Nice comment, thanks!

Wow, thanks for that compliment! I just looked up where Ucluelet is…now I’m jelly!

Awesome! Love hearing that it was helpful.

That’s great man! Once salmon season gets going you won’t be able to keep ‘em off!

Tommy, thanks so much for commenting. It’s awesome you are catching salmon on downriggers!

Thanks for the tips man! Definitely still learning as I love to share what I think I know! I’ve upgraded to a boat with a tower and many more rod holders, so there should be much less of that. Ironically, with the number of trips I’ve done with many new people, the only time I’ve had damaged rods is when they were in peoples hands!

Thank you!

I don’t know a ton about that fishery, but I do no with fish that deep that both line diameter and cable diameter are really critical here. I know I talked a lot about using steel, but in that fishery I would be going with braid on the downrigger and fishing reel

Yeah man! Looks like the seas will lay down too

Thanks 🙏

How do they work? What do you like about them?

Measured with the ball in the water at a typical trolling depth.

You've asked a fantastic question! Let's assume there is zero current or wind pushing us along...In South or even Central Puget Sound or closer to a terminal area I might want to troll right around 1.5-2mph. In places like Sekiu or MA9, I may troll faster such as 2.2-2.7mph. Now if you are trolling with the current, you may end up trolling faster. The reason why there's a difference has to do with lifecycle of the salmon. These fish are feeding quite actively around Sekiu and into MA9. Let's say this is a Nisqually king salmon we're talking about. By the time it's traveling through MA11 or MA13, it might not be feeding at all. It's ready to head upstream to spawn. That means it's not going to be chasing prey or expending much energy to chase down a trolled offering. However, if you put something big and enticing right in front of it, you may get it to strike still. In Sekiu, trolling fast helps me cover water and these salmon can easily catch up to my offering and smash it. This is also why the catch rate is much higher out there. I've never seen as much salmon on my sonar in one location as in MA13, but they are sometimes tough to get to bite.

scotty.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Black-Box-Booklet.pdf

Checkout the links to salmon fishing rods on pnwbestlife.com/Puget-sound-salmon-fishing, also might provide more helpful info. Why not checkout the Scotty 1085 for a manual downrigger?

@@PNWBestLife Thanks!!

Thanks for taking the time to comment and good luck out on the sound!

Actually, I don't live in appletree, I'm in the South Sound. Right now there's a lot of coho and early in the morning they tend to be caught from the surface down the 60 ft. When I'm trolling around for coho I run one downrigger at 45 and the other at 60. I also run a deep six diver at about 35' down (70 ft back).

Thank you! Yes, I believe they do, it’s a necessary part of operating them

I did! I’ve always used the rubber snubber, but yeah I tested it multiple times and the metal on metal puts out .65 vs metal on rubber / plastics is .58.

That blog post explains how to do the test as well, might be worth trying out, curious what other people find.

I thought same thing at first but I’m guessing the properties that make up the snubber aren’t completely isolating as it’s probably not 100% rubber

I can…though I only have downrigger rod experience on the Okuma rods. I’m a big believer in not spending big on a downrigger rod. They take some abuse. I run 50 lb power pro brain with a 100 yard top shot of seaguar 30 lb flouro connects with an FG knot. I want stiffness and I want to attach mono / flouro to the clip

That all depends on how you want to fish, for trolling and mooching I'm a fan of the Knuckle Buster from Diawa, it's not expensive but works well for hauling in Kings. Islander reels are the Cadillac of mooching reels though

I think it should, the test resulted included the rubber snubber

I think so, because of the dissimilar metals?

@@PNWBestLife thanks! That's what I seem to keep finding out.

Halibut will only be open until the end of the month. Ling and rockfish close around Sekiu by middle of the month, however a few miles west in MA4 it’s open later in the year. I think the early spring season is the best, but we’ve found lots of fish all summer as well

@@PNWBestLife thx love the vids keep em coming

Thanks man! 🙏

Yeah, I’ve started filming downrigger trolling from a more fixed position because I do move my head too much outside of fighting a fish. I will have to look back at my test…I’m pretty sure it was rubber snubber. I performed it multiple times with the same outcome…

Excellent!

I believe it's salt water, but I'm really not sure tbh. I just know different ways of connecting my DR balls produced more or less current, and that certain current will attract or repel different species of salmon. Lots of people just ignore this and use braid and absolutely kill it, so I wouldn't overthink this one way or the other.

@@PNWBestLife What about positive ion control? The commercial guys use it with their black boxes. Where do you get these?

@@bradleymonson2534 My understanding is that the black boxes are attempting to achieve what my boat was achieving naturally. That's the point of the test, to validate this. Some say that none of this matters, yet the commercials who make money catching salmon still use wire and ion control...Pretty sure Scotty makes a black box, but I haven't looked into it. I would want to seriously run the DR voltage test before going any further just to see where you're at.

Yes. Some attach the flasher directly to the downrigger terminal gear. This is more common with blackmouth fishing where lines are pretty close behind the boat. Could be done anytime though

I have same question gonna try riggers at bouy 10 this year

I love buoy 10! But I really love getting a brake from downriggers, lol

@@PNWBestLife ya I never use my downriggers but for kokanee on Merwin and yale I just love the fact I can see exactly where my gear is and hit em in the face with it worth a shot

Totally. I just love the direct connection in 20 ft of water. Especially after dragging downrigger balls around all summer

H or MH, with being at least 9' in length. Creates a nice balance of backbone and flexibility.

Actually, I have a blog version of this information which covers this as well: pnwbestlife.com/downrigger-fishing-for-salmon/

I think so…the test results still showed a lower measurement with the zip tie…I may need to repeat the test, because I’ve talked to an electrical engineer type who couldn’t explain those test results…

@@PNWBestLife that’s interesting, thanks!

I use nitrile gloves all the time while fishing, I don’t want my scent on anything. I do also clean and wash gear as well

In which instance? I typically use a 15 lb ball and prefer 45-65 feet of wire I’m 60-90 feet of wire. That’s pretty general though

@@PNWBestLife 60 deep 15lbs minimum? Thk

You can get away with less than 15 lbs, I just like the flexibility to drop all the way down if I want as well

I like to use longer bendier rods from 9-10'6 with lots of power and slower action like this one: amzn.to/3H3wOUc

@@PNWBestLife thanks man. I see some people say use 7’ some days use 10’ lol I’m just trying to get fully prepared for my trip next month. In the past I ran a 6 dipsy spread but that gets hairy lol so I put two riggers on my boat..

@@jakejacobson2999 Yeah, downriggers are incredible fishing devices. There arn't many wrong answers when it comes to rods here, so I just share what I like to do...It's more because I like a rod that fights my target fish species really well which is typically chinook salmon.

The STLHD one? Oh man those are everywhere. Google it you can find one!

Yes. I don’t know why the test consistently produced different voltages though… I’ve never had these big zip ties break.

Actually spelled Sekiu. Wonderful place to fish!

That’s a 20 ft boat! My new boat is 23’ though

That Okuma 10’6 Herring Rod is my typical boat / trolling rod

@@PNWBestLife heavy or medium heavy?

MH

I love this comment! Yes, very true. A downrigger is still an incredible tool though for catching salmon and especially in some specific circumstances.

Daryl, thanks for that feedback! I’ve started to learn that the head mounted camera is tough for showing trolling footage. Too much stuff to look at, so I will be using a lot more fixed mounted camera footage.

@@PNWBestLife That will help you a lot, ciao

@@PNWBestLife Right, Ive noticed many folks use the camera mounted to their chest. Might be worth it?

Yeah, potentially. Thanks for the tip!

Yeah, I’ve since learned to film from a more fixed position when downrigger fishing, because I move my head too much. Some people really have a hard time with it, so my apologies.

Yeah, sorry man. I’m working on a different solution for salmon trolling cause I move my head a lot!

That’s a great question that requires another video probably to answer. I’m working on one for chinook right now, but let me give you a few examples: For chinook in places with structured depth lines like Puget Sound, Strait, I like to fish bottom 1/3rd of water column in 70-120 ft of water. Sometimes shallower, sometimes deeper. For Coho, I’m out in 150-700 ft of water down 25 to 70 ft of wire. In the ocean for both species, it tends to be 150-300 ft of water 80-150’ft down, but there are so many factors here. Feeding salmon behave differently than migrating to spawn salmon