i just walked in the door from my late night/ early morning on elliot. i launched at about 300 friday morning. started trolling a green flasher with herring behind at about 35 ft. nothing for the first couple of hours then at first light i got a slam. i was trying a new downrigger clip but the tension was to high and between the fish tugging and my yank i snapped my 14lb fireline. never thought that was going to happen. i changed back to my normal clip and within 20 minutes it released, thought it slid out but there was a fish of some sort on my line, fought like seaweed with an occasional tug. whatever it was it had the shape of a the sand sharks i used to see in the east, had skin not scales(?). set up, started trolling again at about 530 i got a huge wack and a the fight i had been hoping for was on, unfortunitly i lost after about 4 minutes of line going out not in. again my 14lb line snapped . as bummed as i was it was great to atleast hook into a fish like that. about 45 minutes later the line realeased, i realed in line as quick as i could, before i caught up to the fish it was airborn about five feet behind the boat next to me. the look on there face was worth staying up all night. turned out to be a 21 inch coho but the fin wasn't clipped so back she went.

all in all, my first day out was a blast. i left at about 730 the guy for fwp said four kings had already come in, one at 18#.

Good report! Thanks. I will be out there tomorrow.

Sushi,
Great report....thanks. Too bad you had problems with the no stretch line. I had the same problem last year when I tried the stuff losing a couple nice silvers in the rivers while pulling plugs. Without any stretch in the line I found the line to be unforgiving. In other words, short powerful bursts of energy would break the line unless the drag was set very lightly. At the end of the day the benefits didn't outway the negatives and I went back to mono.

I may just have to head out this weekend as it sounds like things are picking up. A couple of questions....did you stay with the same setup the whole time? Also, did you go deeper as the day wore on or stay at 35 feet? Thanks for the info.
JMS

Sushi - Sandsharks out here are called Dogfish. Always check your leader after you catch one of these handsome fellows, as they will really fray monofiliment leaders. Check the first few feet of the main line too as dogfish will roll on the line and abrade it with therir skin.

I would also suggest that if you use braided lines, go with a more limber rod. It is easier to let the rod absorb shocks than to try monkeying around with the drag all the time.

Thanks for taking time to give us a report.

Sushi, I might also suggest using a higher test braided line. I run 50lb prower pro and have never had it break. Thanks for the report. I'm hitting it after work and will post a report tomorrow.

hey little fish, i went down to as deep as 50-55 though i was trolling at a decent speed so i don't know exactly how deep my ball was. the cable was at about a 20 to 30 degree angle. also i started with a light green flasher, lost it, went to the white( angular reflective) flasher, lost it, caught the silver on a glo-red hot spot dodger. loosing those flashers and quite a bit of line was expensive, but it's all good if i keep getting into them!

thanks for the tip on the line. what pound mono do you go with for salmon?

thanks all, couldn't of caught a thing without the info from this board. good luck, see ya sunday morning at about 300 :p

Fished the bay yesterday for about two hours, hit a 15lb hen and lost a little bit smaller one at the boat. Sound like the counts are going up.

Sushi,

I am not a big fan of the braided stuff unless I am trolling deep (130' or better) or jigging. I would recommend beefing it up to at least 50# maybe 80#. The problem with that stuff is...too much slack when playing the fish unless if you're fishing with a high speed reel (6:1 or better). Through experience, I found that I spend more time quickly winding the fish in on a slightly slack line than fighting the fish. I have been using 20# Izorline Plus with great results...(or should I say my daughter is). I like a little bit of stretch in the line....

I might make it up that way, but the fishing has been great down here in Tacoma. Stay in close to the pilings at Todd and you'll be rewarded.....

Downriggin'

Sushi, i agree with DownRiggin. I think 20# is plenty. Hell, your line is going to be toast by the end of the season so why go expensive? Have fished Ande 20# and have had no problems with fish up to 30# so far. Also the smaller diameter works better when going deep. I have yet to break off a fish. A buddy of mine hooked an 18lb lingcod on a pole that had a broken drag. The drag didn't work at all. The fish almost pulled him in, but the line never broke, the hooks(1/0 Gamis) bent though. And $3.00 for almost 1000ft is pretty good.

Hey Sushi,
Bummer losing all those flashers....their cost adds up over time. Hope they weren't your top producers.

I generally use a 20# main line on trolling rods, but will go to 12#-15# main on jigging & mooching rods.
JMS

I agree. I use 15# mainline and 20-25# leader. The trick is having a good, loose drag for big Kings. I hold the level line reels like you would with a bait caster. Thumb on the spool to slow the reel down when Big Bertha starts to slow down from her reel burning burst out into deep water.

thanks guys, it's funny how you get something in your head and start to believe in it whole hog. i had been thinking braided line was probably the best bet and that people hadn't been using because they were used to mono or the cost was to great. i think the 15 to 20 range of a mono line is exactly where i'm headed, scaling up to 50# braided seems like a jump i don't want to make. the mono stretch had always been put to me as a bad thing, thanks for helping me reinterpret that subject.

i fished elliot again saturday with a buddy, slow seemed to be the word of the day. i saw two fish boated one big shaker and that was it. my friend caught a dog fish, i made him hold it up for a picture to show his wife that we weren't completly skunked . thought i might head down to point def. or redono tommarow. anything doing? thanks, see ya out there.