Bigbum Loc: Washington

Trolling for silvers earlier this week in Puget Sound. I generally have 4 rods rigged for salmon so gear change is pretty instantaneous and there's always a spare or for guests. 2 of my reels where re spooled earlier this year with heavier new line and 2 weren't. Had one rod (old line) setup with hoochie behind 11" skateboard down 90' on downrigger. After awhile I glanced at it and my rod was sticking straight up with no line tension. Crap I thought, it released prematurely which....happens. On reeling it in I noticed no resistance whatsoever from the dodger or hoochie. Double crap. On inspection of end of line (40# braid) it appeared possibly to have broken at knot at 1st swivel? Probably never know for sure though. If that were the case that knot was 25'+ behind my downrigger ball, so why did it release from my cannon ball clip? I wasn't watching so I can only surmise I had a strike and the fish released from the clip, tensioned up the line, and the knot failed. Bums me to think there may have been a fish down there dragging around all that hardware. My bad! My other 2 rods with new line obviously had new knots holding the main line swivels. The other 2 rods? My bad again! They did knot (bad pun) get the annual trim back 24" of line and re tie swivel connections that should have happened earlier this winter when I was getting my gear organized. In fact they probably didn't get re tied last year either! Triple my bad!
Moral of the story, do the due diligence. New knots every year. You can bet everything on my end is now currently re rigged, including the 150# braided downrigger cables.

DC Loc: Washington state

I hate it when that happens. what was the lb on the line to your hoochie ? was it also 40 or was it 30. I now run 60 braid to my dodger and then 40 to the hoochie so it gets the action from the dodger so if the hoochie gets broken off by a fish or something else I don't loose the dodger. but I have lost downrigger balls and dodgers due to not checking and retying knots often enough. can be expensive and frustrating mistake. thanks for the reminder

Bigbum Loc: Washington

Was running 30# leader from dodger to hoochie and 50# mainline on that rod. My 2 lighter action rods are spooled 50# and I run 65# on my heavier ones. I run a sliding snap above my swivel on main line and leave snap empty if I'm using downrigger instead of weight. Then 30# fluorocarbon leader from main to dodger. It's what I usually have handy. You are right, 50 or 65# braid would be a better move to secure dodger as visual is not a factor and I have surplus braid left from spooling reels.

DC Loc: Washington state

did you catch anything? this year in area 9 I did better useing one of those brads supper bait herring plugs than with the hoochies which is the opposite of last year when hoochies out preformed the plug. I am calling it quits for this year and will spend winter working on my boat and getting my gear ready for next year.

Bigbum Loc: Washington

MA 11 14"+- silvers on the the hoochies which we released. A couple 20"+ on helmeted herring spinning like a drill bit behind green silver dodgers. I have some brads herring plugs just never used them yet. What scent? Did well at buoy 10 late August mostly kings.
Thought briefly about chasing the salmon further up the Columbia but...........
I may ride my bike 3 miles up foothills trail from Orting to Carbon river and try throwing some eggs or yarn at em.
I'm in Puyallup, where are you located?

DC Loc: Washington state

I used the bloody tuna scent. I fish out of mukilteo area 9 mostly. but all closed now. I'm thinking you fish further south. area 10 I think is still open and by the creel report on wdfw page they have been doing well down there. never fished bouy 10 my boat is to small for that fishery. good luck on your river fishing

Bigbum Loc: Washington

OK, bloody tuna. Mostly been fishing area 11 or 13. Conveniently, I can be on the water 30-45 minutes from home. Though I've heard better reports coming in from 9 and 10 and yes 10 is still open. Yeah, buoy 10 and upriver can get snotty with the winds, river current, and tides. I've seen smaller boats out there at times (12'-14') but I wouldn't recommend.