Dodgers

[sawdustsavage]

I'm a 68 year old beginner. I was wondering which to use when. Dodgers Spinners flashers. Is there anytime of day light conitions ect. that they each work best in.I need to learn it all.
I was also wondering if there would be any problem other than the wind fishing with a 18 ft. smokercraft pontoon boat. With the aid of the forums I have the trolling motor ready to go. waiting on downriggers.
One more and I'll shut up. Promise. Im wireing in a fish finder GPS combo. How do I do it. I followed the diagrahm in the manual and nothing. I wired it into a lead for a tap light. The light works but the fish finder doesn't. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
John

[Brooster]

dodgers give action to things that have no action of their own (ie. hoochies, bugs) flashers are a all around attractor (ie. on your ball, in line) you can run them with spinners or anything as far as that goes. hope this helps.

[skookum9]

Sawdust, there's nothing wrong with your boat. It's a little smaller than the one's that my friends use but their's works great out on Odell, although they typically keep it up inside or near Shelter Cove. My friends and I don't troll but we jig from it and it is great for that.

Check to make sure there isn't a fuse link in the fish finder power cable and then make sure you've tried holding the start button down long enough on the unit. Is this a brand new FF or did you buy it second hand? And if it is used, did you see it run so you knew it was working before? I live just a few miles south of you and wouldn't mind taking a quick look at it for you but I'm going to be pretty busy for the next few weeks. Do you ever make a run with it up to Hagg? If you want, I might be able to meet you up there some afternoon in the not too distant future.

[SuperD]

A multi meter check at the power cord where it plugs into the back of the unit will tell you if you are getting power. If you have power and it doesn't come on, you have a bad unit. If you don't have power, check connections and fuse as suggested.

[sawdustsavage]

dodgers give action to things that have no action of their own (ie. hoochies, bugs) flashers are a all around attractor (ie. on your ball, in line) you can run them with spinners or anything as far as that goes. hope this helps.

Thanks, It does help. Like I said I am a novice so this was a great help.

[sawdustsavage]

Sawdust, there's nothing wrong with your boat. It's a little smaller than the one's that my friends use but their's works great out on Odell, although they typically keep it up inside or near Shelter Cove. My friends and I don't troll but we jig from it and it is great for that.

Check to make sure there isn't a fuse link in the fish finder power cable and then make sure you've tried holding the start button down long enough on the unit. Is this a brand new FF or did you buy it second hand? And if it is used, did you see it run so you knew it was working before? I live just a few miles south of you and wouldn't mind taking a quick look at it for you but I'm going to be pretty busy for the next few weeks. Do you ever make a run with it up to Hagg? If you want, I might be able to meet you up there some afternoon in the not too distant future.

Thanks for the info.I definitely won't get far enough away from shelter to be at risk.
This is a new unit. I am going to fish Hagg. I still have some work to finish on it first. I better do my maiden voyage sometime when its not too busy. I don't want to give the old hands to much to laugh at. It would be great to have you look thing over tho. I will keep in touch.
John

[sawdustsavage]

A multi meter check at the power cord where it plugs into the back of the unit will tell you if you are getting power. If you have power and it doesn't come on, you have a bad unit. If you don't have power, check connections and fuse as suggested.

Great info. I appreciate the help. One good thing about being a newbie is theres lots to learn.worthy1
Thanks a bunch.
John

[SilverBullets]

First off welcome aboard John! It's great to have you here... there are plenty of guys that are more than willing to help out with anything questions you might have...fire away!
Got a question... When you mentioned the use of "dodgers, spinners, & flashers" in your original post, are the spinners your referring to like gang trolls (Cowbells, Beer Cans, etc.?) Also, are the "flashers" you mentioned the flashers shaped like dodgers that rotate?
Gary

[sawdustsavage]

Sawdust, there's nothing wrong with your boat. It's a little smaller than the one's that my friends use but their's works great out on Odell, although they typically keep it up inside or near Shelter Cove. My friends and I don't troll but we jig from it and it is great for that.

Check to make sure there isn't a fuse link in the fish finder power cable and then make sure you've tried holding the start button down long enough on the unit. Is this a brand new FF or did you buy it second hand? And if it is used, did you see it run so you knew it was working before? I live just a few miles south of you and wouldn't mind taking a quick look at it for you but I'm going to be pretty busy for the next few weeks. Do you ever make a run with it up to Hagg? If you want, I might be able to meet you up there some afternoon in the not too distant future.

Got it working. Had 2 wires crssed. Thanks

[sawdustsavage]

Thanks for the info.I definitely won't get far enough away from shelter to be at risk.
This is a new unit. I am going to fish Hagg. I still have some work to finish on it first. I better do my maiden voyage sometime when its not too busy. I don't want to give the old hands to much to laugh at. It would be great to have you look thing over tho. I will keep in touch.
John

Got it installed. Had 2 wires crossed.
Thanks for all the help
John

[sawdustsavage]

First off welcome aboard John! It's great to have you here... there are plenty of guys that are more than willing to help out with anything questions you might have...fire away!
Got a question... When you mentioned the use of "dodgers, spinners, & flashers" in your original post, are the spinners your referring to like gang trolls (Cowbells, Beer Cans, etc.?) Also, are the "flashers" you mentioned the flashers shaped like dodgers that rotate?
Gary

Thanks for the welcome,
Actually I geuss I need to know which of each works best. Im just starting kokanee fishing so Im in the process of setting up boat and tackle box. I would kin of like kinda a basic list of what is needed to do this fishing right. I am a very good salmon and steelhead fisherman and do Ok with sturgeon.When I started at each I found that the best way to begin was t just ask the guys that knew what to do. A couple of great old guys took me underwing and it was easy after that. They both stressed at the beginning the importance of good gear. Since then I have found the same holds true with all the different fishing I have tried.
You guys here have been great. I hope to run into some of you on the lakes
to say thanks in person.
Any kind of a list of effective rigging will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks again John

[Full_Monte]

Go to this website and click on Kokanee University.

http://www.fishwithgary.com/

Anything written by Gary is considered pretty authoritative.
He also sells good gear.

Welcome to the site!

[Kokonuts]

Welcome aboard John!

I ike to use my DRs and keep things as simple and lite as possible. Wedding Rings, Hoochies & Apex are a great way to start. I use them with Dodgers most of the time only using the Lake Trolls as a 2nd choice to keep the weight down.
I do like using Ball trolls on the DR weights with the release above it about 5 ft.

As far as colors go I like Pink, Chartreuse, Orange, with the dodgers in 50/50 Chrome/Brass, and then colors to match the lure color.

If youre like the rest of us you'll be adding more "STUFF" all the time!

Kokonuts.......

[SilverBullets]

Check out www.kokaneemart.com for a great selection... some of the best kokanee products on the market. Rick is a member here... excellent customer service. Just tell him what lake your fishing and he'll hook you up!

here's some good reading...
http://www.kokaneepower.org/articles/3.pdf

[sawdustsavage]

Thanks that does help.

[sawdustsavage]

The good reading wouldn't load Thanks anyyway.

[GVF]

Check out www.kokaneemart.com for a great selection... some of the best kokanee products on the market. Rick is a member here... excellent customer service. Just tell him what lake your fishing and he'll hook you up!

here's some good reading...
http://www.kokaneepower.org/articles/3.pdf

You will also find some of my products there or visit GVF Lures.com

[sawdustsavage]

Good info as always Thanks I have been going in that direction. I'm sure I have bit on a few that the fish won't bite on but thats part of the game. Who knows what will be hot tomm. I am just trying to build up a variety just in case. I like the light weight idea. I kind of planned on dodgers and small lures. I may have went to small on the dodgers but I geuss time will tell on that.
Thanks for the info.

John

[daffy]

I have fished kokanee from flaming gorge, and king salmon from lake huron. Best advice I can give you is accurate boat speed.
Does your sonar have a speed wheel? I have found with using the gps speed vs the speed indicator on my sonar there is a Lot of difference between mine. My speed on my sonar is much more accurate.

When using dodgers you want the things to whip back and forth as hard as you can without the dodger rolling over. I drag mine alond the boat and throttle up till the dodger spins, then throttle back till it whips instead, and note the speed. On my sonar 000 dodgers really like from .05 to .09 Mph. any faster and they roll.

Flashers are different you want them to roll. Min begin rolling at .09 Mph, so I keep at ,09 up to 2.2 Mph

With both I keep changing up the speed within the range that the lure works best at.

Behind a dodger I love running a worm harness like for walleye only I tie my own, sometimes using a single trebel hook behind my spinner blade and bead setup, tipped with a single meal or wax worm. I also tie a thing I call a half worm harness. I tie on a treble hook then snell a single hook say 1" to 2" above the treble, then add my beads and spinner blade, I also like the quick change clevises they allow you to change the color of the spinner blade without having to retie everything. I then put a half a night crawler from the single hook draped back and attached to the treble. Makes for a better rig than the standard 3 hook setup of a store bought worm harness. The action is wonderful the dodger whipping back and forth the spinner speeds up fast and then almost stops and speeds up and almost stops! Way cool

Behind a flasher, squids are good, but again I tie my own rig with a mister twister prop lure and a single treble hook tipped with a meal or wax worm.

That said, dodgers and flashers are good, but for me Nothing beats finding as light a lure that works fished by its self, only some scent. That way you get a koke or king on, You are only fighting the fish and not a fish with a dodger or flasher... For me nothing beats a shasta criplure in crush fire, rainbow trout, pink and white, or pearle bakini. Speed is really of no importance when trolling a bare lure, from .02 to 3 Mph or anywhere in between, and keep changing it up and doing s curves... You really get to enjoy the fight of a salmon in a light lure...
Ok I am done I hope this helps, Have a good un... LBD

[SilverBullets]

The good reading wouldn't load Thanks anyyway.

try this...
http://www.protroll.com/books/?id=3

[sawdustsavage]

More great advice. Thank you

[kenamatic]

I don't think your flashers will be too small. I have been using the smallest sling blades and hoochies, humdingers and wedding rings and doing great on both kokanee and trout. I have found that speed is a very big deal. I have noticed that 0.2 mph can mean the difference of a boat load of fish and a day "just enjoying the fresh air". Good luck on the water.

[sawdustsavage]

That's great to know. I bought a luhr Jensen speed indicator. That seemed to be one that was simple and worked. I'm glad to hear the small dodgers will work O.K. I have always leaned toward the smallest lure or attractor that worked in all my fishing. Thanks for yhe great info.

[sawdustsavage]

Thanks for the info. I appreciate it.
John