The Right Stuff
Spring chinook season in the Strait of Juan de Fuca is the best fishing window of my year. Period.
Better than fall coho. Better than summer halibut. Better than the Alaska trips I'd take if I was younger. There's something about a spring king out of Port Angeles in May — the water is cold and clear, the fish are fat from the open Pacific, and a 25-pound chinook on a downrigger feels like a freight train you've accidentally hooked.
This is the gear list I run. Not the gear list a magazine writer running gear gives you. Not what a sponsored guide is paid to recommend. Just what's actually on my boat in May, why it's there, and what it does.
Rods
Two Lamiglas Kenai 9'6" medium-heavy mooching rods, fast action. Glass blanks, not graphite. Glass forgives the screaming runs spring kings put on you in a way that graphite doesn't — you'll lose fish to popped hooks if you're running stiff graphite rods on chinook.
If you can't find Lamiglas, the Shimano Talora 9'6" mooching rod runs a close second. Avoid anything stiffer than medium-heavy. These fish dive, run, and cartwheel — your rod has to absorb the shock or your line/leader doesn't survive.
Reels
Penn Fathom 30LD. Two of them. Lever drag, line counter, single-speed. Spool with 65-pound braid backer plus 200 yards of 30-pound monofilament topshot.
Lever drag matters here. Spring kings make multiple long runs, and you need to be able to back off the drag without re-tightening it on the fly to a known setting. The Fathom's drag click also tells you exactly where you are without looking — which matters when you're trying to net a fish at the same time.
Mainline + leader
65-pound PowerPro braid as backer. 30-pound Maxima Ultragreen monofilament topshot, about 200 yards.
Topshot serves two purposes: shock absorber for sudden runs (mono stretches, braid doesn't) and a stealth zone closer to the lure (mono is less visible than braid in clear spring water). Connect with a Bristol knot or a good GT knot.
Leaders: 30-pound fluorocarbon, about 5-6 feet, tied to the lure or flasher with a Palomar.
Downriggers + balls
Cannon Optimum 10 BT/TS, port and starboard. 12-pound cannonballs as default, 15-pound if I'm running depths over 200 feet or in heavy current.
Why 12 pounds and not 10: spring kings hold deeper than coho. You're often fishing 80-180 feet. A 10-pound ball blows back too much in any current and you lose precise depth control. The 12-pounder holds.
Releases: Scotty Mini 1170 with the tension set to release at about 5 pounds of pull. Spring kings hit hard — you don't need a hair-trigger release.
Lures + flashers
My top three for spring kings in the Strait, in order:
1. Coho Killer 3.5" green-glow spoon, run behind a Hot Spot 11" green-glow flasher. The classic. Fish hit it morning and evening across the entire spring season.
2. Plug-cut herring on a treble setup with a Pro-Cure brining and a tight 4-second roll. When the bite is finicky, plug-cut beats artificial about 3 to 1.
3. 4" green-spotted hoochie skirt with a Lemon Lime flasher. Underrated late-spring producer when bait gets thin.
Speed + depth
2.4-2.6 knots over ground. Slower than coho, faster than halibut. Spring chinook are aggressive but particular — they don't like the lure flying past them.
Depth: start at 80 feet, work down. Most spring days I find them 100-140 feet. Watch your sonar for bait balls and run your gear 5-10 feet under the bait.
Tides + timing
Two hours before high slack, two hours into the ebb. That's the window. The current change moves bait, the bait moves predators, and the predators eat. Show up at the right tide, you'll catch fish. Show up at slack noon and you'll grind for hours.
Best months in the Strait: late April through early June. Peak is usually the second and third week of May. By July, the fish have moved through to the Sound.
Show up at the right tide, you'll catch fish. Show up at slack noon and you'll grind for hours.
What I don't run
Worth listing what's not on the boat:
No lighter rods. Spring kings will break a 7' light-action salmon rod. I've watched it happen. Stick to 9'6" mooching rods minimum.
No 20-pound mono mainline. They'll pop on the screaming runs. 30-pound is the floor.
No braid leaders. Spring water is clear, fish are wary, fluorocarbon leader matters.
No fresh herring stored on ice without brining. Brine the herring overnight in Pro-Cure or your own salt-borax mix. Untreated herring rolls weak and breaks down fast.
Final thought
None of this gear list is exotic or expensive (well, the Cannons are). It's just dialed in. Every piece of it has been tested over the seasons against the alternatives, and this is what survived. Replace any one piece with something cheaper and you'll feel the difference within a few trips.
Spring kings in the Strait deserve real gear. Show up with the right setup and you'll have one of the best fishing weeks of your year.
— Joel
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About Capt. Joel Elliott
Joel Elliott is a Port Angeles native and 40+ year Pacific Northwest fisherman, hunter, and outdoorsman. After careers in appliance and auto sales and a decade as a home builder and remodeling contractor, Joel founded Elliott's Tackle & Rigging to bring his hard-earned expertise — and an outdoorsman's eye for what holds up — to fellow saltwater anglers. He fishes the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the San Juans, the Washington Coast, and Alaska, with regular trips to remote fly-in float camps in Canada. Off-season, he hunts elk, deer, and bear in the Olympics with rifle and bow.
Have a question about gear, rigging, or PNW fishing? Drop a note through the contact page — Joel reads them all.
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