Darn few fishermen have put more Alaskan coho salmon into their boat than Eric Adams. Eric is a long time resident of Anchorage.
In my last column I told you the name of the lure Adams uses to clobber those silvery battlers in his summertime fishing on Resurrection Bay at Seward. This time around let’s take a look at exactly how he does it.
There’s no big mystery in how this coho-catching expert goes about putting fish in the boat. “I troll a Mack’s Lure Sledge Hammer off my downrigger,” Adams says. “I use an 8-pound ball with my downrigger. I use a flasher of one kind or another out from the downrigger. I run about 18-inches of 20-pound leader between the flasher and my Sledge Hammer.”
This veteran Alaskan angler says he gets most of his hits when he has his Sledge Hammer 35 to 40-feet down. “I just troll at a slow speed,” he says. “The digital readout on my downrigger tells me when I’ve got my lure down where I want it.”
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| A Mack's Lure Sledge Hammer is the lure Eric Adams uses to clobber the coho salmon in Alaska's Resurrection Bay. |
Adams started out using herring along with his Sledge Hammers but he doesn’t mess with adding the bait much any more. “I don’t find it’s necessary,” he says. “I don’t think it makes any difference. Coho smack the Sledge Hammer just the way it comes out of the package.”
So what the heck is it that makes this Mack’s Lure product so effective? I asked Eric that question. “I think it’s the flash of the lightweight blade and its glittering Flashabou skirt,” he says. “The combination makes it look more like a baitfish.”
Adams will tell you he started using Sledge Hammers because an Alaskan guide friend told him how well they worked. It always pays to listen to what a professional fishing guide has to say about lures. Adams did. “The Sledge Hammers are so simple to use,” he says. “All you have to do is get them down where the fish are and you’ll start getting hits.”
Eyeball a Sledge Hammer up close and careful and you’ll find that it utilizes the largest of the Mack’s Lure Flash Lite spinner blades. It also has a soft float tube for buoyancy inside its flashing Flashabou skirt. The lure and its 5/0 hook are rigged on an extra strong 150-pound test metal cable.
Eric needed that strong cable one day when a 50-pound halibut came up to grab the Sledge Hammer he was trolling for early season kings. “I had my hands full for awhile,” he laughingly recalls.
If you have opportunity to see the 2006 Mack’s Lure catalog you’ll find that the Sledge Hammer is available in eight different colors. Like the rest of us, Eric Adams has his favorites. In blade colors he favors the chartreuse sparkle silver tiger, the glo silver tiger and the hot pink silver tiger.
If you don’t have access to a 2006 Mack’s Lure catalog, you can find the same details on different Sledge Hammer colors at the Mack’s Lure web site. Just go to www.mackslure.com. Everything you’ll want to see is right there for you.
I’ve not had opportunity to talk to Eric’s wife Susan, his 10 year-old daughter, Katie, or his 12-year-old son, Brandon. No doubt they’d say the same thing about Sledge Hammers Eric does. “My whole family loves to fish,” he says, “it’s a good thing because they wouldn’t see much of me if they didn’t. I rig up everything for them when we go salmon fishing together. All they have to do when fish come along is just reel ‘em in. And they love it”
Adams says word about just how effective Sledge Hammers are for Alaskan coho salmon hasn’t got around yet as much as it eventually will. “Many fishermen still use stuff they’ve been trolling for years,” he says. “Those who don’t use these lures are really missing a bet.”
I’ve heard that same thing from some of the top salmon guides in the Pacific Northwest. So I repeat what I said in the beginning: If you head for Alaska, pack some Sledge Hammers. They won’t take up much room in your bag going in, but you’ll need a sizeable box for the fresh coho they’re a cinch to help you bring home coming out!
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