Sockeye

How To Tie the NSR Sockeye Rig

The NSR sockeye rig is one of my favorites when trolling for Washington sockeye.  I’ve used it at Baker Lake, Brewster Pool and Lake Wenatchee with great success.  It brings together lots of things from successful lures and puts it into a single package.

Materials

What you will need to tie one up is:

Assembly

Here is a video showing how to tie it.  The written steps are below for reference.

The first step is to cut about 2 feet of leader material.

Tie the first hook on with the egg loop knot.

Slide the second hook on.  There should be about ¼ of an inch from the top of the first hook and bottom of the second hook.  Tie the hook on with an egg loop knot.

Cut about 4 strands of the flashabou.  Slide it through the egg loop of the top hook.  Center the flashabou on the knot.

Cut a small piece of pink tubing, about ¼ of an inch.  Slide it down the leader and over the eye of the first hook.  Keep sliding it until covers up the egg loop knot.  This will cause the flashabou to point down towards the bottom hook, and also secure it in the loop knot.

Cut the flashabou about half way down the bottom hook.

Slide on some red beads.  I usually start large, with an 8mm bead, and then each successive bead is one step smaller.  Usually a total of 4 beads.

Then I slide on a small 2mm bead to act as a bearing, then the clevis with the spinner blade.

Completed NSR Sockeye Lure
Completed NSR Sockeye Lure

How To Use It

I tie a loop knot on the end of the leader – usually about 13 inches from the top of the lure to the loop.  Then put it behind a 00 dodger.  If allowed by the regulations I put a small piece of shrimp on the top hook to add some sense.

Then slowly troll this at the right depth in a fishy area.

Lure Thoughts

I think there are several things which made this lure work well.

First the heavy stiff leader really transmits the action from the dodger to the lure.

The pink hooks and UV beads add easy to see colors that sockeye really like.

The flashabou and silver blade give it some flash which attracts the fish.

You can vary it with different sized hooks, beads and spinner blades to account for different conditions.

For more information on fishing for sockeye, check out the sockeye page.

Comments

What do you think about this lure?  Have you given it a try?

About Gone Fishing Northwest

Read All Posts By Gone Fishing Northwest

Comments are closed.