Northwest Fishing Reports

This year I am tring to update my tackel box are there any plugs that are realy good for trout specificaly bows.

Flatfish...Don't fish spinners/spoons much anymore...
Hotshots have their spot in my tackle box, but I'm always fishing those Flatfish and it knocks the trout dead

Sam Kafelafish wrote:Flatfish...Don't fish spinners/spoons much anymore...
Hotshots have their spot in my tackle box, but I'm always fishing those Flatfish and it knocks the trout dead

what colors work the best?

I fish with needflish and kastmasters quite a bite. I hear that for flatfish red is the ticket. But I'm sure you can't go wrong with silver, gold, rainbow, etc. Good luck this upcoming season.

Flouro Red with black spots in the F4 size.
Here are the 3 I like best: Coachdog flatfish, red with black spots and a rainbow trout hotshot. Swap out those crappy trebles and put some Gamakatsu size 8 siwashes on them if your using an F4 size or size 70 for Hotshot.

Here's a whole list of the different colors, I've since added another 3 or 4 to my arsenal...

These are straight out of the package for the most part, I unpackaged em then took the picture. Shortly after I swapped out those trebles on most of those flatfish and hotshots...I have no desire for those little trebles and feel that going with a single siwash connected via the split ring greatly helps your hookup ratio and it's much easier for a fish to spit a treble hook.

They take some learning, much more then standard spoons spinners, but in my case, when I figured it out, I find that I outfish spinners/spoons 95% of the time with flatfish...

SmokinAces wrote:I fish with needflish and kastmasters quite a bite. I hear that for flatfish red is the ticket. But I'm sure you can't go wrong with silver, gold, rainbow, etc. Good luck this upcoming season.

I've found that red works well in murky/muddy water with less visibility however in clearer water a frog pattern is killer.

Does anyone fish these behind flashers or pop gear? I have contemplated doing this but don't know it it would work.

Derrick-k wrote:

SmokinAces wrote:I fish with needflish and kastmasters quite a bite. I hear that for flatfish red is the ticket. But I'm sure you can't go wrong with silver, gold, rainbow, etc. Good luck this upcoming season.

I've found that red works well in murky/muddy water with less visibility however in clearer water a frog pattern is killer.

Does anyone fish these behind flashers or pop gear? I have contemplated doing this but don't know it it would work.

I'm not a fan of pulling plugs behind pop gear...Small spinners/spoons in certain instances, yes, but not with plugs..
I do better without pop gear...

Frog pattern and red with black dots are by far the most productive flatfish. Rainbow trout, silver and gold hot shots in the smallest sizes are also great. One of the best plugs that I use other than these is the Pins Minnow, the smallest sizes of these absolutely destroy the bows. Best color for the Pins Minnow is black back with silver sides, I believe Yo Zuri is the maker.

would any of you ever tip the hooks of a plug with something like worm, powerbait etc? Kinda like you would do with a wedding ring?

Yes. Whenever allowed, try and tip your hook with a 1/2 inch of worm or smother it in some sort of scent...

I put down the fly pole today to take my nephew fishing and picked up some of those flat fish and kwikfish as Sam suggessted.I forgot to change the hooks out.After I lost about two or three I switched em out and it worked like a champ I used a red kwik fish and was knocking them dead.Thanks Sam for the info on these things they worked great.:thumleft:

shawn wrote:I put down the fly pole today to take my nephew fishing and picked up some of those flat fish and kwikfish as Sam suggessted.I forgot to change the hooks out.After I lost about two or three I switched em out and it worked like a champ I used a red kwik fish and was knocking them dead.Thanks Sam for the info on these things they worked great.:thumleft:

Glad they worked for ya.
Those trebles never seem to stick in those fish like a single hook does.
Lemme know if anyone has anymore questions regarding flatfish/hotshot usage...

Great info guys. Also great pic Sam, that helps alot. I have always had the frog pattern flatfish in my box. I will p/u a few red/blk dot, and rainbow. I also use the rebel mini craw in red and green, both have produced well for me. Good post.

LOL I tried out some of those Kwikfish today. I had a hard time locating F4 size "Flatfish". All I could find were F3s and F5s, at both Sportsman Warehouse and Sportco. But Kwikfish had the dark orange/redish/blackdot and cracked frog combos in F4.

I used them to cast..., instead of trolling off the dock at Lake Meridian today for about an hr and a half.. Used a 1/4oz egg lure, bead, barrel swivel, 2 ft of line, snap, lure.

Casted far enough to be effective. Caught 3 little planters. Missed 2. All on the orange/black dots. The frog pattern did not produce.

I didnt have any problems with tangles. But, I did have some problems with having the lure run true. A few times, I was reeling to fast and saw the lure doing barrel rolls.

I couldnt get any bites on my kastmasters. But a guy next to me was throwing what appeared to be a 1/4oz orange/silver kastmaster and caught 1 small planter. He said he had 2 other bites but missed.


Also, I didnt change out the single treble hook. Seemed to work just fine. I didnt have any size 8 siwash though to test.


PS, Sam, what size are those hot shots?

70