Salmon fishing with artificial lures vs bait

Alright....I have been reading here and elsewhere about the best ways to catch a salmon (mostly kings & silvers), but I'm curious about alternate techniques.

Many folks around here say the only way to catch a salmon is trolling with a cut plug herring.  Some say flashers are a must have and others no flasher.  Then you see things about trolling with spinners.  Then you see stuff about fishing with eggs or casting spinners.

  All of these methods have their places and some are just preferences. 

Do any of you have better luck with any particular Method of fishing?  Any new/unorthodoxed way you're willing to share?

I use both spinners and cut plug both with flashers when trolling in my kayak and seem to have a higher catch ratio with spinners.  If I'm in a power boat I do better with cut plugs using the same gear.  I like using blue foxes #5 and 6's with the green uv dot's.  When fishing above the tidal zone I'll use eggs sometimes. 

People will become polarized towards their "favorite" technique.  I personally think that on any given day, if you get the bait/gear in front of their face, they might bite it.

IMO, confidence in what you are doing is more important. 

There are many factors involved but high quality, well presented, bait will out fish hardware 99.99% of the time.

The only Chinook that I saw caught on the Siuslaw this year was by a guy using a bobber and eggs. I thought I should try eggs too, so I put some on my Blue Fox and it worked, although the fish came off because I had my drag to tight.  The only problem was that it seemed that the seals were more interested in the eggs than just the spinner alone. Both salmon that I landed this year were on spinners, and I spent a lot of time using cut plug herring.

  If you are fshing the Kenai River---and there are bait restrictions--most guides and private angler use Kwikfish.Next would probably be large Spin-N-Glo's.
  If no bait restrictions are in effect--a S-N-G with eggs is hard to beat for kings and silvers.
  Spinners get a lot of use for silvers on the Kenai.Also used a lot for kings on rivers furthur south...Anchor,Ninilchik,Kasilof,and others.
   If fishing Cook Inlet--herring is your best bet--hands down.Flasher or not.....you decide.
   Good luck out there----in a few months.

I agree with the above comments re bait outfishing artificials most of the time. There are plenty of exceptions tho, and some of them bear mentioning.  I don't fish rivers very often so what I say is about the salt.
#1.Sometimes the fish you are targeting are so numerous and hungry, you don't need bait--it's faster (and cheaper) to go with artificials. Last summer's incredible coho run in Juan de Fuca comes to mind--you would have gone through 3 packs of bait in an hour and a half  with cohos on every 5 minutes. It was much easier to use a spoon.
#2. Sometimes when targeting 1 species your bait is being chewed up by another. Next summer is a pink year and there will be times when artificials will do better for springs simply because you can flip the pinks off and get your hootchie or spoon back down way faster than if you are using bait.
#3.The last exception I will talk about is deep depth fishing for winter springs. I plan to go out tomorrow and target blackmouth at a depth of 130 ft. They are feeding on small 1 1/2 inch herring right on the bottom. I will try a purple haze flasher with a small purple haze hootchie (uv). If those don't work I will use a small glow spoon. Cranking the downrigger up from that depth is a pain in the butt so using artificials will minimize having to do that since you don't have to check the roll on your bait--artificials are always fishing.
Cheers,
T2

I've been using blue fox #6 with shrimp on it. When I fish for silvers, that is.

isn't 130ft a little too deep for UV to be effective?

isn't 130ft a little too deep for UV to be effective?

Yes--it makes no sense--except it works--sometimes.
T2

In Alaska at least and over an observation period of 30 years, there is no question in my mind that in a typical situation on a typical water, that bait will outfish hardware 99% of the time.  Alaska fish and gmae says that for kings on the Kenai, the catch rate per angler hour decreases by 50% when there is a bait restriction.  Its the first management tool they go to.   BUT who fishes typical stuff typically?

I got crazy outfished on cohos one day.  I was using bobber and eggs, my buddy was using a single barbless hook vibrax.  We both caught fish every cast over a periof an hour and a half.  But he caught 20 to my 10 because the lure was faster to fish and the releases much faster.  Another thing I learned (off point) was fish fight a LOT harder on heavier line than light line.  The fight is shorter but much more intense.  More pressure seems to mean the fish fights back harder.

I can name a few fisheries where bait doesn't work as well artificials.  Ice fishing for large arctic char, sockeye fishing in river, grayling fishing.  But for salmon you can't go wrong with well presented bait.  Lures will work.  But why fish with 90% confidence and historical success rate when you can be 100% confident.

The Salmon I posted this year aoty was caugth with a  red n green brads, stuffed with tuna from a can/tuna in oil.Right at turn of the tide

The Salmon I posted this year aoty was caugth with a  red n green brads, stuffed with tuna from a can/tuna in oil.Right at turn of the tide

I have to try that.  As much as I love bait, it's 9 to 10 bucks a tray.  Oddly enuf, every tray i have bought in the past two years was packaged in westport, wa and shipped up to AK.

Ocean trollers rave about the brads plug. You don't hear people using tuna for scent up here but why not?  We use sardines in the kenai river and we don't have them in alaska up this area i don't think naturally.  I'll probably stick to herring for kings but silvers and others, a lure might be more cost effective with only minor decrease in catch rates.

There was an article in a magazine (salmon & steelhead journal I think) about wrapping your quick fish with tuna.  Seems to be somewhat popular and productive.  Tuna oil is pretty stinky.  Dunked some halibut bait in it, with some success.

I guess, with bait, I need to work on the rigging portion.  Last season my herring trolling only produced halibut, Irish lords, and pollock.  No salmon hit my setups

And if the fishing's not going well you have lunch at your finger tips.