Fishing for coho/chinook with downriggers

[biederboat]

If the moon and starts align properly, I'll be heading out of Garibaldi Saturday for some ocean salmon fishing, 1st time with a pair of Scotty electric downriggers. I've got the coho/diver thing down well, always seem to do better than average but I'm wondering how do I combine this with downrigger fishing to hopefully target both chinook and coho. I'll have either 3 or 4 people on board, and hope to fish one line on each downrigger and two with divers (if there's 4 people) but, hey, what do I know? So, questions are:

1. Okay to fish with this kind of set-up or should I stay with all one way or the other?
2. What speeds should I use, I'm usually a bit on the faster side when diver/coho fishing.
3. Any recommended set-ups for the downrigger lines, flashers, depths, etc?

Any & all advice welcome.

Thanks,
Biederboat

[flapbreaker]

You can fish any combination you want. I don't know what kind of release clips your using but I use the kind that you clip onto the wire. If your wanting to target both kings and coho just clip one rig near the cannon ball and send it down, say 100 feet and then clip on another release for the coho rod and send it down 15 feet. No divers needed that way.

For coho I like to keep it simple and use a hot spot dodger, 24" leader attached to a hootchie. Usually white. Put a small square of herring fillet on the hook. Seems to work.

I troll fast for coho. I don't think you can go too fast really. In the ocean the chinook don't seem to mind the faster speed but I tend to get more coho for sure.

Last weekend I fished in about 300 feet of water out from rockaway and did ok. Lots of baitballs. Nothing wide open but consistant enough to stay at it. Kept 3 coho, lost 3 and released a small chinook. Good luck.

One more thing, I had to send the ball down to about 30 feet to get the dodger to sink and then bring it back up to 15 feet.

Originally Posted by biederboat

If the moon and starts align properly, I'll be heading out of Garibaldi Saturday for some ocean salmon fishing, 1st time with a pair of Scotty electric downriggers. I've got the coho/diver thing down well, always seem to do better than average but I'm wondering how do I combine this with downrigger fishing to hopefully target both chinook and coho. I'll have either 3 or 4 people on board, and hope to fish one line on each downrigger and two with divers (if there's 4 people) but, hey, what do I know? So, questions are:

1. Okay to fish with this kind of set-up or should I stay with all one way or the other?
2. What speeds should I use, I'm usually a bit on the faster side when diver/coho fishing.
3. Any recommended set-ups for the downrigger lines, flashers, depths, etc?

Any & all advice welcome.

Thanks,
Biederboat

[biederboat]

Thanks Flapbreaker, I use those type of clips and I generally fish for Coho with hoochies as well, using white, pink, chartreuse and army truck varieties.

Biederboat

[Undertaker]

What Flapbreaker said, and my 2 cents...

1. Fish them in combination for sure. Personally, I like the rods on downriggers out to the side, divers straight off the stern. Probably because the downriggers go off more often and the divers are out of the way behind the boat. My opinion.

2. Speed varies depending on how heavy your downrigger weights are. If they will take faster speeds without adding too much angleor wire hum, do it. Until you find the speed that works best for your target species, vary the speed. If you want both Coho and Chinook, vary the speed. Simple.
At one time or another, it all works. Just have to find that days speed/depth/color combo. Some days, it all works.

3. Everyone has an opinion on this subject. I make my own 'fish flash' attractors, so I use those. I also love the blue hootchie. If everyone else is getting hit on other colors, I'm not stupid, I switch.

I hope the tuna come in close enough for us this weekend. If not, we know how to fish for the other stuff as well.

[tomictime]

..for Coho..I would start w stuff like this...

[tomictime]

..for Kings..I would use more of this..(I rarely target Coho, more of incidental catch..but I troll fairly fast..above 2 mph)