COLOUR IS KING.

Byline: By SILVER WILKIE

GOOD news for salmon anglers, the ABU Salmo spoon is back after disappearing from tackle shops for years.

When the Swedish firm stopped producing these excellent salmon lures some time ago, those who still had a couple in their fishing bag guarded them with their lives.

Finding one which had been snagged and broken in the river was like finding underwater treasure.

On eBay they were selling for four times their value.

Ihave a friend who was actively considering sending a sample over to China to see if they could be made there.

Now the Salmo is back in the tackle shops again - just in time for spring fishing. However, it's not just a good bait for spring.

Many grilse are caught during the summer by throwing a Salmo upstream and winding it back fast.

Later in the year, cast at a 45 degree angle downstream and wound slowly back in, they are just as deadly.

Silver Salmos appear to do best, but a friend has a rare blue and silver one and picks up lots of salmon on it.

What is also deadly at this time of the year is a yellow belly devon.

If there's one colour more than any other which is a consistent killer of spring salmon, then that is it.

I've fished the yellow belly faithfully in spring and autumn over the years and it has accounted for many of my springers.

Any bait in cream or white, especially when fished in the latter part of a cold spring day, can also be an excellent killer.

For example, a white belly - a devon with a black back and white front - will definitely account for salmon.

If you are harling on the likes of the River Tay, or trolling on the early season salmon lochs, then a white or cream Kynoch often produces the goods.

Fly fishers know, too, that a Whitewing tube fly fished can pick up fish in the last hour.

On the subject of devons, most of us have a box with tatty old ones which need refurbishing, some faded and chipped, and others will have missing fins.

It's not really all that difficult to refurbish them. Strip off existing paint with cellulose thinners, then rub them down to the bare metal with some sandpaper to make them ready for a brand new paint job.

Touch-up paints from car accessory shops are brilliant for repainting devons.

Apply two coats and then one, or better still, two coats of varnish.

One colour you can't get in an auto accessory shop is blood red, which you get on many metal devons.

The paint for this is called vitrina and is normally used for painting glass.

It can be bought from craft shops.

Renovating your old devons is definitely a worthwhile exercise because you can paint them in your favourite colours.