Flasher Question?

[Whole in the Water]

Thinking of changing things up a bit. Most my life I have used the standard 11 inch flasher on all my hootchies, teaser heads and spoons. They obviously work great.

I am toying with the idea of reducing the size of the flasher used or eliminating it altogether. My reasoning is as the average size of salmon seem to be getting smaller over time and having a 11" flasher certainly reduces the fun of playing a fish and can increase mortality on catch and release according to recent studies.

I have used dummy flashers off the downrigger and will continue to do so.

What I am wondering about is if anyone has used:
- inline flasher off the main line with good success for teaser heads & spoons
- more important to my post here - has anyone used the smaller 8 inch flashers off the main line with success for spoons, teaser heads and specifically hootchies?

Just wondering if the smaller 8" flasher can provide enough action to a hootchie to make it effective? Anyone have any experience to share on this?

 

[Pineapple Express]

I've used these inline triangle flashers with good success for coho and pinks when paired up with spoons and teaser heads. These definitely have less interference with the fight of the fish. For hootchies I have been sticking with standard flashers so far

Inline Flasher

Gibbs Fishing Canada is one of North America's largest and oldest fishing tackle suppliers. Shop inline flasher fishing gear online today!

www.gibbsfishing.ca

 

[Fisher Down]

We use the 8” flashers for coho as soon as DFO opens them in June off Nanaimo. We’re amazed at the number of (large) chinook that hit the tiny spoons used with the 8” flashers at 50’-80’. Who knew; thought it was supposed to be big lures, big flashers, and deep!

FD

 

[Tighthead]

Thinking of changing things up a bit. Most my life I have used the standard 11 inch flasher on all my hootchies, teaser heads and spoons. They obviously work great.

I am toying with the idea of reducing the size of the flasher used or eliminating it altogether. My reasoning is as the average size of salmon seem to be getting smaller over time and having a 11" flasher certainly reduces the fun of playing a fish and can increase mortality on catch and release according to recent studies.

I have used dummy flashers off the downrigger and will continue to do so.

What I am wondering about is if anyone has used:
- inline flasher off the main line with good success for teaser heads & spoons
- more important to my post here - has anyone used the smaller 8 inch flashers off the main line with success for spoons, teaser heads and specifically hootchies?

Just wondering if the smaller 8" flasher can provide enough action to a hootchie to make it effective? Anyone have any experience to share on this?

Used dummy flashers, off of the cannonball, with good success. Inline triangles and Wigglefin Swarm. KoneZone Fishing Flashers too expensive. Also got some Wigglefin Hell Razor DART Salmon Dodgers to try as a low drag flasher, similar to what you are after.

 

[Noon Treader]

I’ve used 8 inch flashers for a couple of years. I use the ones with a kicker fin when trolling hoochies to get the whip right. They work very well; I don’t find that I’m any more or less successful than with an 11inch, but it’s more fun with a fish on!

 

[PEETZcanada]

PEETZ stainless STRYKE ZONE flashers & dodgers have very little drag on the fight or when checking lines. The guys that are using them have told me all kinds of things that I didn't even know about them. I dont have all my tape yet, so I only have them available in the workshop. There is quite a lot of labour that goes into making them, all done by hand and manual punch presses. Even the high poslished super light refraction surface is all done by me in the workshop. They were originally created by Bill Hooson the first owner of PEETZ outside of the family. They will rotate, rotate, rotate for a number of turns and then kick into a random counter rotation for two or three turns then kick back to regular rotation.

Anyway, just an option for low drag, high light refractive surface. There are other things about them that are unique, but I'll leave it at that. Hint, they can scientifically attract fish, which plastic can not easily do.(as per Montigue Lee)

 

[Whole in the Water]

Sounds interesting. Please post some pictures when you have some ready. Thanks.

 

[Rain City]

Unpopular opinion, but I think flashers give you more of a fight with the fish. They tend to run from the pull of the flasher. Don't get me wrong, I much prefer the feel of a flasherless setup, but sometimes the fish feel like they're not even there.

 

[PEETZcanada]

Unpopular opinion, but I think flashers give you more of a fight with the fish. They tend to run from the pull of the flasher. Don't get me wrong, I much prefer the feel of a flasherless setup, but sometimes the fish feel like they're not even there.

I agree 100% with standardized modern day flashers and many vintage metal flashers the pull or drag is quite strong. This however is not the case with STRYKE Zone. Quite a different story with Bill Hooson's design, all of the anglers using them have commented to me about the difference. Regardless it's all about choice and confidence in what you use for the most part. I don't actually care what people buy and don't buy, I just know what I know and I put it into my creations and the creations of other lures and products that I have picked up the tooling for over the years. Another exciting aspect of being a creator of things and a bit of a perfectionist is that I get to play every day in a field that I dreamed of my entire life. As I have always stated that I personally rarely use flashers, I prefer BIG plugs and Big spoons.

 

[PEETZcanada]

Sounds interesting. Please post some pictures when you have some ready. Thanks.

There are some at the shop. But when I get time and a few more colours done up, I'll post some up.

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[Dorman Point]

I only fish the smaller flashers when running one in-line. I haven’t used standard 11” flashers in many, many years, other than as dummies. There are certainly fewer colour options in the smaller size, but I pretty much only fish red, green, a white/green with UV scale, and a purple haze. I find those cover my situational needs.

 

[Aces]

Thinking of changing things up a bit. Most my life I have used the standard 11 inch flasher on all my hootchies, teaser heads and spoons. They obviously work great.

I am toying with the idea of reducing the size of the flasher used or eliminating it altogether. My reasoning is as the average size of salmon seem to be getting smaller over time and having a 11" flasher certainly reduces the fun of playing a fish and can increase mortality on catch and release according to recent studies.

I have used dummy flashers off the downrigger and will continue to do so.

What I am wondering about is if anyone has used:
- inline flasher off the main line with good success for teaser heads & spoons
- more important to my post here - has anyone used the smaller 8 inch flashers off the main line with success for spoons, teaser heads and specifically hootchies?

Just wondering if the smaller 8" flasher can provide enough action to a hootchie to make it effective? Anyone have any experience to share on this?

If you go yo the 8” flasher you will need to dramatically reduce your leader length

 

[EstevanPoint]

As Aces said, shorten your leader lengths to get the same level of action for your hoochies. Bait and spoons will work with your standard leader lengths, but will not have as much flasher kick as the 11s give you. The 8s are roughly 3/4 the size of the 11s, so in my mind, I've always thought to run the leader 3/4 the size of your usual lengths. 33 inch hoochie leader becomes a 24 or 25 inch leader. Not sure if that change in ratio truly holds, but they still seem to catch fish when I've used that theory.

You certainly feel "more fish" while fighting with the 8s.

Has anyone ever had any luck with these Kitetail flashers? https://www.harbourchandler.ca/products/assorted-kitetail-flashers-10-pack
I've had a few sitting in my tackle box for ages but never put them down...

 

[Paperslayer]

I know it doesn't answer your question directly, but I have gone away from using a flasher on the line altogether and just run them off the downriggers, That being said, I use bait almost exclusively and can get enough action in the bend of the bait. I used to be a huge fan of the old Abe & Al dodgers and ran 14" buggers... lots of action with hootchies

 

[Dorman Point]

As Aces said, shorten your leader lengths to get the same level of action for your hoochies. Bait and spoons will work with your standard leader lengths, but will not have as much flasher kick as the 11s give you. The 8s are roughly 3/4 the size of the 11s, so in my mind, I've always thought to run the leader 3/4 the size of your usual lengths. 33 inch hoochie leader becomes a 24 or 25 inch leader. Not sure if that change in ratio truly holds, but they still seem to catch fish when I've used that theory.

You certainly feel "more fish" while fighting with the 8s.

Has anyone ever had any luck with these Kitetail flashers? https://www.harbourchandler.ca/products/assorted-kitetail-flashers-10-pack
I've had a few sitting in my tackle box for ages but never put them down...

I have a kitetail and have caught coho on it. Haven’t had a spring on it. The action seems maybe a bit whippy and frenetic for springs, is my assessment.

 

[barkerfam]

I use the 8" dreamweaver spin doctor flasher with a GSB or a hoochie all the time. It comes out of the water easier than the 11" flashers which results in fewer lost fish. It is my favorite flasher for chinook or coho.

hb​

 

[Aces]

I have a kitetail and have caught coho on it. Haven’t had a spring on it. The action seems maybe a bit whippy and frenetic for springs, is my assessment.

I concur, I knew the developer and tried a few and caught mostly cohos when using hoochies on an 18-20 in leader. Had most of my success using anchovy and a 4 ft leader.

 

[Samnjoe]

I like an anchovie 3 feet above a chartreuse kone zone. Deadly!