Lloyd Erickson emailed such an interesting note that I am paraphrasing it and inviting other readers to send me their thoughts, too. My Maximum Salmon addresses many issues, but there are lots of good anglers out there and I will highlight their tips with my own.
"I have been fishing out at Alberni Inlet several times in the last while.
Although we have always caught at least one spring, the results have not been as great as I would like. As one might observe with any such confined fishery, some people get skunked, and some do well. I would rather be one of the 10 per cent that catches most of the fish. Yesterday, we barely managed to scratch one 15 pounder. But at the cleaning station we saw one boat with a +30 pounder and several in the midtwenties. Of course, we wondered how they did it, but they weren't talking.
So how should we do it in Alberni Inlet at this time of year - and in the derby?
This is a "terminal fishery" and the fish seem to bite less as they get closer to the river. They don't seem to bite on the same gear as we use in Nootka Sound (although the Coyote "Watermelon" works well in both places), but maybe the same principles work in both places. How deep to fish? In Nootka we fish 30 feet at dawn then deeper after the sun hits the water.
In Alberni Inlet we see arches at 60 feet near Holm Island, and down to 150 feet farther out. Water temperature was 65 F. Were the springs deep because of the water temperature? Water colour was olive brown.
Don't know how deep that extended, but it must affect the colour one uses for flashers and lures.
Favoured lures appeared to be hot pink, especially hootchies. We did not see many people fishing bait.
Most boats had four lines in the water, so were using lots of flashers. Should we reduce this visual pollution, or does it attract springs this close to the river? The go-to flasher was green/silver, but we had success with the gold Betsy. Glow colours on flashers or lures didn't seem to be more attractive. Successful fishermen seemed to find springs in back eddies. And what about trolling speed?
Some guys like to troll fast, but some are successful with slow speeds, slow enough to use dodgers.
And how to maximize a boat's effectiveness at catching fish? You have mentioned bits of this puzzle over the years, but it would be nice to see more information in one place.
Some topics are obvious, such as electricity on downrigger lines, i.e. black boxes. But what happens with the new dyneema lines? What about the effect of trolling motors? I have better success trolling with the main motor, but really like the kicker's speed and gas consumption. But the kicker causes vibrations and steering is a whole new issue. What effect does the location of the downriggers have? Is the main effect whether I should be using a shroud around the kicker propeller?
There are tonnes of items to consider, such as sonar, radios, plotters/GPS units (and where to put them so you can see them: a big topic for those who need reading glasses). Lots of things to include like how to keep your windshield from fogging up?
