Trolling for Kings & Cohos

I promise not to share any of the info you share with me....no really, I won't tell!!! What's your super top secret setup for trolling for kings and cohos? 

It seems like everyone and their brother has a different trick, tip, or tactic for doing this.  It can't be that complicated to catch a fish, but what catches fish most reliably?  I've had a few bites so far this year, nothing hooked yet but a but.  So what am I doing wrong, if anything?

My setup:
9" flasher
Weight to get down
3' leader
2 hooks
Herring

I think your leader needs to be longer like 4-6 feet. Make sure your herring has a nice slow, large roll. Make sure your trolling nice and slow. 2-2.5 mph. Also if your in 40 feet of water have your bait at about 20 feet. Kings can only see forward and up. I was able to see my gear on the sonar once in awhile if I got the boat turned just right That would give me an idea of where my tackle was. Also I know that one pass on the line guide going out is 9 feet. So I count out about 3-4 to account for speed to get me at around 20 feet.

Also I noticed a lot more bites when I started using the pro-troll e-chip herring helmets.

4-6 ft of leader...........Thats nuts!  My arms aren't that long, and neither is my fishing pole (when you shorten it with the rod bent.

I may be too deep though.

Yah, I almost lost my king in the mirage drive since I had switched my ugly stick gear onto my short trevala rod. My arms weren't long enough either.  I use heavy fluorocarbon leaders and keep it relatively short (36 inches or even less). 

I think the heavy leader and short length to the dodger/flasher imparts more action to the bait.   Most of my saltwater kings are caught with 50 pound fluorocarbon.  Huge help when line gets caught in mirage drive or a big halibut hits.

I'd also say use heavier lead than you think is normal.  My 6 oz lead with an inline fish flash which has little drag still seemed to drag too far behind the yak.  When I switched to the bechhold flashers it dragged even more though its what I caught the king on.
http://www.fishcatcher.com/fishcatcher.php

I have two things I do that is slightly out of the norm.  One I can't divulge on the web but will PM you and its how I rig my herring.  Caught grief the last time I posted it.

The second is that I only insert the top hook into my bait and the second hook typically trails at least a half a bait length behind the bait. 

Same old same old stinkin moldy ol' same old that my uncle showed me in '64: Whole herring behind flasher on a 5' leader (minimum 30# test) for Kings. 40 # better. 5/0 and 4/0 hooks. Need 5' of leader length to get the right slow spin that Kings like. Shorter leader OK for Coho. Trolling speed for Kings is slow and depth depends on a lot of factors. Salmon look up, and the Kings often cruise just off the bottom or along a ledge or dropoff. FF/sonar helps here.
Most of the spots I now fish are relatively shallow, and I once had a nice King grab my herring on the drop just under the surface as I was free spooling out line.  That was in a PB in 25' to 30' depths in a river channel in Willapa Bay, using a 3 oz sinker, but I still use the same 7'8" or  8'6" rods and can handle the 5' leaders.
  "No secrets here...nothing to see, please move on, thank you."

I also flatline (using no added weight) spinners behind a plastic trolling rudder, and I use shorter leaders for that. I control my depth by varying the weight of spinner I use, and amount of line out. That's in the tidal flux of the smaller coastal rivers. (After they open for salmon. Most are closed now).
You should be able to monitor your speed by continuously observing the tip of your rod and noting the beat of tip-flutter. You should see the tip pulsing with the spin of the blade. If it smooths out, you are going too fast, or there's gunk fouling your blade. Or maybe you slowed down too much and the blade stopped spinning.