# Salmon intel thread.



## keza (Mar 6, 2007)

It's that time of year again when the salmon schools start to show up along the NSW coast.
Last year they were very fussy and at times would only take something the size of a fly.
I thought it might be good to run a thread where we could help each other out with what they seem to be feeding on at a certain time.
I saw three schools from the cliffs the other day and I'll be trying to find time to get out there and have a go at them.
I'll probably take a small metal slug, a small clear plastic with big eyes and as a last resort I could drag out the rig I made with a dehooked popper and a small fly a metre behind it.

If you get in to some or fail to, post up what you are trying here.


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## Scott (Aug 29, 2005)

Hi Kerry, what would work for us a decade ago was a variation of your final rig. We would use a small hard body with a small fly a metre or so behind it. The other killer was these diamond shaped slugs. They were very heavy for their length. The small ones were very castable but with black hooks on them to shorten their profile they were only around the 25mm long. If you wanted to get your hands dirty, a white bait drifted down a mini cube trail, (like cubing for yellowfin on a small scale) would work well. We would often rig these with 8lb multistrand wire, enough to stop a bite off from a tailor but thin enough that we still got the odd red on it.


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## keza (Mar 6, 2007)

eric said:


> http://www.akff.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=55300&hilit=ripper
> 
> I've never regarded salmon as a mysterious fish to catch. Unless your name is Chris.


Around here, sometimes the schools wont touch anything you throw at them. 
Most of the time they are feeding on eyes, so it's hard to get them to hit anything bigger. The guys with fly rods seem to have no trouble though.


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## dru (Dec 13, 2008)

Must be time to hunting in the briney again. I like the sound of the small HB with fly attachment. What fly should I ask for at the tackle shop?


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## RedPhoenix (Jun 13, 2006)

Unfortunately, due to the change in ownership of this web site and the lack of response by the owners to my requests to remove my email address from all administrative-level notifications and functionality, I have decided to remove my posts on AKFF. Thank you for the great times, the fantastic learning experiences and the many many fish. If you are desperate for the old content of this particular post, it is available below base64 encoded and bzip2 compressed.

Red.

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## keza (Mar 6, 2007)

dru said:


> Must be time to hunting in the briney again. I like the sound of the small HB with fly attachment. What fly should I ask for at the tackle shop?


I told them what I was doing and they gave me a small saltwater fly.
It isn't great to cast with the popper but you can troll it.
I bet the 2" plastic works well Ken. I have wondered about just adding bling to a small jig head.


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## justcrusin (Oct 1, 2006)

Got about six on the weekend all on squidgy wrigglers on a 1/16 jig, strang hit for salmon as they were picking it up off the bottom with very little movement of the lure.

Cheers Dave


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## Scott (Aug 29, 2005)

The other thing i remember using was small white bucktail jigs. I have got some 2" clear lightly flecked single tail grubs that go well on the salmon down here i would of loved them up there back in the day.


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## Ado (Mar 31, 2008)

RedPhoenix said:


> I miss salmon.Red,


Oh you poor thing.

I've never found them fussy down this way. If I see them then I know any plastic that hits the water will be scoffed within 10s. Gulp anything Shad.

The beach fisherman are nailing them down this way ATM (50cm+). The guys in the know put a floating feathered popper on a second dropper above the pilchard and that often gets taken.


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## keza (Mar 6, 2007)

Ado said:


> RedPhoenix said:
> 
> 
> > I miss salmon.Red,
> ...


Is that the surf popper ?
Do they work from a yak ?


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## Ado (Mar 31, 2008)

keza said:


> Is that the surf popper ?


Dunno. It's your sterotypical popper. Big face, short body, made of wood or even cork, long feathers hiding a single hook. Does that sound like a surf popper? They don;t use them as a popper. They just bob around floating just off the bottom.



keza said:


> Do they work from a yak ?


No idea. I imagine they would if served just above a maggoty pilchard.


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## paulb (Nov 12, 2006)

Saw quite a few schools off Clontarf on Sunday arvo - was trying a white bait imitation lure that had salmon written all over it ( that's what the guy at the tackle shop told me) - unfortunately the salmon I encountered couldn't read.


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## john316 (Jan 15, 2009)

Keza, if you want to tie your own I would suggest a very simple fly consisting of white feathers with a dark strand (perhaps peacock herl) at the top as this would mimic the dark on top and light underneath pattern of many baitfish. The upside of DIY is that you can make them the size and shape you want for where you are fishing...

cheers

John


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## john316 (Jan 15, 2009)

If a picture paints a thousand words...

I just tied these two up to illustrate. They are both on size one gamakatzu hooks, both have four white hackle feathers but have different treatment in the dark strands. One uses strands of olive ostrich feather and the other is from the dark portion of a bucks tail dyed blue. Both have a bit of red colour up front and the olive also has a few strands of crystal flash for some sparkle.










gave me some entertainment tonight and I might even get to use them on the weekend...

cheers

john


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## john316 (Jan 15, 2009)

Bertros said:


> Been wondering about doing a similar thing with the Damiki's John, but could you fish 3 or 4 of these at a time on a single rig? A little bit of extra weight and presence in the water couldn't be a bad thing, could it?


getting a bit of weight is easy enough as I could have wound on some lead wire or even a bit of lead tape before tying on the feathers... I would be using a fly rod so probably not more than one but it could be possible to make a string for trolling. I think they would possibly get fouled by the line and not give the movement typical of feathers, but I think that the original idea in this thread to drop it back from a d-hooked popper would be a great solution...

cheers

John


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## Notshy (Oct 26, 2008)

Out driving the other day and happened across a few black clouds of salmon. They have been finnicky in the past (probably spawning or something) but after landing one on a 60g raider they moved a bit far off the beach. The only thing I had heavier was a 100mm red head knife jig with a boonta trebble on the end of it. First flick and I was onto another that was so hungry the trebbles ended up lodged down in the gills. These fish get massive over here and I'm guessing the 1's I caught were between 5-6 kgs. I did keep that 1 but these fish are more for game than tucker (especially that big). I have been out when they wont bite and normally fowl hook 3 out of 4 fish....then they take some pulling in!


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## Ado (Mar 31, 2008)

Notshy said:


> These fish get massive over here and I'm guessing the 1's I caught were between 5-6 kgs.


Holy crap. The Kingfish of the west. They'd pull bloody hard at that size.
Typically 1-2 kg around these parts.


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## kayakone (Dec 7, 2010)

Ado said:


> Notshy said:
> 
> 
> > These fish get massive over here and I'm guessing the 1's I caught were between 5-6 kgs.
> ...


That's WA (exp2000 caught 6 spanairds off the Broome jetty in a few hours).

I'm emmigating soon. (is that the right word?)

trev


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## Ado (Mar 31, 2008)

kayakone said:


> I'm emmigating soon. (is that the right word?)


Only once WA secedes ... which could be any day now.


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## 4weightfanatic (May 19, 2011)

If your going to a fly shop to buy a fly small surf candies,eye flies,even sparse Crazy Charlies should do the trick. An all white BMS made of dubbed white/pearl fibres with some prominent eyes would also be a good choice. Here's a fly I tied years ago to mimic a 25 mm bay anchovy. Cheers Pat.


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## Beekeeper (Aug 20, 2011)

Paul... There's a Clontarf on the Redcliffe Peninsula near Brisbane Qld... Is there another one in NSW?
Jimbo


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## RedPhoenix (Jun 13, 2006)

Unfortunately, due to the change in ownership of this web site and the lack of response by the owners to my requests to remove my email address from all administrative-level notifications and functionality, I have decided to remove my posts on AKFF. Thank you for the great times, the fantastic learning experiences and the many many fish. If you are desperate for the old content of this particular post, it is available below base64 encoded and bzip2 compressed.

Red.

----

QlpoOTFBWSZTWaI6pZQAAAdXgAAQQAEgAFAAN2/eoCAAVFAADQZMhFP1NIP1JiZGnkQGb/zYcMEWsCQlp1OD42TGjqMCQsjlqdO6lEhNGfF3JFOFCQojqllA


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## SharkNett (Feb 20, 2006)

Last year I bought a couple of flies almost identical to the one showed by 4weightfanatic. Worked well for both salmon and bonito when they were fussy.
Not enough weight to cast on conventional gear so just fed out on a 1-2kg rod while drifting or trolling. Great fun on the light gear.


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## keza (Mar 6, 2007)

This is the little guy I was using and the mother ship I towed it behind.


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## paddlingfool (Oct 8, 2011)

I've never found them fussy,get them often on a big deep diving hardbody.


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## camel (Oct 4, 2005)

When they are keyed in on tiny bait I have done pretty well using 1.5" Crappie Sliders in a clear colour, cast with bream tackle. 








They can be had very cheap from the US.

I often have my lunch break at the whale watching platform at Cape Solander. There were some big schools close to the rocks heading north, earlier in the week. Hopefully they turned left into the bay.

Ant


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## keza (Mar 6, 2007)

They look good Ant.
Simon had some tiny little blue paddle tails that use to work pretty well.


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## camel (Oct 4, 2005)

Digger said:


> Crikey a lot of you are going to a lot of trouble when a simple Raider 25 cm slice in blue ($4.95 @ K Mart) will most likely do the job and they cast over the horizon too!
> 
> Dig


Your right to an extent, Dig. 
I always reach for metals first. Because of the distance they can cover. 
I don't know if its a location thing but often they have lock jaw around here and wont look at any lure over a couple of cm.

Ant


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## keza (Mar 6, 2007)

If they are feeding on eyes, the only thing they will touch is a small fly, it can be very frustrating.


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