The new superx 16's worked real well this year for upriver columbia springers and was wondering how other folks like them.

Did most of you flatline plunk?

We plunked in lower flows with good success and 3 foot plus droppers and 5foot leaders, but when flows were up the plugs dug into river bottom and we went to k14's.

What did everyone experience in terms of flatlining, plunking, and hookups?

Could not get them to run with a 2 ft dropper in water depths of 11-16 ft. Did just fine flat-lining them at those depths. Went one for two on hookups. Not much of a sample size. Can't wait to try flat-lining them on the Kenai.

Sounds like I'm not alone. Trustworthy Hardware in Soldotna sold out their entire initial 800-plug order of K16-X's and the season has yet to begin in earnest.

Was curious how you rig a dropper? What does 2 ft dropper mean? Is that like a triple swivel with 2 ft of line going from the middle of the swivel to a weight? And how much weight? Thanks in advance

fishnphysician, when you say you couldn't get them to run, do you mean that the action would appear erratic? We experienced erractic action on dropper also, but the odd thing is that they still picked up fish. We were beginning to think that the erractic action (dive into bottom and float up) triggered bites.

I started running a 3 foot dropper and in lighter water they seemed to be in the zone. Not a huge sample size this year, but had a 16x that accounted for 14 take downs during 6 trips. One note of interest is that we found that many fish were hitting the tail of the plug and we would occassionally get a take-down, but no solid hookup. I extend the tail hook with snap rings and barrel swivel and this seemed to work well.

A lot of fisherman were flat lining this year, but we couldn't get over the hump of having confidence that the plugs were in the zone. Guess we just need some more positive reinforcement.

You mentioned on a previous post that you did a side by side comparison between the 16x and old 16's. Have you notice much difference in action?

We only made it down 4 times this spring and had a wrapped X-16 on the center rod all 4 times without any weight on it. Our 2 outside rods had whole herring with a 3'dropper and a 5' leader. We trolled down current probably 70% of the time and cross current the other 30%. The quickie only spun out a couple of times going cross current. We used the "double trouble" and "CA watermelon" colors and caught fish on both colors. The herring rods had a few more strikes than the quickie, but not many more. We rarely trolled in more than 20' of water, and were really working on the 10'-16' depths. Springers are usually shallower than fall fish so I'd guess that if we give it a go in the fall we'll have to rig an X off a dropper rig.
Before then I'll give them a try up on the Fraser bars in BC.

steelhead nympher

What you said is exactly right... with a 2 ft dropper, the plug would run into the bottom and stop wiggling, then float up for a few seconds and start dancing again, only to die a few seconds later. Felt like the plug was not fishing at least half the time. Didn't try the 3 ft dropper thing, but instead chose to go with the flat-lining method.

The K16-X definitely gets into the zone in upto 16 ft of water (didn't try anything deeper). If in doubt, here's the way to know if you are "in the zone" with any Kwikfish.

When you freespool the plug on the surface downriver and click the reel over, the plug will immediately "bite" into the current and pull very hard and erratically. Down she goes! When the plug starts to slow down and the tension on the rod eases up... you are there.

Your plug will be thumping along at a seductive 4-5 pulses per second when it reaches the softer, slower water near the bottom. If your plug never slows down, then you are stuck somewhere higher in the water column... in other words, you ain't fishin'.

If this happens, you can try letting out a little more line to give the plug a little more leash to reach the zone. If you're still not there after two more passes across the levelwind, then flat-lining ain't gonna work. Time to break out your cannonballs or jet divers. Same principle applies with the diver... if the plug doesn't slow down and the tension on the rod doesn't ease up, you didn't make it into the zone.

Hope that helps.

ADDENDUM: Oh yeah, regarding action.... the newer design definitely has a wider wobble that really puts a deep throb right into the butt of the rod. Like night and day!

good explanation PP,
how far out were your kwikies when you were getting that nice rythmic beat that we strive for?

I havent picked any up yet but might grab a few for the fall time.

I start with as little as 6 passes across the levelwind on a fully-spooled ABU 6500. Rarely do I go more than 8 passes. Sometimes it just depends on how much boat congestion surrounds me.

Sometimes it's pretty cool to pluck a big hawg right underneath the boat fishing just downriver from me.