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[Spawn Sack]

Prior to the last week I had only spey fished for steelhead. Typical leader I used for s/h was a 3ish foot piece of straight Maxima UG in 15lb or 12 lb.

Recently I have been out trying for pinks on the spey in the Vedder. Can't seem to get one!

At first I was using a straight piece of Maxima UG in 12 lb. Seemed other guys spey casting had longer leaders so I added some length to bring it to about 6ft. Still no luck.

I'm using the same flies I've caught many pinks on with my s/h fly rod. However on the s/h rod I typically run a 9ish or longer leader this time of year.

I reckon I was fishing at about the right depth. At first had a sink tip on that was 7.5ft of t-11 and 2.5 ft of floating (MOW tip). That seemed to deep I was hooking bottom a lot. Switched to a tip that is 7.5 feet of floating then 2.5 ft of t-11. IMO it seemed to be getting down to a depth that should have caught a few stinky pinks.

Any advice? Do spey leaders differ at all from s/h leaders?

Also, do you vary your leader length for pinks vs coho, chum, etc? On the s/h rod I typically went longer and lighter leader for finicky coho. 

[Magz]

Im no expert but i did get into a few pinks yesterday on the spey rod.i was using a 10' ft t3 with 24" 12lb leader.works great and hardly felt the bottom swinging the fly.also pink fly didnt seem to get them,so i put on a small green fly and bam fish on....hope that helps and good luck.there getting more aggressive it seems.

[RalphH]

I generally fish the bottom end and into the canal. Did well yesterday on a switch rod - till I broke it  . I use 3 to 5 feet of 10lb maxima  and a clear intermediate tip or polyleader. Pinks are not leader shy. Amazes how many chase the fly as usually I get close enough to see them as they go by. Stripping the fly a bit seems to activate a strike response. The fly that worked was cerise marabou and has xtra small dumbbell eyes. I cast mostly quartering downstream let it swing a bit then stripped it. I prefer a slower strip some like a fast strip.

[Spawn Sack]

Thanks guys. Well it sounds like I wasn't doing anything wrong. Think I'll more or less keep doing what I have been doing. I think for kicks I'll use some of the flouro I was given by a friend. Never had much luck with the stuff tied to swivels (a lot of busted knots) but I know a lot of ppl like it on the fly as, so they say, it sinks better and is more abrasion resistant.

I'll try a short piece of 17lb then a few-ish feet of 12lb. It's Sufix flouro on a green spool (forget the exact name of it). It's pretty stiff stuff so I think it will turn flies over well. If I don't like it I'll go back to the old Maxima UG.

[Knnn]

I use exactly the same set up as Ralph, 5 -6 feet of 10 -12 lbs maxima with a slow clear sink tip.  I have caught them on 15 lbs maxima.  They do not seem to care about the leader.

If the others were getting fish on longer leader, particularly with leaders in the 9-12 length, it may have been that they were getting down closer to the fish, i.e. the longer leader allowing the beaded fly to sink further and not be held up in the water column by their fly line.  Obviously this all depends on the type of fly line, water depth, flow etc and may be very site specific to each angler.  The way the fly moves in the water column will also depend on if you have a floating line or slow/intermediate sink tip as opposed to T11 etc, which will tend to trawl the bottom.  Try casting further upstream and/or counting to 5 or 10 before stripping.  Also try varying your strip, sometimes they just like a swing or a slow strip or a fast strip. It can vary during the day, or day to day.  I have found a fairly quick strip to prompt that aggressive streak works well, especially if you put in a long 2-4 second pause in the middle of your retrieve, then start the fast strip again, you often get a hit on the drop or as the fly starts to move again.

For pinks, I do not think you need much of a sink tip, unless in very deep water.  A floating line with 9' of 10-12 lbs maxima with a beaded fly should produce, or a slow sink tip and less leader.

With Coho, I tend to take a lot more care, with 3' 17/15, 3' 12/10 and then 3-4' 10/8 flouro. 

Chum straight 5' of 15 lbs, if your rod can hold that freight train when it takes off!

GL

[Spawn Sack]

Thanks Knnn, for kicks I'm going to look at getting a clear slow sink tip. Not sure if I can get them in the MOW tips (which I like). The MOW tips I was using the other day that seemed to be getting down to an appropriate depth was 7.5ft floating + 2.5 ft T-11. I'd like to get something with a similar sink rate that is clear where it connects to the leader.

Also good tips on diff leaders for diff salmon. All that makes sense.

I'm looking forward to getting into some big chum once they start arriving. Rod is a 13"6 8wt and reel is a Galvan R-12. Should tame even the biggest, meanest, ugliest chum around. Definitley overkill for the wee stinky pinks but it's the only spey rod I have. Down the road would like to get a nice switch set up

[ajransom]

I either use a Scandi with a 10 ft intermediate sink poly leader and the two feet of mono (10lbs), or a Skagit head with 10' T8 and then 3 feet of mono for leader (10lb). Its pretty simple, but effective. For Pinks, I also try and use unweighted flies, to minimize foul hooking.