young gun said:
bb is ok, just not with a 6ft leader. fish will bite if u bb properly and dont swing the presentation. i've done it, and americans do it and i dont think that were snagging fish at all. short leader and a slinky. roe or spin'n glows. we BC float fisherman are stuborn but can be changed
yes, "we" Americans do it, but if your leader lengths are excessive even down here, it can still be snagging or flossing.
As a general rule, the leaders are 18"-24". The weight lightly ticks bottom every 15-20 feet or so. Not dragging the bottom. For steelhead, depending on what water is like, you can slow drift a pink worm, roe or sand shrimp with and without a spin-n-glo, rather effectively. For salmon, I have had great success with drifting short leaders with roe and sandshrimp with a spin-n-glo thru very deep holes.
Also, we boondog or sidedrift several rivers down here. Which you point the bow up your boat upstream and cast upstream at a 45 degree angle, roughly. Then let the boat slowly drift downstream as your bait slowly ticks along the bottom while maintaining the same line angles, covering the most water as possible with everyone in the boat. This is a VERY effective method for covering a lot of water via boat and the fish HAMMER your offering as it drifts along naturally. I can't even think of the last time we or anyone I know has snagged a fish with this technique.
It is all in how you are fishing your method. Are you "fishing" your method or are you setting the hook at the end of every drift? I would say that nearly every method could be used to "snag" fish if someone intended on snagging fish. I think that you just have to decide how you want to fish and feel good about it at the end of the day.
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The Vedder right now has some fish but you will have to work pretty hard to find them. There are fresher fish moving through the Fraser right now, but with the elevated flows, bar availability is rather limited. Find a nice bar and plant yourself and hope for the best! :thumbup: