Fairport King Salmon Run

King Salmon fishing out of Fairport is officially "lights out." Boats are returning to the docks with heavy coolers and exhausted crews. If you want to target the heaviest class of fish, point your bow south out of Fairport. The southern waters currently hold the best concentration of quality, mature Kings. As the season progresses, these Big Kings will begin their migration closer to Fairport.

Here is a breakdown of the exact tactics, patterns, and rigging adjustments keeping our rods firing.

Our spread has featured a mix of sizes, but specific color patterns are doing the heavy lifting. The most productive patterns right now include:

We are successfully running three distinct spoon sizes: standard, magnum, and ultra mag.

We recently lengthened our fly leaders to a 4-foot drop. This longer leader altered the action of the fly just enough to significantly increase our daily hookup ratios. Having that extra space from your flasher reduces spooking the fish.

Big Kings have razor-sharp teeth that easily shred standard mono or fluorocarbon leaders. To counter this, we switched to our new ball and chain fly leaders.

This upgrade proved its worth when we landed our biggest King of the season—a 17-pounder that took the Angry Alewife Fly. The fish absolutely inhaled the fly. A standard straight-line leader likely would have chafed and snapped, but the ball and chain system held up perfectly.

If you want to bypass the smaller fish and target true monsters, put out the plugs. The plugs are already accounting for the biggest fish of the year.

We recently received incredible feedback from customers using our Snotty Beaver plug, which successfully landed massive 27-pound and 22-pound Kings.

As these fish begin staging for their seasonal runs, they become hyper-aggressive and territorial. When that shift happens, the plug bite will turn absolutely deadly.

Speed management is critical to triggering these strikes. We have found the sweet spot to be anywhere from 2.4 to 3.0 mph.

Keep a close eye on your electronics and your downrigger cables. Adjust your speed within this window until your graphs show active fish rising to meet the spread.