Tips on Bank Fishing Salmon in Alaska

Plunking for Salmon

Plunking for salmon means bottom fishing near the shoreline. Experienced plunkers rig their 1/0 to 4/0 sized hook with cured salmon eggs, the bait of choice. Just above the snelled hook (a hook pre-tied with a loop of fishing line that attaches to your main line), many anglers like to add a Spin-N-Glo, which is a short plastic spinner blade in fluorescent colors that creates both water movement and visual enticement for hungry salmon.

Short casts into pools and ebbs in the river are good plunking strategies. The idea is to get the bait near the river bottom in areas of slow-moving water. During the migratory months, cast to the downstream end of the pool, so your bait is the first thing incoming fish will encounter as they move upriver.

With plunking, you can use a rod holder and a strike signaler such as a small bell on the rod tip.

Casting to Salmon

Casting from shore with a spinning reel is an effective way to cover large areas of water from a fixed position. Lure choices expand beyond salmon eggs to include spoons and spinners resembling bait fish and surface plugs that may resemble wounded bait fish or insects. Vary your retrieval between a steady crank to a slow, jerky, stop-and-go motion to make the lure twitch.

Flipping to Salmon

This variation of casting is really a drift-fishing method. Thread a red plastic bead onto the end of the line and tie a short piece of yellow-green (chartreuse) yarn to your bare hook. Add a few split-shot sinkers about 12 inches up the line for a bit of heft when flipping to the salmon.

To flip, peel off enough line so that your lure is off the ground when holding the rod straight up. Pull off more line with your free hand and hold the line out from the rod so your hook remains off the ground, then swing your rod tip toward an upstream position, releasing the line in your free hand at the same time. With a correct flip, the line will straighten and drop your hook upstream so it can drift past you and downstream again. Aim your rod tip at the line and follow it as it passes by you moving downstream.