When I hit the salt trolling for salmon I almost always start one rod with a white/glow hootchy and strip of herring approx 42” behind a green/glow hotspot flasher (shorter if targeting silvers). My second rod will either be a plug cut herring or bait in a hood (60’ behind a hotspot flasher). As the day progresses I cycle through a number of different setups until I find what works. How does everyone else start the day and what is your preferred order of setups when you start cycling gear?

For Coho- I Always have a hoochy out to begin with too. This year and end of last season I start with the Yama-shi-ta "Blue Aurora" colored hoochy which has a greenish back, white and blue bottom. Silvers and Kings eat this sucker up with a herring strip in it. I also like all glow with a green stripe. I use a red or green hotspot or sliding X-tractor dodger made by Silver Horde.

I usually always bring bait along too, and will have Bait out on the other rod because somedays they will only bite herring, and other days you can get hits all day on the hooch and nothing on bait.
Then switch to whatever catches one or two fish first.

For Kings I will use hoochies the same was as coho, but I also like to run spoons, either all silver, night rider, cop car, funky chicken. I also like to use Army truck coho killers for Kings.

For winter kings I use herring alot more, and hopochies less frequently. Plugs smothered in shrimp bait butter too.

I have been starting with whole herring 6 feet behind a Red Jim's Breakaway Flasher. Or really early just a whole herring on a 4 ounce weight.

Last Saturday I misplaced my hootchies and could only find 1 full glow that I typically use so it went on 1 rod 18" behind a green hotspot flasher 60' behind the cannon ball. On the other rod I had a army truck coho killer behind another green hospot flasher about 45' behind the ball. We had 0 stikes on the coho killer and 5 on the hootchie. I decided we needed to go in and get some more hootchies and after purchasing a few more from Olsen's I spotted the holder with all my hootchies in it (Go figure!). So we went back out and left the full glow on one rod and put a Army Truck hoothie on the other. From then on it was pretty even between the two rods. I played with different distances to the ball and didn't notice any difference in the number of strikes until I got down to less than 10' and then we got none.

On Sunday morning we used the same two hootchies and after 4 fish hitting the army truck and 0 hitting the full glow we put another army truck on and fish with it the rest of the morning.

At one point on Saturday we both had our rods down at 68' and about 60' behind the ball when they both had hookups at the same time. After fighting the fish for a couple minutes I looked over at Justin and questioned if we had hooked the same fish! Bit it turned out that we both had 8lb hatchery brats that went in the fish box! How fun is that?

Kings- green/glow spatterback hoochie 40" behind a green glow hotspot

Silevers- blue or green stripe hoochie 30" behind a hotspot flasher (red, green, rainbow). If I know the fish are in thick I will run a cut plug right off the rigger with no flasher, lots of fun!

blackmouth- coho killer silver green or coyote spoon cop car behind a green hotspot.

well we now know what you start your day out with. Just curious what you catch most of your fish on after you switch.

Chaser - that's a good question. I guess I'm assuming guys start with their top producers.

In Elliott Bay my number one producer is the white/glow hootchy setup (kings, blackmouth, silvers). Two years ago the same outperformed everything else in Nootka Sound. This year at Nootka an anchovy in a green/glow hood was the top producer. For feeding kings a plug cut or whole herring has been my top producer. Last weekend I picked up several shakers and one keeper in Elliott Bay on an army truck coho killer....so maybe I'll add that one to my start list.

red dodger w/green/blue hootchie with silver skirt coated with smelly jelly shrinp/anise oi , 28" leader about 30' behind the ball @ 96' if that doesn't work, i ***** then switch to:

26" leader ...

24" leader ...

if that doesn't work, i really start *****ing & switch to:

big red triangle flasher, 5'-6' leader with red clip thing for whole blue sized herring sprayed with bang anise oil about 45' behind the ball...

if that doesn't work, the moaning starts & switch to:

red 4 oz EZ Diver - 24" - small red triangle flasher - 3'-4' leader @ 25 pulls ...

if that doesn't work, i say flip it & go home...

Thanks for sharing. I'm always interested in what everybody else is using. For me it just depends on what kind of mood I'm in.

For blackmouth I like to start out with a search pattern if its my first time at a spot for the year and that is usually a coho killer in green spatterback or cop car 36" behind a green hotspot. If I know that the fish are there I'll pull a 4" silver horde 30ft behind the ball at a brisk 2.7 - 3.2 mph on the gps.

For summer kings and silvers I like to start out with a red & yellow glow fly 36" behind a green hotspot 25ft behind the ball. I like to start out with a green hotspot and glow in the dark spoon on one side and a green hotspot with a green GSB on the other.