TyeeTanic

I wouldn't say mono is useless on dipsy's. I use 2 rods on wire and 2 on mono. Yes, the mono is a pain in the backside when trying to pop the dipsy, but you can produce fish on the mono. Wire is definitely much better.

I have Rapala RSC's 10 foot dipsy wire rods with beauty rollers!! The big thing with rollers is to get a rod that has tight clearance between the roller and the guide frame, so the wire doesn't get stuck inbetween the two as a fish pulls from left to right and vice versa. Like I said, I am very happy with my Rapalas. And I agree, hoop + twilly does not compare to a good roller guide rod.

Wire is the easiest with dipsy's but I also have two on mono. The problem with mono is it stretches and once you have more than 100 feet out, it stretches too much to get the dipsey to pop open when you have a hit from a smaller fish. With wire you just pull and it pops. I have all kinds of dipsey sizes, but find the No.1 is the most versatile, so I would just stick with this size. I have a few different colors that I match up with my Spin Doctor, but I don't think it matters all that much. I used to use a snubber, but found it got tangled around the dipsy too much and prevented the dipsy from popping, not good with a big fish on. I no longer use a snubber and find that my landing success has improved.

..... and that is another reason why it was a good move for me to replace the braid with mono on my chute rods. I have 2 wire rods on the outside to get me depth and fish higher in the column with the mono lines. Anyhow - who can't save $40 after 10 years to buy new braid line????????? How much do you spend on coffee a week? Mortigan - love you man.

Guys - are you serious?!?!? Mortigan, when did I do that before???? That is about the most retarded comment I've ever seen here... I'm sure all of your Canadian mates on Spoonpullers will be ecstatic about your comment... Of course I know he said 500 YARDS = 1500 feet. Tbro - it doesn't matter if you have 500000000 yards on your reels, I was saying he needs to get at least 1000 feet on HIS reel. He didn't say anything about what reel he has in his starting post (go back and check above!). So I was telling him to make sure whatever he does to get at least that amount on the reel, and that he shouldn't be afraid of using 30 lb power pro if for instance he found he could not fit enough of the 50 lb line on. And I still stick to what I say, 50 lb is not necessary for king salmon in lake ontario. What lead strength do you use ... I'm guessing 20 lb right? That is your weakest link - so even if you have 30 lb or 40 lb braid as backing, you are good enough. Why should he spend the extra money on 50 lb if 30 lb test is good enough???? Guys, just because people have been on this site for less than a year doesn't mean they know nothing about fishing. I've been fishing for about 25 years - from Bass to Pike to Rainbow to Salmon to King Macheral to Tarpon to Shark to Snook, to Sea Trout, etc. etc. I think I know a thing or two about what I'm doing here. Don't automatically think because you don't know us that we are automatically all idiots.

Tbro - I wansn't saying you were guessing. I was saying that what I am saying has been succesful for me. Not trying to offend anyone here. Also, I have lots of experience with braid in other applications. I do a lot of fishing down in Florida and braid is the way to go for snook, reds, and tarpon. Tarpon is the killer here. They will typically run 500 to 700 feet of line before they get tired, so you need minimum 1000 feet to have a chance landing these fish. The point is, he should have at least 800 - 1000 feet of line on the reel - DON'T YOU AGREE?? If his reel won't fit that much 50lb line on, then what? Do you go with less length of a stronger line, or the right length of a lighter line? I think 30 lb to 40 lb is definitely enough. I haven't had any breaks yet on my 30 lb test, and I have landed a lot of fish this summer. Anyhow - seems his reels are big enough for the 50 lb PP, so go for that. However, I agree it will be painful/impossible to use when the fleas come out - so as long as you are okay doing without these reels for the 3 or so weeks that Fleas are around, you will be happy with braid - it is a nice line to work with. Mark

I only use salt and sugar. 1) Rinse eggs in distilled/spring water or better yet, fill a 2L coke bottle with river water. Chlorine in tap water can make eggs go fowl. 2) Put eggs into a plastic container and then add more distilled/spring water to just cover them. 3) Add 1 teaspoon sugar and 1 teaspoon salt to the batch and mix thoroughly. Leave for a couple of hours. 4) Drain in strainer 5) Keep in fridge overnight. 6) Proportion eggs into batches you will use on a weeken (I fill a medicine bottle up) and then pour into seran wrap. Twist the seran wrap closed so you end up with a portioned sache of eggs. 7) Store in a cardboard box filled with shredded paper to protect from the frost and then freeze. When you want to make sacs, take one seran sache out of the box and let it defrost naturally in the fridge for several hours. 9) Tie your nice hard eggs into sacs. 10) Put on hook, drop in water, and catch fish. Mark

695 votes and counting now.

Firstly you should put 900 - 1000 ft of line on the reel. You may find yourself trolling with 250 ft of line out if you want to achieve depths of 70 ft or so. A screamer will easily take 300 ft or more of line. Do you want to lose all your tackle and line when this happens. So the question becomes how much line will fit on your reel. I use 30 lb power pro, it is good enough. More than this is an overkill. If you have a very large reel, maybe I'd stretch it to 40 lb test, not more than this. A reel with the drag set properly can easily pull any salmon out of the water with 30 lb test. I am catching very lively salmon in the rivers right now. Fish are 30 lbs, line is 8 lb test. Drag is the key. This is not a guess, this is what I practice, and I lose maybe only 5% of my fish, normally due to other reasons.

The other thing about this is that you can try and fish for salmon when the run is fresh. There's not too much fun about pulling a salmon that's out of energy from the water. Kind of like pulling out deadwood. But, if you can hook into some fresh lake run silver salmon, man they can give you a fight to talk about, highlighted with nice jumps and all. It then takes a bit of skill to succesfuly land the salmon. So, there is some fun to be had catching these fish, but yes catch and release is my golden rule this time of the year. I would rather put them back to have a chance of spawning then waste them. Ministry of Natural Resources Ontario does not recommend eating fish over 14" long due to mercury and PCB levels which have accumulated in older fish. There's a report out called "Up to the Gills" - read it for more info. So, I don't eat 4 year old salmon, I only keep the shakers from the lake (5-6 lbs).

Well, I've given away silver salmon to just about every neighbor on my street, fresh out of the lake caugth June - August and they all have said it was the best tasting fish EVER! I caught a few lakers and they are just flabby, why is that?? I don't think they have anywhere near the same texture as a salmon and I wouldn't even consider eating them. As for river run chinook - forget that too, those things are nasty when they start turning dark.

How did you manage to haul that fish into your boat?? You must have had a crane on board!!

Supposed to be good weather this weekend. Maybe a run to the blue zone will work, but be careful! I'm finding me a queit spot on the tribs and river fishing tomorrow!!

They are predicting 12 foot high waves out in front of Rochester and Sodus Bay on Saturday through Sunday!!! See this link: http://www.crh.noaa.gov/greatlakes/?c=map&l=lo&p=a&m=wh Be very careful - in fact stay at home, everyone!!! It'll probably take several days to get all of that wave energy out of the lake - the big rollers will stay for some time.

I am a Canadian. Have heard a lot about the atlantic program and hear both arguments .... it's a failure, it's a success. Go figure. Anyhow - I disregard all that stuff and look at the facts. A lot of us Canadians fishing on the lake have hooked into at least 1 Atlantic this year. I caught about a 10 lb atlantic in front of Shell Pier in Oakville in late June 2011. Adult atlantics were found in the credit river after an electro-fishing excercise to harvest chinook eggs. This is the first time on record that this has happened. So, I can't say that the Atlantics have fully taken and considered self sustainable (but what fish is anyhow), but I can say that things seem to be way better than they use to in the not so distant past!

Fleas stick to braid because of its texture. It absorbs them a lot more then wire or mono. Wire is a much better choice than braid for many reasons. Get 7 strand torpedo wire 30# break strength. [ Post made via BlackBerry ]

Nice reels! What city are you located in??

Guys - this time of year is tight for all of us. The Salmon's stomach shrinks and they eat A LOT less. There are two approaches - you have to have a VERY good presentation if you want them to bite to feed. If there is one tiny thing wrong, they won't go for it. That's why I start fishing the rivers when they start to run. I use a float rod, with 8 lb flouro line and row or flies - sometimes with a 4# lead! And even this is a tough. Obviously we can't use line this light in the lake - so we need to go to the second approach. What follows I've learned by hear say. I do not have any scientific evidence of this, but I believe it 150%. As salmons stage, they become aggressive with males trying to keep their position behind females to be the succesful spawn fish. Big flashers, bright colors, etc. can sometimes be interpreted by a salmon as a challenge, and they will strike by nipping at the bait, like they would nip a salmon's tail that is in front of them. So, for this to work, you need to be in close on the salmon and keep passing over them, by figure eights or circles with bright colors, big flashers, etc. You want to basically tick them off! However, with even this technique do not expect double digit hits - they are not in the same mood as when we were pulling them out in June/July. If you wait a little towards mid or end October the steelies will begin to enter the rivers and you can catch these a little easier as they are coming in to get some meals. Mark

Well, Gambler gave the answer. I just know that is what works - and thought it was because they were going darker, purple, reds, etc.

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!