FishwithJD

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Killer Surf Perch Rig!

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Carolina Rig

The Carolina-rigged GULP sandworm is an awesome set-up for light tackle surf perch fishing on the beaches from Baja to BC!

Fish it on light gear and slowly retrieve the rig along the bottom on steeply sloped sandy beaches for some serious fun.

Surf perch attack quickly and the typical bite is a rapid-fire shot of sharp taps. Think or hesitate before you set the book and it will be too late.

To learn all about how to identify the choice spots for perch fishing, along with other rigs and tips, check out my eBook: Light Tackle Surf Perch It is routinely in Amazon best seller’s list and reviewers have given it 4.5 out of 5 stars!

It’s available for Kindle at Amazon or, for mac users, Apple iBooks You can also get it on a PDF download version.

Never get Poison Oak/Ivy Again!!

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There are some spots I refuse to fish because it’s so loaded with poison oak…I just look at that stuff and start itching. And man have I had some brutal cases over the years!

If you’re like me and hunt or fish around the “evil weed,” you’ll find this video very interesting!

Bobber-Dogging for Steelhead from the Bank

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Bobber Doggin diagram

The following is an excerpt from my guidebook, The Ultimate Guide to Steelhead Bank Fishing. Here’s a small section of the Float Fishing Chapter…

Bobber-doggin’ is hybrid technique that seems to be taking the steelhead world by storm these days – and though it’s most often practiced from boats, you can do very well with it from shore too!

There’s a lot of confusion surrounding this method – partly because everybody seems to have a slightly different way they go about it. I’ll give you the basic technique here and then you can tweak things as you see fit.

The best way to describe bobber-doggin’ is that it is basically drift fishing with a float. Unlike traditional bobber fishing where the bait rides suspended in the water column, the idea here is to have your sinker (typically a Slinky) tapping along the bottom – again just as if you were drift fishing. What the bobber does is act like a little tug boat, dragging your gear downstream.

The benefits of this presentation are:

  • You tend to get snagged much less frequently because of the line angle coming off the float.
  • Instead of having your gear drift in an arc (like regular drift fishing), it travels on a straight line, which enables you to cover water you couldn’t without the bobber.
  • You have a built-in bite detector.

When drift fishing, it can be difficult to distinguish the tap of your sinker from the often subtle bite of a steelhead. When bobber-doggin’ it’s pretty simple – when the float goes down you probably have a bite. At that point, reel until you come tight to the fish and then set the hook.

How to do It

While you’ll often see anglers in drift boats and jet sleds doing most of the Bobber-Doggin’, it’s a handy little technique off the bank too. The absolute best way to do it is “Poor Man’s Drift Boat” style (see the “Drift Fishing” chapter for more on that) where you cast at about a 45 degree angle upstream and then start walking down the bank as your rig drifts. Ideally, you want to have the bobber upstream of your position as you walk.

bobber_doggin_cc

Because the sinker is dragging the bottom, the top of the float should be angled downstream (exactly the way we don’t want it to be when fishing standard float gear), and you may see or even feel the sinker tapping the bottom.

I don’t mind a slight belly in the line near the float just to keep the gear moving along – but there’s a fine line here. Too much of a bow in the line and the rig will get dragged downstream too quickly.

The right speed is dictated by water conditions: Use more weight to slow your bait down if the water is high, cold and/or off-colored, and go with just enough to keep the offering ticking the bottom when the conditions are clear and the water has good visibility to it.

Rigging up for Bobber-Doggin’

Rigging up is essentially the same as described in the drift fishing section – with addition of a slip float and a bobber stop above the leader.

BOBBERDOG_RIG

Because you want the current pulling the rig along, bobbers with a wide profile to catch more current are best for this method. You can use the big teardrops – or better yet: buy the cheapie foam ones and cut the bottoms off so they are flat. That big flat surface gets pushed nicely by the current and keeps the rig drifting nicely. Aerofloat also makes a Bobber-Doggin’ model if you’d rather go that route.

BOBBERDOG_RIG

As far as depth goes, the rule of thumb is to set your bobber stop (measuring from the Slinky) to about 1½ times the water depth. You can adjust from there but that will get you started.

My Favorite Steelhead Fishing Gear

A standard float rod from 8½ to 9½ feet in length is fine and the style reel you use is totally up to you – spinning or casting both work fine. Spool up with 30-pound braid and then run an 8- to 15-pound fluoro or mono leader. I like bright yellow or white braided line so I can see my line in the water. To keep it from being too visible, however, I’ll take a fat black Sharpie pen and darken the top 20 feet of line.

On the business end, roe and a Fish Pill or Corkie works great on a No. 4 octopus hook. But anything you would drift for steelhead – plastic worms, nightcrawlers, shrimp, prawns, sand shrimp tails, pegged beads and yarn balls are perfectly suited to bobber-doggin’ as well.

For much, much more info, check out my latest Guidebook:

High Water Steelhead Fishing: Plunking

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It’s been raining like crazy up and down the West Coast and steelhead rivers are running high…which makes now the perfect time to show you how to catch fish in big water.

This is a small excerpt from my new eBook, The Ultimate Guide to Steelhead Bank Fishing, which is loaded with lots of other useful how-to stuff like this…

When rivers are coming down from a big rise, but aren’t yet low enough to be fished with drift gear, floats or hardware, it’s time to plunk. This method really shines when a river’s on the drop but still off color and pushy – when you’re still two to three days away from what you’d consider ideal conditions. The river’s velocity will still be high enough that the fish will abandon the middle of the flow, opting instead to travel upstream on the path of least resistance along the shallow margins.

High water diagram

High water actually reduces the amount of water you have to cover – since the fish will be right next to the bank.

Big rod? Check! Forked stick? Check! Bell? Check! Truck? Check! Beer? Check! Plunk on, my friends!

Where to Cast

Since steelhead migrate close to shore in high water, you’re going to want to be within 20 feet of the bank (sometimes as close as just a couple feet) on the shallow side of the river. Most of the time, you’ll be fishing in 2½ to 4 feet of water. Ideally, your gear will be parked in the slower current but you’ll have some heavy water just outside of you. Since the fish don’t want to swim up through the fast stuff, they’ll have to come right past you.

Plunking short cast

No need to be a hero and show off your long-range casting skills when plunking. The fish are going to be close to shore when the water is up.

Once you have your gear in the water, all you have to do is put the rod in a holder or sand spike and sit back and wait for the fish to come to you. Since plunking can be such a social affair – almost like tailgating at a football game, you can get distracted by good food and conversation and forget to keep an eye on your rod. For that reason, lots of plunkers clip a catfish bell to their rod tips…that way they can hear it when a fish grabs the bait.

It’s actually pretty fun to watch a bunch of plunkers throw everything down and scramble towards their rods when a bell goes off.

Plunking is a often a social outing – almost like tailgating before a football game: Food, friends, fun...and maybe even a fish or two!

Plunking is a often a social outing – almost like tailgating before a football game: Food, friends, fun…and maybe even a fish or two!

The Rig

There are several ways to set your gear up for plunking. Some anglers get pretty involved and, where legal, will run two to three rigs off their mainline. They’ll have a combination of baits and/or plugs and everything has to be perfect to avoid major tangles. I’m more of a keep it simple kind of guy so I keep my rigs decidedly low-tech. They work just fine, however!

Here’s the easiest way to get going:

Basic Plunking Rig

Step 1: Start by tying a three-way swivel to the end of your mainline (I use 50-pound braided mainline).

Step 2: Attach a 10- to 18- inch leader to one of the remaining eyes on the swivel. This is the dropper line for the sinker. Make sure your lead line is 5-10 pounds lighter than your leader so that, if the sinker gets snagged, you’ll lose it instead of the whole rig.

Step 3: To the end of the dropper goes a Duolock swivel – and then your sinker snaps into that. Pyramid or teardrop sinkers (you may need anywhere between 1 to 8 ounces of lead, depending on the river and flow) seem to hold best in strong currents, though some folks use the flat “pancake” style as well.

On some northern rivers, anglers build structures known as “plunking shacks” to protect themselves from the elements.

On some northern rivers, anglers build structures known as “plunking shacks” to protect themselves from the elements.

For the leader, run a 3-foot section of 20 or 25-lb. test monofilament to the swivel. I know that sounds heavy for steelhead but we’re dealing with heavy currents here – plus, the fish aren’t leader shy in big, off-colored water. The other end of the leader should have a double hook rig with your favorite brand of octopus hooks in the 1/0 to 3/0 size range.

To help fish find your offering in high/dirty water, upsize your rig and keep it shiny and bright.

To help fish find your offering in high/dirty water, upsize your rig and keep it shiny and bright.

As far as offerings go, big, bright, spinning drift bobbers are the ticket here. The No. 2-4 fluorescent orange or chartreuse “clown” Spin-N-Glo is pretty standard but you can also go with Beau Mac Flashing & Spinning Cheaters in the same colors. These winged bobbers put off some serious vibrations when they rotate in the current – and that helps the fish hone in on them in water with limited visibility.

Plenty of people catch fish on the “naked” Spin-N-Glos and Cheaters but I think it’s more effective to add some bait to the offering. A cluster of roe is always a great bet but sand shrimp and prawn meat are also effective when fished on plunking gear.

The Bite

The bites vary from fish to fish when plunking and there’s no real rhyme or reason to it. Sometimes you get a series of taps on the tip that kinda look like a trout bite. I think what’s happening there is a fish came up and grabbed your gear and just kept swimming upriver. The taps you feel are actually rapid head shakes as the fish tries to figure out what’s going on.

If you don’t want to be quite as attentive to your rod as I am here, you can put a bell on the tip to alert you to strikes.

If you don’t want to be quite as attentive to your rod as I am here, you can put a bell on the tip to alert you to strikes.

In that case, wait the taps out and then set the hook when you feel the rod tip load up. Of course, there’s also the “hit and run” style bite, during which your only job is to keep the rod from getting yanked into the drink.

Believe it or not, if you get on the right line and there’s a bunch of fish moving through, you can post some pretty impressive scores just sitting on the beach and plunking. While some folks dive wholeheartedly into relaxation mode while on the plunk, it’s the observant and active angler who gets bit more.

Routinely checking your rig for debris will improve your odds for success.

Routinely checking your rig for debris will improve your odds for success.

After a good rain, there’s often a lot of junk in the water that can foul your gear. By reeling up and checking your rig every 10 minutes or so, you increase you chances of catching fish. Also, pay close attention to what’s going on around you. If you see fish rolling below you, take note of which line they seem to be traveling and adjust accordingly. A slight change in position can make all the difference in this game!

Gearing Up

Due to the strong currents and big sinkers associated with plunking, this is not a finesse sport! Plunking requires stout, salmon-style gear capable of handling lead that can range up over a half pound in weight.

Don’t bring a knife to a gunfight – plunking requires some stout gear.

Don’t bring a knife to a gunfight – plunking requires some stout gear.

That being said, rods should have a bit of softness in the tip to help you detect bites. I prefer level wind reels for this style of fishing and I’ll run 50-pound braid as my main line since it is thinner than comparable mono and therefore less subject to being pushed by the current.

This was an excerpt from my latest ebook:
The Ultimate Guide to Steelhead Bank Fishing

The Ultimate Guide to Steelhead Bank Fishing