Hey RT:

Yeah I was the guy that typed up that post a while back on beach bobber/herring fishing. I tried performing a search for it, but it has seemed to vanish. I think you were going to slip the article in your book?

Anyway, it's a simple fishery. Sliding Beau Mac big bobber, tie a half-inch with a rubber band about 1-2' above your bobber onto the main line, tie on a 1-1/2 - 2 ounce crescent sinker, then I tie up a solid tie double hook rig about 3' in length (Jerry Garcia and others go with a long 5' leader, I don't think it matters to a pea brained fish, the shorter leader is just easier to cast for me). I usually plug cut my herring, especially if it's fresh and less likely to tear apart on the cast. I think the plug cut gives you a tad better spin on a slow retrieve over whole herring, the extra blood in the water can't hurt either!

As Jerry Garcia (JG) said, you don't need to cast far. The biggest challenge for newbies is casting the rig and not have their herring fly off the hooks. JG started out being a fellow big bobber thrower until he decided to unintentially release a few floats out into the sound, then it was dink floats from that point on. I like the bigger bobbers because there easier to see and the buoyancy of the float acts as a gauge to the size of the fish that's on the other end. 70% of the time the small fish don't take the float under the water, where as the bigger Cohos take it down quick! The biggest two mistakes I think newbies make out there is fishing to deep of a dropper (remember fish look up not down) and reeling in to fast over the last 10-15 yards of water before your rigs on the beach. As JG mentioned most strikes are in 2-3 feet of water upon the retrieve.

You should let Jerry and I know when your going to be in the Everett area next August (if area 9 is open for salmon) and we'll show you the ropes. We can talk more about it this spring when I cash in on that personally RT guided springer trip.