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You all know how much I love my downriggers. Winter blackmouth, kokanee, in local dogfish-infested waters dragging flashers, hoochies or spoons ... trophy rainbow ... Mackinaw ... can’t imagine a piscatorial life without them.

But get me to the wide-open salt, with aggressively feeding shallow water salmon, and things change. Boy, do they. There is just something about having the rod in hand when 20 pounds of angry chrome grips a spinning herring.

That’s exactly what I planned on doing to send June off on its way.

You see, the self-proclaimed "Salmon Capitol of the Tlanet -Westport on the Washington coast - would see a two fin-clipped Chinook per day limit until the end of June. By July, the kings are still there, but the limit drops to one and now you may keep an additional hatchery coho.

Any time you get a chance to fish the ocean, you gotta go.

Besides, all the photos of spring Chinook were giving me a rash. Try going oh-for 17 trips trying to catch one.

Bill Herzog's Zog Blog That’s right, 17 trips, nada, zilch. More than 200 steelhead over 20 pounds, and couldn’t catch a salmon at Pike Place Market this spring. I even (I cannot believe I’m admitting this in print) paid 29 dollars a pound for a small piece of Columbia spring king at Johnny’s Seafoods. I just had to have a piece of spring Chinook. Talk about the walk of shame going out to the car, carrying that tiny sack of fish more expensive than cocaine. The ultimate slap came when the missus comes home, smells the salmon wafting from the oven and asks what I’m cooking.

“It’s salmon, babe.”

“When did you catch a salmon?”

Sigh. I gotta get to Westport.

Go West(port), young man
Westport is one of the final feeding stops for a proposed run of 650,000 Chinook heading to the Columbia. With huge schools of boiling anchovies randomly scattered 7 to 10 miles north, the kings are there at the restaurant. The key was find the 130 foot mark, locate the bait schools, then drop ‘em overboard and brace yourself.

All we had to do was find the charters and the commercial trollers, and bingo. There were more commercials than sporties our day on the big pond. The water was relatively “flat”, only 6 foot rollers and foot high wind waves.

Now that we positioned ourselves amongst the boats for a drift, time to mooch in earnest.

Yes, mooching. As much press as downrigger trolling for salmon gets today, and how over-exposed it’s become, we forget about the old school stuff, like mooching.

This is truly an art, and here’s how you do it.

Bill Herzog's Zog Blog hits Westport Westport mooching 101
Tackle for mooching up an ocean Westport king starts with your favorite length rod, say 8-½ to 10-½ feet, rated for 10-20 or 12-25 pound line featuring parabolic action. No mag tapers, I’ll explain why not in a minute.

Reels should hold a couple hundred yards of 20- to 25-pound test mono. No braid, again explanation coming.

Slip a sliding style crescent lead on the mainline, weights are 3 up to 6 ounces depending on wind/drift speed. Add three 6mm beads (knot protectors) and tie on a medium Sampo ball bearing swivel. Then tie on 14 inches of 50-pound Maxima Chameleon (the stiffest line available) to another Sampo BB swivel.

This short, stiff chunk of heavy mono forces the swivels to work, completely eliminating line twist resulting from a rapidly spinning cut plug herring.

On the second swivel clip on 4 feet of 20 pound Maxima Ultragreen leader featuring tandem 4/0 nickle Gamakatsu hooks.

When tying mooching leaders, spread the hooks apart to match the size of your bait. Be sure to place the trailer hook so the eye of the hook is even with the tip of the tail of the bait. This ensures zero short strikes, you will find that when trolling or mooching 95 percent of salmon are hooked on the trailer.

So I’ve been working my headless herring up and down, drifting along with the wind for several minutes when the big yank happens. Two head shakes - BIG head shakes - and gone.

First bite after a month and a half. Following a tapestry of expletives fueled by 0-for-17, my next drop was gripped. I don’t know if was so long between fish, but these fish seemed to fight harder. I am here to tell you this 18-pound clipped king fought like it was 25.

They all did!

Two, three more triploid-fat Chinook hit the deck between 14 and 20 pounds. All is right in the world again, Wild Country fans. The streak has ended. But the bite was not wide open, just consistent enough to make you work. We averaged one king bite every half hour. Pretty damned good fishing in my skewered world.

Zog Blog Westport 3 Westport mooching 201
So why not troll? There is a reason all the charter boats and 90 percent of the private sporties are mooching, it flat outfishes any other technique in this situation. It’s called “The Westport Way.“ Bait schools are relatively shallow at Westport, therefore most if not all salmon are found from 20 to 50 feet down, easily reachable with a few ounces of lead.

To begin, set your bait in the water, allowing the herring to begin spinning and pull the rigging slightly away from the boat. Open the reel bail and allow the herring/lead to drop down slowly so the bait stays positioned basically at a 90 degree angle from the mainline. A slow drop and angle prevents one very messy angle.

Allow the bait to drop slowly but steadily until approximately 70 feet. Engage bail, then begin to slowly reel back in, bringing the presentation upwards. This is when most strikes occur, on the rise. Reel until you get a visual on the bait, then repeat the drop/raise presentation while your boat drifts with the current/wind.

So now you are reeling in slow, and now at approximately 30 feet, something abruptly halts the free rise of your bait. Set the hook hard, right?

NO-NO-NO-NO-NO NOOOOO!!!! You’ve just pulled the bait away from the salmon. King bites come seldom at a premium, you don’t want to flag these.

When you feel the salmon grab the bait, turn off the steelheader’s reflex and reel down swiftly, gathering line until the rod is fully flexed and the mainline is bowstring tight. That is your hookset.

Now an explanation why we need a softer action (parabolic) rod and mono, not spectra mainline The rod must fully load and all stretch must be out of the line for a full and effective hookset, but not too swiftly. A salmon, especially a large king, had powerful jaws and he’s got your bait in a death grip when he first strikes.

As your rod and line begin to load, the fish must turn away to allow the hooks to seat in the fish’s mouth. A stiffer rod (such as mag taper) and a non stretch line like spectra (Tuff Line, Power Pro) loads too swiftly, pulling the bait away from the fish before it can turn. This is why fiberglass rods are best for mooching.

Natural baits always outfish artificials when salmon are actively feeding. But I believe, and this is not a theory only shared by this angler, that a rising bait triggers a feeding response in ocean salmon. This is sound due to salmon always attack their prey from beneath. A static line horizontal troll is unnatural, although it often works well it’s not nearly as deadly as baits presented vertically. How many times have you downrigger guys hooked salmon while bringing your gear up to check?

Right.

We finished our day with six beyond stunning fin clipped Chinook 14 to 21 pounds, two natives and four coho released.

Yeah, I’ll once again be a slave to my downriggers in short order, up in Port Alberni and out to Brewster for sockeye, American and Sutherland Lakes for kokanee, Lake Cle Elum lake trout, Sekiu and local south Sound kings.

But for now, its 1956. What’s old is new again. How sweet it is.

Metal To The End.

-Spoonman