Fei-chu:-
The first thing is:- find the location fish or species you are seeking.Ask around...read posts...read fishing reports.....no fish,no catch......so you go where they are at that time. And find out what depth they are usually known to be at for that area.
Second thing:- Flasher choice is not as important as what is on the end of it. To start with probably all you need is:- Standard Green Hotspot, Standard red Hotspot, Green-Glow, Purple Haze, Green Haze (in U/V Blue/Violet body) and flasher called "Coho Killer" (which works for Chinooks too).
Downrigger balls:- in calm water 12 lb will work.....but 15lb might be a better choice.
Braid or wire:- Most have less problems with braid as wire can have "voltage" issues that can be tricky to resolve.
Lures:- run at least 40lb mono for hoochies.....50 or 60lb. if you like. Some lures like Apex and Seafour don't seem to work as good going that heavy and work better at 30lb test.
I run 40lb on spoons.
bait:- a good all round choice except when the Dogfish show up. However, you need to know what the fish are feeding on at that time. If herring use herring. If needlefish use small anchovy.
Cutplug herring works real good in some areas......They don't make real "strip" any more so it has fallen out of use although if you can cut your own and rig it, it will produce very well at times. Generally......run bait about 6ft or longer back of the flasher, so it does not interfere with the roll of the bait.
Hoochy and lure leader lengths:- depends what specie you are fishing for and when. A good starting point for hoochy would be 42 inches OVERALL length for Chinooks. That is:- 42 inches from back of flasher to back end of hoochy including all swivels, snaps etc. You can shorten up if need be. Coho you either go faster
or shorten up to 38" OVERALL.. Sockeye you could be down to 25 inches overall.
Leader lengths are NOT,repeat NOT written in stone........other factors like boat speed,drop-back, current speed/direction will all affect the equation too.
Spoon choice:- IMO Coyote and Kingfisher Lite (Silver Horde) get the job done time and time again.
Sizes:- 3.5 inch and 4 inch. although some years really small spoons will outfish bigger ones.
TKO Canadian (Pac Net) makes a very small spoon that will produce well. It's about 2 and a half inches long. Run spoons anywhere from 30 inches to six feet behind a flasher.
Spoon color:- some colors work better in certain areas than other. But most manufacturers all make the same standard producer colors.
Such as:- Kitchen Sink, Cop Car, Glow Cop car, Irish creme, Army Truck, Party Girl, Yellowtail,
Green/white/Glow, NastyBoy. All these colors work on Chinook as well as Coho.
Hoochy Color:- There are so many colors of hoochies available it's mind boggling.
However:- The Yamashita OAL12R is one you shoud have ( White-U/V). This one works everywhere at times. White/Pearl is the most fish catching color worldwide.
Around here you can see it on the #602 Tomic plug....which is one of the most popular plugs in these waters. Other good hoochy colors that are known producers are the Green Splatterback, Glow Army Truck, Purple Haze, Glow Black/White.
Later on in the season for Sockeye and returner Chinooks:- Pink color is good.
If you fish deep use Glow/White hoochy. Use this one early morning or in evening too.
This is basic tackle for The Gulf. If you are going offshore WCVI at any point,the game changes a bit. Pilchard baitfish are found out there also at times. They often use bigger plugs and spoons out there. But offshore WCVI is not for small boats.....it only takes once to blow up real good out there...and you could be "toast".
Mainline:- range from 25lb test to 40lb test. The deeper you go and the heavier line
you use , the more "blowback" and drag you will get.
Troll speed:- Anywhere from 1 1/2 mph to 3 mph will usually produce. Sockeye/Pinks go slow....Coho go a little bit faster.....Chinook go normal.....although time and time again there are exceptions to this.
But again I re-iterate:- Find the fish first. A good quality fishfinder helps a lot.
If you are fishing 40ft deep and the fish are at 120ft....you are out of the strike zone.
You can't tell always tell from looking at a fishfinder screen what specie you are seeing. What you see could be shakers, P-cod, Dogfish, Jellyfish,suspended seaweed etc.
But if nothing else a lot of times you need to know where the bottom is, because often fish are in the lower third of the water column or close to the bottom (but not always).
Whenever I fly to Vancouver I always notice that there is huge silt/discoloration runoff from the Fraser which affects the color of the water to some extent.
Hoochies that work in greener clearer sections of the Gulf may not produce there as well IMO.
Colors that work in murky discolored water are:- Red,Pink, Chartreuse,Brown.
Another good book that might help you is:-
"Bucktails and Hoochies" by Bruce Colgrave and Jack Gaunt.
This is a "dated" book too.........but 90% of everything in it still applies
today.
eman
