dukebh40

The fishhawk has performed flawlessly for me. Going on my third year with this unit and I haven't had a single problem with it. I definitely think it's worth the price, although it is a bit steep to swallow at first. Salmon I usually start in the mid 40s and adjust from there. Steelhead are difficult to say. They can really be found almost anywhere in the water column depending on the given day. They're a more difficult fish IMO to target

I have a fishhawk x4. I honestly can't imagine fishing without it. I went two years without one and my catch total drastically went up once I got the fishhawk. Lake O has so many different currents going different directions as you go down through the water column. I definitely recommend it if you can fit it into your budget

They are great downriggers. Lead lengths off of the ball really vary day by day. As a general rule, flasher/fly leads are shorter than spoons. FF leads generally 5-20 ft. Spoons can go 15-50 ft depending on the mood of the fish that day. Tie your rod with FF directly to the swivel on the flasher. Spoons I like to run a small coastlock swivel in front of them to let them swim freely. The downriggers work as a team in your trolling spread. I run the FF about 8-10 feet shallower than the spoon. The idea behind this is the fish will be drawn in to the flasher, and may or may not hit the fly. If it doesn't, salmon tend to drift down and away from a flasher when they aren't interested. Here, the spoon, which is deeper and has a longer lead, now is in the fish's face and is a less aggressive presentation than the FF. I would recommend blacks custom releases. They are the easiest release IMO to use and it doesn't hurt your line at all. people have many varying opinions on releases though. You'll want to use the heaviest weight that your set up can comfortably handle. The heavier your weight, the less you will have to worry about blowback back behind the boat as you're trolling. I run 12 lb weights and am very happy with them. Good luck getting set up! Let me know if you have any questions. Feel free to PM me

Just curious to see which of the holes you guys use on the spin doctors. The more action hole (by the fins on the top of the flasher) or the less action hole on the other side.

Powerpro is probably the most popular. I run 30#

Might want to consider mixing up the Flasher fly and spoon so that you don't only have spoons on the rigger vice versa. Often times the two riggers help each other out and having a flasher on the one rigger will attract fish that will later decide to smack the other riggers spoon. Good job for your first trip!!