The Ultimate Trolling Spinners for salmon, trout, and steelhead.

Spinners VS Bait Fishing Dirty Troll Spinners at CR Buoy

Our Dirty Troll 3.5 colorado spinners have been a main staple for Columbia River anglers since we launched our company back in 2018. However, we wanted to know how well our Dirty Troll spinners work for catching salmon in the salt water, even better how does the Dirty Troll stack up against natural bait?
 
Our prostaff Aarron Schmidt of Schmidty’s Guide Service was defiantly up to the task. As far as the results, well let’s just say, “They speak for themselves.”

 



 

A fresh wrap on the new jet sled and off we go to Astoria to begin our adventure.

 



 

 Even as we set sail the excitement begins as we round the curve at the boat launch and head out to the deep waters at the CR Buoy. Located about 5 miles offshore from the mouth of the Columbia River, we’d heard about some decent salmon fishing taking place at CR buoy and once we got there we were happy to find that the reports were spot on.

 

The plan was for a half day trip for an afternoon of salmon fishing and once we got there we dropped our gear to 200′ depth. We trolling low and slow at about 2.5mph running 12oz lead with an 18″ bumper connected to a blue haze pro troll flasher with 4′ leader to our Dirty Troll spinners. The Bloody Pink Pro Glow was the money. The competition on the other rod we was a sweet Abby triangle flasher with same lengths leader and a red label herring with a tight spin.

 



 

With only two rods out the action was hot and heavy. On the spinner side we caught 1 hatchery coho and 6 natives, plus 1 hatchery chinook running the Dirty Troll Bloody Pink Spinner. We released the chinook because prefer eating coho but not before taking this beautiful glamour shot.

 



 

On the other side the bait action was good as well. We caught 3 hatchery coho and 7 natives on bait. However, the biggest fish of the day was caught on the spinners. The landing ratio between the spinner and bait was about even however, there were lots of fish not landed because we weren’t netting them unless we knew for sure they were hatchery fish.
 



 

We trolled for about 1hr to 1.5hrs at most and it was constant action with literally only 5 minutes between hookups at most. We’re talking salmon fishing at it’s best.

 



 

In the end our Dirty Troll salmon trolling spinner ended pretty much dead even against red label herring. Given herring is a salmon’s natural food source we feel pretty good about the results. We’re proud to have created a product that salmon love just a much as their own home cooking. Awesome work Aarron we look forward to hearing about your next fishing adventure.

 

If you’d like to book an Oregon salmon fishing trip, give Aarron Schmidt of Schmidty’s Guide Service a call at (503) 939-8439.

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