Best Flashers and Flasher Tips for Salmon Fishing

Originally published in 2015, this guide was fully updated in September 2026 with expanded B.C. salmon-trolling history, manufacturer information and practical flasher setup advice.

Have you ever walked into a tackle shop, looked at a wall covered with salmon flashers and wondered why there are so many of them—or which one you should actually buy? And once you’ve bought them, how do you rig and fish them to get the most out of them? There are dozens of colours and patterns, reflective and holographic finishes, UV and glow flashers, different sizes and designs, and enough names to make choosing one seem far more complicated than it should be.

The good news is that once you understand how a flasher works, the choices become much easier. In this guide we’ll look at what a salmon flasher actually does, how flashers developed in the BC commercial salmon fishery, what the different colours, reflective finishes, UV and glow features are intended to do, and how to choose a flasher for different depths and light conditions. We’ll also cover leader length and strength, trolling speed, downrigger setback, dummy flashers and some of the small setup details that can make a big difference on the water.

For BC saltwater salmon fishing, we’ll focus primarily on the standard 11-inch rotating flasher—the type of flasher I use for most of my salmon fishing.

For more on the complete salmon trolling setup, see the Complete Guide to Salmon Fishing.

In This Guide:

A Short History of Salmon Flashers in BC
Choosing a Flasher for Salmon Fishing
Flasher Colours, UV and Glow
Choosing a Flasher for Depth and Light Conditions
Flasher Leader Length and Strength
How Fast Should You Troll a Flasher?
How Far Behind the Downrigger Release Should the Flasher Be?
Using Dummy Flashers on the Downrigger
Storing Flashers and Pre-Rigged Gear
Final Flasher Tips

A Short History of Salmon Flashers in BC

Modern recreational salmon trolling owes a lot to the commercial salmon fishery. Commercial trollers were experimenting with attractors, hoochies, leader lengths, leader strength and trolling arrangements long before the modern recreational downrigger setup became common.

Abe & Al and the Commercial Trollers

Before today’s plastic flashers became dominant, heavy metal attractors such as the Abe & Al were used by commercial salmon trollers. I still have a number of Abe & Al-style flashers in my tackle collection. They have a special place for me because I have caught some great Chinook using them, although these days I normally fish modern plastic flashers.

Historical Canadian fisheries records provide an interesting look at how seriously commercial fishermen treated the complete presentation. DFO publications from the 1960s discuss test trolling an Abe & Al No. 1 Commercial attractor followed by a blue or green opaque hoochie. The tail leader was approximately 30–32 inches of 58-lb-test Perlon, with a 12-foot, 100-lb-test leader ahead of the attractor.

Those old materials are not directly comparable to today’s monofilament and fluorocarbon, but the records are still useful. They show that commercial fishermen were deliberately combining attractor action, relatively short hoochie leaders and heavy leader material more than half a century ago.

Hot Spot and the Modern Plastic Flasher

The development of the plastic Hot Spot is a particularly good BC fishing story. According to Hot Spot, founder Jack Gaunt began experimenting with plastic flashers in 1965 aboard his 47-foot commercial troller out of Ucluelet, BC. He heated and shaped early plastic blanks using the coal-oil stove aboard the boat. By 1969 he was selling the flashers and later operated the business from Victoria.

Hot Spot’s historical 1990s-era Deadly Trolling Techniques pamphlet is especially useful because it preserved detailed recommendations for leader lengths, trolling speeds, colours and downrigger setups. Many of those recommendations are still in use today.

Other BC and Pacific Northwest Flashers

Hot Spot was not the only company developing salmon attractors. Tomic, better known for its iconic Vancouver Island salmon plugs, also produced the large Sonic flasher for the commercial fishery. Metal attractors continued to be produced by companies such as Luhr-Jensen and Silver Horde.

BC-based Gibbs became another important part of the modern market. Today its Highliner and O’Ki Big Shooter families are among the familiar 11-inch flashers seen in BC tackle shops. The history is worth remembering, but for fishing purposes the important point is that decades of development have converged around a very recognizable 11-inch rotating salmon flasher.

Choosing a Flasher for Salmon Fishing

Choosing a salmon flasher becomes much easier once you stop looking at individual pattern names and start looking at what the flasher is designed to do. Before comparing colours, UV, glow and other finishes, it helps to understand how a flasher actually works in the water.

How a Salmon Flasher Works

One way to think about a flasher is that it may resemble a salmon slashing through a school of herring. The flasher creates the impression of feeding activity, while the lure trailing behind may resemble an injured or separated baitfish that can be picked off easily. A rotating flasher also creates a strong visual signal and vibration in the water. Hot Spot has historically described flash and vibration as important parts of the attraction produced by a flasher. Once a salmon approaches the attraction, the bait or lure behind the flasher provides the actual target.

The flasher’s rotating movement can also be transferred through the leader to the lure. That is particularly important when fishing a hoochie, which has very little useful swimming action on its own. A relatively short, stiff leader transfers more of the flasher’s movement and gives the hoochie action. Spoons and bait already have action of their own, so they are normally rigged to operate more independently of the flasher. We will look more closely at those differences in the leader section below.

Why the 11-Inch Rotating Flasher Is the Standard

For BC saltwater salmon fishing, this guide focuses on the standard 11-inch rotating flasher. Smaller flashers are available and can reduce drag, but the 11-inch flasher is the size I normally see and use for saltwater salmon trolling.

Flasher drag can contribute to downrigger blowback, particularly when trolling deeper or in heavy currents. In BC, we generally deal with that by using sufficient downrigger weight rather than downsizing the flasher.

Understanding Modern Flasher Patterns

Modern manufacturers and tackle shops have become very creative with flasher patterns and names. That can be fun, but salmon don’t know what name is printed on the package.

When comparing flashers, I look at the underlying features:

• blade or base colour;
• reflective or holographic tape;
• dominant visible colours and contrast;
• UV treatment;
• glow material and where it is located; and
• the physical design and action of the flasher.

Two flashers with completely different names may actually share many of the same characteristics. Understanding those characteristics is more useful over the long term than trying to keep up with every new pattern.

Conventional and Alternative Flasher Designs

The conventional rotating 11-inch flasher remains my baseline. Some newer flashers use fins or other changes to the blade design to produce a different or more erratic action. There are also triangular and other alternative attractor designs that behave differently in the water.

These designs can all catch salmon, but their rigging recommendations should not automatically be transferred from one design to another. Leader length and stiffness should be matched to the action of the attractor and the lure or bait being fished behind it.

Flasher Colours, UV and Glow

Flasher finishes have probably changed more than the basic flasher itself. Hot Spot’s historical literature discussed straightforward colours such as red, green, blue, white, chartreuse and purple, along with reflective silver Mylar, pearl and glow finishes.

Many of those traditional combinations are still available. They now share the tackle-shop wall with increasingly sophisticated holographic, UV, glow and combination finishes.

BC companies are continuing to develop new approaches to flasher finishes. Vancouver Island’s Westcoast Fishing Tackle is one recent example, with its Electro Mirror flashers emphasizing a highly reflective finish and its Fusion X series incorporating UV and glow features.

Traditional Colours and Reflective Flashers

Traditional reflective flashers should not be dismissed as outdated. I’ve caught some great Chinook behind simple metal flashers, and conventional reflective finishes continue to catch salmon.

The old Hot Spot literature described red and green as particularly popular, but also included blue, white, chartreuse, purple and silver/chrome choices. Rather than treating one colour as universally best, I carry enough variation to change the presentation when the fishing slows.

Holographic and Modern Reflective Finishes

Modern reflective tapes create changing flashes and patterns as the flasher rotates. Holographic finishes can produce a more complex visual signal than the simple silver or gold reflective surfaces found on older flashers.

The basic principle, however, is still the same: available light hits the flasher and is reflected as the blade rotates through the water.

UV Flashers

UV flashers are designed with finishes that react to ultraviolet light. Unlike a conventional reflective surface, which simply reflects visible light back into the water, UV-reactive pigments can make parts of the flasher appear brighter or more noticeable when UV light reaches them.

UV still depends on ultraviolet light reaching the flasher. As with visible light, the amount available underwater changes with depth and water conditions. This makes UV another tool for increasing the visibility of a flasher, particularly where enough UV light is still available for the finish to react.

Glow Flashers

Glow flashers use phosphorescent material that absorbs light energy and then releases it as visible light for a period afterward. Unlike a conventional reflective surface, glow material can therefore continue producing its own visible glow when very little ambient light is available to reflect.

Glow material needs to be charged, and the strength of the glow gradually decreases after the flasher is sent down. It can be recharged each time the gear comes back to the boat.

This makes glow particularly useful in low-light and deeper-water situations. Many modern salmon flashers combine reflective, UV and glow features on the same blade rather than relying on only one type of finish.

UV vs. Glow

The distinction between UV and glow is important because the terms are often used together on fishing tackle.

UV needs available ultraviolet light from the environment to react. Glow absorbs energy, stores some of it and continues emitting visible light afterward.

A flasher can have UV properties, glow properties or both. Seeing both terms on the same package does not mean they are describing the same thing.

This distinction becomes especially important when we get to glow tubes.

Glow Tubes

Glow tubes have started appearing on salmon boats as a quick way to charge glow tackle before sending it down. The flasher or lure is placed inside the tube, where an intense blast of UV light from the LEDs rapidly charges the phosphorescent glow material.

The terminology can be confusing because the tube uses UV light, but its purpose is not to charge UV tackle. Instead, it is designed to charge glow tackle. Glow material stores some of that energy and continues emitting visible light after it is removed from the tube. UV-only tackle does not.

If you regularly fish glow flashers, glow hoochies, glow spoons or glow halibut lures, a glow tube can be a convenient addition to the boat. If your tackle is UV-only and does not contain glow material, there is nothing for the tube to charge.

Some newer glow-tube designs are also being made specifically for West Coast boats, including versions that can be mounted using the common Scotty mounting system.

Lighted Flashers

There are also specialized flashers that incorporate active lights. I haven’t used these myself, but California-based Pro-Troll recommends its lighted flashers for low-light conditions such as early morning, cloudy water and deeper fishing where less natural light is available.

Choosing a Flasher for Depth and Light Conditions

One of the most useful ways to narrow down your flasher choices is to think about the amount of light available where your gear is actually fishing. The flasher that works well 30 feet down on a bright summer day is operating in a very different light environment from one fishing near bottom at 150 or 200 feet.

In bright, relatively shallow water there is plenty of available light for conventional reflective and holographic flashers to work. UV finishes provide another option where ultraviolet light is still available. As the available light decreases, glow becomes increasingly useful because a charged glow surface can continue producing visible light rather than depending entirely on light reaching the flasher.

That doesn’t mean there is a particular depth where you should suddenly switch from UV to glow. Underwater light is affected by water clarity, algae and plankton, suspended sediment, cloud cover, sun angle and surface conditions. Fifty feet in dark or turbid water can be a very different light environment from 50 feet in clear water on a bright summer day.

Some BC Examples

Summer Chinook fishing around Prince Rupert provides a useful shallow-water example. Chinook are often targeted relatively close to the surface, sometimes with downriggers around 30–60 feet. Under those conditions, conventional reflective, holographic and UV flashers have considerably more available light to work with.

Winter Chinook fishing around Vancouver and Vancouver Island can be very different. These fish are frequently targeted close to bottom in roughly 100–250 feet of water. At those depths, particularly during the lower-light conditions of winter, glow becomes much more relevant.

Deep fishing isn’t limited to winter. Some summer Chinook fisheries on the west coast of Vancouver Island and in the Strait of Georgia can put the downriggers well beyond 100 feet and sometimes approaching 200 feet or more. Even on a bright summer day, the light conditions at the flasher can therefore be very different from those experienced by an angler fishing 30 feet down at Prince Rupert.

The important point is to choose the flasher for the light conditions at the depth you’re actually fishing, not simply for the season or the name printed on the package.

Building a Versatile Flasher Selection

Most anglers aren’t choosing where the salmon will be. We fish for them at whatever depth they happen to be holding, and that can change considerably between locations, seasons and even during the same day.

For that reason, there is some practical value in choosing flashers that combine more than one type of finish. A flasher might have a reflective or holographic surface for available visible light, UV-reactive material and glow sections that can be charged before the flasher is sent down. Those features are doing different jobs, but together they give the flasher useful characteristics across a wider range of light conditions.

You can see the different approaches in some of the flasher lines available to BC anglers:

• Hot Spot Original 11-inch: Hot Spot offers everything from traditional Silver, Gold and Mirror Mylar flashers to UV and glow patterns. The lineup is a good example of how the same basic 11-inch flasher can be offered with very different visual properties for different fishing conditions.
• Gibbs Highliner Guide Series: This BC flasher series combines modern holographic reflective tapes with UV pigments. It is a good example of a flasher using more than one visual feature without necessarily including glow.
• Westcoast Fishing Tackle Electro Mirror: This Vancouver Island line is a particularly good example of combining technologies, using a highly reflective mirror finish along with UV-reflective paint and glow material on the same flasher. Westcoast’s Fusion X series also incorporates UV and glow features.

That doesn’t mean a combination flasher will always catch more salmon than a simple reflective flasher. I’ve caught plenty of fish on very basic flashers. But if I were building a smaller tackle selection or deciding where to spend money on new flashers, I would favour having at least some versatile patterns that combine reflective, UV and glow features. They give you useful characteristics whether the salmon are relatively shallow or you end up fishing them much deeper.

You don’t need every new colour or pattern hanging on the tackle-shop wall. A smaller selection that gives you different combinations of reflection, UV, glow and colour can cover a surprisingly wide range of BC salmon fishing.

A Simple Starting Point

As a general rule, I would think about flasher finishes this way:

• Bright and relatively shallow: Start with conventional reflective or holographic finishes. UV can also be useful.
• Moderate depth, reduced light or turbid water: Reflective and UV finishes remain options, while glow becomes increasingly worth considering.
• Deep or very low light: Put more emphasis on glow.
• Very deep or very dark conditions: Glow is a logical starting point. Active-light flashers are another option, although I haven’t used them myself.
• Using glow tackle in deep or low-light water: Charge it before sending it down. A glow tube makes this quick and easy.
• Using UV-only tackle: Don’t use a glow tube to charge it. UV-only material does not store the UV energy and continue glowing after it leaves the tube.

These are starting points rather than rules. Salmon may prefer one flasher over another for reasons we don’t fully understand, and when a productive flasher stops producing while another pattern starts getting bites, change it. Colour and finish are among the easiest variables to adjust without rebuilding the rest of the trolling setup.

Flasher Leader Length and Strength

Leader length is one of the most important—and most oversimplified—parts of flasher fishing. The right length depends on what is being fished behind the flasher because a hoochie, spoon and bait do not need the same amount of action from the flasher.

Hot Spot’s historical guide recommended the following starting ranges behind its 11-inch flasher:

Target	Hoochie	Bait or Lures
Chinook	36–50 inches	42–72 inches
Coho	26–40 inches	24–42 inches
Sockeye / Pink / Trout	27 inches	42 inches

The most useful part of these historical recommendations isn’t necessarily the exact number of inches. It’s the difference between the presentations. Hoochies were generally fished closer to the flasher, while bait and lures were given more distance to work independently. That basic principle remains useful today.

Hoochie Leaders

Hoochies need the flasher to create much of their action, so I generally want a relatively short and stiff leader. For Chinook hoochies, I commonly use 40-lb fluorocarbon.

Leader strength isn’t only about whether the line is strong enough to land a Chinook. Leader diameter and stiffness also affect how efficiently the rotating movement of the flasher is transferred to the hoochie. Change the leader length or stiffness and you can change the action of the lure.

The historical commercial setup discussed earlier in this article reinforces this point. Commercial salmon trollers were using relatively short, heavy leaders between their attractors and hoochies decades ago. The materials aren’t directly comparable to today’s monofilament and fluorocarbon, but the underlying principle is still useful: the leader wasn’t necessarily being made as thin and unobtrusive as possible. Strength, durability and the action transferred to the hoochie also mattered.

Spoon Leaders

A spoon already has its own swimming action, so I don’t want the flasher driving it as aggressively as a hoochie. This is why I generally use a longer leader with a spoon. The extra distance reduces the direct influence of the flasher and gives the spoon more room to work on its own.

There is also a practical limit to how long I want that leader to be. Once the flasher reaches the rod tip, you can’t reel the fish any closer. Whatever distance remains between the flasher and the hook has to be managed by the angler and the person with the net.

Long leaders are easier to manage on a boat with plenty of deck space. On a smaller boat, they can become awkward very quickly. A six-foot leader may fish perfectly well, but six feet is also a considerable distance when a large Chinook is thrashing beside the boat and your netter is having difficulty reaching it.

Leader length therefore has to balance lure action with the practical job of landing the fish.

Bait Leaders

Herring and anchovies are normally rigged to produce their own roll, so I also want them working more independently of the flasher. When fishing a conventional flasher on the line, that generally means using a longer leader than I would with a hoochie.

With bait, however, I often take this one step further and remove the flasher from the fishing line completely. I prefer the dummy-flasher system discussed later in this article because it provides the attraction of the flasher without having the flasher directly influence the action of the bait.

Does Leader Strength and Stiffness Matter?

Yes—particularly with a hoochie.

Leader test isn’t simply a choice between breaking strength and visibility. Diameter and stiffness can change how much of the flasher’s movement reaches the lure. A heavier or stiffer leader can transfer more action, while a lighter or more flexible leader can allow the lure to work more independently.

That doesn’t mean heavier is always better. A very short, stiff leader can potentially transfer more action than you want. Leader length, stiffness, lure action and trolling speed all work together.

For my Chinook hoochies, 40-lb fluorocarbon has been a good starting point, but I enjoy modifying my setups and testing different leader lengths and line weights. Small changes to the leader can change the presentation even when everything else stays the same.

How Fast Should You Troll a Flasher?

Trolling speed has a major effect on how a flasher works. Too slow and the flasher may not develop the rotational action you want. Increase the speed and the rotation becomes more aggressive, which also changes the action being transferred through the leader to the lure. Faster speeds may also exceed the preferred trolling speed for the salmon species you are targeting. Hot Spot’s historical material listed approximately 2.3–2.75 mph for Chinook and 2.5–3.0 mph for coho.

Speed Through the Water vs. GPS Speed

I use miles per hour when discussing trolling speed because that is what I normally use on the boat.

Most chartplotters display GPS speed over ground. That tells you how quickly the boat is moving relative to the earth, but it doesn’t necessarily tell you how quickly your flasher is moving through the water. When there is current, those can be two very different numbers.

If your electronics can display speed through the water from a paddlewheel or similar speed sensor, that is particularly useful for trolling. It gives you another way to judge the speed the gear is actually experiencing.

On my boat I display both GPS speed and paddle speed overlaid on the sonar display. This allows me to watch for fish and bait balls while continuously monitoring the paddle speed.

Finding the Sweet Action

With a modern downrigger setup, the heavy cannonball and release system largely mask the rhythmic pulse that a rotating flasher would otherwise transmit back through the fishing line to the rod. Occasionally we’ll see a rod pulsing perfectly while downrigger fishing and say, “Oh—look at that sweet action!” But most of the time, the downrigger prevents us from seeing that feedback consistently.

Before downriggers became the standard, anglers commonly trolled with sliding lead weights that were held on the line approximately 10 to 20 feet ahead of the flasher. With the fishing line running directly from the rod to the weighted flasher setup behind the boat, the action of the flasher could be seen much more clearly as a rhythmic pulse in the fishing rod.

If you really want to see how your flasher is performing at different trolling speeds, you can still use this old-school weighted trolling method. Attach a 6- or 8-ounce sliding weight to the fishing line and let the complete flasher and lure setup out approximately 20 pulls of line behind the boat. The weight gets the gear down and allows the flasher to develop its normal rotating action well behind the boat.

You aren’t actually trying to watch the flasher itself. Instead, watch the fishing rod. As the flasher rotates through its large sweeping arc, that movement is transmitted back through the line and produces a rhythmic pulse in the top few feet of the rod.

Now change your trolling speed and watch what happens to that rhythm. When the setup develops a smooth, consistent pulse, you can see what we call the sweet action.

This old-school test is useful if you really want to see how the flasher responds to changes in trolling speed. Once you find that smooth, consistent rhythm, you have a practical reference for the speed range where your flasher is producing the action you want.

Use the Strike to Fine-Tune Your Speed

Published trolling speeds are starting points. The salmon provide better information.

When you get a strike, pay attention to your speed and what the boat was doing at that moment. A strike during a turn can be particularly informative because the gear on one side of the boat speeds up while the gear on the other side slows down.

The same principle is behind zig-zag trolling or briefly shifting into neutral. These changes temporarily alter the speed and action of the gear and can sometimes trigger a following salmon to strike.

Once you find a speed and action that are producing fish, try to reproduce them. The GPS number may change with the current, but the objective is to reproduce the action of the gear through the water.

How Far Behind the Downrigger Release Should the Flasher Be?

The distance between the downrigger release and the flasher is another part of the trolling setup that can be adjusted. Hot Spot’s common Chinook setup uses approximately 18 feet between the release and the flasher, which is a useful starting point.

My preference is generally to keep the setback relatively short. The farther the gear is behind the downrigger, the more opportunity there is for lines from opposite sides of the boat to cross or tangle. That becomes especially important when fishing multiple rods, making turns, dealing with strong tides or trying to control the boat in windy conditions.

A shorter setback keeps the complete spread tighter and more manageable. If I have a choice between running the gear farther back or keeping it closer to the downrigger and reducing the chance of tangles, I generally prefer to keep it closer.

I also wouldn’t assume that salmon always need the gear well behind the boat, even when fishing shallow. Coho in particular can be remarkably willing to come right into the prop wash, and fishing close behind the boat has a long history in BC coho fishing.

For a conventional Chinook downrigger setup, about 18 feet is a practical starting point, and I am quite comfortable shortening that distance to keep the gear under control. If the salmon are biting, that’s pretty good evidence that the setback is working. If they aren’t, setback is one of the variables you can change as you experiment with the presentation.

Using Dummy Flashers on the Downrigger

One of my favourite ways to fish for Chinook is to take the flasher off the fishing line completely and use a dummy flasher attached to the downrigger cannonball. This gives me the attraction of the flasher around the downrigger while allowing the lure or bait to be fished separately from it.

This isn’t a new idea. Hot Spot’s historical trolling literature describes tying a flasher on a separate leader behind the downrigger weight so the lure can be fished above and behind it without having to fight the salmon with the flasher on the fishing line.

My Dummy Flasher Setup

I use approximately 24 inches of 200-lb leader material for the dummy flasher. At the front I install a quick-release clip so the complete dummy flasher can be snapped onto the ring at the back of the downrigger cannonball.

I prefer a heavy, stiff leader because the purpose here is durability and keeping the flasher controlled around the downrigger gear. This isn’t a fishing leader and there is no reason to make it subtle.

Dummy flashers can also be positioned on the downrigger cable at different depths. Multiple attractors can be useful for fisheries such as sockeye, although for Chinook I normally keep the system straightforward with a single flasher.

Why I Prefer Dummy Flashers for Large Chinook

A large Chinook is fast and powerful. With a conventional flasher on the fishing line, the fish is also pulling an 11-inch rotating blade through the water. That adds drag and resistance during the fight. When the salmon shifts gears or changes direction quickly, the drag from the flasher can make it more difficult to maintain steady tension, creating an opportunity for the fish to spit the hook.

With the flasher attached to the cannonball instead, I can still create attraction around the downrigger while maintaining direct tension to the salmon on the fishing line. With barbless hooks, I prefer that cleaner connection to a large Chinook whenever I can get it.

It also makes the final stages of the fight easier. There is no flasher stopping at the rod tip and leaving several additional feet between the rod and the hook. The fish can be brought much closer to the boat and into a more manageable position for a head-first netting job.

Storing Flashers and Pre-Rigged Gear

Flashers take up a surprising amount of space in a tacklebox, and once you have a good selection they require a specific storage solution. I prefer storing them individually in flasher sleeves or cases. This protects the reflective surfaces and keeps the gear organized.

I also like to store some flashers with the hoochie and leader already attached. This keeps a complete presentation together and ready to fish. If I want to change colours or try a different presentation, I can simply unclip one setup and replace it with another rather than tying a new leader while we’re fishing.

I rarely leave flashers attached to the rods for the run back to town because they can spin in the wind and twist up the line. When we’re finished fishing, I unclip the flasher, wrap the leader around the flasher and put the complete rig into a flasher storage pouch. The next time we go fishing, it’s ready to clip on and use again.

Having several complete setups ready to go is especially useful when the bite is on. The less time the gear spends out of the water, the more time it spends fishing.

Final Flasher Tips

After experimenting with flashers for many years, I keep coming back to a few basic principles:

• Start with a standard 11-inch rotating flasher. It remains the baseline for the way I fish for salmon in BC.
• Rig hoochies differently from spoons and bait. Hoochies depend heavily on the flasher for their action, while spoons and bait already have action of their own.
• Pay attention to both leader length and stiffness. With a hoochie, both affect how much flasher action reaches the lure.
• Don’t make leaders longer than they need to be. Longer isn’t automatically better, and excessively long leaders can make landing a fish more difficult.
• Watch your trolling speed and remember that current matters. I pay attention to paddle speed through the water as well as GPS speed over ground. When a fish strikes, I try to remember what the boat and gear were doing at that moment.
• Use turns and speed changes as information. If fish consistently strike the faster outside gear or slower inside gear during a turn, adjust your trolling speed accordingly. A brief shift into neutral or another change in speed can also alter the presentation enough to trigger a strike.
• Don’t overthink flasher names and patterns. Look at the actual characteristics of the flasher—colour, reflective finish, contrast, UV and glow—and build a selection that gives you useful options.
• If the fish are biting, don’t be in a hurry to change things. If they aren’t, start experimenting. Change a flasher, leader length, trolling speed, lure or another part of the presentation and pay attention to what happens.

Salmon flashers have changed considerably since BC commercial fishermen were trolling metal attractors such as the Abe & Al, but many of the fundamentals haven’t changed nearly as much. Get the basic setup right, pay attention to what the gear is doing and let the salmon tell you when you’ve found something that works.

Your Turn

What flashers are working for you?

I’m particularly interested in hearing what other BC salmon anglers are using—your favourite flasher patterns, leader lengths and strengths, trolling setups, and whether you fish the flasher on the line or use a dummy flasher on the downrigger.

I’d also like to hear from anyone who still has experience with older metal flashers such as the Abe & Al, or has an unusual BC-made flasher tucked away in an old tacklebox.

Leave a comment below and let me know what’s working for you and where you’re fishing.