While fishing the Wallace River yesterday, I noticed that many areas were more conducive to floatfishing rather than driftfishing. While I have successfully used floats with jigs/pink worms/bait on many of Washington's larger rivers; I have yet to try them on some of the smaller rivers and creeks, such as the Wallace, Raging, Stevens Creek, etc.

I was wondering how some of you more experienced floatfishers prepare for smaller rivers and creeks? What strategies have been successful in the past?

I go about it two different ways, depending on what I feel like doing. The first way , All I do is add a float above my normal drift gear, corkie,yarn and eggs, etc. I try to run the float so my wieght taps the bottom every 3 to 5 feet. The other way is the Canadian style, Gibbs foam float on my main line 15 to 20 lb test. a short piece of 12 to 15 lb line abot 10 inches long, with a a piece of rubber coverd hollow core penil lead slid up the the short piece. Then a 24 inch leader with either a pink worm, gooey bob or other perfered bait or lure.
I fish a couple small streams that are really snaggy and the second method works best.
Another thing that I have found that works killer is run your line from the flaot the the lead about 2 to 3 feet longer than the run is deep. thread a sandshrimp up your leader. Whle your letting your float go downthe run, hold it back so the lead and bait raise of the bottom. Controll the depth of your bait by control the speed at wich your float travels down the drift. The takees while useing this method are arm wrenching. Last winter I did this in a slot that was pounded on by about 15 guys all morning. When the crowds left I went in and hooked 6 fish .
Good luck and I hope this helps


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aint no nookie like
chinookie

p.s. alonger rod helps while doing the shrimp thing, I use a 10'6" rod

[This message has been edited by willierower (edited 12-24-1999).]

I grew up fishing small rivers (willapa bay tributaries) and use foats down there guit a bit. Just plain old float and jig is deadly on these rivers. In fact, many times on small rivers I have hooked fish in spots that i know were 8 - 10 feet when I had the float set at about 4 feet. these are especially deadly in the slower froggy runs on small streams.
In this area I used to concentrate on the smaller rivers (N Fork Sky, Sultan, Raging and the Tolt back when you could access the river) much more and did well with floats and jigs. It can be effective to follow somebody on a stretch with jigs and floats on small rivers if you know the person before you was fishing bait.
I hope this helps,

Floats are VERY effective in small rivers. I have a lamiglas jig rod (9'6" pro graphite) that I use quite a bit on smaller Olympic rivers. I run a bobber stop with beads and a balsa float with another bead next to swivel. I use 12lb mainline. Then I run a 10lb leader of about 12-16in off the swivel. Then, depending on conditions and such I'll either run eggs, sandshrimp, corkie/yarn setup, or preferably jigs. I have caught most of major species of salmonoids on jigs in the coastal rivers. They really seem to slam them hard, you almost think you ran over a snag until you set back on the rod. I rarely use the corkie/yarn set up but a jig laced with a sandshrimp tail seems to work pretty well too. I myself try to adjust so I'm just above bottom. I like my jig/lure to be floating just above holding level since fish usually are looking upwards. For me it works well and I have no complaints. Hell, I was jig fishing for steelies on the Nooch' when my float went down, caught a nice 18lb Chum on a jig. Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks (sorry for the pun). I'd say give it a go....tight lines....

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