Salmon Fishing Lures

salmon fishing lures

Salmon Fishing Lures, I have used Flashtrap Spinners for years both professionally and personally. I have fished them from the lakes and streams of the Mat-Su Valley to the Sub-Arctic rivers around Nome. I have found them to be effective on everything from kings and silvers to pike and grayling. The choice of single or treble hook coupled with the wide assortment of color combinations and sizes make them a prime choice for everyone's tackle box. -- Bruce Knowles, Big Fisherman Charters, 1997 Alaska Sports Fisherman of the Year.

Here's a slip bobber technique that has proven extremely successful for our guide service when fishing Alaska rivers for king and silver salmon. For best results we anchor a boat above a long straight run of consistent depth water. Next we rig and adjust slip bobbers so they suspend salmon eggs (roe) inches above the river bottom. In slower and shallower water salmon eggs can be fished without weight, while in deeper or quicker runs a few split shot helps keep the bait near bottom. After positioning the boat and adjusting our bobber rigs we simply drop the floats and bait behind the boat and let the current drift them through the run. It is important to keep the bobber drifting freely with the current, while fishing, because if the reel is engaged the bobber drags, and current will kick the bait up, near the surface, and away from the primary salmon catching zone.


Advantages for fishing slip bobbers and bait straight behind the boat are: #1. You can fish a large amount of water quickly and thoroughly in a short amount of time, and #2. You will experience little slack line bellying in the current unless your bobber stops. When a salmon starts eating your salmon eggs and the bobber begins dancing on the surface, you should hook more salmon if you wait until the fish pulls the bobber completely underwater, before setting your hooks. In fact, even allowing a little slack line to drift downstream of the bobber before setting the hooks may be the best technique, as the downstream belly formed in the line pulls hooks back into the corner of a salmon's mouth as it faces upriver mooching your bait. While waiting a few moments after your bobber disappears before setting hooks often produces more hookups, if your bobber suddenly jerks underwater or torpedoes sideways across the water's surface, set the hooks immediately! Your salmon has felt a hook, and is running around trying to get rid of it.

We prefer fishing large brightly-colored bobbers, like a size 5 or 6 ESB, because they will float a lunker-sized gob of salmon eggs, along with a double hook rig, and a couple split shot, while riding high enough in the water to be visible a considerable distance behind the boat. How far do we let bobbers drift? On a long straight run we may release more than 100 yards of line from the reels while fishing. In fact, we've hooked several salmon at the very end of our lines, and partially because monofilament and even super braided lines stretch , we've never broken a line in this situation. However, when fishing baits under floats to the end of your lines, it is good idea to bring an extra fishing outfit or spare spool of line just in case.