Sockeye

nastygunz · August 15, 2018, 08:01:27 PM

Man what an experience! I may have missed it already in this thread but what are you using to catch them on as far as lures,bait, etc.?

Okanagan · August 15, 2018, 09:21:51 PM

Quote from: nastygunz on August 15, 2018, 08:01:27 PM
Man what an experience! I may have missed it already in this thread but what are you using to catch them on as far as lures,bait, etc.?

These sockeye are not biting. We snag them in the mouth. True, though I did not believe it at first. Once in awhile one will bite and they bite well in clear water but mouth snagging, usually called flossing, is the only way anyone has come up with to catch them in the turbid Fraser and in opaque glacier rivers in Alaska. Having said that, you must have a lure on the end of your line. A bare hook is illegal.

Here is my variant of the standard gear.

2/0 hook (barbless), 2 oz. sinker in most places, and I use an 11 foot leader on a 10.5 foot rod. The intent is to drift the long leader downstream where salmon are swimming up. When the leader goes into the mouth of a sockeye, it slides through his mouth and hooks him on the outside of the offside lip. Every sockeye I have caught or unhooked for anyone else this year are hooked in the outer edge of the lip.

My lure shown below. It is a yarn fly, which means yarn is tied into the snell knot that ties leader to hook, plus I add a pea sized corkie tied just past the bend of the hook so that if the leader is sliding through the mouth of the fish, the hook point hits the fish before the corkie. I prefer red because the odd Chinook seem to bite it better. Corkies float the hook up off of the bottom slightly.

The hook with yarn and corkie are pre tied at home as one unit on an 11 foot leader. The leader ties to a swivel on the end of my main line. On the river when I need to replace a leader I unwrap one from a batch of pre-tied ones.

On the main line, above the leader, I use a slider sleeve to attach the sinker. That way the line goes straight to the fish without any sinker weight between me and the fish. The sinker can slide up or down the main line, but stops at the swivel 11 feet above the hook. In the pic below, the separate pieces are laid in line and below them is one slider unit with line protector plastic tube extension, explained below.

The rest of the stuff is to make all of that work. A bead stops the sinker slider from jamming onto the swivel, and the rubber or plastic sleeve extension on the slider protects the line from being hammered between sinker and rocks as the rig bumps along the bottom.

nastygunz · August 15, 2018, 09:38:15 PM

Wow thats damn interesting, didnt have a clue! I remember many years ago they allowed snagging on the salmon river in Pulaski New York

FinsnFur · August 15, 2018, 10:09:55 PM

Whoa...thats some deep stuff

nastygunz · August 15, 2018, 11:38:24 PM

That there is what we amateurs call " technical fishing".

coyote101 · August 16, 2018, 11:54:19 AM

Great pictures

thanks for sharing.

Do you can, smoke, freeze, or just cook and eat the sockeye?

Pat

Okanagan · August 16, 2018, 03:02:17 PM

Pat, we eat lots fresh, our favorite. I smoke quite a bit and am getting the flavor dialed in to our taste. Smoked salmon is drool on my self good! We would rather give fresh sockeye to friends who appreciate the fresh unfrozen fish than we would to freeze it, though I freeze some when we get quite a lot, like today. I really like home canned salmon but lost my pressure cooker somewhere along the way in a move and have not replaced it.

Okanagan · August 16, 2018, 03:12:34 PM

A photo of my sockeye rig as used on the river this morning. There is 11 feet of leader between the swivel and the hook with yarn on it. This hook and leader caught two fish and the sinker set-up lasted all morning, never changed.

Hooked and played four fish to land two, both pretty good sized males. Fresh from salt water, hardly a trace of color change or hook jaw yet.

The pic below shows my kayak in the upper right, and the channel I paddle across. I park on the island where the white vehicle is showing across the wide side channel of river.

A friend met me there in his boat this morning and we had one of those Great fishing mornings. After he got his limit he kept on catching and releasing fish, experimenting with no corkie, less weight, etc. I tried his suggestion of a yarn fly only with no corkie, which I have used at times, and this morning it was hot. I caught another one on my first cast without the corkie, and released it in the water. Then I fly fished for few minutes before heading home and my last intended cast hooked and landed a dandy sockeye on a #4 size fly and 8 lb. tippet. Released that one as well and quit. I'd love to catch and release a bunch but it is hard on the fish and I want them to survive and make more little sockeye.

nastygunz · August 16, 2018, 05:14:20 PM

I vote this Thread of the Year!

Okanagan · August 17, 2018, 12:02:37 AM

Quote from: nastygunz on August 16, 2018, 05:14:20 PM
I vote this Thread of the Year!

It has been fun and full of surprises, but I don't know if would rate it THAT good!

I've been fishing fast because tomorrow I take off for 8 days. It will be fun with grandkids but away from the river full of sockeye salmon.

nastygunz · August 17, 2018, 12:37:03 AM

Grand kids...salmon..Grand kids...salmon..Grand kids...salmon..Grand kids...salmon..

FinsnFur · August 20, 2018, 09:56:41 PM

Those pictures

Man I love that scenery

nastygunz · August 21, 2018, 01:26:57 AM

I did an Internet search and found some actual footage of Okanagan before he had a kayak!

FinsnFur · August 25, 2018, 10:26:05 PM

Yep!...thats him

Okanagan · August 25, 2018, 10:52:07 PM

You all are on to me. The only way I can catch a salmon is to take one away from a bear! No bears around today so I got skunked.

Dave · September 04, 2018, 03:46:30 PM

Great post - so happy those boys got to spend some time up there with you! Hopefully they got to spend some time with their cousins, too.

Okanagan · September 05, 2018, 10:36:01 AM

Quote from: Dave on September 04, 2018, 03:46:30 PM
Great post - so happy those boys got to spend some time up there with you! Hopefully they got to spend some time with their cousins, too.

Dave, I sure wish you could have joined me on the river to repay you a bit for taking me fishing for stripers and blues. I'm still savoring that trip.

Yes, the boys spent a hectic week with cousins: wake tubing on Lake Crescent, swimming, backpacking overnight in the Olympic Mountains, throwing the football with their high school QB cousin (a highlight), family BBQs & ice cream bashes, etc. They think that life in the west is one continuous family party.

Sockeye season ended yesterday. I caught one and foul hooked a large Chinook in the side. That made for a long, hard, weird fight in the river current before he frayed the line against something and finally broke off. He jumped once so we got a look at him.

Last sockeye of my season. 3/0 hook in photo.

Dave · September 07, 2018, 05:15:15 AM

Quote from: Okanagan on September 05, 2018, 10:36:01 AM

Dave, I sure wish you could have joined me on the river

Haha - not as much as I wish I could too. Looks like you've had a lot of time on that river figuring things out and have it down now. Have to say I'm jealous. Had to buy some fresh sockeye recently to try a new smoker and wished they were around here.
And I hear you on fresh vs frozen fish. I get excited over fresh, but some how it's tough to pull out a package of frozen and feel the same way (this is probably referencing a different post, but it all runs together in my mind). If I come home with a surplus I ALWAYS give it away (family first, and then friends, of course). If anything gets frozen it almost always ends up at my mother in law's house!

And I can't tell you how good it makes me feel that those boys got out there to see you in your element and experience the life that I'd bet everything on that they'd love to be more a part of. :high clap: I feel you're living the Alaskan life without having to put up with those nasty winters!