I was recently reading all about all the Chum Salmon action in Hood Canal. How are these people doing it? I've tried fishing for Chum a thousand times, and have never caught a fish. Any tips?

Post it on the Northwest Fishing Board...I guarantee your going to get a LOT more posts about it...

Lots of guys toss corky and yarn. Some like to throw spoons. Some float fire cracker sized herring under a bobber. The snaggers like to throw Buzz Bombs.

What I mean is how do they do the mooching technique?

As I understand it guys will use herring or anchovy 2-3 feet under a float, I believe no weight and just let it drift with the tide. I've never tried it myself, but I sure here that it works.

Do they go to Hodsport?

Yea thats a really popular spot....

You end up going there to fish it? If so, how'd you do?

I'm starting to fish the rivers, and I'm using Chum as my way to learn them...

I've fished chum my whole life, and never caughta thing! Any tips?

I'm not the one to ask, but my avatar picture is a zoom of a picture of me with my first Chum...Go to 3Rivers Marine and they will get you set up, draw you a map, and get you all the info you will need and they'll get you on your way...
That's what I did...

This probably won't help, but here's a Chum in Hoodscanal report from last month. It tells how to catch them there at least. Using what I learned from the thread I managed to catch one (which I reported at the end of the thread).

So your saying, just throw a huge bobber, 2ft. Leader. A large hook. A strip of anchovie, or herring, and just let the rig float until you feel a tug, or the other thing people wrote was throwing hootchies flies, and mepps spinners? Which methos is more productive, and whats the best monofilament test to have? I'm guessing 30lb?

That topic you sent looked like a big arguement over "Native Americans". But you have to look at it this way, they have to stay, and live on their reservations, and their trying to make money, by selling fireworks, fish, and any other legal stuff they can have. Sportfishing, and Tribal fishing should try to work together to have a friendly fishery, instead of people complaining, and arguing over rights. Good topic though...

I use 15lb test, and it works fine. Most people throw a bobber out with a 4-5 foot leader with a anchovie or herring and let is sit out there. That's the traditional way for saltwater I lbelieve...I think that green spinners and yarn take them too...

But how do you cast 5' of leader, without a weight?

Here's what you use:
You have a bobber (needs to be of decent size) then you string your line through the bobber or around it, depending on what sort of bobber/float you have. Then, you tie on a 1 oz banana weight right below the bobber to the top part of the weight, then on the other side of the weight you tie on a few feet of leader and then your hooks. That's what I do when fishing for silvers, but I'm not positive on the leader length for saltwater Chums...

Whoops, sorry about that Muskie Man, I forgot about all of the Native American bashing in that thread. I generally glance over that stuff. Vhawk and Deerslayer had some good tips though. I myself used a whole herring about four feet under a bobber. No weight was required because the herring was very heavy, and the fish were near shore anyway. I got a missed a couple of bites before a chum simply grabbed my herring and made a run with it. It was a very neat thing to see! Of course take everything I say with a grain of salt as it may have been beginers' luck.

Thanks for the info!