Salmon in NJ!!!

[fishingbuddies]

Today I finally knocked off another fish species of the ol bucketlist. The landlocked Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar). Meet a gentleman who explained how he caught lakers Upstate. Told me troll spoons using jetdivers. Use the appropriate jet diver per the fish marks on sonar. The prep work in tying the rigs and then hauling all the gear onto the water is a Pain in the A$$. But once the rigs are deployed... just peddle or paddle to a 2mph troll. The marks were all at 25 to 30feet. I trolled a 40ft diver and a 30ft. Both fish landed on the 30ft trolling a copper spoon. Biggest salmon was shy of 17 inches. The shorter one was 15+. Coming from depths of 25 to 35ft.. very unlikely that they would swim back. So... good eats time. Well worth the wait (5yrs of trying) and the time invested into catching them.

[thmyorke1]

Nice work, do salmon not return back well when they come out of 30 ft? Most trout deeper seem to swim down fine and not float up like crappies for example.

[fishingbuddies]

Not sure. Tried to revive the big one in the net. He didnt look so good.

[Hookmanski]

Originally Posted by fishingbuddies

Not sure. Tried to revive the big one in the net. He didnt look so good.

Nice work man! As for releasing, just need to give them a little time. I caught a 20 inch salmon in 30ish ft of water earlier this year and he swam off like a champ. Bet they tasted great though!

[fishingbuddies]

Thx. Now that I know how to catch em... I will practice my revive n release technique.

[NJ Dave]

We released them back into 90' of water in upstate New York and they do just fine, like said you have to take your time to revive them and also take your time when you're real them up

[bigfishy]

How did they taste?? Only kept them once and was less than thrilled with the results, now they always go back...I'll take Lakers any day, their delicious!!

[AndyS]

Cool looking fish, that fishery should hold up well through the winter.

Originally Posted by fishingbuddies

Thx. Now that I know how to catch em... I will practice my revive n release technique.

Congrats on your first landlocks. Depth alone is less a factor for revival than time fought and how the fish is handled boat side as others have mentioned. If you want to take a pic, have camera ready and hold the fish with two hands underneath, not by the gills. Keep the fish in the water and net the entire time until your ready to take the pic. Either an automatic camera, go pro or someone else fishing with you helps here. Don't keep them out of the water, camera ready, quick pick and swim the fish until she's ready to go back down. They'll let you know when they're ready.

Salmon are like trout and your technique is a summer time technique mostly. Landlocks don't like warm water and don't like sun. In the spring, winter and fall, you'll find more feeding fish around the edges than you will deep, so adjust your technique accordingly. For two reasons, they're looking for somewhere to spawn even though the four lakes in NJ don't have proper habitat but more so because they'll pin herring up top and feed heavy. Sun comes up, they go back deep almost immediately. A lot of the fish caught ice fishing are a few feet under the ice. They feed early and late for the most part, those are the prime times to target them. Sun comes up and the switch is flipped in a blink, bite is over. Overcast days will out fish blue bird days 10:1.

Learn their pattern and you'll land plenty. They're a great fish and I hope NJ keeps up the program. State records in the New England states are almost all over 20lbs. Won't be long imo before we see a 15 lber caught in NJ as long as we don't continue harvesting all the smaller fish. There's simply not that many fish stocked between four lakes, give them a chance and this could be a true trophy fishery. A 12" fish filleted probably equates to a 6" fish stick, personally I'd rather catch it when it reaches 10 lbs. than make it into a snack.

[fishingbuddies]

Awesome advice. TY