Just wondering if anyone has had some success trolling with these for salmon. I am looking at using them on Elliott Bay and on LakeW and Sammamish.

How do you set up your gear? ( do you use a dodger or not, wigglewort? atlas spoon? hoochie?)
What do I need to look out for? Will I be letting out 'lots' of line like with a banana weight? I know that I will be letting out more line than with a downrigger. I just can't afford them yet. On the plus side I do have the new boat

I've caught some smaller blackmouth and silvers with just a deep six (smaller size) and a long leader and a 4" coyote. I've also caught fish with a deep six out the back with a flasher and coho fly. They do have a lot of drag though and downriggers are preferable if you can put them on your boat. some days the deep six will out fish downriggers, but that is more the exception....probably means your gear is too deep.

I have used them out at Buoy 10 and around Ilwaco. The fishing has been so good that we've just used a coyote spoon behind them or a herring. We don't have downriggers on the boat so they work like a champ Good luck

~steelymann~

Hey Busy,

Try running a large Deep Six diver with 6 feet of line behind it to a spoon (like a Coho Killer, #3 Kingfisher, or Sonic Edge spoon). Or, if you want to run hootchies, run a large Deep Six diver with six feet of line behind it to a small Hot Spot flasher (the big ones have too much drag for the Deep Six's) then use a short, heavy leader (like 20"-24" of 50lb test mono) to your hootchie. The heavy mono is stiffer and will make your flasher transmit more action to your hootchie.

I've been going out on a friend's boat out of LaPush and having great luck with just this sort setup, letting out no more than 60' of line... probably not fishing more than 30-35ft deep... of course there are LOTS of fish out there... not sure if fishing at these depths will work for you over in Elliot Bay or Lake W, but it's worth a try.

I have never used the smaller Deep Six's, but I'm sure they would work for coho... bottom line is, start saving for those Scotty downriggers, they will allow you to fish at precise depths, and you'll catch more fish.

-N.

I used Pink Ladies a lot about 30 years ago-- before I discovered mooching. They worked great on kings and blackmouth both in the Strait. They were my dad's go-to technique much of the time. We just used a herring, in a Herring Magic hood, I believe, and let out 35 pulls-- roughly 70 feet of line.

Last year, I nailed the kings while trying for silvers with a metallic red Dipsey Diver with a Coyote trailer. Both divers work well when the fish are in midwater.

Hmmm, I'm thinking it might not be a bad shot to try them in the Canal right about now.

Keith