I played around with this tonight and tied one up. With about three feet below the 3/0 barbless hook to the weight and about five feet of leader above the hook to the double uni knot to the braid main line, it looks like it just might work.

I still have this nagging thought in my head that this has likely already been tried and it didn't work or there's some other reason that no one is using it. I considered that I might catch non-target species, but if I am not near structure it seems less likely that I'll catch rockfish. I might catch sanddabs or flounders but that already happens with the Pt Wilson darts. What am I not thinking of?

Hey Jason,


When I first starting fishing for Blackmouth,  mooching became my goto method.  I use a sliding sinker,  with detachable weights,  and plug cut herring.  First on the main line is the Metzler Sliding sinker (with these rigs you can attach different weights per conditions,  normally 4-6 oz.).  Next on the main line is a red bead (to cushion the sliding sinker),  followed by a six bead "swivel".  To the six-bead swivel I tie on an 8-10'  leader (about 12 lb.)  and a single Gamakastu #1 barbless. 


There's a photo in this article that might help. 

https://anglingunlimited.com/fishing/mooching-fish/

Thanks, Kaz. I'm familiar with mooching and trolling. I'm considering this as an alternative to vertical jigging, where I'm already trying to keep the jig relatively close to the bottom in the same place as I work it up and down.

I'M NOT 100% CERTAIN but read the Washington regulations carefully because a dropshot rig might not be allowed for certain species.  I tried to look it up and learned that for a while it was outlawed, but them something changed and folks claimed they can be used for some fish (notably, bass) but not for others (including salmon and steelhead), and when I tried to follow-up on that, I got bored and dozed off...

I think it would work but you'd have issues with incidental catch of other more dog or flat species. Give it a try.


Fish hard.

You're right, as usual. I don't know if it would have worked for blackmouths. I couldn't keep the sanddabs off of it so I switched back to vertical jigging. If anyone wants to catch a bunch of sanddabs near Golden Gardens, I can tell you exactly where and exactly how to catch them.  They were on the big size... for sanddabs...