I am going to try trolling plugs for the first time and need some help, the following is what i have come up with, use a false flasher about 6 ft behind cable,
and the plug about 10 behind that,but how far up do you run the plug as i understand that they dive and don't want to get messed up with the flasher, I will troll faster than normal around 3 knots?? Also to match the hatch so to speak, how do you know what size plug to use without catching a salmon to see what they are eating, or is it the time of year say like right now the herring are 4" and in say july they are 6" going to try the east side of the island (Gabriola, thrasher) and see what happens, I will also going to try the west coast in the summer,some of the colors,I plan on using are 232, 530 and 248 just not sure on size except for the west coast as i will run big plugs for big fish, will keep trying new things till i get one of these buggers. Fish at this time are winning 6 nothin!!! LOL

Cheers
Tony

Tony, glad you’re going to try using plugs. I have had a plug on at least one of my rods and sometimes up to three plugs on for the last twenty-one years. The last time I had BAIT on my rod was twenty-two years ago. I have caught thousands of big fish in Nootka, Campbell River, Kelsey Bay and Nanaimo. So they do work everywhere, as fish are fish. Some people say or think they work on the West Coast or offshore but not inside waters, that’s a myth. The one thing I can say about lure fishing is SPEED. If your not going fast enough, you might as well drag a gumboot behind you.

The line on my dummy flasher off the cannon ball is 3 feet long, that’s how long it takes to make a complete rotation on the flasher.

As far as how far up do you run the plug? It depends on the length of line on your dummy flasher. When you let you cannon ball down very fast like I do, the flasher will ride up on an angle, it does not go 90 degrees but gets to about 60 degrees. So whatever length you use on your flasher, you come up the downrigger line the same distance. Ie: 3 foot dummy flasher- 3 foot above the cannon ball.

The distance you run your lure back from your clip should be similar to as if it was on your fishing rod. You would normally have a 6 to 8 foot leader behind your flasher. So I run my lure 6 to 10 feet behind the dummy flasher. The plug will not swim down and tangle your line.

Speed, is the most important part of lure fishing. I have a saying about speed, you can only go toooo slow and never to fast. My favorite speed is between 2.8 and 3.2 MPH. That will get the plug moving in an erratic behavior and cause the fish to bite. The other thing about going fast is the fish don’t have time to study the lure, they have to bite or it’s gone.

Your on the right track as far as matching the hatch so to speak. I’ll use the 4” plug in June and early July, then go to 5 and 6” later in the season. If I’m looking for only big fish as we have a few in the box, I’ll put on a 6” tubby and a 7” classic. When the rod goes off then, you know you’ll have a big fish on.

It’s time to head to work, so I’ll try and draw this all out and post it later. And then get into colors, my favorite subject.

Have a look at the discussion we have had on the sportfishingbc.com web site.

http://www.sportfishingbc.com/forum/top ... C_ID=14894


Cheers, Mike

I'm not a computer geek so it's all I've got. Hope you get the idea.

3 foot dummy flasher
3 foot up where you hook your release clip on
6 to 10 feet behind flasher for your lure

When your letting your lure down let say to 200 feet, I let mine go wide open. Because it's not bait, it's time in the water. So let it rip and keep it in the water. If you get a bump (bite) but does not stick, leave it and the fish will come back alot of times.

Codfather
Thank-you for the infomative info, I have tried bait but have no confidence in it, I caught a salmon last year in renfrew on a spoon so i use them, I have been trying hootchies out at thrasher with no luck (6 time now) so time to move on to something else LOL. When you have a plug on one rod and say a spoon or hootchie on the others what speed do you troll as you need to troll faster with a plug than the othe 2, going to get some plugs in 232 1- 4" and 1-6" or what would you suggest, very interesting read on the other chat room thank-you. By the way are you the codfather out of Port Hardy? If so i met you about 18-20 years ago, I have a good friend up there, Steve Lacasse, he owns Sun Fun Divers. Can't wait to go get some plugs and get out again, thank-you again for the information

Cheers
Tony

Interesting read, I might try this?

another option for plugs is to run them 50-100' back of the boat. They will swim side to side and cover a huge amount of water. I've had a lot of good success fishing offshore like this.

If the water is dirty or full of algae bloom a #101 has always worked well for me -
either 5 or 6" especially around the islands. The hootchie that matches that plug also works very well.