Headed for a river that has salmon in it this summer and fall? Take some diver & bait rigs with you — it’s a super easy and extremely deadly technique that you can pick up in no time!

While there are several good ways to get a big, juicy glob of hot red sulfite eggs (or sand shrimp) down in the faces of river salmon, the ol’ diver and bait is often the first one to which I turn.

Salmon Candy

Now, let’s take a look at rigging up:

Divers

Well, first I guess we better take a look at the major component of this whole deal: the diver. There are a couple ways you can go, here: either run hookless plugs like Hot-N-Tots or Mud Bugs painted black or metallic green or clear Brad’s Bait Divers (looks almost identical to the old STORM Hot-N-Tots) or go with Luhr Jensen’s Jet Divers.

Jet Diver (top) and a Brad's

I run Jet Divers almost all of the time. They’re much more stable than most plugs, so they get down deep and stay there. On my home waters, the size No. 20 (dives to 20 feet) is the staple, though there are certain spots that require me to bump up to the No. 30. On rivers like the Kenai and Columbia, the size No. 40 and even the 50-foot Jumbo Jet models are popular.

Though Luhr Jensen manufacturers Jet Divers in a wide array of exciting colors, I prefer the boring, plain-jane clear ones most of the time (pink crystal is Plan B if I can find the transparent ones). I just think that the less junk the fish see, the better off you are. I do have friends, however, who swear that they get more bites when using metallic blue divers.

Smoke 'em if you got 'em...a diver caught king!

Jet Divers don’t need tuning and generally run great right out of the box. There are a couple things you can do however, to make them even run better. As soon as I get a new one, I’ll flip it belly up and twist off the plastic tab and crane swivel with a set of needle nose pliers. I always run divers off a dropper, so there’s simply no need for that extra stuff hanging off the bottom. There are also times when I’ll carefully take a file to the top edge of the diver’s wings to give it a little steeper diving angle – for those tight spots when I need to get my gear as straight down as possible.

Since Jet Divers don’t snag all that often, I wear more of them out than I lose. The biggest problem that I encounter is a crack in one of the wings. Unless you’re looking specifically for a crack, you may not notice it – until your driver starts doing corkscrews in the water and tangles up all your other lines. When you find you have a cracked wing, toss the entire unit it in the garbage.

Occasionally, you’ll also find water seeping into your diver’s body, which is often caused by a hairline crack (from the diver smacking the side of the boat or a fish flopping on it in the net). It’s hard to get he water back out of such a thin fracture, but you can take a tiny drill bit and make a hole towards the back of the diver to drain it. After everything dries out, hit the drill hole with epoxy and cover the crack with crazy glue.

Rigging the Diver

As I noted earlier, it’s best to run divers off dropper lines. I’ll make my drop line 12 inches to 3 feet in length, depending on the conditions. As a basic rule of thumb, go with a shorter length in fast water; longer when you’re fishing slower, deeper water.

The next step is to decide how to tie your dropper leader to your main line and you have two choices: hard-tied or on a slider. In most cases, I run my divers on sliders – in other words, I’ll tie the opposite end of my dropper line to a crane swivel and then run the main line through it. Next, I’ll slide 2-4 plastic beads up the mainline and then tie another crane swivel to the tag end. To the opposite end of that swivel, goes the bait leader. The swivel and beads between the main line and leader keep the diver from sliding down to the bait but it is free to move up the line (towards the rod).

When a fish grabs your bait, he’ll feel less resistance when the diver’s free-sliding. A sliding rig is also a good thing if you happen to get your diver caught in the net while attempting to scoop the fish. Though your diver’s tangled up in the mesh, the fish can still run without the hooks getting ripped out of its mouth.

And if you happen to break off on a fish or snag, there’s a chance your diver will float to the surface, where you can recover it – no small victory considering these things go for about $7 a pop these days!

A case can be made for fixed rigs as well, however, especially when you have inexperienced anglers on board. One of the downsides of a diver on a sliding rig occurs when the hooks get snagged. As the boat continues to back downstream, the diver keeps going, working on the bow between the rod tip and the snag. A trained eye can tell something’s amiss, but a rookie may not know anything’s wrong until his line’s upstream of the boat….arrrgh! You can fix this problem by tying your mainline, leader and dropper all to a three-way swivel.

Though they/ve long been treated like the red-headed stepchildren of the salmon world, chum salmon are starting to gain a pretty dedicated following these days. When you take a closer look, it’s easy to see why — chums are plentiful and can sometimes top 20 pounds; they bite great and are absolutely tenacious when hooked.

The only real downside to them is they are not as tasty as kings, reds and silvers. But that’s really not a problem — just keep a couple reds for the freezer and then have a ball catching and releasing chums all day long!

Chum salmon are widely distributed throughout Alaska and they can be found in freshwater streams from early June to as late as mid-October, depending on the area. Generally speaking however, the further north you go, the later the run and vise-versa as you head south.

Locating Chum

The biggest key to finding chums is to remember that they are lazy. Most of the time you’ll find them lounging in the soft water along the river’s margins and well out of the main current. They also love gently-moving flats below riffles that are 3 to 7 feet deep, the mouths of tributary streams and slow, deep pools.

Shore Fishing

Since chums usually hold towards the edges of a river, they’re often easy marks for bank anglers — though boaters can catch plenty of them as well.

From shore, there’s probably nothing more effective for chums than a 3/8-ounce hot pink, black or purple marabou jig fished under an adjustable slip float. For some reason, doggies absolutely go crazy for this rig. Set your jig to run 1 to 3 feet off the bottom and allow it to drift with the current, mending the line whenever necessary to avoid unnatural drag. Keep an eye on your float to make sure that it is not leaning up or downstream. If it’s not floating perfectly straight up and down, you’re jig could be dragging the bottom or you may have a bow in the line that’s causing too much drag.

Spinners and spoons can also be extremely effective on chums. Throw hot pink size No. 3 or 4 Blue Fox Super Vibrax spinners with silver blades or silver body/pink inlay Pixee spoons through slow-moving flats and you’ll be in chum city. Keep the hardware slowly moving just off the bottom and make sure you’ve got a good grip on your stick. The hits are often fierce when fishing this way!

Since most people release chum, it’s not a bad idea to remove the stock trebles from your lures and switch them out with single barbless siwash hooks. With singles, you’ll lose fewer lures to snags and they’re much easer to remove from fish.

You can also catch plenty of chum on fly gear and the real beauty of the sport is that you don’t need to match any hatch. Chums will routinely attack big bright flies and patterns like black or pink Bunny Leeches are about all you’ll need to be successful. Fish these patterns “on the swing” with sinking line and you’re in business.

Gearing Up

Chum have a knack for busting rods and burning up reels, so you’ll want to use a quality outfit when chasing them.

When fishing with jigs and floats, a 10.5-foot rod is a good choice as the length will help you mend the line. You can go with a spinning or casting reel here, just be sure it has a quality drag! For float fishing, braided line is superior to mono as it floats higher and is easier to mend.

Use an 8 ½ - to 9 ½ - foot rod with a fairly fast action and a lot of backbone for tossing spoons and spinners. Baitcasting outfits are preferable for this method because they allow you to easily play out line to extend your drift, but spinning gear will suffice. Either way, spool up with nothing lighter than 12-pound mono.

For backtrolling, you need a rod that has a soft tip so that the fish can yank down on it without feeling a lot of resistance, but it must also be stout through the lower two-thirds of its length. Levelwind reels are the only way to go here and you can fill them with 17- to 25-pound mono or 50-pound braid (make sure to use a mono or fluorocarbon leader when using braided line).

If you’re looking to hook up on fly gear, go with a 9-weight rod and a quality reel with a strong drag. Also, it pays to have an assortment of lines on hand to match river conditions. On large waters, shooting heads are necessary to get flies near the bottom, while you can get away with sink tips and even floating lines on smaller creeks and streams. Use a 3- to 6-foot section of 15- to 20-pound fluorocarbon for your leader and you’re ready to go.

Just about every river has a slackwater salmon spot. You know what I’m talking about here: one of those spots that’s too slow for back-bouncing, backtrolling, drift fishing or even bobbers. Of course, it always seems that the fish pile up into these zones like crazy, right?

I suppose a guy could catch a few fish tossing spinners or spoons in such a spot, but I prefer to cover more water on the troll. The interesting aspect of slackwater trolling is you aren’t limited to fishing in one direction like you’d be if you were freedrifting or back-bouncing.

Going up and downstream both have their merits and shortcomings, and while every slackwater spot is a little different, I follow a couple basic principles that seem to work in most situations.

Upstream Trolling

Generally speaking, I only troll upstream for fish that are holding. That means I normally find myself doing it in the upper end of a river system, where the fish are parked on a slow flat or in a deep, sluggish pool.

In this situation, I’m looking for the absolute slowest presentation possible and that means trolling upstream against the current with K15 or K16 Kwikfish (use fresh wraps!) is the way to go. Even a pool that’s too slow to backtroll may still have a hint of current — which will force you to fish faster than is desirable if you go downstream. Pulling the plugs in an uphill direction, however, allows you to control the tempo. If you’re flatlining your baits without weight, going against the flow will also enable them to dive deeper.

Ideally, your plug will swim with a molasses-slow fwooomp…fwooomp…fwooomp wobble. You can check your lure’s “pulse” by keeping an eye on the rod tip. Everything’s golden when it takes a good second for your rod tip dip and come back up with each wiggle of the lure.

Most of the time, try to keep your plugs just off the bottom. You’re in the perfect zone when they lightly tap the rocks here and there – just make sure the Kwikies aren’t constantly digging. In slackwater spots, you’ll also often find fish suspended up off the bottom. In those cases, switch over to a lure that doesn’t dive quite as deep – say a T-50 FlatFish – if you’re flatlining. Or, when trolling with weight, simply lighten up on the lead.

Rowing a driftboat gives you the best control of your speed for this technique – plus it’s the stealthiest approach, which can be a big plus in clear water. Electric motors with infinite throttle control are the next best things and kickers are my last choice because they’re too noisy and you can’t troll down slowly enough with them.

Grabs are shockingly violent with this method, and in a lot of cases, you have to react differently than you’re accustomed to. Normally, of course, you’d let the fish eat the plug for a painfully long time. I’ve found, however, that I miss more strikes this way when I wait to set the hook. Strange, but the fish just crush a slow-trolled plug so hard…

When the water has color to it, you can do the upstream troll deal all day long. Unfortunately, you have a more limited window of opportunity if you’re fishing in clear conditions. When that’s the case, be on the water and ready to go at the first tick of legal fishing time – that’s when the fish are least disturbed and at their snappiest. In particularly harsh conditions (clear water & bright sun) like we have here in California’s Central Valley, you may only get a pass or two through the hole before the fish give up on you, so it pays to be the first boat on the water.

Downstream Trolling

While I troll upstream for holding fish, I almost always go the opposite direction when I’m fishing and/or searching for salmon on the move. This technique is particularly effective on the broader, silty-bottom stretches you’ll often find in a river’s lower reaches. In these areas, the fish don’t usually linger for long. They’re already above the salt-to-fresh acclimation zone and well below the spawning areas, so they’re typically blasting through. Not only are the kings in these low down slackwater spots moving quickly, but they’re also fresh from the salt and extremely aggressive biters. For all those reasons, trolling downstream is the best way to get at them.

First off, by going downhill, you can crank up the trolling speed — which allows you to cover the water (and find fish) more quickly. I stick to 1 mph, but some of the guides I know do extremely well by throttling up to 2.3 mph and slightly higher. Since we’re not trying to coax stale upriver fish to bite, going slowly isn’t a priority here.

This technique also works because I’m convinced that kings in these areas are still so dialed into their ocean feeding habits that, when a plug or spinner goes whizzing downstream past them, it triggers the “eat me” response. All the salmon I catch this way turn around and chase the lure down – which doesn’t exactly fit into the “they bite lures because they’re annoying” theory. I’m not so sure that a slow wobble would solicit such an excited response from them. After all, an anchovy or herring is going to run like hell when it sees a king swimming by!

For this method, I primarily pull sardine-wrapped K14 Kwikfish, which have a hyper, scared-to-death baitfish kind of action to them. Offshore, our California kings eat a lot of small anchovies so I like the smaller plugs for that reason as well – it’s sort of a match the hatch type of deal. Spinners also work well when trolling quickly. The idea here is to go fast enough to keep the thing spinning but slow enough that you can read individual pulses of the blade on your rod tip.

There are places I’ve found where trolling spinners or Kwikfish downriver without weight works just fine. However, I mainly stick to running a 3-way swivel off my main line, with a dropper for my sinker off eye number two and the leader coming off the third. There are no hard and fast rules governing the length of your droppers and leaders because it depends on they type of lures you’re running and how much lead you’ve got on. What I can tell you is the lure should be running 1 to 3 feet up off the bottom with minimal contact with the riverbed.

As with trolling upstream, getting your offerings away from the boat is critical in shallow, clear water but not such an issue if you’ve got some depth and/or color to work with. I still prefer trolling with an electric motor, but kickers don’t seem to bother fresh kings down low in a river too much when conditions are decent.

The bite you get when trolling down-current is quite different from the one I described earlier. When a king spins on a dime and chases down your lure, he’ll often pick it up and continue swimming with you for a moment. This is known as a “slack line” bite and the only thing that will key you into what’s happening is the rod tip will straighten up and throbbing (from the lure’s action) will go away. At that point, you’ve got about a nanosecond to set up on him before the big slug spits your hardware. For that reason, it’s a really good idea to hold onto your rod all day – slack line bites are hard to capitalize on when you’ve got your stick in a holder.

The other type of bite you may encounter looks more like a traditional takedown – the rod tip pumps a few times and then the rod doubles over. If you get this kind of strike, let the fish eat the lure until your rod really loads up.

What’s the best plug color for salmon? The one they’re biting…of course. Sorry — bad joke! Anyway, It’s easy to get overwhelmed by all the Kwikfish and Flatfish color choices hanging on the wall at the local tackle mart, but keep in mind that you really only need a few to cover most of the bases.

The longer I guide, the more I find that I try to keep things simplified…a fellow could go crazy worrying about all the details! So, here’s my basic color selection guidelines for fishing for river kings:

Low/Clear Water

Dark/Stained Water

Cloudy Days

All-Around Studs

Okay all you rookie river salmon fishermen out there…don’t fear the sardine wrap! Here’s how to do it…

The Pimped Out Egg Loop is handy for back-bounce rigs, Cowlitz-style steelie side-drift rigs, mooching rigs…and just impressing your friends!

Here’s a step-by-step demonstration on how to wrap a Kwikfish (or FlatFish) just in time for summer kings…

To learn how to make the wraps themselves, check out my Sardine Wraps video.

So, you’re going to plunk down a couple hundred bones to take a guided fishing trip…but where do you start?

These days, it seems like damn near everybody with a boat is a guide. Google something like “Tillamook Salmon Guides” or “Alaska Fishing Charters” and you’ll get an overwhelming number of results (just for kicks, the Tillamook query came up with 449,000 listings and the Alaska one turned up over 2.9 million when I did it!). How do you sift through it all and find a good guide? There are several things to consider and questions to ask. Let’s take a closer look at what makes a good guide (and you a good client).

Referrals
To narrow things down a bit, it’s not a bad idea to ask around for a few names. Fishing buddies who’ve taken trips are a good first-hand source of information. Also, local fishing magazine or newspaper editors are also excellent resources. Eventually, you’ll build up a list of guides who look interesting, and that’s when it’s a good idea to start looking at their individual websites to get more info.

Websites
Visiting a guide’s site can help further narrow down you selection. A guide site won’t tell you everything you need to know, but it will reveal some important clues. One of the things I recommend you take a glance at is the “about your guide” section if one exists. That will give you a little insight into who you’re dealing with.

Also, take a look at the “fishing reports” page if the guide has one. Things to look for are regular postings – you want to see that he or she is fishing everyday. Also, scan though the reports and check for honesty. If all you see is red-hot fishing posted every day for months on end that should be a red flag. Sure, we guides do have our hot streaks, but we also get it handed to us now and then. If you see some posts mixed in that list tougher fishing or scratchy action, it’s a safe bet that the guide tells it straight.

Just keep in mind that a guide may only be as good as his web designer. In other words, he might be a lousy fisherman but a very skilled HTML code writer…or a fantastic guide with a crappy site.

Get on the Phone
Before you make a final decision, talk with the guide first. A quick chat on the phone is well worth your time. You may find out that your two personalities just don’t mesh – or that the guide sounds like someone with whom you would really enjoy spending the day.

It’s not unreasonable to ask how many years a guide’s been at his trade and how many days a year he or she fishes. There’s a big difference between the full-timers and the weekend warriors. Top-notch guides are on the water daily – this tells you that they are busy (a good sign) and that they are in tune with the subtleties of the area they fish. It’s hard for somebody who only gets out on Saturdays and Sundays to stay on the fish.

That’s not to say, however, that the new guys aren’t worth a try. Though I’m a grizzled ol’ veteran now, I was once the new punk kid on the block and people had to take a chance on me in the early days.

These days, with fuel and insurance costs so high, most guides need a full boat each day to make ends meet. Before your trip, ask how many anglers the boat can handle and what happens if you don’t buy all the seats for the day. In most cases, you’ll be paired up with some other folks.

Other Questions to Ask
• Is catch & release an option?
• If you want to kill fish, does the guide bleed it and ice it down immediately?
• How long you can expect to be fishing and at what time will the trip end?
• What happens if the boat limits out early? Do you go in or fish for something else?
• what is the guide’s cancellation policy?

Final Thoughts
A good guide will let you know in advance how things are looking for your trip and will sometimes even give you the option to re-schedule if fishing is really crappy. My rule of thumb is this: Skunks happen now and then no matter what you do and that’s just part of fishing. However, if I know I’m going to get skunked before we even go fishing, I’ll give the guys the option to switch dates. Sometimes, there just aren’t any fish around and the clients should know that in advance.

When looking for guides, be wary of ones who guarantee fish and ones who have prices that are significantly lower than the going rate. Usually what you’re getting here is somebody who needs a gimmick to drum up business.

And as far as the price under-cutters go, all I can say is this: the fishing guide industry is very much a “you get what you pay for” type of deal. If you’re going to spend the money, spend a little extra and go with the best – you don’t want to be one of those guys on the wrong boat watching the other boats catch all the fish.

You’re the Customer
The guide-client relationship is an interesting one. Most guides are sole-proprietors and captains, so they’re used to being in charge. The guide is responsible for your safety on the water and you should do as you’re asked when on the boat. However, remember that you are the paying customer here and if there’s something about the way you’re treated that you don’t like, you can speak up.

What to do when you have a bad trip? Well, that depends on what you felt went wrong. If the guide gave you his all and the fish simply weren’t biting, that’s just fishing. You pay your money, you take your chances. By hiring a guide, you’re not automatically going to catch fish — you’re renting his or her experience and expertise and quality gear and boat. If you don’t catch anything , you hope the conversation and scenery were good and you were able enjoy the experience anyway. It is absolutely not reasonable to ask for any money back in this situation. It’s a bit of a cliché, but fish fillets at the local grocery store are a lot cheaper per pound than ones caught while fishing with a guide – and they’re guaranteed. So, if poundage is all you’re into, the super market may be a better route for you.

On the other hand, if the guide showed up late, had crummy equipment, an unsafe vessel, bad attitude or low integrity, you’ve got a legitimate reason to complain. As we discussed before, most guides are their own bosses, so you don’t have a lot of recourse. You can call him and express your displeasure with the service you received. In some cases, you’ll get a refund or a ticket for a free or discounted trip in the future, but most of the time you won’t get anywhere – a guide with the attributes listed above is, by definition, a bad one, and probably isn’t too into customer service.

If you’ve ever fished for spring Chinook, you know that they’re straight-up kookey. Sometimes, they’ll bite like piranhas and other times…you can’t buy a bite to save your life.

When the chips are down and the bite’s off, I go the vault and bust out one of my favorite tricks: pulling micro plugs.

I’m not sure why the like ‘em, but springers will somtimes go absolutely nuts for dinky plugs like size 50 Hot Shots and the old school Storm Pee Wee Warts (before the Rapala fiasco).

The copper and chrome/chartreuse bill Pee Wees are my two all-time favorite springer plugs, but,
they’re no longer available and I’m clinging dearly to my last handful. In the Hot Shot department, I run mainly silver, gold and copper models (when I can find them).
It seems odd that 30-pound spring Chinook will devour such tiny plugs, but you’ve just got to trust me on this one. Remember, springers themselves are strange birds, so don’t over-think anything. Just hang with me here and give it a try. I think micro plugs work so well because they’ve got enough wiggle to attract the attention of salmon — yet not so much to spook them.

Think Small
Of course, you have to scale everything back to make this technique work. First off, I switch out all the factory hooks on my micro wigglers with no. 4 Gamakatsu single siwash hooks. I know, hooks that small look like they’re for bluegill but they’re remarkably strong and hold better than you’d expect. Go any larger and the lure just won’t fish right. You also need to run a micro barrel swivel between the lure and the hook to make the rig work properly and scale down your tackle. i.e.: a softer tipped rod and cobweb-like braid.

When you hook up, say three Hail Mary’s and hag on! You’ll lose more than you land this way, but it’s better than not getting bit, right?

So fall is just around the corner and that means that Chinook salmon are, or will soon be, pointing their noses up into their natal streams. Unfortunately, there are lots of rivers up and down the West Coast this season that are running very low.

Of course, early season kings are notoriously big fans of backtrolled, sardine-wrapped plugs like FlatFish and Kwikfish, but low/clear water conditions can make things tough. Luckily, there are some things you can do to help improve your odds…

First off, I’ll change my plugs. When my “A Team” of plugs isn’t working, I’ll go to the bullpen and use my low/clear water rotation. These include clear/chartreuse, clear/pink, metallic pink and chartreuse/black. These toned-down patterns still have enough color to interest kings, but not so much as to put them off.

Make sure that your low water plugs are rattle-free as you don’t need any extra noise or vibration to upset the salmon, which in low water, are probably already a little on the nervous side.

The next thing you can do is to start scaling down the size of your plugs. If a K15 Kwikfish is your preferred plug under normal conditions, try backing off to an M-2 Flatfish or a K11 Kwikfish. A lot of times, a smaller plug will be the ticket to getting spooky kings to bite.

However, there’s one situation (there’s always an exception, right?) where going larger may make the difference. That’s in extremely slow water. In very little current, a K16 Kwikfish will wobble side-to-side slow slowly that it’s almost hard to tell that the thing is working. Though the plug is big, it’s action doesn’t bother low water kings. In fact, their reaction to it is often just the opposite — they’ll try to pulverize it. If you try one, just hang on to your rod, okay?

Still not getting bit? Plan B is to throw them a total changeup and run even smaller lures — and I do mean small. Think trout and small steelhead and you’ll get the idea. Tiny wigglers can work their way very close to a king’s face without scaring it — and when the fish finally does notice the plug, it will often act extremely aggressively towards it.

Of course, backtrolling trout-sized lures for big kings has its inherent problems. The largest of which is you have to scale down everything about your tackle to get these babies to run properly. With light steelhead gear and 8-pound line, you’re going to lose more fish than you normally would, but it’s kinda that “it’s better to have loved and lost than to never loved at all” deal. Do you want to get bit or don’t ya?

One other item that’s worth mentioning is that your best fishing during low/clear water conditions typically takes place before the sun comes up. Check your local fishing regulations and see how early in the day you can legally fish. In most areas, it’s an hour or half hour before sunrise. If you can be on the water, rigged and ready to go when the bell sounds, you’ve got a lot better chance at getting a nice king or two than does the guy who shows up at 7 am.

For more tips, check out my monthly columns in Salmon Trout Steelheader, FISH ALAKSA and Western Outdoors magazines.