5/16/2008

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.

Ron battles a huge salmon he hooked into after drifting the seam of a slot on the far side of this river. Primarily a saltwater angler, this fisherman shows that with basic freshwater information drift-fishing can be very productive. He is turning out to be one of the best drift-fishing anglers anywhere. With his growing knowledge of reading water he can quickly identify any reach capable of holding fish and that translates into reliable hookups.

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.