BTW - looking back on the post about catching 2 fish and foul hooking 5-6 others - all I can say is that you were not doing it right or you were fishing in an area with too many fish and jigging should not have been tried. That foul hook to legit hook ratio is terrible. Reminds me of the drift fisherman who snag 10 fish per 1 legit at the mouth of the wallace when the chum are in. Terrible sportsmanship in my opinion. Accidently snagging fish here and there can't be helped sometimes, but if you accidently hook fish after fish - is it really considered an accident? (off my soap box now)

*** edit to add that I'm not attacking the guy who shared his trip success with his son above. When you are new to salmon fishing, foul hooking them accidently is to be expected sometimes. It's the guys how do it for 'sport' just so they can brag about the 30 salmon they caught that get to me. **********


My guess is that you were just jigging wrong. You see buzz bombers make the same mistake. Yes, sometimes yanking the jig 2 to 4 feet straight up and letting it drop back down can draw savage strikes - but it will also result in many snagged fish. THe upward motion should be deliberate, but not forceful. Just lift the tip 4-18 inches, and then drop it down allowing a slight bow \ slack line to form. I purposely do it slow enough that if I feel a bump, I stop, so as to not drive the hook into the side of a fish. Since 90% of the bites will come as the jig free falls, you don't have to worry about missing strikes while raising the jig.

Cast out, let sink to bottom, but don't let it settle or you'll risk losing it between rocks. Once you do this enough, you'll get to know the snaggy spots vs the clear spots very well. I rarely lose jigs now. I hit bottom, then start cranking the reel and jigging as I slowly crank - raise tip, drop, raise tip, drop - sometimes I'll drop back down to bottom once or twice - but jigging at mid depth or near athe surface is often just as good as being on the bottom.

Anyway - the approach is not 'bottom bouncing' or 'hopping' the jig off the bottom - it is swimming the jig (I call it "free jigging") through the water in an effort to draw a strike from any aggressive fish in the hole. And they will chase these jigs from quite a ways away. It's a very exciting way to fish. But it can be a downer if you do it wrong and have to waste a bunch of time dealing with foul hooked fish...