Actually, the one thing that makes this somewhat plausible is the spin-n-glo.
One can cast for pinks and cohos successfully in the fraser with almost no visibility using spinners, spoons, spin-n-glos etc.and obviously no one doubts those fish actively bite. Fish have excellent ability to detect vibration and movement. It's not beyond belief that using a spin-n-glo instead of a corkie or plain wool is the major factor in your 'magic rig'.
Requiring any specific shade of wool is probably overstated and I would guess is a result of confirmation bias. Nothing I have ever seen nor heard about salmon fishing in any condition would suggest that an exact specific colour exists that would consistently get fish to strike day after day when no other colour is even remotely effective. The suggestion that it would make much difference at all in the silty Fraser is hard to believe. Not meant to be a criticism, but it's in direct conflict with what we seem to currently know about salmon fishing. If it turns out to be true, it would truly be a revolutionary and amazing discovery.
As for leader length? I dont know, it's clear that a leader of sufficient length is probably required to give the spin-n-glo enough 'freedom' to operate properly in an uninhibited manner for the right action. Whether that is 1', 3', or 10' is speculation. But you also cant deny that the probability of flossing, intentional or not, increases exponentially with leader length.
I'll accept your claims at face value, but you have to realize that using what can only be described as a flossing rig yet have almost all your sockeye legitimately bite puts you in the 0.01% of fishermen. You are literally out-fishing all the other casters on the Fraser combined. Congrats on your success, but the implication that any technique requires such a specific set of conditions such that the top fisherman can outperform the next 1000 competitors collectively is what is making others so skeptical, to say the least.
Perhaps it is confirmation bias but over the course of the last 20 years or so, we have experimented quite a bit and it does seem to matter. Yes, the spin n glo creating the vibrations helps. Just a normal corky was also experimented with and the effects dropped significantly. We found a corky that was sort of similar to the green we use, didn't work, red with the green yarn, didn't work. If we can see 1 foot, how far can the fish see? Even if it is just 1 foot which I doubt is the case, the vibration gets the fish excited/on edge/something and then there is a little flash of something they are used to eating a foot in front of them. To think this could never trigger a strike outright without any consideration and maybe even trials I think is foolish.
Like I have said previously, if it gives more people a chance of hooking more fish in the mouth, what is the harm in trying? Does someone honestly think me posting this here is going to cause more people to fish? More people to try to floss? Well, it might I guess if it works which is maybe what some people are scared of but then people wouldn't be flossing them. If it turns out there is a way to get sockeye to hit even some of the time, maybe people are afraid more people would try for them. If they are right and I am truly flossing, then the only harm would be that other people try it and I might convince other people that they aren't flossing when in fact they are. However, those people would likely be out flossing for sockeye anyways so again, what is the harm and why the nastiness?
I explained why we lengthened the leader, to save the gear. In places with smaller rocks we could probably shorten it quite a bit. We used to fish places with some pretty big rocks and we had to go quite a bit longer. However, anyone that tries this out, choose whatever length of leader you wish. I am curious if people try it if they notice the same things. Try it with different colors and see if the results are the same as what we have found.
I'm not sure how to fish for pinks on the Frasier because I only fished for pinks in the Skagit although we did catch some pinks in the Fraser on this outfit. On the Skagit, it was believed for years that you either had to fish with shrimp or with something with pink. If you asked anybody back in the 80s and 90s, that was the only way to catch them. In the 90s, we were fishing for them with half and half dick nights, half gold, half silver, and as long as the water wasn't too dirty, they would kill it. My brother now fishes for them with jigs. The conventional wisdom back in the good old days was wrong. The conventional wisdom for sockeye is they won't bite. What makes them different than every other type of salmon? None of them supposedly eat while entering fresh water but sockeye are the only ones that don't bite. Or could it be that we just haven't found what they will bite on yet? Perhaps they are just more finicky than other salmon. I think the fact that they pretty much won't touch the bar rig is one of the main reasons they were considered to not bite. Time will tell I guess. All I know is my experience over the last 20 years, of which we have caught so many fish in almost the exact same spot, the randomness of flossing doesn't seem plausible.
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Topic: Best snagging day ever!!!!! (Read 38550 times)