I recall back in the 80's off Kitsap Peninsula it was a hot Puget Sound chinook fishing technique. I know it still is today to an extent. Folks were getting fresh into it I think then in the early 80's, Canadian intel spread south possibly ? Anyhow I was pretty young and it was awhile back and I don't really care where it originated. I've read about it here and there through the years but have to be brutally honest that nothing I've read to date on the subject really makes much sense.
I know allot of experts still employ the tactic. It's something not easily learned I bet? I mean herring brine techniques alone can be humbling, expensive, gives mixed results and time consuming.

I think I understand what tackle and bait is used for motor mooching but maybe not.

Is the base technique to maintain speed slow enough to keep the bait near the bottom or in the intended target zone but while moving fast enought to maintain spin on herring is this the forumula for success? Am I close here...?
I would imagine that tiller control on the kicker motor gives you plenty of chances to trigger strikes with lil thrust gooses here and there.
Direction of kicker thrust mission critical / backing into the current stern first or slow forward thrust with the tide bow first? Or would a typical day emply both?
Let's get this technique back into the minds of Puget Sound salmon fisherman before it dies and goes the way of the Lucky Louie wooden salmon plug.

I think allot of trollers could do their repertoire good by trying some new techniques. The hands on aspect alone should get some folks attention here.

I saw a great spin off on motor mooching in Canada mid 90's Painter's Lodge Campbell River. Live herring motor mooching with 30' leaders.herring pinned through the nose w/ a single small treble.. strike when the rod goes up, not down... that was the coolest set-up I've seen to date personally. cool stuff there...

Lofty

You're on the right trac, keep a good line angle, 45-60 degrees cover ground. You don't want that bait spinning too fast, but not too slow either.

I've been fishing that way for many years. Grew up fishing Pillar Point, Freshwater Bay and P.A.

It still works, just not alot of us old school guys left anymore.

VGS1

Not only do you need good bait and keeping the line angle right, you must work the bait. I constantly reel up and drop down. Never had any rod holders. Just a piece of rubber to set your rod against. A lot of the fish I caught came on the drop.

I remember fishing that way in the 80s an early 90s with my dad. Downriggers stopped that technique for us.

i was always taught to drop it down, kick the motor in gear until your line angle is around 45*, then kick it out and let the line drop straight down again, repeat.

there are only 2 problems i have with mooching. the first is that it's only effective when there's biting fish in the area. the second is dogfish.

my puget sound fishing is almost exclusively in the southern reaches of MA13, and while there is usually no shortage of migratory kings this time of year, getting them to bite anything can sometimes be tough.

I agree with Chum Man's approach. Kings will usually hit when you pop the boat out of gear and the bait starts fluttering. Works well at Pt. Dalco and you can get fresh herring at the Point Defiance boathouse.

I've fished in the sound my whole life, but in my late teens I hooked up with a guy named Geoff that had a boat moored right outside the locks. He was a dyed-in-the-wool motor moocher, and for the several years we fished together we caught alot of fish...he taught me what I know. Geoff used to work occasionally with the guys at Ballard Bait, & each morning we'd get our supply then head out to fish Meadow and West Point. Long before downriggers, it was our go-to method.

I think the ideal setup is a 4 or 6 oz. Meztler sliding mooching weight on a bar connector, bead chain, and a 6-7 foot 20# leader.

We'd go 30-40 pulls in the am, and drop to an average of 80 later. We'd also hold our rods and then stop and mooch for a minute if we had a hookup or found a pod of fish..which is a great method for doubles. I miss fishing that way. Awesome strikes!

There was a Asian guy named Casey that I still see from time to time that was always out at West Point mooching and motor-mooching the tide changes. Seemed like he ALWAYS got his fish, year round.

Cool thread.

I mooch a lot, being that I don't have downriggers. There are times when it just doesn't work though.......like when your into dogfish.

I always used the same method as Chum Man but used a spoon called a Pearl Wobbler

Most of my largest kings come from motor mooching. Think about pulling plugs in a river. Fish tailing the boat will raise and lower, speed and slow down the line. And summer kings are looking to eat and that's why they are in close. So you don't need to be close to bottom. I usually do 25 feet so I'm probably 10 to 15 feet under the surface. Plus you don't need a steep angle. You'll get better hook sets with a faster angle. Probably gives them less time to think about it too and they just react. These are fish looking for food. They are usually in close, like kelp beds, because there's bait there and they are herding them up to scarf on or they are laying in wait to ambush bait swimming by.

I motor mooch when I have people willing to work a bit. We use the same technique we grew up fishing in SE Ak. It will out fish down riggers most of the time. End up dropping the riggers when the wife and kids are on board and their wrists get tired from reeling. Dog fish can be a problem but as far as mooching or rigging, we catch more mooching. Top to bottom unless we mark something then zero in on bait or fish. Plus the slack line bite is something everyone should have at least once.

I spent all three month of every summer bumping boats with those guys from Painters, April Point and Dolphin Resort. Up there when the tide is cooking the bait is pushed up tight to the rocks in the backeddies created by points and under water obstructions. Because the productive fishing areas are so small and so many boats would try and croud into the hole, it required some hot rodding and everyday you faced sparring, riuvalry and occasional the fisticuffs. The air was heavy with two stroke exhaust and electric with tension between competitive fishermen.

We always did well and were outcasts because we didnt have a paying customer to satisfy, especially one that was put off we had fish three to one.

You dont need thirty foot leaders and using one that long will not telegraph strikes as well. Eight to ten foot leader, at least two swivels (one on a dropper) and a sliding egg sinker with a bumper to protect your knot is all it takes. We did use a cribbage peg and peice of surgical tubing to adjust the legnth of leader so when a fish is brought to net you just wind it down against the rod tip for better control of the fish.

"Liveys" are not the answer though either. You get way more flash and action from a cut plug over live bait. Start out with a bait cutter if you are new to fishing with cut plugs but I find the vertical angle too severe for my taste. I could write a book on plug cutting but I will spare more detail unless actually asked. Just keep less than 45 degrees of line angle forward or reverse since it doesnt matter and adjust your weight to the speed of the current. Less is better but up there it is usually eight to ten ounces minimum with tide conditions similar to Deception Pass. You want to be fishing under the depth of any bait, try two thirds way to the bottom or freespool to the bottom and crank up ten percent or so and watch you rod... if it so much as twitches or goes slack wind as fast as possible and prepare for a sweeping hookset if it comes tight. If it doesnt come tight strip or freespool quickly to get back where the strike occured and as long as the bait isnt mangled there is a good chance he will come back around again.

I was just lucky to have the benefit of standing on the shoulders of giants in this case. I had a grandfather that footed all the expenses and mastered techniques when he was a kid. One month I put $2800 worth of fuel through a 25hp tiller on a 13' Whaler. I would trade anything to give my kids a similar experience.

These days the indians harvest all the herring roe, in the spring I think, and there is little or no bait left and the fishery/ technique has all but died up there. I still go through the motions when I visit to show the family how it was once and we very occasionally catch a fish. They act like lightening struck when it comes together but I just laugh to myself and remember the fun of sitting in the sun and starring a a rod tip with no schedules or deadlines.

Have fun and good luck!

I grew up in Sekiu motor mooching, but my grandfather and his two japanese buddies used to take me out in the 60's right off the Seattle docks and we only used the moter to get there, after that it was pull 4 times and push once, wait 30 seconds and repeat. We caught more Kings than anyone out there and that is saying something as there were some real good fishermen out there, but these three had figured out how to mooch using the oars and man did it work. When they would push, they would get a bite and just let it soak, if the fish were still interested, next pull and wack.
As a kid I used to row the kelp beds off the Clallum River as long as I stayed in sight of the house! (our house was the second up from the mouth) This 10 year old had no problem catching Salmon rowing with one foot on the butt of the pole!
Oh, and when we got done fishing, we would take a long handled net under the docks in Seattle and catch Pigeons and sell them to the local japanese resturants. That was a blast catching pigeons and stuffing them into a gunny sack. Got wing wached a bunch of times, but hey for 5 cents a piece it was well worth it!

There is great stuff. It seems the distinction between motor mooching and drift mooching is not necessarily cut and dry- but as with allot of things in life this doesn't really surprise me to find that these two often differentiated mooching sub-techniques are very similar in form and function?! I mean heck if your fishing cut plugs your mooching I guess just because you put the motor into gear occasionally (or oars) you're not necessarily changing the whole aspect of your angling?

I wonder at one particular aspect of drift mooching over nad over and over through the years when watching the mooching contingent at Dalco and Defiance in AREA 11. I notice that allot of the anglers will not work their bait and seemingly are dangling their herring at a particular depth holding their rods drifting along not overly concerned about continually working the water column constantly. I wonder what the herring is doing when I see this. Is is spinning at this point or just dangling?
I understand several factors are playing into this but I see this quite a bit in AREA 11?
I have always scratched my head wondering what that herring is doing? If the boat is drifting at top water current speed and the bait is below you, is the herring spinning? I understand there are different currents speeds at different depths. Meaning top water current speed is more of less than say 80' down etc...
Maybe the herring is spinning away down there.... while the boat is drifting on top watet current speed?

If you have line angle the herring is probably spinning some. Is it spinning enough? It would seem that lots of takes are on the drop and just drifting with the current and not working the bait is contrary to that.