I have fished for springers here and there, but nothing to the extreme. I fish pretty light weight for steelies but I know these springers are another story. I am headed out this weekend, and will be pulling divers and some plugs on one rod and have a few other rods for drift fishing. I am planning on runnign 15lb main line on my plug rods, is this too light for these fish? On my drift rods I will be running 12lb main line? this too light? I tought springers were quite spooky, am I just imagining things? I know there close cousins the fall chinook could care less about line diameter. Should I be running big spin glows? I was planning on running smaller spin cheaters instead. Are Jumbo shrimp going be better than the typical sandshrimp? big baits better? ANy info will help, including colors.

Thanks,
Andy

It all depends on the size of river you are fishing. My #1 river technique is sardine wrapped K-15 Kwikfish in the silver with the chartreuse head. Next would be herring and then a Jumbo shrimp and spin-n-glo. As for line size you'll be in a boat and smaller rivers 10-12lb test and bigger rivers 12-20lb test, directly correlated to water temp. and color. Where are you going?

------------------

Also, if you're fishing larger deeper holes use eggs and shrimp combos. If you've got access to fresh crawdads use eggs and daddy tails (meat only). Either backbounce or backtroll the setup. Backboucing use about a 16-24 inch dropper and 42-60 inch leader and the only difference in backtrolling is use a shorter dropper.

------------------

Hi Andy- Got the jig/rag shipment today (Mon.) and they look great. -- Springers can be a litle more line shy in gin clear water than fall Kings, but the caliber you're talking about won't likely be a factor in most cases. I'd rather have 20# line/leader in water with some color and have a better chance at landing that precious fish! The only time I would go down to 10 or 12# would be when they hole up in gin clear water in the upper ends of medium to smaller rivers a few weeks from now.- As for bait, take a good variety to see what they prefer (including altering cure chems on your eggs). Whole small prawns cured up in light pink colors work great in rivers like the Kalama & Cowlitz (often outfishes sandshrimp when the water has some color). I know you access www.ifish.net . Click on the old Discussion Board there before it gets deleted soon and review my (RT) Egg Cure/additives dated 12/18, Prawn Curing & Custom Rigging, 1 & 2 dated 12/29 & 3/1, & Customized Lures, 1 & 2 dated 2/25. You will find some unique tips there that will definitely put you into some more Kings Andy- just as your lures you sent will put me into some more steelhead. Good luck. Later, Steve