Ocean Salmon - Gear

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?

I've found it's been a waste of time bottomfishing first this year, at least if your goal is salmon. A lot of people I've talked to agree bottomfishing is a lot slower than usual so far. I've only managed one Ling myself. Until I can stockpile some Salmon I usually troll first, with the water temps so warm and such an early bite I would rather get salmon and call it a day early. However, I do have a couple homemade pipe jigs and a couple diamond jigs that are barbless I usually bring just in case I wanna hit a reef on the way home. So far it's only gotten me one lost fish (it felt like a good one 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.

I had to look that up. So far I’ve been lucky just using bead chain on each end of the bump line. That is a cool product though. I definitely plan to pick some up.

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?

I haven't touched my bottomfish gear since before June 22  . But when I do combine salmon with bottomfish, I always go for the salmon first since the early morning bite can sometimes be the only time you have a good shot at getting salmon. Lingcod bite most any time, and I haven't had much issue with losing them on barbless hooks. Just crank em up nice and easy, and minimize pumping the rod.

Are propeller flashers like Mack's Hot Wings (kokanee) good enough to bring salmon in, or is it really important to have a large flasher? Also what length leader behind the flasher? Watched a vid where they said if you think your leader is too short, it's probably just right.

Those flashers would work.  The big ones are not necessarily required, especially if there are lots of fish around. Leader length can depend on what flasher you're using.  When using the wide roll type, like protrolls, sometimes an 18 inch leader is great.  Sometimes I'll lengthen it up to 24 or 30 inches.  Behind a triangle flasher I'd run something like 36 inches or maybe even a little longer.  In my experience, leader length doesn't matter as much in the ocean as it does inland.  Who knows though, I could be doing it wrong and missing out on fish.