Power Up / Power Down

By on February 10, 2015

Each week one of the Salmon University experts answers reader questions in our “Ask a Pro” feature. This week’s questions are answered by Tom Nelson. Submit your own question here.

Q: Great site you guys have, wish I knew about it sooner. I have read material from another salmon pro who uses red Hot Spot Flashers for Kings. In all of your references you refer to green flashers. My understanding is the red works best for Kings and green for Silvers. What are your thoughts and recommendations regarding each? Thank you – Dave

A: Either color will work. The most important thing that flashers do is create sound. Secondly, flashers allow you to troll faster and cover more water. The more water you cover, the better chance you have of catching fish. When we refer to green flashers, really what we are talking about is glo flashers, which always glo green. If you are fishing the top 50 feet of water, the chrome flashers will work, but once you get deeper than 50 feet, you are better off using glo. But remember, still the greatest virtue of the flasher is the sound it makes.

Scotty High Performance Electric Downrigger (image courtesy Scotty)

Scotty High Performance Electric Downrigger (image courtesy Scotty)

Q: I’m going to purchase a downrigger for my Arima boat soon, but I’m not sure what to buy, and would like some advise from you. A friend of mine uses a Cannon mini mag that has power up and power down option. He said he tried to use a Scotty that has a break/clutch system for lowering down the ball and felt like the ball was going to go down to fast to be able to control it effectively. Do you agree with him that the break system is hard to control while freespooling your line on your reel at the same time? Would you recomend that I purchase a power up/power down system? If so, do you have any suggestions. I plan on using 15 lb. balls. Sincerely – Denny

A: Perhaps your friend is a little mechanically disadvantaged. It’s easy to control the rate of the drop with a Scotty Downrigger. I could have any model of downrigger available on my boat and have chosen Scotty as the best on the market.

Tom Nelson
Tom Nelson is the publisher of salmonuniversity.com. Known throughout the Pacific Northwest as the “Dean of Saltwater Fishing,” he has helped develop and test tackle and gear for Scotty, Pro-Troll and Silver Horde, is a regular speaker at area sports shows, has taught more than 5,000 students how to fish during his classes at western Washington community colleges, and is the co-founder of the Puget Sound Anglers.

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