Newbie
Thank you for joining us for the conclusion. To Jared Simpson’s Trout Angler 15 Tips to Fishing the Salmon River. If you haven’t subscribed yet, go ahead and hit that subscribe button to this podcast.
Jared Simpson
My fourth tip would and this isn’t really the best tip, I guess, but I would say that the thing that’s going to benefit you the most over anything, over spending time watching YouTube videos, learning or anything like that, or spending time on Instagram looking at young people or fishing or what they’re using. I think what benefits people the most is just time on the water.
Jared Simpson
Every time you go out fishing, whether you catch fish or not, you’re learning.
Newbie
Yes, yes.
Jared Simpson
Every time you go out. And if you’re not, you’re doing something wrong. But every time you go on the water, you should be trying to learn, trying to improve. You know, if you’re a center hitter, you should be mashing with your shot pattern, adding split shot, removing split shot. You really want to dial yourself in. I mean, a lot of people say I’m such a good fisherman or whatever and I disagree with that.
Jared Simpson
I think anyone could be as good as I am or I shouldn’t even say as good as I am. Anyone could catch as many fish as I guess if they spend as much time on the water as I do, I, I spend a ton of time on the water and it took me a long time to get to where I’m at.
Jared Simpson
I mean, sure, I, I spent years grinding, just catching, you know, maybe one fish a day if that. And really what I was doing every time I would go out as I was changing things. Every time I go out, I would I would mess with my shot pattern. I would mess with my float sizes. I would mess with my my bead, my my distance from my swivel to my hook.
Jared Simpson
All of those things come into play. Yeah, like, especially with Centipede. And you really need to have everything dialed in. Mm hmm. And it needs to be dialed into your style of fishing, too. Like, I can’t just show you my shot pattern, and then you go out and catch fish, because, I mean, I have a buddy to fish with me, and they catch just as many as I do.
Jared Simpson
And they have a totally different shot pattern than me. And it’s just the style of fishing they do. They tend to trot their goal a little bit. I think that’s part of the reason why they have to have a different shot pattern than me. Yeah, but when you’re on the water, you really should be just trying to learn as much as possible.
Jared Simpson
Trying to just change everything that you’re thinking out.
Newbie
Now, now, let’s let me let me just ask you, because, again, I’m probably going to get some questions and say, well, I don’t live. I don’t I can’t walk to the as we go river like you are.
Jared Simpson
Yeah.
Newbie
How do I spend? You know, I mean, I probably make three or four trips the most to the area. So how is it I’m going to get on to spending time on water? Well, you know, what would you say to that person?
Jared Simpson
I would say if you don’t have the means to spend a lot of time on the water. Mm hmm. I would hire a guide, probably. I mean, you will learn so much on a day, on a on a guided trip. You’ll learn somewhat like they say. You spend a week on the water. You probably learn more one day in the boat with a good guide than you would a week by yourself on the water.
Newbie
Well.
Jared Simpson
And I know not everyone has a mean, you know, travel up here and then, you know, pay to hire a guide after they already paid to come up here and paid for their hotel and everything. But it will benefit you. Yeah. Especially if you hire the right guide.
Newbie
Yeah. What kind of things are should somebody be looking for when they.
Jared Simpson
Hire an IDF.
Newbie
Especially for sudden impending or.
Jared Simpson
Manage that tough? There’s so many good guides on Vancouver. If you’re a center pin looking for a guide, I would I would just look for somebody that seems to focus on the flow fishing guide to their art, their guides, the boat. There’s guides that focus on fly fishing, and then there’s guides that focus on, you know, what, fishing, and there’s even guides for example, logging.
Jared Simpson
Yeah. So I think if you’re, if you’re trying to go out and you, you really want to learn, you should do a little research. And even a lot of the guide you can, you can message them and you can talk to them about what type of thing they’re doing. You can even probably ask them what a day in the boat looks like with them.
Jared Simpson
Like what? What kind of fishing you’ll be doing all day and stuff. Like I think that’s probably your best bet. I wouldn’t go straight to looking at people’s Instagrams and seeing how many fish they posted. I know some of the better guide. Don’t post as many pictures of some of the other guys, so I definitely wouldn’t. Just based off of appearances, you could ask a lot of like the local bait shops, they will definitely point you in the right direction or even talk to tell me if you know anybody who’s come up this way and hired a guy and talked to them to how their experience was.
Jared Simpson
If they if they went out with a specific guy and they had a great time, then you could hire them.
Newbie
Yeah.
Jared Simpson
So I guess one guy that I think is a really educational guy at on the water, I mean, not only have I been in his boat and witnessed him doing this firsthand to a buddy of mine, but I watch a lot of it lived on on Facebook and stuff. And you always hear in the background, like trying to educate you on like most of the while they’re fighting passion.
Jared Simpson
The whole time he’s he’s telling you like, like if you’re doing something wrong and he’ll very nicely tell you, hey, man, just, you know, lift your out up or whatever, like, or like, oh, you’re putting a little bit too much tension. You might want to back off a little bit and stuff like that. He’s an extremely educational guy and his name is John.
Jared Simpson
What is Guide business is guide on the side. And yes, he has a lot of experience in the water. He’s got a beautiful boat to go out in. You’ve got a beautiful bell. Crap.
Newbie
Mm hmm.
Jared Simpson
Yeah. I think he’s one really good guide. If you’re somebody who wants to learn fly fishing. He’s been doing it for a long time. He knows what he’s doing, and he’s. And honestly, he’s a great guy. You’ll go out with him and you’ll be like, this is the nicest guy ever. When you get off the boat.
Newbie
That’s that’s good. That’s so. So going back to let’s just recap right now as we move for the next. But just to remind everybody, so the number one tip that you had was having confidence start off by having confidence and that day confidence that you’re going to catch fish have confidence with debate that you’re using. So that will give you more confidence that you’re.
Newbie
The second thing is understanding the water temperature. So based on the water temperature, the fish behave differently. Number three, downsized, downsized, downsized, downsized, especially in the wintertime. But as far as the excess are concerned, you like to go a little bit bigger. And the fourth one is is to hire, guide, hire, guide. If you can if you can just squeak it out, get a guide so that you are able to, you know, just squeeze in as much learning and as much knowledge that you can while you’re on the river.
Newbie
So those are great tips that you gave us. So I think that especially the having the confidence, I’m really big on that. I mean, it’s like I think the mind game is really the most important part of it. And just what you just talked about, downsizing, you know, I think that something that people everybody should take away from this, you know, podcast is to downsize, just go down and, you know, yeah.
Newbie
And start from there and then load up or you know. But I think that if everybody starts off because again, this bite is so soft that we could be missing these the bites from them. Right. I mean, that’s that’s basically what you’re saying.
Jared Simpson
Yeah, I definitely think that can be the case sometimes anyway.
Newbie
So thank you, Jared, for coming on that. These are great points. I think that people will just eat them up. You know, my heart has always been it’s set the better and angler is, the less that they have to rely on snagging, lifting, being a jerk. It’s hard being a jerk when you when you’re catching fish. I think that’s just the way I think.
Newbie
Yeah. If you’re a better, more knowledgeable angler, you’re going to be a better citizen and a better person on the river. So I think that having these tips right here that Jared just gave us, I think it if we can follow some of these things and we can work with them, I think that will be better. Fisherman So thank you again, Jared, for coming on and giving us these tips.
Newbie
Anything else that you would like to add at this point for our listeners?
Jared Simpson
I think that the only thing I want to add is just if you’re going out in the river, have fun. Don’t let the fish get to you. Just go out, have a good time. Hopefully you have some good buddies with you and you guys have some decent weather. Just enjoy yourself. Yeah. Beautiful place to be.
Newbie
People. Get down. I mean. I mean, they get down if they’re not catching the fish right?
Jared Simpson
Yeah. I mean, it’s not all about catching fish all the time. I mean, if you got some good friends with you on the Salmon River, I mean, it should be a good day, whether there’s this brought to hand or not.
Newbie
Yeah, I just want talking to Dan Zach about that. Is that who your community is while you’re fishing up there? Makes the fishing trip a whole different thing, you know? And having people around you and suffering together and the cold when nothing’s biting. I mean. I mean, that’s part of fishing and it’s part of friendship and part of life, right?
Jared Simpson
Yeah, definitely. I mean, some of my best friends I met, you’re fishing.
Newbie
Really? Really? Yeah. Wow. Yeah. So, like Lake Oswego is got to be a funny place. Like, you guys know each other, right? I mean, everybody has to be there.
Jared Simpson
And yeah, the high wall is a pretty close knit community kind of deal. Like we all know each other, like you walking along. You can recognize, especially during that time of year, you can definitely recognize. Most people are there. You’re like, Oh, there’s this guy who like I mean.
Newbie
You could see them trotting their floor. There’s the such as.
Jared Simpson
Yeah, exactly.
Newbie
Now do you have anything to add in terms of fishing, Oswego? Cause that’s, that’s a whole different animal. And another. Yes, and the fishing, the Salmon River a lot more this year. But what’s your thoughts on Oswego and what are some things that people could do to optimize their time there?
Jared Simpson
So I think what would probably optimize your time the best would again be to hire a guide if you’ve never been. Yeah, but if you’ve been before and you know the holes and stuff, I mean I think, I think it would benefit a lot of people if in the fall more people got into flow fishing, it would, it would benefit pretty much everyone on the river.
Jared Simpson
Be honest. Yeah.
Newbie
Yeah.
Jared Simpson
When in the fall a lot of people go up and they’re, you know, they’re snagging and.
Newbie
Yeah. I didn’t see.
Jared Simpson
It. Yeah. Bottomed out. Yeah. It kind of ruins it for the guys who want to go up there and, you know, have a good time, you know, doing it the right way. I mean, it makes a lot harder for the guys, especially guys who weren’t experienced. I mean, you go up there trying to float fish in the fall, it it is difficult to get fish to bite.
Newbie
Yeah.
Jared Simpson
I guess what I would say is not all the fish are at the dam. So if you if you show up, you’ll start to us. We go all the time and you look at the river and yeah, 90% of the people are up at the dam. And that I think to a lot of people, they, if they’ve never been, will show up and they’ll be like, oh, all the fish must be up there.
Newbie
Yeah, yeah.
Jared Simpson
That’s not the case. There is fish everywhere. You can catch fish from the dam all the way down to the port.
Newbie
Wow.
Jared Simpson
So as long as water conditions are right, you can fish all of that, especially the lower end better if you have a boat. But from from the bank, you can fish pretty much everywhere from Bridge Street up.
Newbie
So that’s that’s a good point right there. I mean, which again, is not it’s not just only for Oswego, but it’s also for the whole Salmon River. I think that a lot of people have this conception that only fish out there at their lower fly zone around the bridge Street, right there on the bridge. But there’s a lot of river and there’s a lot of fish out there.
Newbie
I mean, that’s that’s basically what, you know, point number two was what you were saying is that, you know, point number one, that that there’s fish out there, you know.
Jared Simpson
So yeah.
Newbie
Not definitely do you fish the upper river the Salmon River. Do you are you jumping around different places. You know, what’s what do you what are you doing on the Salmon River, basically?
Jared Simpson
So pretty much my strategy when I show up to Salmon River and a lot of it is based on flows.
Newbie
Mm hmm.
Jared Simpson
I want to see what sections? So I break down Salmon River into pretty much three sections and those three sections to me, because I don’t why fish are from all my bridge down to the DSR.
Newbie
From.
Jared Simpson
The other I. I just consider something outside. Don’t really fish there that much, but what I break it down into is lower, middle and upper. And I think a lot of people break it down to that too. So when I go out my strategy, I’m going to go out and I’m going to try to find what section seem to be holding the most fish.
Jared Simpson
Yeah. So sometimes I’ll go out. It’s the last time I pitched. It seems like a lot of fish were in the Mid River and it’s been a week since I fish. I might go start in upriver and see where the fish are.
Newbie
And then you start moving down or up.
Jared Simpson
Yes. So I’ll start. I’ll start upper. If I start upper, I’ll move my way down and sometimes I’ll bounce from I’ll start at Upper River and if there’s nothing going on, I will literally drive all the way down to the last guy and start fish and lower ever lower river is a little tricky. There’s not as many fish down there.
Jared Simpson
The Pioneer Yeah, there’s definitely more Upper River, but it’s a weird thing. We’re like, there’s more fish Upper River, but there’s also more pressure. So if you’re fishing up a river, you’re fishing higher pressured fish, but there’s more of them. If you’re fishing lower river, you have kind of uneducated fish moving their way into the system and typically less anglers, lower river.
Jared Simpson
I mean, you have your days where it can get pretty crowded down there, but for the most part there’s definitely more guys fishing up top. Yeah.
Newbie
So that’s an important point, actually. Upper River, more fish but more pressure. Lower river, potentially fish there, but definitely less pressure. Definitely less. Yes.
Jared Simpson
Yeah. And Mid River can be either. Honestly, yes. Sometimes Mid River seems like it has more fish than upper river. And then some days it seems like mid rivers just empty. It just I mean, it’s fishing. There’s not only going to be fish everywhere throughout the river, but for the most part they’re just tinier. They’re pretty spread out.
Newbie
Yeah. And so the goal is to find fish that are basically not educated, haven’t been fished, you have haven’t been harassed yet. And those are the fish that they’re going to be biting.
Jared Simpson
Yes. And another part of my strategy that I have in each section, I have to 2 to 3 hole that I consistently done well at home. So what I’ll usually do is if I show up top a river and I fish those two holes, 2 to 3 holes or whatever, and I’m like, only fish. One of them if I just one and I’m like, there’s nothing going on, I’ll, I’ll bounce right lower like I’ll there’s 2 to 3 of my my proven hold that I’ve consistently done well for me.
Jared Simpson
Yeah. And if nothing’s going on I will bounce in mid or lower river. I mean and I don’t know what that’s the greatest strategy is, just what I do. I mean that’s to me it seems like if I’m upper river and there’s nothing really going on, then I should move to a different section, you know?
Newbie
Yeah, there’s, there’s people that camp all the time. I mean, that’s unfortunate. Like the.
Jared Simpson
I am, I am totally anti-camping.
Newbie
Yes, yes. You got to move. You got to move. But I think that people, when they’ve been good in one hole, they just think, well, this is the whole I can’t go anywhere else, you know?
Jared Simpson
So yeah, it’s like it’s their confidence.
Newbie
ALL Yeah.
Jared Simpson
Exactly. And I think, I think what happens to some people is they find that one hole that they always seem to catch fish out of. Yeah. And they don’t expand. They don’t try to expand from there.
Newbie
Yeah. Yeah.
Jared Simpson
And that was actually an issue of mine when I first started pitching Salmon River, I had like 2 to 3 hole. Yeah. Every time I went to Salmon River, fish. No, 2 to 3 hold now that. Pretty much it.
Newbie
Yeah.
Jared Simpson
And it actually hurt me in the long run because it took me longer to learn Salmon River than I should have when I was camping at those three spot.
Newbie
Yeah.
Jared Simpson
I wasn’t learning any other part of the river.
Newbie
Exactly.
Jared Simpson
Now, by now I’ve spent the time to learn a majority of the river. So I can. I can pretty much go to any spot. And if there’s fish biting there, I know how to catch them. Yeah.
Newbie
That’s awesome. That’s. That’s. I think that you’ve hit it right. I mean it’s getting to move around is I think that part of fishing it’s it’s I don’t know where we got the concept of just staying one place, you know, but again it’s migratory fish. So people think that if I stay here, maybe a fish will come by, you know.
Newbie
Well, in the fall.
Jared Simpson
That can be the case.
Newbie
Yeah, that’s.
Jared Simpson
True. In the fall. In the fall when the fish are really moving, I might camp out for, you know, I might spend a decent portion of my day in one fight. And that’s only because for it’s kind of two reasons, but one that I know there’s pod the fish moving in. Yeah. And I know if I stay in one fight, I just have to wait for that part of fish to move through the hole on fishing.
Jared Simpson
Yeah. But to it’s also that the river’s pretty crowded that time of year. So usually I’ll try to get a thought early morning before everybody shows up and I’m going to hold down that spot for as long as I can, because I know if I leave that spot, there’s a good chance I’m not going to find another decent spot on the river.
Jared Simpson
Yeah, especially for somebody like me. I sent her pin, so I need a little bit more water than. Than people, you know, bottom bouncing and stuff. So and I mean, during famine season, I actually rarely fish Salmon River just because of the fact that, like, I don’t really want to be in people’s way. And I know that fishing I’m going to be ended up get I’m going to end up being in people’s way.
Jared Simpson
So I just I just avoid them. RIVER And if I do visit, I walk to places that there is probably no way.
Newbie
Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, that’s totally understandable. And believe me, it’s like it’s I mean, I try not to fish during that time, you know, every once in a while I’ll have somebody that wants to go. And so we go out. But no, I try to avoid that whole time. That’s just not a.
Jared Simpson
I’m just not that to me. I look at it as I live near. I get to fish the river all the time. So I’m going to let everybody who comes from out of town have their fun for a couple of weeks. And then I’ll have the river for the rest of the week.
Newbie
Exactly, exactly. It’s weird sometimes when people get upset, like, you know, it’s like, hey, just they’ll be gone. People, people will be gone and just a little bit, you know. So okay. So I want to just ask you, I know that we’ve kind of talked about this last week a little bit and touched on it. And I wanted to just have you talk a little bit about winter fish handling.
Newbie
Go for it.
Jared Simpson
Okay. So in the winter, you definitely have to be a little more careful with the fish. It kind of like it’s kind of like fishing when when the water is too warm. You really don’t want to bite the fish for too long. You don’t want to have it out of the water for too long and you want to just get the hook out.
Jared Simpson
If you want a quick picture, get a quick picture and let it go. But in the winter time, when it’s probably, I would say, below 15 degrees, I would highly suggest not. We’re moving the fish from the water at all.
Newbie
Mm hmm.
Jared Simpson
The mortality rate is, I don’t know, the back behind this, so I’m not going to spit out percentages or anything like that. But from from the things I’ve read and from talking to people, it seems like the mortality rate is definitely higher in the wintertime when you’re removing the fish from the water. Yeah, I mean, think about how fast if you if you were to take something and dip it in the water and then pull it out, watch how fast that freezes.
Newbie
Yeah.
Jared Simpson
My waders. I’ll step in the water and I’ll step out and I look down like 30 or 40 seconds later. On some days, my waders are going already.
Newbie
Yeah. Yeah, that.
Jared Simpson
Happened to the fish’s eyes and their gill. When you remove them from the water when it’s really cold.
Newbie
Out and that destroys them, right? I mean, that’s that that’s a Dagon.
Jared Simpson
I mean, there was there was a article I read probably last year at some point and they were talking about how when you when you pull a fish out of the water in, you know, subzero temperatures, their eye, their eyes actually freeze and it causes permanent damage. They can actually be blinded by it.
Newbie
Wow.
Jared Simpson
So in my mind, as much as like I know people come from out of town and they don’t get to fish that often and know you catch the gorgeous fish and you’re just like, I need a picture with it.
Newbie
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jared Simpson
What I would suggest you do is hold the fish in the water and then have your cameraman get ready. Yeah. And then right when they’re ready, take the picture very briefly. Lift the fish out of the water, get a quick picture and then dip it back down. Yeah. The quicker you do that, the better it is for the fish.
Newbie
Yeah, that’s. That’s great point. Great point. I mean, like.
Jared Simpson
100%. Do not throw your fish in. That’s not if you’re going to release it.
Newbie
People love doing that. I don’t know what it is.
Jared Simpson
I know. I know.
Newbie
Now.
Jared Simpson
Well, the worst part about it is that, like, if if you talk to your fish in the snow, it doesn’t even look as good for the picture. Yeah, yeah, not all of it. So you might as well just keep it in the water. I know your hands are going to be cold. That’s the one thing that I actually I’m not cool days.
Jared Simpson
I don’t even touch the fish. I literally I’ll I’ll mettam I’ll unhook them and then I’ll just wipe them right out of the net. And there they are. They’re gone. I’m not I don’t want to touch them at all because I want my hand to get cold. So you don’t want to hurt the fish?
Newbie
You’re using a net?
Jared Simpson
Yes, I most of the time, I mean, I do have my moments where I walked way too far downstream from my net. I’ll get the fish. And I don’t have anything better to do than to just, you know, quickly pull it near the back. I don’t you don’t want to pull them on to the bank. If you pull them, what I usually do is I’ll pull them close up to the bank where they’re still in the water.
Jared Simpson
Completely. Yeah. And then I’ll usually try to reach down and grab the towel and after I have it in my hand, then I’ll pull into a little bit deeper water. So he doesn’t because, you know, when you grab a fish, they start to freak out. Yeah, yeah. They’ll bang their head and stuff. So if you pull them fully out of the water and they’re flopping on those rocks, that is really not good for.
Newbie
Them.
Jared Simpson
And and feel lighter, more durable than we give them credit for. But at the same time, they’re still a living creature. You still want to treat them with as much respect as you can?
Newbie
Yeah, not as much trauma that way. If you don’t keep put it out of the water and stuff and then just.
Jared Simpson
Oh yeah. I mean even when I, even when I’m using the net, I even when it’s, when it’s a temperature out where I can remove the fish from the water through the most part, what I’ll do is I’ll net a fish and I see a lot of guys, they’ll net of fish and then they’ll instantly bring it over to the bank and drop the fish on the back.
Newbie
Yeah.
Jared Simpson
And I know a lot of those people just, you know, they don’t completely understand. But you don’t want to do that. You want to try to keep the fish in the water. So I’ll walk over towards the shore, but I’ll keep the fish completely submerged the whole time. I mean, you can easily hold the net and unhook them and everything and and keep them safe the entire time.
Jared Simpson
I mean, you want if you’re releasing the fish, then you probably want it to be released. So either you or somebody else can catch it again in the future. Yeah. So you should do the best you can to keep that fish safe and healthy for the release.
Newbie
Totally agree. Totally agree. Totally on it. Well, Jared, thanks for coming on. Thanks for giving us these tips and also talking about how to be able to take care of fish that we’ve just caught, especially in the winter time. Is there anything else that you would like to just briefly share with people about yourself or anything that we’ve talked about today?
Jared Simpson
I do have one thing I’d like to mention.
Newbie
Sure.
Jared Simpson
So I want to mention that earlier. But if you are fishing as we go during the winter and you’re waiting, the damn. Yeah, I would suggest using extreme caution. Make sure you have like.
Newbie
Okay.
Jared Simpson
Because you can be a very slippery place. And if you fall in on those freezing cold days for one of the day under pressure above or too, you could you could get hypothermia, frostbite. So the other thing I think is actually a law, but wear a life jacket.
Newbie
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you see a lot of people not wearing life jackets out there?
Jared Simpson
Sometimes this time of year? Yeah, there’s no there’s no river Stuart enforced in it. So a lot of people will go out without a life jacket, but definitely wear a life jacket and fish with a button. But we go to the dangerous place. People. People die there.
Newbie
Yeah.
Jared Simpson
Pretty. Not not all the time. But it happens almost on a, you know, every other year. It’s like.
Newbie
Yeah, yeah.
Jared Simpson
It is. It is definitely a dangerous river. I, if you’re new to the river, use caution. If you’re experienced there, then just make sure you have a body with you. Make sure you have your life jacket on and a waiting jacket can go a long way. I mean, I couldn’t tell you how many I couldn’t tell you how many times I fallen in in the wintertime and my waiting jacket, the only thing that they me because if you have a good waiting, a waterproof waiting jacket that got the cuffs, I can fall in.
Jared Simpson
And the only thing that will get wet on me is my hands. Mm hmm. And that. And that can really be a de favor.
Newbie
Yes. All right. Thank you, Jared. Thank you for these thoughts and for these tips. And that’s.
Jared Simpson
Of course.
Newbie
Glad that you were on here. And I’m just glad to finally get to do this with you, you know? And yeah, man, I know that you got a lot more tips and stuff like that. And as we continue to talk and stuff, I’m hoping to bring out some more of that. We’ll have probably another you know, one of the things I’ve noticed is like, you know, because my podcasts seem to be a little bit shorter.
Newbie
So, you know, I’m going to try to do another one with you. So but again, yeah.
Jared Simpson
I’ll be awesome.
Newbie
Thank you so much for coming on.
Jared Simpson
Yeah, thank you for having me, man.
Newbie
Thank you, Jared, for joining us and giving us all those great tips. Thank you very much.
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