Flashers idea help.

    Iv been thinking lately of how to get deep water fish (halibut in my case) with in shooting depth. While fishing iv had big fish follow my hooks/hooked fish from the bottom (100-300') to the boat. My thought is run say 150' of line threw a buoy with a light weight and flasher on one end and a heavier weight on the other. With the flashers on bottom I could then drop the weight on the surface to pull the line threw the buoy bringing the flashers up to the surface, diving to meet them and any fish following.


    Is any one doing this? If so can you show your setup? I can see a few issues with this so I thought I'd ask before building. Thanks

    That is a really cool idea. I would say it could go wrong in bad current but otherwise sounds very clever


    The flashers I use over here are really just suspended below a float allowing the movement of the water to create some action. The fish in the are are just sort of attracted or distracted by it enough to get a little closer.

    i like to spear fish

    Sounds like a great idea, I guess you will have to experiment some to get the weighting correct so the flasher comes up at the right speed. When you drop the topside weight, the two lines will be drawn together as close to the buoy and each other as possible. I could see how a tangle could occur while the two lines are moving, especially in a strong current. I guess if you could attain some degree of separation between the two lines you would alleviate that problem. I would love to see what you come up with.


    I have been contemplating creating a similar flasher for freshwater fish here, to try to draw up the striper that stay pretty deep during the day in the lake. Not sure if they would even be attracted to it though.

    One way to accomplish that is to use a longer float, like a lifeguard can and add a ring on each end. Then you'd have the length of the float keeping the lines separate.

    i like to spear fish

    It occurred to me that :
    1 a low memory line is key. One with high strength to thickness but more importantly won't tangle
    2 I would make the weight end a ring and have several .5 lb weights on clips on the float. You may want different speed retrieves for different fish and circumstances and being able to switch the drop weight would be huge


    I might use 550 cord. It takes on water but it doesn't have any real line memory and is cheap and plenty strong for this application

    i like to spear fish

    Quote from LunkerBuster

    Did want at least 12 to 18 inches for my preference. Maybe double up the crab floats


    Just preference really



    Ya 4' might be a bit much. I'll try threw just the float first ( guessing 10-14") and see how that dose. I'll start with salmon and about 100' of line to see if this is worth doing. Salmon are more eager to chase flashers and not as picky about speed.
    Maybe I can try it in the next few days. I'll let you know what I think.

    Lots of Good ideas here.


    What about a plastic pulley on the float, Thinking of those cheap pulleys used for clothes lines. I think those are like 4 - 6 inch Diameter. Might be a stronger pulley on market, have not googled it.


    This could get the lines apart with less tangles and give you better feel for adjusting weight balance. I think I would play with it in like 30 foot of water and have buddy in boat doing the work while your in water watching it.


    Pulley spinning could give you feel for speed vs adding markets to the line.


    Line weight on both sides of pulley and it's change makes it more interesting. I see it moving slower in the beginning and then it would go faster as it got to the top. Might be a positive feature.


    If you wanted to get real fancy - spancy, you could over weight the one side and add some type of drag/friction feature to the pulley.


    IF you really wanted to go over the TOP, you could have whole setup on a reel that had a small gear motor, Drops line to bottom, ( detect no tension) stops, reel up at set speed, detect flasher at top, maybe a pause so you have chance to shoot fish, then it lowers weight again to bottom. I would call this a Full auto version. Kinda look like an electric Down-rigger.

    Edited once, last by Linghunt: typo-grammar ().

    LOL,


    My roots go into the design of equipment that is 100% Automated making Vacuum deposited thin films. Some of the projects I've worked on are in different country and can be run thru web link.


    Thin Films e.g. ( night vision goggles, Optical weapons, or the films on the space shuttle windows)


    Get a room full of engineers and a big budget and task , you be surprised the crazy ideas that will come out. Always been surpriised at the end when it actually works. I've scared a few bosses when I say that in post project reviews and we burned up all his cash. :laughing3:

    I was thinking along the same lines as Linghunt with the pulley system, just never tried anything like this before so I couldn't advise you on how best to approach this method.


    I would pass on using the 550 cord; yes it is plenty strong underwater and has pretty low memory as long as all the filler lines are inside. I used 550 cord many times in the Pacific NW in underwater courses while I was in the military. It isn't heavy enough in my opinion to keep from tangling in a current, especially when you're talking about 100+ feet of line. I do use it to secure things underwater with short lengths, but with any slack line it will go all over the place and can be very difficult to deal with if you get a kink since it is so thin.


    Hahahahaha that's great

    i like to spear fish



    I'll see what I can find in town for pulleys first but that dose look like it'll work.


    I'm positive this will work on salmon if they are around to see the flashers but you are probably right about using a guy on the boat to test on bottom fish. I think my bottom fishing gear would be easier to use than my down riggers for this. Next time I fish shallow for halibut( I do most in 100-200 fathoms....yes I'm odd here) and we get in to them I will see if we can get some to follow it up and what it takes to get them to do so.


    I use a flasher and rattle on the end of a marker buoy line for lingcod and it works great. While I'm relaxing on the surface I jig the flasher on the bottom to bring the lings in and out of hiding. So I believe this idea will work better on them than halibut.

    I sent this link to one of my Eng buddies. He's all excited to try and build this now.


    Anything new gets him exciting. He's the one that build the jet engine in his garage and was in the middle of that titanic Build that I posted a while ago.


    Shouldn't have sent him the link looking back at it. He has too many other jobs to do, like getting his Challenger to the car show this weekend.

    I've been working on a flasher prototype for years and testing it all over the blue planet...
    This prototype is inspired from a shape used for decades by spearos in the indian ocean and which is usually made there with old x ray photograph covered with tinfoil...


    Shape is a fish: Eye and lateral line visual recognition are important++ as well as flashing effect in the depth!!


    So I've been trying different materials and set up and finally found the right materials
    This kind of flasher must be both flexible (not too much) and resist to the break... and make some repetitive tiny noise in the current
    the flashing material stuck on the fish surface must resist to salt water.. as well as line connected ...


    It works 100% in blue water hunting++/ open sea :thumbsup2:


    Manufacturing it in Canada? with specific materials it cost about 60$ each for an under 10 pieces order
    I'm wondering who accept to pay 90$ for a flasher??;)


    Looks nice, you should be able to get manufacturing cost lower. $60 sounds pretty high to me.

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