THE FISH ARE STILL OUT THERE!
As fall begins many of the local fishermen and guides shut their fishing down for the year. Their focus shifts to hunting and other jobs they do during the slow months That’s true the bite does slow down this time of year but so does the traffic on the water.
Fall is and will always be my all-time favourite time of year. The beautiful change in colours, the breathtaking sunrises and sunsets are hard to beat. One of my favourite parts is the cooler weather because this Ukrainian boy overheats in 30 degree Celsius.
THE FALL TIME FOCUS
The Coho have just started to do their fall winter run, which produces some amazing action-packed days. Often, it’s even a challenge to get down rigger ball to desired depth without a Coho intercepting the bait! As for Chinooks the main run is done but they are still around just not in the big numbers they were in the summer.
A DIFFERENT KIND OF EXPERIENCE
Learning the ocean is a whole new ball game but it can be broken down simpler than most think. I knew there was going to be and will always be learning curve but that’s the fun part in my mind.
Obviously the first thing I check before going on the ocean is the wind. Just about every morning is calm enough to get out for a few hours. Occasionally we get days that stay calm all day but for the most part it’s a morning program. The most important thing in my mind is knowing what the tide is doing and understanding which places you should be fishing accordingly. When the tide is flooding to low tide, it often pushes the bait way out and scatters the out in the deep water. In these situations I focus on the second tidal line and follow it along and fish both sides.
HIGH TIDE
Going into high tide, as the water flows back and starts filling everything back up, I focus on the areas close to the initial drop offs where the bait fish will get pushed into. Locating these balls of bait is critical.
You can see in the picture on my Lowrance there was a ton of bait all around us that day and the fishing was amazing.
WHAT TO USE ON THE END OF YOUR LINE
The setups are anchovy teaser heads behind a flasher with 6/8 ft leads. These two setups have been the credit cards for our salmon shopping this year! They have produced both numbers and the biggest fish all year as well. It’s important to put a slight curve in your anchovy to get a nice tight spin. Anchovies tend to get soft fast, so we load kosher salt on the bait as soon as we get it. This keeps the bait stiff much longer.
Small herring on herring teasers in the same patterns have been working well also. The one nice part with the coho is generally you can get away with small skinny spoons and hoochies behind your flasher. To get your hoochie to have a nice erratic action it’s important to keep a short lead behind the board of around three feet.
FIND THE RIGHT DEPTH
As for depth of the down rigger ball I generally have a few people with me and run one at 40 feet and one at 60. My other two rods will be snap weighted with a crankbait to get down to the proper depth.
The crankbaits have not been near as successful as bait and spoons, but we have had a few days it’s out fished them all. The Bagley Rumble B 9 in green/white has been consistent as well as the same colour in the deep diving Bagley Minnow B. Speed all depends on the current always hold your lures to see how there swimming as you let them out. And pay attention to the angle of your down rigger wire. This will ensure your getting a good speed. You always want to have a bit of angle on it.
Fall fishing it’s the best time to be on the water.