I have been fishing salmon at Ludington, Michigan for a couple of years now. I have never used meat rigs/cut bait. Here is my question. I see heads out there for cut bait. I see Killer Kutters for bait rigs. I know absolutely nothing about any of this. I am a "greenhorn." What size hooks would I use to stick in the bait? How far apart should the hooks be? Is coloring the bait and brining it what should be done before fishing it. Thanks everyone for all your help here. We have already DOUBLED the amount of fish we have caught on our best day last year already this year. We went from 3 to 6. Looking for more options yet. Thanks everyone. You are all truly appreciated. Picture of my Dad a couple of weeks ago. He is 73 and he was SOOOOOOOOOOOO excited.
Ed aka Bait N Wait
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The recent articles about bait in GLA, in my opinion, confused more than they helped. I am sure a few people who are always looking for the next big thing will get into the cut bait, the brining bait, and/or the coloring bait things.
You don't need to start that complicated. Buy a couple of "twinkie rigs", meat rigs with three foil twinkies and a bait head. Buy them complete to start. Put them as they come behind a rotating flasher to match. Coyotes, Bechholds, Spin Doctors, they all work.
Buy a tub of cut strips and GOOD toothpicks. I prefer the Fosters with the orange box. Thaw the bait on your way out in a bucket of water and follow the instructions on how to put it in the meat head that should come with your rig. Put the rig in the water, the fish should rotate about once per second, not spin like a top, or more often, lay there dead. Carfully adjust the bend in the bait head if it soes not spin properly.
Where this stuff really shines is on a small boat, limited number of lines and after the "hot bite" is over. Under those conditions I have probably tripled my catch over other methods.
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Ed Last weekend was really our first serious attempt at running meat. We did just as Bob suggests and ran twinkie rigs behind large flashers with herring strips. It worked great. We also experimented with a strip ran on a clean head (no twinkies or attractor) and caught a fish that way. There is whole herring (and the heads for them), cut plugs and strips. I plan to eventually learn to use it all but by starting out simple with strips, with and without twinkies and attractors, we were able to start catching fish on bait right away without much of a learning curve. It might not always be so, but our best success came last weekend when we slowed right down to 1.8-2.0 down speed. Dave S and Vista Cruzer from this site are reps for Fish On Bait Co. and have been very helpful in getting me pointed in the right direction. Great guys with great products! Drop them a line.
Jim...I Fish Therefore I Am
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Ed , I would also add that in addition to Bob and Jim's replys to watch the rods for slight fish hits , most of our hits were a good solid release but also have seen where the fish will follow and kind of mouth the bait and then the bait will be gone . We had to go to real stiff release's , heavy off shore's and scotty release's worked good , the rubber bands were tried at first wouldn't hold the attractor and rig after a couple of minutes of trolling. Last week the black/glow attractor with red 3 fly rig and red bait head was good as was the green glow 3 fly rig and green head. We kept our leads short , about 10 to 12 feet and tried to keep about 10 to 15 feet seperation in the depths we ran them. We had 2 wire divers with meat on them also and they were working good as well . We ran 2 and 3 riggers most of the time , more than that I think would have been a waste. The combo of 2/3 riggers , 2 divers and lead core with a plain meat heat was pretty good for us as it was our first real attempt at running the program , I see a few modifications or ideas I'd like to try with meat but it does have its time and place. We ran both types of meat , herring strips and whole herring , can't say I really seen a difference at this point in the 2 as far fish catching ability.
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Gotta tell you all. I heard a lot of people talking about catching them on meat rigs. I didn't have that luck the past weekend. We DID however do VERY good on DW Green Glow Frogs before 7:30 am. My wife and I had a double on one day and my son and wife the next day. Smallest fish we caught was about 10# and the biggest about #20. Fishing is AWESOME up there right now. I just need to try the meat a little more. I used herring with heads and all and just the strips. Reel Fast had a lot of fish on them, but he fished them in Oscoda before coming to Ludington so he is not a greenhorn like me. I told the wife that we now will have to start releasing the fish since we have enough. She said not on my life so I bought her a 22 quart pressure cooker with part of my bonus from work. Least I could do since she bought me a new color sonar withe her bonus. I think I got the better end of that deal. Thanks again EVERYONE for all your help. My wife and I are ready to move up to Ludington for good. Ed
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