Spent from 11am to 4 pm in Deepwater bay (north campbell river) Flood began at 12pm. 150-200 boats! Saw maybe 30 -50 fish caught around us, many more that i obviously didn't see. Fished anywhere from 60-100 feet. 10# ball scotty braided downrigger line. See my attachement on my flasher setup. I had 2 longline releases.... At one point everyone around us basically had a fish on. I was going nuts. I have really struggled this year with getting fish....what do i change? Where do i start?... BTW this is a new boat to me this year...... ready to firesale this boat!

Use green flashers, 29-31 inches knot -knot, black hook, only use about 6 strands on plastic, troll slow and straight, move flashers to where you see the schools of socks on your depth sounder. Use 2 dummy flashers on each down rigger, about 9' difference. Sharp hooks and watch the rods real close. Give it a try for a little while, nothing to lose, have confidence in what you are doing..Good luck..........BB

Double Glo Chartreuse flasher Yamashita Glo Squirt on a 22" leader.


That or Bubble gum Pink-I find it works better than straight Red.

Load up on the dummies. Get right on the fish when you hook it and have net ready. When you get socks by the boat you want to get them before they thrash. Soon as they trash they go nuts which is fun for the fight but not if your having trouble getting them in boat!

Check your voltage

My boat has caught 80+ Sockeye this year alone... This is my set-up and it works for me:

18-20 inch 40lb maxima leaders
MP16 or MP15 hootchies that have been trimmed excessively
Red Gammy hooks 4/0 in the hootchie and a black 3/0 hook as the stinger
Purple haze flasher or straight green flasher
Green Kone Zone daisy chain one side
Purple Haze kone zone daisy chain on the other
Minimum 4 rods down.
troll at 1.8 to 2.2mph with a zig zag every 2-3 minutes (A lot of fish on the inside rod while turning)
Go deeper as the day goes on.
Make sure you scent up your hootchies with something good.

If you try this set-up and you don't get sockeye then you have a something else going on with the gear...

Thanks everyone, I think what was so frustrating was that i was watching "very carefully" gear that was being brought up that had landed a fish....it was all over the place! Blue line, blue flashers, purple flashers, green, red, 3' leaders, 1' leaders, all that i saw had some type of a red/pink hootchie....... Didn't see one fish caught that was using dummy flashers! BTW I had chartruece dummies on 1' off the ball on both sides for about 1 hour, trolled from 1.8-3.0, put the boat in neutral a few times to give a different presentation and drop the lines. I was continuously changing up gear to everything that i've read on here over the past couple of months. Tried some smelly jelly. no ryhme or reason.....
Thanks for all the replies...I have often though about the voltage of the boat but thought that i had eliminated that going to braided...thoughts?

For me it has been 20" maxima (30lbs), bubble bum pink squirts with 50% legs removed, barrel swivle and 4/0 black siwash hook behind a red/silver or purple/silver hotspot.

I troll at 2.5-27 for all species and have caught a bunch springs to 32 lbs and a bunch of socks on this rig. I also do not chase the fish depth, I stack the rods and cover a 35' depth range with one rod on one side at say 60', then the stacked rods are 75' and 45'. You can very the depth spread, but I find most socks are in this depth range, at least up here in Mcneill. I might drop them down to 90' and above, but that is mostly on ebb tide when they are further offshore.

Doug, you should come up here, lots of fish, not many boats and there is still good springs around.

Cheers

SS

If you are using braided line, you have isolated the boat from the terminal gear so a hot boat should not be an issue til you get the fish to the boat. Look to the info provided in other responses to solve your problem, and good fishing!

Match your speed with other catchers,find and stay ontop of the schools and you will get them