Rough water Silver tech or why I have a fish finder

[Pilar]

How many of you simply race over to the biggest bunch of boats you see and join the other sheep? It's like a black hole, more and more join as every one is sure that this is the spot, Hhhhhmmmmm? Well all those other boats made the same assumption you did! They fell into the black hole too.

Use your fishfinder. The Silvers are in small groups in rough water. I believe this is because the bait they chase tends to disperse in rough conditions. There are far better fish finders than a group of charter boats. Granted the charters find fish but there is a better source of infomation.

Birds make their living finding baitfish and profit from Salmon working bait. They are dedicated to your cause and work for free. Amost always, find birds, find feeding Salmon.

On calm days fleet fishing makes sense. Large schools of bait and concentrated groups of feeding Salmon are typical of calm days.

[Pilar]

OK two spots to try at the Rockpile.

Fish Stick (named after Ray's now broken in rod)
N 44 31.361' W 124 25.816'

Murre ( Yes it's a bird )
N 44 31.661' W 124 22.437'

These are in the vicinity of the Rock Pile about 15 miles out of Newport. If you are unfamiliar with open water boating, this is not for you. If you are, please be careful.

What worked? Well I was teaching Ray about different methods for Silver fishing so we tried a lot of gear. Two things worked well.

1)Early or late use a flasher/hootchie rig on a diver or downrigger. Go shallow. Use the Downrigger to put the gear well behind the boat. Let out a 100 ft of line and then clip it on and lower to 7 ft. Go fast. Glow in the dark is good. This rig is great for beginners as it is low maintenance and easy.

2) Flasher/Herring rig all day long. Whole herring and Chartruese dodger or Abe and Al flasher. This works on a diver but use the downrigger to get way behind the boat and to go deep during the midday. Most of the fish we hit after 9 am were at 30 ft or deeper.


General tips.

Try the drunken sailor troll. Weave back and forth and turn often. This changes the action on your rigs and the depth too if you use divers. The speed of your boat will change too as you go upwind or down or across currents.

Think like a Salmon. Silvers eat breakfast. The action is on the surface (5 pulls) and can be fast and furious at first light. As the day goes on the fish retreat to deeper levels. At noon fish 30 ft or even deeper. In the afternoon and last light try the surface again. Change the depth until you get on them.

If your rig is not getting bit, check the action or change your rig. A color change or attractor change can make a difference. Most of the time just about anything works, Silvers are easy to catch. It's not rocket science.

Last tip, light gear. Try a steelhead rod and light line on a downrigger. I tried this today with 8# test and it was awesome. Most Salmon gear is overmatched for Silvers. Make it a fair fight, go light.

Have fun and come back and tell us what worked for you.

G'night Johnboy

[smilesforu]

One of the indicators we also look for are jumping fish. Silvers love to jump and tell you were they are living. Some depth finders are not good enough to find anything more than bottom depth... been there. Now I got one so powerful and so many features it confusing to use...ARG. We also look for current rips that will ball the bait up and keep those hungry fish near by.