This week has been a really weird week for me. First off, I actually caught a fish by myself. RT, I can't find that skunk monkey anymore, at least not right now. Caught all four on wiggle warts; 3 on Sun. and 1 on Mon, none on bait. This may sound normal so far, but I have a few questions.

I used the stock trebles, and the first fish I caught bent both the front and the back hooks. I took off both hooks and added a single treble, with a split ring to the back of the wiggle wart. I caught three other fish on this same setup.
How does it compare to using a beadchain with a treble or single to the belly hook?

Since I have a treble on the back I have thought of adding one of those minature squid things to make it look more like a tail.
What are your opinions on this?

One of the weirdest things (I thought) is that I caught the fish without using oils or smells on them. I tried rubbing some eggs cure juice on them, that didn't produce. I added shrimp oil to them, that didn't work. When I just took all the scent off, that is whent the fish bit. I didn't wear gloves, and I don't wash my hands or use hand lotion or anything. I thought fish didn't like human scent? What's up? I have heard that anise is also a good scent to use. What is the best anise brand to buy/use. And, no, I didn't eat any licorice before fishing. What about chocolate? I ate chocolate on the river.

That brings up another thought, 3 out of 4 salmon were hens. Do men catch more hens and women catch more bucks? Or, is it about the hens having to activiely feed more? How does the water level affect salmon. For example, if the water is flowing higher becasue of rains, will fish more actively run and feed? I am looking for some honest answers here, and maybe a few new ideas.

Matt

Good going getting that monkey off your back Rip'. Congrats, your on your way now.

I hope I can remember all those Q's in your post, because this BB software doesn't have the scroll down thread review feature.

Let's see ... I don't care what happened for you this weekend without washing your hands. DO wash your hands with a good fishermen's handsoap before handling tackle and periodically while out fishing. As for scents, good ones do help. But as I've posted before they should be used lightly - too much of a good thing is not always a good thing.

As for your tube jig on a bead chained hook shank, I like that idea. Let us know how it works. I've tried a small scented Gooey Bob simulated egg cluster in the hook shank for Warts and done well. Also using a chunk of crawfish tail in the hook is effective at times. That is similar to using sardine wraps on Kwikfish. And I prefer the beadchain to treble off the belly eyeloop over the back hook rigup. The hook extends back a little further and stays stabel in the strike zone, rather than flapping back and forth so that marginal hookups can occur more often. This is even more a factor for tail flapping Kwikfish.

Now, try using a float or straight drifting jigs or eggs and hook some fish. You'll get the hang of it quickly if you pay attention to what the knowledgable guys on the river are doing, and reading the tips guys post here. Good luck.

RT

Don't think it weird to catch a fish when not using scents or not covering your human scent. Yeah, it might help, but lots of fish are caught by people who ignore scents. Lots of guys catch fish on lures and flies when their hands smell like cigarettes, snuff, or just regular ol' dude.

[ 11-07-2001: Message edited by: Floatin' High ]

Last weekend I was fishing over a pod of silvers and wasn't getting many bites on eggs...took off the eggs and pitched nothing but a small corkie and brought 6 fish to hand in 30 minutes. Sometimes it's the switchup that gets 'em--this is particularly true for steelies, but also applies to salmon that have seen a lot of gear...just remember that the deadliest scent ever invented is that emitted by a little piece of yarn...

Rt I've got the scroll down thread review on my screen so you must too.

Seems like the guys before me answered about all your questions except the water flow. I've heard that when the water is dropping the fish bite really good. I don't know about the men catching hens and women catching bucks. I don't think it would make any difference if they washed there hands. Seems like I catch mostly bucks. I use spinners a lot and I think the bucks are just more aggresive so you would catch more of them on something that is flashy. Still catch hens on spinners though. Congrats on the fish and keep putting in time on the river.

~ Dr Pepper

Aunty, you mean you have to hit the back button several times to get back to the main screen AFTER YOU POST? You can do that or you can just hit the Northwest Fishing Board link towards the top of the screen.

Not sure why you're having problems AuntyM, everything seems to be be working fine on my end and no others have reported problems. Sounds to be more of an issue of connectivity to the site (or server load at the site) rather than any sort of a glitch.

RT ... hope you know where the scroll-screen is now

RDL ... I think you're going to have to chalk this one up more to coincide and circumstance rather than anything else.

You'd probably run across more active fish ... or just fish that were willing to bite. Not untypical to see salmon ignore EVERYTHING for 23 hours a day and then take ANYTHING the other hour

As for the hens ... remember, the salmon are NOT feeding ... you're looking for territorial or perhaps latent feeding instincts to draw the strikes, not hunger. Why a lot of hens?? Most salmon runs seem to have a predominance of bucks early in the run and hens later on ... it's November

The scroll down option works for me.

Well, I see where you could be right. It rained on Sat. and I fished Sun. The water was up and was a little bit clear, but it had lots of debris. Mon. it had dropped a couple inches. By this Wed. it had dropped about 8" and was clear. The fish were probably just moving.

RT, I have altered one of my guppies so it has a beadchain off the belly and a pink squid off the back. I haven't used it yet, but it looks good. I think I missed a fish a fish on Mon. due to not having a beadchain on the wiggle wart. It felt like a fish grabbed it and let go.

Now for free drifting bait, I don't know how to do that. It seems like the current would take the line and pull the bait around. I only have 12lb test on my spinning reel, should I look for another reel that I can put 4 or 6 on?

Matt

No. Stay with 12 lb. line. As for "free drifting" do you mean fishing bait without weight to get it down? That can be a good tech for some slow clear water. But you need to learn the basics of drift fishing with weight. Many guys say that Bill Herzog's book on 'Driftfishing Techniques' is a great one on that subject. You can find it at some tackle shops or order it thru www.amatobooks.com

Yep, that is what I meant by free drifting. It hasn't mattered so far of how I drift bait, I still haven't hooked fish. I guess I could use some lessons on reading water, and how to present my bait to it. I have plenty o' books, just need some "hands-on" experience.

Matt

Rip, I'll e-mail you an excerp of mine about drift fishing intricacies and what I call the 'lift-poke-set' method of feeling bites and setting the hook properly. (no farm jokes ) But you are right, for anyone learning to catch salmon and steelhead in the rivers you need time on the water practicing what you have read, and watching accomplished anglers catch fish.

Thanks for the info RT. I do have another question. Why is anise such a good scent? Why and how does it attract fish? Why would it out-perform shrimp, crawfish, or egg scent?

Matt

Great question matt,
Let's just say that who ever can answer that question will become rich. Fish are just plain screwy and scents can make them even act wierder. Let's put it this way, if and when you find a scent that works don't always plan on that scent working, you have to be versatile.

But in differences, well they smell different.. No actually there are 4 seperate scent bases that you have and that's oils, amino acids, plants and pheremones. Anise falls into the plant category and why it works I can't truly figure out other than the plant scents that tend to work all have some sort of omega fatty acid in them. You'll also find fatty acids in fish and in all the years, research, and experimenting that I've done I still couldn't give you a definate answer to your question..
Keith

That's right. Because the fish don't even know, we may never really know. Or, we just might find out. What was the question?

Hmmm... better get to mixing. Is there something out there that is a combination of all four?

Matt

Let u know if the scent I ordered works in a couple weeks.