i dont fish winni much, but over on sebago 2.2 was the majic number for salmon. i do speed up and slow down alot, and a lot of cornering changes those speeds as well .8 to 1.1 was real good handlining lakers. those speeds were all on spoons, no luck this year with flies, what speed does everone troll streamers at. i do slow down with bait and or suttons for salmon
A few years back I was "told" 1.8 - 1.9 would be ideal for salmon, maybe a little slower for lakers and faster for rainbows. However, at Moosehead this year I found most action on salmon came faster, between 2.2 to 2.4. Locally, nothing on 'bows unless I was at or slightly above 2.4 mph.
I guess this goes to the question of boat speed (by GPS or ?) vs. apparent speed of the lure. Depending on wind, currents etc. I can easily see 1.7 seeming like 2.2 or vice versa.
All my experience with lures. Tried flies a few times, nothing no matter what I did.
I do 2.0 to 2.5 the fish will tell you what they want try different speeds until you start to get hits.My GPS is pretty close to my Cannon probe so I start at around 2 mph and work from there.Some of the lures I have used don't get the action if I'm slower than 2.0 mph.In the spring I may run up to 3 mph with my jigger working fly rods but other than that the 2.0 to 2.5 mph works for mr.Just my 2 cents.
Eric, good point about lure action...I have noticed I can't get good action on certain lures below a certain speed. Good idea is to check the action of your lure over the side at a given speed before hooking up the riggers or sending out all the leadcore...
I was stuck in a 23' Sea Ray about a week after ice out and I could not get that sucker slowed down to less than 3.2 or so. I was swearing up and down at the shop who still had my boat, which will slow down, because some parts hadn't come in and then te Salmon started hitting. 3.5,3.8 the Fish just kept on coming. It was weird but I wass not complaining. I had one of the best 4 days of fishing I'd had in years. So it beats me as to how important speed is. I managed to prove 20 years of my own Salmon experience dead wrong. The speed was measured by gps. I had no other electronics on board. Strange weekend.
I like to troll between 2 and 2.2 gps to start with. If i'm fishing for lakers will go down to 1.8 or so. I also think if the salmon aren't hitting try trolling a bit faster is a good rule of thumb. 2.5 or even a little faster is good for rainbows.
Question on lure speed. Will the lure act the same way as you get it to at a certain speed beside your boat, say with 250 of line out or will it act differently?
You could get a different action with 250 feet of line out there is alot of strech with mono line.Wind,waves and so on could effect the speed that far out.
I've heard with flys you get more action off heavier mono ???? Might be someones secret I just let out, LOL.
Have no clue what my favorite spoon's or fly's are, I have several of each I like and some of thoise are better than others some years. When they are biting good, it don't matter, a shiny hook might work great ?????
John S.
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You could get a different action with 250 feet of line out there is alot of strech with mono line.Wind,waves and so on could effect the speed that far out.
