raspberry-coloured blades with either the “original” Mylar tape, or combined with “glow” tape, are the choices of guides like Dave Korsch. In late spring and early summer, Kyuquot guide Tyson Bancroft likes to use mirror-Mylar on a blue blade. Mature spawners have dark olive-green backs, with a gold tinge to their flanks. Flashers with gold (O’Ki’s Gold “Betsy,” or
of Tomic Lures recommends running a dummy flasher about five feet behind a cannonball, then clipping on one of her plugs five feet above, and running it ten feet back. Dummy flashers will allow you to “play the fish, not the flasher.” Tyson Bancroft attaches a flasher on a mere three- to four-foot leader to his downrigger ball. He then clips an anchovy in a teaser head just five
sweep back and forth in broad swaths across the trolling path, and cover a wide arc of water. Also, running lures far back takes them out of the electrical field generated around a stainless steel downrigger cable, minimizing the need for a field- compensating “black box.” Tom Moss, inventor of the Tomic plug, advised us how important the knot on the tow bar is in getting the
Hot Spot’s “Gold Fever”) resemble these late-summer arrivals. Of course, Malcolm Clay notes that Gaunt’s first red- or green-bladed flashers, with the original-style Mylar tape, should still be a staple in every tackle box. Since flashers impart action to
lures as well as providing attraction, they are ideal for hoochies. You can determine the amount of action by the leader’s length and stiffness. For sockeye and pink salmon, small hot- pink plankton hoochies are fished on short leaders about 20 inches behind a full-size flasher, so you can usually use a lighter leader of about 20- to 25-pound test. For full-sized octopus or needlefish hoochies, use a stiff 36- to 48-inch leader of at least 40-pound test. So that his flashers can impart a real “snap” to a hoochie, Kyuquot guide Derek Hansen ties his leaders with 50- to 80-pound test. Ucluelet guides Bill Von Brendel and Ken Myers like to use small, high-action Gibbs-Delta Gator, Gibbs- Delta Gypsy, or Luhr-Jensen Coyote spoons; they also favour small baits (like herring strip or anchovy) in teaser heads. Ken and Bill use long leaders, between 60 and 72 inches, to dampen the effects of the flasher on the unique action of their lures. Deep-lipped trolling lures like
Tomic plugs should not be used behind flashers, but can be used with a dummy flasher. Cathy Forbes
78 The SPORT FISHING Guide 2012
feet above the flasher, and only five or six feet behind the clip. This set- up is very effective for deep “nook- and-cranny” trolling when closely following the shoreline.
Ken Myers, commenting on the
effectiveness of flashers, says, “A carrot trolled behind a flasher would probably catch fish.”
Plugs and Spoons Ucluelet guide Graham Myhre
trolls fast. Heavy spoons and seven- inch Tomic plugs hold their action well at higher speeds – after all, commercial trollers, for whom these big lures were made, move along at a much quicker clip than most sporties. There’s a lot of water to cover along our coast, and speed allows top guides to cover more ground. Without the need for a flasher,
run at least 2.5 mph — and then speed up even more if you’re not getting strikes, or if you’re running into dogfish. During a charter with Graham years ago, I had a hefty tyee hit a glass Firefish spoon at an indicated speed of 4.5 mph. When fishing open water offshore, with lots of room to manoeuvre and fewer boats to watch out for, Graham, Bill Von Brendel, and other guides like to set their big lures at least 75 feet behind their downrigger clips. At those long setbacks, large lures (like seven-inch Tomic plugs) can
best action out of his plugs. “The knot should be tied as tightly as possible near the curve in the top of the tow bar, so the nose of the plug will “dig” down — allowing its tail to really wiggle — as the line makes about a 90° angle with the plug.” Getting the plug to swim nose-down also makes the plug skitter freely from side to side, and cover more water. Tom likes to use a “Berkley” knot, which wraps the tow bar twice and prevents the knot from slipping out of position when cinched up tight. While big spoons and plugs bring lots of strikes, maintaining the tension on the main line can be difficult whenever a fish runs towards the boat. We lost many fish when the straight Siwash barbless hook simply fell out with any slack in the line. Our guides’ simple solution? Keep the line tight by leaving the motor in gear, slowing down when the fish is running out line, speeding up when the fish runs towards the boat, and only putting the boat into neutral when the fish is played out.
And most importantly … keep the same rituals. One guide will only set his lures at depths whose numbers end in seven, or a multiple of seven. Another always dips his net in the water upon arriving at his fishing spot. And never bring any bananas on board. n
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