It is disappointing to see the secretive attitude from the river fishermen coming over to the salt water side. In twenty years of talking to many hundreds of saltwater fishermen, only two had been unwilling to share info on what bait, depth or location provided successful results. After all the fishing area is huge and the fish number into the hundreds of thousands, not two fish in a house size pool on a stream. For the few people that will try to catch some sockeye out in the salt, I can add some info to those who have been forthcoming.
I have caught several sockeye in the salt water on whole herring as an incidental catct I don't recommend that you load up on Ballard Bait. Port Alberni has had some significant salt water fisheries for sockeye. Some of the techniques are to fish a MP 15 (translucent red/orange mini plankton hoochie)or MP 39?
(the # designates the color) behind a flasher. Some people pull off every other strip of the skirt to decrease the profile. Having a lot of flashing gear in the water produces better results. This can be done by running several sets of cowbells, ford fenders, etc. off the downrigger cable. I've been told that there is a reddish/pink spoon about the size of a needle fish that produces well. Possibly Seattle Marine and Fishing Supply Co. could help on this one. I am planning on running some small shrimp immitations that my son tyied for me some small red hoochies. If I find an appropriate spoon (large Dicknite?), I'll put that out behind a flasher also.
If I or some of my friends have any success, I'll post the details. Hopefully others wouldn't feel compelled to secrecy. If that were the case with everyone, we would still be using orange flatfish in Lake Washington.

Scott