Hey now, looks like Lyle's finally coming around.
Glad to hear your purchasing downriggers. For Puget Sound and ocean fishing, I am convinced that trolling with downriggers is the most effective method of fishing, all things considered. You gain exact depth control and you can troll until you find the fish. This can be a great advantage if there are not a lot of fish around. Once the fish are located, you can continue to troll in the vicinity or break out the mooching rods and fish bait. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with mooching or jigging. In fact, I prefer to fish hands on. I just believe trolling is more effective.
I'm sure happy with the electric Scotty's. All of their models use the same motor, internals and housing with options available for length of boom, telescoping boom and swivel base. I went with the standard 24" boom because I like to be able to reach the down rigger clip and the ball without hanging too far over the boat. I was compelled though, to install a Mac's prop saver to prevent a nasty confrontation between the downrigger cable and the kicker's prop. It would only take one confrontation to pay for the prop saver when you consider the cost of purchasing a new cable, lead ball, clip and what ever gear you were fishing with, not to mention the inconvenience and embarrassment. The Scotty's come with a lifetime warranty and are considerably less expensive than either Penn or Cannon models which have a slower retreive. I like to use 15 lb balls because of the depths I fish at times and have had no problem retreiving these heavier balls all day long.
I know you could experience difficulties explaining this to your partner, but you really need to have two sets of poles. One set for the downriggers and one set for either mooching or trolling with weights ranging from four to about eight ounces like they do on the Columbia River. One example you could use is fishing for trout with a eight weight fly rod. It's big enough to fish for steelhead and salmon and it will still catch trout but......
For your downrigger rods I agree with earlier responder's that a fiberglass rod is the best route to go. Typically, this rod is lighter than your mooching rod. I purchased a couple of Lamiglass Certified Pro XCF 862 rods two years ago at Outdoor Emporium in Seattle and have been very happy with them. They are rated at 10 to 20 lbs, are light enough to make sport of a five pound blackmouth or silver but have enough backbone to handle a larger king.
I believe the most important component of your arsenal though is your reel. Regardless of the method of fishing, having a reel with a smooth and reliable drag system is a must. I finally settled on Penn 310 GTI's after trying two different Shimano reels. The 310's are one size smaller (which I like) than the 320's but still hold about 280 yards of 20lb mono which is more than ample. One thing you wont like though if your a fly fisher guy is that almost all salmon reels are right hand retrieve. Counter intuitive if you ask me. Penn did just come out with a left hand retrieve reel in the 320 size.
I'm running out of wind here, but there are a couple of great resources on the net that contain a wealth of information on salmon fishing that you should check out. One is Salmon University (online classes) and the other is Puget Sound Anglers main state site. Fantastic resources. Additionally, I would be more than willing to take you and maybe another brat out one weekend day in late February or March to fish blackmouth in Puget Sound if you are interested. I usually put in at Edmonds and fish Point no Point on the other side of the pond. Tim
I have a Penn 320 reel spooled up with 25lb line that I stick on 8' North X Northwest brand diver and bait rod. The rod is rated for 20-25lb test line and is a bit more limber than many folks like but I like it cuz it lets you know when those nibblers are nibblin. I slam the same reel on the short ugly, stout rod if we pulling bigger divers but usually, I'll use the NXNW rod for salmon & sturgeon.