Smaller Lures for Finicky Salmon
When your usual herring-sized lures aren’t attracting silver salmon, it’s time to consider switching to smaller salmon lures. Smaller lures can often be the key to unlocking a successful fishing trip. Here’s a guide on making the switch and optimizing your chances of landing those elusive silver salmon.
Why Go Small?
The New Dark Green Vortaks Spin Head
Silver salmon are known to be finicky feeders; sometimes, they prefer smaller baitfish. Switching to smaller bait profiles can make a significant difference when bigger spoons and other larger lures aren’t working. Smaller lures mimic the natural prey of silver salmon, making them more enticing during specific feeding times.
Choosing the Right Lure
A silicone rubber Skirted Vortaks from Scent Striker is an excellent option for small bait profiles. The Vortaks rotating bullet head rotates the silicone-rubber skirt into a narrow-bodied lure that mimics bait fish, such as needlefish, parr, small squid, or smolt-sized youngins. Its overall length is around three and a half inches.
Adding Scent
Consider adding scent to enhance your lure’s effectiveness. Scent Striker Originals are an excellent choice for this. Originals have a hollow center that allows you to thread them onto your line or leader and hide them under the skirt. Soak Originals with a favorite fish attractant while out on the water, and you have a winning small-sized bait setup that can pull in the bite when larger lures aren’t getting the job done.
Changing Locations, Depths, and Weaving
____________________________The New Glow Stickleback Pattern________________________________
If you’re not getting bites and you’ve downsized baits, it might be time to change your location. Silver salmon are migratory and might congregate in a slightly different location from your go-to fishing grounds.
On one trip this summer, a buddy and I couldn’t get a bite in promising-looking water. We had already begun cycling through gear and were downsizing our bait profiles, but there were still no bites at this location.
Desperate, we headed across the channel towards a pack of boats – maybe they knew where the fish were. We geared up smaller baits, clipped our line to the downrigger, and fished from twenty-five to sixty feet deep, waiting for a hit.
Weaving in and out of the crowd (a technique where you navigate your boat in a zigzag pattern among other boats) for a couple of passes, we got our first bite of the day—a nice silver. With silver in the boat, we circled back through the same patch of water in a loose figure eight. Oddly, one direction of travel never enticed a silver to strike, but after the one-hundred-eighty-degree turn, we would get the bite.
It’s a mystery why one trolling direction produces fish while the opposite direction does not, but it sometimes happens this way. The hunch for this day’s troll is that it had to do with water current speed (the rate at which water moves in a particular direction) and the smaller bait’s action (the movement and behavior of the smaller bait in the water) in just the right way to trigger the bite.
Switching to smaller lures can significantly improve your chances of catching finicky silver salmon. By using the Skirted Vortaks and adding scent to Originals, you’ll be well on your way to a successful fishing trip.
Using these techniques, four silvers took our downsized lures – a great afternoon out on the water.
Final Thoughts
- Experiment with Colors: Silver salmon can be attracted to different colors depending on the water conditions. Try using UV and glow colors for better visibility.
- Monitor Water Conditions: Pay attention to water clarity and current. These factors can influence the behavior of silver salmon.
- Be Patient: Sometimes, it takes a bit of trial and error to find the right combination of lure, scent, and technique. Don’t get discouraged if it doesn’t work right away.