Salmon River - Non Flossing Setup

[ridgerunner88]

My father is coming into town at the end of September for 2 weeks and we are going to do some fishing. We are considering making a trip up to the Salmon River and I want to catch fish, not floss them. Does anyone have success float fishing with some egg sacs or worms? Or is it just a bunch of flossing?

[Nytracker]

It has been my experience  salmon dont feed when they come in the river. Salmon actually start changing do to increased hormones in the lake They spend the first day or so in the lower part of the river aclimating . They will strike out of habit.When they move up stream they are motivated to get to their spot. Not much is going to stop them. Once they get to their  spot they get cranky.. Then its about agrevating them to strike . They will chase and slash at anything in their space. They aren't eating they are pushing males away and removing  egg eating critters from the redd.  Fish them low in the river early for reactionary strikes . Once they are on the redd I repeatedly put a bait... fly...  in their face until they bite. I personally belive most salmon are flossed or snagged whether intentionally or not. Just my observstions.

Edited August 8, 2023 by Nytracker

[Untwisted Pretzel logic]

This is a repost of mine from last year:

Haven't fished there in many years. Had good luck behind the bowling alley in town (not sure if it's even there any more or if you can access the river from there). Used an 8' ugly stick and a good reel like a diawa bg, spooled with trilene XT in 14# or 17# test in green. 

As stated earlier, you need to be bouncing near the bottom. I think the regs were 2' between the weight and your hook. I used a #2 salmon egg hook with a piece of pink or orange sponge covering the hook. A pink or orange curly tail grub as mentioned earlier will also work. 

Here's something that will save you a lot of time and rigs - tie your main line to a good barrel swivel and leave about a  6" tag end or so hanging from your knot. From the other side of your barrel swivel tie your leader that's attached to the hook. Now, remember the 6" tag end - that's where you will crimp your split shot.  Get some good size split shot (PSS-2 or similar)) and use enough 1, or 2 or even 4 if necessary to get you ticking the bottom.  Cast upstream and toward the middle of the river and take up the slack as your rig tumbles toward you in the current. You will get hung up from time to time, however, no big deal as you can either pull free or lose just your split shot.

This is a technique that was always successful for me. Hopefully, I explained it ok.  Good luck and have fun - there's nothing more exciting than fighting salmon in the current.