I fish the Sooke area, WCVI, and Sansum Narrows almost exclusively with cut-plug, unless I'm targeting other species like socks and pinks. Learned the ins and outs from a fella in Campbell River 20 something years ago and never looked back.
Some things to think about when cut-plugging:
1. It's cost effective. You don't need downriggers, cannonballs, flashers, or teaserheads, just a couple of hooks and a 4-12 oz. banana weight. That works out to about $2.00 to get your rod in the water plus bait. Lose a flasher, that's at least 4 setups.
2. Goooooo slowwwwwww. Can't emphasize this enough. Motor mooching at the Trap Shack in Sooke, you're looking at about 50-70 feet of water in the bay (except for the reefs at either end - up to 30 ft. or less) Drop your line right down to the bottom and reel up about 5-10 turns and put your motor in gear to the slowest speed possible until your line angles about 45 degrees and then take her out of gear and let it drop back. If you find your revs are too high on your engine and your line rises fairly quickly, try reverse instead, it's a little slower. Repeat and don't let the bait sit perpendicular to the surface or you'll be hooking up with other fishes, cods, doggies, etc.
3. Work structure. Get a chart for the area your fishing and find those underwater points and dropoffs. Pays to have a sounder too.
4. I usually use medium herring, but large will work (if I have too). Never can seem to get the right roll with the extra large though. If your going somewhere for a weekend, buy all the bait you may think you and put it in a brine and leave it there, taking only what you need for the days excursion. Also saves on trying to find someone that sells medium herring of the beaten track.
5. If you haven't cut-plug befor, get a jig to cut your bait with. Once you've figured out how, what, where and why you cut bait, then you can start experimenting a little to see what kind of cut would slow your roll in a faster tide.
I have far greater success with herring than with anchovies. As matter of fact, I've never caught anything bigger than 10 lbs with a 'chovie, buts that's probably just me. Funny thing is, you go out to Sooke and you've got 200 boats out there on a nice July day and you might only see 3-4 fish caught that day. The one in the bottom of my boat looks pretty darn good when I know I'm probably one of very few guys out there fishing a cut-plug.
Anyways hopes this helps anybody that might be wondering.
Cabin fever strikes again. I hear a winter spring calling my name, gotta go!!!!
Seafood, it eat, then catch more.