Mooching questions

Im looking to give mooching a try this year and I have some questions. I noticed most people use a levelwind or a mooching reel. Do I really need a levelwind or can I use my Avet? Are line counters necessary? Im also curious about rod length. Seems people like a longer noodly rod. Any recommendations and advice? I searched the forum but thought Id ask too

I am having similar thoughts....The Eddies are your friends...

I'll be your huckleberry...

I'm using a thunnus 4000 and 8.6 lamiglass...I'd mooch with anything though...gotta be a little bendy...salmon are a bit wiley from what I remember back in the old days...

Level winds seem convenient for less distraction when dealing w/ them guile maneuvers. My two reels are either abu revo toro(lefty) or shimano tekota paired w/ shimano tallus rod.. just my beat up gear for kayak fishing from back in the day.

I find the thumb bar on revo more efficient for changing depth. Other rod is a cousins SSW 799XFT. Cousins rod for rockfish/ling.

I’m glad to hear people are mooching again, this was by far the funnest way to fish salmon.  You don’t need a mooching reel, line counter  or a level wind, your avet will work fine. People used to use a lot of level wind baitcasters back in the day but they were really the only option for a reel that size.  The smallest conventional reels regularly available were 501 Penns and then we started seeing 220 newells in local shops  around the late 90’s but those still weren’t all that common.  To get your bait in the zone, thumb the spool and put your reel in freespool, the start pulling line off one foot at a time, counting each pull. 

Salmon have a “soft mouth” and hooks can get pulled pretty easily (I think it’s more a result of wonky hookups due to their drive by and slashing at baits over having soft mouths however).  The long noodly, or parabolic, rods help to absorb some of the shock and keep fish pinned without pulling hooks when they run or headshake.  I’d say you don’t really need an 8’ rod on the yak, you can probably find a moderate parabolic action 7’ rod and it’ll be easier to handle fish when it’s time to land them. 

My .02

Metered line is a nice lower weight alternative to a line counter reel. I use it for my vertical jigging; fish finder confirms that my presentation is w/in a couple of feet of where I think it is based on the metered line.

Yay mooching. I’ve given it a serious study over the last two seasons. Any reel should be fine including your Avet. Check, on a bendy rod. Think a 10-15# rod, noodle. Need that bend to keep tension. Light mono. I use 20#. Some go as light as 15#. My leader is 17# fluro. Again want that stretch. Light drag. Like 2# max. Takes a lot of nerves fighting a 20# salmon at 2# drag from a standstill!!! Wind wind wind no line come, until mr hook nose decides to charge my yak then gain gain gain, oh we meet eye to eye then he swim swim swim away taking more line and we rinse and repeat. Oh my heart is pumping just thinking about mooching!! It takes patience but give it a try. Come join us otw this fall. We will mooch, drift and tell stories and banter since we will have no where to go in a hurry 

So salmon newbie question here: when we talk about mooching for salmon, are we referring to the method of drop down and reel back up through the bait ball, or is it more just drifting bait at the depth of the bait ball? Or none of the above?

Mooching = hanging bait with no propulsion employed. 

Noodle.  Mono.  Threader.  Don't set the hook.

Can't wait!   

So salmon newbie question here: when we talk about mooching for salmon, are we referring to the method of drop down and reel back up through the bait ball, or is it more just drifting bait at the depth of the bait ball? Or none of the above?

There’s no hard and fast rules my man.  On some bites you can get picked up by setting the rod in a holder and letting the swell give your bait a little action.  Other bites you may have more success working the bait a little more, with some light rod sweeps.  I’ve had the most success with subtle twitch and reel presentations, working my bait in a 5-7’ range of water in a bait ball.  The famed and much missed Mooch, used to do what he would call the trooch (most commonly known by others as motor mooching). He’d get his bait to depth and take a couple strokes of the paddle every now and then to get some action on his bait.  Covered lots of water and he was pretty successful with it. 

Try one and if you get no bites, switch to another presentation.  In the Monterey and SF areas we’re usually fishing with 500 boats driving circles around us, it might be best to watch what everyone else is doing…..then do something different. 

…..then do something different.

Ha! sounds good to me. The fleet and the aggro seems pretty daunting, i'm allergic to crowds. Will battle it out a few times anyway, maybe i'll get the bug. Thanks for the info brother

Mooching = hanging bait with no propulsion employed. 

Noodle.  Mono.  Threader.  Don't set the hook.

Can't wait!   

Cheers Eric, no propulsion is my default state   

Yay mooching. I’ve given it a serious study over the last two seasons. Any reel should be fine including your Avet. Check, on a bendy rod. Think a 10-15# rod, noodle. Need that bend to keep tension. Light mono. I use 20#. Some go as light as 15#. My leader is 17# fluro. Again want that stretch. Light drag. Like 2# max. Takes a lot of nerves fighting a 20# salmon at 2# drag from a standstill!!! Wind wind wind no line come, until mr hook nose decides to charge my yak then gain gain gain, oh we meet eye to eye then he swim swim swim away taking more line and we rinse and repeat. Oh my heart is pumping just thinking about mooching!! It takes patience but give it a try. Come join us otw this fall. We will mooch, drift and tell stories and banter since we will have no where to go in a hurry 

Im in!

So salmon newbie question here: when we talk about mooching for salmon, are we referring to the method of drop down and reel back up through the bait ball, or is it more just drifting bait at the depth of the bait ball? Or none of the above?

There’s no hard and fast rules my man.  On some bites you can get picked up by setting the rod in a holder and letting the swell give your bait a little action.  Other bites you may have more success working the bait a little more, with some light rod sweeps.  I’ve had the most success with subtle twitch and reel presentations, working my bait in a 5-7’ range of water in a bait ball.  The famed and much missed Mooch, used to do what he would call the trooch (most commonly known by others as motor mooching). He’d get his bait to depth and take a couple strokes of the paddle every now and then to get some action on his bait.  Covered lots of water and he was pretty successful with it. 

Try one and if you get no bites, switch to another presentation.  In the Monterey and SF areas we’re usually fishing with 500 boats driving circles around us, it might be best to watch what everyone else is doing…..then do something different.

+1 on the trooch. Majority of my fish ratio last season were after pulling up next to Eddie(fishy hawaiin) and taking a few paddle strokes.. then huh? fish on. or also when there was some swell/drift action

sounds like my style of fishing   is this anymore or less effective than trolling?

I can’t speak for the rest of the state but locally, two things really killed mooching (on the larger fishing front).  The mandated use of circle hooks was widely unpopular amongst the greater sportfishing fleet. Party boats host peeps of all skill levels and not all are able to adapt to the concept of holding still and not setting the hook. Also, the disappearance of massive congregations of baitfish.  Mooching was usually best when large schools of anchovy were allowed to cluster up and hang out together for a couple weeks.  Fish were able to really school up and hang with the bait.  I think the inshore conditions are not really hospitable for these larger schools to build up anymore.  I’ve also heard, especially in Monterey, that the seiners fishing forage fish were pretty adept at locating the bigger bait schools and seining them or breaking the schools up before they really have a chance to stack up into xxl size schools. 

Since the bait gets scattered, trolling is an effective way of covering water and finding the fish.  You can still mooch them when you find the bait, it’s just a bit harder to get on a ball with feeding fish.  If you’re in a hot bite in a general location, and find bait, mooching would be a fun and effective way to target them.