Quest Outdoors

gdb · Egg Joined: 08 Sep 2004 Posts: 2

I read the article about Downstream indie and achieving drifts of 100+'. I was gonna give this method a try this fall for salmon/steelhead. My question was in regards to indicator height. How high do you set your indicator for such long drifts??? Set it for the deepest spot, shallowest etc. It seems there would be quite a variance in depth over 100+' of river. Thanks for your help and this site has lots of great info!

Eric · Lunker Joined: 06 Mar 2004 Posts: 277

gdb,

Depending on what type of water you're fishing will dictate how long of an EFFECTIVE" drift you're going to get. The key word being "EFFECTIVE". You're not going to get a 100' drift in pocket water tribs like the Riffle, or PM.. there are only a few slots which remain fishable and which hold fish for an extended length. Most places in pocket water fisheries have only small "slots" where fish will hold leaving the remained of the run void. You can fish these but it's not going to do ya any good. So short drifts are the rule.

Now, on tribs like what you find on Erie there are often pools where fish stack up for an extended length. One exanple where you'd find this would be against shale banks. Here's where you can employ the long drift method. Ted, who wrote the article is at home on such tribs and has developed this style to effectively fish these type of waters.

Set your depth for the majority or the run, or if you know where the fish hold set it to that depth. The cool part of this technique is by using only one or two tiny split shot your flies will ride just above the bottom and will rise and fall with varrying depth. just remember that it takes a little longer for the flies to sink with almost no shot on them.

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gdb · Egg Joined: 08 Sep 2004 Posts: 2

Thanks for the response Eric. I guess you're right, I usually fish the PM so this technique would only be effective on the long bends. But after posting I got to thinking about it and by using smaller shot spread out, that would alleviate some of the problems with the varying depth, as opposed to the majority of the shot dragging bottom and slowing down the indie. I guess I just wasn't thinking about it hard enough, haha. Thanks again and great site.