This year I have been trying a new way of rigging flashers and herring while trolling that has worked out well. It has completely eliminated line twist in my mainline.

What I have been doing is running a 24" piece of 50# test between the top of my flasher and a bead chain, then tie my mainline to the chain. The stiffer line right above the flasher puts a more positive rotating force on the bead chain and helps it perform it's function more effectively.

Give it a shot!

Never had a problem with mainline twist. I've always put a sampo on my main line and just hook my flasher to the sampo. That sounds like a great idea though. Thanks for the tip!

I use a Sampo spliced between the dodger (never use flashers) and main line, but have never needed that heavy of test. Skyguy, maybe its because you troll so fast.

I've used wire leader with sampos on the ends before but not lately. If it's herring I'm pulling there is always a bead chain in the middle of the leader going to the hooks.

Sky-Guy,
That's an excellent idea!
I'll have to give that a try next time, so I can keep my main line nice and straight.

That does sound like a good idea. I utilize bead chains often and the heavier line makes alot of sense, above and below the flasher. Go big or go home, right?

Later

Something I like to do is use the sampo ballbearing snap swivel on my mainline and it clips to the flasher. I have two sampos in front of the flasher that way. The one on the flasher and the one on the snap swivel. I also either buy the commercial flashers with the sampo on both ends or put a bead chain on the bottom of the flasher if I am using a spoon or herring. The cheap flashers have the cheap swivels on the bottoms. I also get rid of the funny looking clip on the bottom of the cheap flashers. I change it out with a McMahon or duoclip snap swivel then the bead chain. My buddy broke that weird clip off out in the ocean this year with a fish on. I had that weird clip rotate around with the bead chain on it and the bad chain was resting on the clip where you unclip it. I didn't change that one out until then. I would have been in trouble because the next fish was a 30# king that was a bulldog fight that did not want to come in. It would have surely pulled that clip apart. I use 50# flor. leader below the flasher. Try this. Take a 1oz lead ball weight and add a 12" line up to a sampo swivel. Spin it. Now replace the sampo with another ball bearing swivel of any kind and try it. The sampo will spin for minutes while the other only lasts for seconds. Try it for yourself. I bought a bulk back of Sampos and was thinking of replacing all of the bead chains on a Grays Harbor/Columbia River setup. When the grass in these areas winds around your bead chain it then twists your line up. I am not sure if this will make much of a difference or not but would be worth a try.