Flashers - what do you do with your old ones

[sir-vivor]

Just wondering what you all do with you used and abused flashers, the ones that have caught all the fish they will catch !
The plastic is still good but the color is worn, torn or just eaten off by all the big Chins that went for your flasher instead of the bait and got away !
What do we do with the old flashers now ???

 

[Seafever]

I go to Baker's Dozen on e-bay and buy some tape......he has lots of colors you can't find around here, you can bid or buy outright for about 3 bucks (which is cheaper than around here) and the shipping is free.

Sometimes I take the old tape off the old flasher with WD40 or similar......and then i'm left with a clear flasher....
Clear body flashers (like purple or green or red) work good in certain situations.....I used to use them in the Alberni Inlet with anchovies behind them at this time of year....


If they are warped you actually can heat them up and bend them.......but the chances of getting them bent back to as good as factory are just about nil......

Might be useful for "dummies" if you can't restore them the way you like....

 

[vetteman]

I go to Baker's Dozen on e-bay and buy some tape......he has lots of colors you can't find around here, you can bid or buy outright for about 3 bucks (which is cheaper than around here) and the shipping is free.

Sometimes I take the old tape off the old flasher with WD40 or similar......and then i'm left with a clear flasher....
Clear body flashers (like purple or green or red) work good in certain situations.....I used to use them in the Alberni Inlet with anchovies behind them at this time of year....


If they are warped you actually can heat them up and bend them.......but the chances of getting them bent back to as good as factory are just about nil......

Might be useful for "dummies" if you can't restore them the way you like....

I ordered 30 square feet(3' X 10') of prism tape from Paper Street Plastics off Ebay. It cost about $35 shipped from the U.S. I use a slight amount of heat from a heat gun to peel off the old tape. You have to be careful because it takes very little heat to soften the flasher body and warp it.Then you're faced with the extra work reshaping it.
My wife has made templates of all the flashers that I use so it's easy to cut out new pieces of tape. I usually replace the swivel on the flasher and I'm good to go. Cost less than a dollar a flasher to refurbish.
I do agree with Hambone though. A flasher can look like it's ready for the garbage can but they still work in my experience.
Dave

 

[Cuba Libre]

Hang them in the apple tree to keep the critters away

 

[Dave S]

Hang them in the apple tree to keep the critters away

got a photo?

 

[Cuba Libre]

Nope! just let them swing on a 2 ft leader. Not 100%, but it helps

 

[sir-vivor]

how about cleaning em off and spraying down with a plastic floresent paint .......anyone try it ??

 

[sir-vivor]

I ordered 30 square feet(3' X 10') of prism tape from Paper Street Plastics off Ebay. It cost about $35 shipped from the U.S. I use a slight amount of heat from a heat gun to peel off the old tape. You have to be careful because it takes very little heat to soften the flasher body and warp it.Then you're faced with the extra work reshaping it.
My wife has made templates of all the flashers that I use so it's easy to cut out new pieces of tape. I usually replace the swivel on the flasher and I'm good to go. Cost less than a dollar a flasher to refurbish.
I do agree with Hambone though. A flasher can look like it's ready for the garbage can but they still work in my experience.
Dave

Great Idea V !

 

[Hoochiebob]

I like to keep them in a pile in my storage area and then not do anything with them. I think of it as a retirement home, and they have lots of company with all the jigs,teaser heads and hoochies there as well.
Yes, I am a tackle *****...

 

[Blackmax]

X2 there hoochiebob... The best place for an old flasher is probably in the garbage lol. There's always new ones in tackle stores.... I think flashers are designed to catch fishermen in most cases...

^ lol so true.

 

[sir-vivor]

I like to keep them in a pile in my storage area and then not do anything with them. I think of it as a retirement home, and they have lots of company with all the jigs,teaser heads and hoochies there as well.
Yes, I am a tackle *****...

LOL, keep saving and hell open a second hand tackle shop !, who knows !

 

[Hoochiebob]

Second hand tackle shop? Dont need any ideas like that in my head

 

[Island Fish Lifter]

garbage for me

 

[Tsquared]

I take mine to Beacon Hill Park---all the old flashers are there.
T2

 

[Sea Ranger]

Hang them on the wall in your workshop and make wallpaper out of them.... you can look at them and it will bring back lots of memories.

 

[CCB]

Used gear

I give all my old gear within reason to friends or people I know who love to fish but are on a very tight budget . Except all my lead . Lol I love using brand new gear each year.

 

[Cuba Libre]

Or you can give them a paint job with a florescent pink spray bomb. They work just fine for soxs and pinks

 

[AlK]

I find this thread quite timely. We were up the island this year fishing for a week and I used one of my oldest flashers, green with chrome reflective tape on one side and other side the reflective tape had come off. After a couple of days of fishing the reflective tape also came off the other side. Now the flasher only had white sides, and guess what? With that flasher I used a hootchy and a spoon and I caught, springs, coho, halibut, a honking big ling and other bottom fish. I fished anywhere from 45' to 250'. It is the only flasher that I used. I am not superstitious, but I will keep using it and do not plan to repair it.

 

[rsj1]

For the last two years we have caught the majority of our fish on hot spot flashers I purchased back in the 1970's. Only newer flasher that came anywhere close was a gold betsy.

 

[TheTugistheDrug]

T2. You made my day. Way too funny!
Hahahahaha!