Both will catch fish, but do you want to target a particuler species?
Coho - Fishflash on a diver. (I like the spin)
Chinook - Dodger on a downrigger. ( I like the wobble)
Fishing lead - straight herring. (no flash - no drag)
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Fishing lead (done properly - dont set the hook, and let them eat, munch, and swallow it) will give you the highest percentage of good hookups for Chinook. For Coho it doesnt matter, use a RSK and leave the hooks just hanging outside the baitfish.
Of course - sometimes the fish are so thick that bare hooks will work. We were catching coho on bottomfish gear under the boat one day this year every time we dropped our lines in the water.
Other times you cant buy a bite without the proper bait. We limited one day about 3 weeks ago fishing Sardines instead of herring, when the charters went back to port with less than a fish per person average. Big schools of sardines and krill in the water and the herring wasnt getting hit, we swiched to fresh sardines and bam bam bam. Keep a few herrring jigs on board for when you find that baitball. Jig up a few live baits and mooch them with single hook tied straight to your mainline, (no weight) hook the baitfish through the top of the back, just foreward of the dorsal. Mucho fun, having a big chinook munch a live bait and fighting it with no weight/ diver / flasher / etc...
The 6 chinooks we got Saturday all had sardines in their bellies - ask Pilar how well the sardines we had on board worked for bait. Match the hatch if you can.
In the river / tidewater I like to switch to plug cut, but thats just me.
UG
[ 08-25-2003, 10:33 PM: Message edited by: Uglygreen ]