Salmon Lures
Salmon fishing for staging fish in Lake Ontario can be a great pastime for the month of September. The fish have begun their transition of living in the lake and are making their move into the breeding phase of their lives. The fish will begin to seek shallower water, and start to stage at the mouth of the creeks. Leveraging this phase of their lives and fishing with the correct salmon lures during the time of spawn can provide an angler with extremely productivity while fishing for these beasts of the lake.
Back Ground
One must remember that salmon will stop eating during the spawn and will only hit out of aggression. So, the lures that are used while fishing them need to present some type of annoyance. In this article I will break down the most effective salmon lures that I have found while fishing for King Salmon and the tactics used to present these baits in a manor that will provide a consistent catch rate.
Using spoons can be a great aggressor for targeting spawning salmon. These baits provide a very aggressive and aggravating action that can trigger a salmon to strike. A bright and shiny color will reflect more surface light from the sun. As it spins and flutters in an uncontrollable action, it will catch the nearby salmon’s eye. This will trigger a strike response from the salmon and they will want to attack the bait to try and “kill” it.
The salmon will hit the bait incredibly hard, so make sure you have loose drag sets on your rod. I have seen them break 30lb lest line and never even trigger the dipsy diver or downrigger to release. These are incredible animals, and their mass and power can be under estimated. Using a spoon as a salmon lure is EpicWalleye’s #1 pick for fishing king salmon. I have attached a few links for my favorite spoons. Just click the highlighted link provided.
The # 2 pick on my favorite Salmon Lures is the J-Plug by Luhr Jensen. This lure provides the angler with unbelievable and sporadic action. These lures leverage a hard body that has a through hole where treble hooks can be attached. The lures come in a variety of bright colors that will allow you to determine the most effective color for the time of day and weather condition. I really like to use the glow in the dark option. This is extremely effective in the early morning hours, late afternoon, and on dark stormy days.
The # 3 pick on my favorite Salmon Lures is the Flasher and Skirt. A flasher is a type of inline unit that has swivels on either side of the product. The flasher is a thin plastic board that is wrapped in a shiny reflective material. Its only job is to gather and reflect surface light that will grab the salmon’s attention. It will twist and flutter in the water which will draw the salmon to the disturbance in the water.
Attached to the back of the flasher is a squid/ skirt. This is basically a rubber covered line and hook that gives the salmon something to hit. They will see the skirt behind the flasher and naturally respond by eating the presentation behind the flasher. This is an incredibly effective tactic and you can experiment with assorted color flashers and skirts to see which works best for the current day being fished. These salmon lures are some of the most effective on the market today for targeting king salmon.
Salmon Fishing Tactics
When trolling for staging salmon a few tactics can be used to increase the catch rate of the angler. These tactics can be broken into 3 categories; Dipsy Divers, Down Riggers and Lead Core. I will describe the usefulness of each of these products and then break down further on how to use the.
Dipsy Diver:
Dipsy Diver – A dipsy diver is a line attachment that acts as a larger bill of a lure. There is an adjustable weight on the bottom of the diver. This acts as a rudder and forces the line away from the side of the boat. The angle of the weight is the distance that the dipsy diver will travel from the boat.
This unit is very useful because it cost way less than a down rigger and works extremely well. The amount of line that is let out from the reel has a direct correlation to how deep the dipsy will dive. The dipsy will come with a depth chart for the type of line used, distance and depth that the attachment will go. Use this with a snubber to lessen the impact of a strike and the pull force of the dipsy.
Down Rigger:
Down Rigger- A down rigger is a device that utilizes a cable, a cannon ball weight, and a giant reel. This system allows an angler to reach great depths in a fraction of the time of lead core. Line from your rod is let out until the desired distance. Then a 2-clip system is attached around the down rigger cable and clipped onto it. The line from your rod is clipped into the remaining clip. The cannonball weight is then lowered to the chosen depth. The down rigger is a great tool for fishing depths of 60 feet or greater.
Lead Core Line
Lead Core– Lead core line is manufactured by encapsulating a lead wire with a braided line composite that provides strength and abrasion resistance. This aids the angler in achieving deeper diving depths of their lures and removes any additional weighting techniques such as down riggers or dipsy divers. The line is multicolored and corresponds to the length of line let out. Which is convenient if the angler is not using a line counting reel. Sufix Performance Lead Core 100 Yards Metered Fishing Line is the best lead core line on the market.
Tactics:
Salmon Lures can be attached to any one of the rigs listed above and how they are fished stays consistent between systems. The best way to fish these units is in succession with each other. The downriggers should be attached to either side of the boat.
This will give the angler the square foot coverage for the width of the boat. The dipsy divers can be run with single or double rods on either side of the boat. Each rod will hold its own dipsy diver. The closet rod to the downrigger should be ran on a #2 setting for the dipsy and the next rod should be ran on the #3 setting. This will stagger the angler’s lines to have over a 50-foot width of coverage behind the boat. This presents the best coverage possible.
Finally, an angler can run 1 to 2 rods out of the center of the boat with lead core line. This will provide adequate spacing away from the other rods and will prevent tangling from turning or when a fish is hooked.
Speed:
Speed is a critical factor when trolling for salmon in Lake Ontario. I try to maintain speed of around 2.5 to 3.0 mph when using salmon lures such as spoons and j-plugs. And I troll slower when using flashers at around 2.2 to 2.5 mph. Any faster and the flasher does not function as intended. The salmon will become more active and aggressive as the spawning migration increases and trolling faster will trigger more strikes.
However, fish can be finicky so when in doubt try varying your speed throughout the day, and see what speed produces the most amount of fish. This is the speed that you will want to fish. Once you have mastered salmon fishing, head on over to our other pages such as, walleye fishing tactics, to learn about the strategies used to catch these fish.
