catch salmon steelhead every time out!!!

C
cobias
Heres some 'secret' tips. These will work on all salmon and steelhead.

1. weather, pressure fronts,lunar "tide" tables: anadromous fish (salmon and steelhead) are programed by millions of years of evolution. They adapted and learned to feed and migrate by the change in the tides. We can learn a lot from these environmental factors. I wont go into detail but all ocean fish feed and migrate based on the moon phazes. Usually when the moon is at a hard tidal pull (ie full moon or no moon) the feeding activity is at its greatest. When the moon is at a low pull or influence (half or crecent moon) the feeding will be less active. There are some variations to this but this is the general rule.The reason they migrate based on tides is because before man made jetties and dredging the water had to be high enough for fish to cross the sand bar at the river mouths.When salmon enter fresh water this evolutionary program still effects their behavior.They are more active at hard tidal changes. Its a fact! Get a tide book or better yet order solarlunar tables and use them. THEY WORK! People who say they dont either are lying or dont want you to know!

Pressure fronts also have a huge impact on salmon and steelhead. To make it simple...salm/steel will be MOST active when you have a drop in barometric pressure. It tells them that "rain is comming so its ok to procede upstream".They will get absolutley rambunctious when a drop happens. Especially after there has been a long dry high pressure front.This is the best time to be fishing. The day before, the day of, and one to two days after a low pressure front moves in can be real good. The next best time would be when there has been a long low pressure front (cold,rainy) and then a high pressure front moves in. This tells fish that the water will be safer and easier to travel thus casing them to get a little more active. A stable low front and especially a stable high front are the poorest times to fish. Weve all seen those steelhead in mid summer laying in a 3 feet deep riffle that look like they are frozen in a trance....thats how they react to high pressure....waiting until its "safe" to move upstream.They can be caught but its tough....go light. Watch weather forcasts for pressure fronts or buy a barometer.

River level. a lot of people take the standard wisdom of green means go! Meaning when the upper rivers have droped to that deep dark green look that its the best time to go....well if you follow that your a little late on the draw. I would say milky green means go. Not quite the same ring to it but it is the best time. I actually prefer to fish rivers that are slightly cloudy all the time. I remember one year they were doing work on a dam on a river that is usually clear.It was a verry milky green.Brownish green. People were throwing a Fit! They all went to fish the "other" river to fish springers. I and a lot of other guides knew better. One day when the river was at its cloudiest me and another guide landed 12 spring chinook in one hole!!! A good rule of thumb is to fish a river when its on the drop from a high stage or when its at a stable flow....low water is tough. But if its low and clear and a low pressure front is moving in it can be awesome if you size down your gear.

To pute this all together the first and most predictable thing to take into account is the lunar/tide phazes. They are predictable and you can arange your trips around them. Secondly look at the water conditions/level.Third look at pressure fronts. Now if you can go fishing whenever you want i would pute pressure fronts first but i know most of us work and weather fronts can be fickle. If you have that "holy grail" moment ie; high tidal influence, low pressure front moving in, water stable or on the drop....BE ON THE RIVER!!!!!!! CALL IN SICK!!!! You will catch fish. I promise!

Oh, i almost forgot. Water temp. summer steelhead are the only fish that i know seem to be somewhat oblivious to water temp. I have had them chase my rig in 38 degree water and have caught them fishing for smallmoth and shad in 67 degree water. Dont know why but they dont seem to mind that much. Winter steelhead will bite in cold (38-40) water but its a soft bite. You can do very well on them in these conditions because they keg up in predictable places....deep slow holes, not frogwater but SLOW DEEP holes. You usually never feel the bite but they seem to hold on and it feels like your pulling in a log.They dont fight well in these conditions but you like i said you can do well. A bobber and bait setup is deadly in these conditions. Fall and spring chinook usually dont show activity until the water is around 47-50 degrees. Stick with bait (herring,eggs,shrimp ect) when temps are 47-56. when they go above that temp 57 and up plugs and hardware are the game.....

2. scent: Salmon and steelhead can smell one part per BILLION!!! Thats right...BILLION! So if there is a pinpoint drop of say gasoline smeared on your plug or corkie it smells to them like a gas soaked rag would smell shoved in your face. NO JOKE. The only reason people catch fish at all is becase the water will "clean" and dilute some of this. Remember all the rave about wd-40 for salmon? How it was a secret fish catching scent? There is some truth to this because it has a sweet smell that salmon/steel like but the main reason was because it is a solvent that would clean oils off of lures and bait.Once your bait/lure hit the water all the oils would float to the surface with the wd-40 leaving you with a "clean" bait. The best way to be sure is to CLEAN EVERYTHING that goes into the water: Boat,anchor,oars,line ,weights,rigs, swivles,lures,plugs,boots,hands, gloves,scisors,knifes,...anything that goes into the water. Tackle boxes as well should be TOTALY clean and smell free. I clean everything . I use lemon joy and baking soda with water for all the big stuff and rigs and toothpaste for the plugs lures (original crest). Store tackle in a scent free area...not in the closet or in a garage. Lots of bad scents there.

3. Sight: Paint all terminal tackle/divers dark flat green (large jet divers and flashers u dont need to if they are attractors). Always use flourocarbon leaders....always.

Follow these steps and i will garunteeee you will catch fish every time you go out! Its hard work but would you do it if you knew you could catch at least one salmon/steel every time? Next topic...simplify your approach.
 
S
Swamp Puppy
great post! thanks for taking the time to write all that out.
 
Irishrover
Irishrover
crab v fish

crab v fish

Nice post with some good information. The thing about the tide is that the system could not be better. With the stronger tide the fish move better. With the lessor tides the crabbing is much better because the little crawlers don't get blown off the bottom. I think it worked out this way so that so we could figure either to fish or crab! It's those moderate days that still give me trouble so the only sane thing is to do both;)
 
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F
FishKiller23
Great post,

I belive in washing my lures as well. My dad was telling me one time he spilled some brake fluid in his truck and the lures,spin n glos etc got all soaked with it. He thought nothing of it and just washed them in plain water and went on to fish. Well he was fishing but not catching. To make a long story short he decided to give them a good scrub and what do you know he started catching again.

I clean them after every trip or so but I dont use gloves during set up.
 
A
ArcticAmoeba
You will need to, unless you have the right chemical profile in yer stink. I know of very few people whos sweat can catch Chinook. Not common, but he can rub his grubby little sweat ridden fingers all over a spinner and just dominate Springers. A simple diet change would help a lot of the general population to be more fishy. I guarantee it. I have a Salmon diet, and a Stinky Sewer Trout diet. In the Winter I gorge on everything I enjoy most. Spring time calls for more acid, and less grease, zero fried foods, and no high protein meals 48 hours prior to fishin. But a couple vitamins, and a special legume will make anyone fishy-er. And right now, my sloppy, sloppy Chinook baits are too messy to handle bare handed anyways. So gloves are a go for Chinook, and Coho.
 
T
The Nothing
and, whatever you do, don't leave gear at home! thats my story for today :(
 
L
luv2fish
WD 40 use to have cod liver oil in all the manufacturing before the year 1999 and thats why it USE to work not just as de-greaser but as an attractant as well...not anymore after 1999, i know people still use it ...of course if 100,000 people are using it and 20 catch fish that doesn't make it a catcher...don't take me wrong but WD 40 is a thing of history..atleast after 1999.
 
K
Kodiak
luv2fish said:
WD 40 use to have cod liver oil in all the manufacturing before the year 1999 and thats why it USE to work not just as de-greaser but as an attractant as well...not anymore after 1999, i know people still use it ...of course if 100,000 people are using it and 20 catch fish that doesn't make it a catcher...don't take me wrong but WD 40 is a thing of history..atleast after 1999.

I wouldn't be so sure of that. It degreases, which also means removing your stinky finger grease form the gear you handeled. About 99% of it floats OFF your gear as soon as it hits the water. It also contains a monocarbon that chinook can smell that is also produced by baitfish..(herring specifically) and has its time and place...now as soon as I can figure that part out I'll be in the money:think:
 
A
ArcticAmoeba
I hate to say it, but WD-40 being effective as simply a degreaser, without giving you other scents that will put off fish...Would mean your plugs porosity would have to negate the petroleum molecules that are going to "stick" to every other plug. Which is impossible... The one mono-carbon in Stoddard Solvent is similar to the ones produced by certain baitfish. Very true. But the other chemicals that are still present on the plug makes it much less effective than Lemon Joy at de-greasing. It is not true that 99% of WD-40 washes off the instant it touches water. Only two ingredients are soluble in water. A chemical present in LPG, and a parrafin product, one of the many solvents bases. You do see a grease trail definitely, but that does not mean everything but the solvents washed off. I suppose I am trying to decipher through all of this. Some is seemingly contridictory. Like the WD-40 being effective contridicts the whole section about Salmonids being able to sniff in the p.p.b. range if you ask me... I dunno about you WD-40'ers you crack me up.:lol: there are much more productive methods, but hey, whatever works for one guy, may not work fo another. So try it all, but don't get hung up on urban legends.;)
 
K
Kodiak
I only use it as a "cover scent" when i've been a little sloppy. I wouldn't bank on it to fill my limit, just in case of emergency type thing when something is better than nothing. I have some other fish oils that I distill and use in conjunction with it.
 
C
cobias
yeah...

yeah...

Wd-40 or not if you dont clean things on a regular basis you will have less hookups.When i was guiding I would take any rig that was used that day (even if it hadnt had bait on it or dint catch a fish) and re-wash it. I forgot to mention that i also cleaned my plugs with crest toothpaste. This may sound crazy but i even recleaned ALL of my tackle once every week weather it needed it or not....i also stored all my tackle in a seperate storage shed outside and i never cured my eggs in a kitchen or garage.

I also always soaked my anchor rope in lemon joy,baking soda and pure anise.Would rinse and dry the night before. your anchor roap (and wader boots) are notorious for attracting mold and mildew yet you never hear people mention that. Clean,Clean,clean!!! You will catch more. My boat trailer also has a covered bottom so that gunk from the road dosent get on the bottom. Its actually not hard to keep up on this stuff. If you do it all right after a trip it will always be ready the next trip. I also had one of those bug sprayer pump things with water, lemon juice, few drops of pure anise and would spray the bottom of the boat as it came off the trailer.

Im not this picky anymore but i should be!
 
J
joesnuffy
I don't get how it is good to be putting WD-40 into the water......... seems like your poisoning the water a little more then you have to.

just a thought.
 
F
FishSchooler
Where does a beginner go first time out for springers on the bank? Plunkin, floatin, or driftin I dont care as long as it gets me good chance of getting something on the line. Prefered rivers are clack and willy... willy is closer though.

oh, WD-40 is pretroleum based...
 
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F
FishSlayer420
Wd-40

Wd-40

Hate to break it to ya:naughty:. But last summer My buddies and I caught over 60 Steelhead soaking our plugs in WD-40 so to all you non WD-40 Users give it a shot it will catch you fish trust me.
 
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K
Kodiak
FishSchooler said:
Where does a beginner go first time out for springers on the bank? Plunkin, floatin, or driftin I dont care as long as it gets me good chance of getting something on the line. Prefered rivers are clack and willy... willy is closer though.

oh, WD-40 is pretroleum based...

I've got two holes that will gaurentee a hookup for springers once they get down here and am more than happy to take you schooler but thats gonna be up to your parents...and the fish!
 
F
FishSchooler
But you are very far...

Pretty soon, if people keep drenching everything in WD-40, theres gonna be rivers of petroleum.
 
A
ArcticAmoeba
FishSlayer420 said:
Hate to break it to ya:naughty:. But last summer My buddies and I caught over 60 Steelhead soaking our plugs in WD-40 so to all you non WD-40 Users give it a shot it will catch you fish trust me.

Of course, they are Steelhead! The dumbest, freakiest fish in the Ocean, and River. They are dumb enough to head straight West once the hit Blue Water. Into the deep, deep. Brave, stinky suckers, that eat Honey Nut Cheerios, and Dubble Bubble too. Anyone think I can make money from T.V. ads of fishing with food products?! Haha! Gotta love Steelhead. Mis-educated little fools!:lol:

But Salmon on the other hand are not a fan of Stottard Solvent, 45% of WD-40's, pure chemical make-up.
 
T
tnffishman
i used to do very well soaking my lake trolls in wd-40 for trout
 
A
ArcticAmoeba
Again, just a Steelhead that can't go to th ocean. And Steelhead are just trout that happened to make it to salt. Point is, they are not nearly as particular to scents, and chemicals as Salmon are. Like, how is it possible that Rainbows like Herring scent? They never smell that, ever!
 
F
FishSchooler
They dont? If shad are over-sized humungous herring, and they pass through the same freshwater as trout do...
 

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