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| Many salmon anglers have their own ideas about what is the best colour for a salmon lure. Generally most stick to the tried and tested. |
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Salmon hardware can be improved with the addition of prism tape, paint, eyes, and dressed hooks. You must have razor sharp hooks to penetrate the hard mouth of a chinook salmon. The silver zed spinner pictured second from top is how they look when bought from a tackle store. |
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Most salmon anglers fish with ticers and zed spinners straight from the shop. However, I like to "improve" mine by applying reflective prism tape, fluorescent paint, and reflecting eyes, to their otherwise dull surfaces. I find those lures that are straight off the shelf lack something in the fish attracting department. On the other hand maybe I just like the pretty colours that I apply!
I'm sure that the flash of a bright shiny lure is an important ingredient in triggering a strike from an otherwise disinterested salmon. After all salmon aren't meant to be feeding once they enter freshwater.
With the bashing your hardware gets from stones the silver finish doesn't last long. If you apply two pot epoxy rod finish over the lure it retains its shine indefinitely. You can apply prism tape and then epoxy over it. The thick glossy finish prevents the tape from lifting. I have done quite a bit of experimenting in this area and have found the epoxy coating, which you can easily apply yourself, works great.
A little epoxy goes a long way. The best idea is to coat your lures in batches of a dozen or two at a time. If you remove the swivel together with the split ring from the front of the lure, you can use the hook for hanging it until the epoxy sets. This also prevents the split-ring becoming clogged with epoxy preventing them from working. The epoxy sets hard in 24 hours. If the hole in the lure becomes blocked it is easy to just re-drill it with a power-drill.
Buy yourself a proper pair of slit-ring pliers. These make the job a breeze. Using your thumbnail is hopeless!
According to NIWA scientist Gavin James, the results of an extensive survey of the stomach contents of over 800 quinnat salmon that had been taken as by-catch by trawlers operating off the Canterbury coast, showed that sprats made up 76 percent of their diet. Sprats are a bright silver colour with blue backs. This being so it is perhaps surprising that salmon anglers don't paint a cobalt blue line on to their silver
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| Above: Always carry a small sharpening stone to touch up your hook points. A flash of pink should make this zed spinner easier for salmon to see. The ticer has chartreuse prism tape to make it more visible in coloured water, and a "sticky sharp" Gamakatsu treble hook. Note also there are two split-rings at the hook end. |
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| Split-ring pliers make hook changes a breeze. |
hardware. In recent years white painted lures have become tremendously popular with those who chase the mighty salmon. I was a little dubious about white coloured ticers. However white has proven to be one of the best fish takers! Particularly if a small strip of a second colour is added for a "flash of colour."
Yellow has also become a big seller over the last couple of seasons and works well. I prefer to add a flash of prism tape to my salmon lures. Chartreuse (yellow green) is the hot colour at the moment. Who knows what the salmon think? But chartreuse works!
Salmon have hard bony mouths that make it difficult to set your hook. For this reason it is essential to always fish with very sharp hooks. Check the hook points with your fingers at regular intervals while fishing. The easiest way to keep them sharp is a quick touch-up with a small stone. Another way of doing it is to either change hooks with your split-ring pliers or otherwise tie on another spinner if the hook points are dull.
Chemically sharpened treble hooks are a big improvement. They have finer points and don't need sharpening though they are more expensive to buy.
Also regularly check your line a foot or so above the spinner by sliding your thumb and finger along it. Check for nicks or flattened sections in the monofilament paying close attention to the knot. It is best to cut of the last foot or so and retie every so often. If you get a strike from a big salmon, particularly in fast water, you will wish you had checked your line more often!
Take a look at the Shimano Moocher reel. You might also be interested what salmon eat at sea? History of salmon fishing in the Waitaki River and Line of Salmon Anglers at the Rangitata River. Read about Otago Harbour Salmon Fishing. Learn how to fix that annoying leak in your waders. Fishing with white salmon lures. Much depends on the speed at which you wind in your zed spinners. Still keen? Take a look at super salmon spinners, even more about salmon zed spinners. Salmon ticers designed for long distance casting (also called weight-forward hex wobblers).
Salmon Fishing in New Zealand
