Fishing with Rod Discussion Forum
Fishing in British Columbia => General Discussion => Topic started by: fishforthought on September 22, 2012, 01:24:59 PM
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okay so after my day on the vedder today i hit Freds on my way home
i picked up a bottle of "mikes glo scent salmon egg oil" does this stuff actually work??
also i picked up some blue wool because a fellow fisherman told me it is dynamite for coho
i hadnt used wool very much before this weekend and found that a mixture of red/pink worked very well for the white springs.
your insight is always appreciated.
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I started off using scent on my wool for the first few days I was out on the vedder today, I didn't get much luck until I switched to roe everyday I was out this week.
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Wool, regardless of the colour, scent, size, etc, WILL NOT work as well as other baits. Try using roe, shrimp, spinners, spoons, flies, jigs, roe bags, absolutely anything but wool.
IMO there should be a wool ban on all rivers, 12 months a year. Wool is for fisherman that are either too lazy to use proper baits, too ignorant and they think the fish are actually biting, too cheap to use other proper baits, too old to use anything else, or too girly to get their hands dirty with roe juice.
I fish with many skilled anglers 11 months of the year, and never, ever have I seen a fishing buddy of mine put on just a piece of wool on their hook. Even as a joke it will never happen. Real river fisherman never use wool. With a Jensen egg, or a prawn accented by wool for colour is different, I do that occasionally.
Yes, I know I will get a few responses to my post from old guys that will slam my post. That's fine. I look forward to it. Please remember before you slam me, opinions are like A-holes, everybody has one, and this is mine..
I too was a beek not too long ago, and yes I used wool, and yes I caught many fish in the upper lip using wool. I used to ask guys on the river what colour wool they were using, thinking it actually made a difference, it doesn't. Not trying to slam you, just trying to educate you and other anglers that there are so many other options out there.
Keep the leaders short, don't snag, and tight lines..
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chumwhisperer...why dont you tell us how you really feel..ha ha
Personally I've never had success with wool for anything but pinks and chum...usuually I use roe, jigs or harware.....but I've stood and marveled at guys short floating a piece of wool in the shape of a single egg who outfished everyone around them. Seemed it or wasn't so much the presentation for them but it was reading the pool and feeling the slightest bite even when the float never moved. I havent figured that out yet so for now I'll stick to bait, jigs and hardware.
BN
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I use roe for the most part and Colorado's now ,but i do have a rainbow of wool in the vest. I have done very well with blue wool for coho, and the reason i think the red/pink or red/white wool combos work well for the whites is because it has the appearance of roe . However the addition of a Jensen egg with your wool is killer.
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thanks for the opinions,
chumwhisperer not to mean any disrespect but i always keep my leaders short, 1 - 2 feet, i never floss the vedder
but i had a white spring absolutely slam my wool, harder than ive ever had a fish take any of my bait or spinners.
the hook was damn near swallowed by him, it was in the back of his mouth hooked into his tongue.
all im saying is maybe wool does work as somewhat of an attractive lure, similar to attractor flies that fly fisherman use.
but that being said i caught 3 springs that day, 2 from spawn sacs then when i ran out i switched to wool and got 1
i understand why some people would just say that the wool is in the fishes mouth because their being flossed but at least yesterday, that wasnt the case for me.
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Ban bottom bouncing, use of long leaders and now the use of wool. What's next ? ;)
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Wool, regardless of the colour, scent, size, etc, WILL NOT work as well as other baits...
IMO there should be a wool ban on all rivers, 12 months a year...
Keep the leaders short, don't snag, and tight lines..
So if wool doesnt work as well as other baits, then why should wool be banned? My only thought for your reasoning would be to reduce snagging. However, in my opinion your reasoning is flawed because snagging can still be done with other baits using long leaders.
I still consider myself new to fishing but I will always keep wool in my tackle box amongst other bait.
If you had success and confidence in wool then I suggest keep using it and try out the new bait you got. It is very rewarding experimenting with new bait that leads to landing a fish. I think its more about having a preference and confidence in your bait rather then which bait outfish the other. I think it is more important matching the right bait to the water conditions at your fishing spot.
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lol i agree, the only BB'ing i do is on the fraser when sockeye is open, long leaders only as well
whenever i fish the vedder i like to be "ethical" meaning short leaders and either bait, or wool
but i have to say for a 2 yr fisherman on the vedder i love this gem of a river
@fish.on
i was trying out new ideas all of yesterday, i could see fish but couldnt get them to bite, i was out of spawn sacs and started using jensen/wool combos and then the eventual red/white wool combo that worked.
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Ban bottom bouncing, use of long leaders and now the use of wool. What's next ? ;)
x2 ... May be we should all stop fishing ;D ;D
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x2 ... May be we should all stop fishing ;D ;D
I am sure that there is lots of wives/girlfriends that would love/hate that idea,for various reasons of course ;)
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Chumwhisperer... WOW>>> I've never heard the argument that wool should be banned; I have used wool by itself, with jensen eggs, roe, ghost shrimp, etc. and caught numerous cohos, chums, pinks, steelies, and springs and never in my entire fishing life did I think that I was doing something morally wrong. If anything should be banned, it should be those baits that you are talking about ; more fish injured end bleed out due to deeply swallowed baited hooks than any other terminal tackle (except probably for treble hooks). If you think that using wool is unethical, then the majority of the people that I know on the Vedder and other systems are unethical. I have no clue who you fish with but the fact that no one you know would use wool makes me think that you and your buddies are too busy slinging guts to start working on the nuances of trying to find out what colors the fish are on. A small pinky nail sized tuft of wool on a size 4 hook drifted under a undersized float has been a mainstay for me and slayed many a fish. If you think that the banning of wool would rid the rivers of snaggers, I say ban those darned hooks; people don't floss, hooks do.
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people don't floss, hooks do.
Ya right, and guns don't shoot people by themselves either eh ? ::) ::) ::)
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Fishforthought asked some questions about Mike's glo scent salmon egg oil and blue wool in an earlier thread.
Sadly, due to a pretty ignorant comment about fishing with wool and the subsequent infantile exchange, Rodney locked the thread and his questions never got answered.
So, let's start with the oil: I have used this product in the past and I have recently reacquainted myself with it. It works well, especially when you use it to enhance single plastic eggs, plastic egg clusters (gooey bobs) and wool, so they will emit the odour natural eggs do. It is especially effective when the water is not very clear. In crystal clear conditions, I find the oil doesn't do much to enhance your presentation. You don't need the scent when visibility is good enough - all you need is to drift your presentation naturally enough near aggressive fish. But as the water clouds up, every little bit helps, as fish will rely on their keen sense of smell as much as on their sight to find and hit your presentation.
Now for the blue wool.
I, too, have been told by some old-timers that blue is a colour that drives coho nuts. Well, in my experience, that is a bunch of codswallop, an urban myth, a load of crapola. I have found that any colour of wool not relatively close to the colour of real salmon eggs drifting downstream is essentially inefficient. While white, pink, peach, orange and red wool in all their shades produce very well, unrelated colours such as green, blue, brown or purple do nothing. Sure enough, you will catch coho regardless of colour if your leader is long enough to line the fish, but don't credit the wool for that. ;)
Using wool is the closest to 'matching the hatch' in gear fishing for salmon in rivers. We must remember that salmon don't actively feed in fresh water, so their bites are essentially out of aggression, trying to destroy competitors' eggs. You figure what species of salmon/trout is in the system, what size their eggs are, how long have those eggs been in the water, would the eggs still be translucent or milky...and based on that you pick your wool colour and size of the tuft. If your tuft is bigger than your pinky finger nail, you are not imitating a trout/salmon egg. Of course, you can always cut it so that it imitates shrimp or krill, but I have had little success this way and it is an entirely different ball game.
To make a long story short: I have yet to catch a coho with blue wool, while I lost count of the coho and other salmon caught with peach or orange wool.
Don't let this deter you though. Maybe getting a coho to bite blue wool is the holy grail of wool fishing. Who knows? Shortfloating wool is certainly a productive method, but it takes a while to master it. The takes can be very subtle and often go undetected if your line tension is not perfect (tight enough to feel even the slightest takes, but not too tight to make the wool (egg imitation) drift unnaturally.
Now if all of the above seems too daunting, stick to cured roe. It's easy, efficient and forgiving, and by far the best method to use to introduce newbies and kids to salmon fishing.
As long as you don't mind the stinky mess on your fingers and tackle.
Tight lines.
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Well put and thank you for taking the time to write that out. ;D
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Yeah right on. Well thought out, well spoken, very helpful.
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I frequently found people who use blue wool get most of their fish by the belly.
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I've heard the same about blue jensen eggs but have never seen anyone catch a coho using one.
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thanks alot for typing all of that out. it was very helpful :)
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I've heard the same about blue jensen eggs but have never seen anyone catch a coho using one.
hmm blue jensen eggs... I never knew they existed. I still think natural looking bait works best, red,orange peach etc you may catch one on blue but probably not as often.
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or the one you catch on blue is flossed hahah :P
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If your short floating with a 12-24 inch leader catching fish your most likely not lining the fish. A small piece of wool replicating an egg is a legitimate artificial that will work, especially in low clear water conditions.
Some of us do not like using smelly messy bait. I am one of them. If that means not catching as many fish than I am fine by that. Once their are more fish in the systems everyone will be catching fish.
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Using wool is the closest to 'matching the hatch' in gear fishing for salmon in rivers. We must remember that salmon don't actively feed in fresh water, so their bites are essentially out of aggression, trying to destroy competitors' eggs. You figure what species of salmon/trout is in the system, what size their eggs are, how long have those eggs been in the water, would the eggs still be translucent or milky...and based on that you pick your wool colour and size of the tuft. If your tuft is bigger than your pinky finger nail, you are not imitating a trout/salmon egg.
Interesting to note how the different species can be triggered by the different colours. Springs and chums can be had on all kinds of oddball wool colours, including green, blue, chartreuse, purple etc. Coho on the other hand, dont seem to respond consistently outside of the 'natural' shades. In context to what Milo wrote, if cohos are reacting in an evolutionary tactic to eliminate potential competitors, then presumably the springs and chum are reacting in a more territorial strategy where their aggression is triggered by something they don't like invading their personal space.
Though cohos can be taken by spinners, jigs, etc. where the blue/green colours can be very effective, in which case I guess they are hitting because of their baitfish prey/predator instincts even though they are not actively feeding in freshwater. If you are are going to go after coho with the egg-mimicry route, then I'd definitely agree to stick with the natural shades.
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Ban bottom bouncing, use of long leaders and now the use of wool. What's next ? ;)
Ban fishing if the animal rights folks get their way. ;) ;D
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Just like milo said, wool is a great bait and I enjoy mixing wools to make the perfect little egg imitation. Pink and white wool the size of your pinky nail (like said above) is deadly short floating for steelies.
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Wool works great for me, of course roe is better but wool works just fine if you present it properly.