"How-To" Pulling Plugs for Steelhead

[Music] hey welcome Northwest we are here in the bait lab for this week's how-to we're gonna talk a little bit of plug pulling for steelhead I want to remind everybody that our bait lab segments are presented by max lure max on board with us we advocate that you check out what they have going on either online or in your local stores they produce a lot of good stuff and as we roll in the spring get into a lot of that kokanee trout fishing max lure plays an important role on what we do okay plug fishing for steelhead pulling plugs man it is something that if you haven't done it once you do it you'll understand what you've been missing it is a great alternative to fishing some type of an artificial out in front of big aggressive still ahead that flat-out gets it done let's talk a little bit about a rod and reel culminate how you get set up most of your plug rods you find manufacturers are pretty consistent different variables and what they make or build the rods actually out of but you want to look for something in that seven and a half I like a seven seven and a half one piece plug rod it should indicate on the on the brand or the type of rod it is that it is for plug fishing for salmon or steelhead now most years steelhead rods really nice to have it in the range of that six to fifteen pounds seven and a half foot one piece will get it done all day long if you predominately are efficient later in the season want a little something beef here you'll find those rods in that 8 to 20 but I can assure you these nice little 6 to 15 pound rods get it done time and time again I like to utilize reels with some type of Lie encounter whether it's digital or the old mechanicals we're great because they don't need batteries to be replaced so that is that is a bonus line counters are important because as you put out your plugs either at the out the back of your sled as you're backing downriver out the front of your drift boat as you're slowly moving downriver you want to build that wall resistance whether it's two or three rods out the front or back your boat and you're one of those plugs basically in the same distance or at an angle to kind of push those fish back against the wall or into a corner or basically you're just trying to build that front that's going to move them downriver as you start backing them up if there's not gonna strike early chances are as you get them back to that tail end of that run down in that tail out section or back into a corner they're gonna have to do the Oh decide whether they're gonna fight or flight and typically you're gonna you know make them mad enough that they're actually going to attack that plug so line counters are to make sure distance from your boat is equal not depending on water clarity and depth is how far I'll put those plugs out sometimes summer run fishing gin clear low water and try not to push the fish out there with the boat before the plugs get there you know I'll put them buggers out 4550 feet not afraid to do that at all now some folks don't like to use braided line for plug pone they think that it you know has too much buoyancy and it doesn't allow your plugs to dig down as deep as they should go to be honest when it comes to steelhead fishing most the time you're fishing for six eight maybe ten foot depth of water getting your plugs down to that depth into their face is a problem you use braids because it's so thin in diameter it has a lot less drag than your mono filaments of heavier strength so forty or fifty pound braid on your level line do a real nice job put on a top shot six to eight feet of monofilament since knotted to your braid don't use the swivel just tie it directs so you got that nice Top Shot as we get into this time of year and start chasing those bigger wild fish 2025 pound top shot nothing wrong with 25 pound ultra green durable abrasion resistant gonna back those plugs right into around that structure on some of those coastal streams gonna give you the advantage of trying to put some pressure those fish to get them out of there so don't go light on your top shot make sure it's good and girthy and then just put a snap duel lock or something on the end of that so you can swap out plugs on a frequent basis so lots of different plugs to choose from when you're fishing for steelhead there's a lot of tried-and-true favorites on here and it kind of progressed this for me back in the day the the hotshots 30s and the all 35 is a bigger plug with that nice big bill on their digs really well in the water gets down rattles a lot lots of erratic action on these thirty fives the blue and green pirates for years and you know three to six feet of visibility or gin-clear these things work fantastic they've been tried and true the smaller size 30s any of these colors with these kind of metallics and multi colors so there's dark Bill's on try out these Aloha jugs just have a great action to them that really stimulate steelhead to bite so you can't go wrong they're moving over here the tadpole II so the tad poly is one that's been around for a long time but they actually don't make it anymore you shall find them online you can find some some some online stores that may carry em you'll find that they come in a variety of colors the the metallics work well the multi colors work well some of these have been doctored up with darker bills and that contrasts again works very well the other thing about the other thing about tadpoles is that they're castable okay these these little plugs actually when you want to cast and retrieve for steelhead believe it or not it does work the tadpoles work very well for that they don't catch the law to win and they got that heavier but on them that allows them to get out away from you and actually cast pretty far so something to think about if you have water that's conducive to cast to retrieve it does work and it's a great way to ambush fish tadpole has been around a long time most cases they like to swap out the hook to a single sy wash off the back put on to a lock ring and also a barrel swivel is going to keep it keep it with better hook penetration and not come out sometimes as your treble would twist out moving over here I got the canine extreme okay the canine extreme let me see here no that's my tadpole I got the canine extreme in uh also the u-20 up fish wardens u-20 flatfish by a why BC multiple colors here fantastic plug to use again I like to swap out the trebles too these single sigh wash typically I'll put two hooks on those they seem to perform pretty well it's basically a two aughts i wash onto a barrel swivel and again with the with the swivels on your hooks and those fish starts spinning and rolling around you know not so apt to pull them trebles out of there when you have this single side wash in there they get good hook penetration these plugs perform very well even with the dual hooks on them now the one thing about all these plugs that I've talked about they have a range in which they like to operate they have a minimal amount of flow that they still perform pretty well and they have a maximum amount of flow that if you exceed that they tend to come up to service and flip over and won't stay running true so they have what I refer to as a little bit narrower of a range of water that they are performing well in okay now let's get to what I consider to be more of my favorite and that would be the the Meg lips from ybc lots of different colors to choose from on your mag lips kay the thing about them is you know the 3.5 and the 3.0 are fantastic for steelhead they come in a wide range of colors the best thing about these plugs if you are new to plug fishing haven't spent a lot of time pulling plugs out of your drift boat and or even now the back here sled is that they are so forgiving and the types of waters that they will run as I mentioned before these plugs all work great and they've been around a long time but they have certain parameters they like to run in this Meg lip will run in extremely slow water and it will run into some of the fastest water that you're willing to row if the mag lips not stand down in the line that you're trying to pull chances are you're probably fishing too fast to water so that's a great gauge to tell you that you know maybe I am putting these in too fast water if the Meg lip won't even run also if you're rowing in water trying to back down slow and you're having a heck of a time trying to keep the boat moving at a slower pace you're definitely too fast to water so for a starter kit even though it's been a phenomenal plug proven been around for a while now in diverse italic colors you put a mag lip on right out of the box there's no too necessary you clipped that thing on its gonna perform I do like to switch out the treble hooks they come with dual treble hooks I'll run a single two OTT or three out off the back to paying on if it's a 3.5 or 3.0 I put that again on a lock ring with a barrel swivel and I have landed a ton of fish on mag lips with a single two odd hood hook out the back gets it done the fish can grab a hold of it good hook penetration on the takedown it it turns in the mouth of the fish because it does have the swivel on there typically Barry's in really well and stays hold even on barbless hooks now let's talk about color progression up here I got a lot of the brighter colors okay some of these bright vibrant colors with UVs and whatnot are ideal and what I go to for dirty water coming off this high water in the next few weeks we're gonna have some limited visibility and we want to have these bright colors to really grab their attention also these things make a little noise they do rattle and they have a tractability with color they have a tractability with erratic action they have attract ability with noise and in hi dirty water or off-color water as we get rivers to drop I'm going with the fluorescents okay that's my first choice as we get to water that starts to get into that three to six feet of visibility nice green to it that steely green as we call it I start fishing some more of the metallics even with this herringbone or these tiger stripes in there and all of these metallics in that three to six foot of water visibility work fantastic even like this herringbone with that you know that blue bill and this this should nice chartreuse tail end on it got the chrome on there all of these grab light all these reflect light again if they mag lip the erratic action the color contrast is ideal for some of these they just flat get it done in that three to six feet of visibility now when we get to really clear low conditions we might get there this year although the winter has been so warm we haven't had a lot of those cold temps that really drop our water down once we get past all this rain to get those low gin-clear conditions or similar to summer on fishing that's when I go to the full-on motel it's okay light refraction is really good with these types of colors your goals and your greens don't discount the opportunity to also fish the 3.0 s in this in this dr. death color scheme here metallic good light refraction got that dark bill again we got color contrast then we have a smaller presentation when the water gets really low and clear so that 3.0 is an ideal size plug to be running for steelhead even for big wild fish as we get later in season you get those clear conditions so you have a lot of options the Meg lip gets it done for me time and time again because it's such a versatile plug and again it runs in all those different conditions you can have real soft water on the right side of your boat really aggressive water on the left side going left Shore down and I can have Meg lips out and they're both working equally as well even though the water can be a varying of a couple miles per hour and difference before we go let's talk a little bit about boat position and how we actually pull plugs pullin plugs Alan from your drift boat for example is an extension of your drift boat okay you're gonna put those rods and the rod holders don't allow folks to hold onto them because we don't set the hook on plug fish and we allow the fish to take it down bury the rod tip towards the water for a couple good tugs before we ever take the rod out of the rod holder that fish is pinned with good hooks it's not going anywhere so there's no need to set the hook we deploy those plugs out in front of the boat 35 40 feet depending on water clarity 45 feet put them in the rod holder let the plugs dive down do their thing if I have my wall set up out in front of the boat and I'm backing it down a long stretch and the river kind of takes a turn it's up to me to navigate those plugs into where I need them to go I simply do that and on how I'm rowing okay now if you haven't rode a drift boat a lot and you're putting plugs out there's nothing wrong with starting out on anchor drop the pick put the plugs out watch how the raw tips react get to understand the cadence on the raw tips you'll know if you get leaves or debris or something on there once you understand the exact cadence that those plugs are putting out because one of them will change so you need to reel that in check clear the debris off put it back out as you become familiar with how those blogs react plugs react go ahead pull your anchor slowly start rolling backwards now if you're in soft water the the biggest problem or mistake early on you'll make as one who's trying to pull plugs is that you will over row and actually back your boat upriver so now the plugs are diving really hard lots of erratic action on the rod tips and you think you're doing it right however if you look at your shoreline pick a landmark tree stomp rock something identify where that is and as you're rowing if you're either sitting there at that same mark for the last five minutes you're not backing your plugs downriver if you look down River and that rock is somewhere down below you you've actually backed your plugs back upriver so you need to pick your landmark back row on your boat to slowly allow it to go downriver and keep it in to a certain pace that's just kind of constantly moving the boat on down which is in effect moving the plugs on down okay as you move the plugs down you have water that you want to cover okay back in the plugs down straight back and forth is covering a percentage of water by ferry angle the back of your boat back and forth if I take the back of my boat to the left it's going to swing my plugs over to the right and then I can bring the boat over here and catch up with them and then I can bring the boat to the right swing the plugs over to the left and I can then let the boat drift over I can cover water by moving the back of my boat and swing in the front of the boat again the plugs are an extension of your drift boat so however you're guiding those and you get into a corner and you have a bunch of structure and you want to back those plugs into that corner and kind of take it out of forty-five around the corner you as the oarsmen it's up to you on how you present those plugs into a corner and maneuver them downriver and it'll you know with time and practice you're gonna be able to do that just look for certain things as you develop your skills don't over roll pick your landmarks don't back your boat upriver sit on anchor if you need to for a while to understand how plugs work and get get in sync with the action of your rod tips all those finer points as you develop your skills fish and plugs is going to work fantastic in don't be afraid to put cent on them okay some good mikes UV sent Anna Skrill Correll shrimps and shrimp all the shrimp lines that you can get to put those right on the base of your plug and give it a little scent so that you have on river to entice them yes steelhead predominantly react based on color contrast and they're a reactionary bite but don't be afraid to use scent because it will aid you in finding success when pulling plug so hopefully I covered enough for you you know kind of the atoz on plug fishing whether you've been doing it for a while or just starting out got any questions hit us up on Facebook and we can certainly answer those whether it's talking again specifics about rods reels line weight size of line size brought all that in again some differences on these plugs that we have out here tonight to kind of give you a perspective on what you can and can't do with plugs I think if you get out and give it a try to the rest of the season once water drops you're going to be very successful [Music] you

Channel: Fish Hunt Northwest

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Keywords: FHN, Fish Hunt Northwest, Fish Hunt NW, Fish Hunt Nation, Deer, Elk, Salmon, Steelhead, Bass, Sturgeon, Whitetail, Blacktail, Turkey, Pheasant, Duck, Geese, Archery, Modern Rifle, Shotgun, Fly Fishing, River Fishing, Lakes, Puget Sound, Trout, Kokanee, Perch, Smallmouth, Large Mouth, WDFW, ODFW, IDFG, Coho, Chinook, Sockeye, Chum Salmon, Bait Lab, Pautzke, Atlas Mikes, Mule Deer

Id: t7BraM9f9EA

Length: 16min 42sec (1002 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 25 2020