Salmon Fishing Tips for Bass Gear?

[beetlespin]

I’m a big fan of “split shot” rigging for bass. Learned it from a bass guide on Elephant Butte Lake in New Mexico long before the drop shot frenzy. As most of you know the technique crimps a split shot weight 6” to 18” above a finesse worm. I also use a small curly tail worm. This allows a more realistic presentation by allowing it to flip, flop, and float around.

The rig had a few down sides. The crimp, too loose and it won’t stay up, too tight and it weakens the line. Another is since the weight is no longer circular after crimping, the line twists like crazy even after an only a few retrieves.

I’ve done a lot of unsuccessful experiments and finally came up with one from salmon fishing. When drifting a jig or eggs, salmon guys use a bobber-stopper, a knot tied around your leader, to set the float height. They are small enough (a couple millimeters) to easily pass through the eye guide and wind on the spindle.

The most conventional commercial bobber-stopper is sold as a loose string knot with many wraps around a small plastic tube a plastic tube. The tube makes it sooo easy to put on your line. You toss the tube when the knot is around the line. Just pull the tag ends to tighten it. I put it between the hook (sometimes I use a small glass bead to add the California rig- tap) and a small bullet slip weight and I’m ready to go. Like the use as a bobber stopper, you can adjust the distance. Works well.

Anybody else transported salmon fishing techniques to bass fishing?

[Derrel]

I've used a bobber stop knot method that's faster and easier to put on than the commercially pre-tied stopper knots, which force you to slide the line through the tube, meaning swivels or other terminal tackle needs to be removed. Here's a quick way t tie this stopper knot using 35 # neon-yellow colored fly-line backing from Cortland, or 35 to 50 pound Dacron line.

Cut an eight-inch length of fly line backing and make a horseshoe-shaped loop,and then move the ends across one another so that you have a "circle" of line with the two ends crossing and making an "X" with the ends. Allow about two and a half inches of excess line to make your "X". Place the X right on your main line and pinch it there with your left thumb and index finger.

Then, simply take the right-hand side of the X and loop it around the main line and through the loop that you have formed and are holding in position with your left thumb and forefinger. After five to six wraps around the mainline and through the loop, simply pull on both ends,and the stopper knot will form!

A tip some people are not familiar with is to leave the tag ends of the knot about 3/4 of an inch long....this will allow the knot to pass freely through the guides even on powerful, long casts. If you trim the stopper knot closely,and leave no tag ends, it will occasionally hang up on the level-wind guide of a baitcaster, or it will hang up on the upper-most, smaller guides, causing a very abrupt end to your cast and/or potentially a backlash on level-wind gear. I found this hard to beleive at first, but it's true...long tag ends SAIL through the guides, but short ones hang up often enough that it'll rip the eggs or shrimp off the hook when the stopper knot hangs up on a guide.

It takes about five seconds to tie this knot. I usually tie up 8-10 8-inch lengths of bobber-stop material to barrel swivels,and clip those onto a snap swivel attached to my fishing vest,so I always have bobber stop material AND swivels with me,and never forget them.

[beetlespin]

Thanks Derrel.

I knew some tied thier own- now I know how.

[boblag]

One of my favorite ways to fish Senkos in rivers is to drift them just like you would for salmon (but with a split-shot set up).

[MXRacer105]

Originally Posted by boblag

One of my favorite ways to fish Senkos in rivers is to drift them just like you would for salmon (but with a split-shot set up).

That is basically how I learned to bass fish.... small rivers and a split shot rigged Senko, fishing tailouts.