Well here is something that I a friend and I have been doing........ We have a nice little cable hooked directly to the ball with some good swivels.. at the end approx (15 ft back) we have another good quality swivel with the flasher hooked up to it.. a dodger or anything.... We drop that down approx 5ft Then we hook on the quick release for the line.. we let out about 20-30 ft of line. (sometimes it is better to have it closer sometimes farther back..) Then hook it on and drop it to the depth you want.. Theory is the flasher attracts and then when the fish are backing off they see the bait. Mostly we use this on plugs and herring. We have had fairly good luck with this method. and no flasher to deal with drag.. very nice.
dave