8" Flashers vs 11" Flashers?

[High Time]

Firstly I would like to thank all the regular contributors to this website, as you have been a wealth of information and being a relative newbie to sport fishing in the southern gulf islands, I have seen a slow improvement in my efforts and a corresponding thinning of my wallet but all in a good cause. I was wondering
what your thoughts might be on using 8" rather than 11" flashers with hootchies,spoons,etc. and also as dummy flashers and how they compare. Obviously less drag on the riggers and less drag when fighting a fish. I have used them with good results as dummy flashers when fishing sockeye and pinks but was curious about their use for chinooks and coho. Thanks in advance.

 

[TheBigGuy]

Coho like them a lot with a short leader of 26-32 inches tied to a hoochie I don't use them much for springs except in the winter fishery. The water is too cloudy from the Fraser River run off most of the year to use small Flashers. You kind of need the visibility and sonic output of the big flasher most of the year in our murky water conditions. In the winter when the water is clear the springs seem to like them fine. Chum seemed to like the small Flashers this fall as well.

 

[ericl]

I used to use Flashers a lot & when all the boats were back at the dock (Island West in Ucluelet) my small Flashers looked to work as good as the big Flashers for Chinook with Hoochie's. I don't use Flashers with spoons. I use a heavy stiff leader; 50-60# that is 4x the Flasher blade length.

 

[terrin]

I used to use Flashers a lot & when all the boats were back at the dock (Island West in Ucluelet) my small Flashers looked to work as good as the big Flashers for Chinook with Hoochie's. I don't use Flashers with spoons. I use a heavy stiff leader; 50-60# that is 4x the Flasher blade length.

Are you then using a 10" leader when trolling a 2.5" spoon?

 

[scott craven]

4 x the flasher blade length would be 44", right ?

 

[TheBigGuy]

Are you then using a 10" leader when trolling a 2.5" spoon?

Spoons have their own action, hoochies have none without a flasher. 42-44" is a good starting point for springs with full size flashers with hoochies. If I'm using small flashers I usually shorten my hoochy leaders up. That is just a good starting point. Sometimes the fish like a far shorter, or longer leader.

 

[ericl]

To terrin - apology for my poor sentence structure. The leader spec's i use are for hoochie's only. For spoons i use 20# 3-5 ft & no Flasher. I am not a guide & don't need to catch a lot of fish - I try to fish where & when i can catch fish w/o a Flasher.

To scott; yup 44". I am quite sure that other hoochie leader combo's work just as good if not better.

FYI in the states we have a company making wiggle fin action discs which that are a disc 2" in diameter you can place in front of the hoochie with the concave side pointing forward to replace a Flasher.

 

[TheBigGuy]

I've posted this info in a couple of other threads since I used this rig at the Chum derby in Oct this fall. I used an Oki Crazy 8 hoochy actionizer head with a Michael Bait mini glow head pink hoochie and a purple Oki mini flasher and it worked great on the Chum. I used a long leader of about 4-6 feet with the 8" size flasher. I've never tried that rig before, but I think it would work well on Sockeye as well. It was much more fun playing the chums on the mini Flashers. The crazy eight head was just enough drag to stop the flasher rotating, so basically the flasher was being used as a dodger at the slower speeds. The dodging/swaying action on a hoochie is what Sockeye/Chum often prefer.

I've used the mini Flashers in freshwater as well with hoochies. Bull trout really like that rig, although I prefer to use 6" chrome mini dodgers in freshwater fishing.

I personally don't think minis work as well as large Flashers in water with poor visibility. If your fishing in clear water they can work really well, and I've had some great days fishing coho and springs with them in the fall when the water has good visibility. Unfortunately, where I fish most of the time the water is clouded by the Fraser River run off. In clear water one of my most productive rigs is a Gibbs blue Mini flasher with a blue stripe, paired with a blue and white mini or full size hoochie on about a 32" leader.

 

[sly_karma]

Of course the flasher also tends to make for fewer lost fish, damps down the head shakes. Hence they are beloved of charter guides for rookie guest. Can't say I blame them. Cut plugging is more fun but costs the lodge more and results in lost fish.