Flushers for trout and Salmon

As I guess most people use flushers for salmon but I still would like to ask if it is really necessarily to use them. The reason I ask (and persist not to use it) is that I have an utility boat with a tiller and I have to manage everything by myself. The downrigger itself is a bit of challenge in my situation so I prefer to keep everything as simple as possible.
I would ask if someone give an advice on that.
Also, is there any difference in the setup for salmon vs trout fishing?
Thank you!

"Flushers".....? I got you..... Flashers! (Not a smart-a## comment but it challenged at first reading!)

You'd get more from posting this on the Gr. Lakes or G. Bay section of this forum -- salmon in Simcoe....?

Cheers.

I believe you mean Flasher? I'm also assuming that is a dodger.Dont do much down rigging but I believe that's what you are referring to.

you persist in not using flashers, so why ask the question? I am confused


of course they work and of course you can catch trout or salmon with or without them

are they more complicated to run off a rigger....no, just more expensive

My apologies for mistakes.
To my non native English and damaged hearing 'flush' and 'flash' sound the same so I'm often doing this spelling mistake as well as pronounce it identically.
I post the question in Simcoe forum because I wanted to post it in most active forum which I assume is Lake Simcoe even though there is no salmon in Simcoe. I heard some people troll for trout on Simcoe so the question might be still relevant to Simcoe forum.

Well, it all comes to experience and odds (probability). I have very little experience and asking those who have trolled for years with more than one fishing rod on the boat. If they would say something like 'if you run two downriggers, one with the flasher and another one without it, you get twice for hit on flusher' ... then it is clear indication for using flashers. If, like you say, 'you can catch trout or salmon with or without them' I would probably think more before I put one.

I like you have been trying to figure this out Markdv. I'm mainly fishing in Georgian Bay. 15 trips out with a downrigger this season and I've got 3 Laketrout on my lower line on my stacked downrigger. 1 was on a spoon with no flasher or dodger and 2 where on flies on 20 inch leads on a flasher. I have been targetting salmon every trip and sometimes after 6-8 hours with no hits ill drop a line to 5 feet off bottom and can sometimes score a laker to save the salmon skunk. When I finally get this figured out I'll let you know what I get more hits on!

fished with down riggers (hand and elec operated on Georgian Bay and Lake Simcoe ) for 34 yrs and I can safely tell you on any given day they both work. But I fished alone for most of the time so I found them a bit of a hindrance getting the fish in by myself so most times I did't use them. If you want to use them without line problems attach your flasher to the cannon ball about 8ft back and attach your line to the cable above the cannon ball. then you have no flasher on the line problems.

Tailfin, Jam1324, thank you for your responses! Greatly appreciated!
Tailfin, this is my situation as well. I'm with my wife in the boat, but beside that she is quite passive fisherman (fisherwoman?), we have utility boat, with the bench across it, so I have to manage everything - the boat, line, downrigger - myself and trying to avoid any unnecessary hassle.
Jam,

Do you mean here vertical jigging? I was also thinking about it but it would be difficult maintain the proper depth of the lure as GB has very uneven bottom. I'm able to see my cannon ball on the sonar, but I assume anything lighter than that will be out of its sight even with small wind. Anyways, thanks for the advice, I'm going to try!

If I fail at catching salmon I will drop my cannon balls to 5 feet above the bottom. If you are going with the ledges the bottom stays mostly the same depth out there once you get into deeper water. I have had success at 50 feet up to 120 feet so far for lake trout. Two of them 5 feet from the bottom and the third one about 20 feet off the bottom. Haven't hung up my balls yet on any rocks or what not. I can also see my stuff on my sonar and it makes it easy to adjust as I go.

Do you mean here vertical jigging? I was also thinking about it but it would be difficult maintain the proper depth of the lure as GB has very uneven bottom. I'm able to see my cannon ball on the sonar, but I assume anything lighter than that will be out of its sight even with small wind. Anyways, thanks for the advice, I'm going to try!

I wasn't trying to snub you, just keeping it simple which most of the time is what works best

tailfin meant running a flsher on its own off the cannonball, many do this and then fixng a lure on top of that for your target species.

no jigging involved

just keep trying different depths and speeds, lure colors and sizes and eventually it will all fit together

trout prefer slower speeds than salmon for the most part


good luck

"tailfin meant running a flasher on its own off the cannonball, many do this and then fixing a lure on top of that for your target species"

For Lake Trout especially, this is a pretty solid piece of advice! It gives you the attraction while keeping your lure above the bottom and hangups.

That's a great idea I will give that a shot as well =)

I run flashers all the time on Lake Ontario and they are very productive. I tend not to use them as much on Georgian bay or in the sound. If I want to run an attracter there I put a hotspot agitator about 24 inches off the cannonball and attach a Scotty release about 2 feet above then run my lure 20 to 40 feet back of the cannonball. The hotspot just spins with a lot of flash. There is no swinging around and all over the place like most flashers. I find it’s easier to deal with off the ball. You can run a flasher the same way as you’ve already been told, I just prefer the inline aspect of the hotspot. Attached is a pic of what they look like.

jam1324: PM sent.

Sounds like a good idea but I don't get how to connect fishing line to downrigger cable above the cannon ball. Is it that in this case I need two clips, one for the cable and another one for the line? Sorry, this set up might be obvious to you but I just started downrigging recently...

jam1324, as I understand for the trout it is just the same downrigging as for salmon, just of the bottom? And probably slower speed? Did I understand it correct?

porkpie

Could you elaborate a little why? In my view what is good for Ontario should be good for GB. It is not?

By the way went fishing GB last Tuesday, trolled all day 6 AM to 10 PM got no bites and almost no fish on the sonar. Quite frustrating...