SEATTLE – Mooching originally started in Seattle’s Elliott Bay in the late 1920s or early 1930s because of the competition between all the boathouses. The boathouses developed mooching as a popular way to fish to increase revenues through the sale of bait rather than relying completely on boat rentals, as in those early days, trolling plugs were the method commonly used to fish for salmon. Mooching was developed mostly by the Japanese.