I listened to several hunting and fishing seminars at both the Portland and Puyallup sportsmen’s shows this year. At almost every session I learn a tidbit or two to apply — or at least consider — when afield.
So, here are this year’s nuggets:
SPRING CHINOOK — Father-son guide team Jack and Brandon Glass of Troutdale offered these bits of advice:
o Leave the entrails inside a plug-cut herring. “That’s good scent,” Brandon Glass said. If after trolling a bit, the entrails are dragging out of the body cavity, they can be snipped off with a pair of scissors.
o When using a Kwikfish, leave the snap on and connect that to another snap attached to your line.
“It improves the action,” Jack Glass said. “The advantage is is gives more pivot points.”
o Brandon Glass said he will sometimes mix bits of herring, anchovy and sardine and put the paste inside a Brad’s Super Plug Cut lure. It offers the fish a different flavor
o Use a short piece of 40-pound line between the spreader bar and a flasher. This helps get the flasher a bit farther from the dropper and can lessen the potential for tangles.
o Fish very close to the bottom on an outgoing tide. If the tide is flooding, the fish might suspend a bit off the bottom. Of course, in the spring the Columbia in the popular Interstate 5-to-Caterpillar Island stretch is mostly running hard because of the lack of tidal influence.
While the Glasses don’t anchor fish, Brandon said he will backtroll Kwikfish in the I-5 bridge area.
MORE SPRING CHINOOK: Northwest fishing icon Buzz Ramsey of Klickitat suggests using flurocarbon lines for leader material. Flurocarbon is stiffer than monofilament and resists twisting.
The line works well on baitcaster reels, but not on spinning reels, he said.
“It resists twist even more than monofilament,” Ramsey said. “I use flurocarbon on my reels when I trout fish in real clear lakes with 4- to 6-pound test. But if you get up to 8-pound test, and especially 10-pound, it gets really unruly on a spinning reel. …The characteristics that make it not so good on a spinning reel make it great for leader.”
o Ramsey said he always gets asked why not use herring instead of sardines when wrapping a MagLips or Kwikfish plug with a fillet.
“Most of the herring you buy in trays have been caught live and starved for 30 days to make nice firm bait, make a nice plug-cut. So they don’t really have as much oil as sardines. If you buy bait fish herring, like fresh herring down in the fall for Buoy 10, those haven’t been starved out.”
o Ramsey also is experimenting with using a Spin-N-Glo with a piece of tubing fitted over the nose of the herring to spin it as a spring chinook bait. The friction of pulling through the water when trolling holds the Spin-N-Glo, tubing and herring together without any pinning.
KOKANEE: Gary Miralles of Shasta Tackle Co. offered these tips when selecting which color of kokanee lure to use.
On a bright day, start with nickle or chrome. On a dark day, try gold, brass or a bright painted lure.
When fishing the top 15 feet of the water column, try reds and oranges. Between 15 and 40 feet, go to greens and chartreuse. When fishing deeper, try blues and glow-in-the-dark.
o When fishing with a hoochie or a Kok-a-nut, have the leader between the dodger and hoochie no more than twice the length of the dodger.
Hoochies and Kok-a-nuts do not impact action on their own, but depend up the dodger, Miralles said.
WALLEYE — Guide Ed Iman of The Dalles says using braided line is a key to being in contact with your jig, blade bait or spinner-bottomwalker when walleye fishing in the Columbia.
“It takes less weight to get to the bottom and you have way more sensitivity,” he said.
But, most important, is using premium quality hooks.
“You don’t look that many and they make a huge difference,” Iman said. “Walleyes bite sideways. They crush a bait, turn and swallow. With needle-sharp hooks, they begin penetrating even before you feel it. You then set the hook with a sweeping hook-set. You don’t have to set it hard.”
When trolling, move in an S pattern, he said. If you hook a fish or get a bite, note the depth on your electronics.
“Tighten up your S curves on that contour,” he said.
When trolling crankbaits upstream, have all the rods in the boat using the same plug.
“If not, one of two things is going to happen,” he said. “Either your buddy is not going to be on the bottom, or he’ll be getting hung up all the time because his plug dives to deep. Now, different colors. That’s the thing to do.”
Iman also is high on blades bait, mentioning Cicadas, Silver Buddy and Heddon’s Sonar.
“This is a deadly piece once you learn how to use it,” he said. “This catches everything in the Columbia River in the mouth — catfish, perch, carp, sturgeon. I don’t care what it is.”
Blade baits imitate a crippled minnow, he said.
“When they hit this, they nail it.”
Allen Thomas covers hunting, fishing, hiking and other outdoor recreation topics for The Columbian. He can be reached by calling 360-735-4555 or by e-mailing to al.thomas@columbian.com.
