I've attempted fishing Elliot Bay twice with no luck and few fish on the finder (doesn't mean they are not out there).
Don't believe I fished during tide change though.
Friday night fished in front of Shilshole marina west of the boundary line. Saw lots of fish anywhere from 18' to 70' between 8:30 p.m. to 11:00 p.m., but still no luck.

We do not have downriggers yet. I plan to buy them after this fishing season is over to get a better deal.

To substitute somewhat , I bought the large "Deep Six Diver".

I ran the diver on top, then a 36" leader to a white dodger, then 36" to a green glow, double hook squid with a strip of herring.
Washed my hands in saltwater before handling the lure/bait.
Did not have Smelly Jelly.

Do not have speedometer, but trolled at what I think was 2 to 2.5 mph.
Line was at 40 to 45 degrees to horizontal, even with the diver, at 80 pulls @ 1.5 feet per pull. I figure the line should be at more of an angle (steeper and deeper).

Please advise on what I can do better, or what I should change.

Being our first season at this, we are learning. Are the runs delayed, or am I just needing a little coaching, or BOTH?

I would really like to find someone with whom I (or we - my son and I) could go out and learn from.
We own an 18' tri-hull with 85 Johnson and 9.9 Johnson kicker. It handles Puget Sound OK.

Thanks for the help.

You're best bet is going to be when the ocean coho show up. I've caught my biggest silver 13lbs off of a deep six out about 120 to 150' with a flasher / squid combo. You can try letting out a lot of line and going deeper with a coyote spoon. They will catch fish going slow or fast.

Thanks Jeffe'd. I was about to attach a Coyote spoon (1 of 4 I have) on Friday night, but decided to use the glow in the dark squid since it was dark. I'll try the spoon.

Unfortunaly sunday was the last day for kings, unless they give us another day or two. It will reopen for coho the first of september if I remember corectly. For the kings we got one friday 18lbs or so and a small coho at low tide just really early in the morning when it got light out they just seemed to turn off. We fished down riggers 40 feet and caught 2 or 3 fish and went deeper during the day with out any luck. King took a herring and coho a green hootchie both with smelly jelly on the flasher and hootchie. trolling about 1.5 - 2 miles per hour. If they open it again I think I will start fishing even earlier lines in the water at 3 am. and leave at 9am or so.

You should do fine with the deep divers once the coho show up.

BD (before downriggers) I did a lot of mooching/motor mooching and was reasonably successful. For motor mooching use your standard mooching setup with a 6 foot leader and banana sinker. Let your gear out to the desired depth with a controlled free or by counting pulls. After your line is down pop the engine in gear and let your bait work its way bay up to the surface. Once there, put it back in neutral and let your line drift back down. Its not as precise as downrigger fishing, but allows you to work different depths fairly easily until you identify where the fish are.
JMS

Cool. Thanks Little Fish. We'll give 'er a try. Any hankerings as to when the coho will come in from their ocean play?

Troller, Thanks for your input also.

Hey crwcbtrk - I am in the same boat so to speak. No down riggers. I do have some divers though and do hear that when the coho are in that I should do o.k. I did not catch any kings on Elliott this time around either.

Hey jeff'e'd - Would you place a dodger/flasher on with a spoon for coho?