Whole herring or anchovies: While an entire book
could be written about trolling whole herring or anchovies,
here are a few tricks to give you an added advantage. Start
with the same basic rigging as the herring strip; insert the
whole bait into a teaser head and secure it with toothpicks.
Whole bait tends to sag in its rigging when fished, especially
if it’s not brined.
To prevent sagging, one trick is to drill extra holes through
the teaser head with a hook point and insert extra toothpicks,
thus anchoring the bait’s head more securely. You can also
run wire (stucco wire works perfectly) along the tab side of
the teaser head, behind the gills and inside the body cavity.
This provides a bendable insert that retains its shape, allowing
you to easily modify the diameter and speed of the rig’s
spiral. Tight bullet rolls can be achieved by drilling a new
leader entry hole closer to the centre line of the teaser head.
Next, rig a leading 3/0 treblehook
with a trailing 4/0 or 5/0 single hook, preferably a Siwash
(use a salmon hook knot for the former and an improved clinch
knot for the latter). On particularly large herring, follow
the angle established for the leader through the plastic blister.
Then bury the treblehook barb behind the dorsal fin so that
the shank lies in a straight line with the wing on the teaser
head. Finally, make sure that the trailing hook extends beyond
the bait so that it’s the first thing the chinook bites
(see diagram above).
Cutplugs:
Cutplugs can be prepared for either cutplugging
or motor mooching. Both are variations of a theme, where the
presentation is different. Absolutely vital to either method
is the slice of the plug. Use a very sharp knife and cut the
bait while it’s still partially frozen. When a flip roll
is desired for motor mooching, slice the whole herring at a
45-degree angle from one side to the other just behind the gills.
For cutplugging, make the same
slice as above, but angle the knife so that it also creates
a 45-degree cut from the dorsal surface to the ventral surface
(see diagram below). The closer either angle approaches perpendicular
from the point of entry, the faster the cutplug will rotate.
Since summer chinook prefer a slow action, blunt the cut. This
can be a difficult cut to master, so the help of an experienced
angler may be required.
After slicing the bait, remove its stomach contents by inserting
the knife blade into the stomach cavity and twirling it until
the entrails are wrapped around it. That’s the traditional
method. However, a much easier and more effective technique
has recently been devised. With the cutplug’s long side
down, press the belly with your thumb to push out the entrails.
Then press the dull side of the knife blade onto the exposed
entrails and pull the cutplug to rip them out. Maintaining the
integrity of the stomach cavity is critical to this rig; if
the skin rips, throw the cutplug away and begin again. Also
throw away the cutplug if its long side becomes blunted while
fishing.
Hook placement is an art form
with this rigging. The key is to carefully pull both hooks (4/0
or 5/0 single hooks tied with salmon hook knots) through the
meat side of the cutplug beside the backbone, taking care not
to rip the cutplug. The leading hook is then taken to the short
side and, with the barb pointing to the caudal end, the entire
hook is drawn through the flank. Rotate the hook point parallel
to the dorsal surface and bury the shank inside the bait.
Finally, the protruding barb
should be perpendicular to the cutplug’s short side just
in front of the dorsal fin, with the shank buried inside the
cutplug (see diagram above). This serves to streamline the bait.
The barb of the trailing hook, meanwhile, should be similarly
set up, except the protruding barb should be perpendicular to
the long side of the bait well behind the dorsal fin. 
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