quote:
Originally posted by Monterey10
I recommend that your study the web site: salmonuniversity
Thanks buddy, I'm glad I saw this thread.
I spent a lot of years in Puget sound, caught lots of Silvers and Black mouth.
Kings up on the South shore of the Straight too.
I used Cut Plug nearly always.
Sometimes the Herring would be in bad shape and we'd have to use it whole.
For Black mouth and Kings, you troll slow, an the bait spins slow. Just rolls over.
Use a Bead chain swivel above the Herring about Two feet. and two or three more feet of leader to the Lead.
You'll need Four ounces going with the current and Five Oz. trolling against.
Tie your own leaders. Dont use the sliders. Tie the leader so the distance between hooks fits the size of Herring you are using. I always like the Green bags.
Use a Different leader for each fish.
If you have the luxury of trolling back and forth across the movment of the water (for Kings and Blackmouth) you can use less weight.
About 1/2 or 5/8th oz weight.
Let it sink right after the turn. Then proceed, slow and twitchy to the next turn. Slow almost to a stop, and make the turn, etc etc. That works best in Shallow water with lots of kelp right below you.
Silvers like it fast. Troll a little faster, but make the bait spin. Not just roll, but spin.
You do that with the way you insert the hooks into the bait.
You'll really need the Bead chain swivel for Silvers.
Test the Bait setup by throwing it overboard and watching it spin.
Then Drop it down kinda quickly, and Mooch it up a few turns at a time. Horse the Rod tip up, and reel down to the weight. Repeatedly.
If your out in the straight. Miles out, way off Sekui, troll across the current. Back and forth.
Lot's of times, out there you can just put the rod in the pole holder and wait for the action.
The instructions on hooking the bait were always in the back of the package. I used those instructions. Sometimes I'd vary it a bit, but the one thing to remember about Kings is they come up under the bait and mouth it.
So you want that back hook to exit at the Color line of the Herring.
You want it pointing down ward, but not way out of the Skin of the Herring.
For Silvers you can let the Trailing hook Dangle. But I never did, I wanted the Trailing Hook sticking out to the side, straight out, and right at the Blue/Silver Color line.
Nothing seems to matter with Silvers. They hit head on sometimes.
Somtimes the Silvers will be down low. High pressure days with bright sun are OK to fish, but you wont catch much.
Believe it or not, in Puget Sound, the Foggy, wet, miserable days for the Humans is really the Best fishing weather.
When the Silvers are down that low, you can fish deeper, but not more than 20' down. The Silvers will come up in a Herd to take a look at something, then as the get up to your Herring the whole herd will turn away as if there was a warning bell.
They are like Chickens. Willy-nilly!
