F or the first week of September make sure to jump out of bed early and have your favorite glow plugs all charged up and ready to go. This summer’s cool temperatures mean that you won’t have to travel far to find mature kings waiting to go upstream. Fishing in and around the river plume outside of the piers should be good, and the cold water will ensure a good battle when you hook up. My favorite plugs in this area are the Lucky Charms, Yellow Lightning, and Ace Hi Double Glow. Also, I never fish without at least a couple of the Tomic Pearl and Black Dot plugs in my set up. Depending on boat traffic you’ll want to run these baits anywhere from 30 – 100’ behind the ball on your downriggers and start out fishing in the top 10’ with your outdowns.
After the first hour in the morning move your gear down a bit but always try to keep one near that 10’ mark and start mixing in some chrome plugs if things slow down. Metallica Man, the Grinch, Mongoose, and Chrome with Red Head JPlugs are hard to beat on bright days. I usually start out with the equivalent of #4 Jplug sized baits early but switch over to mostly #3’s as the day goes on. Plugs will generally produce most of the action for me in tight to the piers but often, especially if the water is a little warm. Use an 11” Paddle with a green fly on a diver or the center downrigger and fish it a few feet off of the bottom to trigger a big king to strike.
If you have enough fisherman on board, a good plan is to have a duplicate set up for every rod you’re pulling and when a fish bites quickly replace the set up with the backup rod. Another stress reducing method is to just make a couple quick passes early, move to the edge of the pack, pick away at stragglers and wait for the crowd to thin out before sneaking back in to try a couple more passes late in the morning. This method promises to be a good one as the cold water will likely prevent a single, large run. It will promote more small, sporadic charges up the river allowing you search for new arrivals on a daily basis.
Small schools of young baitfish have been dotting my screen the last few weeks sitting up in warm water near the surface. These young baitfish will bring younger kings, steelhead, and lake trout to whatever area they are inhabiting. This is a great opportunity to stock up on some prime eating fish to put in the freezer before the end of the season. If the top 40 feet is still warm, low 60’s to 70 degrees, you will catch plenty of fish out of their normal temperature range. 1 – 5 color lead cores and short 30 – 70’ coppers will easily reach these fish while you keep some baits in the colder water that “the book” says you should be concentrating on. Bright colored Super Slims, Stingers, and like-sized spoons will work great in these conditions. Jager Bombs, Jawbreakers, Fireballs, Kevorkian Coyote’s, and Mixed Veggies are some of my favorite September patterns with the Hello Darlin and Capt Gary patterns working well on deeper sets. Lake trout tend to be pretty plentiful towards the end of September and a Trash Can and Spin’N’Glo near the bottom will almost certainly keep you occupied as you search for pockets of silver fish. Have a great fall and I hope to see you on the water!