Great video on mooching

Great info here.  Thanks for sharing.   

circle hook regulations here in Cali for king salmon

Mooching with a slip rig is legal north of Horse Mountain (just a bit north of Shelter Cove), but I troll 99% of the time out of Trinidad and Humboldt Bay anyway.

I love trolling - I do it all summer to the tune of 100's of miles.

Trolling cut plug herring is definitely a great method - love my anchovies too.

Mooching is great, but I've found that paddling around to locate a baitball and then putting a mooching setup down is often more difficult than just trolling.  Might be different in Puget Sound. 

Either way, can't wait for salmon season!!   

PS - my advice for catching a salmon in the ocean:  know the regs, be ready to fish multiple methods, and commit yourself to spending the time it takes to get it done.

I was surprised at how few bait balls we actually saw up here in Ft Bragg this year.  And when we did try to mooch we ended up with Jack Mackerels and CoHo Salmon.  Still fun but would rather bring some kings home.  Are they usually hitting the bait from below.  Maybe I should have put some more weight on the bait to get past the top feeders?

Mooching is great, but I've found that paddling around to locate a baitball and then putting a mooching setup down is often more difficult than just trolling.  Might be different in Puget Sound. 

I think depends on location. It works best in places where fish are staging before making a big direction change on their journey. When I mooch I just go to one spot (point, drop-off, tide rip etc.) where I know there's going to bait and salmon taking advantage of them and work the area. Cool thing is, you can count on those same spots to hold fish so it's more a matter of checking each spot, working them for a few drifts, and then moving on or staying. You can find good mooching spots just like good lingcod spots on bathymetry maps. Below is a map of a favorite spot. When the current is ebbing herring get funneled into this pocket and fish stack in there picking them off.

My Bucket List:  Fish with Zee up in the Sound.   

My Bucket List:  Fish with Zee up in the Sound.   

Haha! Anytime Eric.