Sometimes I'm left thinking that the hot gear is whatever everyone else ISN'T using. I've seen this many times with steelhead (everyone is fishing small stuff, you come in with something BIG and it happens immediately.....or the other way around
Two summers ago I came into a spot in Q.C. Sound that is heavily fished by guides. There were at least a dozen boats there, all seasoned guides who knew the drill, and every last one of them was dragging multiple lines per each boat rigged with the latest and greatest fancy UV flasher and anchovies that were rigged the way they're supposed to be.
I snuck into the daisy chain of boats not expecting too much----middle of a tide, and one of the guides who I know mentioned that things had been "super slow"
I dropped a plug cut into the water---no flasher, no dodger, just two hooks and a herring---immediate tyee, as in within a couple of minutes of getting the herring wet. Great fighting fish, took me awhile to get it into the boat. Gave it the wood shampoo, snuck back in to the daisy chain of guides, dropped another plug cut into the water, boom, another big spring, almost immediately like the first one.
This spot is very localized-- as in maybe a 35 square meter of activity---no doubt those springs I hooked had seen the other boat's gear...
All I could think of at the time: I just came into a world of digits and I was the lone thumb who got two rides....
And the flip side---if everyone had been fishing plug cuts, the guy showing up with anchovy would have done the same damage... who knows