Fishin' Stuff

Flasher and Hoochies

Flashers and hoochies on the job

  For my birthday or perhaps Fathers Day, or perhaps both, I don't know, my daughter Jen and her family blessed me with a flasher and some hoochies from Cabelas, the giant outdoors outfitters. You would think that being in the fishing business as they are, they would be well familiar with all of the jargon that fishermen have for assorted fishing gear. However, that isn't the case. Jen went in and asked the salesman where she could find the hoochies. I guess he must have thought she should have been shopping in a sex shop or something from the look he gave her. She had to explain what they were used for and that they mimicked an octopus. I think they call them skirts or some such thing. Anyway, I'm the proud owner of a glow in the dark flasher and two new packs of hoochies that I love. I tried out the flasher on one line, but even though that line was catching fish when I used the conventional gear, when I put that new flasher on, I couldn't get a bite. The other three lines all caught fish, but not that one. I think it scared any fish in the area away. The large black dots on the flasher probably look like shark eyes or some such thing and salmon don't like sharks any too well. I'll try it again as the days get shorter and it gets dark sooner. Maybe the glow in the dark feature will work better then. I once looked up flashers on line, trying to buy some Hot Spot's for the upcoming season. What I found was a different kind of flasher. I had no idea so many people loved to expose themselves to the public at large. It was a learning experience for sure. I'm a little afraid to look up hoochies on line now. The lower picture shows all the flashers and hoochies stacked on the back of the cockpit ready for action.  They look pretty neat and orderly, but they never stay that way. I've watched other fishermen who are much more  coordinated than me, effortlessly pull their gear and put it back down in a matter of seconds. No matter how hard I try, I always manage to step on the leader of one side, thus dragging one or two flashers onto the deck and tangling the whole mess, or when I'm trying to put them out, the hoochies will catch on each other, almost like it's trying to keep from being dragged into the abyss and is hanging on to it's fellows hoping for a reprieve. I remember once down in Salisbury Sound when I was handtrolling, I spent the night before the opening getting everything lined up just perfect so that in the morning I could just set out the gear and start fishing. I had even changed the trolling wire so I could start the season off fresh. As I looked out over my domain my heart swelled with pride as I looked at my handy work. The next morning I was up at three and was the first boat out of the harbor. On my video sounder I could see all kinds of marks that indicated fish, but I didn't believe it. There couldn't possibly be that many fish there- but there was! I started to let down the gear on my port side and realized that when I put the wire on, I had put the fairlead on the wrong side of the block, so I had to hang out over the boat trying to cut that blasted new wire and redo the whole mess, all the while dealing with an ocean swell that I'd never experienced before. Meanwhile other boats were starting to fish and I could see that they were landing fish left and right. I finally got that fixed and started to let down my gear. I only got three leaders down when a fish hit. Well, I made a bonehead rookie mistake and started pulling in a large coho. He came into the cockpit with me and promptly tangled all my neatly arranged leaders. As you can imagine, I was not a happy camper. By the time I finally got all the mess straightened out, an hour had passed and all the boats had exited the harbor and were busy pulling fish that I should have had first crack at. To say the least, it was distressing.Truth is, I was spastic, trying to get everything straitened out and ready to go again. You only get one first day of the opening season every year and I had bungled mine. I did end up with nineteen kings that day, but I'll always wonder what could have been.