Northwest Fishing Reports

I have never mooched for salmon and wanted to know what type of gear and bait needed. Would like to try it in a month or so....Thanks:cheers:

petrojocky wrote:I have never mooched for salmon and wanted to know what type of gear and bait needed. Would like to try it in a month or so....Thanks:cheers:

If you are serious about mooching for salmon call or visit Auburn Sports and Marine and ask for Tom Pollack. He is a moocher with over 50 years of experience and will be glad to share his secrets with you. He will tell you the "How" the "Where" and the "When." Good Luck!

Thank you for the info stampie.......

Darts such as Pt. Defiance or Buzz bombs/zingers are highly popular...Mooching requires a lot of patience and a lot of willingness to learn...

Depth counter reels HELP a LOT because you can know the depth of your lure..

we used to mooch the south sound [dont remember exactly where] with herring under banana wieghts. But with the herring, your gonna catch dog fish and flounders in the sound. Dog fish wont bite a dart though. Try to use the darts with the green back.

yeah also if using darts the pure white works really well and yeah mooching is good in some spots of elliot bay

JT26 wrote:we used to mooch the south sound [dont remember exactly where] with herring under banana wieghts. But with the herring, your gonna catch dog fish and flounders in the sound. Dog fish wont bite a dart though. Try to use the darts with the green back.

Thats what I mooch with. But the dog fish may become a problem. On just about all the charter boats out of westport thats all they do to catch their salmon.

If you can find a good location with bait and you have patience you can't beat loading a fly reel with mono on a medium fly rod, hooking on to a down rigger with a light release, and mooching along slowly for blackmouth. They will strain your gear, and even freeze/ melt your reel if you tie into a big one. It's great fun.

Using sliding crescent sinkers on lighter salt water gear is a hoot too.

Regardless . . . it's one of the premiere fishing experiences . .the fish can run as far as they want in any direction, including down.

There's nothing like the tell-tale signs of a salmon hitting your herring . . Watch for the kings to run along the under the surface after the take. The memories of screaming reels boils my blood just thinking about it.

good luck!

Knuckle buster reels are very popular among moochers...They take some good awareness though cause a good king or silver will really pull a few big runs outta the fight and you don't want your hand in the way of that single action reel when they take off on a run...

Knuckle busters on very light (like micropterus mentioned fly rods) and long rods are popular up north in Canada and Alaska...I've never really used DR's much up there and we just use banana sinkers with mooching leaders and cut plug herring...Buzz bomb jigging is also popular...But it's a hands on thing and some people just like to just set their rod in a rod holder and watch it for a bite, this method being trolling...

Sam . .did you say you were going to chase blackmouth soon (in southern Puget Sound?)

Micropterus wrote:Sam . .did you say you were going to chase blackmouth soon (in southern Puget Sound?)

Yessir....Will be going out at the end of this week. Northern Puget sound is my target area though..>Area 9. Southern portion of it....

I'll report back when I get results...Or if you have any questions feel free to ask them and I'll gladly reply back to ya...

Sam . .I bet you're looking forward to next week and a chance to mooch

[quote]Sam wrote:

"Yessir....Will be going out at the end of this week. Northern Puget sound is my target area though..>Area 9. Southern portion of it...."

Sam . . . . I'm stuck down here in Area 13 . . . haven't fished Anderson Island in 30 years. Have you fished this far south?

How big are your blackmouth up there?

Sekiu is my favorite spot to mooch . .do you have one? If I remember correctly, you liked the sheltered waters around Whidbey

I enjoy fishing area 9 because we have a cabin on Whidbey Island so we get up there a lot and fishing is pretty good on the west side of whidbey Island...

I have never fished area 13. Most of mine is done in 9, 8-2, 4/5....

Blackmouth up there are anything from the barely legal 4 lbers up to some occasional 10lbers in the winter...

I troll a lot and I enjoy fishing Sekiu a lot when I can get there..Which is usually only a weekend a year.

Trolling is my preferred method...

Just got back from the cabin and tried fishing in some nasty winds for 45 mins...No bites....Gonna try again next week...

If your mooching for Blackmouth its important to have some tidal movement but not to much that you can't get your bait on the bottom (6-8 ft tidal change seemes to be just about right). I like mooching with keel weights anywhere from 3-6 oz in 90 to 120ft of water. I prefer to use herring over artifical jigs however dogfish can become pesky. During this time year in the Northern sound though the dogfish are pretty light.
The only place in the Northern sound that is still moocher friendly is Point no Point. Most other areas Race Track, Hat, Camano, and Possesion are dominated by trollers. If boat traffic is light you can mooch in these areas
but if their alot of boats you might get run over by a troller.

Thanks Sam . .good luck when you wet your line.