We drove down to the Magnuson Park for boat launching.. We fished south of the 520 Bridge and caught NOTHING ! from 6 clock am till two clock pm.. I used 15 inches leader, bare red hook 3/0, size 0 chrome dodger, 15 feet behind the ball..
Where is a good place to fish? laughing at us..
Thanks,

well... if I told you my zipperlip spot I'd have to fight off everyone else.

Sounds like you're doing everything right. Are you dropping deeper as the day progresses? By 8am I was down to 65,75,85 ft on the rigger.

One thing does seem apparent from posts and reports. If you're not hitting anything you should pull up and move around a bit. Or if you see no one else hitting - move. I don't troll dead slow for that very reason. I want to cover some territory. I find a 1.5 mph troll still catches the fish for us.

I heard several people say that south of 520 was slow. I was down on the SW side of Mercer Island with about 1,000 other anglers.

Good luck this Saturday - I'm sure you'll do better this time. Oh - and try a little powerbait on the hook. Seemed to help us catch a few.

Try fishing in the channel between Mercer Island and Bellevue and/or the south tip of Mercer Island. Make sure you troll dead slow, meaning if the downrigger cable has any angle at all you are trolling too fast.

Good luck this Saturday!

I disagree with speed of trolling. I was trolling dead slow as everybody said on last Saturday. But I only caught one fish with the speed. When I just speeded up my boat slightly from dead speed, I had 10 hits. I was catching crazy. But before then it was dead for 4 hours. Everybody around us was catching except us. Then I figured that out what is the differece between them. SPEED...... they are NOT going dead slow. That is a lie. Everytime when I saw the boat who was catching fishes, they were going faster than us. SO good luck. Hot spot was south end of mercer island and north of renton. either very close to the surface with banana sinker or 65-80' deep. This will help you to get at least 6-10 fish on this Saturday. This is very true. Please let me know how you did. I am going to Vancouer Island for BIG king this weekend.

That's your problem right there.

Try putting out 30-40' of line before you attach to your release clip.

Everyone listen to Easy. I'm a big believer on that. Think about it, theres no zippers out there. If you're launching and plan on sleeping out there go find them first. Doesn't take long. By doing that this pass Saturday it put us in to fish early and limited, 50min total for three of us. Just do your home work. My speed was from .05 to .07, never hit 1.0. All fish where hit at 65 feet.

Good luck

Um, that didnt seem to be a problem for me, I was only 5' behind the ball and we were catching them left and right, several double headers too!!!!

The problem with putting them out 30 or 40 feet is getting tangled with other boaters. This is just to much of a zoo to let out to much line. Thats also why I am glad I have downriggers and dont have to use a bunch of line to get out.

20' to 25' behind the ball @ 65' to 75' deep troll between .5 to 1.2 mph.This changes as you turn into or with the wind.Use shrimp smelly jelly on your 0 size dodger.When things get a little tough in the after noon put some pink or red power bait on.Good luck,
STRIKE ZONE

P.S. The bite for me was between 6:00 am & 7:30 am.

Use a leader that is between 9" and 14". , Fish deeap. 85' was key for us around 9am. Try adding krill scent to the hook(s) [yes 2 hooks about 2" apart]. When you hook a fish, keep the other lines in the water (we had one double). Troll back through the spot you caught a fish, these are schooling fish.

Thanks so much for the informations...

Well, I've cased the launches and this time I may get out and pay for it with a 13 hour work day after ,,,butt....I have no downrigger. Didn't get it yet and am prepared to fish North away from the crowds. 14 foot, hopefully the big boat wakes won't foul the lines but am expecting this. From the earlier reports, I just plan to stay away from the zoo due to no downrigger. Ok now, an ignorant question, but will lead line help any?

I don't think downriggers are essential. I fished the south end of the lake from my sea kayak and didn't have any problem limiting in a couple of hours using an 8 oz mooching sinker to get down. Lots of people around me were catching fish with no downriggers either.

My only problem was the Bayliner that rammed me because the two guys in it were both playing with their downriggers instead of watching where they were going.

I run 2 downriggers and 2 with 8oz. on them. The non downrigger rods put over half the fish in the boat last weekend.