Tough conditions

[nijajordan]

     I know people asked many times about catching salmon in general but what do you do when the conditions get tough. Can your catch rate go up just from not using swivels, down sizing leaders/lures or extend your leads off of you balls. I am just curious where to start on those tough days.  

 

Nick

[Fishtails]

Good Question with the potential for many differemt answers.  For me, most important thing is to understand why the conditions/fishing is tough. If you understand the reasoning behind it....and there is always a reason, you can improve your chances of overcoming it. 

 

How to overcome tough conditions will vary depending on the reason it's tough in the first place.  Take this past weekend for instance. I launched out of Mexico for Jon's Brown Trout Derby.  I fished solo Friday in waters I have never fished and crushed the browns once I figured a few things out. On Saturday I had two 14 yr. old boys with me and I figured we'd have a banner day.....nope, couldn't be that easy.  4 hours into the day we had 0 bites.  I didn't understand it until I realized the water had really cleared up because there was no wind. I slid out and fished deeper water (50-80) looking for suspended fish and found some green water.  Bam...we end up 6 for 8 with 4 browns and 2 lakers with big brown being 13.2 lbs. I was a bit slow in figuring it out on this day, but at least I got the boys on a few fish and they had a great time.

 

Understanding why it's a tough day is the key to figuring it out....

[LongLine]

FT has some good advice.  What I'd add is to remember what the conditions were and how you were fishing when you did catch something.  Realize conditions are different so you need a new plan of attack.  Sometimes speed, sometimes direction, sometimes depth in column, sometimes longer leads.  Seems to me it's very easy to fish under the fish & that is frustrating!

 

Tom B.

(LongLine)