Commercial salmon fishermen have depended on attractors, especially dodgers, for half a century or more and continue to depend on them today. Les Davis, inventor of the famous Herring Dodger, observed long ago: “The Herring Dodger imparts action to the lure or bait and at the same time acts as a powerful attractor to pull fish into the bait.” Thump, flash, and imparted action make dodgers a triple threat.

Captain John Oravec, longtime contributor to In-Fisherman, claimed back in the 1980s that the “illusion” created by a pack of dodgers defined yet another key to their effectiveness. “When you group several dodger rigs, it imitates a wolf pack of salmonids crashing through a school of baitfish, leaving twisted, mangled prey behind.”

The lakes have changed some since then. Captain Dan Keating, author of the new book, Keating on Kings, says he often spreads dodgers wide to either side of the boat with Dipsy Divers, running only a pair of spoons off his downriggers. “I run a fairly thin spread, especially in cold water or when the fish seem negative,” Keating says, implying that too much flash can put the fish down in the ultraclear environs of today’s Great Lakes.

Dodgers and flashers are main components of a successful overall approach to Great Lakes salmon and trout. The best bites reported to us over the past few years tend to involve flashers and flies, dodgers and cutbait, or some other attractor ahead of something new or different. Which implies the versatility of dodgers and flashers. Attractors come in a variety of sizes, colors, and styles which can be teamed with a potpourri of tail-gunners. Light trolling spoons, tinsel flies, “hootchies” (plastic squid), floating minnow imitations, tubes, and cutbait are just some of the options. Even a bare, colored hook with a few beads on the leader can regularly take salmon behind a dodger.

But weekend warriors express reluctance about pulling attractors. Common complaints: Too much rigging, the information gap, and too many options to choose from. Don’t worry. A day filled with fire drills caused by hooked salmon solves everything. And everything you need to know about getting started with attractors is right here.

Attractor Basics

A dodger is made of metal. In bygone days, the term “flasher” was used to describe another metal attractor, also called “cow bells,” a series of spinning blades placed in front of a lure or cutbait rig. Today, when a charter captain says “flasher,” he’s talking about the plastic equivalent of a dodger, like the Luhr Jensen Coyote. Dodgers and flashers are designed to attract attention and impart action to an attached lure.

Flashers exist in two standard sizes: 8 and 11 inches. Steel dodgers appear in sizes 0 (11"), 00 (8"), and 000 (5"). Small stuff is for cohos, browns, steelhead, and early-spring kings. An 8" attractor is the norm for use throughout the year. Cutbaiters and commercial fishermen use size 0 dodgers exclusively, because of the weight of the bait being pulled (cut herring, alewives, or smelt). The size of the flasher or dodger has nothing to do with the size of the fish you’re after, but instead with how much action and flash you want to impart.