Part 3

Why are more and more experienced salmon fishermen hanging a Mack’s Lure Sledge Hammer on the end of their lines?

Few anglers anywhere can provide you with better answers to that question than the expert I’ve written about in my previous two columns.  That man is Dave Pitts, a Mack’s Lure pro from California who is one fish-catching son of a gun.

His salmon fishing friends say Dave Pitts is a "fishing machine."  Here he gets his net under another beauty.  Brian Sutton Photo.

If you read my past two columns, and if you haven’t you can find them here in my column archives, you’re already familiar with Dave’s  record  He’s a tournament winning pro in both striper and salmon fishing competition.  This time around let’s take a look at some of the things he does with the Mack’s Lure Sledge Hammers he uses so successfully for salmon.

“When I’m tournament fishing for salmon,” Dave says, “I often encounter a tough bite or one that has shut down completely, but I continue to mark fish on my electronics.  That’s when I employ what I call “The Sledge Hammer Express.”

What Dave says this consists of is attaching a stainless steel spreader bar approximately 3-feet in length to his down rigger ball.  Attached to this bar are four Mack’s Lure Flash Lite trolls.  Three bladed trolls are attached to the two tips of the spreader bar and two four bladed trolls are attached an equal distance apart toward the center of the bar.

“As I troll,” Dave says, “the Flash Lite troll blades imitate a school of baitfish.  In the center and between the two four blade Flash Lite trolls I have a down rigger release that trails approximately 1-foot farther back.  This is where I attach my Sledge Hammer lure.”

Dave says that to achieve the best success with this lash up you need to be sure your Sledge Hammer is located about 3-feet behind the Flash Lite trolls.  The flashing blades of the trolls get their attention, but salmon key in on the Sledge Hammer lure trailing along behind.

“Both coho and kings seem to regard the Sledge Hammer as an easy meal,” Dave says.  “When a fish hammers the lure it is released from the spreader bar.  From then on it’s just you and the fish.”

Once this much respected California angler has a fish in the boat, the set up he uses permits him to get back to fishing with a minimum of delay.  All he has to do is lower the spreader bar holding the trolls back into the water, reclip his Sledge Hammer to the down rigger release, and he’s back in business.

Dave has another tip that anglers after trout or kokanee will do well to heed.  This applies especially if your electronics are marking fish but they just aren’t hitting.  If you find yourself in that situation, he says to try raising or lowering your down rigger by as much as 10-feet in either direction.

Sometimes this simple maneuver is sufficient to get the trout or kokanee to start biting.

As I’ve mentioned many times in my past columns, sometimes it pays off to experiment with your lures.  Dave says this applies to the Sledge Hammer he favors just as it does elsewhere.

Ask Dave Pitts to name his favorite salmon fishing lures and he'll tell you they are Mack's Lure Sledge Hammers.

“The Sledge Hammer is a fish catching machine just the way it comes out of the package,” he says, “but I sometimes make slight changes depending on conditions.  Now and then I position a flash skirt under the skirt that comes on the lure.  Sometimes I also add another hook to nail the short biters that come along.”

Dave Pitts will also tell you that it’s the consistent fish-attracting flash of the Sledge Hammer that plays a major role in the number of fish he takes with it.  An ever increasing number of other salmon anglers will tell you the same thing.

As I’ve noted, Dave Pitts says the Sledge Hammer is a fish catching machine.  Those who’ve been fortunate to share a boat with him say that’s an apt description of the California pro’s own angling skills.

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