Hooknose- If you are fishing properly wrapped & tuned K-fish that long w/o a hookup there are things awry or no fish present; they are extremely effective for Kings! Great suggestions in replys here. An extra 2 cents (or so): 2' droppers are OK, but with that I would shorten your leader to 4 1/2'. The Kings aren't leader shy with K-fish, and with a 6' leader this diving lure will be too close to bottom, or even dredging it and ruining the action. Another improvement is to soak your sardine or herring filets in the reddish juice left over from curing salmon eggs. Kings like both scents & colors in combos, and it's tough to beat reddish egg & sardine. In fact, when I cure my fall King eggs, I sometimes put sardine filets right into the chem extracted egg juice during the curing process so that the eggs reabsorb both scents into the sacks. As a loose rule of thumb, for Springers I use K-15's in water with some color & K-14's when fairly clear. For the bigger fall Kings I use K16's & 15's. Ho is right about the effectiveness of a slow backtroll for Kings when there is enough current; definitely more effective than plunking. Also, try varying the speed of the action to slower & faster than your average to see if that stimulates a strike. Try using super sharp trebles in one size larger than stock (unlike some plugs, if the heavier hooks slightly slow down the K-fish action that's OK). For more effective flatline diving ability & action with the K14 & 15, remove the stock front eyescrew, then use a large flatfile to uniformly slightly flaten the topside beveled edges of the front lip section (about the lower 1 1/2"); then replace the eyescrew with one size larger version. You don't need the stock connector; just connect the leader with a strong roundend wiresnap onto the larger eyescrew, and have a swivel at the upper end &/or middle of the leader to prevent any linetwist. The Kwikfish K-16's dive plenty well enough stock, as do the stock Flatfish T-50's & 55's. Also try painting a full chrome K-fish 1/2 blue or green; laterally on one side, NOT front or back like the stock versions. Mask one side and spray the other cleaned side with Testor's Enamel "Saphire Blue Metal Flake" #1639 or "Green Metal Flake" #1630 (from hobby stores). Let them hang on a lampshade wire for a couple days, with the light on for awhile, to cure the paint. Don't be concerned with paint imperfections that likely look more natural to the fish anyway. Then cut a small arrow shaped piece of flame red, or chartruse, lure tape and put it on the underneath side near the back tail. And put ONE tape-eye under the front nose on the painted side. I call this pattern "RT's Injured Baitfish" because it looks like an injured fish struggling on it's side (I have talked with Buzz Ramsey about Luhr Jensen making this pattern, although it would be a more difficult factory painting setup for them). It has outfished any fantsy stock colors for me. Good luck. - Steve

[This message has been edited by Reel Truth (edited 05-26-2000).]