by Uncle Wes, January 15, 2005

This week I’ll be covering drift fishing from the bank. But first let’s have a quick review on covering the run.

I always start working the run from tail-out and slowly work my way to the beginning or the run, no matter what angling method I use (except for plunking and we will cover that next week). There are several different methods used for drift fishing from the bank and we will cover a few of them today, and I will not get caught up in technical terms. Rather, I will try and make this as easy to understand as possible.

Now, for the most part, your set-up is always the same – the only difference is what you choose to use. As I have said before, bait usually catches 80 percent of the steelhead, so we will cover a few of these set-ups.

The first one will be wing-bobber and eggs. I like to start with a three-way swivel. Set it in front of you so it forms a “T”. From there, attach your main line to the left side of the “T” and now move to your right side of your “T” and attach the leader from your wing-bobber. The next step is to attach a dropper leader to the bottom of your “T”.

Now, onto the wing-bobber set-up and your drop leader. I like to use about 32 inches of leader and I will attach the hook using a egg loop knot. I slide a size four or six plastic bead, depending on the size of the wing-bobber I’m using. This plastic bead acts as a bearing, allowing the wing-bobber to spin freely. I then slide this plastic bead down to the hook. Next, just slide your wing-bobber down to the colored plastic bead making sure the plastic bead is large enough to act as a bearing. Then attach your eggs by running the hook through the clump of eggs and using your egg loop to secure your eggs to the hook. Some folks also wrap their eggs in cheesecloth or egg netting, run the hook through the eggs and put the egg loop around the eggs.

Now the dropper line: This is a really simple set-up and I like to use it because I don’t lose my whole set-up when I get hung up. My dropper line is between six and eight inches long. I attach this to the bottom part of the “T” on the three-way swivel and tie a knot at the very end. I then attach my split shot towards the end with the knot in it. I prefer using a #4 split shot. I attach as many as it takes to bounce along the bottom without holding bottom. Now, if it does hang up I find that I generally only lose a split shot or two.

Corky set-up: Now this set-up is the same as the wing-bobber set-up except you use a corky instead of the wing-bobber and plastic bead. Be sure the corky is large enough to keep the eggs off of the bottom.

Fishing this set-up: Once again this will be a basic lesson and can only be improved by the amount of time spent on the water and building your experience and confidence. Let’s keep in mind the whole point of this method is to drift your set-up through the run in as natural and slow presentation as possible. As far as what weight to start out with, that will come with experience. For me, I will start out with two number 4 split shot. I will cast out to the edge of the tail-out closest to me and then cast out a little further into the tail-out until I’ve covered the whole area. Then I’ll move up three or four feet and repeat the process until I’ve completed the whole run.

How do you know if your set-up is working? When you cast out and your weight hits bottom, you should feel a “tick, tick” of the weight bouncing off of the bottom. If you think that it is moving to quickly, add another split shot. If it is hanging up or holding bottom, then take some weight off. After your set-up has swung all the way out and is at its full extension, then reel it in and continue working the run as I have described above. I hope this will help those of you who have an interest in learning how to angle the winter run of steelhead, the most worthy prey.

So until next time, may the fish at the end of your line be the one of your dreams.