Can you get red hooks via River Fishin'?

Yes, the 3/0 Sickle's are the same size as a 5/0 Mustad.

I agree 100% with you on the sickle hooks and their ability to stick and hold fish. It's pretty much all I use. I was alarmed on my Canadian trip when I had a bunch of the octopus hooks break because in 2+ years I had never had a broken hook. I hope you're right and they had a batch of lesser quality hooks a while back and that the issue has been fixed.

For those of you thinking of ordering some sickles for your hootchies my 2 cents is to go bigger than 3/0. I use nothing but 5/0 sickle octopus on my hootchies and they work really well and hook up almost every time. The 3/0 that others talk about seem really small to me. For those of you familiar with Captain Downriggins hootchies you'll see that he uses 5/0 sickles on his regular hootchies and 6/0's on his larger ones.

Slabby

So when you say correct line angle what are your talking? I try to get about 30 degree angle (angle of downrigger line with water) for kings and 45 degree angle for silvers, should it be more for both?

On a 12 pound ball, I like Minimum 45 degrees angle, often more.. The cable or spectra going through the water is not perfectly straight at that angle going through the water, it is slightly curved too, just like you line from your reel is. It just has the angle above the surface before the water bends it. If fishing 120 feet down, there is usually 142 to 145 feet of cable out to be 10 feet off the bottom, sometimes a little less, sometimes a little more. When fishing coho at shallower depths, often the line angle is about the same as for kings at deeper depths even though you're going faster cuz there is less drag on the cable at shallow depths. You have to play around a bit to find the line angle that is producing the most strikes for the gear you are normally using. I just eyeball it, but you will definately get a feel for how steep your angle needs to be if you pay attention, and if I can do that anybody can. Quit looking at speed while your trolling and start just looking at cable angle. Then use speed as just a back up reference. It is amazing to us how fast you can go and get fish, but to the fish, it's just another day of chasing bait around, a bit of speed is not much of an issue to the fish. If my dog sees two rabbits in the yard, both are sitting and sporadically hopping around, my dog just watches, maybe half-heartedly chases one a bit then backs off, if one takes off full speed, my dog chases it like a bat out of hell, and when he catches up he grabs the rabbit by the neck just to conclude the chase. Same thing I think with salmon. They have no shortage of things to chase down and munch on, but when they see an Ace-Hi fly or Coyote spoon going a little faster by, acting all sporadic, they just can't resist and go chase it down. Again, just my opinion, I ain't no biologist, but, it's what I imagine when I'm out there fishin'.

The only reason I even mentioned speed in the previous reply is cuz so many people reference speed when trolling, it is all about line angle, or cable angle. Speed is definately a reference to use. When ya hook a fish up, glance at the speed you were going, note the angle in your head. Sometimes like out at mid-channel or place like off Lagoon Pt. when ya get in goofy rips, the angle gets all messed up for awhile cuz of the sporadic currents below you, use speed at that point, and also when deploying the lures below use speed to get down, then adjust from there. At least that's what we do. But we're just Joe Blows from a redneck island.

Well, I've now been thinking about this line angle, I know what I like it to look like, but I've never actually measured the angle. I think the next time out I will measure the angle just to make sure I'm not talking outta my ass and giving anybody the wrong suggestions. That'd kinda suck, so when I next use a rigger, we'll figure out the angle, and say what it actually is rather than assuming I know what angle I'm talking about with just my naked eye.

Doesn't it make a big differnce in the direction you are going?

If headed into the tide the line angle is dramatically increased going the same speed.

Yep, but 95% of the time we're trolling with the tide.