downrigger flash.

[stickbowaterfowler]

I fished in alaska about ten years ago and was amazed at the flash from a flasher or dodger that they ran 5-6 feet in front of there baits.

My question is has anybody tried one in front of trolled bait on the downrigger for offshore fishing? I'm gonna try it this year and just thought that wahoo and BFT would really go for this.

[Bert Rodgers]

I think a wahoo or mako will hit the flasher and cut you off.

Bert

[seapower]

Sound's expensive to me, especially if there are any wahoo around! Frank

[nautiduck]

I have ran salmon dodgers for wahoo and tuner, but for wahoo I use steel strand cable from the weight to the dodger and 2 feet of cable off the dodger to the line clip. I havent had any cut offs of the dodgers but I cant say we caught more with them or not I didnt run one rigger with and one without so I dont have any way to compare them. I grew up fishing the Great lakes and I have a ton of freshwater stuff and I will tell you I have used just about every piece of salmon, lake trout and walleye gear you can think of in the salt and most of it works pretty well. If your going to do it just rig it for the toothy critters and have a ball. Oh one other thing when were pulling fast for Hoo I use a homemade weight made from 1 1/2" thick rebar 2' long with holes drilled through the bar, the longer and skinnier runs better at speed, Ive also used the magnum sized dodgers for the length with about 3/4" trimmed off each side to thin it down if you pull the wide ones to fast they either swing way to wide ending in terrible tangles or they spin like a turbocharged prop.

[Captain Fred Archer]

Many top halibut, striped bass, and salmon anglers on the West Coast use dodgers or rotary flashers on what is called a "bounce ball rig" (especially for halibut) or off of downriggers for the bass, salmon, and even tunas.

Some charter captains in both California and Alaska consider our new Spider dredges the best salmon lure that they've ever fished with. At least one of them, Matt Goldsworthy, runs them with a rotary flasher in front of the Spider for salmon. He uses both plain Spiders with no flasher and the bounce ball rig with a dodger for halibut.

Our Chris Jones ran plain Spiders down in Mex without flashers or dodgers and caught a lot of tuna and other pelagics on them when they were deep, feeding on squid. I would imagine that you'd get bit on the dodger or flasher by not only wahoos, but threshers and makos too if you ran them in waters with them present. I can tell you for a fact that both species of sharks and for sure wahoos hit Spiders without any of that stuff. The good thing there is that they do not hit the teasers, so if your chasebaits are on wire, you will catch most of them and not lose any gear.

Some rigs and some fish...

Website www.fredarchersworldoffishing.com

[bmac]

I have used a scaled down version of the bounce ball & flasher for flounder on near shore reefs in NC.* Have done OKay with 'em, but haven't perfected.* Lot's more short BSB than doormats, but I'll keep trying.

[stickbowaterfowler]

thanks for the ideas, I'll run some cable in front and back of it and if it gets taken I'll run another with a hook in it. LOL

[Middle C]

I used them for salmon all the time when I was in stationed in Seattle.
I wonder if they can run at high speeds. There was quite a bit of pull from them at just 2 knot trolling speed.
Sounds like experiment time. I have many different colors too. Will post results.

Tight Lines.
Dave

[whalebreath]

Remember a Dodger goes side to side, a Flasher goes around in a circle.

[nautiduck]

Yes but if you pull dodgers too fast they will spin erratically so you need to trim them to perfect the action.