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How to Sardine-Wrap a Plug

June 13, 2011 By JD 18 Comments

Not many things work better for river kings than a sardine-wrapped plug!

For some reason, there seems to be a lot of mystery out there regarding sardine-wrapped plugs for salmon. It may be a bit intimidating to the uninitiated, but there’s really nothing to it. Here’s a quick crash course on how to do it.

It all starts with good bait!

You have to start with fresh bait. The bagged, mushy kind just won’t cut it. I catch my own, brine them on the boat and then vacuum seal and freeze ’em. You want a firm, bright bait with all its scales intact.

Next, a quick fillet job…

Take a sharp knife behind the sardine’s head and make a cut down to the backbone. When you hit the spine, turn the blade flat an cut a fillet from the side of the fish.

Now, just flip it over and do the same thing on the other side

Time to make some sardine pants!

Cut the fillet into sections. How large a piece you use depends on the size of the plug. In this case, I was wrapping smaller K14 and M2 sized plugs, so the pieces need to be smaller so as to not overwhelm the lure’s action. Using a pair of scissors, make a cut down the center line down each piece so that they look like little pairs of “pants.”

Fire Cure will preserve wraps and give them extra scent

At this point, you are ready to roll…simply place the baits on the belly of a plug and wrap it on with stretchy thread. However, you can also do some “aftermarket” upgrading too…Lately, I have been making my wraps the night before fishing and then sprinkling some Pautzke’s Fire Cure egg cure on them and letting them sit in a plastic tub overnight in the fridge. The cure toughens the baits, gives them extra color and, of course, you get that great sodium sulfate scent (+ krill and others) that kings love.

The finished product…

Now, wrapped up and cured, these plugs are ready to go!

More Salmon Techniques

Filed Under: Best of FishwithJD, Salmon, Techniques Tagged With: river salmon fishing, sardine wrapped kwikfish

What size diver should I use?

June 13, 2009 By JD Leave a Comment

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!

Filed Under: uncategorized Tagged With: divers and eggs, river salmon fishing

How to Fish Divers and Bait for River Salmon

June 13, 2009 By JD 28 Comments

Diver 2
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.

Click here to read more…

Filed Under: Best of FishwithJD, Salmon, Techniques Tagged With: bait divers, coho, divers and eggs, king salmon, river salmon fishing, silver salmon

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