I fished the piers for salmon for the first time last year, without any luck - well I had one hookup for about 5 seconds. The salmon were definitely there - jumpers everywhere most times I fished.
Looking back at my notes, from the beginning of the run in mid-Sept to mid Oct, I fished Summerville 6 times, Charlotte 2 times, Webster twice, and Oak Orchard once. I tried various times including 8pm-2am, 4am-8am, and 10am-2pm. I throw about 8 different 3/4oz Cleos (glows at night) - fan casted with varying retrieval speeds. I'm looking to increase my chances this year, so I reviewed the Fishbrain catches from the Genny piers from the last 3 years. Understanding that the sample size isn't that large (28 data points), here are my observations:
Most of the catches occur between midnight and 8am, with a majority of those occurring in the few hours before sunrise, leading up until just after sunrise. Understood that there may be some self-selection because specific Fisbrain posters may only fish at certain times.
Most of the catches occurred on just a handful of days in the main 4 week salmon run. I wasn't there on any of those days and didn't see anyone catching fish on the days I was out there.
Of the pictures where I could see the water in the background, it was very calm
As I am semi-retired I have flexibility in my fishing times. That said, I would prefer daylight hours. Here are a few questions:
1) As trolling anglers mostly fish during the day in the spring/summer, are these pre-spawn/staging salmon more easily caught in the dark for some reason? Should I just stick to night time hours this year?
2) I'm going to add some J-13 fire tiger rapalas and #6 Vibrax spinners to my repertoire this year, will this help?
3) Can anyone think of anything else I can improve on?
Thanks in advance!