How to JIG for SALMON
On this fishing trip I exclusively vertical jigged for salmon and bottom fish. I put away the trolling setup and had an absolute banger of a evening fishing for salmon. I would say this was one of the best fishing sessions in a kayak I've ever had. I've never caught so many salmon in this span of time and it's all because I was vertical jigging them. Let's go!!!
Weather and Tide Conditions
Happy Independence day y'all! it's July 4th and we're on an evening bite - 4:00 to sundown. I'm fishing with a buddy of mine named Kyle and he also has a YouTube channel called "KC Kayak Fishing" and produces some great content. He also has a banger Instagram profile.
As for the conditions we a little wind in the late afternoon but it continued to drop off as the evening went on. We had an interesting tide as was close time proximity between high and low tides when we were fishing. When I first got out there around 4:00ish the tide was ripping south east direction, but as we got to around 6:00 it really mellowed out and made for some epic conditions for jigging.
Exclusively Vertical Jigging no Trolling
Once I found some good structure along with that I found some big schools of bait fish and of course with that salmon. I grabbed my jigging setup (see below) and immediately starting getting bites. The action came fast and furious as I was getting both Coho and Chinook in this area. The depth was anywhere from 150' to 50' deep, but the Salmon were primarily in 50' to 75' of water, and that's the important part. I wouldn't vertical jig for salmon past 75', they have to be in the upper water columns or shallower to properly target them. I find vertical jigging isn't as useful once you start fishing deeper than 75'.
Wild Coho are big!
One thing I quickly noticed was the size of the Coho. All the wild Coho were massive! My first one I thought was a Chinook but quickly realized it was a Wild Coho. Super cool to see these bigger fish coming in. Unfortunately we can't keep the wild Coho in this area right now, so I had to let those go. However, I did get my limit of 2 hatchery Coho which turned out to be the smallest fish of the evening, but that's A-OK with me.
It's great to see such an incredible return of Coho to the Georgia Strait this year. I've never seen it this good before, and I've heard guys say it's the best Coho fishing they've seen in 30+ years. What a salmon season it has already been and we're just getting started!
How to properly fish your Jig
I mentioned above the fish depths and structure to look for. But what do you do then? For salmon I'm not fishing directly off the bottom, I'm usually getting to bottom then quickly jigging fast and furious up and down while reeling in. For me personally, I like a fast jigging motion and quick retrieval. I think salmon like this faster speed to get their attention, 90% of the time I get my bites when the jig is sinking ("on the drop") in between those big jigging motions. I often let the jig drop for a second or two, and that's usually when they strike hard! The other 10% of strikes are simply when I'm reeling in fast, the salmon will chase and smoke it.
Salmon hitting on the drop
As mentioned above the salmon hit on the drop. One important tip I can give you to watch for when jigging is to identify these hits. Consider when you're first dropping your jig, you're opening up your reel bail to let out line and before the jig hits bottom sometimes you'll see your line go slack (meaning it seems to have stopped or jammed), at that point I quickly close the bail and set the hook by raising my rod up as fast as possible! That is often a salmon biting your jig as it's falling to the bottom. SO BE READY. Watch your spool and if the line stops coming off the spool before hitting the bottom, set the freakin' hook man! If anything, you're simply jigging the lure on the way down to attract more fish. This tip can be a game changer for you and I believe takes some time and skill to notice it more and more.
Last Thoughts
Without being flippant I honestly couldn't have told you how many fish I got into that evening. It was that good! I also got into the first Dogfish shark of the year, so those guys are starting to move in shallower. I also got into a beauty Copper Rockfish which I bonked for fish tacos.
I caught every single fish with the same setup and single lure - Lil Nib jig (see below).
My Jigging Gear
In my kayak whenever I'm fishing bottom or jigging for any fish, I'm using a spinning setup. For 3 years I've been using the 7'6 KastKing Kong rod & 4000 KastKing Kapstan Elite spinning reel. This combo has been fantastic for large Lingcod and of course giant Chinook salmon. I spool it up with 50# PowerPro braid. My favorite vertical jig lure is a 2oz Lil Nib "Irish Mint Glow" jig. Hands down best jigging lure in the PNW in my opinion.
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Jiggin' Salmon Video
This is the video I posted on this trip. What a banger this trip was! This video is almost 30 minutes long and I didn't include many other fish that were caught, pretty crazy. Once again, probably the best fishing trip on a kayak I've ever had. I hope you enjoy. Blessings! Jesse