salmon without a fish finder

I am just wondering if fishing for salmon without a fish finder is a waste of time?
Is their some basics that one could follow that will give an opportuity to get a hook up?

You can always go with someone else that has electronics.  But your best bet, even with a FF, is to wait for a hot bite that you can reach by kayak, then go find boats out there.  It's either that, or cover ground that has a potential for fish, and hope for the best.  Basically what I do every time I fish 

Look for birds, they fish for a living. If you see groups of mures, or pelicans diving it is a good bet there's bait there, and fish pushing them either in shallow up up in the column

Just find out how deep they are from someone, then drop your bait down to the appropriate depth. Measure out how much line you pull with an arms length then pull accordingly. Pull out more when trolling, look at the angle of your line while trolling and do some guesswork. But for mooching, counting pulls works. Last year I was successful mooching ten cranks off the bottom. Keep checking back here for the latest and best intel.

And when you see FishMaster1 catch a salmon, that means it's WFO, drop everything and get out there. That's what I did. thanks again Andy.

I think you would have a much better chance later in the season (Jul/Aug/Sep) when the kings tend to move in closer. Work the rips or current edges. Work the water color change line. Work the darker water areas. Watch for signs of life in and above water (birds, baitfish). I would probably rig up a banana sinker/7 foot leader and target the 20 to 30 feet depth to start. Use a cut plug shape on your bait to get some slow spin or twirling action so you can very slowly mooch troll as you pause/paddle or tap the pedals. Working slow but covering a little water is your goal. If that didn't work, I would prop up the rod and thread a whole bait backwards with a little loop knot on the tail and let the wave action work the rig for me. Kick back and relax. You could also snap jig a 2-4 oz thinner bar type lure and check the various depths. Find out where the bottom is as well while doing this. If you connect or get hit on the jigging bar, it might give you a depth to concentrate your mooching type baits.

I've caught way more salmon without a FF than with.  Go where the salmon are and troll, troll, troll...

I've caught way more salmon without a FF than with.  Go where the salmon are and troll, troll, troll...

+1

@45 pulls

Thank you for the info guys, and I appreciate the detail MistralWind