Red salmon fishing setup

All salmon species, and sockeye in particular, swim up river with their mouths open. Flossing requires using a long leader, I like to use at least 9ft of line stretching from the weights to the hook. The hook is sharp and I use a 6 octopus style. On the hook I place a piece of yarn or a rubber fish egg. This helps the hook float better through the water column and helps keep it off the bottom.

For the weights, I use lead split shot with an aluminum weight at the bottom to keep it from sliding down the leader. As the hook bounces down stream, feel for rocks, keeping your line tight to prevent snags and feel for fish. Understanding the difference between a fish and a log is tricky at first but the more you do it, the easier it becomes. With this technique, you will be able to hook a salmon in the mouth with a single hook and line. Depending on where you are fishing, the method of flossing for fish might be illegal.

Make sure you check all local restrictions before heading down to the nearest salmon run. Lucky for me, flossing is legal in Alaska and as long as you do it right, the technique will fill the freezer. A baseball cap is an excellent choice for shading your eyes so you can see fish holding in shallow areas. Polarized sunglasses are essential as they not only allow you to see beneath the surface and spot fish easier, but they also protect your eyes from errant hooks and sinkers.

NEVER go salmon fishing without protective eyewear! Waders are another essential piece of gear for red fishing. In popular fisheries such as the Kenai Peninsula's Russian River and the Kenai River itself, if you can't get in the water, other fishermen will end up standing in front of you while you're trying to fish. Hip boots are fine, but you should consider wearing ice cleats with them or choose waders with a sole designed to grip mossy rocks.

Regular rubber-bottomed hip boots are prone to slipping on mossy rocks, and you could end up taking a swim! Most anglers prefer breathable chest waders, which allow you to sit down without getting your rear wet on rainy days. Finally, a pair of fisherman's gloves, with the fingertips cut off so you can tie knots and such, are a great thing to have along on cold, windy days.

Turn one pair 90 degrees to the other, lining up one lens of each pair against the other. If the two lenses become darker, the glasses are polarized.

If they don't, they aren't. Keeping some general principles in mind when you're fishing for reds will go a long way to increasing your safety and enjoyment of the experience.

Here are some ideas:. In almost all cases, bears and salmon go together. Some river systems host brown bears exclusively, while others see both black bears and brown bears.

Either way, anglers must remain vigilant at all times, and take standard precautions to avoid a negative bear experience. In most cases, bears will avoid anglers and anglers will avoid bears. Where the trouble starts is when either the bear or the angler was not aware of the other's presence and they come upon each other unexpectedly. You can help prevent that by making plenty of noise when walking through the brush along rivers or trails.

A second contributing factor to bear trouble is when anglers attract bears with food. This includes your lunch and your fish.

Keep both in your physical presence while you are fishing! Don't leave your lunch in your day pack on the river bank. Don't leave your fish on a stringer in the water. For targeting smaller fish, a light tackle setup is a valuable asset.

Fish like whiting will not put up much of a battle on your medium or heavy outfits, but on a quality light power outfit, they just may become one of your favorite gamefish. Croix Avid Inshore spinning rod, paired with a Shimano Stradic and spooled with 10 pound test Jerry Brown solid core braid. Part 2. Start with some large plastic baits.

These baits are usually used to target fish such as tarpon, bull jacks, and cobia. Hogy offers all of the terminal tackle needed to do this with. Another great large plastic is the Gulp! You can buy a pack of these in any color you prefer, as they will all generally work the same. To fish these, keep one rigged on a heavy rod to pitch at cobia who are passing by or suddenly appear by the boat.

Get some DOA baits. DOA baits are some of the best soft plastic baits you can have. These can be fished on their own, Carolina rigged, or under a popping cork discussed later in this article. There are two other baits by DOA to consider stocking up on. First are their shad tails - these work well in natural colors and are best used when rigged on a jighead.

Second is the CAL Jerkbait - this is a soft plastic jerkbait that will work well on a jighead, but is best used when fished weightless on an EWG-style worm hook, such as the type used for bass.

Gamakatsu is a great brand for these hooks. Both of these baits are used on a medium setup when targeting fish in the 1 to 20 pound class. Stock up on other Gulp! Baits as well. These are best fished on a jighead or under a popping cork, for medium-sized inshore fish.

Get a "shrimpy jig. Keep some in white and in chartreuse, and they are great for catching cobia. Get some curly-tailed grubs. These are good to have on hand. These are best fished during the winter on a jighead for medium-sized fish.

Two good brands are Gotcha and Z-Man. A favorite color is clear, with many colorful flakes in it - such as red, blue, green, and silver. Chartreuse and orange grubs also work well.

Use topwater plugs when fishing for medium-sized fish, such as trout and red drum. These are best fished with a walk-the-dog retrieve, and the best colors are any that have some orange on the belly of them. These are said to imitate dying baitfish, and they tend to work extremely well.

If you plan to fish for any kind of jacks, keep another type of topwater plug in with your tackle. If you are ever in a tackle shop or a store that sells any fishing tackle, check the bargain bin. If they have any large topwater plugs in there, buy some of them, and use them for jacks. Consider subsurface plugs. These are another great type of hard bait when fishing for medium-sized fish. Try to select colors that imitate local baitfish in your area. Consider Spro bucktail jigs.

Spro bucktail jigs have become a staple in the tackle boxes of most cobia fishermen. However, when you pick up some larger ones for cobia, make sure you get some smaller ones as well - these work very well for flounder.

Purchase a few sabiki rigs if you want to catch your own live bait without a net. These are long rigs which usually have six to ten droppers on them, which each have a small gold hook and a piece of mylar on them. These attract small fish to bite, and all you have to do is drop the rig to the bottom, let it sit for a while, and then bring it up - hopefully you will have caught some bait fish on it in the process. Pick live bait based on what fish you're targeting. As far as live baits go, you have a lot of choices that you can make.

However, individual choices will be discussed in the section where gamefish are discussed - so that you can target the specific fish you want to catch. Part 3. Remember the terminal tackle needed to fish with soft plastic baits. You will want an assortment of smaller jigheads as well, for fishing smaller plastic baits.

A good go-to are Strike King saltwater jigheads in red. These are good for all DOA, Gulp! For fishing with Z-Man plastics, you will need to buy some jigheads from Z-Man that are specially designed for them get them in the same specifications as the Strike King ones. For fishing with any small plastic baits, jigheads made by Slayer are good. Keep in mind the rigs needed to fish with live bait for inshore fish.

To keep it simple, there are six rigs that should be used. These are designed to target small, medium, and large fish in the top, middle, and bottom of the water column. Build your light tackle rig for targeting the top and middle of the water column. Start by placing a small orange egg-shaped float on your main line. Now below this float, place a large split shot - something like a size 2 or 3 will work great.

To target the bottom of the water column for small fish, simply take the previous rig, and remove the float. On the end of your leader, tie a hook. This is usually used for free-lining live or dead baitfish - as such, the amount of terminal tackle in the rig should remain minimal.

There are a few times when you should modify this rig - if you're fishing in areas with heavy current, try putting a size 2 or 3 split shot above the hook, to help hold the bait near the bottom. This keeps the bait above the bottom of the water, in the likely spot where the fish are feeding.

To target large fish on the bottom, use a fixed sinker rig. One end has a swivel with a length of 80 pound mono tied to it. Thread on a single crimp, an orange bead, a 4 ounce egg sinker, another orange bead, and then another crimp.

Close these crimps, so that your egg sinker stays in place. Part 4. Get to know some of the sport fish you might encounter in your fishing. Depending on where you live, these include:. Look for striped bass from Maine into the Carolinas inshore. They are medium-sized fish that have gray tops, silver sides, and a white belly. They have heavy-set bodies with a large jaw, and their sides feature long dark stripes.

These fish are usually found from about 5 to 20 pounds, and fish up to 50 pounds or so are sometimes caught. They have a great taste, and are very hard fighters. Try to fish a live bait rig with either a menhaden or an eel, or a subsurface plug for striped bass.

Look for bluefish on most of the Atlantic coast, from Maine down to Florida. They are medium-sized fish which have blue sides that gradually get whiter as they go down - the whole body has a bit of a silvery tinge to it. At the base of their pectoral fin, they typically have a large dark spot. They have a large mouth full of large sharp teeth, and a heavily forked tail.

They are usually caught from less than one pound all the way up to pounds, although from Maine to about North Carolina, they are occasionally seen up to about 20 pounds. Small bluefish taste good, although they should be directly bled and put on ice, and eaten the same day they were caught. Bluefish are some of the hardest-fighting fish to be caught inshore.

Look for weakfish from about New York to North Carolina. They have prominent canine teeth in their mouth, and their sides feature tiny black spots arranged in diagonal lines.

They are usually caught at about 2 or 3 pounds in weight, but fish up to 6 pounds or so are occasionally caught. They taste pretty good, and on light tackle they are pretty fun to catch. Try to use a live bait rig with a menhaden or croaker, or a jig - either a bucktail, or a jighead with a soft plastic trailer. Look for black drum from about New York to Florida. Juveniles have white or gray sides with black vertical stripes, while adults are a solid brownish-black color.

Black drum of all sizes have barbels on the chin. Juveniles are normally caught from 1 to 10 pounds, however larger adults are often caught up to 50 pounds. Occasionally, fish up to about 80 pounds are found and caught. Drum under 10 pounds taste very good, but larger ones not so much. They fight hard, although this is mostly due to their size. Look for flounder of various species from Maine to Florida, although the largest flounder are typically found from Massachusetts to Georgia.

Flounder have both eyes on either the left or the right side of their face, and are considered flatfish.