I just returned from a very productive and enjoyable trip to the Situk River in SE Alaska. The only 'problem' in an otherwise perfect week was that my buddy Slick outfished me almost 2-to-1. Not only am I taller and less-ugly than Slick, I also spend more money on gear than he does so this stings doubly.

We both used small multi-colored yarn flies and split shot exclusively, and 10-12lb Maxima Ultragreen line. We fished identically as well -- a mixture of classic drift fishing and 'upstream and reel up the slack while drifting down' (using lighter weight). (For what it's worth, I was casting far tighter into the bank or the seam than Slick and my gear was in the water as long as his as well.)

Setting aside the plausible explanation that I'm congenitally crappy at detecting takes, there are three explanations as to why Slick was setting the hook on fish twice as often as I was, and I'd like to ask for some feedback:

1. Flyrod and mono fishing is more sensitive than the alternatives because of the line being in the fisherman's hand. (I've already got my fly reel out and am spooling mono on in anticipation of next year's trip!)

2. I wasn't using a sensitive enough rod for the job at hand. My casting stick was a 8 1/2 Looomis GL3 STR 1025C. I felt that this was plenty sensitive -- until a guide noted that he could see Slick's 9'eight weight tip bobbing through the drift more than my rod.
For spinning, I was using a Cabela's medium-end 9'graphite rod rated for 1/2 - 2 oz lures and 10-20lb line. (I've used this for Kings in the past and in hindsight suspect it might not have had a sensitive enough tip though the rod itself is limber enough to throw light weights well.)

I'd appreciated hearing what everyone's favourite rod(s) are for 10-12lb line given that these need to have some strength in the butt in light of the timber-filled small river and 10lb average size fish (and 15-20 lbs at the high end).

3. Inability to spot fish as well as my companion. I was wearing polarized/ UV blocking green tinted presciption Ray Bans. Slick was wearing amber tinted 'Action Optics' by Smith and was seeing fish much better.

What are the best low light sunglasses for spotting fish? Can they be ordered in prescription versions?

Many thanks.



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there is a fourth possibuilty, fish like short ugly guys better.
I use a GL3 9 foot med.light fast, a little less backbone than I like, but verrrrrry sensetive.
if you want some awsome practice hooksetting, go down to the columbia and shad fish the first part of june.
they hit real light and alot, you can catch them till your arm falls off. use your stealhead rod 6lb. line and a chartruse lead jig head with black eye dots, fish deep fast water close to the bank right on the bottom. this is good pratice for kids just learning to drift fish too.

[This message has been edited by MR.T (edited 05-08-99).]

I use a eight and a half foot fenwick with 12lb. for winter steelies. It's a glass rod with moderate action, 1/4-5/8. It is quite sensitve for a budget priced rod. Just got a new loomis IMX haven't had it long enough to tell how much I like it.

I think it must be the height difference as I am tall and ugly and I can't catch fish lately either.

How does this fly reel casting thing work. Do you cast it like a fly rod with the strip and cast method? How does that work with heavier drift set ups? How do you rig them?

Sounds like I'll be in the market for a more sensitive rod (as well as cosmetic surgery).

To answer Shep's question about fly rod/ mono, there are about 10,000 people out there who have done this more than I have (and better), but the set-up and concept are simple. First, spool mono on the fly reel. (You can leave your fly line and backing on a heavyweight fresh/ light salt high reel assuming there is still room for 100 yds of 10-12lb line.) Second, rig up as per light drift fishing (e.g. up to 1/2 oz of lead) or pinch split shot on the line 16-20" above the fly. Third, strip off the amount of line you want to cast and let the loose line fall at your feet, or keep it in loose coils in your free hand. (This is the tricky bit. In a boat, line often gets tangled underfoot. In the river, it gets swept downstream which may or may not impede your cast -- depends on how much weight you have on, how much line is out, how strong the current is, how far you want to cast and the amount of force behind the cast.) Fourth, either lob or 'shoot'your gear towards the target zone. (Once you have the range, every cast is exactly the same length based on the amount of line off the fly reel.) Fifth, strip any excess mono in under the index finger of your rod hand to remove slack, and then fish out the cast as per a normal drift. Sixth, hold the mono in your free (non-rod) hand during the drift while simultaneously watching the rod tip and/ or point where the line enters the water. Set the hook when anything breaths on the fly. Eighth, if you need more distance, strip some off more line at the end of the drift and leave it off the reel. Ninth, when a fish takes, strike by either pulling down on the line with the non rod hand and rearing back, or pinching the mono to the rod grip and striking. Tenth, reel like buggery to get the extra line onto the reel so that you can play the fish off the reel against the drag. Eleventh, in cold weather be prepared for the mono to foul in the fly rod guides about one cast in ten. (Practice your swearing beforehand as you'll need a good 30 seconds of bad words to do one of these tangles justice.)

Again, I'm a complete novice at this technique and when I saw it three years ago it looked like a way for the "I only use a fly rod for steelhead" brigade to catch fish using their fly gear when a conventional line put fish down (or didn't sink fast enough to present the fly properly). In short, I thought it was a laughable and lame alternative to picking up a casting or spinning outfit and doing the job 'properly'.

After a second year of having my buddy catch 1.67 fish to my 1.0 even when I'm consistently closer to the target area with my casts I'm now taking the fly rod and mono combination much more seriously. This is particularly true when the top guide on the Situk said 'The very best steelhead fishermen I guide all use fly rods and mono for better feel. In fact, they use 9'Loomis baitcasting blanks with fly reel seats as the feel is as good while the rod has more guts than an 8 weight." Another hint was to buy an inexpensive Martin fly reel because this particular brand doesn't allow the mono to get down between the spool and the frame.

As for honing one's skills on light takes, last week I felt like I needed an intensive Yoda session, e.g. a blindfold, a light saber and The Force on My Side. Shad fishing in the Columbia is one option I don't have, but I'm going to start using the flyrod and mono combo locally till I get the hang of it. Meanwhile, buddy Slick will be nymphing w/o indicators just to keep his edge.

I'd appreciate any and all comments re the pros and cons of fly rod w/ mono vs. more trad methods.

snagly: sounds like you need to try the old bass fishing tecnique of palming your casting reel and letting the line run over your index finger, this greatly increases your strike feel and is much easier then the cluster f#$% you described.<wow>

I am planning on a trip to the Situk next year. I heard they also hook alot of fish using jigs under a bobber. Did you see many guys using this technique and if so, how were they doing? Thanks for the info.

Snagly

If your holding the rod in your right hand as I do, i then hold the line in my left hand, between my index and thumb giving me excellent sensing on strikes. Also, I closely keep the end of the end of the pole just ahead of the drift.

With this technique, I can feel the lead sinkers, bounce along the bottom during the drift, and when ever the bouncing stops, I lift the rod hard, expecting a fish or a snag. Only use the minimum amount of lead sinker, just enough to feel the bottom as it drifts along the bottom.

For once I can help someone out. This is what we call chuck n duck in the midwest. It worked awesome for me on the Situk. Ask Robbo what he thought. HE saw me in action for a little while using this method. The nice thing is you can meter line out on your fly reel and work every inch of the run all the way to the other bank. This setup gives you a nice clean drift. You can toss gear in to spots that other guys can only dream about.

Try this next time. Use your 12 pound as mainline, and tie the end to a barrel swivel. Leave about two inches of tag on the mainline knot. Tie on 8 pound or 10 pound in a three to four foot leader and then tie on your hook with yarn, fly, eggs, corkie (whatever you want to fish with). Now take and pinch your split shot on to the mainline tag. If you end up with a sinker snag, all you have to do is pull, and the sinkers fall off, and the rest of your rig is intact. It works sweet in real rocky, or boulder infested water.

When you hold your rod, let the line rest on your index finger, and keep the slack out of it. As an extra aid, try and keep your finger in contact with the rod blank where it meets the cork handle. This really helps you feel fish. I use to hold the rod in one hand, and handle the line with the other. Bad habit, it's too slow to get a good hook set on a fish. At least the ones we deal with. The fish you didn't feel at the Situk, were like freight trains to me, because our fish in the Midwest are not near as aggressive as yours are. Make sure to bring super glue with you, as you will get line cuts at the joints of your fingers when your hands are wet and you stripo mono off the reel. Shoot a little shot of glue in the
cut, pinch it together, and you're good to go.

When drifting, I like to meter the line to where I want, and shoot my line in to the spot. If it is deep there, I immediately strip about 4 feet of line as fast as I can. This gets your rig to the bottom ASAP and puts you in the strike zone as quickly as possible. Once you make contact with the bottom, follow your drift with the tip of your rod. You will hit a lot of fish at the tail end of your drift, so be ready.

Cold weather can give you fits with mono on a fly reel, and your guides will freeze up. A Q Tip with a light dose of vaseline really helps. Just swab the inside of your guides, and they will stay free of ice for a while longer than normal. Our rods are 9 foot 9 weight Sage fly rods (990). We build them from scratch, and use ceramic spinning guides on them. They are a little more sensitive when set up this way, and you avoid some of the hassle with mono fouling in the traditional fly guides. The other reason for the fly rods versus a steelhead blank is the slower action. We have to fish down to four pound line sometimes to take our winter steelies, and the slower action keeps you from breaking off a lot of fish. remember the lighter the line is, you have to go to a finer wire hook to get the same penetration in the fishes mouth. Hope this helps, and if you ever want to come to the land of Chuck N Duck, give me a call, and you'll see what light biters reallly are.

Hawk, you are one fish-catching animal! I am definitely going to adopt the rig you describe -- and the method -- and am going to close the 'fish gap' with pardner Slick (once I figure out a way to keep Slick from reading your message: may have to crash his home computer in Jackson Hole).

I also agree with Mr. T's comment that 'chuck and duck' sounds like an awful way to fish -- just standing next to someone doing it is a demeaning experience (especially when they keep saying 'I'm on!') . . . .

Plenty of other methods also take fish on the Situk. Dave (we call him 'the Animal': interesting that Hawk calls him 'The Savage'!) uses the Teeny method and expertly swims conventional flies into their mouths. Few of us can do this, so we stand in awe and then do something else.

Some people plug, a few very successfully. We used to do this, but it's not as much fun so we stopped.

I used #4 and #5 silver Vibrax spinners one evening in two holes (one of which was stale on yarn) and hooked 4 fish in 30-40 minutes. (Interestingly, Slick switched to a black leech on a #6 hook and had three consecutive hook-ups in the same hole I was slamming 'em on spinners!) Why didn't we use more spinners? Current was too strong: couldn't get them down deep enough in deeper holes below the the bridge.

But after yarn the most popular method was fixing a dink float 4-5 feet up the line and drifting a jig along the brush line in the current seam while the oarsman slowed the drift. We didn't use this method, but saw many good fish taken this way and heard about many others. Pink worms substituted for jigs took a few, too. Some of the jig boys were using in-line slinkies and some were using split shot.

When we wanted to fish this type of water but didn't want to anchor up and wade, Slick and I boondogged it with yarn. Two of the best fish I landed were hooked boondogging yarn flies into fishy looking current lines and snags.


About the only method that didn't take any fish was conventional fly line and fly gear! (Take that, Roderick H-B.)

slight variation on hawks tecnique that I use, tie a seperate short piece of line onto the barrel instead of useing the main line(have had some knots come out useing main, also breaks main if you get really stuck) always use yarn: (tied to your main line with a single overhand knot above your hook below your corkie not in the egg loop) just long enough to cover your hook plus 1/4", yarn gets tangled in the fishes teeth giving you an extra millisecond to set the hook. now the tricky part is to put just enough lead on to bounce the bottom only about three times in the middle of your drift, cast far upstream so that when your sinker hits bottom you are in the hole. the fish will either pick it up right before your sinker hits or right after, this way you can actually feel the difference between the bottom and a fish(bottom hard metalic clank fish soft thud, very subtle difference but its there) catch many more than my share this way especially in very clear water when the fish are jumpy)

Snagly, I talked with Dave (maybe the same guy you are referring to???) last night, and are wondering what your name is, or where your from so Dave can recognize you, Dave most often fishes the lower part of the river chasing those fresh chromers as much as possible fresh from the sea... still with sea licer, he is a regular up there for the last 7 years. He is one-of-a-kind fishing machine, from 5am til dark after those steelies, there must be many sore mouths after a week of Dave up there!!!.

Hawk, thats the same setup I use on the Quinault river's Cook creek fishery, and main river, leaving a tagline on the mainline, it does save alot of downtime especially when your fishing an oversized creek like Cook's and some 3800+ above avg hatchery steelhead brats(A good freind of mine is the hatchery mgr.)are in. Whats weird is that how you explain how you meter your cast and then strip out a couple of pulls to get it right down to where they are, is exactly how I present my bait or spinner, to me that's a little eerie, knowing that there's another guy who knows how to catch steelhead like I do, and not to brag, I do catch alot of steelhead!, and with the techniques you describe and share, I'm sure you catch a your fair share also, are you a Snaglys "Slick" within you fishing partners
Snagly I use a GLoomis 9ft 1082s IMX which is also very sensitive, enough to feel them mouthing my eggs.. Sustain & Stradic 2000's, by the way Snagly I have the same problem of line twist with Sustain and the Stradics and your remedy is the solution period... And in my opinion there is no better spinning reel on the market. Oakly makes the best polarized
glasses I've used yet and their glass not plastic only 1 style and a bit spendi at 175.00 dojas, and do not know if they prescribe them. Hawk wouldn't mind tagging along next year up north, if you don't mind fishing next to your NW clone. sounds like a cool river and time.

Someone mentioned Float/Jig setups on the Situk River, so I thought I'd shed a little light on the subject. I just spent the last two weeks on the Situk and did very well on the float/jig combo. I found that the upper part of the river fished jigs a lot more effectively than the lower half of the river, and we would thus switch techniques accordingly.

As for colors, we primarily fished variations of pink and orange, and when things got slow went to the odd-ball colors. I can get you that close and let you figure it out from there. I didn't see too many other guys fishing this technique, in fact I didn't see anyone fishing it, which may have been why we did so well. Not sure.