How to Bank Fish for Steelhead

good morning and welcome to day one outdoors on today's episode we're gonna be talking about how to target steelhead from the bank most of us don't own boats and winter steelhead offers a great opportunity for us to go out and chase these beautiful fish from the shoreline on today's episode we're going to be talking about how to look at each hole break it down and how to choose what techniques to utilize when you walk up on each spot so let's get out there and see how these guys are doing and talk about some steelhead [Music] the forecast showers and thunderstorms today with strong southwesterly winds to 37 miles per hour it's a numbers game especially for a situation that ran we're coming off of a high water event here [Music] the outdoors is not a hobby it's not our passion it is our way of life we make the perfect cast slow our breathing to execute a perfect shot spend hours researching locations and techniques regardless of effort we fail this series is not about incredible bites or trophy animals our goal here at day one outdoors is to educate our viewers utilizing new technology to offer a different perspective watch as we research new areas plan out the day and adjust the changing conditions if not for other experienced outdoorsmen teaching me along the way i wouldn't have this life i owe it to them to pass this knowledge along i owe it to you join us here on day one outdoors and let's learn how to become more successful in the field and on the water from day one [Music] so [Music] we're gonna throw a little bobber and jig this morning see if we can wake and steal it up here probably start about four foot deep just kind of cover the inside water first and work our way out to the deeper water there's three of us we'll give a couple cats in here and see if anybody's home oh we got fish on here boys um just bobbing jig fishing kind of like we talked about just slowly letting the bobber get out there a little further in the hole just kept getting a little deeper and auburn went under and set that up right now we've got a double going on actually came up in the first spot ryan hooked up and then while we're filming him jason hooked up back in that tail out too so it was pretty cool happened right away it's gonna be a good day i hope [Music] all right that's just a beautiful fish man first hole too first hole a couple casts i mean just try a little deeper a little further out bobber went down and there she is this is gorgeous man she's pretty fish well let's pop that hook out of her mouth and let her go she'll let us he's all right she put up a good fight she's a little tired there you go there he is that's just another beautiful fish ryan just how big do you think that is i'd say at least 10 11 pounds yeah it's it's full of eggs she's ready to go nice beautiful native it's done ryan all right man that was pretty good huh accurate thank you thank you great let's take a quick moment here and talk about how you caught that fish so this is a nice big long hole it actually looks more like a springer hole because it's deep and fast up at the top end and then it drifts back into this shallower tail out so why did you choose this almost middle section even a little bit towards the tail out and how far out did you cast talk to me about your gear your setup and how deep you went and why i wanted to start just like i said right below the guy right above me started off about four foot deep i think got to the middle of the river so kept working my way out and actually on that cast i put my bobber stop about a foot deeper sure probably was about six foot deep by then and ended up casting over the far seam on the other side all the way down so it sounds like you put a grid pattern together it sounds like you came out and you looked at the hole and you said all right i'm going to start in as close to myself as i can and then work my way towards opposite bank you didn't just walk out and go there's a fish can be in the middle of this slot so i'm going to go and put it at six feet and cast out there in your first cast you started in close then worked your way out is that right exactly now what's the rationale behind that just not to miss any fish not to miss any water also not to spook anything closer in you don't want to walk all the way out where the fish can be and you don't want to you don't want to miss fish that are close to you rather just start shallow work your way over i actually thought since i went deeper it might have been the bottom so i just kind of reeled up it ended up being a fish that's the way it goes man it works well what's great too is that we've already had what four boats go downstream that have already fished this spot so even though other people have already fished this slot if fished it with essentially the same gear we're using you could still find fish in heavily pressured areas don't feel like you're missing an opportunity because other people have already fished that spot so ryan nice job again man the day was off to a quick start with success in the first hole however the river was dropping and clearing quicker than expected but we couldn't argue with the beautiful march weather and incredible scenery time to head on downstream and continue building our pattern [Music] fishfield is your one-stop shop online for the gear you need here in the pacific northwest and beyond from salmon and steelhead saltwater trout and kokanee even crabbing visit fishfield.com today to place an order with no sales tax and have the gear you need shipped fast fishfield.com we have what the northwest outdoorsman needs [Music] [Applause] every once in a while a new lure comes along that catches every angler's attention it could be because of all the irresistible colors and finishes or the patented skipped beat action or maybe it's the wide variety of sizes designed for salmon trout walleye steelhead mackinaw and more but just for the record we know one thing for certain we didn't design the maglev to catch fishermen yakima bait company [Music] when you're breaking down these holes and you understand how they work whether it's the top end at the step into the pool and into the tail out different techniques will work better in each location in each hole at the heads of these holes in the faster current fishing that inside seam with a bobber and jig or with drift fishing right in the middle of the hole because the current on top is faster than the current on the bottom drift fishing can work very well when you get into the middle of the hole and into the pool fishing bobber and bait and drift fishing again will work really well too into the tail outs the fish can fan out that's where swinging a spoon and spinner or fishing bobber and jig is a fantastic option so let's take a moment look at this river and then talk about some techniques [Music] the first technique that we're going to use here is going to be a bobber and jig and the reason why is because barbara jig is a perfect setup to use on this inside seam if you cast out into the middle or the far bank all you're going to do is end up spooking the fish or just passing over fish so what you want to use with the bobber jig set up is a nine to ten and a half foot long rod that way it makes it easier to measure line braided line in anywhere from twenty pound to fifty pound the braided line will float on top of the surface again making it easier to bend your line here we're using an inline slit float that way it's quick and easy to change our depth it is a half ounce weight float down to a quarter ounce inline weight and then a quarter ounce maxi jig to match up with the exact weight of our bobber now we have about three feet of leader line here anywhere from eight pound to fifteen pound leader will work out great whether it's fluorocarbon or monofilament is totally up to you with these inline weights it really won't affect the presentation too much so what i'm going to do first is start shallow on this first inside seam where i think the fish are going to stage and then i'll work a little bit deeper and then i'll make another cast a little bit further out two or three feet further and then continue working my grid so we're going to first start on this inside seam the first spot where these fish could be holding starting it out shallow we're going to talk about an underutilized technique it's using a side planner now this was really popular about two three decades ago but it's lost favor here in the last few years but in a situation such as this where we have really fast water at the top end that's fairly shallow and it's about 150 200 yard long hole using a side planer with the plug covers a lot of water and you can find those active fish quickly so first what we want to do is select what plug i've chosen the maglib 3.0 and it's a little bit bright out so i'm going with the silver color to really get their attention i've chosen this plug because it dies a bit shallower than say the 3.5s or larger plugs because i note that this stretch here is only about three to five feet of water so what you're first going to do is put your plug in the water grab a hold of your side planer and then pull out about 30 to 40 feet of line from out behind your side planer once you're about there you're going to create a half hitch at the top end so grab your line from your arm wire to your first guide lead create a quick half hitch and put it over the stop right here on top then just pull it tight just like that now holding on to your leader coming out the back end of your side planer make sure you get far enough out in the current put the slide planer in the water you can see it immediately starts catching the current and taking it out to the middle open up your reel into free spool and let it start swimming out to the spot that you want your lure to be working now i want this thing fishing right off the first or second seam off the shoreline that's where you're gonna find these more active fish we'll talk about another technique right here we can do for steelhead fishing is throwing a spinner um we'll start with the rod and reel here got a spinning reel 15 pound monofilament line um this rod rods i like to use for spinners usually eight and a half nine and a half foot this happens to be a nine foot two lambo glass this is our new infinity series we're trying these out today we've already caught a couple on them i really like them so far um come down here to the main line we have a chain swivel barrel swivel here and then we put a 10 pound leader on then i have a quarter ounce vibric rooster tail this happens to be a nickel blade with a metallic purple body uh this water conditions today i would like to use any kind of metallic colors like blue you can use all silver you can also use brass brass blades work great any darker colors you can use black bodies dark green bodies this clear water you can even go up to like a full black with a black blade on it those all work good uh this size will be great for the water efficient here it's probably five or six feet deep out in front of me right here and we're going to talk about two different ways to fish a spinner one is to cast it either directly across the river or maybe slightly downstream let it sink a little bit and then let it swing through the bottom of the hole you can do that or you can also in deeper water you can throw it upstream about quartering upstream let it sink just a little bit not too much though because the current is going to take it down pretty fast and then reel it just enough to feel that blade spinning and you want to be real close contact the bottom you're actually probably going to bump bottom as you come down through there let's try it out and see what happens [Music] [Applause] [Music] salmon swim up to 3 000 miles to return to the exact place of birth to reproduce [Applause] [Music] well most of the time [Music] [Applause] we pulled up into this hole here right now and as you can see it's really long and it and has a very uniform depth and if you pay close attention to the guys behind me all of us have grabbed bobber rods and here's the reason why in these long stretches that have a uniform depth you want to be able to cover the water quickly because the fish will spread out so using a bobber and jig or bobber and worm bobber and bead even a bobber and egg and what we hear all the time that term bobber dogging that allows you to cover a lot of water quickly so what we're going to do is set up here we're all set up from the top all the way down to the tail out we're going to cover this stretch as fast as we can and see if there's anything that will help us build a pattern and determine exactly where in the hole whether it's towards the top or near the tail out or in the middle or towards each shoreline where these fish are once we dial that in we can start to finesse our gear and try and put a pattern together and get a bunch of fish up to the shore [Music] [Music] [Music] nicely done guys yes that was on a bobber and pink worm you got it there huh yeah so you were fishing just on that first inside seam or you out there in the main current i was right out on the edge of that fast water on the mid river okay so it was down you're set about what about six feet there uh probably a little more six or eight yeah okay seven and a half so and how deep do you think it actually is out there in the middle uh probably in the gut of it eight feet okay so you were just about six inches a foot off the bottom hit that thing right on the nose beautiful fish already starting to color back up beautiful awesome fish man yeah thank you well we just started here i started up there at the top with ryan and you guys you and greg came down and fished the middle and the tail out obviously there's fish in this hole especially if they're staging up right in the middle so let's get out there and get a few more and i might put on one of those pink worms perfect all right all right well i just worked my way down the hole here bobber and jig just actually started hitting the bottom towards the bottom this hole is getting a little shallower so i actually shallowed up my bobber and first cast after i shallowed it up went right through and bobber went down and got a fish on [Music] like a little dark little native. [Music] i mean just that old-school jig that we used to use back the day back when we were in high school i mean that's that's it right there i did my one little patented trick too they come with a longer tail i actually actually trim the tail up just behind the back of the hook because that fish is just hooked perfect man yep so definitely a colored up buck but you know he'll go up and do his job another native fish just beautiful colors on his cheek and nice band along the mid section there gorgeous pretty well done man thanks all right get him back out there so we can finish his business all right let's do it again yeah that's just a little bit further down from where jason just caught his so it's a nice long hole bobber technique is definitely a great one to use in holes such as this just because you got to cover water right and a bobber jig you're covering a lot of water quickly as opposed to drift fishing or obviously plunking or even sitting up there and just keep on hitting the same spot over and over you guys all you're doing starting up at the top and quickly working your way down creating that grid starting in close shallow making it deeper work your way out deeper again and all the way on down here to the tail end we'll probably catch another one or two fish before we even hit the tail out also let's do it all right so finally i came down here and joined the party jason got one than ryan did and what they were doing was they were fishing bigger jigs quarter rounds jigs and pink worms and we've been hammering the same spot for about half an hour and when you find pressured fish like this sometimes you need to go a little bit more finesse so what i did is i put on a bead and within a handful of casts we're hooked up what we're doing beef fishing here is actually emulating an egg and we're late in the year here in march a lot of these fish have spawned and these fish get territorial and we'll eat these little eggs and it's a great little finesse rig i'm using 10-pound fluorocarbon just a couple of split shot on about a 5-foot leader you ate it within just a handful of casts there all right ryan let's slide it up to here buddy another nice native beautiful what you can see too is our bead is actually about an inch and a half two inches above the hook and you would think that you'd be hooking the fish on the outside the face and weigh in behind the gills but they come up and they bite this that line slides right in and she's just right here on the bottom of the lip i'm going to pop that hook out there maybe that's awesome man pretty little fish i'm glad i got to join in on the action good work there host somebody's got to catch this you see this these fish have obviously been in here a little while they got a few little parasites on them she's got scratches on them she's good and healthy she jumped out of the water give me a good fight i love these march fish you know most people are already going out there focusing in on spring chinook and we'd come in here we've only seen two or three other boats and those fish what number four it's awesome i'm not mad about it all right well let's set her back on her way huh good job man here she goes [Music] [Music] greg nice and done man thanks just gorgeous fish great way to end the day absolutely that's a killer all right ready let him go yeah right buddy oh now you don't want to go perfect greg i see you caught it on this maxi jig that's a metallic blue head with a pink worm but why did you choose the metallic blue head well i have to be honest no one else today was using them yeah but the sun's out nice and bright colors those fish can see it from a long ways away that's a great great option obviously it worked i mean that was a beautiful fish and i noticed that you came up here away from everyone too up here a little bit towards the front end of that tail out just as it starts to shallow up now why did you choose to come to this part of the tail out and not back there where we were fishing well the last couple days the river's been on a drop as you know i think it's at nine eight today sure so as the waters get lower these fish are gonna start pulling up up in the hole sure exactly they're not going to be back there in those tail outs where it's shallower they feel a little bit less protected especially as the water clears so the fish pushed up you came up here away from us used something different that the fish haven't seen you hooked one down dude it's beautiful great way to end the day thanks buddy appreciate it let's do it [Music] our float chasing steelhead from the bank had come to an end with the takeout around the corner ryan and i discussed the events of the day and what contributed to making us successful as we pulled ashore we thanked our captains and took a moment to detail the prevailing pattern ryan we just made it down to the park and we're starting to load up the rafts right now and it was fantastic day we we all caught a fish and we all caught it on the exact same technique it was on bobbers now what do you attribute that to well the obvious statement would be that's what we use over 75 of the time sure um second off bobbers cover a lot of water you can cast out you can let it drift clear down the hole as long as you know it doesn't shallow up you might hit the bottom you can let it get for a long ways and you can quickly cover water you can change your depths you can change colors you can change baits sizes and that obviously well a couple quick takeaways from today's episode be versatile make sure you cover as much water as possible and put your pattern together number one is location figure out where in the hole these fish will sit number two is your presentation what style of presentation do they want to see do they want to see a spinner coming downhill do they want to see drift gear coming through today those bobbers and number three is your color and your scent today we tried a lot of different sizes and we put a pattern together they want the worms and they're really small profile jigs and don't forget to have somebody take you down that knows the river exactly get to know the river that's closest to your home know it backwards and forwards during high water events and low water events when you know that river better than anybody else you're going to have success regardless of when you have time to get out there and go hit the river ryan thanks again man all right let's do it again [Music] you

Channel: Day One Outdoors

Views: 11,317

Keywords: Steelhead, Fishing, How-To, Techniques, Rivers, Streams, Bait, Jigs, Spinners, Lures, Plugs, Tutorial, entertainment, tv show, Day One Outdoors, Steelhead Fishing

Id: 4IbwX7BxfFU

Length: 26min 24sec (1584 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 04 2022