First salmon of the year in my new PA12 and jigging question?

First off, got two beautiful big salmon, but both had fins, so I had to release them     I met up with Ballard Brad, the day turned the corner quick. I guess he is good luck, thanks Brad!! I was trolling with my buzz bomb for so long when the chimes of my drag sonded behind me, I thought "What's that noise?". hehe I marked the spot on my fish finder, circled back and caught two more (one of the two pics and one that shook off the hook in a jump).

Jigging only ended up with Sculpin after Sculpin (15 in all). I don't eat them, so I sent them all back to their homes.
Is there a good way to jig that doesn't end up with sand dabs and sculpins? Is there a good spot (i.e. at the drop off or in deep water) that is better?

Thanks to everyone on this board that has answered my newbie questions and helped me. It was very exciting to land 2 (and almost) 3 salmon in day on the Sound.

Pauly (xtort)

Pauly, that is just awesome!!! Congrats!

Ali

Nice fish Pauly.  Good seeing you and a few other kayak fishermen out there.  I ran into Pixter and his son as well.  I ended up with a 24" coho which was a better catch than the dogfish I kept catching while mooching.  I'll likely be out in the morning tomorrow.

Congrats on the first salmon of your PA, Pauly!  Sorry you had to let them both go.  When you say you were trolling with a buzz bomb, did you have it behind a flasher or a dodger?  And now that you've had some fish in the boat and since it's in our back yard, are you going to sign up for the Humpy Kayak Classic?

Hey CJB, ironically I was running a dodger in front of a pink squid and just a plain buzz bomb. I was running two poles at once, turns out that I misunderstood the rules (go figure, they are so simple and concise!). Brad pointed this out to me, and saved me a fine I'm sure. I owe you a brew Brad! It *is* possible that the dodger attracted the fish, and then the buzz bomb did the rest? They weren't interested in the pink squid at all. Three on the buzz bomb though with nothing special added.

Pauly (xtort)

P.S. I am looking into the tourney now. It looks like a lot of fun!

Those fish pics are of pink (humpy) salmon. There are no humpy hatcheries so ALL pinks will have their adipose fins. You could have kept them rather than releasing them.

Yeah that is what I've learned. I'm new to this game, so I'm learning. I haven't caught anything since then either *sigh*. Hope that I can catch something before they are all gone!

Pauly