The added speed of reeling often excites a coho into striking. Old hands at bucktailing such as Art Limber of Comox, British Columbia, who ties and sells thousands of bucktails each year, always try to keep their bucktails right in the prop wash. Art advises keeping your rod angle low with the rod pointing straight out the back of the boat. He fishes one fly twenty feet behind the boat. If a second rod is used, it will be placed low with its fly sixty feet behind the boat.
Art has several tricks that often spell the difference between fantasy and reality.
He switches to bucktails whenever a small chop builds. A one foot chop is ideal. When he finds that prefect chop, he trolls with the current or at a slight angle to the flow. Often he adds small weights to take the fly just beneath the surface. Another trick that will give you an edge is to add a small spinner blade in front of your bucktail.