The Outdoor Line Forum

Hi,

I am a fairly novice when it comes to saltwater salon fishing, spent more of my time growing fly fishing on the rivers. I have started to get in to saltwater, I'll be up on Orcas this weekend and wanted to go out for the opener, my question is that I have almost no knowledge of what gear set up has a chance of working in the area. I've used several spoons with several flashers, and have had some success with Pinks a couple years ago and coho, but never with chinook. If you have any suggestions I would love the help.

Thanks,

Hi There.

I'm across the water from you here in Sequim on the Olympic Peninsula. With Salmon fishing everyone has their own way of doing it. Some use downriggers and others mooching.

Here is what we done when we were in your shoes and starting out first. Keep the cost down, go mooching! Get some herring, soak them in Brine for 2-3 days to stiffen them up, and attach them to a nice weight and just jig off the bottom with them. I hardly ever use my downriggers now that mooching works for the wife and I very successfully. She's unreal at slaying salmon using the "Happy Herring" as she calls it and won't use anything else!

You would not believe how many salmon we caught including Kings using this technique. If you are in a boat then a nice slow drift works. In a lot of cases as the herring is going down to the bottom is when you will get a hit. Watch the sonar for activity and you'll score

Best of luck.

Welcome aboard 'Stick and thanks for chiming in on the mooching technique, H!

Just guessing here but since you mentioned spoons & flashers, I'm going to assume you've already got downriggers on the boat.

If so, I would go with a Coho Killer in Herring Aid finish or Gibbs Skinny G in "No Banannas" finish behind a Gibbs Flasher and run your gear within 10 feet of the bottom.

Basically, you're trying to maintain a consistent depth by altering the course of your boat to follow a depth contour on the chartplotter. Keep an eye out for schools of bait and larger marks which hopefully will be salmon but also could be dogfish sharks and you'll learn to recognize the less vivid or solid marks of the cartilagenous sharks compared to the stronger marks of the bony, swim-bladder equipped salmon.

Speaking of dogfish, their summertime presence will make mooching very difficult.
Not that I'm trying to dissuade you from mooching because I love being on the rod when they bite, but it's definitely something to be aware of so you can keep fishing efficiently!

Thanks guys,

Looking forward to getting out and trying these both out.