“I believe the Hootchie Mama was the first swimmer out there. Because it’s got fins, it imparts more action at slower speeds that allow you to run it in a mix of other attractors and presentations,” he says. “Guys like to run different things at the same time, and these new flashers are highly speed-tolerant. Most can run from 2 to 3.6 mph, and that’s why gimmick flashers have became successful. True flasher-dodger guys decide which is going to be most effective based on conditions or time of year, and run a homogeneous spread of all dodgers or all flashers.

“In rough conditions, with the boat going up and down a lot, speeding and slowing, pros say the hybrids are less effective—speed changes coming too fast for them to handle. I’ll be honest—I don’t use hybrids and swimmers simply because I’ve spent years learning to run normal flashers and dodgers, and new versions are throwing too much information into the system for me to handle. Anybody just getting started running these programs should concentrate on the nuts-and-bolts of standard rigging with standard attractors, then branch out and experiment from there.

“Same goes for doctoring flashers with tape, bending dodgers, painting, and other tricks,” Dawidiuk says. “All these things make the equation too hard. Learn how to run a system and become confident with it before doctoring things up. Out of all the color options out there, four basic colors continue to catch salmon every day—white, chartreuse, green, or silver [chrome]. Glow is a good idea, too, even during the day, because it’s an off-color white. And at night it has obvious advantages.”

When people contact In-Fisherman for salmon info, most are looking for the current “magic bait.” Perhaps the question should be: What’s the magic attractor, and how is it being deployed? Most days, the rigging option has as much to do with how many fish come in the boat as anything else. Four years ago, it was hard to beat a dodger behind a 1-pound ball on wire. Two years ago, flashers behind boards and leadcore lines boated 80 percent of our fish. Get the delivery right and you’re halfway home. Get the speed right—game, set, match.

Find a hot bite for salmon, steelhead, browns, or lake trout; get the delivery right, and take the lure off the hottest rig. Slip 3 or 4 green plastic beads onto a 20-inch 50-pound fluorocarbon leader with a loop knot at one end and a plain 2/0 Siwash hook on the other. Clip the loop onto the tail of a speed-tolerant #0 (8") flasher, drop it down, and just hang out right there, on the threshold of discovery—where nobody can beat you to that rod when it snaps to life. The true power of attraction is about to hit home.

Dawidiuk told me not to report that. This blatant (but hardly surprising) attempt to censor the press can be attributed to his new place among the power brokers of capitalism. I doubt the meteoric rise of the Howie Fly will be interrupted by the miraculous success of bare hooks. (But I wouldn’t give up my spot by that rod, either.)

Tim Dawidiuk, Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, is a Lake Michigan charter captain and owner of Howie Tackle (920/746-9916).