FLOAT & DRIFT: River Fishing

[John Pierce]

FLOAT & DRIFT RIVER FISHING

POPULAR LOCATIONS

• Fast moving rivers
• Campbell River for salmon.

RIG

• Line either monofilament or braided, ie heavy 25# for salmon
• Thread line through top of Dink style float and out side, wrap around float twice and thread through bottom side straw and out end.
• Thread line through 1/2" length of rubber surgical hose.
• Tie swivel onto end of line.
• Push 1-2" length of pencil lead into bottom of surgical tubing so that hangs down. This setup allows you to change weight amount to match river speed/depth, but not weight depth as will ride up against swivel.
• Make leader assembly by tying 1-2ft of ~15# leader for shallow fast water (3 to 5 ft in slower deeper water, weight lower than line to form weak point in case get snagged) onto #2-#0 hook using Bait Loop knot, place 1" piece of pink, chartreuse yarn inside knot and tighten. Tie ie Perfection Loop in other end of leader for attaching to swivel.

NOTES

• High density foam Dink float is better as 1) lasts longer as the line cuts less into it when you snag or fight a large fish, and 2) more friction and less sliding on line. Use style with plastic straws at each end pointing at an angle out of the sides, not the straw going through the middle.
• Float size depends on water speed, depth, weight size, and the fish you're targeting. 3/4"x5.5" is popular, in slower or clearer water use 5/8"x4" or less down to 1/4" x 4".
• Swivel helps to save float when get snagged on rocks or abandoned fishing gear.
• If get snagged, weight can break free and keep hose, swivel, hook, and maybe fish.
• Can use two pice surgical hose to hold pencil weight in-between which works well if bouncing along sandy pebble bottom river but not for rocky bottom or river with lots of lost gear like Campbell River.

METHOD

• Position float and tug  line above and below to snug down to reduce the float from sliding. If using a well used float, may still slide, to stop push toothpick in the top straw, and break off about 1/4" above the float so that you can pull it out when you have to adjust the float.
• Start drift fishing on river with float short distance from weight/swivel, if no indication on float that not touching bottom, adjust float up until tag bottom almost like fish striking, too much back off float.
• Key is bite, if float slows down ins stream, lift rod up (not big heave) and fish on or snagged, if snagged on rock then can often recover by coming off slowly, if snagged on gear then often have to shear off at weal point.

REFERENCE

• Attached PDF "The Fishing Coaches - Vedder River Chinook & Chum guide".

[Colin]

John that sounds similar to what We used to do forty years ago. We had a different style of float but same idea. If no luck you can aLways chuck and hope for the best! High stick iF the distance isn't too far to cast if not try a weighted nymph and a leader to suit the speed and depth of the water. Trial and error I guess. They are salmon so whatever you do for the chum must also work. We shall see.