Float Fishing For Steelhead - Everything You Need To Know To Get Set Up

we are America's tackle shop anything fishing  related it's here at Miss USA hey guys ready   for [ __ ] bass fishin today I'm gonna turn it  over to Josh Felton burger right Josh is the is   the resident expert on center pay and fishing for  steelhead now we're not going to get into center   pinning today because that's an entire series  in another self so what we're gonna do is we're   gonna have Josh walk you through the basics of  getting started still had fishing and then he's   gonna show you how to set it up where you could  fish you know pretty much anything that he fishes   with a spinning rod you're just not gonna have  as much versatility but you can still get the   job done so I'm gonna turn it over to Josh  Michael David Edward he's got like 17 middle   names Felton burger and let him talk to you about  the basics of steelhead fishing the way that this   video came about is I actually started asking  him questions because I'm interested in myself   fish were still had you know with a flower rod but  just traditionally fishing for him with a fly rod   and when he literally just started like Niagara  Falls of information I decided that we needed to   share this in the video because I'm sure there's  a lot of guys out there like me that maybe don't   still head fish or are interested in steelhead  fishing and Josh can help you out so I'm gonna   jump out of the way and let him talk to you about  getting started steelhead fishes so here in the   Great Lakes and even Huron Superior Michigan the  common way to steelhead fish or even salmon fish   also would be underneath a float and when I mean a  float I don't mean like your classic red and white   eagleclaw grandpa bobber we actually use a special  kind of float and most float guys will have a   versatile amount of them I mean as you can see  right here this is on a daily you know steelhead   outing you know any of these can come in handy  and what these different kinds of floats do is   they cut the water differently this would be made  for more of a slower you know moderate fast where   something like one of these slip floats would be  made for deep fast water so we're gonna start with   a float setup for any medium to smaller river or  Creek in the Great Lakes so most guys they'll use   a line this is the line that's going to be its  fold on your reel it can range anywhere from six   to bigger River guys we'll use a 15 pound mainline  so how you start with this in most floats they'll   have surgical tubing now this surgical tubing it  just comes in one standard piece and what you have   to do is you have to cut it to fit the float  that you're using so I prefer an orange piece   of surgical tubing for the top and then a clear  piece of surgical tubing for the bottom so first   you're gonna cut it and on your pack of any great  Steel header you'll have a pair of heat forceps   with scissors on them these are very versatile in  our world of fishing so you'll just snip it to fit   the size of the float that you are working with  I prefer my bottom piece a tad bit on the longer   side then my top piece what this prevents is your  bottom piece of split shot when we are forming our   shot pattern it will stop it from rattling on the  stem of your float so let me grab my ten piece ten   pound piece of mainline and what you would do  is you would just slide it through these piece   of surgical tubing they're hollow you'll slide  it right through if I can get it to go through   the hole so right there we have them slid on next  you will decide what flow you're fishing clarity   anything like that the size of river and that  will determine how heavy of a float that you're   going to put on so today I'm just gonna do a six  gram float they range anywhere from I have a six   point two right here pretty handy they can go down  to I think my smallest one in my arsenal is about   three grams so you would just peg this right onto  the float and that is how these stay on to your   float and super easy guys sometimes might need  to lick the stem a little bit to get to go on   and that's how those go on so what this does now  is that I can just freely slide this up and down   the line to change how deep I'm fishing depending  on the run so I'm gonna give myself quite a bit   of room you know I'll probably slide it up and  I will give myself about two foot of room maybe   two and a half depending on how much shot I'm  about to put on next what I prefer to do is I   put on my ball bearing swivel next I keep all my  terminal tackle in one of these little compartment   containers and makes it very handy and easily  accessible for stream side access so you're gonna   take a little ball bearing swivel and next we are  gonna tie that on to the bottom of our mainline so just standard I use the cinch not guys I don't  do anything fancy I know there are a bunch of San   Diego jam knots and polymers and hooba haba  knots but just a standard six or seven turn   back through the hole and make sure you put  some Slive on it tighten it down boom right   there guys so we got a micro bearing swivel so  far and our float on here so this is where the   float fishing will start to get a little bit more  in depth so this float will do 6.2 grams now this   isn't the weight of the flow this is how much  weight that this float will hold and the next   thing that most guys they'll just throw a bunch  of weight on this and you know if it turns up okay   I'm fish and good well I mean your float fishing  but you're not flow fishing correctly and this is   where you know me catching 12 - you're - really  does play a difference they make different size   of split shot for a reason guys and as you see  I have all my shot marks with how much it weighs   and what you're gonna do next is you're gonna  decide between all of this split shot how I'm   gonna make up a shot pattern a tapered shot  pattern the put it and put it on to the line   to get this float to sit perfectly so first off  six point two you know that's a pretty versatile   flow I'm gonna start with an SSG now this is  the biggest of all the split shot out there   unless you get some crazy Canadians split shot  that we don't even sell here in the States I'm   gonna put this underneath my float and remember  guys like your dentist said never bite the split   shot pinch it on with your forceps that's what  those are there for boom got that all nice and   tight that'll be the first split shot that I  start now this split shot weighs 1.85 grams so   out of 6.2 grams we got 1.8 covered right now so  that's my biggest it always goes right underneath   the float my next split shot that I'm gonna use is  a triple a what that is is now that is 0.75 grams   so this is gonna make up a bulk of my shotting  pattern I'll probably put on let's say three   to four depending on where we're at right now  and like I said guys remember always use a you   know set of forceps I prefer forceps that have a  smooth coating on the front so that I don't mess   up my shot and we're just going to start pinching  shot on the hair and the goal of this is to get   up to six point two grams or very close to it  to make this float ride perfectly through the   water and right there's what happens a lot of  the time as we're trying to make shot powder as   you accidentally close one and you don't get it  on your leader and or your mainline and you drop   it which don't feel bad guys I probably lose more  split shot than I put on my line like right there   so we got three going on right now seven five  times three we're at one and a half right there   so you add that in with that big one we're  at let's say three point five another seven   point five we're probably at about a little bit  under four and a half right now with our shotting   pattern we're just going to keep on going down in  shotting they make these is small is point 1/2 of   a gram these are like micro sizes made for really  small tight water fishing I don't really use them   not often but I do carry them because you never  know what situations you'll run into in the Great   Lakes we deal with super gin clear water or will  deal with raging water it never seems like it's   right in the middle for us so the next one I'm  gonna go into guys is a BB split shot that one   weighs 0.37 I'm gonna probably take about two of  these to let's say three we're gonna go with three   that sounds like a better number in my head then  two and we're gonna continue to pinch shot these   pinch them right onto our line and don't worry  guys for you guys saying well with you pinching   them onto your line you might be compromising your  leader or anything like that I'm gonna hit that in   a minute once I get this shot pattern all set up  a good buddy of mine out of Buffalo he showed me   this and you know it's worked for me ever since  what I'm about to show you guys after this with   removing any stressed line or anything on your  main line after adding shot so so far guys all   right let's say three points or four point five  somewhere in there we added three more we're   gonna round up to the nearest gram right there so  we're gonna be at about five and a half somewhere   maybe five point eight you know it's not really  an exact science I just try to get it best as   possible next one I'm gonna go down in this line  is n1 and those Waypoint 3-1 I'm gonna add about   two of these on the here let me get that and like  I keep on saying guys I stress it that don't bite   your split shot you know my dentist told me that  I have a chipped tooth because of it so definitely   like I said don't bite it even though we've been  doing it since we were 10 so we got those on there   lastly but not least I'm gonna go to an N for  that's the that's probably the smallest that   I really use a lot of the time they weigh point -  they're super tiny half the time they fall off on   me but I just put them on just you know to make  myself happy so if I can get it to go through boom so we got a shot line right there guys so  what this shot line is and oh look cut my ball   bearing swivel right off accident so what I do now  guys is that I will break in this split shot and   that's why I usually have the ball bearing swivel  on that I accidentally cut off with my hemo SEPs   I'll give me a second to tie it back on the next  part guys I really feel is crucial with how I'm   about to show you how I break in split shot and  everything I feel like it makes figuring out your   drift a lot easier so we got that on we're gonna  cut that right back off but I just keep it there   because it keeps your split shot from going off  I like to move my split shot right now this is   a soft shot and what that does is it grooves it  and breaks it in so when I'm moving my pattern   constantly it's not damaging my leader so you'll  move it all up and down your line and everything   and now what I'll do is I'll push it all the way  up to my float like this obviously I might have   nicked that line so if you're fighting the trophy  steal out of your life don't want to lose a fish   due to compromised line so now what I do is I'll  take it and I'll snip that swivel right back off   and this is garbage to me now and I'll nip that  piece off so I'm left with basically everything   for the most part that really didn't get slid  up and down too heavily you can move your float   up a little bit more if you want you know if you  think that you might have some more compromised   mainlined and like I said you'll just cut that  off and start with a fresh new piece it's kind   of a pain but it's the difference in you know  having a trophy fish not break your main line   and losing an entire rig been there done that it  hurts a little bit on the inside you don't really   want to do that I personally say some choice words  might come out when that happens when you lose a   custom float or something that retails at about  I don't know ten fifteen dollars a float so like   I said just basic cinch not so boom we got that  we got a shot line everything like that but we're   not ready yet so like I said we'll use a main line  of anywhere from eight 15 pounds depending on what   great Lake you're fishing like I said I have 10  right here this is pretty much the standard next   I will take a piece of leader material now this  is fluorocarbon this is very needed within our   world steelhead might not be the smartest but man  are they line shy diameter is everything you know   look at that I always tell people verse looking  at the poundage because you're 4 pound might be   as thick as most people's 8 pounds now what I have  right here is a Phantom this has the diameter of   point zero seven I really like it it's fished  me good anywhere from the Niagara River all the   way to Michigan I've never had a problem with it  really breaking I will take a chunk of anywhere   from 18 to 24 inches depending on the run that  I'm fishing really I mean everything depends on   the water when I get there so I try not to set up  until I am on the side which can be a pain but you   don't want to set up the night before and then  you get to the river or the creek and you know   your whole setup is now useless so like I said  guys I'll take a piece of fluorocarbon I think I   have about 18 inches right there and that will go  on to the bottom of this ball bearing swivel that   I have and again just your standard basic cinch  knot nothing too fancy like I always tell people   like always remember fluorocarbon is a little  bit more stiffer than regular mono definitely   make sure the wet you're not on fluorocarbon or  you will heat it up when pulling that knot down   and it will break easier on you that is almost  a given with that so right there so far we got   our fluorocarbon leader to our main line so a  lot of guys overlook this part that I'm about   to go into that we have shot right there on our  mainline to go with this I estimate and I always   kind of shoot about a half a gram under because  if you use a 64,000 I have right here these weigh   half a gram so a lot of guys don't put this into  their equation that their bait weighs weight and   if you're especially if you're fishing a piece  of skein or a piece of you know any bait a spawn   sack single egg not so much bead not so much but  any jig or live sack or minnow or whatever you're   using on underneath that it weighs something and  guys will always think oh why can't I get my drift   rate well you're actually about a half a gram to  maybe over a gram over your weight of your float   and if you bulked up and went a little bit heavier  you're now way over and that's why your floats not   riding high so I kind of lowball when I go into  this and that's why so like I said I would put on   this 64,000 and that like I said 64 sounds jig you  google equations it is about 1/2 of a gram so you   put that in as that's almost one of your that's a  little bit over a BB and a little bit in between a   triple a right there next with this guy's after I  get this on so you can also do a trialing knot or   a cinch knot now the trialing not just standard  twice through and six to seven around what that   does is that will [ __ ] it I feel like you might  want to do that in clearer water but if you can   get that perfect emerald water or even some  stained water you know your jig being a tad   bit off I don't I don't personally feel makes a  difference some people might argue with me but   everyone's got an opinion on how they fish so like  I said clear water you might want to try a trial   injury not to [ __ ] your jig and make it stand  up more perfect to get a natural / presentation   but like what I just did right there standard  cinch not so we got our rig pretty much right   now guys we got 18 to 24 inches of fluorocarbon  we got our nice split shot right there to weigh   in with our fast medium 6.2 gram blood run flow  next going up to the run you want to figure out   are you gonna hit in seams are you gonna do  more big boulder runs and depending on that   that's how you're gonna do this now like I said  earlier this is a tapered split shot pattern and   what that means is I went from biggest to smallest  and how this works now is I'm gonna slide my float   let's say I want a fish that's about three and  three foot of water so what I would do next and   I'm gonna tip it upside down just for you guys  to see what I'm doing is I'm sliding that big   one directly underneath my float and you always  want to start with that big one right underneath   your flow my next three I'm going to start to  gradually put them a little closer and you're   just gonna want to keep on going and how this  works is you get farther apart the closer you   get to your ball bearing swivel so as you can see  closer closer a little bit farther we're going to   get a little bit farther we're just kind of and  you're gonna have to play with this a little bit   depending on the run that you are fishing you  always have to with this is you have to play   with how close and you can put them almost on top  of each other it doesn't matter just as long as   you kind of get where your split shot is now  this smallest one you're always going to want   to pretty much have it down at the ball bearing  swivel like I said I'm still not kind of where I   want to be got a play with a little bit kind of  spaced it out and just make it work for me and   this is what's going to determine a good full of  fishermen from your everyday float fishermen and   why I say that is that now you see how I got and  I'm still not after looking at it where I truly   there we go that one I wanted this a little bit  close as you see I got this crazy elaborate shot   pattern working and what this does is that the  top is always faster than the bottom current   so we got more of our weight on the top of right  next to the float and what that does is that slows   your float down and then once we cut through the  water with all of this shot what happens is that   the lighter shot keeps this in an arc and what  that steelhead salmon trout is going to see is   they're gonna see your bait before they see any  of this hardware coming down so it's gonna make   it and the not spook is easy it's gonna give you  a better presentation and it's gonna make it look   like a natural drift and that's what happens a lot  of guys just think lining up a bunch of split shot   two level to match this works and yes it will  work I'm not debating that it won't work but   this is gonna work more effectively I feel than  just a bunch of the same split shot on your line   so with this shotting patterning guys and like I  said before with how the currents are different   and how this is going to get you a more actual  presentation I feel like if you guys actually   give this a try and try our shot this shotting  pattern and there's a lot other shotting patterns   this is a standard one when you get in the slip  float you can get in the bulk shoddy you can get   reversed tapered shotting where if the shot is  heavier at the bottom and lighter on the top   because the bottom currents pulling I mean there's  a book that I could write on shotting patterns but   this is your standard one and if you guys give it  a wholehearted try I can almost guarantee you that   you're gonna catch more steelhead in Great Lake  Sam annoyed and trout species alright so here's   the deal so I just stood over there and watched  this entire thing but it's probably the 12th or   15th time I've listened to this this this scenario  because when folks walk in and they ask questions   here fish USA they get the full Falcon burger  right they get a they get Falcon burger - okay   is that right Falcon felt felt felt in we're  gonna call it Falcon burger anyway so they get   the full Felton burger right and I've watched  this guy you know do this with helping people   set up ledcor line taking lures for different  types of fishing even fishing that's not the   way that he does it but let's talk about this real  quick because you maybe did didn't cover this or   didn't cover it enough for somebody like me for a  you know simple-minded redneck when you get ready   to go fishing you set all this up before you go  or is this something that you have to do kind of   there right you have to do it on the spot so I  try to do it on the spot like if you if you've   been fishing the same creek for three days obvious  you have a feel that okay I'm gonna be using a six   point two I've been using a six point two but  when I get the brand new water like let's say   that I'm gonna drive the Michigan overnight I  leave my line a hundred percent bare because I   can't assume that a eight gram or a twelve gram  float is gonna work there because it might be   a different water type that I'm not used to and I  might totally be running the wrong thing by twice   as much work to rerigged it out rig from from  scratch now the other thing that is gonna pop   into people's minds especially folks that are not  100% you know familiar with this is what is your   basic you've got a hundred floats right you're  kind of like me for bass fishing it's overwhelming   if you were gonna get started what would be your  top two your top two into the spectrum you know   for for narrowing it down for somebody that wanted  to come in and just get started a meaning top two   presentations and where they should fish them as  far as float efficient specifically where do they   start do they start with a hundred bobbers or do  they start with one you'll get to a hundred Bob   or sooner or later trust me but if I was going to  get two floats and only fish two floats and make   them work for any kind of fishing for you know  no and say that's not what I'm asking what I'm   saying is two floats and that you would start with  and where would you fish those well obviously it's   gonna be difficult that's the reason you have a  hundred floats so what to would you get started   with and where would you fish them in other words  what are the limitations of those two floats and   where could somebody expect to go get success with  them steelhead fishing so if you were gonna fish   Pennsylvania tributaries I would set you up with  a four point to fast medium blood run float and a   six point two fast medium blood run flow and that  will cover you anything from gin clear water to a   heavier flow within Pennsylvania and have success  and even some of the bordering so to find that if   you're sitting within Pennsylvania what type of  water for the folks that don't know what that   means exactly what would you say when you say that  type of water what do you what do you speaking   of so of our local steelhead trips at like Elk  Creek wall not really any of our major steelhead   tributaries west side or east side you can use  a four point two and a six point two and be very   successful with okay so basically your your small  to medium-sized creeks right which a lot of times   interchangeably you know back home is called a  river right because you guys call a creek a lot   bigger than what we would call a creek or Creek a  creek is what you get in your neck where I'm from   but anyway so the creeks that some of you guys  rec you know call creeks up here we pretty much   have have transition to call them them rivers  now we will call creeks arms of a major lake a   creek because its name after the creek that was  there but you guys named some pretty big stuff   up here Creek so that's water you know that's  moving pretty good yeah I know I'm saying and   and it's deeper than a lot of what we think of as  creeks and creeks back home 4 to 6 foot ok I mean   on spots you can give him that 8 foot on one of  our larger tributaries here out of Lake Erie in   Pennsylvania but for the most part that like  I said the four point two to the six point two   that you can fish anything from two to six foot  of water just depending again on that hole shot   pattern like I said this is a pretty standard  one but you can reverse it to be able to fish   that deeper water with the same float you just  got a you know set up a different shot pattern   to do it and that's really what being successful  in the Great Lakes is about is being versatile on   the water and I feel like that's with any fishing  really being versatile so look man that's really   what it boils down to it shows you that sometimes  our misconceptions about certain things change who   we are and I'll be honest with you man some of the  stuff that you just mentioned I'm gonna actually   glean and take back south and I'm gonna use some  of that for for crappie fishing now y'all call it   crappie but where I'm from we say the word happy  and if you say happy that runs are crappy so you   don't get hoppy anytime you get excited so anyway  I'm gonna take that home and go crappie fishing   because I think that some of that set up right  there you know especially in some slow-moving   rivers some of our faster moving creeks and some  of our you know flooded timber even on some of   our reservoirs that some of our reservoirs  this would be perfect for fishing alright   so last question before we send this off where  can everybody find all this stuff how much of   this stuff can they find a fish USA so everything  that I just went over from main lines the leaders   to how I carry all of my terminal Tassel floats  everything that I have here about your bag your   tools your all your stuff and get all of this  stuff a hundred percent available yep the only   thing that I have here that isn't is the jig that  I handmade tied but you can get all the materials   here at fish USA the tie this jig okay alright  last but not least then we're gonna get out of   here can they get that fancy snazzy steel head  oh yeah I'm hat here as well yeah they do you   have to wear a steel head happen to be a still  heavy it gives you confidence I'll say we're   wearable confidence my man I appreciate it listen  guys that covers the basics and a little bit more   than the basics on getting started float fishing  for steelhead so this guy has actually laid down   the invite I was super slammed this year in the  winter and it got here fast and it was just kind   of frozen quickly but next year I'm coming up  here I'm gonna get on the spring run with him   this guy's gonna join me for a couple videos and  we're gonna figure out if if he's got really what   it takes to when the rubber meets the road or when  the when the float meets the water and we're gonna   see if we can't put some of these big steelhead  you know in our hands and in the nets for a you   know bring you guys some videos later on this year  then we'll get into some more advanced stuff like   center pin fishing and you know what would you  say is probably the next evolution after this for   someone that's getting into steelhead fishing so  it would definitely be Center pinning because your   center pinning is the same exact setup but it's  10 times more control okay because you control   how your line comes out of your real perfect so  we'll get into that more in the next series of   videos about steelhead there it is that's your  introduction to basic to kind of intermediate   and even getting into the edge of some advanced  still had fish and tactics especially when it   comes to float fishing anyway so this is Josh  Felton Berger what are your actual middle names   again I keep Edward josh keith Edward Felton  Berger that's a that's a smattering of different   nationalities and origins there it's kind of like  a little bit of everything Europe anyway working   these guys find you on social media and how can  they reach out to you a fish USA they you guys   can reach out to us on the fish USA Pro Shop page  and ask your questions there and you guys will too   yeah yeah I I personally and one of the people  that run that page so if you reach out to us on   any float questions I'd be happy to answer your  questions personally myself and then what a day   it personally yourself yeah and then where can  they find you on social media ah Facebook okay   Josh Joshua Joshua Felton Berger yeah with an  F anyway we'll see you guys in the next video   y'all leave a comment below and let me know if  you like this kind of expanding our horizons and   getting into some other species and videos along  these lines because a lot of this stuff can make   you understand the fish you pursue and you can do  some crossover even with bass fishing so anyway   leave me a comment the comments section below  lesson they think and say thanks to Josh for   so much here and all that knowledge appreciate  you brother thank you man later and you have to   have the gauge holes to really catch that part  of it or say just for like tying your hat down

Channel: FishUSA

Views: 137,399

Keywords: steelhead, trout, rainbow trout, steelhead trout, steelhead fishing, trout fishing, rainbow trout fishing, brown trout, brown trout fishing, salmon, salmon fishing, chinook, chinook salmon, chinook salmon fishing, coho, coho salmon, coho salmon fishing, spinning rod, spinning reel, float fishing, float, great lakes, great lakes fishing, river, river fishing, stream, stream fishing, bobber down, float drop

Id: _bNVmueKUEM

Length: 31min 26sec (1886 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 23 2019