First try

[wicked walleye]

Coming up this weekend to try trolling for kings for the first time ever.  Bought 4 new wire dipsy rods and will run 2 downriggers.  I have a few flashers, spin doctors and flys, plenty of mag spoons, picked up a few J-plugs, running 8'-10' 30# flouro on my Dream weaver 124's and 107's dipsys, 20# mono on my downriggers.  Any pointers in the right direction?  Launching out of Olcott.

[TyeeTanic]

It's late season ... the bite is always more difficult this time of year as the salmon stop feeding due to their bodies morphing for the final phase of their lives.

So, don't be too hard on yourself if you don't catch much. If you do catch some good size fish ... it's a bonus.

 

Generally, this time of year, salmon are biting less to feed, and more out of agitation/aggressiveness.

So, setups that bias agitation is what people start to use now.

 

You are looking for more erratic movement (like flies and plugs) and colors that induce their aggressiveness (like purples, reds, orange, etc).

Having said that, you never know ... so it's always good to have a variety of things out to test the waters ... maybe an NBK spoon ... maybe a green fly.

If you have 2 people onboard with fishing licenses, I think the rod rule in the USA is 3 per person (I'm from Canada, and it's 2 per person here).  With 6 ...

2 downrigger for sure, one with a plug, one with a spoon (green?), and then the 4 dipsies ... well, if you haven't used them before, I'd probably just start with one on

each side (so use a 4 rod setup), and get used to that before you go with 2 dipseys per side ... tangles are not fun.  I'd put paddle/flies on the two dispeys, and probably

one purple setup and one red/orange setup.

 

Now, if you don't know where the fish are, you're not going to catch much. LOL.  It's important to form a network so you can get in on the comms. Until then, look

where other boats are, and keep an eye on whether people are catching or not.

 

Last thing is speed and depth. If you don't have a downspeed indicator ... then go with 2 mph on your GPS, but be aware, your lure speed (with currents applied) could be much different.

If 2 mph doesn't do much and you are marking fish, try speeding up to 2.4 mph and 2.7 mph (in sessions), and then down to 1.7 mph (in a session). A session is an entire straight length and a circle

to go back to your starting point (probably 10 to 15 minutes at least).

 

Temp is less important this time of year, but I'd still want to know where 52F water is and where 42F water is ... and put the riggers in that band, but then I also pay attention to the fish marker,

and adjust to target depth at the top of the fish arches.

 

Good luck, and be safe.