I am heading out to e.bay sat to try my luck with blackmouth. I got downriggers post and pics and that part of the equation looks good. I don't have DR's though all I have is divers and what should I use flahers(color?) or dodgers. Help please since I moved to the city I want to replace hunting season with fishing and I have a buttload to learn

I don't think divers will work for Blackmouth. I very rarely fish in less than 120' of water for BM and divers wont get nearly that deep. Even with 12lb test line and the biggest diver,you probably wont get past 40-50' deep. I think I'd save some money for a small downrigger. Good luck.

You can try using divers. If you do, fish in no more than 100' of water.

Good luck.

'Bout all you can do is fish early, like before sunrise, BM do cruise in the shallow water at night and can be found at 60 feet or less real early, or late for that matter, just before dark. You can see them, and shallow bait, on your sounder out in front of the ramp in Alki early in the AM. You won't be able to sink a hotspot very far, so probably just a Coyote spoon will have to do. Like HBP said, get 'riggers - like yesterday

another thing to do is to learn "how to mooch in less than 5 days". Its an ancient chinese secret art that is losing to trolling but very effective if done right.

Robert

Here is the "quick and easy" recipe for blackmouth if you don't have a downrigger and you want to catch them in a hurry without the learning curve of mooching.

Get a 4 1/2 -5 '' (@2 1/2 - 3 oz?) Pt Wilson Dart in blue/chrome, white, or green. Buzz Bombs (3L) work ok too with milder tide (e.bay is fine). Tie on hook. Lower in good looking water where other boats are working probably along the 90-150' shelf. Drop jig 10-15', stop, drop, stop till you hit bottom. Raise and lower for awhile in the area between bottom and 15' off bottom as you move along shelf with tide. Bounce hard on the bottom every once and awhile (don't leave on bottom tho). Any funny motion or feeling on line (especially on the drop) set hook with flick of wrist. That's it. Your catching BM and whatever else is down there.

This is a deadly technique for BM and the only disadvantage you have is you are not covering as much ground to find the fish. No problem in e. bay though. Just fish off the point at the right depth, near the mouth, off the boat ramp or watch where the others are catching fish and follow. Oh, and the other disadvantage is you actually have to fish while you're out there. But one nice thing is you'll get some exercise while you're at it and you'll only have to reel up your 3 oz. jig every now and then instead of reeling up a 10lb ball everytime you hit a shaker.

By the way a dart is about $4. Downrigger, plus flasher , black box, weight, clips and hootchies about $200-300. All the beer money you saved, priceless.

I have seen guys use a sinker release with a heavy weight on a 5' leader or so. That will get it down, and if a fish bites or the weight snags it get released. Bring lots of weights for this one I am sure! Poor man's rigger?

You'll be better motor mootching with herring or jigging. If you feel compelled to troll , get up in the shallow water off the Head.

One thing that worked well for me last year was a Bait Buster smeared in Smelly Jelly motor mooched off the downrigger. But you could just as effectively motor mooch with 6-8oz of lead. Go with the tide, kick the boat into gear for a few seconds, back to neutral...

Downriggin'

Yeah, I remember the old sinker release in pre-downrigger-historic days - even had a pool cue of a halibut rod I used, with a huge Penn, Dacron line, and a soup can full of concrete for a weight. Really beyond miserable, esp. if you hooked a shaker that was too small to release the weight

Look on eBay or in the adds for a manual 'rigger - maybe someone on the BB recently got electrics and would let the old hand-cranks go for cheap. I picked up a Penn on eBay for less than $100 delivered and put another $50 or so into it for ball, new cable, clip, and release - pretty cheap for the dramatic improvement in fishing

Thanx for all the help everyone I do have a couple of questions tho' ... What the heck is a PT Wilson Dart and who has them? ( I will check wally world in Renton Tomorrow night...have not found anyplace else othe than sportco yet), If I mooch with herring or spoons I have the gear to run 6-10 oz of lead (or more, I can use my sturgeon rods and go 20oz or more if need be)but will that get me that deep, and if it will, shoud I use downriggers hoochies with a flasher or a dodger... or just stick with mooching... I am watching ebay right now and there are quite a few DR's...I will have a pair soon...just not this weekend
and please don't assume I know anything, I have almost zero experience with saltwater salmon fishing...
Johnny

A Pt. Wilson dart is a jig named after a spot on Admiralty Inlet. Jigging is really popular up there,and the locals named a jig after their spot. It's a long skinny jig like 6"x 1/2". use the colors that imitate baitfish or go with the white or glow. Use the smallest jig that still lets you reach bottom,while jigging strait up and down. If you can easily hit bottom with 4oz. try a 3oz. and so on.

I'd also take the treble hook off,and switch to an appropriate sized Siwash. I think you get a better hook-up to land ratio.

Johnny, A Point wilson Dart is about 4" long and I personally perfer the Sandlance or Candle fish type in the all white. You can get them at Outdoor Emporium, G.I.Joes, or Sportco. I try to fish them in 100'-180' of water and along drop offs. I try not to stay in one spot for too long (15-20 mins) for I find that if there are fish in the area, I'll get bit right away.
So don't hesitate to move around and try and locate some biters.The clay banks at Pt. Defiance is excellent jig water when the tide is not ripping too hard.
Try and fish with the lightest jig you can while keeping your line as vertical as possible. When you find that you're getting too much angle on your line, switch to a heavier jig. So I would suggest buying jigs in differant sizes.

I drop to the bottom and then reel up 3 turns and start jigging. I'll jig about 8 strokes and crank up another 3 turns and repeat step 1.
Continue till you're about half the way off bottom and repeat.

Good luck and I hope this helps you out.
Craig

I did a quick search for a picture of a Pt Wilson Dart and I could not find one.

JD - You can purchase "Darts" just about anywhere that fishing tackle is sold.

Here's a pic from salmonuniversity.com



Easy - I just plugged "point wilson dart" in google's image search and hit enter.

:p

Thanks Plunker! I am no good at doing searches.

Well cross your fingers for me, I just scored 2 canon digitroll II's

JDeep

Congrats on yer DRs. I think you got plenty of good info to get started and alot of new cyberbuds to keep you going for a while. As you can tell from my name I'm not a die hard jig guy but I would still always suggest you keep a couple of darts in your back pocket while you're out there. Watch the hooks though. When you're around fish nothing is as easy or effective for BM as these guys. I fish alot of salmon newbies and they always seem to catch more fish and have more fun on jigs than anything else we fish this time of year. But even when we are trolling we will often switch to jigs after we hit fish in order to to stay on top of the fish for more hook ups. This can often result in multiple hook ups for us. When we are off the fish, it's back to trolling. Both techniques offset each other very nicely. While any jig out there works, Craig nailed it on the candlefish type of Pt Wison dart because these not only have great action but they pierce the water best and really get down deep quick with out the extra weight. Plus candlefish is a prime baitfish for BM right now.

Good luck and tight lines.