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[frenchy]

In my opinion, chums are really good fish to quickly improve fishing skills. They are numerous and you easily know when they are in a pool. I have read that they are completely silly and would bite everything you put at the end of your leader whatever your drift is. For me it was not completely true, I had to work a bit to make them bitting, which is good because it allows you to progress quickly and to be more efficient when you are looking for species a bit harder to catch.

Yesterday, when I was fishing, these two questions came to my mind:

- Do salmons really bite on wool?
So far, I had at least one bite on every terminal tackle I tried, but wool. I am speaking about pure wool without scent or anything else. I tried several colors but they did not want to eat it.

- Do you have any trick to prevent a hooked fish to leave the pool you are fishing by running in the fast water at the end of the pool?
It happened twice to me yesterday, two crazy fish impossible to control. It also happened at least two or three times during the last steelhead season.

By the way, thanks for the advices concerning the catch and release technique, I feel more comfortable with that now.

[Spudcote]

Yes, I have had fish attack an unscented wool presentation, actually watched a fish swim up to the presentation, then take it.

One way of preventeing a fish from leaving a pool is to horse it...but another way is something about holding the rod parallel to the ground, and parallel to the river, not entirely sure how this is meant to work, but it does. Another way I've found (this could just be me...), fish typically run away from the direction they are being pulled. By going downstream of the fish, you are forcing it upstream (also tiring it out) and keeping it under control. This does not always work is a fish just books it to the the tail of a pool, nor does it work on a wide river, or if you have a lot of line out.

Works for me 

[Sterling C]

- Do salmons really bite on wool?


- Do you have any trick to prevent a hooked fish to leave the pool you are fishing by running in the fast water at the end of the pool?

To answer your first question. Yes! Of course what it all comes down to is presentation, a fish in a fast moving pool/run that has little time to see your wool and decide to hit or not could likley be induced into a reactionary bite. On the other hand a fish in a slow moving pool with good visibility can see this chunk of wool from a ways off and it would likely not be induced into a reactionary bite. (I believe that all hits on wool are reactionary)

To answer your second question, I can offer you a tip I learned from Gooey. If you're fishing with two people and a fish looks poised to make a run down so rapids what you can do is have the other person walk downstream and throw rocks into the tail out of the pool.

[cohokid]

HAHA biff funny ud mention that. I have tried that before. With springs, well this is what happened the first time. I chuck a rock behind the fish, the fish takes of 100 mph up river and we couldnt chace it up. and the other time. i chucked it below, and the fish still darted 100mph down stream

[BIG T]

HAHA biff funny ud mention that. I have tried that before. With springs, well this is what happened the first time. I chuck a rock behind the fish, the fish takes of 100 mph up river and we couldnt chace it up. and the other time. i chucked it below, and the fish still darted 100mph down stream

Hey cohokid,you guys are really funny ,what happen if you are by yourself,well,more pratice is the only way,i quess you know what i meant

[leaping steely]

Another way I've found (this could just be me...), fish typically run away from the direction they are being pulled. By going downstream of the fish, you are forcing it upstream (also tiring it out) and keeping it under control. This does not always work is a fish just books it to the the tail of a pool, nor does it work on a wide river, or if you have a lot of line out.

Works for me 

Yes, this can work wonders, especially with big Springs in fast water. An  effective way to tire out the fish so you can land it.

Easy there BIG T , for someone that like to lurk around the site is turning into a post whore  and you know what im talking about buddy 

[BIG T]

Easy there BIG T , for someone that like to lurk around the site is turning into a post whore  and you know what im talking about buddy 

Easy there Fishfreak and you know why,it is very entertaining

[mojoman]

you wanna stop a fish from runnin' up or down stream....just give it freespool...the second the resistance is gone the fish will settle(most times)....then you figger where you want the fish to go and put pressure opposite that direction....)


mojo don' chase fish anymore....

[BwiBwi]

Sometimes you can loosen the line a bit fish will stop panicing and stay still. As it starts to swim back up gentally reel in.  Time consuming and not recommanded if there are others waiting for you to get your fish in.

[chris gadsden]

Mojoman is right on his statement re giving a bit of slack.

 As well fish can be taken on wool ties which involves more than just tying on a piece of wool that most people do these days for appearance purposes only. I was never very good at making a nice wool tie that involves crafting a few different colours together. I remember when 2:40 was about 10 years old he could make some nice ones. He tied one up for me and on my first cast with it while steelheading fishing I hooked a good one that I ended up losing though.

I continue this days to just be an old bait fisherman using roe, prawn tails,or shrimp that are combined with a small bit of pink wool tied on the line and combed out.

As far as controlling fish when you have a fish thrashing about, trying to leave the pool in a lot of cases you have fouled hooked it. When a fish is hooked inside the mouth you have proper control of the fish. This is why you see people fighting a fish for so long as they have no proper control of it and when they land it you will see it is caught other than in the mouth. Even though I short float and do not foul hook that many fish over a season I do the odd time, 2 this season, one in the hinge the other under the chin.
In both cases I could tell they are foul hooked very early into the playing of the fish.

[frenchy]

Thank you everybody.

Concerning foul hooking the fish, well, of course I cannot guarantee it was not the case, but I try to do everything I can to avoid that. First cast, I estimate the depth of the pool, if the float is bouncing a bit (touching the bottom from time to time), I put my thumb on the spool to allow my leader to come near the surface and then gently reel. I then lower my float at least one feet and cast back.This way, I very rarely snag the bottom and I think I decrease the chance of foul hooking a fish. The two spots were I hooked the fish I had a problem to control, I knew I was way above the bottom. I casted there and the float stayed straight in the water during my drifts.
One of my problem, I think, is that I give too much liberty to a fish I hook. I am still not used to hook such big fish and I have some problem to estimate the resistance of my leader and I give line too easily to the fish. I konw it is bad, because the fight last longer and I probably tire the fish too much this way.
I usually try to pull the fish in the oposite direction I want it to go, and it works for a while but I still often end with a fish running in the next pool.
I asked the question concerning the wool, because I have heard that wool is often the ticket for salmon (if you exclude roe of course), but I had more success using a small spin n glow or a gooey bob. If it does not work better than anything else, I do not understand why wool has such a good reputation when it comes to salmon fishing.

 

[funpig]

I like using wool because it is cheap and easy to use.  I am not sure of the price of gooey bobs or spin-n-glows, but I am sure that for the price of a few of these, you can buy enough wool to last several seasons.  I even like to use plain wool when I am fly fishing;  it is much cheaper than losing flies.

No doubt roe is king compared to wool.  I am not advocating bait bans.  However,  I personally feel a bit better when I use wool as my primary lure as opposed to roe.  For some fisherman, roe has become a commodity in itself as opposed to just a byproduct of the catch.   They will take a fish with the primary purpose of harvesting the roe.  The illegal roe fisherman will just chuck the carcass.  But even some ethical roe fisherman will make a conscious effort to release males and selectively target the females for the eggs.

[BwiBwi]

As far as controlling fish when you have a fish thrashing about, trying to leave the pool in a lot of cases you have fouled hooked it. When a fish is hooked inside the mouth you have proper control of the fish. This is why you see people fighting a fish for so long as they have no proper control of it and when they land it you will see it is caught other than in the mouth. Even though I short float and do not foul hook that many fish over a season I do the odd time, 2 this season, one in the hinge the other under the chin.
In both cases I could tell they are foul hooked very early into the playing of the fish.

Not totally true.  If you have strong line, stiff rod, plus the fish at the other end is not huge, and you have problem controlling the fish then it could be true.  However, many times while coho fishing is that light gear is being used.  There is just no way to control the fish.  I have came upon springs that leap twist (you can see it's hooked good in the mouth) and dart towards the rapids and just sit in the rapid and there's no way you can move it.  Tried pulling, leaving slacks no help, just sit there.  There's just no way to control the fish.  By the way lost them at the end.

[goinfishin]

Mojoman is right on his statement re giving a bit of slack.

 As well fish can be taken on wool ties which involves more than just tying on a piece of wool that most people do these days for appearance purposes only. I was never very good at making a nice wool tie that involves crafting a few different colours together. I remember when 2:40 was about 10 years old he could make some nice ones. He tied one up for me and on my first cast with it while steelheading fishing I hooked a good one that I ended up losing though.

I'm relatively new at this, but how does one put together a wool tie? Do you just cut pieces of different colour wool and bunch it together on a hook or is there some tying and shaping of the wool that is done before hand?

[scouterjames]

Mojoman is right on his statement re giving a bit of slack.

 As well fish can be taken on wool ties which involves more than just tying on a piece of wool that most people do these days for appearance purposes only. I was never very good at making a nice wool tie that involves crafting a few different colours together. I remember when 2:40 was about 10 years old he could make some nice ones. He tied one up for me and on my first cast with it while steelheading fishing I hooked a good one that I ended up losing though.

I'm relatively new at this, but how does one put together a wool tie? Do you just cut pieces of different colour wool and bunch it together on a hook or is there some tying and shaping of the wool that is done before hand?

Yay, Newbie questions!  I was going to ask that too, but you beat me to it!  I'm interested to know what they are, as asked above, and if anyone has had more luck with them that a straight piece of wool?