ROE - I want to talk bait, specifically salmon eggs

[bbbass]

Isn't bobber dogging a boating thing?

I'm not familiar with that exact term. When we use bobbers here, they are a special use item that you cast out and let drift like you would a corkie, eggs, etc, with a special jig or a small rubber worm below, also sometimes flies. Some folks like to let a bobber hold just above a tailout.

 

[Flymph]

That's Midwest talk.
They like to make up "spawn sacks" with mesh and loose eggs.

Like great balls of fire, okay!
I guess that is trout bait...

 

[bbbass]

 

[Flymph]

I'm not familiar with that exact term. When we use bobbers here, they are a special use item that you cast out and let drift like you would a corkie, eggs, etc, with a special jig or a small rubber worm below, also sometimes flies. Some folks like to let a bobber hold just above a tailout.

Bobbers I have a good idea about, with all the lazy nymphing I have done on the Deschutes.
Watch some AnglerWest, they love that term. LoL

 

[Flymph]

I don't often fish with roe, but when I do, it's for salmon and I use cured chunks on an egg loop leader (I tie my own, using Chameleon or Ultragreen depending on water color), never roe bags.
1. Backbouncing a quarter size chunk of roe, or an anchovie, from a drift boat.
2. When water is high and brown after a storm, I shore fish and plunk a golf ball sized chunk of roe about 5'-10' with a Spin & Glo from the edge of shore. I can even use a beach type rod holder with a piece of white yarn attached near the tip of the rod and a bell to signal a bite, and go back into the cab of my rig to drink coffee.
3. Also from shore in a deep hole or current, I have used Ghost Shrimp threaded tail-first up the hook and leader, with several Jensen Eggs on top of the tail. Fish slow. (not good in fast currents)
4. A #5 Jed Davis silver spinner with red tubing on the hook and red tape on the underside of the blade (salmon like to chase)
5. Drift rig with weightless nickle blade drift spinner (these can be drift fished or cast and slow retrieve along the bottom. My wife outfishes me casting straight downstream and retrieving back to the boat)

For Steelhead:
1. Here in E. OR we drift worms and yarn, with or without a pea sized corkie.
2. Drift rig, corkie, and a 3/8" to 1/2" piece of calamari (squid)
3. Drift rig, and a small corkie with yarn
4. Bobber and jig
5. #3 Jed Davis spinner
6. 9# flyrod with a leader and a slightly larger corkie than used above. Careful not to be snagging!
7. Drift rig and small weighless nickle blade spinner on a 2"-3" leader. (works well in clearish water)
8. Wade out, let Hot Shot or Wiggle Wart work downstream, hold in various good looking spots (like where stream comes in)

Smaller baits and hooks for clearer water, larger baits and hooks for darker water.

I'm just screen shorting this to save for later use, thanks for the tips!

 

[bbbass]

I found several vids on bobber-dogging. Apparently there is a new technique used beyond what I have seen locally.

"Bobber-doggin' is hybrid technique that seems to be taking the steelhead world by storm these days – and though it's most often practiced from boats, you can do very well with it from shore too!" <broken link removed>

 

[Caveman Jim]

Like great balls of fire, okay!
I guess that is trout bait...

That's partially true, yes some people (Midwesterners) use trout eggs in their spawn sacks but most in the PNW (yours truely included) who cure their own eggs wind up with quite a few loose eggs and instead of wasting them they tie up spawn sacks.

And yes Bobber Dogging is generally done with a boat and is very effective just like side drifting.

 

[bbbass]

I save em for trout fishing in our local lake. (five min away)

 

[DirectDrive]

Isn't bobber dogging a boating thing?

If you have the right conditions, it can also be done from the bank.

On some of the Coastal Flats alongside the river "trenches" you can do this effectively.
The rivers cut "trenches" as they dump into the bays.
Many Chinook are ambushed in these trenches in the Fall.

 

[bbbass]

Jim, it looks like in bobberdogging, there is a slinky or what ever that bounces along like in drift fishing?

BTW, I hated side drifting, never had anyone else to row the boat.

 

[Flymph]

Yeah, i'll probably end up using them in Vernonia Lake.

 

[Caveman Jim]

Jim, it looks like in bobberdogging, there is a slinky or what ever that bounces along like in drift fishing.

BTW, I hated side drifting, never had anyone else to row the boat.

Yes we generally use "yarnies" made of different colored yarn and yes the slinky weights. It is basically drift fishing with a bobber from a sled, at least that's how we used to do it years ago. Like sidedrifting you would complete a stretch of water pull up run back up to the top and drift back down through it again, especially if you had a bite that didn't stick.

 

[Flymph]

Jim, it looks like in bobberdogging, there is a slinky or what ever that bounces along like in drift fishing.

BTW, I hated side drifting, never had anyone else to row the boat.

I've tried, and always end up rowing anyway. Almost sank the canoe on the John day because somebody wasn't paying attention while going down a run.

Seems like I just need to save my roe for a chinook run at the coast. I'm glad spring is just around the corner.

 

[DirectDrive]

Seems like I just need to save my roe for a chinook run at the coast. I'm glad spring is just around the corner.

Not necessarily.
Are these skeins or loose eggs we're talking about ?
If nice, cured skeins you can use them on Springers...they're in Big Water mostly right now.
Although we've caught them in Feb in the Lower Sandy.
When the Springers penetrate deep into the river systems you can use a float and gob of eggs on them.
Or a Shrimp Cocktail (sand shrimp wrapped around a nice gob of eggs)
Nearby this would be in the upper Sandy and Clackamas.
This will be happening soon and all the way through Memorial Day (McKiver Park, Dog Creek, Cedar Creek and Dodge Park areas)
You can hike up from Oxbow park for less peeps or McKiver or Cedar Creek for easier access but more peeps.
I'm mixing Sandy and Clack spots, so just search on them to locate the spots.

 

[Flymph]

I found several vids on bobber-dogging. Apparently there is a new technique used beyond what I have seen locally.

"Bobber-doggin' is hybrid technique that seems to be taking the steelhead world by storm these days – and though it's most often practiced from boats, you can do very well with it from shore too!" <broken link removed>

Thanks for the article! I might try that next time I go out.

Seems like I need to practice some egg loops too, I was afraid of that.

 

[Flymph]

Not necessarily.
Are these skeins or loose eggs we're talking about ?
If nice, cured skeins you can use them on Springers...they're in Big Water mostly right now.
Although we've caught them in Feb in the Lower Sandy.
When the Springers penetrate deep into the river systems you can use a float and gob of eggs on them.
Or a Shrimp Cocktail (sand shrimp wrapped around a nice gob of eggs)
Nearby this would be in the upper Sandy and Clackamas.
This will be happening soon and all the way through Memorial Day (McKiver Park, Dog Creek, Cedar Creek and Dodge Park areas)
You can hike up from Oxbow park for less peeps or McKiver or Cedar Creek for easier access but more peeps.
I'm mixing Sandy and Clack spots, so just search on them to locate the spots.

I'm all about the Clack, but I have been curious about the Sandy and Bull Run.
I guess i'll start near high rocks and work my way up from there.
It's hard to believe it is mid March already!

Oh, i'm talking skeins. I figured that roe was skeins, not a jar of eggs or loose eggs.
Also, do you just attach the shrimp then eggs and hook the shrimp again, or tie the shrimp into the egg loop? That sounds good, i've noticed that sandshrimp with egg sacks work better on perch than those without.

 

[DirectDrive]

Also, do you just attach the shrimp then eggs and hook the shrimp again, or tie the shrimp into the egg loop? That sounds good, i've noticed that sandshrimp with egg sacks work better on perch than those without.

Yep, that's how to do it.
It's a delicate bait so it need to ride under a float and off the bottom.
You use a "slip float" system for the deep Chinook holes.

 

[bbbass]

^^^ This.

Alternatively this is how I've done it but with 3ea Jensen Eggs on top of the tail (up the line). I used alternating flourescent orange and green (they act as a bumper to keep the shrimp on longer). Learned from some old guys in March just below the bridge across from the park on the lower Sandy. Not sure if the regs have changed about the Jensen Eggs. (they are a soft artificial bait)

 

[Caveman Jim]

Also, do you just attach the shrimp then eggs and hook the shrimp again, or tie the shrimp into the egg loop? That sounds good, i've noticed that sandshrimp with egg sacks work better on perch than those without.

Here's how i do it when bobber fishing foe Springers.Hook throuh middle of the eggs, open the egg loop, slide the eggs into it then place a sand shrimp on top & carefully sinch the loop down.

 

[jbett98]

I've had good success with Luhr Jensen' steelies.
Steelhead love the color blue and after using the solid blue color lure, I found that the river rocks would rub off the center paint down to the silver base color and that's when the fish hit the best.
Luhr Jensen finally came out with the striped blue/silver one and that's the one I would stock up on.