Im looking for a little help on jigging for salmon. How, when and what ? Im headed to Chinookcove lodge Bc in june and the owner said they catch a lot of fish jigging with zzingers,buzzbombz,stingsildas and grimreapers. Can anyone explain how to fish these also maybe what size and color I should use. Or if you have fished this area for salmon,halibut and lingcod you could tell me what worked best for you. Thank you

Werner, jigging (real jigging, no bobbers allowed) can be an awesome technique to catch salmon, but unless I'm marking alot of fish and or bait, I don't make it my first choice, if there is bait around and you have the technique down, you will smoke trollers and hold your own with moochers.
As for technique, 1st, I use a 71/2ft. 1pc. rod, its a custom made rod very similar to a Lami Puget Jigger, with a Penn Mag 10 reel (direct drive) so I can drop the jig quick if I miss a strike. 2nd, I like to lift the rod about 5-6ft fairly quickly then drop the tip just fast enough to let slack in the line so that the jig flutters as it drops, the drop/flutter is when most strikes occur. 3rd, get rid of all trebles and go with a good quality siwash. Last, for kings If I had to pick 1 jig it would be a green and white Pt. Wilson Dart, the bigger the better, for bottomfish, any jig as long as its white.
As for the resort owner recommendation of jigs, keep in mind if fish and or bait is present you'll do fine with the jigs, if things are slow or spotty have herring on hand. Back in 89 my dad and uncle and I went to fish Ucluelet (Canadian Princess resort) the only thing they supply are jigs (only 1 choice of jigs at that) we brought our own herring and the 3 of us probably caught at least half of the boat limit. Hope this helps a little, good luck.

I’ve never fished the area you refer to, but jigging is my favorite way to catch salmon in the salt. No flashers, down riggers, boat navigating (trolling), weights, or leaders to tie and get tangled up. Just tie your jig to your line and your fishing. Jigs come in all different shapes, sizes, and colors. There are herring, anchovy, and candle fish imitations, just to name a few. After much experimenting I’ve had most of my success with all white candle fish jigs (long and skinny) and green back, white belly herring shaped jigs. However, if you get into the salmon thick it doesn’t really matter what you use. I put a slight bend in them and keep them clean between uses with WD40. Here is what I do, first wile cruising around in the boat I look for signs of bait fish. Flocks of birds on the water, herring jumping out of the water, and bait balls on the depth finder are all dead give aways. Next I figure out what way the current is going, mostly through trial and err. I then go to the far side of the bait so the current will push me into and over the bait. The size of jig I use depends on the speed of the current, the faster the current the bigger the jig I use. Your jig should be heavy enough to get down to the bottom before the current has pushed you to far away from where your drop it. I like to cast my jig with the current so I eventually pass over it with my boat giving it a few jigs then letting out some line and repeating this until it reaches the bottom. I then repeat this process back to the surface. This way I fish all depths. I used to not always go all the way to the bottom every time when fishing for silvers, but realized if I do I catch more things like ling cod (yum), and big kings (fun). The only drawback to jigs is a high mortality rate, just something to consider if you can only keep marked fish or plan on releasing fish and want to feel good about your ethics. I once caught just the eyeball of a salmon on my jig (I guess he was really checking it out) and hooks in the tongue and gills are not uncommon. However, the way I see it the seals and sea lions are going to get there fill of salmon no matter what so I don’t really feel bad releasing a fatally wounded fish that is going to become seal food either way.

I forgot to mention on my earlier post, I always try to keep my jig just below the schools of baitfish, the action of the jig imitates wounded baitfish and the salmon like to pick off the easy ones that are dropping out of the bait balls.
Oh yeah, when your bringing your jig to the surface, watch for salmon to follow your jig, don't bring the jig out of the water till your sure its not being followed, if it is being chased, put your reel in free spool and let the jig go, it probably won't get 10 or 15 ft. without getting hammered, I've caught alot of fish that I saw chasing my jig just by free-spooling the reel, try it-it works.

I've had the best luck with either pearl/blue or pearl/green buzz bombs for silvers and chinook or pink for humpy. For pt. wilson darts and stuff I've done well on a variety of colors. White is pretty good and so is pink/blue. I've caught alot of rockfish and chicken size halibut on the darts but only on silver/dark green ones. If you want to pick up a halibut or other bottomfish let it hit the bottom on EVERY drop. As long as it's not too rocky you won't lose very many jigs. Most of the fish swim over the lure and look down at it (to eat it) as soon as it hits the bottom and then when you pull up it smacks them right in the face. A lot will be hooked in the bottom of the jaw but I figure they were attracted to it anyways so it's not really snagging. It's especially effective when your using 6+ ounce jigs with large hooks and big bodies that the smaller halibut and rockfish have troubles swallowing.

Thanks for the post and the information guys. I've wanted to start jigging more. I'm kind of a rookie and generally troll. I tried my luck jigging a few times last summer but after donating 5 darts to the bottom structure of Puget Sound I called it quits. I'll be giving it another go this summer. I'll post it if I have any results.

Thanks to everyone for your info. I will let you all know how I did.