Salmon season

[brandon4455]

I didn’t start fishing until around Halloween and only made out out a handful of times due to high water and busy work schedule but made the most out of it.

Fishing dumbbell eye jig patterns with a thingamabobber off my switch rods.I reluctantly tried a bead dropper off the of my jig after a friend insisted that chinooks will eat them. I had caught plenty of steelhead on beads but the flossing factor kind of put me off of using them for salmon. I used a short 12 inch dropper tied to the eye of my jig hook and a 14mm bead, and the first fish I caught in the midst of all of the chums around, was a small chinook, right after the cast before I could throw my first initial mend in, the thingamabobber took a hard dive. I was pretty surprised.


Overall I had fun playing with a good amount of fish in the short time I spent on the water this fall. This is the 3rd year in a row I’ve almost exclusively fished a fly rod for salmon and I’ve been pleasantly surprised with how productive it can be given the right kind of water.

 

[C_Run]

Nice! Those your jigs you made, I suppose?

 

[brandon4455]

Nice! Those your jigs you made, I suppose?

Yessir! One of my favorite parts of it is the craft for fall fish, it’s mostly big and creative fun to tie stuff. Did a lot of cool new material/pattern testing this fall but plenty on the usuals like these. I went to some new hooks this year as well which I love.
They’re actually sold as a bass hook.
4/0 owner flip & pitch cutting point.

 

[troutdude]

Hello my friend; it's great to see you! And great to see that you had some fun times with those cooperative Salmon! Well done young Jedi. Merry Christmas to you and yours. TD

 

[brandon4455]

I love hearing the word young. I’m 27 and have a kid in school now and sometimes I feel not so young . Good to hear from you! Owen is 3 1/2 and already catching fish on his own at the trout ponds.

 

[Shaun Solomon]

I never understood the hesitation to use beads. Fish eat them. I tie too, sometimes, so I get wanting to get them on pretty bugs, but at the end of the day I don’t think a fish would prefer to be caught on this or that method.

Looks like a wonderful day on the water, good on you!

 

[troutdude]

@brandon4455 those pics of you and your wee one are awesome buddy. Thank you for sharing. His smiles says it all.

Next time you go out to drown some Power Bait, Worms, etc. I'd be happy to meet up.

 

[brandon4455]

II never understood the hesitation to use beads. Fish eat them. I tie too, sometimes, so I get wanting to get them on pretty bugs, but at the end of the day I don’t think a fish would prefer to be caught on this or that method.

Looks like a wonderful day on the water, good on you!

I caught 90% of my fish on the jig over the bead,and I still think it’s much more effective in most situations.they’re hard to beat for salmon, sometimes it outfishes bait even. but I also didn’t fish the bead until my last few trips of the year. I just feel like if I’m dragging a bead through a hole like I would for steelhead except the hole is loaded with fish I’m going to floss a lot of them and that’s not what I like to do at all. That’s also why I opted for such a short dropper (12 or so inches) I’ve always caught plenty of steelhead with them, so I’m no stranger to beads. Just new to fishing them for chinooks/cohos/chums.

 

[brandon4455]

@brandon4455 those pics of you and your wee one are awesome buddy. Thank you for sharing. His smiles says it all.

Next time you go out to drown some Power Bait, Worms, etc. I'd be happy to meet up.

Thanks TD. We will be out later this week sometime as there are some stockers on the way! I will shoot you a message soon. Be good to see ya!

 

[Shaun Solomon]

Cool cool, sorry if I misinterpreted. I’ve had the “bead talk” with a lot of fly anglers over the years. I am personally conflicted about them from an aesthetic standpoint, but they can at times be unbeatable.

In the Rocky Mountain region a standard rig for upriver fish is the ol’ “bacon and eggs” or a San Juan and an egg, either a GloBug or a peg egg. It don’t get much uglier than that but if you just want to catch fish the only way I could imagine improving on it would be to add scent, which you can’t do out there legally.

Anyway, I’m with you on the jig thing all the way. I always did pretty good on Copper Johns and some of my bugs (Faerie Circus, Circus Maximus, Wolverine) on those upriver fish too, and they are a lot easier on the eyes-

Cheers!

SS

 

[brandon4455]

Cool cool, sorry if I misinterpreted. I’ve had the “bead talk” with a lot of fly anglers over the years. I am personally conflicted about them from an aesthetic standpoint, but they can at times be unbeatable.

In the Rocky Mountain region a standard rig for upriver fish is the ol’ “bacon and eggs” or a San Juan and an egg, either a GloBug or a peg egg. It don’t get much uglier than that but if you just want to catch fish the only way I could imagine improving on it would be to add scent, which you can’t do out there legally.

Anyway, I’m with you on the jig thing all the way. I always did pretty good on Copper Johns and some of my bugs (Faerie Circus, Circus Maximus, Wolverine) on those upriver fish too, and they are a lot easier on the eyes-

Cheers!

SS

For sure man! No worries. I try to be open minded and I definitely don’t try to reflect being an elitist or anything like I definitely did when I first picked a fly rod up. I don’t swing flies really either. 99% of it is bobber fishing with a fly rod for me because nothing beats a bobber down in my book, just what I like after I caught that chinook i definitely bought a large amount of 12-22mm soft beads to keep in my salmon bag as droppers. Doesn’t hurt to have two offerings that are much different. My typical steelhead rig is the same (dumbbell eye jig and a dropper bead) just much smaller with the jig. I think the bead is especially good at mopping up the scattered fish between holes in faster water. In the past, I’ve bought plain beads and painted them myself like in this photo, but it’s been a while.

 

[Shaun Solomon]

I’m a high sticker myself. Just how I learned. I need to get some two handed gear. I’m curious about center pinning too, but that’s another story.

Cheers!

 

[fucarewee]

Love your pictures !! Good for you taking the boy and getting him started, he will never forget. I have tied flies since 1968 and fish them a bit but give most away,one time in hostital and tied 150 shad flies per day,[ shad are great crab bait] it sure helped the time go by. I love bobber fishing and still get excited when it disappers and reel gets to screaming. I fish pearly's for stealhead [ they are the same shape as a okie drifter ] and they do just as good as eggs or maybe a bit better. I am looking for someone to make an ingection mold, I have no tools to do that. I think a CNC machene is needed or ??? My email address is fishonac@gmail.com if maybe there is someone out there that can do that, and I am more than willing to pay for that. Maybe some retired fellow out there that would like to make a few bucks.
Have you ever fished the North Fork Nehalem Riveror the Trask Riverve? Now that Trask River has the biggest most powerful fish I have ever caught except Alasks. I ve seen them walk right through 40 lb test many times. Oh what fun!

 

[Shaun Solomon]

Fucarewe () at the risk of enraging the gatekeepers of minuscule internet fiefdoms… What exactly are you trying to make/pour/shoot? You might be able to make your own mold, everything doesn’t require an aluminum mold. Lots of things can be done with silicone.

 

[fucarewee]

Well its a lure that we called a" perlie "okie drifter. It was a spacific color, size, and shape. It was discontinued about 20 years ago. May I get your email addreee as i dont want everyone in on this just yet.