Drift Fishing - How to Drift Fish: Steelhead and Salmon

I grew up drift fishing. It's a technique used by all fisherman, no matter the species, to catch fish. This should be one of the first techniques any fisherman learns. The idea is to give your bait a "tumbling" presentation as it floats down the river. You can find some information about rods here under my Get The Right Fishing Rod  post and a reels here under my Get The Right Fishing Reel post. Lets start with a shopping list:

Hooks: 

• For steelhead from size 2 to 1/0. Salmon 2/0 to 4/0. DO NOT buy cheap hooks. Spend some money. This will prevent the hook from bending out. No one wants to loose a fish to that. Also learn how to tie your own egg loops. Get yourself a leader storage container. Tie a bunch of pre-made leaders and be ready to go fishing. Egg loops are important to keep bait on. You can find out how to tie your own egg loops here: Link

Floats: 

• This isn't bobber or floats. This is corkies, foam balls, cheaters, and anything that keeps your bait suspended of the bottom. 

Weight: 

• Hollow core is the best here. Fill your box with assorted lengths. These can be easily snipped so that you can adjust the amount of weight you need to get to the bottom of the river. A snap swivel with a tag lead is the way to do it. About 1" of tag line is good to crimp your weight too. Thread the tag end through the hollow core and crimp it with a pair of pliers. This way if you snag bottom, you just pull the weight off without loosing your set up. It keeps your rigging time low and keeps our rivers free of line. Remember keep your rivers clean.

Swivels: 

• There's a couple different swivels you can use as far as the weight goes. You can do a 3 way swivel, tie your tag line to one eye and your leader to another. Or you can do a snap swivel that slides up and down your mainline with your mainline and leader connected to a barrel swivel. I prefer the snap swivel method with a bead between my snap swivel and barrel swivel. With a free moving weight, your bait can adjust to the contours of the river bottom. 

Line and Leader 

• It's good to stick to a mono line throughout the set up. This isn't like float fishing where your main line isn't in the water. Mono appears invisible in the water. Steelhead and Salmon can be line shy, especially in clear conditions. 10-15lb is good for Steelhead. Salmon depends on the species. 20-25lb is a safe bet. 

Corkie's, yarn balls, and foam float balls

Weight, swivels, beads and hooks. The Basics

Pre tied egg loops with corkies attached. Good to be prepared.

When you cast your freshly tied drift rig out, cast slightly upstream, but not to far upstream. If you cast to far upstream you'll hit bottom to fast and your bait won't be in the sweet spot. You want to "feel" your weight tagging the bottom as it drifts out in front of you. It's important that its tapping the bottom. You don't want it sitting on the bottom dragging through the rocks. If your properly fishing a drifting set up, it will feel like your "ticking" the bottom. This is ideal. If it drags or hangs up, reel in, snip some weight off your pencil lead, and try again.

Your presentation should resemble "food" tumbling through the current. If your weight is snagging on the bottom your bait is essentially stopping on the bottom, not appearing "natural." This is a proven technique and works. Once you've perfected it, you'll be pulling in more fish in no time. But remember practice makes perfect. It can get frustrating in the beginning.

For other tips and advice, check my links below. Not only is it informative, but will get you going in the right direction!

USEFUL LINKS

Get the Right Fishing Reel
Get the Right Fishing Rod
Fishing Gear: For the Elements
Tackle Basics: The Must Have Tools
Drift Fishing: A How-To Guide
Float Fishing: A How-To Guide

Questions? Comments?
Contact me at patrichvr@gmail.com

*Disclaimer: Products are based on personal recommendation. 

My First Trip, Can We Say Disappointing?

So I hit the river solo for the first time in 7 years in search of some late winter steelhead. Fishing reports were great and I had high hopes for catching late season winter steelhead. The weather was amazing and the river was buzzing with numerous fishermen hoping to set a hook on one of Oregon’s best fisheries: Steelhead.  Unfortunately the rapid decreasing water flow, pressure, and super clear conditions made for a poor day of fishing. It was hard to find a deep hole that wasn’t being fished by someone else, or flat out didn’t produce any fish.  

 I’m a novice fisherman in the Northwest at best, with all my expertise being in Eastern Oregon trout and warm water fisheries. I was trying new jigs and recommended baits and lures, even exploring some on my own. This is one jig I would never recommend to anyone. As anyone in Oregon knows, most of our rivers are rocky. And in order to fish these rivers you have to fish the rocks. It’s common sense. This rule applies to almost all river fishing situations.  I was deeply disappointed in some jigs I had purchased for my fishing trip. Specifically Beau Mac’s Marabou 1/8oz. jigs.

These are beautifully crafted jigs. Don’t get me wrong. But here was my issue. I noticed while exploring different depths in new fishing holes, I noticed that after 3 or 4 casts the paint was chipping of the heads of the jigs while I was adjusting my float to the proper depth. This was in slow and fast moving water. Even in deep holes where boulders are common. I fished a hole that was 12 plus feet deep and still had paint chipping off on the jig head itself.  This was a disappointment. With a price point between $2.19 and 2.99 a piece, you would expect a little better durability out of these jigs. I do not reccomend these jigs to the new angler on a new river. I'm sure people have great success with these jigs, but if your a novice don't try these.

Jig fresh out of the package compared to a fished jig

Damaged Jig after 3-5 casts

As a beginner, this becomes very disappointing. You’re trying to “learn” the water and catch fish at the same time. But I found myself upset with this jigs performance. Especially as a beginner. Going through ten jigs in one day not only hurts your wallet, but leaves a bad impression on your trip as well as a product. You can’t miss these jigs in any sporting goods store. There in a bright orange package, drawing the angler to their product. They even fooled me. When you look at the shelf your eyes naturally drawn to the distinctive packaging. I thought “Oooooo…. shiny…” This was a mistake. I made an even larger mistake by not picking up there competitors jigs. And thus putting myself in a situation where I shot myself in the foot. 

On a sunny day like we had this weekend and clear water conditions, this makes for a very poor presentation in the water.  When I switched to a pink worm on a Gamakatsu jig head, (1/8oz. and 1/16oz.) I had zero issue with paint coming off the jig head and they fished wonderfully. I had my two bites on this set up. One early A.M. with about a 10 second hook-up (which apparently wasn’t set well enough) and another hard hit while I was drift fishing, (this time without a jig-head) but missed the hook set while trying to move down some rocks along the bank.

All in all, it was a beautiful day out on the water. I had high hopes in getting some tight line, but we all get skunked once in a while. Although steelhead fishing will almost become nonexistent as we move through April, spring Chinook is just around the corner. Stay tuned and follow me as I fish the Northwest as a novice. Stop by to get tips and advice as I figure things out on my own. 


For other tips and advice, check my links below. Not only is it informative, but will get you going in the right direction!

USEFUL LINKS

Get the Right Fishing Reel
Get the Right Fishing Rod
Fishing Gear: For the Elements
Tackle Basics: The Must Have Tools
Drift Fishing: A How-To Guide
Float Fishing: A How To Guide

Questions? Comments? 
Contact me at patrickhvr@gmail.com

*Disclaimer: Products are based on personal recommendation.