TyeeTanic

You need to find the salmon - they will be in specific depths. This time of the year they are generally close to the shore in about 50 feet of water. You should set your lines as close to the bottom as possible this time of year (not tje case earlier in the season). Jplugs seem to be the favorite - I also use flies and spoons and see what the fish like best. Use darker colors now - greens, reds, purples - which similate the changing color of the fish this time of year.

We run size 0, size 1 and mag dipseys. The Mag's are a pain in the butt. size 0 and 1 are good sizes - I make the most use out of my size 1's - I think they are the most versatile and cover a very wide depth range so if I picked one, I would go with size 1. The other thing with size 1 is you don't have to let out as much line to get to a certain depth as the size 0, so it is a bit easier bringing the fish in. This is especially important if you use mono line, as the further the fish is from the rod, the more line stretch you have to deal with, and the more difficult it gets to land big fish.

I use anywhere between 6 and 8 feet between the dipsy and flasher. Get many hits on flies with this setup.

I use heavy bass weights all the time - have at least one line with one on throughout the year. I normally put mine where I attach my lead to my main backing line. Essentially I have the backing line a quick connect swivel, a 1/4" stainless ring with the weight connected to this, another swivel attached to my lead, all the way to my lure. My leads are 10 feet long. I get hits a lot on this set up, all kinds of species (steelhead, coho and chinook) - but mostly shakers as it is higher up in the water column. Mark

You might have a really bad spool of lead line - I've read this before where a manufacturing error leads to very brittle line that just snaps all the time - so yes try the new lead material, that should solve everything.\ Don't go changing too much all at once or you will wander away from some of your good setups. Keep everything the same, just change the leader material. Then look at new knots, then look at your swivels. I wouldn't use a snubber to fix this problem. The only other thing is the drag on your reel - is it CONSISTENTLY smooth or is it maybe jamming once in a while??

Get ready to receive a million different opinions on this. Anyhow - I had to learn the hard way - don't go cheap, you will end up replacing everything. The main reasons are the cheap stuff breaks and fast, and also doesn't work smoothly bringing salmon in and so compromises a landing. I'll give you some general discussion on each main tackle component. ROD: Rod make - there's a number of good rods - Rapala, Shimano, Okuma and Ugly Stick. I have Rapala RSC's they are affordable and very good - but be prepared to spend around $80 - $120 for each rod. Rod type - there are essentially two types of rod and then a hybrid. You can use mono line or braid line on the regular loop guide rods. Then you can use wire line (steel wire in a 7 strand braid). Here you should use a rod with roller guides (get a shop to show you one). Wire lines are really good, strong, get you down deep, but it can bend and crimp which weakens it. Mono is probably a very popular options because it is very easy to use - but it is thick and you normally can't get alot on your reel. Braid is thin and strong, which solves this problem, but then we have a big flea problem in the water in June/August which renders braid useless. Given all the benefits and dissadvantages of each type - I use two different options - I have two rods on wire and two rods on mono. I don't use braid because the fleas make it painful and I don't want to switch. So not sure how many rods you want to get - you can start with 2 on mono line and then get use to that and then add 2 wire lines after. So the mono line will need regular old rods and the wire lines will need rods with wire guides. Now the hybrid I spoke about earlier is for the wire - you can use a rod with special hardened steel loop guides and what we call a twillie tip - a lot of people use these, but I prefer the roller guides - the action on these is a lot smoother. Rod length - I would go for anything 8 - 10 feet long. I like 10 feet - the reason is when you have all your tackle on the line it will be more than 10 feet long. A long rod helps you reel all that up to the first guide on the rod and then you still have line out. By lifting the rod you get the fish close to the boat for netting. Trust me this is a very important factor. Rod action - you want medium to heavy action - with a lean towards heavy action, but you do want a flexible tip to take the stress off the lines when a big king shakes! FISHING LINES: Mono backing or wire backing should be 30 lb test. You will need preferably 300 yards of it and no less than 250 yards. For wire line - use 7 strand wire it is very flexible and forgiving. You should attach a leader to this line before your tackle - use anything from 20 lb to 30 lb flourocarbon leader. Seaguar is a good make. REELS: You will need to get a trolling reel. Not a baitcast, not a spinning reel. Trolling only. There are four things you need to have on your reels. (1) They must have a line counter (counts feet of line spun out). (2) They must be able to hold at least 250 - 300 yards of whatever line you put on it. (3) They must be made of the right materials. The line spool guide should be steel (it hast to be if you are using wire line) and it is preferrable that the reel spool and sides is steel as well. (4) It must have a good drag. This comes with quality of the reel. Shimano, Rapala and Okuma have good reels. I use a Rapala Magnum II Reel - but I really like the Rapala RSC reels - they look much tougher. BAIT: There are a few types here, but start off with the simplest and most commonly used ones. (1) Spoons (lures) - You will need to get a variety here. Sizes should range from 3" to 4". Northern King, Williams, Nasty Boy are decent makes. Get greens, blues, blue/silvers oranges - some good colors to get are monkey puke and hawg wild and glowing spoons. (2) Flies - I would go for Atomik flies - these are really good. Again same variety of color as above - but get some glowing ones like green glow. ACCESSORIES: Depth Divers - How will you get to depths of 30 - 60 feet? You will need some #1 dipsy divers, get about 4 different colors. Attractors - You may want to put an attractor/flasher ahead of your flies - get some 8" spin doctors - match your spin doctors to your fly colors - put them side by side and check out what colors flow best together. Net - get a good net - again dont' go cheap, but they aren't expensive anyhow. You should get a minimun 20" diameter net - preferably 24", made of solid aluminum with a solid net material and a long handle. Swivels - get some quick connect swivels and double barrel swivels - with a break strength of 60 to 80 lbs. Quick connects should be ball bearing types. Weights - get some 3 oz and 5 oz bass weights. Instead of dipsy divers, if you want to fish the top 20 feet of water then you can attach big old bass weights on your line. 200 feet of line on a 5 oz weight gets you about 20 - 25 feet down. Herring bait scent goop - I like to put this on my spoons and flies to help attract fish. Pliers - again a good set of needle nose pliers to unhook fish. Lead line - 25 meters of 20 lb or 30 lb fluorocarbon lead line - Seaguar is a good make. Scissors - small pair of scissors (nail scissors) to cut your loose ends of knots. Tackle Bag - get a good tackle bag to put all your stuff in. Get one that holds at least 4 plastic storage containers (rectangular about 14" wide). Put your lures in one, flies in another, Spin doctors in another (there's a special wide container for spin doctors), and then your lead line, weigths, etc. miscellaneous stuff in another. Your dispy divers will normally store in side pocket of the tackle bag. I hope this helps. I replaced all my stuff at least once, if not twice - and I'm now happy with what I have. I wish I had someone that could zero me in on what to get when I started - so make use of this advice!

I would stagger the lines a good 40 feet in the thermocline - one below, one in and one slightly above - if you are setting your lines at one depth, change this. I've caught most of my fish in awkward temps and unmarked on the fish finder, so you never really know where they really are until you start getting hits.

I use 30 lb to 40 lb leader (depending if I'm on a dipsey or straight to lure) flouro leader material, and 10' long of it.

.... and what depths do you normally troll your dipsy's in??

If you have downriggers the answer is in the above posts. If you don't have downriggers then you need to get yourself a FishHawk TD. $140 and trust me worth all this and more. It is simple, robust and accurate. Mark

Well I'm not going to make any promises, but for sure you need to increase the length of your lead between the dipsey and flasher. I use anything from 6 to 10 feet, with preference towards the longer length. So get yourself some 30# floro and try that. The other question is, are you 100% sure you are putting the flasher on the right way around? The forward end is only slightly narrower than the back end, and it is easy to get them mixed up, especially when in a hurry to get the lines in the water. That is why I prepare my tackle the previous day - I choose a dipsey, attractor (SD, flasher, dream weaver), and fly/lure/meat rig - I pay careful attention to the colour coordination, and make sure all the connections are good. I normally prepare 3 different color patterns (greens, blues, orange/red/pinks) and that allows me to see what the fish are attracted to the next morning, so I can then start switching everything over to what's working. Once I have the setups all ready, then I connect them all up, and I set the dipsys to work on left or right side. I wrap the leaders around the attractor and put everything into a bag. Next morning all I have to do is get to my fishing waypoints (need to know where the fish are!) take my tackle out of the bags, but them on the right rod (left side or right side of boat according to dipsy setting) and drop them into the water - fishing in about 2 minutes. Now - one more trick - you also need to understand what depths to put the dipseys in - I normally drop three dipsys in right away and get them to 30 ft, 40 ft and 50 ft. I then drop my temperature probe (Fishhawk TD, as I don't have down riggers on the boat) and figure out where the 45F to 55F temperature range is and then adjust the levels of my lines to stagger them into this range. I troll this and normally get hits and zero into what depth is working. If this doesn't work for you - then pack the bags, sell the boat and try and new hobbie.

Swivel could be the issue, but please use around 5 to 10 feet of 20 to 30 lb leader (florocarbon)!!!

Swivel could be the issue, but please use around 5 to 10 feet of 20 to 30 lb leader (florocarbon)!!!

what is the length of your lead between your dipsey and flasher? I get the majority of my hits on the dipsies towards the end of the season when the fish are lower in the colum, so there must be something here we can fix. Mark

Ya, I don't have riggers on my boat. If I run spoons I will put them on a #0 diver, or a 5 oz bass weight (normally troll in the top 30 feet with my spoons). I can see the action affecting me with the 5 oz bass weight setup, but I don't know, I've had a lot of steelies, cohos and chinook hit the spoons on the 40 lb lead. I find the 20 lb lead to be too light especially around knots, where it can easily get kinked and break off. So, this is why I need to make sure there's good reason to go to 20 lb before I start trying this.

Guys is this really factual? Or are you gonna make me change over to 20# leaders based on a fisherman's tail? Has anyone traid 40# and 20# side by side, same conditions, same day?

Guys, I use 40# floro as a lead and 10' of it to the spoon, and have got many fish at the start of the season on this. I don't understand why we're saying more than 20# will kill the spoon action. I've got Coho, chinook and steelhead on 40# floro lead. Mark

Post bump - as LOC tournie is soon over.

Wire. You can't use braid when the fleas come out. [ Post made via BlackBerry ]

I run mine with threads towards the flasher but I think thread towards the hook is also a good approach ad the tinsel spreads out more. I haven't bothered to change mind around as I have pre-tied them and it is working for me with the head towards the flasher. [ Post made via BlackBerry ]

I use 10 feet of 30 or 40# lead for spoons and son don't need a snubber. [ Post made via BlackBerry ]

post the link to the original thread if you can find it. What is the purpose here? An albright knot makes for a pretty smooth connection for power pro backing to lead.

Ya, I love my TD - this is the real deal - it gives me a great picture of the temp profile and what range of depth I should set my lines for a start. Then I see what the fish start bighting on and zero in on the perfect conditions. The TD does measure depth indirectly via water pressure - and this is fairly acurate. I haven't done a full calibration on the TD using a down rigger, but I do send it right down to the bottom and the depth there matches what I pick up on my fish finder. I also always set my lines between 45F and 55F, and I always get hits at the depths my TD tells me this temp range is in, so it works for me. If I stop getting hits I drop the TD in and sure enough I can explain why, the temps are way too hot, or my line depths need to be adjusted. Now - hear me out here, I don't think temp is the only magic parameter here, as I've caught fish outside of temp on several occasion. I do think it helps you zero in on fish faster, but you have to pay attention to other variables as well, especially down speed.

Forgot to mention I use 40# Seaguar Floro Leader - this allows me to fish without a snubber. Works much better. Some of my pretide bait, like the bait holders I put my herring strips in, come with lighter leader probably 20#, this is the only time I use a snubber now.

I removed my snubbers 2 weeks ago and my success ratio has increased A LOT! Mark