Secret Weapon for Salmon?

I suspect few if any anglers have ever used a dredge while trolling off British Columbia for salmon. We did. I brought a Tournament Cable (www.tournamentcable.com) dredge rigged with holographic ballyhoo (just think herring with a beak, right?). We attached it to the right-side downrigger ball and ran the bait just above and behind it. It sure did look the part: As the dredge went down in the green depths, it looked for all the world like a school of diving herring. The left side ran with no dredge. While our sample size is too small to be reliable, it's worth considering that of eight salmon, seven came on the "dredge rod" (and the eighth grabbed a bait from the left side while the dredge wasn't in use!). So take it as you will — but next visit to the Northwest, you can be sure the dredge comes with me.