Salmon River___How do you fish it?

[CTobias]

What do you guys do that is successful on the Salmon River? For all species fished. Not that I have trouble catching fish, but to help some of the other people who may be interested in venturing to the river for the first time.


A long time guide on the Salmon River showed me a great way to fish it using an indicator float. You will want to use a decent size float, as you will have a small amount of bb shot on there and you want to be able to see your float. Believe it or not, this set up is very similar to center pinning. Anyways, you put your float on and then run about a nine foot leader. Stagger your bb weights evenly starting out with the biggest up top and the smallest ending up by your fly. I can't tell you what size to use, because that is water flow dependent. You can roll cast or cast anyway that is comfortable to you. You want to cast almost right out in front of you instead of upstream. The area of water you are fishing will be below you, as you will hook most or all of your fish on the downward sweep of the fly. This technique works like this. The float helps you see where your line is, as well as act as a strike indicator. Any sudden stop in the float or pop means you either have too much weight and caught a nice rock or you have a fish. With the weight spread out evenly (approx. a foot apart) it puts the fly right in the fishes face.

Not sure if many of you have fished this way up there. I see a lot of people slinging pencil lead and heavy split shot. This is a way to catch fish and not have to do either of that. Sinking line is great, but it doesn't get down fast enough. Give this technique a try, and if you use it right, you can be successful even when no one else is catching fish. Yes, you can catch salmon in the MOUTH using this technique, even if you have to force feed them.