Rouge River Rainbows

[MuskieBait]

From over 15 years of personal experience, most of the fish caught with roe bags, beads and flies are flossed/lined. Only on the odd occasion do I see a salmon chase down a roe bag or hit a fly aggressively. Once salmon reached the rivers, they stop feeding.

To get some real bites, try fishing lures such as spoons, crankbaits and spinners to get the aggression response from the fish (usually males).

I don't buy the line shy theory that much anymore. If a fish is aggressive, you can still induce a violent hit with heavy line. During the spring, I was getting steelhead to smash spoons and spinners using 15lb mono (5 feet) and 30lb braid. Steelhead is much more line shy than salmon.

People tout light lines and fluorocarbon because these less visible lines are difficult for the fish to see, so they do not avoid the line when it is drifted toward their mouths. You cannot line/floss a fish if the fish swim away from the line, or roe bag or splitshots. In British Columbia, I was using 20lb mono leader on my fly rod and getting legitimate hits on the fly. I was also getting hits on spoon fishing 15lb straight mono without leaders.

Or...forget fishing in the streams all together and fish rivermouths and harbours for staging salmon. These are fish that actually bite. You can again use spoons and crankbaits to get these salmon to play. I was using 30lb mono (5 feet) with 30lb braid...but we fish at night so the line became much less visible at night.