Northwest Fishing Reports

I am still a newb when it comes to fishing for salmon and steelies. I seem to have the hang of spinner fishing. I usually fish in the mouth of a creek during incoming/slack tide and rivers not tide influenced. I want to try spoons especially in the slack tide creek. Was wondering if spoons are effective in stillish waters of high/slack and deep slow holes or slow rivers? I don't want to waste my time if spoons are more of a moving water lure I'll save it til the rains gets the river's moving.

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Thanks for the link Tom but it was not quite what I was looking for.

This is really a big subject... There are so many variables involved in lure choice for the water, time of year and conditions. My opinion regarding salmon spoon fishing is as follows - If you are fishing tide water areas of the river for coho and pinks, well even chums for that matter, a #1 dick nite can't be beat. The pee wee size is a close second. As far as colors go, have a handful of them... minute to minute it seems one can be better than another. Everybody likes the nickel backed frog and the 50/50... might I also suggest nickle chartreuse and nickle and green, or copper. Put it on a 4 to 6 foot leader and drift it or retrieve it sloooowwly if you must because of lack of current. The name of the game is slow.

If you are looking for a good chinook spoon (they get caught on the dick nites too), a Gibbs Koho, BC Steel, or other similar oval type spoons are good for getting down in the water and staying in the strike zone. This is also a good tactic for coho in heavier current or dirtier water. The Steelhead like these spoons as well.

If the water is heavy, deep, or dirty, bigger and flashy is generally better - real silver finish, real gold, matte silver is awsome... if the water is low, and clear, smaller more subtle presentations are best - brass, nickle, copper.

Thanks all. I'll leave the spoons for the currents and keep tossing spinners in the tides.

Twitch some jigs too!

Bill Herzog wrote a book dedicated to the subject. It would be a good start. The art of spoon fishing is vast and there are several tactics one can employ fishing the spoon. Start by swinging spoons, but with coho season happening you may also want to jig and twitch some spoons. Good luck and have fun.