[bigjay]

One thing I don't like about fishing is it tradtionalist tone... I have to admit I will always use a single action reel and love Drift Fishing - Buzz Bombing - however, adavistic it becomes. But my exparamental and crazy side has not die and ideas theories and such pop to mind sometimes... ambler pointed one out about plugs and the Cap. - I was talking in the ocean infront of the Cap with plugs bothering spring in the same way as they used old lure to agravate a Tyee pool. Both place have migrating chinook hanging right on the bottom taking the biggest lure possible, but the Cap. is 70' to 120' where the fish hold and they hold in tidal pools like Tyee pool and very much like river minus the fesh water. Now I am just rambling. But the bigger the bait the big the fish in those places, possibly because of reason unknow, like egg eater that size - cuttie, squaw fish and others... damn you carp!!!
That was Crazy Idea 1.
Crazy idea 2 is that bait fish are not selected to be eaten for there defects. Bait fish are not impalas on the African plain, there is no way a smelt, shinner, herring or anchovie can get away from a salmon... that is why holes in currant work, the hydrolics of the place forces the bait to be there and the salmon can swim through the rapids. Bait fish are not prey upon expressly cause they are wounded. If you watch any planton feed fish it opens its gill and spins to feed - a flash is given and a twirle - but most of all it brakes from the school. And from obsurving juvinille anchovies get eaten by grilse I know that when they bait fish feed the juv. salmon tries to take them. If it was true only wounded or dieing bait was salmon food we would still fish with chunk of herring and that is never done... not successfully. So I don't use lure with nicks and mark in them if at all possible.
The one biggest counter intutive idea is one we all fallow and that is matching the water to the bait. Standing out should work best but it does not. One of the best fisher I have known a guide from the hay day of Campbell River would put colour in his bait tank to make the herring adopt the colour of the water. Sometime it was copper, sometimes green or blue but alway the colour would be to blend in to the water colour and it work... he was one of the guys in the Bucktail artical in sport fishing BC.
So lets all give our crazy ideas a chance, maybe more than one of us has had them and then we have more data to test with.
Have fun, Jason

 

[Fishaholic]

to throw a couple cents on #2 ive hit coho and pinks on bait that had been smashed, never springs as ill always change it if the rod even wiggles. also i know a guy that won $100 by catching a 40lber on a melon skin cut like a baitbuster on a cut plug set up :shock: :? that was around langara though

 

[kisinana]

Certain times of the year (summer months), up here at the north end of Georgia strait we used to catch coho with just a black hook. No flasher nothing, just a black hook being trailed on the line. I believe that fish are just opportunistic and will bite on anything that they think is edible.

 

[fishinmagician]

Whoa Big Jay..

That's some pretty far out post you have there.

As for plugs at the mouth of the cap..they work ok...I know.I've done it..but on dowriggers..and you have to have SPACE to move fast (if you're fishing with Tomics)..however to fish the area successfully without driving everyone else absolutely F**K&*G nuts over there if you're going to fish the Tyee Pool Way you better be fishing right at dawn or dusk..or with NO boats around. All the guys have riggers now, and thats what goes on...or you'll be cabled and your prestigious lure will be gone.

As for the other thing about bait that is marked up..your WRONG WRONG WRONG...one year at Langara all there was was BULK bait..some of the most horrid stuf you've ever seen...no scales etc..and they caught Springs and Coho...no problem!
THE BEST spoons and plugs are the ones that are all marked up....because they DO catch fish! (talk to old commercial guys

As for the guy putting colour in his bait tank...LMAO! Stuff like this makes me ROFLMAO! give me a break. If anything this reeks of desperation. Guess what...if there's a properly presented natural bait...the Spring is going to take it. ANYWHERE at ANYTIME a properly presented natural bait WILL catch fish. I've caught fish all over the coast with Natural baits...very consistently I might add.

As for the herring..the herring do and CAN move out of the backeddies..the Springs know to target those areas as few creatures living on instinct consciously exercise for nothing....I've seen it with my own eyes...thats part of the reason you see bait in the backeddy....and the moment a few coho or springs get in there..the bait are gone..and the fish will sit there waiting for a meal too...not wanting to exspend energy...

Anyways...fun post to read though.

...interesting theories though...

 

[bigjay]

Have you ever put say a red colour in you bait tank with a normally white back ground, the backs of the herring do change and it can be just the thing if far from the bait shop. Water colour does change and it does take a few minute for the backs to change.
I agree that in places with really actively feeding fish really it don't matter if there is differance between bad looking bait and good, espcially with coho when on the feed but different story when not. I mean come on Langara - the best place in the world compared to the Cap or any lower Georga Strait fishing these days.
Oh, I was not suggesting using slip weight and rowing as at Tyee Pool just that the fish hold the same way... an analogy. It true the cap is combat fishing at its best and you can only do the same as the other guy as for technieque - too bad power mooching has so much more style. But I have not had a problem with hooking up others gear - have not hook up with any since 1993 of Cap Mudge - and normally I have planner out on one side. True only run the two lines and just the rigger if I am alone but if you don't turn like your avoiding submarines most trouble will stay away.
As for herring in back eddies, I should have said back eddies like the one out front of Staurt Logde or Copper Bluffs were section of water will make bubbles and edges that fish don't want to go through forcing bait to have only bad choices. Dall Porpises use water walls like this all the time.
Sport fishing for Sockeye was far out too... so were downrigger in moving water.
Have fun, Jason

 

[fishinmagician]

Gotcha...

Thanks for clarifying!


Hey..what's your favorite plug ? I've got an ultra ultra rare Lucky Louie in Pearl with a Green Stripe that just HAMMERS the springs..

My favorite tomic is a 600 with a HOT pink stripe painted down the side..I had it done custom..it drives the fish nuts..I've fished it with other plugs---and I"ve got WAY too many plugs.....many of which are much more popular but it still always outfishs those plugs..not sure why...but I've yet to match it against another plug I've bought... I've even run the most popular against it...but nope..something about that particular plug...maybe not the colour..but the pink stripe seems to be something to do with it..but I have no idea why ONLY this plug relative to the myriad of other plugs out there with rainbow and glow and pink stripes...I've even weighed them to figure out what the heck gives..but nothing conclusive..

Anyways...plugs can really be fun ....

 

[dog]

eyes

I eyes on my lures. Does your Lucky plug have a big black eye FM?

Sometimes I think a big black dot eye is best, like on some yellow tail/silver back Coyotes, but most of my added-on eyes are the small glow-white stickers with the smaller black dot. The black dot on the yellowtail Coyote varies quite a bit in size from one to the next. Some are 4mm diameter and some are 7 or 8mm.

 

[bigjay]

Takin' fishinmagians bait.

Definately got me.
My favorite plug, a 2 1/2 pearl blue Zzinger! Truth is I have not used plug that much until that last few year - or trolled for that matter - but fishing around Van. demands trolling. But a #602 in the early moring after charging it up with a flash light can be killer. Have had success with it deep in the winter early spring too - it is the same as the 600 but with a bit of pink blue and yellow on the top.
I like the one with a little red behind the eyes, looks like the gills when a bait fish rolls to eat planton.
Definitely, eye are better than no eyes... tomic put eyes on its new line spoons - will they out fish coyote spoons?
Hey, fishinmagian where is a good store to get plug? The local place has a selection of 4.
Have fun, Jason.

 

[high tide]

Hit the commercial places in Steveston....incredible selection, Nikka, Redden Net, a few others too. Unreal hootchie selection too. Take 2 or 3 Visa's Mastercards etc.
It's a fishermans dream place for tackle.

 

[fishinmagician]

Yup...

That's good advice..Nikka etc..

I'd stay away from Berry's Bait.they're selling at FULL retail...and they tend to be expensive.