Salmon Flasher Colors?

Hi Guys & Girls
What flasher colors are favored by west coast salmon fisher people, besides green and red? If you could make a flasher, what color would you make it? Sure could use some help on this one.

[Capin' Dan]

silver

[Mr. Fisherman]

Pink, Silver and Prisim, Chartruse (sp) with green spots and red and white. I've seen or heard all of these colors producing. The best way to identify the HOT flasher is to go to G.I. Joes and look at the empty pegs [img]images/icons/rolleyes.gif[/img]. That will be the one you want, go figure.

Good luck,

Mr. F.

[ 06-24-2001: Message edited by: Mr. Fisherman ]

[smilesforu]

Hey trolley I am not a big flasher user but would like to see a some contrasting flashers. Flourescent Chartuese/ Flourescent orange. A quality real silver finish laquered is a good color also not the nickel. The other flasher of choice would be a flourescent/glow white and a flourescent white with flour red contrast.

Seems a lot of west coast fishermen like the color red or shades of, in their flashers. Does this have any effect on the Sea Lions? Since red is the first color to turn gray in the water column (within 30 to 40 feet) , I'll assume most salmon are caught near the surface? Not trying to advertise, just trying to find out what west coast fishermen want. Any and all suggestions are appreciated.

[Pilar]

Salmon in New York? Hey, Trolleytrout, Les Davis makes a Chartreuse with reflect tape dodger, size 0. This consistently outfishes anything else in my boat. The action is a side to side swaying motion. Chase that with a mooching rig W/ glow hootchies.

The other go to is a Luhr Jensen 'Abe & Al' #2 Flasher w/ reflect tape. Drag a whole herring behind that. This one spins in a big circle.

Chartreuse is about the last color to grey out as you get deeper. I think at about 35-40 ft.

Fish On!

Here's an article I found a while back and thought it was very interesting. I'd like to share it with all at Ifish. btw, there are some large Chinook Salmon in Lake Ontario, New York last year a 50lber was caught on the Canada side.

Most fish can see in color. As in people, the retina of a fish's eye contains two types of cells, rods and cones. Cones are used for day vision and are the cells used to see colors. Rods are used for night vision and cannot distinguish colors, although they can judge light intensity. The eyes of most freshwater fish contain both rods and cones, though day feeders tend to have more cones, and night feeders more rods. In theory, then, day feeders like bass, trout, and salmon are more sensitive to color than night feeders like walleyes. Studies have shown that rainbow trout and Pacific salmon have color vision similar to that of humans. They can distinguish complementary colors and up to 24 spectral hues. Other studies have shown that brown trout are capable of sharp focusing on near and far objects at the same time and that they can clearly see different colors at different distances. But light behaves differently in water than it does in air. The various colors of light travel at different wavelengths. The longest wavelengths are the reds, followed by oranges, yellows, greens, blues, indigos, and violets. When light travels through water, some of its energy is absorped, and the longest wavelengths are the ones absorbed first. Thus, the warmer colors fade out and gradually appear black as light penetrates the water column. Red light is almost completely absorbed within the first 15-20 feet. Orange penetrates to 30-40 feet, and yellow to 60-70 feet, while green and blue remain visible for as deep as the light penetrates.The total amount of light also decreases with depth. At 50 feet, a yellow lure will still appear yellow, but will not appear as bright as it did at 20 feet. While red may be visible down to 15 feet in the clear water of open Lake Michigan, it may disappear within six inches of the surface in the turbid Fox River. At depths where it is nearly dark, a white or silver lure would show up better than a blue or green lure against a blue-green background of water. Products that are designed to reflect any light that strikes them, like Prism-lite, also make lures more visible. Commercial fishermen have experimented with this principle in reverse, using it to make
their nets less visible. Nets for use in very deep water have been dyed blue or green still they would blend into the background color of the water. Perch fishermen in southern Green Bay have experimented with dying their nets red, presumably because red fades out first in these shallow turbid waters. Total light intensity is also important. On a cloudy day, colors will not penetrate as
deep as they will on a sunny day. At dusk, as light intensity falls, reds are the first color to go, followed by orange, yellow, green, and blue. As total light intensity decreases, the fish's eye switches to vision with rods, and the fish is no longer able to distinguish colors. After dark, fishermen should choose between a light lure or dark one. At dawn, as light intensity increases and fish switch back to cone vision, the order is reversed, and blues, greens, yellows, oranges, and reds appear. At early dawn, some anglers are successful with a red J-plug near the surface. To fish striking from below, it shows up as a dark lure against the lightening sky. As the day gets lighter, red no longer works well, and anglers must experiment with more visible colors.
Studies on salmon have shown that their feeding behavior depends on whether they are seeing with rods or cones. During the day, salmon use cones to give them information on the hues and shades of moving prey. When prey are first located, they are stalked and eaten head first. From dusk to dark, rod vision takes over. Schools of prey fish break up and salmon assume a position below their prey to see them in contrast against the water surface, watch them move for a few moments, and then snap them up one by one. Ultimately, the appeal of the lure to the fish is most important. Fish must strike the lure either to eat it or attack it. While fish may locate the general area of the bait by smell or sound, most of the fish in the Great Lakes make their final attack by sight. Fish scents and noisemakers can draw fish to the area of the lure, but before it can strike, the fish must also be able to see it. This is why lure visibility and color are important to successful fishing

[smilesforu]

Glad to see somebody else with a interest in color and the water column. You may also realize water color will filter out different wavelengtsh of light. A grey water will filter out light waves a clear blue will not. Flourescent colors stay brighter longer than the same regular colors. The brighter the flash radius the greater reach you have to attract hungry fish. By the same token fish not readily on the bite may be put off by your brilliant offering.

As far as red goes..My brother worked on a commercial troller that purchased some plugs that didn't work worth a dam until they got a custom dose of red for the front. This may be the simulation of blood or gills on the bait. My grampa (commercial troller) use to have a secret for the proper bend in a flasher. Guess it is still a secret since he has passed on.
Tight Lines

[superfly]

Green or Chartruse Hotspot with the glow in the dark Tape on it that looks irradecent and wrinkeled, cant remember what they call it. anyways I fished blackmouth , adult kings and silvers 3 to 4 days a week for about 4 years straight with that flasher and it always produced at all depths and light conditions. Water column info very important when you start playing with different colors.
Peace Superfly [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Bobberdown]

If you are fishing above the fish (which is what I was told you are supposed to do), the bait and the flasher would be a silhouette wouldn't it? If so it would look black from the bottom so does color matter? I was told that it's the wounded bait action that the dodger gives your bait. Any truth to what I am saying?