SEATTLE, Wash. — Make a list of major U.S. cities where bosses keep a pair of binoculars on their desk to see who cut out early to go fishing.

That's going to be one short list!

Where besides Seattle can you find serious numbers of urban chinook, just spitting distance from downtown high rises?

Switch to a 4-day work week, bring the boss with you, do whatever it takes — this year's short Elliott Bay salmon opening is too good to miss.

Get there

If anything, this fishery is too convenient.

A huge cross section of Seattle anglers will be angling for a shot at the Don Armeni boat ramp off Harbor Ave., making it a good place to avoid.

Jennifer Enstead caught this big, super-bright king right outside of Todd Shipyard during last year's Elliott Bay fishery.

If you've got the horsepower, consider launching at Shilshole or even Edmonds, and making the run into Elliott Bay.

Once you're on the water, you won't be alone. Patience and courtesy are your best defense against combat fishing.

Try to join the established trolling pattern rather than blazing your own trail, and stay clear when you see someone playing a fish.

They'll do the same for you when it's your turn.

Fish here

Our map shows specific areas off Todd Shipyards, Duwamish Head and Pier 90, where Chinook tend to congregate.

Fishing is restricted to a specific portion of inner Elliott Bay, so be sure to stay on the east side of the boundary running from Pier 91 to the tip of Duwamish Head.

Try this

This fishery is primarily a trolling show, but certain areas may contain a high enough concentration of salmon to justify killing the motor and mooching or jigging.

There's no secret here — successful Elliott Bay anglers employ a variety of techniques.

If you've done some salmon fishing but are new to downtown, just start with the approach that you feel most confident using.

All the standard stuff works — a squid, bucktail, spoon or cutplug behind a flasher is a good place to start.

Don't be afraid to experiment when the action is slow, and be sure to keep track of the results.

Roll with the changes

The best bites occur at tide and light changes. Elliott Bay is typically an early morning bite, and you'll want to start the day shallow.

Tom Pollack of Auburn Sports & Marine (253-833-1440) theorizes that Chinook spend the predawn hours within the top 20 to 25 feet of water, "trying to get their dose of fresh water for their migration up the river."

Dawn brings sunlight and boat traffic, chasing the fish down.

Fishing is all about stacking the odds in your favor, so focus your effort on the high-probability time slots.

Make sure your presentation is in the water and working properly near sunrise, sunset and tide changes.

"Chinook slow" is the traditional trolling speed, but tradition means squat compared to a fish on the line.

If you get more action trolling fast, then by all means do what works. Nightfishing is also an option, provided that your boat has the required lights.

According to Tony Floor of the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife, "Chinook will feed 24 hours per day, and everything rises at night."

Attractors and lures with glow colors are the norm for nightfishing, and you'll want to add plenty of scent to establish a trail.

But what's Floor's personal take on nightfishing? "I would rather sleep at night, and fish around the light and tide changes."

Follow the flood

Like some fishermen, Chinook keep on eating long after they really should stop.

Habits engrained through a lifetime of chasing bait balls in the ocean are slow to disappear once the salmon enter fresh water.

Even on the doorstep of the spawning river, you should fish hard where you see feed. The odds are high that a salmon will be lurking somewhere in the vicinity.

A Chinook may hang around Elliott Bay for several months before it fully matures and heads up the river.

Since the fish's behavior changes during that period, it makes sense for anglers to adjust their tactics from "imitation" to "irritation" as the season progresses.

Salmon newly arrived from the ocean tend to keep doing what they've always done, and you can tempt them with a cutplug, an imitation herring like Mack's Bait-Buster or a spoon in herring-like colors.

But as the fish adapts to fresh water, favorite foods lose their appeal. That's when you need to get rude.

Finicky fish will strike in anger if you insult them with an obnoxious combination of noise, color and scent.

Lure designers have a field day when it comes to targeting mature Chinook.

Creative concoctions like the "funky chicken" and "wonder bread" trolling spoon patterns keep showing up in tackle shops, alongside classic sonic irritators like the Buzz Bomb and Sonic Edge.

If doing the funky chicken seems too extreme, some cut-plug artists reportedly make subtle changes in their hook-up and bevel angle to produce a wide spin that mature Chinook especially hate.

Get down to action

Once the morning bite cools off, you'll want to fish closer to the bottom. On that point everyone agrees.

But just how close is a matter of debate. Floor likes to go deep.

"I believe Chinook salmon that are near the bottom are the best biters, while the fish that are upper or middepth tend to be travelers," he says, noting that boats and predators make salmon nervous as they move away from the safety of the bottom.

"Seals always attack from the under side."

Some veteran Elliott Bay anglers like to stack their lures at different depths, from 45 feet on down.

You can add an interesting twist to this technique by attaching a flasher to the downrigger ball and stacking lines with cutplugs above it.

When a fish hits, you'll be playing it directly, with no interference from the flasher.

You'll also improve the action of both flasher and bait by preventing them from interfering with each other.

Crystal ball

How big will the 2002 Chinook run be? When will it peak? A month from now, we'll know for sure.

Until then, all we can do is guess. Prevailing sentiment holds that the run will start slowly, and peak toward the end of the season in August.

But prevailing sentiments change like prevailing winds, and predictions mean squat compared to a fish on the line.

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