Hey-

I wanted to try fishing for chum salmon for the first time. Would anybody be so kind as to advise me on what to tie on. I think I know what kind of water to look for and where to go but not exactly sure of which lure/bait. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you and good luck.

Josh

Hey josh,
Been a couple of times and it seems to be kind of a no brainer. Pink or chartruese corky with chartruese yarn. Move it slow and wait for the strike. The only thing that might be difficult is the line bumps from the strikes. Lots of guys rip'm when they get line bumpeed and therefore snag a ton of fish.

~steelymann~

A Standard rig is #10 lime green corkie (peg it in place) + 1.5" of orange or pink yarn in the bait loop (doubled over so the actual length is only about 1/2 of the 1.5"), shrimp Smelly-Jelly smeared on it, 1/0 hook, 20" of 12lb. Maxima Ultragreen leader, 15lb.+ mainline, plus a slinky weight. Don't fish this rig in slow water (use the float-rig below.) Pre-tie at least EIGHT different weights of slinky, as determining the correct slinky weight can really make a difference. Have at least 5 backups of each size, since you might lose a few.

Or float fish with no corkie, 2" of colored yarn, pencil-lead, and just enough distance to the float to keep the offering near the bottom.

If you have a boat, back-troll bait-wrapped Kwikfish in around K14 size in purples, chartreuse, or pink...all with a silver background. If you don't have a boat, then get one...you'll catch way more fish, and/or get away from the crowds more!

By far the quickest way to learn locations is to watch other fishermen, and see which ones are catching the fish....sounds too easy, right.

I usually don't catch very many chums in areas that I don't see them jumping...sounds simple, but many people stick to one spot even though they aren't catching anything and don't see very many jumping. I look at about a 100' stretch of my side of the river and I'll often move on if I don't see a chum rise in that section at least every 40 seconds or so.

Each river seems to have about a 19 day window period for the best fishing...learn this three-week period...(whoops, it's not even three weeks usually!!)...learn this 19 day period for each river you fish. Prior to the 19 day period there often aren't enough fish to have the very best fishing...after the 19 days the fish get a bit too old to put up a great fight...at least in my experience in rivers.

Also, use the "search" function on this board (for "chum") and you'll find more info than you'll care to look at.

Go to the following web site and try to fish when the flows are 'correct' (different for each river) with the main intention of trying to figure out how to not go when visibility is under 2', and not going when the river is "real low and real clear". About 3 days after a nice rise in water level is a good starting point, if the river is dropping. http://wa.waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/current?type=flow

In many rivers, many people say chartreuse is the best color to use for corkie and/or yarn. But have lots of colors available.

When float fishing, for some reason, hot pink jigs are often considered the best. Avoid panfish jigs since the hook will be way too flimsy to hold a chum.

If foul-hooking too many fish, one thing to consider is dropping to a #1, or even #2 hook. And consider bending the hook point in a little bit.

A chartreuse/orange #10 spin-n-glow has worked great for me on one river...but the #10 corkie (reddish orange is my own current personal favorite on my favorite river, at least) + a bit of yarn is usually better, I feel.

Trying to avoid foul-hooking too terribly many chums is one of the biggest challenges in river fishing.

This is my "go to" chum rig (for display purposes).

A 3/8 oz. bullet sinker on your mainline to a barrel swivel then tie on your corky and yarn (or just yarn) at 12-24". Rainbow, orange, pink, and of course green all work.

Simple, fast, and those chums love it!

Damn! that setup looks so sexy I want to bite it. I need to try one of those bullet sinkers. I havent seen them before. Do they help avoid getting your lead snagged?

Yes, they do. They hop right over oyster shells and rocks.

By far the simplest, and for my money the most fun, is to flyfish the small, slow tidewaters on the outgoing tide with a dry line and about a 5 foot two piece leader. Any chartruese fly will work, I like the bunny leech (rabbit fur palmered around a hook, that's it). Just dead drift through the school and watch your line, when it takes off nail 'em and hang on. Use a heavy rod and a heavy leader - I use 20 lb so I'm not re-tying all the time, and so I'm not playing the fish out until it's belly up before I release it. This is a real easy way to learn to flyfish - short casts, no brush, and lots of hookups, and a real easy way to get lots of practice fighting and landing big fish. When conditions are just right I have literally hooked a fish on every other cast with this rig for hours at a time - way too much fun .