Some friends of mine from Ketchikan and Juneau told me about the GSB's and how the kings were just tearing them up, so I had to give them a try. I ordered some of each type a size, but found the 6" Magnum Blue Glow worked the best for kings. Taking my friends advice on how to rig them, I tied up my leaders with 50 pound mono and two 5/0 Gamakatsu octopus hooks snelled as a solid tie. The leader length I used was 30" tied to a blue Hot Spot. I never would have thought that short of a leader was gong to be productive for kings, but it was unstoppable! I added a herring strip on the top hook and some Pro-Cure herring oil onto the flasher before splashing the gear. The best trolling speed I found was 2.2 to 2.5 knots. Now, after a while I had some kings get off after good hook ups so, I changed the bottom hook of the leader to a 6/0 Gamakatsu siwash and had better results.
Now, this is the first time I ever considered using a fly even though my friend, who was a fishing guide in Sitka, said flies were very effective on kings there. When my season was over August 30th, I had over 160 kings landed on my boat and only one caught on herring! I was completely blown away! Because this rig worked so well, I decided to do my own test with other rigs I had used before on kings just to see if this was just a coincidence. It wasn't at all. Still not totally convinced, I continued to switch up this fly with my other proven rigs, Ace Hi Fly, spoons, hoochies, and my old tail-less herring rig. I even switched sides of the boat, depth, stacked it over and under proven rigs and even ran it with the same size GSB, but in a different color. Still, the Blue Glow out fished all them. Now, I am not naive enough to think that this rig would fish the same next year,but I am sure anxious to see! I will never discount the effectiveness of the Ace Hi Fly which has always been my go to rig. In my line of work, you have to have several options at your fingertips.
Wrapping up here, I will say that the GSB's worked just as good on Silvers. Once again, out fishing spoons, which I typically combine with Ace Hi Flies on a regular basis. I hope that this is useful information and could possibly add another option to try.
Have a good week!
John Yeager
Alaska Charters & Adventures
http://www.wrangellalaskafishing.com
