How to Catch Salmon: The Ultimate Guide & Tips
Fishing is a really adventurous and physically- stimulating sport that can also be counted as a learning- experience. We have prepared a little guideline in order to help you get your hands on those juicy salmons. Read along to find out how to catch salmon fishes.
How to Catch Salmon: Fishing tipsAbout SalmonsEquipmentMethods and TechniquesFinal Tips
About Salmons
Salmon fishes are fresh water dwellers and they swim under the scientific name of “Salmoniformes.” They are found in the waters of the Northern Atlantic or Pacific oceans. Most salmon fishes travel up to the salt waters and return to the fresh waters to mate and reproduce. The salmons then die within roughly 50 weeks of this period of spawning.
Salmons appear differently according to what kind of salmon species they are. For instance, this one species called the chum salmon are seen to be silvery, however, some of them may have black spots on their sides like the Atlantic salmon. Moreover, the cherry salmon has bright red stripes. Typically, salmon fishes are consistent in what color they are and change it when they migrate to the salt waters.
Usually, juvenile salmons consume planktons, insects and invertebrates, while adult salmons might eat eels, squids, shrimps and other fishes.
Equipment
a) The kind of gear you wish to use varies according to the kind of fishing style you wish to adopt. If you’re trying to fish for the “king of salmon” the gigantic 80 pounds weighing Chinook salmon you should opt for a 8-10 foot rod in the medium-heavy range. Make sure that the tip is flexible enough to hold on to its bow after it is set up. The best salmon fishing lures are spoons, spinners and wobbling plugs. One important aspect of salmon fishing you should definitely keep in mind is that saltwater can easily erode even the hardest of tackles so be sure to purchase the gear that does not corrode that fast. Otherwise, you will end up cleaning your gear every two days.
b) Artificial lures and flies will attract some huge salmon fishes, however, using some live baits will give you the real, fishing experience. Herring is often referred to as a common bait for salmons; especially when using it at the tip of the lures. You may add some extra worms of herrings, however, don’t go overboard with the amount as that will give you adverse results. In freshwater, some anglers attach sacks of fish eggs to a float when drifting for salmons in saltwater.
c) A down-rigger is an extremely helpful tool for trolling for salmons. This is so because, down-riggers provide you with the best grip in depth control and can take the lure below deeper without wasting so much of the line. A 10-15 pound ball is strongly suggested for down-riggers. You can go for lead cores or steel lines as both of them can assist you with the depth you want plus you can also avoid the bother of setting up a down-rigger.
d) Salmon fishes are drawn to really weak electrical charges. Your boat and your down-rigger will emit small waves of electricity any time they are in the water. If these charges are produced anywhere within a salmon’s range then it will be attracted to your boat. However, these electrical charges too high or too low can repulse the salmon. This is where a technology called the Black Box comes in. A black box is a gadget you can fasten to your boat or your downrigger that will provide you with the ideal charge for salmon fishes.
e) Primarily, there are three prominent features you should consider when buying your salmon spinning reel. Them being, the best lug you can have, a redeem ratio of at least four to one so that it can keep up with your down-rigger and maximum line magnitude. A twenty pound test will maintain the perfect balance between sufficient strength to handle large salmons and a thin diameter to decrease the amount of drag through the water when attached to the down-rigger. Although some trollers like to use twelve to fourteen pound mono-filament this might be too risky since light lines will have a chance of twisting and bending while trolling. On many occasions, a salmon lure will spin and as a result cause the light line to twist all the way. Thirty to forty pound range will make you have to pull a strong drag across the water and an extra heavy weighing down-rigger will be necessary to balance the drag. Some anglers prefer using the new spider wire kind of lines as they smoothly cut through the water. The downside of this comes with the landing of the fish, because there is no stretch line. The stretch in mono-filament will bring you a lot of more salmons.
Methods and Techniques
Trolling is the most widely accepted method of catching salmon because this will allow you to cover a vast area of water to search for salmon fish schools instead of waiting around for the fish to come to you. Trolling is method that best works when applied in open water. Drifting on the other hand, is more suitable to river- fishing for salmons. You can just let go of cast you bait upstream and let it go down into a pool where you feel the salmons may be. This will make the bait look more natural to the salmon.
If you are wanting to catch the Red Salmon keep in mind that they are not belligerent biters thus, the usual technique to catch is known as “flossing”. The process starts by you placing your line low in the water and the salmon will pick up the line in their mouth. At this stage, you “set the hook” which is basically getting the hook into the corner of the fish’s mouth. It is very much important to remember to apply the correct amount of weigh so that the line and the hook move along the bottom of the river at the same speed as the current. You can use any type of weigh that fits you. The leader length however, will depend the condition of the water.
Final Tips
Salmon fishing are one of the fishermen’s most favorite because of the fight these energetic spirits put on, their delicious meat and the large number of species of them that are available around the world. Although it may be a great pleasure fishing for salmons there are some tricks and difficulties to it, but you should be all ready to go if you read through this article. We hope you catch a great lot of salmons next time you go fishing!
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