Sometimes the point of having the flasher is to impart action, not just to attract fish, although it does that too. Particularly with a hoochie, action like you get with a Hotspot is real important - you wouldn't get the same result with a Fishflash or if you hung the flasher on the wire.

Lately when I've had a buddy on board I've been fishing one rod with a flasher and one without, using an active lure like a Coyote spoon on the rod without the flasher, and it seems like we both get bites. I particularly do this with my wife, and she really hates yarding in that flasher. Of course, she hooks more fish than me no matter what she's doing, so the results otherwise may vary

Now for sockeye fishing, that's where I really load up the wires with flashers. Basically, I use Fishflash or Herring Dodgers, as they don't deflect and tangle like Hotspots do, I put them on a 4 foot line and space them 5 feet apart with halibut snaps. I then put the lines with dodgers and bare hooks above them. My typical Lake Washington rig uses flashers all the way to the the bottom of the school with lines located near the top of the school - at times I have put 6 dummy flashers on each line at 5 foot intervals to cover everything. But for sockeye I never even pull the wires out of the water - it would be a reall mess doing that for king fishing