Thanks for the comments Paul. We also have swivels front and back on the flashers and change them out regularly, especially when the fleas are bad. As for the GoPro, this one was in a TrollPro housing bolted directly onto the ball. Takes a bit of adjustment to get the angles right tho.
Thanks for the comments Greg and sorry for the late reply! We too have learned a lot from our footage and speed also plays a big factor in the bait and flasher movement. It is a very effective combination when fished at the right speed. More things to try next season!
The flasher was only about 3 feet behind the camera, Bruce. Not ideal for fishing but any further back and the camera wouldn't pick up the image. Our goal was primarily to capture footage of the follows and hopefully a few strikes.
gerat work. Wild to see the fish present their lateral lines, I always thought that was just a miss, but was informed that's part of the evaluation of the lure.
Great comment FishingBCdotCom. We were talking last week about setting up for doing this once the boat comes out of storage at the end of the month. Should have some interesting footage this season.
Do you ever think about adjusting speed or leader length after seeing your videos? Seems like a bit slower or longer lead would give that bigger/slower looping action kings prefer?
Fully agree; leader length can and does affect strike responses due to change in the speed and diameter of the roll of the fly. Every day is different.
Every day IS different! The other factor is that longer leads meant the baits weren’t visible on the camera so they may not have been optimal for fishing but they were necessary for filming. We did however find that the shiny shark cannonballs with the battered finish really attracted fish and the shorter leads meant that fish streaking up to see the balls were immediately faced with a fly or spoon when they got there. It was a very effective tactic that we used quite a bit.
@alekcook9957 we varied them a lot but to get the footage we had to be about 10 feet to the SD and a 3 or 4 foot leader to the fly. No further. On slow days we would extend one of leads out about 50 feet but ultimately found that the battered metal cannonballs were an attractor and mainly ran the SD’s close to them.
I'll have to agree with greg C one thing we do is put a swivel on the back of the dodger so the fly stays in a relatively straight line which has lead to more strikes for us. And If you don't mind me asking what do you use to mount the go pro on the Ball? Thanks Paul
Hi Guys, Dave from TrollPro here. We'd love to hear how you are using the TrollPro for your fishing conditions and are working on tips and future product designs for the salmon fishery. We'd like to help you in any way we can also. We have International users as well as US so idea exchanging gets very interesting. Tight Lines!
Thanks for the video. I fish for salmon a lot. It seems like the fish were fired up to attack the short leader lures behind flashers. One clip showed a less active bait and the fish didn't seem as interested. King salmon are amazing. Sometimes I troll as fast as 4kts. Ocean water temperatures is now upper 30s but that speed still gets them to commit.
Kings are a ton of fun to fish for! We learned a lot over the years by running the cameras underwater and seeing how the salmon reacted to different speeds and presentations. In our home waters - Lake Ontario - green and silver flasher and flies trolled at about 2.2mph on the ball was generally the best formula. Thanks for watching!
Anglersthree - Great videos! Would be cool to see a picture in picture video clip of your sonar display at the same time as what the GoPro is seeing underwater, if your sonar is marking these fish. Sonar interpretation is interesting field and you've got the perfect tool to show exactly what the sonar markings actually represent (eg species, behaviors, etc). Cheers...
Hi Austin, the flashers are running anywhere between 2.2 and 3.5 mph on the ball - usually starting at 2.2 and working up if the fish are coming off the rods on outside turns.
