Salmon Fishing Tips | How to Catch Salmon Like A Pro
Anyone fond of fishing knows that salmon is very delicious and nutritious. In fact, most anglers love to eat salmon caught freshly from the source right in the stream. However, capturing the salmon is not as easy ardently as you imagine, especially if you are a beginner.
Nonetheless, with the proper understanding of Salmon fishing tips, even a beginner can take the challenge and test the delicacy of the fish. And among the popular advice for catching salmon, a fisherman gives priority to choosing the right gear, knowledge about the salmons’ habit as well as patience.
Today we are going to discuss all these long-proven and fashionable tips and techniques to catch your favorite salmon.
So, let’s dive deep into the matter.
Learning Salmon Fishing Tips
Salmon, besides its delicacy, is also famous for its fast-moving and fighting capacity in the water. Hence, every angler loves catching this species for enjoyment.
But it requires specialized knowledge and tips.
Practicing Drift Fishing
Most rod and line fishers apply the technique, and it seems to have a noticeable success rate. It would be best if you ambushed from a stationary spot allowing the line to drift freely. Also, you need to pick a rod between 8-10 feet long for drift fishing.
The ideal fishing line will be:
- 20-25 lb for Chinook Salmon
- 10-15 lbs for pink salmon
Plunk Fishing
While you catch line on a widespread area in drift fishing, in plunking, you choose a migratory point for holding a considerable amount of salmon. The main line needs to be between 40-60 lbs, and the leaders will be around 15 lbs.
The leader length will vary between 15-30 feet with a weight variance of 1-8 ounces to reach the preferred depth.
Bobber Fishing
This is a relatively new technique for fishers to catch the bigger salmons. It includes a quality bobber, a bobber stopper with a bead, and finally, 12 lbs of the test line. Also, you will require a swivel, lure, and a good-quality barrel.
Changing Positions
One of the underlying techniques of catching salmon is to go up and downstream and ambush into different spots. It increases the chances of finding a salmon to 1.5X compared to staying in one position only.
How to Select The Best Lure For Salmon Fishing
Once you know how to identify the salmon location and apply various fishing techniques, it’s time to realize the lure for it.
Spinners Selection
This kind of lure has an embedded metal blade. As the lure moves underneath the water, the blade spins around. It provides a realistic movement to the lure. You can choose from the inline, spinnerbaits, buzz baits, and live baits depending on your preference and budget.
Use of Winged Bobbers
Expert anglers always prefer the winged bobbers over other kinds of techniques when fishing from the river banks. It adds good buoyancy too. Choose size zero bobbers for Chinook salmon and spin and glow featured ones for pink salmon.
Use of Kiwi Fish Lures
Recently, fishers prefer flatfish or the kiwi fish lures to catch the large and prized Chinook salmon. You may use a sardine along with the kiwi fish to boost your chance of catching a big salmon.
Using Herring as The Lure
If you are fishing in lower Columbia or adjacent area, using herring is your staple lure for salmons. However, it would be best if you excelled in pluck cutting of herring, which means slicing the head of the fish with a sharp knife.
Nonetheless, you can use the whole herring too if you find pluck cutting tedious chores.
Organizing Equipment For Salmon Fishing
Now, it’s time to organize all the probable fishing gears for salmon. Without much ado, let’s jump to the main point.
Sharper Hook
Salmon has an incredibly thick jaw. So, you will need a sharpened hook to penetrate such thick jaws of the fish. Use a hook sharpener for the purpose.
Choosing The Best Baits
Many fishers use live baits for salmon fishing, and we don’t mint with it. But to us, as many experts agree, choosing the roe (fish eggs) is the best alternative. Salmon has a particular liking for the roe.
Choosing Other Gears
When you start the journey, make sure you have taken the fishing license with you. Also, bring a tackle box so you can keep everything organized.
Fishing The Salmon
We are in the final stage of salmon fishing. Be glad that these procedures are straightforward and don’t require much expertise.
Deciding The Location
Your success rate of getting a salmon will mainly depend on the location you choose for fishing. When migration takes place, salmon always select a specific trail. You can explore the maps to find out the spawning, hatching, and preying spots of the fish.
Tracking The Fish
You may also seek ardent help from the local fishing offices to find the migrating and regular pathways for salmon. Most offices regularly express the news through the bulletin.
Understanding The Weather
Salmon prefers overcast days when the water temperature is around 55°F. Also, choose a darker lure when the weather is cloudy and a brighter one for sunny days (in case you wrongly arrive on a bright day).
Set The Plan
Decide what you are going to do for the next few hours. Maybe you can start from the bank for salmons and later, ride on the boat and patrol along the deep water to get the larger species. You need to choose the lure and change it accordingly as you opt for the different techniques.
Choose The Right Hour
Salmons become more active during the early part of the morning and dusk when the water temperature is relatively low. So, going to catch these times will increase your success rate compared to the other time of the day.
Final Words
Salmon has always been a prized trophy catch for the fishers. Due to their widespread availability and delicious flaky meat, anglers enjoy chasing after it.
When you adept the proper salmon fishing tips, you too will become a fan of the salmon catch. But don’t blame us if you grow an addiction for it.
