I have had success with a streamer fly in my prop wash 20-30 off the stern in the spring out in front of the Winooski and caught both salmon and browns that way and it is a blast! Never tried trolling them like on Ontario though....
Flasher / Fly and meat! Great question Eric. Although I know a few people including myself have tried this with the downsized smaller Rhy bait heads from British Columbia it's a feast or famine thing. If you soak any offering long enough yes they will bite it. Unlike Lake Ontario where these kings feed every day and put on incredible weight for 3 years in the lake it's way easier to be successful for anyone during a typical chew! With that being said we all know how long we have to wait to catch anything over 22" here on our lake and on a day they are chewing and located. Next day gone! Poof! Unlike our Pacific salmon in the Great Lakes. I have always said we practice here and go over there (Ontario) to get consistent results. Short answer yes!. No magic bullets just need to find them here and they can be caught on most small spoons. Simple works well for me with an Ivan Blue Moon! I don't even go thru changing lures much anymore. Just go with my Stud lures. Presentation and time on the water. Even in Ontario I can grab a handful of stuff that works and put it in the water year after year and it produces. Dan Keating famously wrote in one of his books: "You can have the prettiest lure in the tackle box with the best presentation and equipment and a dozen rods out... If your not over active fish it's a bust!" I would never discourage anyone from trying different things as that is the fun part. For us simple works!
I thought I would give an update on Saturday soaking a Flasher Fly and Flasher Anchovy program on Port side and a spoon program on the Starboad side for 4 hours…
I thing the experiment was conclusive. Flasher 0 / Spoon 7 salmons… flashers no more… Fished the last hour on a spoon only program and more salmons saw the net on either side. We did not count; all fishes were released. Most salmons looked like keepers.
Found a pocket if water at 46.2F and took all fishes in this area. As usual; not a single boat in sight. Everyone seam to fish the shoreline far away.
we brought some of our ontario f/f and meat rigs to champ last year for our pre fishing frostbite fishing.we had at least one in the water for three days and i believe we only got one laker on a fly.this year we played around with dodger/fly setups with much better results,not so much with salmon,we did get a few,but definately worked for other species.didnt matter where we put it,it fired on riggers,divers,and cores.it seemed to help our rigger spread when it was parked on the deep rigger with spoons on the corner riggers above it.
Fished the last hour on a spoon only program and more salmons saw the net on either side. We did not count; all fishes were released. Most salmons looked like keepers.