King Salmon Season begins! Homer, Alaska

[Kardinal_84]

Thanks everyone. I have alrady taken Nick out from these forums. Had a blast. Anyone who finds there way to Alaska should look me up !! Let's fish!!!

Originally Posted by Cadillyak

Nice video. Nicer fish. Is that a Hercules u are fishing. If so, I don't blame you. Super strong rods!

It is a Seeker Hercules. SRH-60 rate for 40 to 80 lbs braid. I use it for halibut and kings mainly.

Originally Posted by taggermike

Great job and video. For a guy thats used to tying on a hook then putting a live mackerel on it, Salmon gear often looks crazy complicated. Notice you're not using one of the long parabolic rods. Are those used when running off a down rigger? Looks like youre running a fairly light wieght in ftont of your flasher. Were your fish fairly shallow? Spoons, plugs, hootchies, plug cut, rotery gizmos, how do you decide? Thanks. mike.

In this video, I was fishing over 60 ft of water about 20 ft down. So a 12 oz sinker ahead of my flasher gave me about 30deg of ine angle so I let out about 70ft of line. You can only attache flashers that spin in line directly to the weights. The flashers that swing side to side, you need at least 6 inches of line between flasher and weight.

I am a huge bait fisherman, I also troll 90% of the time. But there are days when you would go broke buying bait with the dozens of pollock I can land in a single day. So on those days, I use a lure. The main feed here are sandlances so skinny profile baits are what i choose. Either the Silver Horde Coho Killer or a Goldstar needle fish hoochie behind an action imparting dodger.

I am not a fan of long noodle rods for downrigging. When the rod snaps up, it might pick up 2 or 3 ft of line max. That's nothing relative to line stretch from mono and the blow back I get when trolling an 8 pound downrigger weight. I prefer short (6ft) fast action sticks that hammers the fish with braid as soon as the line tightens. The shorter fast action stick makes it MUCH easier to control the fish at the side of the kayak.

Down to about 25ft I can use weights. 25 to 50 ft I use deep six divers. I can get better line angle and slightly deeper depths. Anything below that I break out my downriggers.