Pulling Plugs

[h20hunter]

I'm thinking thats 50 feet back...

[jackelope]

I'm thinking thats 50 feet back...

yup you're prolly right...I didn't even think of that...oops.
 

[wildmanoutdoors]

Bingo! I mark the lines at 50 feet into the spool.
As an FYI...
Any abu 5500 or the like sheds 10 feet of line when the level wind guide goes the complete distance across its track bar. If that makes sense.

[CountryslickR]

50' ??

There's not a spot on the Sky anywhere that's 50' deep.

IMO the best thing to catch fish on the Sky is floats and jigs. It's easier on the arms too.
 

Im pretty sure he's talking about 50' behind the boat or that much line out from the reel.......most of the smaller tributaries that the steelies and salmon are in do not have 50' holes...haha

[jackelope]

Gotcha...we established that a couple posts ago.
Thanks.

[Ironhead]

Put a Dr. Death Tadpolly on each rod 45 to 55 feet behind the boat. The trick is to put both plugs where the fish are, typically just inside the seam. Sometimes you can only get one rod to fish correctly because of the water speed on the seam(slow inside - fast outside). You want walking speed water at least 6' deep where you can't see the bottom clearly or not at all. The fish that are in the river now do not hold where they don't have cover ( water depth or structure) trees, root wads, big rocks.
DR. Death with the black bill is key they will hit other plugs but this is the ticket for this river.

[MuleySniper]

Custom painted.... NFL... Skeletor....
I love pulling plugs.
MS

[TheHunt]

Great thread... I might be a new owner of a used DB in three weeks.  I have never fished from a DB so this information is good info.

[jnevs23]

I haven't really fished the Snohomish system since I moved to Spokane 5 years ago. Before I moved I fished it a lot though.  My buddy and I ran the Sultan to Ben Howard drift quite a bit and almost always got into fish. We would carry a couple rods each.  One with a plug and the other with drift gear or a jig and float.  I always liked the metallic pink hot shot.  Really any of the steelhead plugs work its all about what you have confidence in (I know thats hard to say when you arent catching anything). We always tried to backtroll slow straight.   Dont be affraind to stop and pull your boat up on shore and do some drift/float fishing or anchor up on water that looks good for that too.  Another set up that works is using a hot and tot as a diver, then running 4-5 of leader to a spin n glo and shrimp.  Just anchor up in good steelhead water and let it work.  You could always go with a guide to learn the ropes.  It costs money but it saves you a lot of time spent on the river learning.  My fishing partner owns rotten chum guide service...shameless plug.  Before anyone starts with the "its illegal to take a native out of the water"....this picture was taken before that law.  Fish was caught about 200 yards above the Ben Howard launch..on the launch side

[brichards44]

Great response. Thanks to everyone who contributed. This really helps my addiction to fishing.

[Angus]

I didn't do alot of plug pullin when I had my driftboat but when I did, my go to plug was either a Dr. Death or chrome and orange herringbone Tads. Always ran them 50' below the boat and usually left 1 scent free, the others had shrimp Smelly Jelly spread over them. More often then not the scented plug out fished the unscented but not always.

Not much more to add other then, keep at it. When I got my 1st driftboat I thought all I had to do was throw some plugs in the water and my catch average would sky-rocket, well, it took a long time to get the 1st fish on a plug and I was always second guessing what I was doing, then 1 day it happened, the rod buried and fish on, my confidence in plugs immeadiately went way up and I started catching them pretty regular after that.

[jackelope]

  Before anyone starts with the "its illegal to take a native out of the water"....this picture was taken before that law.  Fish was caught about 200 yards above the Ben Howard launch..on the launch side

I could tell by the neoprene

 

[jnevs23]

I just wear them cuz they make my butt look good. You never know when your going to run into those hot sultan women on the river in January

[CountryslickR]

Great thread... I might be a new owner of a used DB in three weeks.  I have never fished from a DB so this information is good info.

Good luck on pickin up the db!!! They are a great investment! let us know what you get!!!!!!

[Hyde]

What line are you running on your plug rods?