Free drifting is not a hard method to master. Anyone with a boat and a method to slow it down can do it. There is a lot of room for error in this method, and people still catch fish. There are some common mistakes made by experienced, and novice anglers alike that should be addressed.

First of all once you get on the river you need to decide what method you are planning to use. Some anglers just sum it up as "drift fishing'", but there are variations of it that need to be recognized. All of which are a variation of boondogging, ask any Steelhead buff, and they will tell you about boondogging origins, and how it got started right here on my home river the Skagit. Boondogging is a method that was and still is effective on most steelhead rivers. To sum it up the boat is positioned directly in the "run" where you expect the fish to hold. Boondogging can be done with oars or a motor, however if you want to put a boat directly over a fish I think oars are the ticket. They make less noise and they don't have to be working all the time. Now you position the boat broadside in the current, and everyone casts upstream allowing the boat to "drag your bait downstream. This is when dragging a bait works. Yes I said it dragging your bait works. But it works when the boat is in the same current speed the fish are. This is where many new anglers get confused. The method we like to call free drifting has a couple of key elements that make it productive, and dragging isn't one of them.

If you are going to free drift you must get a few key things right. First of all match up all your gear. I mean rod lengths, line weight, lead size, line weight, leader length, line weight, and bait size. You need to have all of your gear to be identical to get a natural "free" drift through a run. This means when your buddy wants to bring his own "pole" you have to tell him what line to load it up with and ask if his "pole" can cast very light weight long distances. I say "pole" because you know the type of guy I'm talking about here. Come on people, they're rod's, pole's catch crappie and hold up power lines.

Now that you have all your gear matched up you need to decide what your going to fish. Thanks to our Canadian Steelheading trend setters, a lot of people are throwing yarn at steelies, I'll talk more about yarn later. If you want to fish yarn on one guy's rod and bait on another you need to realize they will drift differently and they need to be positioned properly. Bait is heavier and usually has a larger profile so it drifts like a big turd down the river, and yarn flutters and moves with every subtle nuance of the current. So the likelihood of a big ole egg cluster slamming into a yarnie below it is high, put the bait in the back of the boat, or add a little more lead to bait rigs if you must fish both.

Now here's where I'll stress current speed, current speed, current speed. Free drifting is when you match the rate at which the boat is drifting with the run of water you want to fish "outside in". Your boat is positioned in the faster "outside" of the main river body, and your presentation is positioned "in" near the beach in the holding water. If you could throw a buoy in the fish holding area and follow it with your boat it would be a great indicator. This is where people start to go wrong, many novice and experienced fisherman do not match the current speed. And if you pay attention it's easy to notice, thanks to hi-vis lines people across the river can notice.

Here is an example: Big Bad Barge guide service pulls up to a popular stretch of the river, fires up his kicker and has everyone cast in the fish holding area. All of his client's lines begin to quickly swing down river, he didn't take the time to allow his boats momentum to slow down and didn't match current speed. Now he has to slam it in reverse, and speed up the boats drifting rate. Since all of the baits drifted downstream that means they are all fishing to far off the beach with a generous amount of slack in their lines.

Here is another example: Big Bad Barge guide service had his shot at the hole, now it's Low Holin' Larry's turn. He pulls up to the same spot and adjusts his drift just right at the top of the hole and has everyone cast in. Things are looking great, then Low Holin' Larry begins to slip. The main current is speeding up the closer he gets to the tailout, and the holding water is staying the same speed. Larry's line is now running parallel to the boat and so is everyone else's. This means the baits are now dragging… that's bad. Now your thinking, "he said dragging works" and I did, but not here it doesn't.

Low Holin' Larry's gear now looks like an orange and pink blur of something hauling ass down river like a cop car racing his way through traffic with his lights on. And I know when I'm sitting in traffic that doesn't look natural. Remember were trying to achieve a natural "free" drift.

Ok now it's your turn you pull up to the drift rods perfectly set up with just enough lead to sink your gear to the bottom, except your buddy with the new pole who didn't listen to you about line size, put him on the bow with a big chunk of lead (he won't know the difference anyway).You match the current speed, cast slightly upstream, use the throttle to maintain a nice speed, keep the boat nice and straight……it's all coming together now isn't it……boom fish on.

Now Lost Puppy Fishing team saw you hook that fish so here they come. They begin they're drift just right and start fishing. But Captain know it all who went down to Blue Creek once and learned by watching the best takes his 10 degree hulled boat and kicks the bow out into the current a little, and leaves the kicker in gear. Everybody casts out into the holding water and starts to fish. Since his bow is now pointing towards the middle of the river guess where his boat is slowly going. So now instead of the presentation's naturally drifting through the hole, they are "swimming" away from the bank at a fast pace. Since Lost Puppy Fishing team has a few experienced guys in the boat, they manage to hook a fish because they either fed out slack line or recasted several times to stay in the drift.

There are a lot of things to go wrong and you can still catch fish, but the bottom line is, pay attention and thing will go your way. You can have the best colored yarn, perfect bait, new rod, hot bait oil, and still not be at 100 percent. Free drifting is a method that banks on the visual aspect of steelheading. You are only giving that fish a few seconds to decide whether to bite or not. It's like a whole row of delicious cheeseburgers floating by a Fat kid in the playground. That fat Kid isn't going to take the time to decide if it has American Cheese or Cheddar cheese on the burger he's just going to eat it. But if that cheeseburger isn't cooked or it has mold on it he might quickly spit it out. So even if you're the guy fishing the moldy cheeseburger you might hook that fat kid because he saw your cheeseburger first. But if you like to use moldy cheeseburgers you better be quick on the hook set. You can throw every color in the book at them and still catch fish. But if you use a color that shows up well in the water conditions you have, and present it right you will catch fish. Remember the Fat kid? That Steelhead watching your yarn float by isn't going to say "that's cerise not baby pink, I won't bite it" but you might spook him with a color that isn't to fish friendly. You know what colors work for Steelhead look at any tackle shop and see what colors have price tags from the 80's on them, there's a reason they don't work. Present a bait in a Natural way, if a fish is there, and he's on the bite, he will bite.

So what do you do when they're not biting? Try another method! Free drifting is so easy a trained monkey can do it! Get out and catch a fish on a spoon, or a float or a plug or a cheeseburger…whatever! Mix it up and become diversified, Steelheading is rewarding if you constantly challenge yourself with different techniques. But for overcrowded hatchery rivers free drifting is the most effective method. Plus Big Bad Barge guide service will give you dirty looks if you anchor up in the free drifting stretch of the river.

Fishing is supposed to be fun!!!! Go have fun and you will catch fish!

Kris "Crash" Jensen
Kris and Jeff's Guide Service
www.skagitsteelhead.com