I would like to take my little boat out this sockeye season but dont have any downriggers. if i want to troll for them with out em will i have to just use alot of lead, and if so how much? thanks for you help!

You ha ve several choices- deep sixes or other diving devices. The problem with htese is they seriously affect the fight when you hook a fish.

You can also try poor-mans riggers. You are trolling slow enough to toss out 2-3 lb balls with rigeer release clips attached. Use 80 lb test and big rubber snubber at the boat- similar to the old fashion hand lines. Tie up a few with 60-70-80- or 90 feet of line. Other than a few weird looks and some hand over hand retrieves, this will work.

Some years ago not going to say how many a lot of folks used to use a sinker release and a railroad spike worked just fine.

The tried and true set up that worked so well for many years before any of us started using DR's was a flatfish and a dodger off a 3oz banana weight. You could feasibly use less weight since there is no tide to contend with in Lk Wa. You just need to get down to around 70' (+ or -) and be able to work the lure slowly maintaining a steep line angle. I actually prefered this to DR's because of the slower speeds and because you can get a better hook up on the fish without having to pop the 'rigger. Them sockeye are weird biters and tanglers too; it's easy to lose them at the get go since they bite light, have soft mouths and always seem to twist and pirouette instead of running like other self respecting salmon. As far as worrying about the fight, heck a flounder fights better. But if pure light-line sportfishing is what you want then you're better off chasing largemouth and Donaldsons. Reds are about the Barby. Lk Washington sockeye is urban meat fishing at it's finest, baby.

IMHO, the only salmon that tastes better is a springer.

I don't use downriggers and catch the heck out of them just using an 8 ounce weight to get down and troll the kicker slow enough that I can see the prop spinning.

In the early years I would row - not use a kicker, and go dead slow; a small oar stroke every 3-4 seconds. If you do that 4 oz banana or slider works fine.

6 to 8oz banana weight 3' leader to a "0" size dodger 2' leader to either red hook's or a red flatfish @ 30 to 60 pull's depending on time of day.Good luck,
STRIKE ZONE

The problem I have noticed with folks fishing without 'riggers is that most of them flat line and let out way too much line, in the process getting tangled with the vast majority, who do use 'riggers. This fishery is crowded beyond belief, there is very little if any room to manouver, boats frequently have to pass within 30 to 40 feet or less of each other, and if you are flat lining - and even if you can maintain 45 degrees behind the boat you will be 70 feet back at 70 feet deep and will for all purposes be flat lining - expect to be hung up on other boats all the time. I keep my lines right under the boat and fish within less than 10 feet of my wires. So if you get within 70 feet of me and hang up I am NOT going to stop to untangle the mess - I run 4-6 dummy flashers and two lines on each rigger and pulling all that up to untangle something is going to take a half-hour out of my day. So expect to be snapped off unless you can stay at least 70 feet, or however far you are fishing behind the boat, away from boats fishing wire.

I also have a smaller boat (14' Smokercraft) and I use the Cannon mini-troll downriggers. They cost about $50, clamp on to the gunnel of your boat, have 100' feet of cable and a line counter, and with an #8 ball they work great! You can get them at Outdoor Emporium, Ted's or probably 3 River's too.

I'm with spawnout....if you don't use them you will make yourself and lots of other boaters unhappy and you will lose gear. Before I got a big boat with riggers I used clothes line with a small downrigger ball on the end. Just cleat off the line at the depth you like. You can use a marker to make hash marks every 10 feet so you know your depth. It worked great for Sockeye.

Counts at the locks doubled yesterday to almost 3K fish in one day! Here they come boyz and gyrls.

When they either announce or guestimate the season opener on June 30th what do you think the chances are that they will open it over the 4th making it an even bigger circus ?

Sullie,

A friend of mine used to fish it out of his canoe using a 3 or 4 oz. banana lead, paddling so slow that his line kept a very steep angle. 70 to 80 feet of line out put him into fish consistently.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.

I think it will be mid-July, after the 4th. Early in the count we are 50% abouve the 2002 numbers. In line with the 485,000 fish estimate.

Hi, we used to fish the lake for sockeye using 6 to 8 oz. banana weights. The reason I wouldnt go any lighter is you want your line down and close to the boat. We lost a few setups with lighter weights to boats with downriggers and other guys long lining lighter weights. Just to many people out their. Biggest thing to remember is just because their are a thousand boats in one spot doesnt mean the fish are just their. I fished two years ago when it opened for the first time with a fishfinder. The fishfinder had fish on it just about all day. I finally turned the sound off as it got annoying. We fished in an area where their was nobody at and did very good. Limited first two days in 5 hours for 6 guys. Last day was another story 3 fish total for 6 hours on the water. They were their we just couldnt entice them to bite.