Fishing Articles
Drift Fishing: Anyone Can Do It
He told me that it was his very first hookup even
though he fought the fish like a Pro
Timothy Kusherets
This is Jim fighting his very first freshwater salmon after fifteen
minutes of tutelage! He had been struggling for over three years without
garnering a single fish. Most of his problems stemmed from not having
basic drift-fishing information and the right gear. Using my backup
gear I re-outfitted him with the tools necessary to immediately hit
into fish. Jim hit into more fish that week than any other ten men on
the river culminating into one spectacular catch which weighed in at
over forty-pounds! He tells me that my book has been dog-eared to death
since then.
Anyone can drift-fish. It doesn’t matter how tall you are or
how much experience you have. If you can read you can drift-fish…it’s
that easy. All any fisherman needs is some basic gear and simple instruction
to begin hooking into fish. There’s nothing complicated about
how to drift fish, but many frustrated anglers I’ve run across
would beg to differ with me “before” fishing and believe
it “afterwards”. I’ve always preached the ease of
this fishing application and give clinics along rivers and tributaries
all the time. As a matter of fact, there was an occasion that I met
two people the proved just how easy it can be and that you get out of
it what you’re willing to put into it.
I met Joe and his grandfather on a river towards the end of a fall day.
Both of them came sauntering out of the woods to fish the same bank
that I’d been pounding for a few hours. The fishing was outstanding
and both of them seemed relieved to see that there was some productive
signs at the surface. Being a good neighbor, both of them commenced
to fishing well downriver from me. There was so much activity in the
water it didn’t matter where they cast, opportunities were going
to be the same regardless. They had been there two hours and the sun
was just dipping below the treetops, when Joe came over to me. He wanted
to know how I was able to land six fish within the time they’d
been on the water and they had gotten nothing. He told me that he and
his grandfather had been to three other rivers that were supposed to
produce and none of them had. Joe told me that his grandfather was convinced
that some “fishermen” had lied to him about where and how
to fish for the salmon, though he confessed to not knowing why some
people would go through all that trouble. He asked me if I wouldn’t
mind taking a look at his gear and perhaps parting with some knowledge
that might help the two of them out. It was no problem.
It was typical to see that much of the gear they were using was too
heavy and big. It doesn’t’ take a whole lot of line and
big hooks to get fish on the bite while drift fishing. Smaller diameter
fishing line, small hooks, and natural looking offerings get fish biting
even in the face of heavy fishing pressure. Since I had plenty of backup
gear I decided to share some with Joe and he in turn could impart this
to his grandfather who had relegated his time to fishing and watching
the two of us at the same time, completely disregarding the water and
how to fish it.
In about ten minutes Joe’s gear was changed out for some highly
visible mainline, slinky weight system, invisible leader, No. 2 hook,
and No. 10 Pink Luminescent corkie. I added some of my secret sauce
to the end of the hook over some yarn and instructed him on how to cast.
The funny thing about Joe was that he interpreted instruction very literally,
so when he was told to cast upstream just slightly parallel to the shoreline
he did. He cast into about three inches of water just off the bank directly
upriver. It was funny to see and gave me an insight into how his thought
processes worked. I apologized for not being specific enough and told
him that he should cast out to a fallen log and fish the seam that paralleled
the shoreline on the opposite side of the river; this was something
he absolutely understood, which was proven by his perfect presentation.
The moment his weight hit the water, he flipped over the bail, mended
his line, and then put his forefinger on the mainline to add to sensitivity.
The first cast didn’t produce any strikes, but the way he cast
and the drift presentation that his offering gave him confidence to
cast the second time without saying a word. Joe cast a grand total of
three times before hooking into his first fish. It was a huge salmon
tail-walking on the surface! He was panic stricken!
“What do I do?” It was all he could mutter at the beginning
of the battle.
I talked him through the entire fight letting him know when to go downstream
with it and when to stand his ground. He fought the salmon nearly perfectly.
It was a though he had done it hundreds of times before, but later he
told me that it was his very first hookup.
Grandpa couldn’t take it. He had watched his grandson string up
the fish and didn’t give him time to get down to where he had
been fishing to share the information.
“Well, for God’s sake! Are you going to tell me how to get
a fish too!”
He was incensed, but not at Joe. Grandpa was looking me dead in the
eyes and angry as all get out. I didn’t even get a chance to respond
before he lambasted me with foul language that would embarrass anyone.
Gritting my teeth, and for the sake of good sportsmanship, I calmly
told him that I would help. To me, it was funny that Joe hadn’t
said a single thing in my defense, but this was something I could easily
forgive. His grandfather had a similar setup that he had in the beginning
so changing out all his gear was faster than it had been for Joe.
In an effort to share even more information, I took the time to go into
greater detail of how and why these techniques worked. Grandpa took
one look at me and said at the top of his lungs “I didn’t
ask for a lecture! I only want to know what the heck you’re doing
to get those damned fish on the hook! I don’t care how it works!
Just let go of the line when you’re ready and leave me alone!
Is that too much to ask? WELL, IS IT?”, so I shut up and said
nothing else.
Every bit of gear that I shared with Joe went onto the same setup that
I geared Grandpa up with, but knew that a storm was coming. There was
some elements of casting, drifting, and hook-setting that I wanted to
tell him about, but his short temper stifled me fast. He wasn’t
going to catch a thing and I was through helping him. Joe, however,
continued to catch fish. He was hooking into them so routinely that
I had to quickly educate him on sportsmanship and to let all other fish
go that he didn’t intend to keep. So, not only did he hook into
his very firsts fish he had also instantly become a catch-and-release
angler. It was a spectacular sight, that is, until my gaze went downstream
to raging grandpa.
He was beating the water! Making short casts, it looked as though he
was trying to snag every fish that dared jump in front of him. The man
was cursing a blue streak! I began to doubt that anyone had lied to
him at all. It looked more like he just wasn’t patient enough
to learn, and that’s it. Joe and his grandfather were about as
different as two family members could be. Joe was mature enough to take
the necessary time to learn and to ask questions that came along with
instructions. The single most amazing thing to me about Joe was that
he was seven years old and had never handled a fishing rod before that
day. I was so impressed with his ability to learn that I even let him
fish with my Noodle rod long enough for him to catch two fish.
It was a pleasurable experience with Joe, so much so, that it doesn’t
really bother me to think about his grandfather. Both of them had helped
to prove a point I’ve been hitting home for over twenty-five years.
“Drift-Fishing is incredibly easy and doesn’t take that
much time to learn, and gatehring up the gear doesn't cost that much
either. Anyone, and I mean anyone, can learn the basics of drift-fishing
within the span of a few minutes.”
 Jennifer
shows her very first egg-loop and she did it on her first attempt at
it. Having absolutely no fishing experience she has just tied a perfect
knot for drift-fishing which was learned from following the instructions
of “Steelhead & Salmon Drift-Fishing Secrets”.
 Here
an angler shows off a perfectly chrome salmon caught using drift-fishing
techniques. It was his first day on that reach of water.
Battling a salmon on the hook, Mike here successfully hooks into four
consecutive fish while drifting spoons for the very first time. Notice
the stringer that’s tied to him, three fish are strung up as the
fourth flails about on the end of his line. Later on he confided that
other fishermen wanted to know his old-time secrets and how long he
had been fishing. He told the inquisitive anglers that I was his instructor
and that it was his very first day, so they beat feet over to me and
we had a clinic right there on the water and soon everyone was hitting
into fish.
© Timothy Kusherets, 2008/09 |
