I'm reorganizing the gear I take to Alaska right now and got to thinking about which flashers I take and why. I have a limited amount of space for gear so I want to make sure everything is going to perform when it is go time. Over the years, I picked up various kinds of different shades of green flashers. They work and we've done well with them. But, I like to be prepared for the "just in case" situations and take some purple, pink, and white. For the last week or so, I've been looking around at the different flashers for sale and the question of "why?" just hit me.
Years ago when I started kokanee fishing, I loved tackle from a particular company. I bought all sorts of dodgers and squids from them. They released new ones fairly regularly but the pace slowed down over time. And then they started putting a die cut salmon profile sticker on the dodger, which the owner admitted was an idea his daughter had. At that point, I kind of asked myself how they came up with these different colors because a salmon profile isn't going to be any more attractive to a fish than just pink sticker on a flasher. I kind of decided that particular company was just making stuff up and had no idea whether or not it would work or be successful.
My question is, why do flasher manufacturers put certain colors together? Looking at the Gibbs and Hot Spot products, they have about 1 clearly pink product between them. Shortbus has a great selection of pinks, but the fins on them take too much space in my bag for an Alaska trip (although I use them frequently in Oregon). Most of the pink flashers I see come with some sort of a mirror or prism tape opposite the pink side. Is there a reason for that? If there is, why don't the greens or other colors have those same profiles?
I know that colors react differently at different depths as the water filters certain wavelengths of light. I'm not specifically asking about that because clearly the glow colors are not intended to reflect a whole lot of light from the sun. Pink shows up better in shallower water where there is sunlight so it seems that a pink/reflective flasher would make sense. Why not a pink/pink like the various green/green combinations they make?
Is there any rhyme or reason to how these flasher colors are put together? Is it science based? Or is this just one of those things that are designed to catch fishermen and if it catches fish too, great? Is there a flasher theory?
Years ago when I started kokanee fishing, I loved tackle from a particular company. I bought all sorts of dodgers and squids from them. They released new ones fairly regularly but the pace slowed down over time. And then they started putting a die cut salmon profile sticker on the dodger, which the owner admitted was an idea his daughter had. At that point, I kind of asked myself how they came up with these different colors because a salmon profile isn't going to be any more attractive to a fish than just pink sticker on a flasher. I kind of decided that particular company was just making stuff up and had no idea whether or not it would work or be successful.
My question is, why do flasher manufacturers put certain colors together? Looking at the Gibbs and Hot Spot products, they have about 1 clearly pink product between them. Shortbus has a great selection of pinks, but the fins on them take too much space in my bag for an Alaska trip (although I use them frequently in Oregon). Most of the pink flashers I see come with some sort of a mirror or prism tape opposite the pink side. Is there a reason for that? If there is, why don't the greens or other colors have those same profiles?
I know that colors react differently at different depths as the water filters certain wavelengths of light. I'm not specifically asking about that because clearly the glow colors are not intended to reflect a whole lot of light from the sun. Pink shows up better in shallower water where there is sunlight so it seems that a pink/reflective flasher would make sense. Why not a pink/pink like the various green/green combinations they make?
Is there any rhyme or reason to how these flasher colors are put together? Is it science based? Or is this just one of those things that are designed to catch fishermen and if it catches fish too, great? Is there a flasher theory?
. jc Tuna Maru
