JD,

We may actually get a salmon season here on the upper Salmon River in ID. I’m getting my gear ready and I want to try some back trolling with eggs and was wondering if you could give me some advice on the size of divers to try. The river should be running 5k to 8k cfs and most holes or runs will be 9-15 feet deep. I’ll run 30 lbs braid main line and 20 lbs leaders about 5′ from the diver.

Any help would be great, thanks for keeping up your web site.

–Eric T.

Hey Eric! Salmon? What do those look like? We’ve had two straight years of closures down here and I’m starting to forget!

Anyway, congrats for maybe getting a season! Believe me…enjoy every minute of it and don’t take it for granted!

As far as divers go, you can’t beat Luhr Jensen’s Jet Divers. You could probably get away with a Size No.
20, though it sounds like you have some pretty serious flow there, so I may bump that up to a No. 30.

Even in clear water, I don’t run anything lighter than 25-pound flouro for my leaders, so you may want to increase that as well. Kings don’t care about your leader in most cases!

For a detailed look at how to fish this technique, check out my article on Divers & Bait, which has some photos on how to rig up properly.

Good luck!