To flash, or not to flash

I generally use something like this when I'm trolling in a lake.  Does stuff like this really help, or am I scaring fish off and making more work for myself?

I have better luck landing fish without all the dangly tangly hardware. 
Whether all the flash helps or not I have no clue. 

My last trout trolling trip I just towed around a few different styles of wet flies tipped with 1/4" of worm with no weight.  Trolled slow as I could .5 - 1.2mph via GPS.  I hooked my normal average, and landed all of them.  Later to lose 2 of them from my fish basket on my own personal stupidity.    

It really depends. Sometimes it's exactly what's getting fish to bite and sometimes it's what's spooking the fish. My advice is to start with or without the flashers and adjust to the conditions.

Z

I find them most usefull when fish are feeding competitively:
- Early spring when stockers are being dumped in lakes
- Offshore and in tidewater when the salmon are tearing thru bait balls

Depends if the Spring Breakin' hottie on the balcony is ready to give up that gorgeous set of beads or not.