The dodger thing is an effective technique, no doubt about it. About 10 years ago, when the Roosevelt kokanee fishery was just heating up, we used small dodgers (the smaller two sizes made by Worden's Lures and not Luhr Jensen) off a flat line with whatever lure you wanted. No weight as we were fishing in winter and the kokes, rainbows and chinook were all right on the surface or close to it.

For the old timers on Roosevelt, the Carey Special was a standby and may still be. The guys would troll it behind leadcore with no attractor of any kind and usually tip it with a piece of nightcrawler. Never did hear about the long-shank/short-body tie, but I was into using small Spin N Glos and the Rooster Tail Lite spinners behind the dodger.

After a bit, people started adding stinger hooks to the Carey Special, and they adapted the fly a bit.

I can't help but think that the same method might not work here on some of the larger lakes that have fairly big trout in them. I should have tried it for chums in the salt this year... but it's awfully hard to do everything. Once I discovered chums on fly gear, the world changed.

Keith