Big Water Salmon (And Trout) With LongLiner™
By Steve Lumsden
Whether I'm trolling for salmon off of the Northwest's coast or in those huge inland seas, the Great Lakes, there are few sport fish that raise my excitement more than salmon, because of their spirited fights and their delicious table fare. Although I am interested in catching just about any fish that swims, the highlight of my fishing year is when the salmon are in.
Stealth is often not as important for salmon as for trout --but presentation is
just as important or more so. A perfect spin on a herring, the proper pulse on a
spinner blade,
or the best action on a spoon or plug often makes a huge difference in one's success.
In many salmon fishing situations the weight-to-bait distance is very important
for correct bait action. Many knowledgeable anglers use leaders well in excess of
six feet of herring or plugs. Working
a bait with a long leader can be extremely effective but that long leader creates
fish-control problems as the fish is brought to net. With the weight tight against
the tip of the rod and a hot fish, the angler has a real problem keeping the line
tight and getting the fish close enough to the boat to net it. Netting
that fish takes a whole lot of body English and a skilled partner with a long net!
Most salmon anglers, therefore, will not fish longer leaders than about five or
six feet. This is truly sad, because longer leaders are essential for best success.
The exciting thing about LongLiner™ is that you can fish the long leaders (even with a short boat rod) and still easily bring your fish to net. LongLiner releases to a free-slide mode after the fish is hooked, doing away with the long distance between the weight and the fish. A fast running fish pulls line through the LongLiner freely, reducing the leverage effect of the weight. Once released, the LongLiner is essentially a slider sinker. Using LongLiner, you enjoy a substantial increase in control when fishing long leaders because you will be landing fish with short leader, which can be even three-foot leader or less, depending on where you place your stopper swivel. You can even reduce the amount of fluorocarbon leader by 50 percent or more.
Salmon plugs such as the Lyman Lure, spoons like those from Legendary Products, real herring, and baits like Brad’s Super Bait and Super Cut-Plug, all work best when the separation between the weight and the bait is increased. The best amount of separation varies with the bait. My experience is that 25 feet or more is good when trolling plugs like the Lyman Lure, and I often use 50 feet or more. Spoons are often fished 15 to 25 feet away from the weight; and cut-plug herring behave most like a wounded fish at eight to 20 feet from the weight.
I really like the Limit Out Bait Rig as it gives my herring a perfect bullet spin. Trolling a LongLiner with an attractor (Fish Flash, Kone Zone) and a herring, a spinner, or a lure, allows me to avoid using a diver and I can fish my attractor a full 10 to 15 feet behind the weight. My catch rate often dramatically increases when rigged this way. I typically use 3 to 8 ounces of weight with LongLiner, but I have trolled it with as much as 16 ounces attached.
Getting to the depth you want and reproducing that depth is very easy. I typically rig with just enough weight to maintain a 30-degree angle where the line enters the water. With this angle, a two-foot "pull" will put me down one foot. Fifteen pulls will put me down 15 feet. It really is that easy.
When you have a fish on, retrieving extra lines and gear is much easier when equipped with a LongLiner than it is with divers or downriggers. In the Northwest it is common practice to retrieve all lines when a large, hot fish is on one of the lines. (I realize that this is not customary in the Great Lakes when large multi-line spreads are used.)
Pairing LongLiner with side planers is very successful. Not only do side planers increase the number of lines you can successfully fish at one time, they fish a wider swath of water with each trolling pass. Side planers also catch the more shy and wary fish that move away as the boat passes over them. Surface trolling with side planers is easy, but fishing at depth with them was not so pleasurable until the advent of LongLiner. Metal lines (lead core, stainless, or copper) all required heavy gear that some anglers would rather not use. LongLiner allows you to fish with your favorite (light) rod at depth behind a side planer. You can leave the "gurney and winch" tackle to the commercial fishermen.
Many anglers fish big lakes for huge rainbow trout and lake trout. The techniques described in this article work very well for big trout in big waters. The biggest differences are trolling speed and weight-to-lure distances, because big-water trout often respond better to faster trolling speeds, and are commonly more wary than salmon.
Steve