Every time I go to Elliot Bay when its open for Chinook I get skunked!

However everywhere else I fish, I catch nothing but monster Kings and have to release them.

Is it something I'm doing wrong, am I fishing in the wrong spot. Trolling at the wrong speed. Here are the stats:

Green hotspot flasher, 48' leader, slam-bucktail in green and white.

Or Fish-scale patterned Silver horde plugs in 4" and 5" sizes.

I troll in the 1.5 to 2.5 mph range with the flasher setup and when I troll plugs I run them slightly faster and have no problem catching kings elsewhere.

When I fish Elliot Bay, I head out on the water to where most boats usually go...Todds.
And most of the time I'm right down along the bottom.

So is there something I'm doing wrong?

HELP!!!

LOL

Let me know!

Thank you!

You need to talk to Bruce Gray. He's the man in Elliot Bay. I got my fish at 65'. How deep have you been fishing? Most the fish I've seen caught were out at the bouy.

8 Ft:

I tend to have better luck on the fresh herring if you're willing to hunt for it. My best producer has been the dummy flasher off of the downrigger ball and seperate clip 8 feet up the cable for my solo cut plug herring with a 12' distance from the cable. I troll a little faster probably around 2.6 - 3.0 m.p.h. Fish the top early in the morning and then drop down deep (80 - 110') when the sun hits the water. I try to stay in water that is around 130 - 150' deep.

A guy also may be pleasantly surprised how well just a 4 oz. bannana lead and a mooching leader with a plug cut herring trolled early in the morning up high can produce a fat chinook.

Hang in there, give it time and they will come.

Good luck!

Bobber Down

"Keep your Hooks sharp!"

Dont fish on bottom! There up top in the early AM!!! And use bait!

Bob D

There's lots and lots of people who've forgotten more about fishing in the Sound than I'll ever know.

This is really only my first year to get to spend much time on the saltwater and I've been lucky to have made friends with folks who've been at it a long time like Bob D., the Salmonator and Bobber Down. They're the ones who pick what goes in the water when I'm out with them.

Most the people we talked to with fish last Saturday were right around 75 feet both around the bouy and Todds.

Bruce

btw - Saturday was my first time out in Elliot Bay and it was Salmonator who wanted to try the hoochie/flasher combo. We got that one nice one but there was another boat that said they had four. All of them on flasher/hoochie combos.

[ 08-01-2001: Message edited by: B. Gray ]

I don't fish Elliot bay, but like they said at this time of year, you are fishing for mature kings and they will genarally be running higher up in the water column than your winter blackmouth. Try anywhere from 20 to 75 feet, I have found 55 feet or so to be magic. Time of day, cloud cover, etc will have a lot do with your depths.
I like to use fresh bait also, but at times, you will see the guys fishing the green hotspots and hootchies getting quite a few fish.

Hey 8 foot,
I agree with what the others have said, returning spawners are not like blackmouth. They will be suspended, not hugging the bottom. Early in the morning I have had the best success at 40 to 55 ft. Later in the day I rarely go deeper than 80 ft, that seems to be the magic number for me around Pt. Defiance. Some other things that you might try are to shorten the leader on the bucktail just a little to between 42 and 44 inches, or use a cop car (black/glow), army truck (green/red/glow) or green spatterback hooch with the same leader length mentioned above, or try a 3.5" Coyote Spoon in green/glow or army truck colors with a 40" leader behind the hot spot. Picked up a 16lb king down here in the south sound on the hot spot and green/glow spoon combo at 70 ft at about 8:00 in the evening 2 weeks ago. Are you tipping the bucktail/hooch with a herring strip?? I like to put a strip on that has been marinated in anise oil and WD-40, not on the spoons though as the strip will kill the fluttering action. Hope this helps!!
Good luck and tight lines, Jeff

[ 08-01-2001: Message edited by: Jeffhead ]

Sounds like I need to come up off the bottom a bit and try out some fresh bait.

Anywhere around Elliot Bay early in the weee hours of the morning can I find bait for sale?

I have caught 11 kings so far this year and could only keep 1. The flips side is that I caught 11 kings . All of these fish have been in the top 25 feet of the water column in water up to 240 feet deep, and all of them before 7:00am. I primarily use a chrome flasher, 48" leader, and a green hoochie with a small strip of herring that has been soaked in a rocksalt brine solution.

Andy

8 foot,

If you don't want to mess with finding fresh bait or using bait, just use Smelly Jelly, I find the herring (blue) and the anchovie (white) work really well. If you're sold on the bait thing, there sometimes is a guy on the road on the way to Don Armini (he parks across from 7-11) that sells fresh bait, other than that, you'd have to go to Ballard Bait, call them and check their hours, though, it seems to change every year, the best you might be able to do is the night before.

Whatever you're fishing with, try to find out what kind of bait is out there. If you catch & kill a fish, cut it open and see what it was eating, then match your lures to that size... if it was eating candlefish, then use a coho killer, a needlefish hootchie, a candlefish grand slam bucktail, or a slimmed-down natural bait. If it was eating 5" herring, run big coyote spoons, large hootchies, herring pattern grand slams, or a plug. Some would argue that big lures catch big fish, but my personal biggest, 36lbs, was caught on a mini hootchie, about 2" long... that's what kind of bait was in the area... so go figure.

I agree with the other guys, summer fish will be way higher in the water column than black mouth. Try fishing shallow (15, 25, 35ft) before light, then go down about 5-10 feet every 30 minutes. If I were to pick one depth for all day long, it would probably be 45ft. Use green or red large hotspots, you need a flasher if you're using hootchies, use heavy leader (40-60lb) on the hootchies, it's stiffer, so the flasher imparts action to the hootchie, you can do the same for bucktails if you want. On the spoons and bait, you can run them alone, no flasher, and you can go lighter, like 25lb, because they have action of their own.

As for colors, to stay safe, use green... anything green. (OK, maybe a little blue, too) The green/glow Silver Horde lures work really well, as does the "army truck" pattern. In the summer, you can also try straight glow or straight white hootchies. I always give my glow stuff a little charge with a light before I put it in the water, for that little "extra" flash, confidence, or whatever. Fish early... lots of times, the "bite" might be over by 5:30am.

I think bait works well for guys that really know how to cut it, tune it, and fish it, but if you don't know or don't have tons of time to learn, either use a herring helmet, or try some of the artificials, but use Smelly Jelly!! I you're using bait, keep at least one bait rigged, tuned and ready to go, so if you foul up one of the ones in the water, you can just clip on a new one and keep fishing... you don't want to waste any time if the bite is on.

Fish as many rods as is legal and feasable. Stagger their depths 10 or 15ft, for example, if you're running three, run them 25, 35, 45ft, run the deep one in the center and closer in to the boat if you can, run the outer ones shallower in depth and further back from the boat. Fish always turn up and to the side when they miss a lure, (watch some underwater footage) many times a fish will miss the center one, and come face to face with one of the outer ones... you'll know when they hit this way because they slam it and your rod will bend over double.

Don't troll just one speed all day, or if you do, at least zig-zag a bit so your lures are speeding up and slowing down. Lots of times this will induce a strike from a fish that was following your gear. If you catch a fish while in a turn, notice which side it was on... was it on the inside or the outside of the turn? If it was on the inside, you might need to slow down a little bit, if on the outside, vica-versa.

More importantly, only fish where fish are likely to be. Try Todd's, the buoy, Duwamish head. (or Heine bank, Neah Bay, Buoy 10, ha...ha...ha!!) Look for birds working bait, and follow them. If you see fish being caught by others where you are, don't go somewhere else... stick it out, there are more fish around.

And most importantly, "Fish with confidence" if you think you're going to catch fish, you will, because you'll be diligent about your gear and on your toes when that fish hits... (coffee helps, too) if you're not confident, lots of times you'll be lackadaisical (sp?) about checking your gear, you'll be dragging around kelp or a shaker and not getting any hits, or worse, you'll miss a hit, and then you just lost your chance.

Good luck, let us know if any of this works for you.

-N.

[ 08-02-2001: Message edited by: StorminN ]

bringing it to the top.

WOW! great response guys! I appreciate all the help I can get!

Thanks!

i got a question, would anyone be qwilling to take a guy out on the sound/ocean, cuz i some salt water gear i will never use and want to give to someone, and even then i will chip in gas to offset the costs..but if not its cool, i jus never have acaught a king out in the salt, thanks for any reply... or if ya want to email me.. JEWWY75@hotmail.com... **berkley boy**