Side Drifting For Steelhead
Side Drifting For Winter and Summer Run Steelhead
(Boondogging)
Long gone are the days of heavy bait casting reels and broomstick rods. The technology in the past 25 to 30 years with graphite rods a new style of fishing has come of age, side drifting. With 9 ½ ft ultralite (4-8) or 9 ft light (6-10) spinning rods spooled with 8-10 lb main line.
Using a lighter lead or slinky you can obtain a more natural presentation, this results in more hookups.
Side Drifting Tackle
Gloomis rods like the GL2-1141 or the STR 1162 steelhead series cast the small weights easily. These rods have plenty of sensitivity and enough backbone to land the biggest of steelhead .You’ll want to rig your rod with 2500-3000 size reels. These reels will hold 120-140 yds of Hivis monophiiment You ask Hivis why?
It acts like a laser pointer showing the angler, boat operator and other anglers exactly where your line enters the water, which is a must for keeping the bait in the strike zone. Using a clear line on a snowy day or sunny one you’ll wish you had the Hivis line.
On the business end of things I rig my double hook rigs with #4 hooks on the bottom a cheater and a #2 hook on top .The cheater has the right amount of buoyancy to keep the bait in the face of the steelhead. In cloudy or off colored water I use 3-4 ft leader, clear water 4-6 ft leaders. Use 2lb lighter leader than the mainline.
In January – April when the large native steelhead are in I prefer to use single #2 hooks with puff ball & bait or yarnball. Single hooks will much reduce the mortality rate.
Getting Down To the Bottom Of Things
I use both slinky and pencil lead. Slinkys in smaller coastal rivers and pencil lead in the larger rivers of Puget Sound and Columbia River Tributaries. Both will work in either. It is a must to have your slinkys premade and lead precut.
Use larger size shot in slinkys for bigger rivers (240) 3-10 beads. Slinkys for smaller rivers (190) 3-10 beads. Pencil lead cut in sizes starting at ¾” up to 3”, you can punch a whole or use the old school surgical tubing method both work well.
Standard old school drift fishing the boat was anchored, with side drifting the boat is moving downstream with the bait. This allows for a more natural presentation and a much lighter lead is needed to keep the bait in the strike zone.
Keepin Everything Current
Keeping in mind the current in the fish zone on the river bottom is slower than the surface. The boat should slow just enough allowing the lead to hit the bottom every few feet. Sometimes if you’re not ticking every few feet you can actually reset you’re by lifting your rod to an 11 o’clock position at a moderate speed then slowly lowering it.
This will work most of the time .Having talked about lead earlier in the article I won’t get into lengths but I will mention if you can’t get to the bottom step up your lead size in ¼” increments.
Let’s Get Fishin'!
OK now that everything’s set and the boats moving down stream just slightly slower than the current, this next part varies a little from a drift boat to a jet boat. In a jet boat the angler nearest to the stern cast first at a 45 degree angle. The next angler casts at the same angle as the first and so forth. The casts should be about 10-15 ft apart .In a drift boat if both anglers are in the stern they must decide who the first caster will be on the water.
Alright now that the lines are in the water, the boats moving down stream, the boats kept in line with the kicker or oars and the lines are at a 45 degree angle upstream. This allows for someone who’s never been steelheading before to hookup their first steelhead. The boat actually pulls the hook into the corner of the fish’s mouth.
Keepin' The Right Angles
It’s important to keep the 45 degree upstream angle. If the lines are parallel to the boat your dragging the lines to much. If the lines get to far downstream the boat has to catch up with the fish. By the time this happens it’s too late, you missed the bite the fish is gone. Another result of this is snagging up.
Now let’s get out there and get some!!!!!!!!.