lures for staging salmon

[Chautauqua Tony]

Are flies and spoons still effective at this time of year for staging salmon????

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[FX]

Yep - as well as J-plugs and cut bait.

Shawn

[Chautauqua Tony]

Cool, thanks. FX, whats your favorite this time of the year??

[RYE]

If you have a four rigger program, this has been sure fire for me. Run a big flasher cutbait combo on one of your corners. The other three run #4 j-plugs. Silver bullets are my preference. Make sure you are running as close to bottom as possible without dredging zebra mussels. After first light period if your action slows and your still seeing hooks on the bottom start s or zigzag patterns. 50-100' of water usually works for a starter depth. Remember, keep your baits close to bottom, some of your catch will have muddy bellys. Also, don't forget a 10 color or copper rig for a junk rod bonus. Good luck, Bob

[Chautauqua Tony]

Only have two riggers. Program is usually 2 riggers, 2 divers and 2 copper. I've never ran meat rigs, you feel they're more productive right now over flies??

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[rod hog]

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Edited April 5, 2014 by rod hog

[RYE]

I think the big flasher does more to tic them off into bitiing but we normally take our share on the meat rigs as well. They can't stand the action of the j-plugs. Especially when you throw in the erratic manuevers to speed and slow them as well.

[fischer]

Rye,

What's your down speed when trolling flasher and Plugs? I've always heard of people doing well with j plugs but have never personally done well with them.

Fischer

[RYE]

Honestly Fischer speed will change by the day it seems. Some days they want them crawling, 1.9- 2.2. Other days you must burn them, 2.7-3.0. To start I would begin around 2.3-2.4 and go from there. If you run a large flasher to attract give it a lil longer leader which will compensate for a lil added speed. I've run j-plugs with an attractor rig and without and have always done better with a flasher down. The key to j-plug bites are you must put them in front of their noses, it pisses them off into striking. They are not going to go out of their way to chase it down. Find your staging water, east or west of the creek, look for hooks on bottom 50-100' and start there. Run with the bottom to allow you to keep your offerings in their faces. At this time of year somedays your boat will look like a drunken sailors' running it but that is what you have to do to entice them into striking the baits. As far as the plugs themselves I've run many different colors. The #4 all silver plug has been my best one. A chartreuse colored one would be number two. A silver with bloody nose has worked at times as well but not to the degree as the all silver.

I watched a video years ago of a guy catching kings in the Niagara river using a Rapala long billed body bait in firetiger. He caught one after the other, all fair hooked. I went out and I bought that bait and tried it in the oak, off the docks. After casting it about an hour and reeling it in without any success I began to get bored, so I started casting it across the river and began burning it back to me, I'm talking way faster then you'd think a fish would bite. First strike almost took the pole out of my hands. I landed two mature kings that evening using the method I had discovered by sheer boredom. Those fish were no different then the ones in 50-100' of water this time of year. You just have to make them mad enough to react... hope this has helped. Bob

[JakeyBaby]

Rapala J-13's are the plugs you must be talking about. I have been casting and trolling with them in the fall for a long time now. They really have a great action to piss those fish off!Like you said Fire Tiger is the best color but orange and gold, black and silver or natural perch all work well also.When casting them i crank them in very very slow most of the time, it just gives it that more action. Once the kings are really setting up to come in to the rivers i will run 6 J-13's off my planner boards and absolutley pound the kings!!!

Matt

-Jakey Baby-