Time for a fun and useful contest. And I may use the best fishing tips in my book "The REEL TRUTH" with name credit given to the tip posters. ...

PRIZES:

- First Place prize is a springer trip for 2 for spring chinook with me in my sled in late May or early June. Alternative trip can be for fall chinook near Tillamook at my discretion (if the springer water levels get too low).

- Second Place prize is a half dozen new Kwikfish still in their unopened package.

- Worst Tip prize is a river float with Hey_Yall on his Outcast cataraft down the Wind River canyon - since he doesn't know about this it's your responsibility to talk him into it and sign appropriate liability waivers. If he chickens out, we'll think of something else bad for the worst tip.

TIMELINES:

- This contest commences immediately and ends at 100 posts or May 20th, whichever comes first. I reserve the right to delete what I think are unworthy tips or jesting tips so that we get 100 good ones (those will be copy and pasted over to the Tip Dumpster thread ). I will post an example unique tip (one I have posted before).

RULES:

- Post a unique and affective salmon or steelhead fishing tip here in this thread.

- By posting/entering here you thereby give me (RT) permission to use your tip in my fishing book with your name credit (or moniker if you prefer). You can enter more than one valid tip, but no more than 5 per person.

- The best tip will be picked based on a combination of genuine uniqueness and likely affectiveness by vote of a panel of fishing experts picked by me. (If your tip does not sound good it will help your chances to win by submitting evidence that it works well).

- If you complain about having your tip deleted I will send Timberman after you. jk :p

Steve Hanson aka RT

[ 05-03-2001: Message edited by: RT 1 ]

Sample tip (not an entry) ...

I posted this around a year ago to disbelieving eyes. Buy a small tube of regular Preparation H and keep it in your tackle box. Use it sparingly on plugs, Kwikfish, or other lures for chinook fishing. They do like the fish liver oil in it as well as the chems in it. And I have wittnesses that have seen it become the 'hot ticket' on Kwikfish in springer hoglines during the Columbia fishing recently. Cries of "Buttwax rules!" were heard far and wide in some lines. - Steve (RT)

There ya go. Have at it and thank you.

My first tip is this ...don't lose this contest you don't want to go anywhere with this Redneck sitting behind you talking smack and crashing into other boats while you're trying to hook a Fish and while he's trying to figure out"how do yall steer this Damn thing" :p

Here's my tip ,Don't predict 'We'll hook a fish in this next strech of water or I'll.... arm rassle a TimberFaller ...Trust me
I've got more I'll post later......Os

To keep your lead from hanging up as much, I keep clear plastic drinking straws with me. I slide the lead through one and cut off the length I want, and then punch the hole through it. It slides through the rocks and the clay ledges better. When your lead pulls out of it you can slide a new piece on.

Fishhead5

Always wear latex gloves and wash your hands with Crest Mint Toothpaste *before* handling baits, plugs, or wrapping KwikFish, when fishing for King Salmon.

Not only does the Crest mask out your stinkey human scent, but it leaves your hands nice and Minty Fresh for the whole day!

Try it! Your success rate will increase!

We have a have huge growth in people new to this sport here in the midwest. They all want the magic "hot" bait and correct 3 feet of river to fish. Best advice I ever got was to pick a river and learn it( keep a journal)! Spend ever possible minute on the river in all water conditions. Learn how the migrations progress, what levels are fishable, wintering grounds, etc. Learn how to read water!! Take this knowledge and apply it to all other water you fish, you'll be amazed at your success rate. Or, you can bring your daughter and have her hook fish for ya!

I don't remember volunteering for this I will agree, but the passenger gets to tighten down the oar-rights I'm afraid of who all will post to this because I'm sure some of "you" will lose on purpose...right Osprey? :p

Great tip for especially cold mornings:

Apply Rain-X to your spool of line before fishing. Rub it in good onto the spool. It works better than WD-40 and it will definitely keep your line from freezing up, spool, rod, and line guides.

Fishing or Hunting always have a tube of super glue. Doctors at clinics just clean a cut and super glue it shut. Great for line cuts too.

We once had a little spipnner-making operation --- up to 24,000 or so one year. We found the absolute best way to quickly sharpen trebles. Buy a flat stone wider than the treble and lay the hook on it with two points touching at an angle, points toward you. Sharpen by pushing the hook away from you, and away from the hook points, in short choppy strokes, about 6 strokes. Rotate the hook, repeat at the same angle for the next set of points, then repeat a third time after rotating again. Then go around to each set of the three 2-point positions and very lightly stroke a couple of times. The result is a hook so sharp it is scary. Each hook has a perfect 60 degree bevel on each point. Total time --- about 20 seconds, even faster if you do the process while holding the hook and stone vertically in your hands and chop with the stone.

Everyone has drift fished at least once. But does everyone know all the tricks? When your weight is down and you are bouncing the bottom, if you stop feeling it set the hook. This could be a fish feeling or tasting your bait. Also keep your tip up and line tight.
-Matt-

Ok after pre-tieing your leaders get a peice of foam insulation and cut little slits spaced about an 1/8th of an inch apart and wrap away.

I carry a small crotchet hook with me when fishing. I have found this very helpful when trying to get backlashs out of your reel. Better than trying to pull that little loop out with your fat fingers. It is a real time saver when you are teaching beginers how to cast.The more time your line spends in the water the bettre your chances are of catching a fish.

[ 05-03-2001: Message edited by: kalamabama ]

Try changing jig colors several times if you're fishing over a pool that you've already taken one steelehead from. This will even work when fishing very slow water that you may normally skip.

Here's a scenario:
Step 1: You walk into a slow deep slot nestled between two shallow, fast tailouts. Step 2: First cast with a 1/4 oz jig on 10lb mainline with no leader or extra weight beneath your Turbomaster produces a taker. Step 3: Ten to fifteen minutes later with no takers you change colors.
Step 4: First cast with the new color produces another taker.
Step 5: Repeast steps 3 and 4 till you've run out of colors or takers.

Don't believe the scenario, ask your fishing buddy from Portland if it's true.

Bruce

When coho fishing from the beach [Ft. Casey works well] with the bobber and fresh dead herring [most important] practice looking anywhere but at your bobber, wait until the coho almost jerks the rod out of your hand, reel it in.

Here's a tip for all you plunkers out there.

To make your spin-n-glo's spin effortlessly in slow current you need to buy a box of Plastic (not paper) shafted "Q-tips".

First Drill out the hole in the spin-n-glo just slightly larger than the diameter of the "Q-tip" shaft. Then cut the hollow q-tip shaft to the length of the spin-n-glo. Then dab a little epoxy on the outside of the q-tip shaft and insert it into the pre-drilled spin-n-glo. You will have an effortlessly spinning lure. This will also reduce line wear if you're fishing in heavy current. Be sure to use a bead or Corky as a bearing.

Good Luck

Aaron

Oh God, I really shouldn't post this, But I really want that free trip w/RT, so here goes.

When fishing alvins for fall chinook, you need every advantage you can get to attract them down deep.

To appeal to all of their senses try this:

Sight---The lure already does this. Experiment with colors.

Smell, taste---Use a little piece of fuzzy-side velcro and stick on the underside of your alvin, this will not subdue the visual effect of the lure. Add a killer scent.

Sound,Lateral line stimuli--- Now this is the real key. This is soooo top secret, but take it from a bass guy--Buy a pack of excalibur glass rattles (the biggest ones they make) in the bass section of your local tackle shop (fishermans marine). Either use 5-min epoxy or lure tape and affix the rattle on the top of the lure just behind the bend in the alvin. Every time the lure wobbles it will make a clicking sound. Glass and steel give of crisp clicks, don't use plastic rattles, they sound duller.

Now you have the ultimate deep water bait, that applies to all but one of the fishes senses....Feel...But don't worry, you're needle sharp treble will take care of that.

Aaron

When fishing spinners, place a 90 degree bend in the shaft between the eye and the body. Reduces/eliminates line twist as it acts like a keel.

Here's another one, this time for the fly-guys.

After a day on the water youre if fly line just doesn't seem to shoot as far, its probably dirty. The best line cleaner I've found is "Armorall". I keep a little rag saturated with the stuff in a ziplock bag in my vest for on the water use. For some reason I always seem to stomp my fly line into the mud halfway through the day.

Oh yeah, It works great for cleaning up the seat on the "a-hole" in your life's motorcycle

Aaron

When filling your PIPS container, fill it from top to bottom and left to right instead of across. You can easily get 30 or more leaders in this way. Keep it clean and lubricated with a light coating of vaseline and it will last a lifetime.

I got a couple here:
1) When fishing spinners, spoons or bait in heavy debri (grass, moss leaves etc) take one or two beads atleast BBB size and attach them via toothpick 2 feet above the lure. this keeps weeds from sliding down the line and fowling the lures motion. In extreme conditions several attached 6"-8" apart works well.
2) One effective way of unstagging a lure requires a banana sinker (3-6 oz.) and atleast 20 feet of heavy twine or decoy line. Slide one end of the line through the bead end of the sinker and attach a heavy snap or swivel to the line. When your lure snags put your fishing line between the decoy line and the weight and snap the swivel to the free end of the sinker. At this point you should have your line in the middle of what resembles a long bow. Reel your line tight and let the weight slide down while holding on to the lose end of the decoy line. When the weight stops jiggle it around a bit, in most cases this should free your hooks. if it remains snagged shake the weight until your hook gets tangled in the weight and swivel. then pull until the hook bends or the snag gives. This works well as it is much cheaper to replace a bent hook on a plug or spinner than to buy a whole new one.