Northwest Fishing Reports

I am new to using downriggers and could use some advice. We have been catching a lot of shakers this year and it has me wondering if I am doing something wrong.

Trolling speed has been between 3 and 4 MPH
We have been starting in about 80' of water and moving out as the day progresses.
Cable length has depended on bait and time of day, but generally speaking we run no less than 40' of cable and no more than 80'.

Curious if there are any strategies or solutions or if it is just a luck of the draw thing.

I am assuming you are talking about fishing Coho? Shakers just come with territory. Just realize you need to check your gear regularly. If I am noticing a lot of shakers, then I am SUPER attentive to watching the rod tip vibration. Another words, if I see my normal rhythm on the tip, and at some point notice a slightly changed/uneven rhythm.... then that is time that I make a gear check.

That shaker gets one hit on your rig, and then only a short bit of head shakes before it is dead... and if you miss that little show of activity, then you are dragging a dead shaker and not actually fishing.
Some days it is a lot of shakers, other days less.

Agree with The Quadfather. Case in point, I was out at Shilshole yesterday and saw an ever-so-slight nudge on the rod, didn't pay attention to it. About 20 minutes later my buddy's rod goes off and it's a nice coho. It started coming over to my side, so I decided to pull my line in so it didn't get tangled with his fish, and low and behold, I was towing the darn shaker around that whole time. At the end of the morning, he put 2 in the boat and I got none - I chalk it up to him having 20 more minutes of effective fishing time than me, haha. So lesson learned - when in doubt, check it.

That said, I haven't seen near as many this year as last year. Not sure if there are just plain less shakers this year, or if it's because I used spoons a lot more last year and I have been using Ace Hi-flies/hootchies a lot more this year. Seemed to get a lot more shakers on the spoons. Just my experience though, not sure if that's true across the board.

We are pretty good about checking our gear regularly. If the attitude of the rod tip changes in the slightest bit we reel them in and check our gear. It sounds like we are doing the right things and just need to wait it out.

They hit all of our gear yesterday. Hoochies with an Ace Hi Fly inserts, Spoons, Plug Cut herring, Brads Super Bait. They hit it all. We had several doubles. Pretty much nonstop action for a solid hour. The good news is that my wife and 6 year old son had a blast.

Always good when the family is enjoying the day on the water!