Live herring hooked through the nose with a fine wire treble hook are also employed by Campbell River guides. In either case a second hook near the base of the tail is used, hanging free or embedded in the bait. The standard two hook mooching rig is tied with the hooks a few inches apart. Solid ties are preferred by most, however sliding ties in which the top hook on the leader is moveable are also used. Presentation is everything to the Spring Chinook fisherman, the bait must roll just right, be fished at the right speed and depth.
Leaders are six to seven feet.
Some guides have a unique way of tying mooching leaders to deal with Dog fish sharks, a pesky bait stealer can sometimes can be found in heavy concentrations on the salmon grounds. Instead of the normal seven foot leader, they tie two hook snells without a leader . They then attache a normal length leader to the top hook eye. When a leader is damaged by the sandpaper skin of a thrashing Dogfish, the guide can shorten the leader to above the abrasion marks and tie on a new set of hooks. This allows quickly getting a line back in the water with retying a whole new hook and leader set- up.