aksportingjournal.com | AUGUST 2019 ALASKA SPORTING JOURNAL 89
FIELD
GET PLUGGED IN
BY SCOTT HAUGENL
ast August I sat on the banks of
a clear, remote, Alaskan river and
watched my three buddies catch
coho after coho. It was their first time
to Alaska and I loved seeing them enjoy
the magical experience.
The bite finally slowed down after
nearly two hours. After not getting a
bite for several minutes, they decided to
move upstream to see if they could find
more salmon. When asked if I wanted
to join them, I declined and waded into
the exact spot they’d just been fishing.
“What are you doing; there aren’t
any fish left in there,” one of my buddies
spouted, rather sarcastically.
They had all been fishing curedHOW TO SLAM ALASKA COHO WITH PLUGS
salmon eggs, slowly drifting them
along the bottom. They also fished
multiple spinners. Both methods had
produced loads of coho that they
caught and promptly released.
Eager to see if a different presenta-
tion would work, I tied on a 3.5 Mag Lip.
I made five casts and landed five bright
coho, all from the same exact spot. My
buddies stood there with open-jawed
looks, not believing what had just hap-
pened. I was glad I’d set up a camera
and captured the action on film, just so
I could remind them once in a while of
what actually took place.CASTING PLUGS FOR SALMON used to
be popular in the mid-1970s. Today,
there’s a plug fishing resurgence, andthe Mag Lip has a lot to do with this.
A Mag Lip floats, and as it’s reeled in
it dives and exhibits a skip-beat action
fish can’t resist. The plug also contains
a rattle, a proven bonus when it comes
to luring salmon to strike.
I do a good bit of traveling through-
out remote Alaska each summer and I
fish multiple streams. My travel rod of
choice – one that allows me to fish a
variety of methods – is a G.Loomis Es-
cape GLX Series three-piece spinning
rod. This 7-foot rod has a fast action,
medium power, a lure weight rating of
¼ to ⅝ ounce, plus a line weight of 10 to
17 pounds. I use a Shimano Stradic CI4+
spinning reel, which gets spooled with
30-pound Maxcuatro in high-visibility
yellow. This bright braid makes castingAuthor Scott Haugen’s Mag Lip casting setup for catching coho on plugs is pretty simple,
with one exception. The two duolock snap swivels enhance the lure’s action when fished.
As coho aren’t leader-shy, braid can be tied directly to your plug, or other offering.
(SCOTT HAUGEN)