Ocean Salmon - Gear

Reading reports on recent ocean salmon, looks like people are using Brads cut plugs.  What are you filling them with, tuna? Slices of herring?   How much weight people typically running too?

Thanks!

Anchovies, Herring, Brad's cut plugs, spoons, hoochies, trolling flies, MacGyver style lures made of gum wrappers and and hair pins.. if it's shiny or bright and you drag it in front of a coho in the ocean they will likely bite at it. 

Just remember you can only have two single point barbless hooks in the ocean for salmon fishing... i.e. no treble hooks.   I think brad's typically come with a treble hook, so you'll want to swap that out for a double barbless single hook rig.

Some folks like the pro-troll 360 type flashers but I still prefer the the Shortbus inline flashers... especially the Sweet Abby.

As for weight.. I either run a diver or 6-8 oz of lead.

Thanks for the quick response!

Everything stated above (except you got the color wrong on the Shortbus flasher!, I prefer the electric pole dancer)  also the few times I have been out recently I have experimented using a deep six diver. You will create drag and your yak will pull to one side, so be ready to keep straightening out if you try it, but I think that is a small trade off for being able to accurately troll at a specific depth at most any speed.

There's so many Coho out right now as long as you are on the water early, you won't have any problems with whatever color/bait you use. The bite seems to be best before 9 or 10am.

All the reports seem to be pretty shallow and close to the boat, is that pretty typical too?

Yeah, pretty shallow behind the kayak... I'm usually at about 22 on my line counter... with a 45 deg angle and some trigonometry... that puts the bait at just over 15 ft deep and 15 ft back.   I've had hits while my bait dangled in the water a few feet away from the boat while I dealt with the fish I had just caught.

...I have experimented using a deep six diver. You will create drag and your yak will pull to one side, so be ready to keep straightening out if you try it, but I think that is a small trade off for being able to accurately troll at a specific depth at most any speed.

Regarding the diver... I've been running the diver rod pretty much straight out behind me in a rod holder behind my seat.   It doesn't pull much to the side that way, and it leaves me listening for the clicker rather than watching the rod tip.    There's something primal about reacting to a screaming reel and looking around to watch your rod go nuts.   It has also reduced my occasional tendency of reacting too early to a salmon take down.

...I have experimented using a deep six diver. You will create drag and your yak will pull to one side, so be ready to keep straightening out if you try it, but I think that is a small trade off for being able to accurately troll at a specific depth at most any speed.

Regarding the diver... I've been running the diver rod pretty much straight out behind me in a rod holder behind my seat.   It doesn't pull much to the side that way, and it leaves me listening for the clicker rather than watching the rod tip.    There's something primal about reacting to a screaming reel and looking around to watch your rod go nuts.   It has also reduced my occasional tendency of reacting too early to a salmon take down.

When I am in my little aluminum boat I am usually talking to my passengers while driving and can't watch the rod. I do love hearing that clicker out of nowhere and turning around to a dancing rod, I will probably need to mount my GoPro in front of me to record strikes that happen behind my back! I figured out pretty quick that a rod more in line with the kayak creates less drag. I hooked quite a few that way as well.

Do you guys ever clip a small bell on the rod for when it’s out of your line of site? My father in law always has bells on the rods in his boat while trolling. It’s a lot of fun when they start to jingle!
Don’t be afraid to try deeper if the surface temps are a bit high. I was not getting much action at the surface and went down to 36’ on the line counter with 10ozs of lead and started getting much more action. Changing up speeds, depths, and making sharp turns seemed to help. I also like the idea of going deeper  so the odds of catching chinook hopefully increase! Don’t forget to do your research about bump line and leader lengths, especially if you are using 360 flashers!
 🍻

Do you guys ever clip a small bell on the rod for when it’s out of your line of site? My father in law always has bells on the rods in his boat while trolling. It’s a lot of fun when they start to jingle!
Don’t be afraid to try deeper if the surface temps are a bit high. I was not getting much action at the surface and went down to 36’ on the line counter with 10ozs of lead and started getting much more action. Changing up speeds, depths, and making sharp turns seemed to help. I also like the idea of going deeper  so the odds of catching chinook hopefully increase! Don’t forget to do your research about bump line and leader lengths, especially if you are using 360 flashers!
 🍻

Those pro troll flashers are all the rage the last couple years,  I still prefer my shortbus though. I do like the action it gives the rod using the 360 though, moreso in the bay you can tell if you are fouled up with seaweed or not without having to check. I have a friend who strictly uses the pro trolls and he always uses a 2'bumper and a 1.5-2' leader never used a bell trolling before either sounds like fun though!

When using the wide roll style flashers make sure to use a line-locking weight slider of some kind. Those flashers will wreak havoc on your mainline in the form of line twist unless you lock the top end of the swivel somehow.

People talk about that issue, but I haven't really seen it in my experience (which I know is less than most of you).  I have 85 lb braid to a ball bearing swivel.  Bumper is crimped 200lb+ mono and has regular barrel swivels on both ends and then the ball bearing swivel on the flasher.   

Line locking sliders, shortbus, ? I think I missed a class or two on rigging. I do have twisting issues with flashers from time to time, even with Sampo swivels. It sounds like there may be some tips, tricks and definitions that may help. I use a dropper rig with lead on a short drop. I've recently heard more people clipping the ball straight to the slider.

Nice thing about these "good" years is that most anything will get bit, just as long as you get it in the fish's line of sight. So far this season, I've found that being on the water EARLY and maximizing your fishing time from 0600 to 0800 is key. The bite can get pretty scratchy after 0800, especially if the sun is bright and the water's smooth.

To maximize my fishing time, I try to pre-tie as much as I can before I launch. You really want to make those first couple hours of the morning count as "fishing time", and not "leader tying time" or "breakfast time" or whatever else. I pre-tie a bunch of Brad's Cut Plug leaders with snap-on clips and wrap them on a piece of plumber insulation foam. If I need a new leader or in any way doubt the integrity of my old leader, I can simply unclip the old one from my flasher and clip on a new one in a matter of seconds. I even pre-fill my Brad's with chopped herring before I even leave the ramp/beach, just so I can be fishing that much sooner when I reach the salmon grounds.

I've been using Brad's Cut Plug behind a rotating (triangle, not the skateboard) Shortbus flasher and a 8-10 ounce dropper weight almost exclusively this year. I'm using less tuna this year, replacing it with chopped up Yaquina Bay spawner herring instead. I'm mostly doing this because I have a ton of herring in my freezer already. It's been working great, but I can't say that it's performing better or worse than tuna.

The toughest piece of the puzzle can be figuring out where the biters are in the water column. If the fish are up on top, 20 feet of line out may be too much and won't get a bite. Then other times, you need at least 60 feet of line out to get bit. In general, I'll start with about 30 feet of line out (15 pulls) and will adjust from there depending on where I'm seeing bait, cloud cover (darker conditions can result in more fish closer to the surface, bright conditions can send them a bit deeper), water temperature, etc.

Clayman, are you trying to get your salmon before your ling cod and then just going barbless on the lings?  Or do you try to pick up your 2 lings quickly at first and then go for the salmon?