They Eat That,Too?

[HOGTIDE]

We've all heard stories about fish taking strange offerings. Shad hit nickel swivels rigged with hooks as if they were candy. Crick trout hit plain gold egg hooks without the egg. I even heard that ocean troll sockeye have a taste for plain blue siwash hooks with no bait. But in my blurred fishing career I've seen some odd ones.

Fishing the slough for springers one year (Santosh Region)my dad and I had sacked a couple nice fish quickly in the morning. We attributed our success to perfect baits -size, color, spin, and scent, that were trolled at the perfect speed and depth. Pretty confident and self assured, eh? Well, upriver comes an overloaded duck pram with 3 bad lookin' dudes. Jetty casting rods, upside down spinning reels, and okie drifters with a long nightcrawler. Yes, they were open-water trolling old fashioned red okies with a crawler behind for spring chinook. As we passed, I smiled and smugly put my head down. In the next three passes, I watched these boys land 3 springers in a row! Good for them...and good for me, arrogant dog. I still won't troll an okie.

Really interesting HT! Falls under the 'you never know' thing. I've seen and heard about some strange things before; I'll put 3 here:

1- A good fishing friend hooked an annoying bullhead mudcat near the 101 bridge on Wilson R. tidewater and as he reeled it in he saw an adult chinook come up and grab the wiggling 'baitstealer'. This briefly hooked the chromer but it got off.

2- During some hot steelhead fishing action a friend watched a guy, after losing his last corky to a snag, cut off part of the red sleave of his coat then driftfish small chucks of the fabric to catch more steelhead.

3- My very first cast into fall tidewater with a raw jumbo shrimptail section about 3" long hooked a nice 'nook chromer after the egg bite had gone off. I did almost as good with whole cooked redish springer type prawns; especially ones cured in eggcure juice. Eggs & sandshrimp are still the best bait early, but the prawns are a very good change up bait. And not just in tidewater but up river as well for fall 'nooks. They aren't just for springers anymore . - RT

[Wyndknot]

Years ago, fishing the Trask with hardware
I broke off my last wobbler, tied on a hook,
peeled about an inch of orange peel, drifted
it thru the run hooked a steelhead on two
consecutive casts. Have'nt tried it since.
Glad it was'nt a banana in my lunch.

[HOGTIDE]

It is always good to wear flo-red clothing just in case you run out of bait!

WyndKnot-I have heard incredible stories about orange peel fishing. One year, the 'hot' bait for springers at the mouth of the slough was a properly sliced orange wedge, remove the gooshy edible part, soaked in WD-40 and trolled like a herring!

[HOGTIDE]

Ya, its always nice to be wearing bright red clothing just in case you run out of bait! What? Thats a good one!

Wynd Knot- I have headrd some other great 'orange' stories. One year at the slough deadline the hot bait for springers was a properly sliced orange wedge soaked in WD-40, remove the gooshy edible part and troll like a spinning herring!

[Osprey]

My 2 favorites are a Salmon berry,caught a nice winter nate and my alltime fav was a cheeto it took 3 or 4 tries to get one that wouldn't break as I was trying to get it hooked ...first cast FISH on,I have a witness,and yes we were drinking ,why else would we waste a perfectly good Cheeto
besides the potato chips were too tuff.

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Row quietly and fish a Cataraft !!-------<'))>><
Release all Wild Fish

[Tanner]

A buddy of mine caught a 17 lb buck steelhead on Big Creek that had a water ouzel in its belly. (For those that don't know, water ouzels are those small black or very dark brown birds you see playing around in pocketwater and small sets of rapids. Thats one hungy (or annoyed) steelhead.

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There's No Nookie Like Chinookie

[HOGTIDE]

O.K. I'm getting this all written down.

Driftfish snack foods. Fly fish small birds. Run out of snack food; tear off chunks of your shirt....Poor ol' Fishermans Supply is gonna go broke!

[jawbreaker]

one time we were trolling one of those sandwich stacker pickles for silvers and had three hookups!! Never got one in the net though. I think they prefer kosher instead

[Fishin Magician]

Back in the late 70's I was with my dad on the Wilson and we watched a guy tie on one of those old style bottle openers.He tied it through the hole in the center of the opener then casted it out ......boom fish on. Mind you there was no hook on it either . We watched him fight and land the fish. The bottle opener was wedged in the fishes' throat,Damndest thing i ever saw!!!

[This message has been edited by Fishin Magician (edited 11-09-2000).]

[HOGTIDE]

F'in Magic, If that's a true story, its the best I have EVER heard!!!!

Is that what the bass guys mean when they say they are fishin' "pop" gear ?

[NorthRiverS]

Boy did this thread make me laugh. I really enjoyed the posts. Hard to believe what fish will hit. Thanks again guys.

[HOGTIDE]

Ya,
Fish being caught on pickles, oranges, bullheads and cheetos is pure fun. What I really appreciate are the guys that had the guts to try this stuff in the first place. I have caught trout on salmonberries...but that kinda makes sense.

Saw a guy on the Salmon River catch a steelhead on one of those Mepps rubber fish with a spinner on its nose...but thats pretty tame compared to trolling dill pickles successfully!

[Osprey]

Fishin Mag. the object in question is called a church key,I have a friend who is s few older than me who keeps one in his tackle box ,he has added a slight bend to it and of course a 2/0 siwash he says when all else fails ,Silvers seem to like quite a bit,when pulled thru the water it has nice action to it,what catches fish

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Row quietly and fish a Cataraft !!-------<'))>><
Release all Wild Fish

[Fishin Magician]

Osprey-I had just dismissed it as luck, you are saying that your friend has one in his box and calls it a church key??? Strange.There is a saying for all of these stories........"Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while!!"

[Paranoid]

Last summer while boat camping on the Columbia, my wife caught a 55" sturgeon on a chunk of salami and sharp cheddar.

[cts258]

fishing with 2 5 year olds for blue gill they both got 1 at the same time, while I was taking the hook of 1 the other boy left his in the water just off the side of the boat and a 36in muskie took it and got the dorsal fin lodged in its mouth. with 6lb test and 30 minutes he finally landed it and gave him something to talk about for the next 3 weeks.

[smilesforu]

Had humpies jump and take bare hooks that were out of the water next to the boat.

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Marty M
Steelheader.net

[Dave]

If trout like cheese, I wonder if salmon or steelhead would be interested. I'll have to try it behind my drift boat on the Wilson.

[nivtup]

Back in 1980 or so I went to Alaska during June, we rode up on a 40ft comercial fishing boat. when we got there a guy I met on the trip and I decided we wanted to do a little sport fishing.

We didnt bring any gear along with us, and the area we were in didnt have much to offer in the way of tackle. So one morning we went down and started rumaging thru the boat. All we could come up with was some mono, probably about 100 lb test, and a very large hook, probably 12/0 or so.

We didnt have a rod, and the only thing flashy we could find was a pair of those large toenail clippers.

So we tied up our rig, heavy mono, large toenail clippers and large hook. We stood on the dock and swung this thing in the air, "cast" it out into the harbor, and caught one cod after the other.

[Carver_OR]

Durning the silver run in the Clackamas this year my son caught a few fish on a Dick Nite behind a Hot-N-Tot...laughed all the way to the boat ramp.



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Catching is only a small part of it.

Carver, spinners and spoons backtrolled with a baitdiver in clearish water in moderate to slow current speeds can be quite productive at times. I prefer a clear 20' Jet Planer with a 50" leader for this. You have to keep them working just above bottom by not having too much line out because their weight make them prone to snagging on the bottom. Watch for constant rodtip action. - RT

[HOGTIDE]

Speaking of jet planers . . . I was fishing off of Cortez island, Staits of Georgia, B.C. with a #30 jet planer and cut bait. Had several strikes but the bait showed no wear and tear. At one point I threw the trolling motor in neutral and the orange jet planer popped to the surface. Immediately 2 coho smashed the jetplaner repeatedly. I just kept yelling to my partner and pointing at the surface action. Why in the world would those fish hit a red triangle? Yes, we did try to attach some hooks to it and yes the fish did keep striking it, but only when it would pop up and splash on the surface. And , NO , we never actually hooked a fish. It was fun, though!!

[Meridian]

Aunt Lois had some meatballs we tried for bait when we were kids fishing for chub around the docks of Astoria. Fish on, Fish on, Fish on.