RT-
Well, great work there as far as remembering everything, that had to take some time. Anyhow over the last year, we've had another extremely successful fall season, and as time has progressed we've used the same sorts of alcohols to break things down and apparently you know what they are RT and we'll leave it at that!

More than not, what I've been experimenting with is the scents that you mix with the alcohols, trying to up my success rate by testing certain scents. We've came up with a few and I'd love to share but they're certainly the edge as well as a great egg cure we've also developed. I'd love to tell the world everything, but have probably already said too much and not just that but it would take all the fun out of trial and error of doing this, and also take away from a lot that you will learn when mixing this with that and seeing what salmon truly like.

For those out there that have the time to play the game, believe me it's a frustrating one because you will spend lots of time and money on scents and find that certain concoctions will work on certain strains of fish. I've been excited about getting down and trying some of the concoctions we have made down at tillamook, but haven't had the chance yet. Once again, we'd take the proven stuff but I'll gaurantee that all strains of chinook and silvers are different, and will take a lot of time to come up with ones that are killer down there.

Another issue that you will run into is that salmon (chinook, silvers) will go on a biting frenzy with a specific concoction for a short period of time (4-10 days) and then will turn off to it presence. It's those chinook and silvers that have stacked up in situations like near hatcheries or holes in lower water conditions where they are aging that they really act on scent concoctions. Making modifycations to that specific sauce sometimes doesn't even help, sometimes you just have to start over. We have a couple of concoctions that work great 95% of the time and we always have them with us.

Another kink to throw into the system is that although salmon are very responsive to scents/formulas they will act extremely wierd when they are fresh fish and especially in tidewater situations. One thing you will notice in tidewater situations or bright fish is not necessarily what scent you are using but what's in the egg cure as a bite enhancer. Certain chems work better in these given conditions than say on those fish that are stacked near the hatchery. There are times when straight bait will outdo any scent concoction that you have. Other issues to always deal with are water temp., clarity, height. So many things that make it tough but experimentation is where it's at.

Anyhow, I know these aren't the answers that you were looking for and I hope that everyone has the chance to get out and play the game. Some of you will get lucky the first try and others will spend years coming up with something that works.
Keith

[ 10-29-2001: Message edited by: stlhdr1 ]