fish or a shrimp. I use a fast sinking line to get the fly down to the required depth. It makes the fly swim more naturally. In deep water on lakes and reservoirs the copper weighted tube flies come into their own realm. 

THE MODERN TEMPELDOG STYLE OF TYING TUBE FLIES
Most of our salmon tube flies are tied in the Tempeldog style. The fly has a wing that goes over the hook, throat hackle, some palmering of the body and a small tail. Swedish fishing guide and Sales rep for tackle company Guideline AB, Håkan Norling made the first tempeldog tube fly in 1985. He was making some flies for his annual autumn / fall salmon fishing trip to the River Em in Sweden.  Håkan needed some goat hair but when he phoned his supplier was out of stock. They did have some Tibetan Jackal dog hair which they sent. When it arrived it was too short for the patterns he wanted to make and did not look of very good quality. He dyed it black and dark brown and tied it to a tube. Håkan was shocked at how well it worked, "I will never forget the sight of the fly in water. It looked like it was about to swim away with my leader. The wing had so much life - moving in a way I had seen with any other hair we were using at that time."

The Tempeldog style of flies that Håkan and his friend Mikael Frödin developed over the next ten years set the standard for salmon flies in Northern Europe. He called the dog hair Tempeldog. Yes the spelling is correct. Håkan was upset when he saw the shocking treatment and conditions the dog were subjected to in China. He stopped using this material and searched for a good alternative. Some old fur coats were made of dog hair so he used those for a while until he found that fox hair was an ideal replacement and a lot cheaper. With new materials becoming available a mixture of Angel hair and natural fox hair makes a light wing that will not absorb too much water. It makes it easy to cast but with enough bulk to create the correct fish silhouette. 

For Håkan the silhouette and movement were the most important part of the Tempeldog design. The fish normally see the fly from below and if it looks the shape of a fish and moves like one you will catch more salmon. The silhouette is formed by the different layers of the hair wing being trimmed at different lengths. The outer section of the wing should be the longest where as the one nearest the hook shank should be the shortest. Looking from above and below the wing should form a long tear drop shape tapering to a point over the hook. Håkan likes to use jungle cock cheeks in a V formation either side of the wing to help with the suggestion of an eye but this is optional.

STEELHEAD TUBE FLIES
Tube flies have recently gained popularity for many kinds of fish. Recently this type of fly has become extremely popular for both winter and summer steelhead. Originally used so that a smaller hook could be used with a large fly to cut injury to wild steelhead, this configuration hooks fish quickly, yet decreases the injury that sometimes occurs using larger hooks. These flies are very streamlined and easy to cast. Our plastic tube models are very lightweight which gives them lots of action when the are submerged. These lightweight flies are comparatively snag free. The best way to fish these flies is with a sinking tip line. They are cast across current and allowed to swing deep under tension.

WHAT FLY TO USE
The British salmon fly tying traditions of the 18th and 19th centuries that used exotic materials and complicated patterns were exported to the countries the British explored and occupied. In North America and other parts of the world, gradually these pattern were changed and new ones designed to make use of the more easily obtainable local animal skins and feathers. The were also designed to suit the different natural conditions and local fish. Hairwings were used instead of  brightly colored feathers from tropical birds. They worked as well if not better. Hairwing salmon flies have now become the norm and the traditional feather-winged patterns are now more commonly found as framed works of art that hang in gentlemen's studies and behind bars. 

Choosing the right fly is a problem that occurs for all salmon fly fishers. There is no solid rule that works all the time everywhere. Dark day, dark fly; bright day, bright fly can be a good guide along with high water, big fly; low water, small fly. But sometimes the reverse is true. Some like to chose a fly of a color that matches the overall color of the riverbed. Rivers that flow over bare rock or limestone are often crystal clear. They may have a blue or green/yellow tinge so some choose flies with the same coloring like Yellow Torrish or the Green Highlander. During early spring and late autumn when the rivers are in full flow after a recent storm try some of the brighter flies. Use garish yellow and orange flies for cold days like. On less cold days use more inconspicuous flies. 

Your choice of fly is sometimes down to a local’s or friend’s recommendation, remembering what worked last year, or simply following your own hunch. Others believe that it doesn’t matter what fly you use as it is the presentation of the fly that counts. Some say that a salmon caught on one fly would have been taken on any of several other flies of the same size so long as it was presented to the fish in the same way. Some ‘experts’ will criticize a fly because it has a too full or too sparse a hairwing; the shape of the hook is too curved or not curved enough; the fly should or should not have a yellow, green orange or red butt; the nose should be red or it should be black and the most ridiculous is, that the fly has one too many gold colored ribs or not enough. These arguments have been raging since Victorian times. That is one of the charms of this sport. Everyone has his or her own opinion. It gives you something to talk about around the camp fire or over a bottle of beer.

Generally migratory salmon and steelhead trout cease feeding as they return to freshwater to spawn. Though I have seen them rise to take flies an insects on the surface. They can be tempted or provoked into taking a general brightly colored attractor pattern (some fishermen call them a 'piss-em-off' pattern) like one of the orange Woolly Bugger. They may also eat out of habit something that they were feeding upon in open ocean. Flies that represent shrimp, prawns and bait fish are ideal..  

Experiment with the speed of the retrieve past a known salmon or steelhead lie. An attack can often be provoked if you stir the hunting instinct of this great tasting, large predatory. A sudden quick retrieve can suggest the rapid escape movement of a startled small fish that has seen it’s biggest nightmare

In North America and in other parts of the world, salmon are commonly caught on dry flies  like hoppers (grasshoppers), daddy-long-legs (craine flies) and the Wulff or Bomber series of dry flies. This is rarely tried in Europe. If you live in Europe, discard tradition and give it a try.

PACIFIC SALMON
Pacific salmon is a general term used to describe the members of a fish species that die after spawning. The Latin term for this family group is Oncorhynchus. There are seven species. The following five occur on both sides of the pacific . 
(1) Chum Salmon also known as Dog Salmon (Oncorhynchus keta)
(2) Coho Salmon also known as Silver Salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch)
(3) Pink Salmon also known as Humpbacked Salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha)
(4) Sockeye Salmon also known as Red Salmom (Oncorhynchus nerka)
(5) Chinook Salmon also known as King Salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha)
The following two are only found on the coasts of Asia
(6) Masu Salmon also known as Yamame (Oncorhynchus masou)
(7) Amago Salmon also known as Biwamasu (Oncorhynchus rhodurus)

There is a landlocked Pacific Salmon called a Kokanee. It is a subspecies of a Sockeye Salmon. It spends it's entire life in freshwater and does not attain the large sizes of its ocean going cousins. They migrate to lakes and can be seen swimming back up streams to their place of hatching to spawn.

Atlantic Salmon belong to a different group called 'Salmo'. Atlantic Salmon is in fact a species of fish within this group. (It has the Latin name of Salmo salar). Unlike the Pacific salmon that have complex and varied life histories that vary widely within and between species, the Atlantic Salmon have very similar life histories and are capable of surviving spawning and re-migrate to return again. Pacific salmon migrate from freshwater to the sea at different ages. Pink and Chum Salmon migrate at any time from one week to a month, Chinooks from 12 to 16 months, Coho Salmon from 12 to 24 months and Sockeye from 12 to 36 months.

Pacific Salmon nearly always return to spawn in the freshwater areas they were born in. They overcome very hazardous river conditions and swim great distances to reach their place of hatching. Scientists have documented some going to different locations but that is a very rare occurrence. It is believed that the salmon find their way back by sent. They follow their noses to find their home stream.

Scientists have also tagged young salmon to plot where they go when they migrate into the Pacific Ocean from the rivers. Some swim many thousands of miles like the tagged Chinook which was recorded having covered 3,500 miles before being recovered swimming back up Salmon River in Idaho, to spawn. The salmon fatten up in the ocean. The record for the largest Pacific Salmon is 126 pounds caught commercially up in Alaska.