TOPIC:

Just a poll for everyone on whether they run them or not.  If you do- 11” or 8” flashers?  Any luck on them as summer moves on?  Tips and tricks?  Planning on running them this weekend just for kicks.  Personally I used them on one outing in St Joe last year with no luck on 11” Oki flashers.  

We've been running them for a few years. They have their days and If kings are around, we usually have at least one meat rig in the water.  We run both the 8" and 10" Spin Doctors.  They seem to work when the kings first show in the spring and then again late summer/early fall if you can find kings. We occasionally catch steelhead, coho and trout on them also. This year we have taken a few kings on meat but have done better on spoons and flasher fly combinations.    Big king in the Cabin Fever Tournament came on a meat rig.   

StormJunkie wrote:

We've been running them for a few years. They have their days and If kings are around, we usually have at least one meat rig in the water.  We run both the 8" and 10" Spin Doctors.  They seem to work when the kings first show in the spring and then again late summer/early fall if you can find kings. We occasionally catch steelhead, coho and trout on them also. This year we have taken a few kings on meat but have done better on spoons and flasher fly combinations.    Big king in the Cabin Fever Tournament came on a meat rig.   

I echo everything you just said Dave.

Yep to above.  Problem with running 1 or 2 meat rigs is the ideal speed they like to run.  Ideally 2.1 - 2.3 is where they work best.  This may be too slow for the rest of the spread to be ideal.  In N Michigan and Wi they load up with a full spread of meat when their Kings are around and they troll the necessary speed to make it work.  I have used meat and caught some
great fish.  Just something to consider.

I have run them and have caught fish with them but they are tough for us guys with smaller boats in my opinion. A few things I've found for me.  They work best for me on Diver rigs.  That means when using them with the long leader with the twinkies on them, a big flasher, the leader between the flasher and the diver - when the diver is up to the rod tip, the fish is still about 9 feet out of net range. How do you store these rigs when they are in the tackle box?  Is it okay to refreeze unused meat strips?  Should I salt the herring strips, put bleach or bluing on them or borax?  Some people do. Do fish like bleach or borax? 

A couple things I've found - running a meathead/and herring strip without the long leader and twinkie flies works. Just hang it back 30 inches or so behind a dodger or flasher and they work okay on riggers or long lines.  

Actually, two of the big things that make meat rigs work is the spinning, twirling meat head and strip is attractive to salmon and trout. Also, the meat is supposed to leave a scent trail for the fish to home in on like a shark following bleeding scuba diver.  So I've switched to Yakima SpinFish lures. I stuff them with sardines, usually. I have used nightcrawlers and barfed up fresh alewives successfully. Was it the scent or the action?  I don't know. The hard thing right now is to find them.  Between the supply chain issues/covid shutdowns and West Coast anglers buying them by the dozen, they are hard to find.  I use them plain at times but usually put them behind a flasher.  

When we run 2.0 to 2.0 have having problems with lure action I switch some spoons to Lucky Lures or other light thin spoons.

BNature said:  "How do you store these rigs when they are in the tackle box?  Is it okay to refreeze unused meat strips?  Should I salt the herring strips, put bleach or bluing on them or borax?  Some people do. Do fish like bleach or borax?"       
I can only speak for myself and others I have fished with. We store our meat rigs attached to the flasher using a 6" piece of swim noodle. Cut the noodle to size and slice it open on one side. Tuck the edge of the flasher into the slot on the noodle and wind the twinkie rig and head around the noodle.  You can store 4 to 6 complete rigs in a flasher fly sized Plano box. 
We refreeze our meat strips and occasionally keep used strips if they are still in good shape at the end of the day. Once you catch a fish on a meat strip it is usually done.
We run our meat rigs on dipsies but when offshore will also run them on deep coppers. In front of the harbor when fish are staging, we run them on dipsies and leadcore. 
I am fortunate I fish on a boat where you can take a walk forward when netting a fish. I have fished on boats that use 15 - 20 foot leaders on dipsies and the fish have to be hand lined to the net. I would advise using slide divers on smaller boats to make netting easier, we use both on our boat.
The strips we use are pre packaged and brined so there is no need to cure them. Use them out of the package. You can buy prepackaged cut bait at Chiefs in Michigan City,
If you plan on using fresh bait such as alewives, they don't hold up well unless brined. The salt in the brine sucks the fluid out of the meat and toughens it. Borax helps preserve it and I'm not sure about using bleach but I have heard it brightens the scales. Here is a good article for reference on using cut bait and recipes for brining.   Curing (leeroysramblings.com)  

Meat rigs work,,,,,
a few years back I had a friend introduce me to meat rigging. We had been fishing out in 115ft for a few weeks and doing well. But the bite seemed to die off around the same time in the morning. My friend put on a large paddle and meat rig dropped it down 60ft on the rigger and before he could turn around it was fish on!!!!
Our experience has shown it is probably the most aggressive bite we have seen when meat rigging. When the fish want them it hard to find something better.
And it isn't just a king thing. All the fish like them. We have run them off riggers, long coppers etc.
Like other items they have their day, we usually will have one out. If there on, we will move a few more into the spread.
 

We store ours the same way Dave.

We had a monster king on a wire diver back 160  on a brand new Musselhead Glow Meat Rig during the Powder Puff today........and he straightened out one of the trebles.  You talk about one unhappy Lady......ugh . Shit happens to us, but damn when it happens to one of the wives, that is damn frustrating beyond belief - especially when it happens on a really tough day.

Ouch!  Sorry to hear that Jeff.   That's why we run meat and that's why they call them Kings.