Tips on Salmon Fishing From the Shore

Drift fishing

Drift fishing is one of the most productive shore-fishing techniques, as it allows the bait to be presented in a manner that appears completely natural to the fish. Drift fishing involves casting the bait upstream and allowing it to drift down with the current. Concentrate on working areas of calmer water, called runs, between sections of rougher water called riffles. Salmon generally tend to hole up at the beginning of a run as the current is not as strong and this is where natural food sources are the most abundant. To make the presentation as natural as possible, only weight your line so it will drift at about the same speed the current. This will take a little trial and error as every section of water has a different current speed.

Plunking

Plunking is very similar to bottom fishing in a lake. You cast your bait or lure into a spot of slow-moving water such as a pool or the head of a riffle and allow it lay on the bottom until a fish takes it. Plunking is often done from boats but works well from shore. A productive plunking setup is to tie one eye of a three-way swivel to the main line, an 18-inch leader from another eye to the bait and a 2-inch line with a 1/8-ounce sinker weight to the third eye of the swivel.

Bait

Fly fishing is one of the most popular methods for salmon. Floating a dry fly along on the surface or having a wet fly bounce along the bottom can produce results. A good tip is to find out what patterns and colors are working for other fisherman. If you prefer to use spinning tackle, a lure wrapped with a small piece of fish can be productive. Salmon eggs are one of the most popular baits for salmon. Get eggs from bait shops as they have been cured in a solution to be more effective than fresh eggs. You also can use imitation eggs treated to smell like natural salmon eggs. Imitation eggs probably won&039;t be as useful as the cured natural eggs.