Big-water salmon are tackle busters, don't go in light.
September 26, 2024
By Ross Robertson
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As a guy who has made his living walleye fishing, I’m not ashamed to say that salmon are a whole different animal. The fight that a full-grown king salmon will give you can test your will and certainly your equipment. The same can be said for trying to find them in hundreds of feet of water on bodies of water that are so large they’re more like inland seas. Here are five factors to consider before you head out on your next salmon trip.
The author guides for walleyes most days, but he jumps at the chance to chase big-water salmon. Lure Types It is very easy to go crazy and get caught up in lure colors while doing any type of fishing. While it can matter, I have found that the lure type matters even more. The big three lure categories for trolling for big lake salmon are spoons, flies and plugs, but don’t let their names fool you.
Spoons are straight forward, but make sure to get a trolling or flutter spoon. Trolling spoons are thin in design and allow it to flop and flutter and not sink quickly. A diving device such as a downrigger or dipsy diver is required to get it to depth.
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The right size spoon is often the most important decision you can make when trolling for salmon. When big lake trollers say a fly rig, they are not talking about something you saw on a fly fisherman’s rod in a small creek. Instead, these tinsel-looking flies have several beads or section of shrink tubing and a large treble or multiple single octopus hooks. The fly rigs leaders are generally less than twenty-four inches and run behind a flasher or rotator and then hooked up to a Dipsy Diver or Downrigger to get to depth.
Trolling flies are a finesse option that salmon find hard to resist. When most of us hear the word plug in fishing, we think of a floating Rapala or something similar, but when a salmon troller says plug, they typically mean a J plug type of lure. These cylindrical tapered plugs have a line through design and a bead chain hook setup. This presentation provides a much different look and can be deadly, particularly in low light conditions.
Trolling plugs are a good option, too. Lure Size Big fish doesn’t mean dumb fish and the same goes for lure size. Often downsizing for salmon with smaller spoons can make the difference between a heavy cooler and hurt feelings. Standard and magnum size Silver Streak Spoons dominate for salmon, but don’t be afraid to use smaller coho or steelhead size spoons, even when chasing three- and four-year-old king salmon. Bigger isn’t always better.
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Terminal Tackle/Leaders Anyone who has ever fishing for salmon or large species of trout most likely have experienced some heartbreak from broken terminal tackle. Poor quality snap swivels will quickly show themselves and bend or break during a fight. Brands like VMC offer quality terminal tackle that won’t break the bank and totally hold up. Not all snaps are created equal either. I’m not sure how they do it, but salmon have a unique ability to open normal snaps, which is the reason that I prefer a cross-lock style. Regardless of what brand and style you end going with, make sure you get one that is pound-test rated. A couple bucks more for quality terminal means you won’t lose an expensive lure or cry when a big fish swims away.
As a walleye fisherman, I see short and hard head shakes that can show our gears’ weaknesses momentarily, but a long run of drag screaming from a salmon will test your equipment from A to Z. Using quality leader line will ensure presentations such as weighted lines, dipsy divers and fly rigs last longer without breaking or needing to be retied. Twenty-pound leader line is constructed much differently than a normal 20-pound fluorocarbon line that you would use for bass fishing. One of my favorites is P-Line Shinsei , I use it anywhere from 6-pound for smallmouth, all the way up to 25-pound for king salmon. When tying knots make sure to use one like the San Diego Jam knot that will keep you from lowering the breaking strength before you even get started due to burning the lines outer coating.
Stealth As previously mentioned, I think we often have the misconception that big means dumb or that we can get away with things we can’t. Many days while salmon fishing you will not get many, if any bites by presentations that are near or under the boat. This is a major reason that setups like segmented sections of leadcore, copper or weighted steel line run on planer boards well away from the boat are so popular and productive for Great Lakes salmon fishing. Planer board setups and the long lines of these previously mentioned setups also allow you to spread out more lures away from the boat and cover the water column without tangling.
Don't go cheap on your leader material and terminal tackle. More traditional delivery methods such as Dipsy Divers and downriggers have been staples for salmon fishing for decades because of their ability to get deep efficiently. In the clean waters of the Great Lakes or anywhere salmon are spooky, take the time to lengthen your leaders. On downriggers this means extending out the distance between the lure and ball as much as 30 feet. The same can be said for Dipsy Divers. On a recent trip to Lake Michigan the only way we could get bit on Dipsy Divers was to extend our leads to as long as 20 feet.
Dipsey Divers help get your presentation to depth. Speed/Temp If you have ever trolled in one direction and caught the fire out of the fish, only to go back the other way and catch nothing, you likely have experienced the effect current can have on us. The speed that we think we are doing from the info on our GPS speed over ground is often not the same speed our lures are running under the water. This is typically due to currents running in the opposite direction. Think of it as your lures are dog legging. A Fish Hawk is a speed and temp probe that you can hook to your down rigger, and you will be able to see your true speed at the depths your lures are running.
A Fish Hawk is a valuable piece of electronics for dedicated trollers. This same probe is also capable of telling you the water temperature at these depths. This will allow you to find those pockets of water that salmon prefer. On the Great Lakes most captains would tell you that this means finding water in the 50-degree range. Regardless of what speed or temperature you need to be at, the Fish Hawk will allow you to measure and duplicate it accurately.
There certainly are more than five things you need to master and consider to become a good salmon troller, but these five are foundational to have salmon trolling success.
Capt. Ross Robertson
Bigwater Fishing
