Advice on gear/lures for first time pier/salmon fisherman

[BassBuster]

Hi everyone. Just joined. I'm starting to fish out at the pier for kings (or whatever bites). Haven't been pier fishing since I was a kid and went with my dad fishing for perch with cane poles. I'd like to use a spinning setup so I've been doing a lot of research on google for information and rods and reels. Watched a few videos on fishing for salmon on the piers in Lake Michigan, and I've also joined a couple Michigan fishing forums (including this one now) to get even more advice from all you seasoned big lake fishermen.

Anyway, I've narrowed the reel choice down to an Okuma Epixor XT 40, but I'm still searching for a good rod. I've got some KO Wobblers to throw around, but I could use some suggestions on other lures and bait. One old guy in a local tackle store was showing me this Ugly Stik rod for fishing with roe, but that thing is 10' 10" and seems pretty whippy for pulling in a big king. The longest rod I own is 7' 6", which is a Daiwa Aird X.

Any suggestions advice on a good salmon rod to go with the Epixor and some lures and tactics would be much appreciated.

Thank you.

[FBD]

Welcome.  Bass will be ruined for you the first time a king tries to pull you off the pier and into the lake.

 

Don't overlook plugs, they don't cast as well as spoons but some days a big thunderstick or J-13 rapala slowly ground back to you, or even if there's no traffic and rocks walked slowly down the channel is the ticket.

[BassBuster]

Since it's my birthday I decided to get myself decent rod. I just picked up a St Croix Triumph 8' 6" MHF. Can't wait to put it together and hit the pier.

[EdB]

Here is a good rig for spawn bags for steelhead and single salmon eggs for whitefish.  That fishing will start going for steelies in October through November and in November for whitefish.  We just run the line through a swivel and attach a weight rather than using a sliding sinker sleeve.

[BassBuster]

That's basically the same rig I've been using. Seems to work pretty good, unless I run into some obstructions.I thought the snags were because of the pointed corners on the pyramid sinkers, but round sinkers can get hung up as well. Snags seem to be all I'm catching lately, lol. I did catch a really nice 15lb channel cat the other day (on the stink bait), but nothing on live fish or cutbait.

[BassBuster]

 So I have decided to try to spawn bag fishing as well as the spoons. So I ordered some nice spawn bags already tied up of Amazon and I also got some mustad #2 circle hooks.  I’m assuming these are the correct size hooks because I watched a couple videos on it and that’s what the guy was using 

[EdB]

Those will work but they are a bit big. We normally use #6 baitholder hooks. When water temps start dropping in the coming weeks, spawn fishing should turn on. For whitefish in November use small  #12 hooks for single or double eggs.