I fished the southern end of Mercer Island twice now with no luck. I used a downrigger with chrome #1 flasher, red 3/0 hook, anywhere between 40-80' with zero luck! Can anyone tell me where I am going wrong here? Is the southern end of the lake just plain empty? There were tons of other boats around be both times and they seemed to be very slow as well. I have a small 10' boat with 7.5HP motor, so I can't exactly putz from the southern end of the lake up to the bridges, and I hate waiting in line up there at the launches, so the southern end is my best bet for now. Thanks for any input.

If it ain't happenin' where your at move. Troll up the west side of the island and over toward Seward Pt. Either that or be patient they will move toward that end of the lake sooner or later. I think that most of them are from Seward Pt and north. We didn't do well at Seward Wednesday morning and moved to the north end of Mercer and picked up 3.
Good luck and tight lines, Jeff

Jed,

Stay with the hooks, how many icnhes leader , my uncle has alot of nolage about fishing for them and what we used where 12-17 inch leaders to the hook. Also try diffrent spots , if you don't do good there put over to rainier beach or the channel. Also a very important ( almost as inportant as the downriggers and hooks!) is a fish-finder, then you can see what depth they are at and nail them!.

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To Hell with the Antis!

C.D

Saturday we fished between stewart park and south end of island six of us limited 80ft pink 2/0 gammys with very little pink crystal flash tied on. stay out in the middle!

Notes from Magnuson Park. The lines are not that bad! I've seen it worse just pleasure boating in late August. Some notes compiled from the WDFW. 1) Sockeye in Lk Wa are caught from 30-70', majority at 40'. 2) Troll Sloooow, if there is a breeze, shut the motor off and go with it. I have no problem hooking these fish, but they come at you so fast once hooked that I lose them at a rate of about 3 hookups to one landing. Another thing I've noticed, use normal tension downrigger releases. I've tried the light releases and the fish don't seem to stick well to them. I think the heavier releases set the hook for you. Good luck!!!

Thanks fella's for your help here. The tips will go to good use, that is for sure. One thing I have been pondering about the whole lack of fish thing......do you suppose that by using a large(#1) dodger I am going too big? I think the majority of folks use a 0 or 00 size don't they? Also, mine is solid chrome.....does anyone use anything other than solid chrome?

We have been using 0 and 00 white with light pink scale tape (2in by 4in piece} 2/0 pink gammys with very little pink flash tied on it 70 to 80 ft 16in leader.