"Plunking" spoons for salmon is quite effective in tidewater... especially out of an anchored boat. Strikes are hellacious, especially if you WAIT WAIT WAIT for that rod to load and line to strip, much like every other straight downstream presentation I've ever tried.



"Driftfishing" Pixee spoons is the first method I ever learned to fish for salmon in AK. We'd cast quartering upriver 45 degrees, slow retrieve just off bottom, slower still as the spoon would drift downriver from the casting position, and finishing with an abbreviated swing as the very last portion of the cast line was retrieved.



I'd call that dragging spoons.... kind of like dragging worms. Cast way upriver to the side of the boat and drag the spoon thru the likely holding water with a more/less free-drifting boat, perhaps holding the boat back a little if it's sitting in swift water. The same effect could be achieved from a stationary position (bank or boat) by casting upriver into the holding water, and power retrieving the spoon back downriver to give it action just above bottom. We did drag spoons in a few of the spots last Sunday, but did not hook up doing that.... a swinging presentation was definitely more productive.

If the spoon were directly upriver of the boat as it travelled downriver, I'd call that downstream trolling.... just like they do with herring or spinners. I've downstream trolled wobblers on the Kenai without success.

"Swinging" spoons is just that... cast down and across and simply let the spoon flutter on a tight line with little or no retrieve as it swings back over to your side of the river. I think of gear guys emulating fly guys. (Or was that the other way around?) CAST - SWING - STEP... repeat.

Maybe we should call the Ripley method "Power Swinging" - swinging a spoon from a moving boat under power (as opposed to being anchored or stationary or free drifting without power). And yes, I'm referring here to power delivered by either oars or a tiller.