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This is the time of year when many a Northwest angler starts dreaming of catching one of the most coveted of all gamefish—the spring chinook salmon. Prized for its fighting capabilities and even more so for its beautiful red meat, the spring chinook season on the Columbia River, the Snake River and a number of other tributaries attracts tens of thousands of anglers. With seasons open in early March in the lower Columbia River, and in mid-March farther upstream, anglers anxiously await the first of the returning salmon. There are several different techniques for getting a springer to bite, depending on where in the river you are fishing. Down low, many anglers will anchor up and drop a lure back into the current and let it work, waiting for the migrating fish to move upstream. Common lures for this type of fishing include the popular diving Mag Lip plug, wrapped with a small fillet of sardine or herring. More recently anglers have been wrapping a small slice of tuna belly on the belly of the Mag Lip to add scent and flavor to the plug. From the banks of the Columbia, anglers for decades have “plunked” a Spin-N-Glo out into the current and wait for the fish to grab it. To rig for plunking, a fairly heavy weight (12-16 oz.) is tied to the end of the line, and the Spin-N-Glo (normally a size 2 or 4) tied on a three foot leader, is clipped on via a plug snap or snap swivel and sent down the main line. The technique is still as popular and productive as ever for springers. Farther upriver on some of the tributaries lures and bait is trolled, both upstream and down, for the salmon. Diving plugs like the Mag Lip and Fat Wigglers are always good in fluorescent red, orange, fire tiger or combination versions of metallic silver and chartreuse. The larger 4.5 Mag Lips have been good especially at Drano out in the lake, and the new smaller 4.0 Mag Lips should be perfect size for this type of fishing. Prawn spinner rigs will also work well at both of these spots. Using a Toman Cascade style blade in red and white, or chartreuse and silver above five or six beads and the hook is the basic rigging. Rig the dyed prawn so that it is swimming backwards through the water. Some guides and anglers prefer to have a slow roll on their prawns, while others want them to have no roll at all. If you are trolling a prawn spinner or a herring a 4 to 6-ounce dropper is needed to get the bait down fairly quickly. Drop the rig down and let the dropper bump bottom and then reel it up two or three turns. That should put you in the zone. Trollers using bait will run their rigs about six feet behind a rotating flasher like a Fish Flash. Spring is almost here, and that means the first chinook salmon of the year are starting to make their way up the Columbia and other Northwest rivers. Spring salmon are never easy, but if you stay out after them long enough, the chances of catching one of the hardest fighting and best eating fish around, are pretty good.

Float fishing for steelhead is similar to the drift fishing method in that you cast out, across and slightly upstream, pick up any slack line, and allow your float and jig suspended below it to drift through the holding water. Your drift is complete when your outfit nears the tail out, jig begins hitting bottom, or you cannot eliminate line drag by mending, which is when you'll need to reel in and cast again. Float fishing consists of a series of casts, drifts, and retrieves. Because you're fishing with your eyes rather than by feel, you'll need to keep tabs on your bobber at all times. When your bobber goes down/disappears (signaling a fish has taken your jig) you must quickly/immediately set the hook.In all cases, a drag-free drift with your float moving at or a bit slower than the river current is critical to success. If you're fishing a current edge, that is: where slack and moving water meet, on the near side of the river, you should have no problem with line drag. It may be a different story if you're casting out into a hole or drift where the current, especially a strong one, can grab your main line the moment it hits the water surface and push it downstream faster than your float is moving.One way to reduce or momentarily eliminate line belly in order to maintain a natural drift is to mend your line. Line mending is something fly anglers do, for the same reason, to prevent their fly from skating downstream too fast. To mend your line, start with your rod at a low angle and pointed at your float, progressively pull your rod up and backward (toward you) while rolling your rod tip and line upstream. When you mend, its important to do so aggressively enough that your main line will be tossed upstream all the way to your float. Given a strong current, you may have to mend your line several times during a single drift.Casting out at a slight downstream angle and feeding line off your reel fast enough that your bobber wont be overcome by line drag can reduce or eliminate the effects of line belly on your bobber. If you're a boater, you can cast out to the side or at a 45-degree angle downstream too, but you may find better success and eliminate all line drag/belly by anchoring above the area you wish to fish and maneuver your bobber n jig directly downstream.~ Buzz Ramsey

What it takes to to put these awesome fish in the boat is perseverance, a heater and some warm clothes. There is no substitute for time on the water and building a relationship with other local anglers can be very beneficial in finding Kokanee in winter. Kokanee in winter on Lake Roosevelt are aggressive feeders. The hardest part is finding them. These fish are on the surface, and when I say surface I meet the top fifteen feet of the water column. When you drive through a pod of fish they scatter and go around the boat not under it. So these Kokanee do not show up on your display. Electronics are not as helpful for finding fish as they are for returning to where they have been found. When you hook a Kokanee many times you will get one or two on at the same time. I have had up to six rods at one time hooked up with these aggressive fish. When that happens I immediately mark a waypoint on my Lowrance so that I can return to that spot and hopefully pick up a few more out of that pod of Kokanee. This is my favorite time of the year to fish Kokanee. I love a plug bite and when you flatline Mag Lip 2.5 is payed out 150-200 feet behind the boat the bite is explosive with acrobatic jumps and runs. Keeping a tight line at this stage in the battle can be a fun challenge. I also will run side-planers with either fast limit Dodgers and tight line spinners or plugs. Side-planers are a very important tool in my winter fishery to spread my gear out, to cover more water and get my lures away from the boat. This will also help to run more rods with less tangles. On my boat I generally will run six rods. Two side-planers on the front rods, the two middle rods on Downriggers and the back two corner rods flatlined. Being setup this way I can run any combination of lures such as Mag Lip on side-planers, Trout and Kokanee dodgers with silver magic spinners on downriggers or Fast limit Dodgers with tight line spinners or streamer flies flatlined out the back. When targeting surface feeding Kokanee it's very important to get your lures away from the boat a minimum of 100 feet behind the boat, but don't be afraid to put your spread back as fair as 200 feet. Died, brined, scented corn and maggots are a must in my boat. It's important to have several different color combinations in your boat. Pink, orange and purple are all kokanee killing colors even green on some days. Line counter reels will help you in this fishery as well as many other fisheries repeatability is the key to success accurately knowing the distance of line payed out when you catch a fish along with the speed of the boat will help you to repeat the pattern that is putting fish in your net. In short the more tools you have in your tool box and the repeatability of your success will make you a better angler. Good luck and tight lines on your next fishing adventures. Austin Moser Austin's Northwest Adventures Wenatchee, WA 98801 509-668-0298

With a big storm about to hit the West Coast again this week, high water techniques are needed. Randy Wells of Oregon Fishing Adventure and Fish Seward Alaska Inc. spends his winters guiding anglers on Southern Oregon and Nor-Cal rivers such as the Chetco River in Oregon and the Smith River in Northern California. Randy says that this fall and winter have been wet and kept the rivers he fishes high for most of his steelhead season. Randy has a tip for those anglers who think the best steelhead fishing is when the water is steelhead green, Randy says, it’s not. When the rivers have that perfect color anglers flock to the water, as they should, but with high water most anglers stay home, and this leaves the rivers full of fish with little pressure. When the water is high steelhead move to 2-4ft of water to try and keep the dirt and sand out of their gills, but they still will hit the right presentation. For example, Randy ties up a Spin-N-Glo with a bead and a number 2 hook, two hooks if your river allows with a 20lb 24in leader attached to a barrel swivel followed up with a tear drop sinker on a slider, this is the exact set up most anglers use while back bouncing for kings. Randy than puts his boat right on the shoreline which is in the willows where he’s fishing, he will than cast downstream and plunk the Spin-N-Glo with a small cluster of eggs or he will back bounce the same setup down the willow line if he can. The steelhead are running up river right on the shoreline and will smack this set up. Finally, most will ask “what part of the river do I fish?” Randy says to find a “choke point” or a bend in the river where but the point is to put that Spin-N-Glo in the travel lane and you will hook up. You may feel like you are fishing in inches of water, but that’s where the fish are. Check out this great Smith River hatchery fish caught on the last high water while fishing this exact setup.

Plane dropping the crew off at the Narrows What do you do when you are hundreds of miles in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness and the float plane doesn’t pick you up? You make the best out of it! On a recent filming trip to the King Salmon Lodge, located on the NakNek River on the Alaskan Peninsula, the Wild Fish Wild Places crew was anxiously waiting to fly to a spot we had fished about 5 years prior. A spot referred to as “The Narrows” about a 300 yard stretch of river in-between two massive lakes where the Silver Salmon, Sockeye, Arctic Char, Mackinaw and Grayling stack up to either spawn or feed but either way the fish are likely to be here in August! As our friend Chris from Trygg Air loaded up the crew at the King Salmon Lodge dock and headed out we discussed fishing options, local hunting hot spots and of course what to do if the wind comes up. Chris said to me “if the wind starts blowing out of the Northeast a little harder than it is now I will pick you up on the opposite lake that I and dropping you off on, so just take your gear to that side and be ready about 5.” Okay, easy enough! We fished the day at The Narrows catching Silvers, Char and a few Mackinaw. Like Chris had mentioned the wind picked up, a LOT! We moved all of our gear to the other lakeshore as instructed and awaited our pickup. We heard the plane coming and started making our way to the rendezvous point but the first pass Chris didn’t land. Hmmmm weird, so he made his way to the other side and another low pass but still no landing. He made his way about 4 different angles and attempts when my producer Greg says “I think he is waving to us to get us to move to the other spot” but as we watched close as Chris made his way low right above us it was clear, I told Greg “That’s a goodbye wave and we are staying the night.” After the initial shock of realizing we were getting left for the night subsided we started to discuss a game plan and that is where our boy Ludwig came to our rescue! Ludwid is an 85 year old German man who has been coming to Alaska since 1974 and has himself a little cabin about a mile down the lake! I made my way over to the crusty old German and asked if he would mind if we stayed the night. He of course obliged and the 4 of us found ourselves packing all of our gear down to the cabin. Ludwig isn’t really prepared for company so the food situation was a little bleak. Dreu and I decided we needed to catch some fish for dinner! The day went from fun fishing to fishing for dinner but luckily we were on a pile of silvers right before the float plane left us so we were fairly confident we could produce dinner. Dreu and I both tied on a spinner and started casting. Fish on!!!!! The Silvers were here and they were on fire, one after another to hand and of course, getting a rock to the dome because we were like a fat kid on a donut with these fish. Dreu and I landed enough fish for the camp and Ludwig prepared a nice batch of noodles to compliment the fresh salmon. Ludwig prepared fish, noodles and a nice tea for dinner, he did not share his one piece of Twix but we totally understood. He provided us with a nice warm place to sleep for the night and some coffee when we woke up. Chris picked us up that morning around 8 but of course we were slamming silvers at that point and didn’t want to leave! As the float plane idled up to get us we had to make Dreu reel in and load up. What at first seemed like a bit of a disaster turned out to be a very memorable and fun experience in the wilds of Alaska hundreds of miles from the lodge thanks to our new friend Ludwig.

By Jamie Robinson With the opening of brook trout season on January 1st and really the beginning of my ice fishing season, my first task is to make sure I have all my jigging lures packed and ready for action. One thing I have learned, I don’t leave home without a variety of Vibric Rooster Tail spinners in the 1/8 and 1/4oz sizes. Although most day’s small spoons would work just fine for all your jigging applications, it seems on the tough bite days, the Vibric Rooster Tail seems to shine. I am very fortunate to live in an area basically surrounded by trout waters where I can simply leave right from my house on my Skandic Ski-Doo and fish literally over 50 lakes. Many of these lakes are only accessible by Ski-Doo in the winter and have tough access and therefore are full of brook trout. I took the opportunity to experiment with various lures, on the days when nothing seemed to work, through trial and error discovered the Vibric Rooster Tail triggered some of the most beautiful brook trout we have ever landed. The technique is very similar to jigging any spoon, a simple jigging cadence with lifts in the 10” to 16” range has worked best. When jigging the Vibric Rooster Tail, you will know you are jigging correctly and getting the maximum action when you feel the thumping vibration the blade creates on your jigging lift. You wouldn’t think a spinner would be a great ice fishing jigging lure. Yet the Vibric Rooster Tail with its hackle tail, offset body and shaft through blade design, creates a rotation that gives off a fish catching vibration and presentation that the large brook trout can’t resist.

Running plugs like the Mag Lip with two Siwash hooks rigged using a barrel swivel between the hook and the split ring is another way to insure hooked fish stay buckled up and also makes it easier to release fish unharmed. The Mag Lip has rapidly become the steelhead, salmon and trout plug of choice among river guides, charter captains and serious fishing enthusiasts. One of the most common “modifications” we see involves replacing the factory supplied round bend tail treble hook with a hook one size larger and also using wide bend style trebles. Wide bend hooks tend to stick and stay stuck a little better than traditional treble hooks. All the salmonids are powerful fish and keeping them “hooked up” is just one of the challenges anglers who target these species face. A number of manufacturers produce wide bend treble hooks including Eagle Claw Lazer Sharp L949 Kahle, the Trokar TK310, Mustad KVD Triple Grip, Gamakatsu Extra Wide Gap and Matzuo Sickle Treble to name a few. Some anglers also remove the belly hook on Mag Lip to help keep snags to a minimum. At slow to moderate trolling speeds, in slow to moderate current conditions or when fishing Mag Lip in combination with three way swivel and sinker rig removing the belly hook is no issue for Mag Lip. When fishing the Mag Lip in fast current or at faster trolling speeds it’s best to keep the belly hook in place to help stabilize the bait. Another simple “modification” to consider is using not one, but two split rings on the tail hook. This configuration makes it tougher for a rolling and thrashing fish to gain leverage and tear free. It’s also important to note that some anglers favor a single Siwash hook in snag ridden areas or when live releasing fish. The single Siwash hook is rigged to a small barrel swivel added between the hook and the factory supplied split ring. When fishing Siwash hooks anglers can run a treble hook on the tail of the bait and a Siwash as the belly hook, or they can rig a Siwash hook on both the tail and belly of the lure.

The Fishing 411 crew commonly use Fish Flash in front of walleye spinners to attract and catch Great Lakes walleye. The Big Al Fish Flash has rapidly become the “attractor” of choice among salmon and trout fishermen. The unique triangle shape of the Fish Flash allows this attractor to spin on it’s own axis, creating massive amounts of fish attracting flash and offering up near zero drag in the water. The flash created by this attractor imitates the flash that naturally occurs when predator fish slash into a school of bait fish. When predator fish see flashes of light in the water, it’s like the dinner bell is ringing! THE STANDARD RIG Fish Flash can be fished in a multitude of ways, but the standard set up is a three way swivel rig. The main line attaches to one of the arms of the three way swivel, a short dropper with a lead weight attaches to the second arm and a five to six foot leader with the Fish Flash at one end and a plug, spinner, spoon, cut-bait or live bait rig is offered at the terminal end. Because this attractor doesn’t impart action to lures, it’s best to match up Fish Flash with lures and baits that have their own natural action. DOWNRIGGERS Fish Flash is also commonly used in combination with downriggers. The downrigger rod is rigged with a round nose snap, then the attractor is attached directly to this snap. A five to seven foot leader is added to the back of the Fish Flash and the lure or bait of choice added at the terminal end. This highly effective attractor rig can be fished anywhere from 10 to 100 feet behind the downrigger ball. The rule of thumb is the clearer the water is, the further this rig should be fished behind the downrigger weight. Fish Flash rigs are equally effective on suspended species like king, coho and Atlantic salmon or bottom loving fish including lakers and brown trout. The Big Al Fish Flash is primarily used to catch trout and salmon, but Paige proves that Fish Flash also works great on other species like this Great Lakes cisco a member of the whitefish family. DIVERS AND TROLLING SINKERS Another effective way to rig up Fish Flash is to attach this attractor directly to the back of popular diving planers, mini-disks and trolling sinkers using the provided round nose snaps. These rigs can be fished as flat lines off the corners of the boat or fished in combination with planer boards to spread out lines and cover more water. SINKING LINES Fish Flash can also be used in combination with lead core line, copper line and the new weighted stainless trolling wires. Because Fish Flash has nearly zero drag in the water, it doesn’t negatively impact on the diving ability of diving planers, trolling sinkers or sinking lines. The Fishing 411 crew traveled west to the Columbia River to learn more about Fish Flash and how to get the most from this popular form of “attractor” fishing. FISH FLASH SIZES Fish Flash is available in several sizes including 4, 6, 8 and 10 inch models. Among west coast trout and salmon fishermen the 6, 8 and 10 inch models are the most popular. In the Great Lakes where waters are often gin clear, smaller 4 and 6 inch models are the most popular. Most anglers who have discovered the power of Fish Flash are using these attractors in front of their favorite salmon and trout spoons, spinners, plugs and cut-bait rigs. Fish Flash is highly effective when targeting other open water species, most notable Great Lakes walleye. A four inch Fish Flash used in front of live bait rigs like the popular Hammer Time Walleye Spinner, works wonders when targeting suspended walleye. COLOR MATCHING Fish Flash comes in dozens of color choices. Many anglers prefer to color match the Fish Flash to the lure or bait they are fishing. For example, if a trolling spoon is being used and that lure is primarily chartreuse and silver in color, pick a Fish Flash that also uses those shades of color. SUMMING IT UP On the west coast literally every trout and salmon fisherman has discovered the power of Fish Flash. Wildly popular and often copied by other manufacturers, the Yakima Fish Flash leads the charge among anglers targeting kings, coho, kokanee, lake trout and steelhead. In the Great Lakes Fish Flash is just beginning to get popular. The Fishing 411 TV crew uses Fish Flash often and to date they have caught kings, coho, Atlantic salmon, pinks, brown trout, lake trout, steelhead, walleye and cisco using these attractors. Everyone agrees that flash attracts fish and nothing puts out more flash in the water than Fish Flash.

by Ned Kehde Across the great white bass triangle that stretches from Milford Lake, Kansas, to Grand Lake, Oklahoma, and to the Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri, scores of anglers spend their days afloat white bass on wind-blown points and shorelines during the fall. This same piscatorial phenomenon that occurs every sprung in these parts in the spring, when the white bass procreate. These temperate bass anglers also pursue their quarry in the riverine sections of the reservoirs, as well as at the tailrace areas below the dams. And Yakima Bait Company has a color combination for its 1/4-ounce Vibric Rooster Tail that has caught the fancy of white bass anglers and their quarry since 2012 The color is called Clyde, which named after Clyde “The Guide” Holscher of Topeka, Kansas. Holscher is a multispecies guide, who spends many September through early December days guiding an array of anglers who hope to tangle with more than 100 white bass on each outing. On many of those outings, Holscher and his clients spend hours on end wielding 1/4-ounce Vibric Rooster Tails. The 1/4-ounce Clyde-hue Vibric Rooster Tail sports a No.8 treble hook that is dressed with white hackle and embellished with strands of silver tinsel. Its teardrop body is white. The spinner blade is chartreuse For decades, the three hues of chartruese, white, and silver have inveigled untold numbers of white bass for Holscher and scores of other talented and ardent anglers. To the delight of Holscher, Yakima has combined these three hues on one of his favorite white bass baits. According to Holscher, the Vibric’s offset teardrop body and direct spinner blade-to-shaft rotation creates an ultra-noisy underwater vibration, and it doesn’t twist anglers’ lines as much as other straight-line spinnerbaits do. What’s more, it can be retrieved at a slower pace, and is more snag-free than the original Rooster Tail and similar spinnerbaits. The retail price ranges from $3.49 to $3.99

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Longtime fishing guide Clyde Holscher has been added to the pro staff team of Yakima Bait Company. Over the past few years Holscher has assisted the lure manufacturer in developing colors for their popular Rooster Tail and Vibric Rooster Tail spinners. Most recently Holscher has been consulting in the design and development of a new version of Yakima’s Mag Lip crankbait. The new lure, called the Mag Lip Finesse and available in two sizes, features the unique “skip-beat” action this plug is known for, along with the added feature of being a suspend crankbait available in unique finishes that mimic the preferred forage warm water specie devour. “This is going to be a great crankbait for bass, perch, crappie and other fish,” said Yakima Bait president Dan McDonald. “Clyde has been instrumental in helping us implement design modifications to maximize this lure’s effectiveness for warm water fish. In addition, Clyde has an in-depth knowledge of how this lure works when fished correctly and only too happy to share this knowledge with fellow anglers.” Holscher has been a professional fishing guide and the proprietor of Guide Lines Guide Service based in Topeka, Kansas since 1993 and is on the pro staff and field staff for several manufacturers in the fishing industry.

December’s arrival signals the start of some normally hot cold weather fishing in the Northwest and other regions of the country. The steelhead begin their migration up a number of rivers on the coast of Washington and Oregon, and inland, the summer steelhead moving up the Columbia and Snake Rivers create some very viable options for winter time fishing. In many of the bigger rivers anglers will find some pretty good luck trolling diving, wiggling plugs, or fishing a dyed prawn below a float. Both daytime and nighttime fishing can be productive, but you need to be prepared for the sometimes subfreezing temperatures, especially at night. Old style fat plugs like a Wiggle Wart or the new Fat Wiggler plug will work well in this for trolling, but one of the hottest new plugs is diving Mag Lip. Guides have been using the larger sized Mag Lips for a few years for spring and fall chinook salmon, but the newer smaller sized 3.0 and 3.5 Mag Lips are particularly well suited for trolling for both summer and winter steelhead. Flat-lined behind the boat the Mag Lip will dive fairly deep, and has the wide wiggle attractive action of the old style FlatFish. The other attraction of the Mag Lip is the lure’s skip-beat action. As the lure works through the water it will move quickly to one side or the other every few beats, enticing following fish to strike as they are fooled into thinking the lure is trying to get away. The Mag Lips come in a variety of colors including all of the popular winter steelhead colors such as metallic red, gold, and silver, among others. In faster water on some of the rivers anglers will back-troll these plugs down through the holding water. The secret is to keep the boat (either a drift boat or jetsled) moving just slow enough down the river to back the lures slowly through the hole. Often times the steelhead will strike right at the end of the drift, as the water starts to shallow. While most anglers will troll during the day, taking advantage of the sometimes warming rays of winter sunshine, others have found that trolling at night can be as good, or even more productive for winter steelhead. Anglers will troll many of the same plugs and have found that fluorescent red or black with silver specks are deadly colors at night. And some will use lighted lures with good success. Even in the bigger, deeper waters, keeping the lures in the top 15 feet or so of the water column is normally the most effective. Most of the plugs described above will dive 8 to 12 feet, so many times they are rigged to just run on a flat line, straight out the boat, with no added weight. Some anglers will use downriggers to help keep the lures in a certain depth, especially if they are marking fish holding at certain depths. Fishing a dyed prawn or coon tail shrimp below a float can be productive in these same waters. While some anglers will drift with bobber and bait, others will troll the rigs extremely slow in the slack waters such as the pools created above a dam. Using a slip bobber with a small (1/4 or 1/8 oz.) steelhead jig such as a Maxi Jig tipped with a prawn tail, the anglers will set their bobber stop to keep the jig and bait in the same depths as the plug fishermen. This exact same set-up can be fished from the shore lines and during the winter, when the colder waters have the steelhead a bit more lethargic, this is an excellent technique to use to produce strikes. Another popular winter steelhead technique is called side-drifting. This involves using the kicker motor or oars to keep the boat under control and giving it just enough power to allow the current to push the boat down river at the same speed as the weight and bait at the end of the angler’s line. Concentrate on water that is anywhere from 6 to 18 feet deep, and use baits such as cured salmon eggs or dyed prawns. Use enough weight to keep the rig bumping bottom as you drift and to help float the bait into the strike zone just off the bottom use a small a Lil’ Corky or Spin-N-Glo to add color and motion to the rig to entice strikes. Catching a couple of nice steelhead for the holiday smoker makes the cold fingers and toes worth the effort. There are several techniques that are proven for success no matter where you are. The fish are here so now is the time to get in on this sometimes hot winter time fishing!

By: Joe Thomas The "Rooster Tail has so many great blade, body and tail color combinations, it is very hard to pick my favorite 3, but here goes... 1) Chartreuse blade, body/tail. 2) Gold blade, chartreuse body/tail 3) Nichol blade, chrome body and a silver/white tail There are so many more, but these are my go to colors, particularly in clear water." Joe Thomas