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Backtrolling for Salmon & Steelhead: How to get more bites to stick!

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You have probably heard that the best way to convert bites to hookups when backtrolling for salmon & steelhead is to leave the rods in the holders, right? But has anyone ever explained why?

Way back in the 1980’s I was just learning to plug fish and had always been told the same thing. But it didn’t make sense!

I figured I’d ignore conventional wisdom and set the hook anytime I got so much as a sniff from a fish. After all, I reasoned, why would a fish hang onto a lure for long once it felt it was hard plastic? It just didn’t make sense!

Well, sure missed a heck of a lot of bites in those days…until I started putting the rods in the holders.

Here’s why:

Take a look at the pix above and think about this: When you are backing plugs down a river, you and your rods are facing downriver while the fish are facing upstream.

When a fish first contacts your plug, he’s typically at the worst possible angle for getting a hook into him. If you were to set the hook when you are facing each other, there’s not a lot of good jaw there to get a point into. Plus, you’re pulling the lure straight away from him — like pulling a spoon out of a baby’s mouth.

When the rod is in the holder, however, you give the fish a chance to chomp down on the plug and then turn downstream with it. As the fish is winking away from you, the hooks have a better chance to bury in the corner of the jaw (where they often stay put).

By the time you get to the rod, the fish has usually hooked itself.

Of course, not all fish bite the same way and this is anything but a fool proof method. But, give it a shot and I’m sure you’ll see that your bites to fish in the net ratios go way up.

By the way, the same principle applies when you are fishing bait behind divers…let em eat it!

Plunking for High-water Steelhead

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When flows are up, you just need to switch tactics and get a little “catfishy” in your approach. Plunking fits that bill nicely and will help you catch fish when the flows are up.

First, a quick look at a simple plunking rig. The idea here is to use enough weight to anchor your gear to the bottom (unlike normal steelhead fishing methods, we don’t want it to drift while plunking) and wait for the fish to come to you.

I’ll always use some sort of big and loud attractor like a Size 2-4 Spin-N-Glo or Flashing & Spinning Cheater. You can go with just this and catch steelies but it never hurts to add a little bonus bait on there — roe, sand shrimp, etc. work well.

High water steelhead will avoid the heavy flows out in the middle of the river and instead travel narrow lanes that are very close to shore.

That’s where you want to cast your rig. It depends on the size of the river, but shorter casts are always better when the water’s up. Sometimes you’ll need to toss 20 feet out and others you’ll only need to make a 5-foot lob.

Plunking is a relaxing, often social affair in which you put your rod in a holder or a forked stick and then plop down on a nice chair and shoot the breeze with your fellow anglers. Or, when it’s wet, you can hang out inside the truck.

Some anglers put a bell on their rod to signal when they get a bite. Speaking of rods, for plunking you’ll need a stouter outfit than you’d normally run for steelhead because you’ll need heavy lead to keep your gear put.

I like a 12-25 lb outfit with 40-pound braid. Spinning or casting is fine…that’s up to personal preference.

Want more info? Check out my huge 300 page eBook, The Ultimate Guide to Steelhead Bank Fishing.

3 Hot Salmon Plug Wraps…that aren’t Sardines!

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There’s no debating that wrapping the belly of a banana-shaped salmon plug (MagLips, FlatFish, KillerFish, Kwikfish, etc) with a fresh sardine fillet will get your more bites than an unwrapped lure. That much we know.

But what if you don’t have any ‘dines handy…are you out of luck?

Not at all! Try these three plug wrap alternatives — you just may find that they even out-fish the old tried and true sardine!

I stared messing with different plug wraps for kings when sardines got scarce in California. One fall, the only baits we could get in the shops were old, yellow and completely freezer burned.

Rather than use garbage sardines, I looked to other “meats” to add to my plugs. Another season, I was in the Alaskan bush and sardines just weren’t easy to come by so I turned to experimenting with other baits. Through these tests, I have found that all is not lost of you can’t find sardines!

Tuna

Salmon love tuna — in fact, lots of guides add tuna oil to their eggs so why not wrap a plug with the stuff?

Well, the bottom line is tuna works at least as well as sardines — and sometimes better. If you can get some fresh tuna bellies from your buddies who chase albacore, you’re golden. The real stuff works great — it’s oily and durable and the fish really chomp it.

In the absence of fresh tuna, simply head to the grocery store and buy oil-packed tuna (not water packed!). Canned tuna has some obvious upsides: it is readily available and easily portable. It works well, too!

At first, you’d think that there’s no way tuna from a can will hold onto the underside of the plug, but it actually wraps pretty well.

I’ll start with several wraps of Miracle Thread around the plug to give the tuna a little something to cling to and then will add a bunch of meat and then wrap it tight. Start with a lot more fish than you think you’ll need as at least a third will crumble off in the wrapping process — then you’ll lose some more when the lure hits the water.

Wrap it tight enough, however, and the tuna will stick nicely to the plug — and it gives off oily scent longer than a sardine fillet would.

Coon Shrimp

“Coonies” have become quite popular in many Northwest fisheries in recent years and I have found that they also make excellent plug wraps.

Put a small one on a 3.5 size MagLip and you have a steelhead slayer — go with a large one on a salmon sized plug and you have a very good sardine replacement. In fact, in some waters shrimp works better because it is something the fish haven’t experienced before.

Coon (coon-stripe) shrimp have a natural “U” shape to them, which makes them perfect for wrapping.

Simply snug the bend where the tail and body meet against the forward side of the plug’s belly hook attachment point and wrap him on there tight. Coon shrimp give off a scent the fish really seem to like and they stay in place.

Cured Eggs

We know that kings are sulfite junkies, they love eggs and are attracted to bright red and pink colors — so why not add eggs to a plug and make the perfect combo meal?

Well, I’m here to tell you the “steak and egg” program works really well. Plus, it’s just too cool to watch the plug wiggle while trailing a white egg “smoke” trail!

Wrapping eggs is similar to tuna in that there is some waste. Be sure you have a good piece of skein attached when you cut a chunk for wrapping. I like rectangular pieces that stretch from the belly hook to about an inch or two from the tail of the lure (depending on plug size).

Again, I like to make some wraps on the plug itself first to give the eggs something to stick to before I get started. Then I’ll vigorously wrap the eggs on tight and then will wrap thread right under the leading and back edges of the cluster as well before finishing off with a few half hitches.

After you get a grab, most of the eggs will likely be gone, but a good base of skein and thread will remain. Use this foundation to wrap your next bait on — it will hold much better than the first one.

It takes a little more time, but you can greatly extend the life of your eggs (and tuna) by making some “bait pouches” out of spawn sack mesh. Simply cut some rectangle shaped sections of mesh, fill them with eggs, tuna or a combination of both and then fold the backside closed (like wrapping a present). Then, apply the pouch to the lure and then wrap it in place just as you would a sardine fillet.

You’ll be surprised how well these sardine alternatives work when you are plug fishing — give them a try this fall and let me know how you do!

Pro Tips: Divers and Bait for Salmon

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The diver & bait rig is kinda like the Tom Brady of the salmon techniques world. Brady’s got it all, right? The good looks, 5 Super Bowl rings, tons of money and a super model wife. Well, the diver setup has its own impressive list of attributes too: It’s deadly on river salmon, easy to learn, a ton of fun — and almost utterly fool-proof. And, as far as I know…there are no deflation scandals associated with it either!

Perhaps my favorite thing about this technique, however, is the fact that it is really easy for inexperienced anglers to master. I can get a boatload of  rookies fishing like pros in a matter of minutes — something I can’t say about other egg fishing methods like back-bouncing. That’s especially important first thing in the morning when we’re most likely to experience the best bite of the day. With diver and bait rigs, I don’t have waste any of that precious “magic time” training guys a hard-to-master skill. Instead, we just put out the bait diver rigs and let everybody get their roe in the water and start fishing immediately.

When properly rigged up, your hooks will always be anywhere from 6 inches to a few feet off the bottom, so snags aren’t a huge problem with divers and bait – another attractive attribute.  I also like the smooth and steady presentation of eggs tracking along behind a diver. Sometimes, I think the bait hops up and down too much when it’s back-bounced, which can turn fish off. Another cool thing about fishing this way is the bite. It’s just so cool to see that first thump on the tip, followed by several good pumps and then a screaming reel. Fish on…yahoo!

Technique

To start you’ll want to position the boat upstream of a good looking salmon run. Next, hit the freespool button on the reel and keep your thumb on the spool. Gently set the rig into the water, bait-first followed by the diver. Allow the line to slip downstream at a controlled rate under tension from your thumb. If the water is off-color and/or shallow, I may only let out 40 feet of line. In deeper spots and clear water, I’ll go as far as 75 feet back (be sure to run all your rigs out the same distance).

You can keep track of the amount of line you have out by using reels outfitted with line counters. Counting “passes” of the level wind device as it goes back and forth across the spool is another way (though some reel don’t have this feature). Or, slide a bobber stop knot up the line at a pre-measured distance (40 feet, for example) and then simply let out line until the knot comes out the tip of the rod.

Next, kick the reel into gear and allow the boat to start slipping downstream at about one half the current’s speed. At that point, the divers should do their job and send your bait to the bottom. The proper backtroll speed is one in which you can cover the run without taking too long — but not so fast that your divers start to float up off the bottom. When everything is down and working, you should see the rods dipping and pulsing as the divers track the contours of the riverbed.

A Brad’s Bait Diver and shrimp is a deadly combo at times.

Keep and eye on where the lines enter the water. If one starts to look like its at a much steeper angle than the others, it is probably hung up. It’s a lot easier to get diver rigs free if you notice before the boat gets downstream of the snag. Also do your best to keep the boat backing down in a straight line. Diver rigs, should they get tangled up, are a real pain to retie (ask me how I know!).

Rod Holders

Putting the rods in the holders is pretty key to turning bites into hookups. We want the fish to eat the bait and turn with it before feeling resistance. The problem with holding the rod in your hand is the decades-old, ingrained fishing instinct that usually kicks in and causes a premature hookset. If you set at the first sign of a bite, you will end up missing 80 to 90 percent of your fish. The rod holder, however, gives you a built-in delayed response time. By the time you get there, the rod should be buried with line burning off the reel. That’s when you know you have him properly hooked!

Now that you have the basic gist of this hot technique, let’s have a look at how to rig up.

Divers

There are two main diver styles that I’ll use with this system. Luhr Jensen’s Jet Divers are my go-to divers when I need to get the baits down deep in heavy current. They are very stable and can get down in a hurry (more on that in a minute). Brad’s Bait Divers, which are essentially hookless plugs, work really well in moderate currents and shallower depths. There are days when the wiggling and dancing of the Brad’s Divers will help draw salmon to your offering when nothing else will and the wider lateral travel also helps increase the bait’s attraction radius. 

Size & Color

Jet Diver (top) &
Brad’s Bait Diver

To pick the right diver, take a look at water depth and speed — and the size of your bait. In shallow rivers that are flowing at a mellow speed, you can get away with smaller ones. However, a massive cluster of eggs will overwhelm a small diver, so you have to factor that in too.

Jet Divers come in size 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50. The number refers to how many feet it will dive — the No. 20 dives to 20 feet, the No. 30 goes to 30 feet and so on. On most Southwest streams I fish, the No. 30 and 40 sizes are perfect but when on big, brawling rivers like the Kenai, the 50-foot models are the only way to go. 

Brad’s Bait Divers come in three sizes Junior, Standard and Magnum. In Alaskan waters, I’ll use the Standards in water that’s 5 to 15 feet deep and the Magnums with large baits and water that’s 9 to 24 feet in depth. 

As far as colors go, I prefer stealth, despite the fact that both companies have some nice pain schemes. My thinking here is: let’s make the bait the focus, not the unarmed diver. So, with Jet Divers I like clear or pink crystal. With the Brad’s I’ll go with clear or black. 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 or green divers. 

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.

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 the 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 or AquaSeal. 

Brad’s Divers run true as well, but sometimes need a little tuning to get them perfectly dialed in. 

Rigging the Diver

I prefer to run my 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 and a longer one when you’re fishing slower, deeper water. 

The next step is to decide how to tie your dropper leader to your main line. You have two choices here: 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 barrel swivel and then run the main line through it. Next, I’ll slide 2 to 4 plastic beads up the mainline and then tie another barrel 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 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 aren’t cheap. 

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…which is often too late. You can fix this problem by “hard-tying” your mainline, leader and dropper all to a three-way swivel. 

THE BUSINESS END

Okay, now we’re going to take a look at what to put on the business end of your diver and bait rig.

Hooks

Of course when we’re using roe, octopus-style hooks are the standard. On smaller streams, where you are using down-sized clusters, a 1/0 or 2/0 maybe be sufficient. On big rivers where you’re using egg clusters the size of golfballs, 5/0 to 8/0 is the way to go. 

Leader

In dark, glacial water a 3- to 4-foot leader is fine. If you have clear water conditions, it’s a good idea to stretch that length out to 5 or 6 feet. Kings, for the most part, aren’t leader shy so go with heavy mono. I’ll run at least 40-pound test and sometimes 60 or 80 if the fish are really big. 

Bait Flotation

I’ll always start my day off by running some sort of drift bobber with my bait to give it buoyancy and some extra appeal. My all-time favorite bobber to run ahead of eggs on a diver rig is a lemon-lime Spin-N-Glo. Hot pink is my second favorite, followed by metallic silver/red head and metallic silver/green. When the water’s a little off-color or I’m using larger globs of bait, I’ll switch to Spinning & Fishing Cheaters, which I feel float a little better than do Spin-N-Glos. 

Eggs behind a Jet Diver did this king in.

In glacial or dark water, a glow Hootchie between the bait and the spinning device can sometimes be the ticket to getting more hits. This rig also seems to work well on fish that are straight in off the tide. 

When I want a little more subtle presentation I will pin a Fish Pill puffball behind the eggs, just above the bend of the forward hook. The puffballs are cool because they’re soft – a fish can chomp down on one and not even notice that it’s there. 

With Fish Pills, Corkies and Cheaters, I’ll pick a color based on water conditions. When it’s gin-clear, I like to match the bobber to the color of my eggs. If there’s a bit of color in the water, I’ll go with a contrasting color like chartreuse or orange – just to give the fish a little extra something to key in on. 

The size of your BFD (bait flotation device) is determined by the size of your hook and bait. You’ll need a large enough one to lift the roe off the bottom, but not so a big that the bite of your hooks is compromised. The way to test that is slide the BFD through the hook gap. If it can pass between the hook point and the shank, you are good to go.

Occasionally, I’ll encounter a situation in which the fish are extremely finicky and won’t touch a glob of eggs unless it’s completely “naked.” In that case, the baits I’m using are generally very small and will stay off the bottom on their own. When I need a little more lift, however, I’ll use a toothpick to peg 1-3 drably-painted Corkies a few feet up the leader away from the bait. That way, the egg cluster still gets some of the buoyancy from the BFD’s but they’re not going to distract the fish’s attention from the good stuff. 

Tackle

Diver & bait rods need to have good backbone down low and plenty of softness in the upper third of the blank so that a king can yank the tip down and not have the hooks pull out of its mouth. In the length department, 8 to 9 1/2 feet is just right. 

My Favorite is the Douglas LRS C9652M, which is a 9’6” casting rod that is awesome for divers & bait. 

As far as reels go, level winds with smooth, dependable drag systems are the only way to go. As I mentioned earlier, ones equipped with line counter devices are handy. I prefer models that have the freespool release button located on the spool frame (rather than the thumb bar style) such as the Shimano Tekota 300LC. I’ve just had too many clients over the years accidentally hit the thumb bar in the heat of battle when setting the hook…and you can imagine how that turns out! 

The good ol’ classic Abu Garcia Ambassadeur 6500 is also a good choice for a no-frills reel. 

When it comes to line, braid is the way to go. Because of its small diameter, you can get your divers down deeper in a shorter distance — and the lack of stretch gives you solid hook sets. Braid is also very abrasion resistant which is very useful when dealing with big fish in heavy water thats full of logs and rocks. 

I’ve had good success with P-Line’s TCB8 Teflon coated braid in 50- or 65-pound. I like the bright yellow color so I can easily keep track of where all my lines are. 

Offerings

Fresh cured salmon roe is the number one offering to pull behind a diver. Kings seem to really prefer sodium sulfite based cures, particularly when dyed bright red. In smaller rivers, you might use a cluster that’s nickel to quarter sized. On the big fish streams (especially glacial ones), the size of the bait can go from pingpong ball sized up to nearly that of an apple. 

There are also times you can also catch kings on other baits. Tuna balls (oil-packed canned tuna wrapped tight into balls with netting) are effective some days, as are raw prawns and sand shrimp. You can also backtroll lures with the help of divers. Unweighted spinners, plugs and Brad’s Superbaits are all effective. 

When the kings start piling up in your favorite stream this summer, bust out the ol’ MVP of salmon techniques and give it a try!