Salmon fishing in the salt - technique and methds

have to agree with roger on the braid. I use it on all my rods now. drift rods for steelhead. on my plug rods for back trolling w a 12 ft mon leader nail knoted to the braid. All my downrigger rods have the braid and this year I started using the braid for my downriggers. 180lbs test. next time I will go lighter, wire is only 120lbs test. stops the singing of the wire and I was getting tired of the wire kinking and braking. only problem is getting the stop beads to stay put but I was told just to super glue them in place. If you do brake the line and loose a ball its a lot easier to tye on a new one and with no tools or crimps. I really love it so far.
 
Thanks guys for the info. I will try one rod with the braid this summer and see how it works out. I have been buying TUF-Line brand by Western Filament since it is the cheapest. I have been using 50lb for the bottom fishing rods so I should be able to use the same line for everything. Any favorite brand of braided line-make any difference?
 
I don't know if you guys are aware of this but Scotty makes a plug style downrigger release clip designed for the braided line. Braided line makes it easier to troll at deeper depths due to less line drag. Many people fish only the top 50 feet of water and catch fish "when the bite is on" while the salmon are up feeding on the bait fish. I believe that most of the time they are near the bottom staying out of the current conserving energy. You can still pick up fish when the bite is off if you put your bait in front of the fish.
Forrest
 
Ken,

Actually, the Alvey is not a very common reel even in Canada. My reel (525-C52) works just like a normal reel, where it is NOT a knuckle buster. The spool will use the drag to let line out even while you are reeling. There is a lever to disconnect the drag for letting out the line while dropping the down rigger. So the difference between the level wind and my Alvey is only the fact that it is 5 1/2" in diameter, holds about 1000 yds of line, and doesn't have the level wind feature. Oh, and it is HEAVY and hangs below the rod like a fly reel or spinning reel.

In use I have found that the best difference is that when I get a hot fish I can palm the spool like I would with a fly reel, thus allowing me to have the drag set a little looser than with the level wind. This so far has worked well. The large diameter means that 1 revolution of the handle brings in nearly as much line as the level wind so little difference there. And if I EVER get spooled on this reel I either have a whale on the line or I have hooked the bottom and didn't know it!

I also recently purchased a 45 C1 Alvey that is a side caster to use for Ling Cod fishing next year. For Lings I like to cast swim baits against rock walls that have current flowing across them. I have always used a heavy duty spinning outfit for this. So this will give me a little more line capacity and a great drag system. They Alvey drags are some of the smoothest I have ever come across. And with the large diameter spool the initial drag startup is very forgiving.

Both of my Alvey's were purchased off of EBay used. And I got great deals on them. I just wish I had more chances to fish with them :)
 
CAVU":2pdowlds said:
I use Shimano Charter Specials (leverdrag) which offers so many advantages I couldn't imagine fishing anything else.
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Can you tell us more about these advantages? Also, do you favor the TR1000LD or the TR2000LD?

Thanks,
Warren
 
Warren,

Here is a great write up on the Charter Special. They are very nice reels from everything I have read about them. BTW: Here is a great write up on how to service the Charter Special. Wow that thing has a large drag system!

I'm still using my old Penn 209's for salmon as backup reels for my guests. While they aren't as fast as these new reels I have literally caught thousands of fish with them over the last 30 years without a single reel failure. I have 2 of them from the early to mid 70's and 1 from the same era that I purchased off EBay for $25 as a spare. These older 209's are workhorses and since parts are still available great buys. I don't know anything about the newer ones with graphite spools, mine are all the older model with the hard chrome spools. I typically take them apart every other year to clean them up and check the drags.
 
Gljjr,
I guess you learn something new everyday. I know nothing about Alvey reels and assumed they were just like other "knuckle-buster" types. Sounds like they would be a lot of fun to fish with. I am sure I will never wear out my current reels and I have been very happy with them.
Warren,
The main thing I like about them is it makes setting your downrigger so easy. After setting the drag to your liking you typically never have to change it for many days of fishing. To set the gear I just put the rod in the holder, back the lever off just enough to let the line slip under tension and concentrate on lowering the weight. The rod will take a nice smooth bend and line flows out without touching the rod, reel or line-no jerking or having to help the line out with a balky drag etc. When the gear reaches depth you simply move the lever to its preset position and you have perfect repeatable drag each time. It is particularly easy to have novice fisherman setting their own lines with just a few tries. The star drags require a little more experience and constant loosening and resetting the drag each time the gear goes down.
 
CAVU":2q76ia6i said:
The main thing I like about them is it makes setting your downrigger so easy. After setting the drag to your liking you typically never have to change it for many days of fishing. To set the gear I just put the rod in the holder, back the lever off just enough to let the line slip under tension and concentrate on lowering the weight. The rod will take a nice smooth bend and line flows out without touching the rod, reel or line-no jerking or having to help the line out with a balky drag etc. When the gear reaches depth you simply move the lever to its preset position and you have perfect repeatable drag each time. It is particularly easy to have novice fisherman setting their own lines with just a few tries. The star drags require a little more experience and constant loosening and resetting the drag each time the gear goes down.
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That sounds nice -- I am in the habit of flipping the reel into free-spool mode while the cannonball is taking the clip down, and using my thumb to keep the reel from over-running the downrigger and creating a backlash. Once the cannonball is at fishing depth I flip the drag on and stick the rod in the holder. It takes a bit of getting used to, and the Shimano reels would definitely make it easier for my guests to reset their own rods. Right now I do it for them the first few times, as others like Tom have done for me. But I am always looking for better ways to do things!

Warren
 
Warren,
I forgot part of your question-I prefer the smaller reel-holds plenty of line for salmon fishing. I intend to try loading one reel with 50lb braid this summer and see how it works. This of course will give the smaller reel even more line capacity. I have always used 20lb mono, primarily due to its durability and abrasion resistance.
 
Ken,

My only worry about doing what you are talking about when lowering the down rigger is it is putting wear on the drag washers. But with the large drag area on the Charter Specials I imagine that doesn't really matter. I've always free spooled my reels using my thumb to keep from backlashing as well. I typically only reset my drag on my level winds after I clean them. I try to make sure my guests leave the drags alone. However I can see that the lever drag would be nice as you can easily dial back to half drag once the fish is next to the boat if you want and then go right back to your predetermined drag.

I don't fish often enough now to worry about wearing out the drag washers on my reels. I used to have to replace them on one of my Fly reels every season. :)
 
gljjr,
I don't fish very often either, but for many years I have taken a 4-6 week summer trip to Vancouver Island. I fish every day and I can't imagine how many thousands of trips up and down the downrigger those reels have made. Still on my first set of drag washers. Each winter when I clean them they look like new. The only time the drag ever gave me any trouble was when it got wet. I used to fish out of a 17 Whaler and the rods rode in holders on the side rails. If spray hit the reels they sometimes would get water in the drag. It took me a while to figure out what was happening. Rain or drizzle never affected them but the high speed salt spray sometimes would. It took 10-15 min to take apart and dry out and good as new.
 
Has anyone ever used a dredge for salmon? It is a type of spreader bar with multiple teaser lures and one hook bait.
 
I've never used one. I've seen shows on TV from the Great Lakes where they were using them for Chinook and they seemed to work. It would put a lot of drag on the line I would think. And you would likely get multiple drive byes with no hookups as the fish hit your teasers instead of the actual hook.

I could see using them with multiple ford fender rigs mounted on the downrigger ball and then having the release mounted 10-15 feet above on the cable. I've had good luck just putting a single ford fender on the ball so being able to put multiples on would likely work too.
 
Bearbait":16k4qs6z said:
Has anyone ever used a dredge for salmon? It is a type of spreader bar with multiple teaser lures and one hook bait.
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I assume you mean a device like the one below from from alltackle.com

They're pretty pricey but a guy could fab up something similar for far less money. I think they'd work great. I'd put one on the down rigger ball and trail a similar lure a little behind it. I'd be interested in trying the experiment with you at some point if you want to work together to fab a facsimile up.

stripteaser_alltackle.jpg
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Roger,
I could see that thing making a huge mess when you got a fish on and brought the downrigger ball up. I would think the guy clearing lines would take a lot longer than the guy reeling in the salmon-probably would have to net your own fish.
 
I was thinking you could put the dredge behind the downrigger ball with the hook lure behind the others on a release clip. When using these and surface spreader bars for tropical gamefish they almost always hit the farthest back bait, my guess is that salmon would do the same.
 
Bearbait":1orphpj6 said:
I was thinking you could put the dredge behind the downrigger ball with the hook lure behind the others on a release clip. When using these and surface spreader bars for tropical gamefish they almost always hit the farthest back bait, my guess is that salmon would do the same.
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That was my thought too - put the dredge on a quick snap to the downrigger cable just above the ball and attach the main line with a hook to a release clip in the dredge and let the bait trail a little behind the "school". If I got a hit, I'd leave the dredge down and land the fish on the other side of the boat to avoid a tangle in the downrigger cable. But even if you bring the ball, up with the dredge attached, your main line should be far behind it and a snap clip would allow you to quickly retrieve the dredge.
 
I bet the spreader would be pretty easy to make. Just bend up some Music Wire with loops on each end. Set 6 of them together using an eye bolt and nut. Attach the eye bolt to a heavy duty swivel and you have your spreader. Attach some mylar strips to the ends of the spreaders and you have what they are showing.

I bet you could do the same thing with a couple gang trolls on the spreaders instead as long as they don't produce too much drag. I bet you would need to jump up to a 15-20 lb downrigger ball though!
 
I think the teasers and rigging would need to be chosen with low drag in mind. I very seldom troll for salmon, I just thought it would be fun to try and a good tool for those times when I needed to fill some limits when the salmon were too deep to cast to and too spread out for chunking to work.
 
I have put in a lot of years fishing for King Salmon up here in Alaska. The most consistant lure is either a cut plug or whole herring. They have a techniqe around this area of putting a toothpick in the tail to get the best action on whole herring. As far as size, I find the purple the best. I find the most critical element of all is the action of the bait. Get the right wounded roll and it is the most effective. The timing is critical, We fish the Spring King run. They are generally shallow and very close to the beach, in the top 30 feet of water. They can be there one day, and not show up again for a week.
 
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