Depends on the area you are fishing. One pointer I can give you is fish the tide change. Get yourself a tide book and plan your trip with it. I always catch fish on a tide change, either and hour before or hour after.

Rite on Carl, it all depends on where your fishing and what your fishing for..


-Skeets

To target the returning spawners first light, the tide changes, and last light are the best times. Stay in the upper end of the water column from first light til the sun comes over the hill (I have caught some nice kings at 40 - 60Ft), then as the sun gets higher in the sky go deeper. Most of the fish I catch in the July/August time frame are at 80 ft on the downrigger with a 20 - 40 degree swayback. As for trollin' speed I like somewhere around 2 MPH, others will say faster but that is what works for me. Pick a small tide change (less than 6 ft), and also target the last 2 hours through the first 2 hours of the change. Find an area and learn it, don't move around with the "hot reports". It will pay off, I know where to be, what time to be there, and on what tide at Pt. Defiance and at some of my spots in the south sound. As for that Army Truck go find one!!! They are killer (oh ya that's green/red/glow in the dark, spoon or hooch it don't matter).
Good luck and tight lines, Jeff

When the tide changes, go with the flow. I fish Redondo alot and no matter what day it is, there are always fish biting there. Just dont' try to troll the same areas you would for low or high tides. In a low tide, go out, high tide, come in. It's not always just the "spot" you troll.

I always see people hugging the shoreline no matter what the tide is, they are always in the same spot. I always thought most of them were there for a reason, but when i ask them howz the fishin, they say the tides aren't right and it's slow or too much sun. LOL.

On a low tide We fish the 200-300ft drop line straight out from the pier and headed south hugging the 200ft depth but only fishing 20-80ft deep for Silvers, 100-140ft for Kings. High tide we come in 100ft. In my experience of doing this, i have removed the phrase " The Bite " from my vocabulary, because there is no such thing in Salmon fishing. Just a bunch of fatties moving with the tides.

If you do the math and say: 2 hours before and after tide change with a 1/2hour to 1hour of water shift in a 24hour period with 2 full cycles at 4-5hours a cycle of "Prime" fishing. Then you come out with 8-10 hours of prime fishing in a day. More than a third of the 24 hours is "prime" fishing. That's like a 1 in 3 shot, pretty good odds. But now you have 2/3 of the day undefined. What do the salmon do in this time? Play cards, pick on the dogfish, harass the crabs? No, they feed then they feed some more, then when there so bloated and they don't think they can take another bite, they feed a little more.

SO what am i saying in all of this? Hell i don't know. It took so long, i forgot. I think it was something like, there was this old wives tail about tides and salmon.......

Hey Skeets,

The Coho Killer is a lure (spoon) made by Silver Horde tackle company. It comes in a bunch of different color patterns, Army Truck is one of the color patterns.

This is what an Army Truck Coho Killer looks like:



This is what Coho Killers look like in the box:



Hope this helps.

-Norm.

Hey thanks norm, i went to GI Joes today and picked up those same ones thatx!!

Skeets

So do you guys use trolling motors or gas motors when trolling for salmon? I didnt think a trolling motor could make it in the sound

We have a gas a 9.9 Merc, i asume that a trolling motor would work it depends on what part of the sound though.

-Skeets

I meant WOULDN'T work sorry.

I use to use a 50lb thrust electric motor at Pt. Defiance and Redondo before I had my gas motor. Just take two batteries with you and watch the clock. You will be trolling slower than normal so shorten your leader off the dodger to under 20 inches.

You will catch fish!

Hey dont matter much to me i guess... i dont even have a boat but if its good to know anyways for when i get one i guess.
besides, im goin out there in the sound with you lol... you know what your doin