Salmon Camp
Your home base for salmon intelligence. Track the runs, dial in trolling programs, match spawn colors — and stay locked to salmon from here on out.
Proven Techniques Salmon
Trolling Spoons
Dodgers and flashers with cut-plug herring or spoons at target depth — classic downrigger program.
Learn more →Back-Bouncing Roe
Trophy king tactic — cured salmon eggs drifted along seam breaks in river holes.
Learn more →Swung Flies for Steelhead
Two-handed rods and intruder patterns swung through runs — the purest salmonid pursuit.
Learn more →Sockeye Flossing
Specialty technique on Alaskan rivers — sparse flies drifted at depth across sockeye schools.
Learn more →Casting Spoons to Coho
Pixees, Krocodiles, and Kastmasters across estuaries and stream mouths for fresh silvers.
Learn more →Jet Divers & Plugs
Magnum wiggle warts and K-16 kwikfish back-trolled through kings holding in river slots.
Learn more →On The Big Water: Tools of the Trade
Great-Lakes salmon trolling starts with depth control. A pair of electric downriggers paired with 8'-10' medium-action trolling rods and line-counter reels lets you repeat the exact depth and speed that triggered a bite.
Fill the trolling tray with flasher-and-fly combinations plus a run of J-plugs and spoons in glow and UV finishes for low-light mornings. A good GPS/sonar combo with a quality chartplotter keeps you on the temperature break where the schools stack up.
Items above are widely available at Bass Pro Shops and other major fishing retailers.
Recommended Gear Bass Pro
Seasonal Pattern
Notable Salmon Waters
Kenai River
The iconic king salmon river — source of the all-tackle world record, 97-pound chinook.
Lake Michigan
Salmon-stocked inland sea — downrigger trolling for kings and coho, May–September.
Columbia River
Spring, summer, and fall chinook plus coho and sockeye — all timed by river mile.
Salmon River (Pulaski)
Lake Ontario tributary — legendary fall chinook and winter steelhead.
Skeena River
All five Pacific salmon species plus trophy steelhead — a bucket-list watershed.
Community-recommended. Always check local regulations, seasons, and access rules before fishing.