With the advent of the Buzz Bomb some years back, seeking baitfish
swarms and working vertically jigged lures became a successful and
effective salmon technique.
Many a manufacturer tried to imitate or come close to the ‘Bomb’ and
dodge the U.S. and Canadian patents. In my opinion, most didn’t even come
close to producing fish consistently until I perfected the Zzinger.
You may have noticed a handful of boats in various areas of the Pacific
Northwest which zip around in zig zag patterns, glancing at their depth
sounders - too fast to be trolling, too slow to be cruising.
Quite often these skippers will spin right around in a tight circle, stop,
and let their lures down, glancing shiftily between reel and sounder.
Invariably, these boats will have as many as ‘quadruple headers’ within
seconds of stopping! No, these boys aren’t crazy, they’re using Zzingers
and they’re using them with an added trick. Here’s how it’s done: With the
assistance of a medium to good quality depth sounder, seek out masses of
baitfish readings. Try to find tall columns of baitfish in deeper waters,
such as depths of 90 to 240 feet deep. Further, the ideal, best producing
reading is a tall column reading which suddenly turns into two or three
levels of bait with blank areas between them. These blank area are caused
by marauding fish, usually chinook salmon, which have been piling the
bait into a tight column in preparation for this crashing, munching feed
frenzy.
Multiple hook-ups of large chinook will be had by lowering 2 1/2 or
4 1/2 oz. Zzingers through baitfish, while imparting slight tension on
the line as it spools off from either your level wind or spinning-type reel.
The Zzinger gets down fast with this method, rotating vertically, while
overall spiraling and darting much like a cut-plug herring. As the
Zzinger ‘screws’ its way through the blank areas of bait, you must pay
particular attention to the speed or rhythm at which the line is coming
off the spool.
Should this speed change by as little as, say 15 per cent faster or
slower, set the hook as a salmon has picked up your lure and is swimming
off at a different speed than your Zzinger’s descent.
With level wind reels the tension is easily imparted by thumbing the spool
as the Zzinger drops through the bait schools. With a spinning reel,
open the bail, place the four fingers over the bail while touching your
thumb to the side of the spool. Now, each time the line comes off one
revolution from the spool, it hits your thumb momentarily.
A light touch here will force the Zzinger to go from a slowly descending
horizontal rotation to a rapidly descending vertical rotation, coupled
with a spiraling, darting course of travel that big chinooks and large
coho love.
Failing a fish on the descent, crank the Zzinger up quite quickly through
the deep water bait columns as many fish will attack as the Zzinger
rotates and spirals skyward. Looking over the side of the boat, when
you see the Zzinger appear, flip the bail and repeat the descent.
Because of the ability of the Zzinger to rapidly cover several hundred
feet with vertical enticement, it becomes unparalleled in its ability to
hammer large, deep-feeding chinook, regardless of wind or current conditions
, and up to 400 feet down.
Bait which is consistently near the surface, usually reading from the top down to
20 to 30 feet being the bottom of the bait mass, rarely produces good fishing.
However, you will be able to pick off the odd coho by jigging beneath and on
the deep water side flank with light-weight Buzz-Bombs, Spinnows and Zzingers.
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