Salmon Bait

[Huntsman]

Last year on the Little Salmon I was surprised to see very few anglers using eggs. Most were just using different arrays of yarn, or yarn and corkie. My eggs did as well, if not better than the yarns, but thats not to say yarn isn't as good.

What do you guys throw at 'em...?
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[phutch30]

Usually egg sacks or tuna balls but lots of times if the drift is a fast one just yarn. If its a slow drift I like bait. I think if yo put it in front of thier face they will probably take it. Pretty much stopped using corkies on the LS. Its so snaggy its just another 12 cents thrown in the river every 5-10 casts. LOL
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[chrome_junky]

well i use tuna balls and roe pretty much every where but on the little salmon. i use yarn there because bait does not last as long for me fishing in that heavy turbulent water, especially eggs. I just fish with a small chunk of yarn no longer then the shank of the hook and i trim the edge as round as i can so that in the water it takes on more of an egg/orb shape. I put it in a pimped out egg loop with a trailer hook that i tie up. i also use smelly jelly very liberally on the yarn. I do great on the little salmon with this set up. last year i fished that river 5 days in 3 weeks and caught fish everyday even had the hole i was fishing to my self 3 of the 5 days. every body thought the water was to high. it was raging but i hooked fish right off the bank.
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[LSR83]

Same as everyone... Eggs big river and yarn on the fast water... Never caught anything on tuna balls and Ive tried them. Soak some yarn in herring or shad smelly jelly worked ok... How about #s yesterday?? Its on!!!!
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[psanders71]

Hey there...

I have only fished salmon a couple of times on the upper Salmon, but what got the fish for me was a spin n glow rig with a nice gob of eggs on the front and a small tuna ball on the stinger. Not sure if it was the attractor, the eggs or the tuna ball that got things bit, but it worked on both trips I made last year. Oh yeah, and a little bit of Slamola on the tuna before making up the balls...

Good Luck!
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[chrome_junky]

yeah the numbers on sunday were good but the numbers from yesterday were even better they are coming in a quick and hurry. 2 fish over lower granite now. the anticipation is killing me.
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[phutch30]

From the 5 min I watched on the fish cam a few min ago. The numbers from today are going to be high also. Couple fish a min running through on each side.

This years pitt tags over Bonn dam have been running 20-40% ID bound fish (mostly RR). Yesterday 33% were rapid river fish with 67% of tagged fish heading for ID
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[Huntsman]

I've never used anything but eggs here in Idaho. In Alaska the river we fish is "no bait", so we use rags, yarn or a big black bunny fly.

So for you guys that use uarn...any color that works better?
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[chrome_junky]

My go to yarn is 2/3 pink with a 1/3 white. when i put it in the egg loop i try to position the white so that its on top in the egg loop. If not white i use chartreuse.
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[phutch30]

If the water is clear I really like pink then orange and then red. I also like purple and black. Last year pink with a little light blue was hot. Believe it or not a little blue made a big difference.
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[chrome_junky]

oh i believe you. we had a day two years ago where they wouldnt touch anything but purple with blue. we were fishing a hole with a group of guys and they were picking up fish on purple and blue. i would run my pink and white through it and nothing...... but i did switch up to solid chartreuse and did manage one fish that day. just depends on whats gonna make them enough to grab it.
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[STEELHEADKID]

Fished yarn for years in the little salmon but as I've grown older I prefer to fish the main over the little which means I primarily drift eggs. I had an excellent season last year and only caught 2 fish on yarn and the rest were on eggs granted I hardly fished yarn at all. Back when I fished the little a TON my favorite colors in this order were cerise pink with chartreuse, chartreuse/white, orange/white, cerise pink, red, and lastly orange.
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