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Lures for Salmon Fishing

Many people fish for salmon each year. When you decide to go on a fishing trip to catch salmon, there are many ways that you can go about obtaining them. There are a variety of fishing styles that one may choose from. There are also numerous types of fishing lures that are designed to benefit the person that is fishing for salmon. If you are unsure of what a lure is, it is quite simple. A lure is the object that you place on the end of your fishing line in order to attract salmon. Lures must be placed on the line in the appropriate place, and in the proper way. If you fail to place the fishing lure in the right area, or you fail to use the right kind of lure, you will end up having an extremely unsuccessful day as far as salmon fishing is concerned.

It is important that your fishing lure is secured at the end of your fishing line very tightly. It must be tight because when you fish for salmon you fish in rough and choppy waters. If the fishing lure is not secured tightly on the end of the fishing line, you may lose your line. In addition, many salmon are very heavy and energetic, so, if your lure is loose when you catch a salmon, the lure may come off and you may end up losing your lure and the salmon that you caught. This is one of the most important things to remember when it comes to a fishing lure for catching salmon.

When you go to the local tackle shop to purchase your lure for salmon fishing, you may be in for a surprise. Fishing lures are extremely diverse and they are based on things such as the type of water that you will be performing salmon fishing, the type of salmon that you are fishing for, and even the type of rod and reel that you have. It is important that you carefully evaluate the area that you will be fishing for salmon at, and what type of salmon that you are fishing for. It is also important to know and understand the rod and reel specifications of the one that you own in order to ensure that you are purchasing the proper fishing lure for salmon fishing. You should take all of this information with you when you visit the local tackle store.

Many people who choose to fish for salmon avoid purchasing lures and opt for using live bait. Based on the experience of numerous professionals in the industry of salmon fishing, it is believed that lures will be more successfully at obtaining the salmon that you are trying to catch. Of course, you should try both live bait and lures to see which method is more successful for you. In the end, however, you are sure to find that choosing lures for salmon fishing is the best possible choice!

Questions and Answers About Salmon
What is the largest type of salmon?
Chinook/King Salmon are the largest and get up to 58" long and 126 pounds.
While the chinook may be the largest in North America, there are larger species in Asia.

What is the smallest salmon?
Pink salmon are the smallest and get up to 30" long and up to 12 pounds (average 3 to 5 pounds)

Do all salmon survive from hatching to birth?
No, many die before hatching, some due to not being fertilized, some due to disease.

How long do salmon usually live?
2 to 7 years (4 to 5 average).

What are some of the main reasons salmon die or are killed?
Environmental conditions, predation, fishing, disease.

Are there bones in salmon?
Yes, salmon have bones.

How far do salmon travel?
Salmon travel the distance from their home stream to the ocean which can be hundreds of miles and they may travel in the ocean up to Alaska and far out to sea, some up to 1,000 miles.

What happens if a salmon cannot find its stream?
Some salmon will try to find the right stream until they use up all their energy and die but most would simply try to find other salmon to spawn with. These fish stray into other streams to spawn if they are lucky.

Is it difficult for salmon to go up fish ladders, and if so, why?
Engineers design fish ladders so it will not be difficult, each step of the ladder is a gradual increase in height and there are places for fish to rest. Usually a ladder is put in a place that is difficult or impossible for the fish to pass any other way. It may be hard for the fish to find the ladder, especially in a big river.

How do you transfer salmon eggs?
Salmon eggs are very sensitive to movement early in their development so they are not moved until they are "eyed" (their eyes are showing through the egg). They are handled gently and either kept in water or kept moist and cool during transport. They can survive for over a day like this because they use very little oxygen at this stage.

About how many salmon from one spawning pair live from the time they're laid to the time they return as adults?
Each female salmon can have between 1,500 and 10,000 eggs. Only a few (0 to 10) of these eggs will survive to be adult salmon. A population maintaining its size only produces one adult from each parent on average (two adults from each spawning pair), but it will be higher in some years and lower in others.

What effects do man-made objects have on salmon?
Many man-made objects hurt salmon by blocking their migration route or making it much more difficult. Dams on rivers of course are the main problem to salmon migration. Other man-made objects are designed to help salmon, like fish ladders. Fish ladders help the adult salmon migrate up a river and work very well. Dams are more of a problem for small salmon migrating downstream because they end up going through the turbines if they can't find the passages placed in the dam to help them. Roads across and alongside streams can be a problem if dirt from the road clogs up the gravel in the stream.

How many species of salmon are there?
There are eight species of Pacific salmon: chinook, coho, chum, sockeye, pink, steelhead trout, masu and amago salmon (two Asian species).

Are there specific seasons in which salmon can only be found?
Yes, most salmon can be seen migrating during the fall (September through November). Steelhead trout migrate in the summer and winter but don't spawn until spring and are harder to observe than salmon (because the water is higher in spring and they don't change color).

Why do salmon change color when they spawn?
Salmon change color to attract a spawning mate.

Why do salmon die after they spawn?
Salmon use all their energy for returning to their home stream, for making eggs and digging the nest. Most salmon stop eating when they return to freshwater and have no energy left for a return trip to the ocean after spawning. After they die, other animals eat them (but people don't) or they decompose, adding nutrients to the stream. Steelhead trout, however, continue to eat in freshwater and many survive and return to the ocean. These fish can grow another year and then return to spawn again.

How do salmon know to go to the ocean in the first place?
We don't know. They must have a genetic cue to head downstream when their bodies are ready to change to a saltwater environment (they are called salmon smolts when their bodies change and they migrate to the ocean).

How do salmon know where their home is when they return from the ocean?
We think they can tell directions in the ocean by the earth's magnetic field acting like a compass. When they find the river they came from they start using smell to find their way back to their home stream. They build their "smell memory-bank" when they start migrating to the ocean as young fish.

What do salmon eat?
Salmon eat insects when they are young and eventually eat other fish when they are older.

Why do salmon come back to the same stream?
Salmon come back to the same stream they were "born" in because they "know" it is a good place to spawn and they won't waste time looking for another stream with good habitat and other fish to spawn with.

Why are there so few salmon left?
In the Pacific Northwest, salmon populations are doing very poorly. There are many reasons for this. Logging an area around a stream reduces the shade and nutrients available to the stream and increases the amount of silt or dirt in the water which can choke out developing eggs. Dams cause fish to die from the shock of going through the turbines and from predators which eat the disoriented fish as they emerge from the dam. Fishing is another source of death that can contribute to the decline of salmon. The weather also affects the amount of food that is available to salmon in the ocean.

What can we do to save salmon?
Some things we can do to save salmon are to protect their stream habitat, help restore streams that have been damaged, reduce fishing, and help find ways to increase salmon survival through the dams.

Thanks to the http://wfrc.usgs.gov/outreach/salmonq&a.htm for the article above.