SALTWATER FISHING cont.

Look for schools of herring either on the surface or with your electronics. Feeding salmon will be below the schools. Do not troll or mooch directly on the school of herring since that will trigger it to break up and the bite will be over. Mooching, the dangling of a herring under a weight, is a very effective method of catching Chinook if fished properly and is exclusively used by some charter boats.

The first hit by a Chinook will often not be a grab, it is meant to stun or injure the herring so the salmon can come back and feed at its leisure. Do not set the hook on the first hit, wait for the fish to come back and allow the salmon to take the bait, maybe letting out a little line to entice it. Buzz Bombs or other jigs, properly fished are an effective method of catching Chinook salmon. They will hit on the down fall and only make one hit at the lure, set the hook then. Set the hook hard on a Chinook since they have tough mouths and a light set will not hook them.

Coho: Coho feed on herring, but they will also take krill (a small surface seeking crustacean which feeds on the plankton and zooplankton). Herring also feed on the krill so you get the best of both worlds when you find the krill, Coho also feeding on herring. Coho tend to strike more readily at a fast moving bait so give them what they want. I like a cut plug herring on a 45/45 angle, which will give it a fast spin. Travel fast on your troll (2.5 mph or more) and zigzag regularly to speed up or slow down your presentation. Coho will readily take a cut plug herring or a fly on the surface and I often put one out with a 2-4 oz lead.

Another effective Coho method when all others fail is to troll fast and leave your herring in the small wake behind the boat, vicious strikes sometimes take place so retie often or the knots will weaken and break. Basically, you cannot go too fast for a Coho and many people have reports of running full throttle to the dock and having their lure, which has been bouncing in the wake behind the boat disappear along with their rod and reel. That was a Coho strike!

Another very effective method is a green or blue splatter back squid 20 inches behind a flasher or 18 inches behind a dodger with a strip of herring on the top hook. Spoons, such as the Coyote by Luhr Jensen or the Coho Killer by Silver Horde, work extremely well behind a flasher or on their own (best behind a flasher) and some use Coho flies such as the Grand Slam Bucktail fly. When you get into a school, stay with the school and circle it, run back to it or do what it takes to keep working over it until the bite goes off or you lose the school. Remember, the fish are working their way towards the river, look for the fish to go that way.

Mooching or Buzz Bomb fishing is very effective for Coho once you find the school, but find the school first. Look for the rip tides. These will be lines of material washed out by the tide which draw in the baitfish (to feed on the material trapped in the rip) and draw the Coho to feed on the baitfish. Fish either side of these rips shallow and you will find one side produces better than the other. Stay with the productive side. You will note other boats, if the skippers know what they are doing, joining you at these rips so watch out for collisions. When the large schools of Coho are in, you should have no problem catching as many as you wish. Coho have a tender mouth so do not force them in.

Humpies: These fish will be found in the same general area as the Coho (see rule #1) and in fact often the Coho will be under the Humpy school, but they feed differently. Pinks feed almost exclusively on krill or other small crustaceans and you must match your presentation to their feeding patterns. Krill will move in small jerky motions as they drift very slowly in the water column.

Page 2