Streamer fishing for Kings

I have been down the road of "the Salmon R swing" And with all due respect it's alot like lining Sockeyes. It's fun, but not fair. Now I have heard of some guys are stripping streamers. I guess the method is to find a pod  of kings and get dierctly above them and drop the fly in front of them. Then strip and drop it back, strip and drop. several times. Occasionally,  a King will grab it on the drop. Anybody out there using this method? With success? Without snagging most fish on the gillplate?  All input appreciated.

I would say "swing" yes, "strip" no.  DEC will be all over that like a monkey trying to f--- a football.  You'll be walking a very fine line if you decide to employ that method especially during silly season.
 

Swing them the whole way across the tail of the pool.

Have watched male Kings 'nip and  spit' very quickly a number of times while spawning. Generally when trying to swing around them and get to Hos or Steel below the beds and commonly on blue sacs.
  Sometimes the initial drift is too short and gets in front of some males directly below the spawners and they do the quick sac squishing with the very front of their toothy mouth if it passes close to them , kinda neat to watch. Dont think I could ever be quick enough to hook one like that as they are VERY quick and have never hooked one doing that on the looser line passing by.
  Kinda think this may be why sacs so often come up squished after a  quick mid drift ' bottom bump" in deeper darker waters..
  The times I have been able to watch this show have been late in the season when the other species are there and the Kings have dwindled to the point where not so many other fisherfolks are around ( calmer fishes).
 That strip and dip method may work on those fish but as said will be confused with snagging despit the intent.
  On the flip side there is so much blatant snagging going on I cant see why not try it in a secluded area.  Personally have never seen them hit while trailing my offering at the end of a drift- only at the swing or a bit before as the offering lifts..
 Good advice on the downriver option - they get spooky and shut down all too often as they move on up.

While I cringe a little saying this, the dsr would be a great place to take your son for salmon.. He will get in free and you will always find an area to fish without a hassle of crowds.. It really is perfect salmon / streamer water down there..  Just walk away from the popular hole, fish some broken transition water and hold on..
 
That said, If you have no intent of keeping fish, we found spots in the fly zone completely empty of ppl and plenty of fish..
Jack put on quite a clinic with those kings up there but as said I had the wrong flies.. Maybe you could pry some of his secrets outta him :)
Good luck and have fun

yes Pafisher = Jack..
time for me to go explore how the resident carp are doing.. um 6wt this time ? They almost shattered the 4 wt last year..

neaphyte

I have no intention of keeping any fish. And Jack would be Pafisher?? Forgive my ignorance.  The only thing I'm interested in is how he goes about it.  I'll figure out the where. Thanks guys.

 
It's not rocket science,just get your fly down in front of them with a natural drift.Use only enough weight to get it in the lower column of water so it is right in their face.Keep your rodhand in constant contact with your line to feel the take,many times it's subtle.
Most important IMO is color,there are days that one color is the one they want and it'll be slow going if you don't use it.Just last season I was fishing to many active salmon and getting few takes.Then I remembered seeing a picture on here with a salmon that took a BLUE fly.That brought back a memory of a past trip that I was having good success with a blue eztes egg fly.I just happened to have some with me and tied one on,as soon as I made a drift I had a hit.Probably played with 20-30 fish after that all on blue.A week later I was on the same water and started with blue,nothing doing.Wound up finding black/dark flies/streamers were what they wanted and had fish on constantly for 5 straight days,left the river bone tired but happy
Ive been fishing the tribs for 30+ years and have learned that you need a variety of flies in every color you can think of,I  go up there with probably 1000 flies!Now I'm not saying you have to have that but that is what I accumulated over the years.Flies you should have would be:wooly buggers in black,olive,brown,chartruse.Bucktail streamers or any others wth a variety of color.Large dark stone flys.Glo bugs in pink,oregeon cheese,chartruse,natural egg.Astez eggs in blue,chartruse ,black,olive,orange,etc.Just have lots of colors,I forgot red and that can be good at times.Well I think you get the idea,color is important.
Where to fish?Well I never leave the "zones" during salmon season and I'm too frugal to spend $50 to fish the DSR.However,the DSR can be gangbusters when there is a run moving through,but there are days that the fish are few down there and it'll be $50 for nothing.

I'll start sorting and tying in July......and that is coming quickly!

Much as with the Liesering Lift when working a wet fly but more across and up.
Takes can come anywhere from the deaddrift to the hangdown with most of them coming on the start of the swing.
My guess is that salmonids eyes being on the side of the head see indpendently,much like a horse, and as it swings thru their vision it speeds up ,vanishes and appears as something running away when the other eye picks it up and being top line preditors their muscle memory won't let them not try to catch it.
 
As to what has been said about subtle biting.
I have posted before about watching kings peel up from the school and follow flies downriver nipping them several times without ever feeling a touch.
It is intrigueing to know just how little of what is going on with out drifts. 

A little more on color and how crazy it can be.Maybe 20 yrs ago we were fishing the UFZ by the upper wire.The water was very high and you had to be carefull wading even next to shore on the parking lot side.Again through some trial and error we discovered the fly of the day was the black wooly bugger,it was if we were throwing meat to hungry sharks,we were constantly into fish.After that trip I decided I needed lots of those buggers for the next season and tied maybe 50 -60 that summer before we went again.Well when we got there I was ready with my buggers.......not a hit,they were not interested Eventually we found what they wanted but it sure was n't black buggers.It was a variety of things that year!

Hey Bob- when watching the Kings nip and spit the blue sacs so quick and squishing the eggs I have long wondered if they just kinda like the taste of the milky inside of the eggs and want nothing to do with actual food ..
  Have watched the same males do this - and use up most of my blue sacs lol- repeatedly. Dont care bout the sacs-- love the show.
 We know they have shut down on eating- specially upriver where I have watched the show- just have always wondered about the taste in their mouth being the reason.
  Might be why you too have observed them doing the subtle quick  hitting.
 One may think that if it were just an instinctive hit they might just grab it or hold on a bit more.
  Phood for thought.
  Makes me wonder bout scented baits - and if I am sane or not.

 Talk to myself when fishing- sometimes  tell myself off pretty good too. Can get real nasty when missing a  hit or tangling a line.
 Sometimes take offense and ignore me for hours.

Never tried it but am interested.

Hey --thats neat- would love to watchem do that kinda stuff.

In the case I was talking about the fish was just going at the speed and direction of the fly.
They could mouth it for a couple of feet before spitting it out with no indication at all.
This was in the very early 80s with near zero fisherman on the river and water level at about 175 down in what became the DSR later.
No weight of any kind to deaden the feel.
It is amazing what we don't know is happening.
 
Color preference can change several times in a day.