I Need a Salmon For Dummies primer

[Bill B]

I'm living here on the Sacramento River, between Miller Park and Garcia's Bend, unfortunately I'm limited to shore casting......how would you fish for King's?   The locals are jigging from drifting boats using the black jig on the top......I was thinking of suspending a jig, 5' below a cork or bobber and letting it drift with the river current, periodically jigging the the set up and letting it settle back to 5'.....maybe pinning a dead anchovy in place of the jig.....there are no tackle restrictions here that I know of...and a friend that's working a Calif DFG research boat says the salmon are stacking up pretty good 10 miles down river......what are your thoughts and suggestions...

[Bryan Young]

I don't know but I may have to drive up there to catch me a salmon or two to smoke.

[Bill B]

I always have room in the trailer...have two extra beds...just bring extra liquid libations.....I would even consider drinking zinfandel...

[whalebreath]

That gear is All Wrong for freshwater Salmon.

Remember that as they approach freshwater a Salmon's reproductive organs grow, it's stomach shrinks and they feed less & less once they enter fresh water they never feed again.

They do continue to strike @ things though and for Spring Salmon Green is their preferred colour.

So the idea of drifting something under a float is a good one but a chunk of Green wool-or a combo of Green/Pink, Green/Orange or Green/Chartreuse the size of your index fingernail should do the trick.

Look @ all the various Salmon flies that fly fishermen use what you're doing is a much simplified version of that.

Click Here to see some of the seemingly endless options all more or less the same.

IME the important part is to keep the weight off the bottom just drifting slowly along.

[Robert Janssen]

IME the important part is to keep the weight off the bottom just drifting slowly along.

Consider a Bombarda float and rig for that. Decent weight (castability) and floats or sinks or inbetweens very nicely with the current. Also lets you like you said, poke the lure a bit.

.

[Bill B]

Cool brother....it has been my understanding that when salmon enter frsh water...they really dumb it down....and green cloth is about as "dumbed down" as you can get.....thx

[Keta]

It looks like they are "snagging" not fishing with the flutter jigs.   Try plunking using Spin-n-Glows or Quickfish.

Here's a good link.
http://www.steelheaduniversity.com/columbia.html

[Bill B]

thanks guys...will let you know how it goes.....

[Bill B]

All right after a weekend of throwing everything and the kitchen sink,,,,,success....a 34" king on a 4" green, yellow and white iron...my biggest fish to date....10 mins to land on 15lb test and a Shimano Spinner...woohoo good times...thanks dad for teaching me to fish....

[Alto Mare]

Bill, that's a nice fish! Way to go my friend.
Sal

[Bill B]

Thank you to everyone here at Alan Tani....everytime I get discouraged and want to throw the tackle box into the water....there's always a helping hand here...just finished a Salmon Cajun Crusted filet with a brown rice side....WooHoo!!!.....next question...what do i do with 2 lbs of salmon roe???  Ohhh...BTW the iron was the second from the right in the original picture...

[Dominick]

Tarfu, what days of the week do you get out?  Dominick

[Bill B]

Dom...I live 30' from the Sacramento River...I get out nearly every day...this weekend is special because the water cooled down enough for the fish to slow their run up the river...mine included...I saw 10 fish landed in the 1/4 mile stretch I can see from my trailer....if you are in the neighborhood I have plenty of room in the trailer for guests and maybe a couple bottles of zin....

[Keta]

next question...what do i do with 2 lbs of salmon roe??? 

Salt and freeze it and use it for crab bait.  Up here it gets used for salmon and steelhead bait.

[wallacewt]

thats a classic tarfu
you asked for advice,got it,then did what dad told you 30years ago
thats fishin alright haha!
cheers