Rigging A Herring Behind A Flasher, Commercial Style

[Mako 22]

This link is a good tutorial on fishing a whole herring behind a flasher.

http://www.ifish.net/board/showthread.php?t=56205

I rig a little different than shown in the tutorial. Not as much work and IMHO the herring lasts longer. And it does not use that expensive crow bar hook, although I have a bunch and still use them. Next time I rig some up I will take a photo and post.

Commercial trolling methods are basically the same all up and down the Pacific Coast. California, Oregon, Washington, B.C. and Alaskan guys use similar methods with a few "secrets" thrown in to confuse the opposition.

 

[scott craven]

Holy **** what a lot of work....

 

[SpringVelocity]

All say spend half the morning rigging it up.

 

[Sharphooks]

Huge amount of busy work, but the guys is clearly carrying on a tradition way more then he is describing the only way a commie will rig a herring behind a flasher

If I showed up on that guy's boat with a Rhys Davis herring cap and a single 4/0 octopus hook, and had it rigged and in the water behind a flasher before he could finish his tail-splitting surgery, and boom, spring on and in the net before he got his crowbar rigged, he'd be on his knees begging me for one of my herring caps.

Whether you can drag a big spring around on a 4/0 octopus for the same amount of time you can on a long-shanked crowbar, now that's a different story.

But when a dogfish swims away with your antique crowbar hook, give me a quick and dirty 4/0 octopus any day

 

[Olde School]

I have been wondering how to rig all these herring we jigged earlier in the spring, but I am tapping out on that technique!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[tykkyt e blue]

Whether you can drag a big spring around on a 4/0 octopus for the same amount of time you can on a long-shanked crowbar, now that's a different story.

But when a dogfish swims away with your antique crowbar hook, give me a quick and dirty 4/0 octopus any day

For what its worth... I thot it was too much work the first time I read that post too. Then I got schooled by a guy up at Shearwater doing a very similar technique, he out fished my best teaser head setup 4:1 so I begged for a lesson.

The tail split takes 20 sec w your bait knife, a piece of coat hanger pokes the hole thru the bait in 10 secs, the only slowish part is closing the snap without crushing/distorting the baits head ( bit of practice )
Then, the blades are available with no hook for .89 cents so you can use whatever size siwash hook you like and no biggie if 'swims away'. Last year I tried using spinner bait wire forms onto a 5/0 octo hook instead - that works fine too and cheap cheap
I also tried 150lb braid and some shrink tube so there was no metal at all. ( Not all hooks in pic are for salmon, some are tuna/wahoo bait setups )

I have found three things about this system that are significant to me anyway;

The wire shaft or metal blade in front of the hook means a fishes teeth will never saw off your leader no matter how big or how long the fight.

When you cut the tail off the bait, it stops being a rudder/keel. There is no bend in the bait, it does not 'roll' at all. But with a 4-5' leader, it flops and falls from side to side while following the flasher in a slow loop, just like a hoochie does.

Since it is not rolling, it is not so speed specific either and you dont need to brine the bait.

I'm not claiming its magic but it has produced very well against other standard setups. I am going to keep practicing and testing this method