Fish Jumping

[Duffer]

How come when sockeye are jumping everywhere, they dont bite at 20 ft on your rigger????

 

[vetteman]

The Sockeye bite comes and goes.Give it time and they'll bite.
Dave

 

[fishspoon]

I have tried to troll by using downrigger, 20' down for sockeyes..no success...I usually get them at 50' or more. I know some guys get them at 15' or 30' by using a ounce weight and flasher/squirt combination without downrigger.

In my theory, sockeyes jump, they don't bite. they swim like bullet straight to the river.

 

[profisher]

My wife would say those are only the males jumping and they can't multi task. It is either jump or feed not both at the same time!!!

 

[yo mama]

My guess is if they are right on the surface and fish only look forward and up and not down, 20ft is still to deep. only a top line would attract them and at that point unlike coho, your boat might spook them before your gear effectively gets to them.

 

[seadog19]

was off Iona several times, this week, water was boiling with jumpers and finners, and we could even see fish under boat, So I thought same thing, bring gear up.

Nothing.... dropped gear to 80feet when going thru schools, wham..... multiple hits .. one set, 4 on a once with rods spaced 10ft apart on depth.

 

[chris73]

It's the same with the big migration schools that you can see on the sounder. In the JDF right now you see huge schools of sockeyes on your sounder in 200 - 400' depth. No point in lowering your lines that deep or even close as those schools don't bite - I think they are just lazily drifting with the current towards the natal stream. You got to find the patches of fish that break away from the big school to feed because they are hungry. At least that is my theory over the years.

 

[Califbill]

Fish jump, as they have no middle finger. So why would you expect something flipp'n you off to cooperate.

21'Jetcraft Bluewater, Hobie Outback

 

[high tide]

While fishing 45 to 70 feet commonly out there right now, every time I went through a bunch on the surface I yanked the rigger up quickly to 20 to 30 feet and bam! almost every time they were doing the surface thing, finning or schools jumping, seemed to work good for me.

HT

 

[Justfish]

I believe that usually you need to pull your gear through a school and the competitive instinct kicks in. It seems like the jumpers have come up and left the school temporarily so are not going to strike but sometimes the school is shallow and just below them.
I also have caught many Socks deep while some were finning and jumping. Trolling speed and direction is key as well.

A liar will assume you are lying