DO YOUR THING RIGHT

If you don't already know this, I love fishing drag free drifts under bobbers (indicators for the snobby reader.) I have been criticized for this hundreds of times, and even corked out of my drifts on several occasions in spite of my tactics (TODAY). Growing up, I learned the importance of knowing what your lure looks like under water. It's obvious that many people don't think this way when they are fishing. I couldn't count the times I have seen people lose it because they are not catching fish when using "the exact same thing" as a fisherman that is producing big numbers right next to them. In most cases, the fisher person locking up in the right water, though it may only be one microcurrent away from the unproductive wrecking ball angler.

CLASSIC MO' RIVER BOWS NYMPHED UP TODAY

Learning the water you need to be fishing at the right time only comes with experience, and lots of the time on the water. Don't expect to know where and how to fish if you haven't put in your time. Fly shops and blogs can help, but not too much. It’s like upper level physics, if you don't study, you will fail.

BIG ROB PATTON GETTING IT DONE TOO UNDER THE BOBBER

A good piece of advice for you from someone who struggled to fish bobbers correctly is to watch anglers who knowhow to run a proper drift. It wasn't until I watched a good buddy run razor sharp drifts until I understood why certain people catch more fish. I thought I knew how to nymph, I didn't. 

I thought nymphing was lame... (selling your soul.) 

I considered myself a 0xstreamer fisherman. I usually only fished streamers, even when fish were eating emergers. When fish started to eat dries freakishly, then I might have tried to throw on that strand of 4x and throw a dry. I was the guy that was stripping streamers all day, who would once in a while connect with a decent brown. I'll be the first to admit that I was unknowledgeable. Sometimes when I look at streamers, I think to myself that they are no different looking than crank bait. They are called sculpins, but look like needle fish. Streamer fishing is as close to cranking 6 inch plastic baits as it comes. This may be why it’s so fun! I love to strip streamers when it's on, and when I do it, I usually get rewarded with a nice slab of gold.

BROWN I TOOK ON A STRIPPED STREAMER YESTERDAY ON THE MO

THE SIX INCH 'BOW THAT WAS HANGING OUT OF THE PICTURED BROWN'S JAWS

Whatever it is that you are doing, do it right. If you are pulling around streamers at the right pace and depth, it will probably be worth blowing your shoulder doing it. If you like bobber fishing, get technical with your leaders, and present your flies the way fish want them. If you are soaking bait with a gear stick, use small barbless hooks, it’s the least you can do.

If you are using this trickery, be nice to the fish, because I know as well as you that you will catch them. The gear guys I watched today caught ALOT of rainbows. They were using small hooks and quickly released every one they caught. I applaud these guys for that, and realize that we all have our place on the river if we are holding a MT fishing license. Sticking a size 4 hook in a 16 inch rainbow's face is like sticking a clothing hanger hook in yours. This goes out to all breeds of fisher people. Please be nice to the fish, it's all a lot of us have.