Hey everyone Im from Roseburg Oregon and this is my first year Steelhead fishing!! I love this site I am on it everyday!! I was just wondering if float fishing would work for the main Umpqua and North and South umpqua river??? I was also wonder how long of leader I would need for the float fishing setup!! I dont have a boat so were should I go to hook my first steelhead?? Thanks for listening to a rookie that is desperate to catch his first steelhead!!

steelheadscott wrote:Hey everyone Im from Roseburg Oregon and this is my first year Steelhead fishing!! I love this site I am on it everyday!! I was just wondering if float fishing would work for the main Umpqua and North and South umpqua river??? I was also wonder how long of leader I would need for the float fishing setup!! I dont have a boat so were should I go to hook my first steelhead?? Thanks for listening to a rookie that is desperate to catch his first steelhead!!

hey scott, nice to meet ya!
at the risk of writing a book, ill do my best to give you the best advice i can. im sure others will as well!!! to answer your first question. "will float fishing work on the umpqua"? oh you betcha!!! but its got to be in a location that fish will hold in to begin with. i dont know the umpqua well enough to know what type of river it is. is it a big and brawling low-land river? or is it a smaller river in the cascade foothills full of boulder gardens and downed trees...? either way, its not so much a question of weather float fishing will work, its more a matter of where your casting your line. being a rookie, you'll need to learn what we call "reading the water". this skill will tell you where the fish are most likely to be holding. im assuming the main umpqua is bigger water...? this will make reading it a little more challenging because there is nothing to read. usually bigger pieces of water have little to no structure. structure being tree stumps, a few car sized boulders, or perhaps a really nice tail out. smaller rivers that run down through the foothills have structure everywhere, making the whole reading process a lot easier to grasp. that said, in my opinion, the best way to learn water reading is to go fishing with a person who already knows how to do it!!! simple as that. watch them closely and just let them talk. on the job training so to speak... the runs, the seams, the riffles, the tail-outs, and so on. if you dont have a fishing buddy, then believe me, there are literally 1000's of books and magazines that are a wealth of information. "salmon, trout, steelheader" magazine is one of my personal fav's and probably the cheapest. you dont have a boat? so what, i dont either. doesnt matter in the least. what matters is finding the correct holding water, and how you present your jig/bait. as far as leader length goes, its a matter of estimating the depth of a given run, and setting your leader length so your jig/bait will be as close to the bottom as you can get it, without being so long that you snag up on every pass. a sliding float, or as its sometimes called a slip float will make this very easy to do. there is no, "set your leader at 24 inches and throw your line out". it all depends on the water depth. personaly i try to keep it about a foot from bottom, but sometimes snags just happen regardless. i could go on forever here, so ill wrap it up... good luck and keep at it!!!

skyfisher~
Thanks for the tips!! Im going out this weekend to try to find that first fish. I tied up some hooks and leaders and kept them about 24 inches long.

steelheadscott wrote:skyfisher~
Thanks for the tips!! Im going out this weekend to try to find that first fish. I tied up some hooks and leaders and kept them about 24 inches long.

um... ok... maybe you didnt read all of what i wrote about the 24 inch leaders...? well, good luck anyways!

Ya Im going to adjust like you said according to how my drift is but Im guessing to start with around a 24" leader.

steelheadscott wrote:Ya Im going to adjust like you said according to how my drift is but Im guessing to start with around a 24" leader.

hey scott,
you're correct, you'll have to adjust many times throughout the day, but there is no "start with a 24 inch leader". you'll need to start with a leader that fits the water depth. regardless of what that may be. do it before you make your first cast. you dont want to begin casting your 24 inch leader into a run thats 6 feet deep. why? because your jig is going to be 4 feet above the fish. in my opinion this is way to high. it also leads to another problem. if, for example, you've only got 2 feet of water visability, and your jig is 4 feet above the fish, then the fish aren't even going to see it.

so, start working the hole from the up-river end and work your way down. approach it slowly and quietly. this may not be possible if you're with an anxious buddy who always has to have first cast in a new hole!!! look at the run for a few seconds. read it. is it flowing fast? is there a wall of large rocks on the back side? are there over hanging trees on the back side? is there a broken surface? can you see the bottom? use your best judgement and set your leader length PRIOR to making your first cast. if its constanly "dipping" below the surface, then you'll need to shorten it a bit. but, if it bumps bottom only once or twice during the drift, then you'll know that your as deep as you can go without snagging to often.

I wonder if Scott is referring to the length of leader between the swivel and the jig ?
I always have a swivel between my sliding float and my jig. I run 18-24" of leader from the swivel to the jig.
Ksteel

that could be it, now that you mention it. i was under the impression that he meant the OVERALL amount of line below his bobber...

Welcome to the website steelheadscott!! You are choosing a good technique to learn, not just because it works but you spend a lot of your time fishing and not re tieing!! There are many good techniques to catch steelhead but the more you have your line in the water the better. I would say the north and south umpqua are perfect for float fishing depending on flows and the main umpqua would be difficult if you don't have a boat. Up above coliding rivers can be very good steelhead water and there are many places to pull off and fish, plus there is good float water. The south I have never fished but from looking at it from the road there is a very good chance that it would work well. The south especially has a lot of snaggy water so drifting off the bottom can be frustrating! Good luck and let us know if you have any other questions.

Thanks for the help guys!! I fished all weekend but am still waiting to hook one!! I was talking about the length of leader between the swivel and the jig!! Thanks for clearing this up hollywood!! I just have some more questions right now on float fishing. I understand that you need to keep your jig/bait close to the bottom of the river. I have been adjusting my bobber stop to estimate the right depth by lengthening it out until I know I am dragging on the bottom because my bobber is pointing downstream. Then I am moving it up about a foot and watching it to make sure it is floating straight up and down. Any tricks or tips to make sure I am at the right depth?? Also I am ordering some crystal pike bobbers but am currently using all I could find at a local bimart. How do you know what size of float to use??? I think the one I have now is to large? Thanks again for any advice!! I hope everyone is having a blast and catching fish

The size of the bobber depends on the size of the jig that you are using. I would assume that you are not using anything over 1/4 oz for a jig, so a 1/4 oz bobber is a good place to start. If your shopping at bi-mart, get the easy-drifter or west coast floats if they have them. A little tip with the easy drifter is put a dab of super glue on the bobber where the straw meets the float, because they eventually start sliding up and down inside the float. You want your bobber to be 3/4 under water, this helps it track straight down stream. If your bobber is riding to high add a split shot or two to your leader half way bewteen your swivel and jig. Hope that helps. Good luck on your first bobber down.

Also depending on the size of water or river you are fishing you can use a larger float on a big river and get away with it and also use more weight to get your float down. On smaller rivers (north umpqua) the fish can see you easier so use smaller floats and less weight, what Daniel said is a good starting point for the type of water you fish!