Maybe you guys can help me understand why folks seem to think they have to wade belly deep into a river for Steelhead? Or any fish. They must not know they have spooked em away and are standing where they woulda been all in the name of, what i think is, casting to the middle!

nothing makes me happier than to catch fish behind people who think they have to wade to the middle of the river

exactly my thoughts spartan, why do they do it, i mean even if the hole they want to fish is across the river they can still reach it from the bank. what really peeves me is when your fishing a hole and some guy walks right in and wades out to where you are casting, because he didnt have the courtesy to notice that you were fishing there and not the hole that he wanted to fish

And seems the smaller the river, the farther out they have to wade. Some sort of compulsion.

Tried to point this out to a fellow this Fall, wouldn't believe me. Walked upstream 20 feet and drifted my float within 2 feet of him and picked up a silver.

Theonly thing I can figure is lack of casting skills. They do it all the time in the Puyallup too. A few years ago, there was one guy making comments about all the fish that were hitting him in the legs and a few minutes later I hooked into a silver a few feet behind the line of 4 people. :p

at first when having to fish near people who stand in the middle of the drift i was upset, after i calmed down, i started to wonder why they do it, so i thought about it & closely watched the humans who do it, i watched for the most part, with an open mind: Based on years of "unbiased" observation & experimentation i've come to the conclusion they do it without any conscious thought, its as if they are compelled by forces unknown to walk into the river as far as can they humanly get before the river sweeps them off their feet, its as if "if i stand closer to the fish, then i'll get more bites" i've even tested this theory, i've kindly asked people to move back & they have, then if left undisturbed, they will (without any malice in their hearts) unconsciencly start gravitating an inch, a half step at a time, further further into the river until they end up in the same spot where one more step & they get swept away, i am convinced that zero conscience thought goes into it, its like the the call of the wild except that in this case, it is the call of the moron ....

I fished around a waist deep wader once. I politely tried to explain to him that he was standing on the fish and he just gave me the stink eye. Sooo I walked up above him and cast in the slot he was standing in and hooked a steelhead literally right at his feet. The fish’s first jump blew water all over the guy and it damn near landed in his lap. He just mumbled a few obscenities in my direction and left.

Isn't it a great feeling to hook a fish behind the belly waders?!!! I have only done it once and it was a very satisfying fish., no doubt about it.

Spartan
I just realized; maybe some (very little) of the guys that wade (to there belly button) out to deep; will read this thread a start catching more fish.

We can only hope!

Fish will often try to get out of the current. Last weekend when I was done fishing for the day I pulled the sled up onto shore to go get the trailer. While I was gone a Silver nosed into the soft water created by the sled sitting on the shore. When I got back to retrieve the boat my friend pointed it out to me and asked if it was dead. I reached down and grabbed the tip of its tail and it took off much to the amusement of my friend and his son. I think that made their whole day!

I get out there in the middle so I can catch trees on both sides of the river!!

It started out that folks would put on wader to walk across a bar in high water. Get closer to the channel. Others saw a guy out in the water and thought, oh, you have to go out in the water to catch a fish. I better go out there too.

I have had fish bump me. Have had friends grap my net trying net a fish idling on their lee side.

Now truthfully, I get out there to try to keep my line in the water where it belongs. If I am too close to a tree, I will catch it.

Good luck and tight lines.

Steve

Different topic but it came up, above. My favorite thing is to hook a fish sidedifting under a boat that is pulling plugs. I always pull up before drifting much downstream of the other boat, but it's amazing how often a fish grabs right under another guys boat.

You don't think the guy pulling the plugs might get a lil torqued at ya for coming in like that will he/she is working for a fish?

Yesterday I had the pleasure of hooking, playing, & losing a salmon not 10-20 feet from where they were wading through to get to a downstream bar which was perfectly accessible via an overland route, but they must have been lazy bums.

I honestly think its cause some folks think you have o be in deep water to hook fish. They simply don't know any better and of course when they do hook a fish belly deepit just reinforces that logic in their brains.