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[naturelover]

Hi all,

I'm new to fishing and have been reading the forum and elsewhere to try and learn as much as possible about salmon fishing.
It seems a good method for catching salmon is to cast spoons, but I'm unsure of what weight of spoon to use. I've read that the weight to use depends on the depth and speed of the water, but I seem to have come across a wide range of weights so I'm not quite sure what to use for my specific situation.
I'm fishing the lower Fraser Tidal region, around Delta area. What size/weight would people recommend?
So far I've tried 1/4 oz (croc), 2/5 oz (ironhead), and 5/8 oz (wobbler), but haven't had any success.

Some additional questions:

1) How do you avoid losing spoons on rock snags? I lost 2 spoons on my first day. As the spoon gets closer to shore, the river bank slopes upwards, and I tend to get snagged.
2) How can you tell how deep the water is (in order to know when to start reeling in the spoon at the appropriate depth)?
I try to determine by line slack, but it doesn't seem to work well for me.
3) I've read that often the salmon will bite when the spoon is closer to shore, but that is usually when I start to bottom bounce/snag the spoon due to the slope of the rocky shore. What does it feel like when a Salmon bites the lure? Is it very noticeable, like the pole wrenched from your hand, or very light (i.e. easy to miss)?

My equipment is 25 years old, but I'm hoping it is good enough for shore casting spoons, as I'd like to save a little cash for the time being.
My equipment:
- 6.5 foot graphite rod
- printed on rod: medium action, 6-14 lbs line, cast weight 1/4-3/4 oz.
- using 10 lb test for main line. Main line goes to crane swivel. Duo-lock attaches to crane swivel. Spoon attaches to duo-lock. (as per forum posts)
- replaced standard Gibbs hook with 1/0 Gammatsu Octopus hook (as per forum posts)

Any help is appreciated, thanks.

[Voyager]

Naturelover I got my first two coho today on a 1oz kit-a-mat chartreuse, I tried other spoons but no results, I used a fairly fast retrieve with a medium action rod 8lb braid, I'm just a beginner myself so not sure if that will help you. Good luck!

[Golfer]

Losing spoons and spinners means that you are fishing the right depth, right near the bottom, where most salmon hold.  You need to view your spoons as a sunk cost, and not fret when they get lost.  If you feel your spoon tapping the bottom quite often, you should either speed up your reeling speed a little bit and/or raise your rod tip a little bit. 

How many spoons you lose depends heavily on the river you are fishing.  For example I may lose 3+ spoons a day fishing the capilano river (big rocks), but can fish the Thompson River (small rocks) all day and not lose a single spoon. You can adjust your spoon fishing techniques to the fishing conditions. 

Assuming you are fishing for coho, 1/2 ounce spoons are really good starting point, and you can either increase or decrease your weight according to the conditions

[Fish Assassin]

Unfortunately there is no sure way of avoiding snags. It's part of fishing.

[leadbelly]

Alot of areas, as you found out are not great on the Fraser for casting lures due to snags drop offs and shallow shorlines.
Finding fishable spots at different tides is number one,  like deeper areas close to shore or a dock would be good, or if its shallow try using roe on the incoming tide.Next is finding areas that seem to have fish within casting distance, another hurdle, look for established bars and spots that people fish or used to fish.
Lures you will always loose, try using spinners with bright chartruce or silver spoons for extra visibility. Again, trial and error to find what size lure will work and what will sink and get snagged up.
As for how they bite, sometimes it stops and feels like a snag, sometimes a coho will follow your lure right in close or just peck at it as you retrieve it. The fun is that you just never know lol.

[naturelover]

Hi all,

@Voyager: Thanks for tips, I'll pick-up a few kit-a-mats in heavier weights and hopefully that does the trick!

@Golfer: I loose the spoons close to/on the banked shoreline, as opposed to where I cast. It's only when when the rocks start sloping and the water depth decreases where I snag. So now that you mention it, maybe I'm not close enough to the bottom on the majority of my reel-in? Or maybe there aren't snaggy rocks at the river bottom further from shore? I wouldn't mind losing spoons as much if I was compensated with salmon.
Thanks for the tips on reel-in speed and spoon weight, and yes I'm fishing for coho.

@Fish Assassin: I guess that seems to be the case, although I'd like to minimize that with others' tips/experience.

@leadbelly: Thanks, seems like I'll have to do some location hunting before my next outing for deep shorelines and/or piers. Is brownsville bar a good location for lure casting? Thanks for the lure tips. I "may" have got a bite today since it was the one time that my lure slightly 'snagged' further out, but I wasn't sure what to expect if the line got hit by a salmon, and didn't pull up on the rod.

[ktt]

For tidal Fraser, Check the spot you will be fishing at a the lowest tide, take photos for record and check it again on the highest tide, take photos and compare, then you know which area you should avoid.
If you are interested in use lures for salmon ,these are some useful books:
1.Spinner Fishing For Steelhead, Salmon And Trout by Jed Davis
2.Spoon Fishing for Steelhead by Bill Herzog
3.What Fish See by Colin J.Kageyama

[TimL]

@leadbelly: Thanks, seems like I'll have to do some location hunting before my next outing for deep shorelines and/or piers. Is brownsville bar a good location for lure casting? Thanks for the lure tips. I "may" have got a bite today since it was the one time that my lure slightly 'snagged' further out, but I wasn't sure what to expect if the line got hit by a salmon, and didn't pull up on the rod.

Been to Brownsville a couple of times already (it's also my first season fishing the tidal Fraser) to bar fish with roe, which is what most of the regulars do there and what seems to get fish. It's mostly a gradually sloping shallow sand bar that ends in a drop-off around 50-60 feet out from shore. However I've seen guys casting lures off the rocky shorelines on either side of the sand bar. Haven't seen any fish caught by that method yet but that's probably because the water clarity at that time was below 1 foot- this was over a week ago. Give it a shot and let us know how you do. I'm actually itching to switch over to spoons once visibility improves.

[naturelover]

@ktt: Thanks for the tide tips, I'll survey the land at low tide to check for snaggy areas. Thanks for the book info, I'll look into those.

@TimL: Thanks for the info on brownsville, I'll being doing some surveying over the next couple days, and will check out the rocky shorelines on either side of the sand bar. May opt out of fishing from there though if it looks too snaggy.