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As I rowed the little boat slowly across
the water’s glassy surface I stared into its depths
for the gentle slope I knew was there, somewhere. The
midday sun was beaming into the water and my polarized
glasses gave me an excellent view of the bottom. Weeds
were abundant and I could see the scuds swimming amongst
them. I soon found the drop-off and anchored about 15
feet off its deep edge. With it being close to noon
and the sun at its zenith, I didn’t expect a lot
of action, but I tied on a #10 Golden Shrimp pattern
and began to cast anyway. |
Ten casts later I had a strike. Not a hard smash but rather
a soft, sucking hit; the type that you often don’t notice
until it's almost too late. I set the hook and the fish took
off. She was into my backing when she finally decided to stop
and take to the air. We fought for about five minutes before
the trout finally came to the net, a nice 16-inch Kamloops
rainbow.
I fished for another hour but came up
empty for my efforts and then headed back to camp. I
was a bit disappointed that I hadn’t done better,
but after talking to a few other anglers I discovered
that I was the only person to have any luck at all.
I’d had that happen before, I’d just played
the odds. |
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I started fishing a long time ago, first as a boy with my
older brother, then by myself or with a friend or two. One
problem always seemed to perplex me every time I arrived at
a new lake . . . where to start? It took me years to figure
out the answer and for me it is the drop-off.
Many people are puzzled by the same predicament every year.
They often waste hours or even days of their holiday trolling
around the lake banking on sheer luck. This is totally unnecessary.
The problem in such a case is actually two-fold: they don’t
know where to start and they are in a hurry to get on the
water and start "enjoying” their holidays. The
second problem is more easily solved than the first.
When you first arrive at a lake your usual urge is to burst
forth from the vehicle, run down to the lakeshore to have
a look and then grab the boat and gear and get out on the
water as quickly as possible leaving the camp setup for later.
You’re much better off setting up camp and allowing
the initial excitement to wear off and then getting the boat
on the water. With the excitement under control you’re
now better able to logically tackle the other part of the
problem . . . where to start fishing.
I recommend the following tactic. Load the boat with your
fishing gear, leave the spouse and kids on shore, and casually
row your way around the lake if it’s small enough or
around the accessible parts if it's large. I suggest leaving
the spouse and kids behind because this initial scouting will
drive them crazy with boredom and they will end up driving
you crazy with their whining "Daddy, when are we going
in?”
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Stay about 20 to 40 feet offshore and
use your polarized sunglasses to look search the bottom
for weedbeds and shoals. When you find one turn the
boat away from shore and row out slowly. Watch the bottom
for the point where the bottom drops away into deeper
water. Sometimes this is quite abrupt, other times it
is more gradual. At that point look up and mentally
note a few landmarks such as old snags and things so
that you will be able to find the same spot again.
I often follow the drop-off along its length to see
the extent of it. Proceed along the shore again repeating
the performance for each shoal you find. Some lakes
are very clear and the bottom color is in sharp contrast
to the color of the water. In such cases locating the
drop-off is easy since the bottom stands out distinctly;
other lakes don’t exhibit such marked contrast
and you have to search out the drop-offs. |
This whole process may take hours and if you’re the
type of person I described earlier you will find this rather
tedious, but it is worth the effort. You can justify it in
your own mind by considering the fact that if you weren’t
doing this, you’d probably be trolling around the lake
with no particular place in mind as to where the fish are
and probably have no fish as well. At least now you have a
good idea of where to start.
Drop-offs are good spots to fish. They meet the criteria
that fish require. They offer dark, cool, deep water that
will protect the fish from surface predators, and are a reliable
source of food in the form of shallow water insects that often
swim over the edge, thus becoming easy prey.
I almost always use a fast sinking line when fishing the
drop-offs unless the fish are onto an obvious hatch in which
case I fish a floating line.
When there is no hatch on, the fly patterns I prefer to use
are a crystal scud, Forbes’ damselfly nymph, D.D.D.
(dragonfly nymph), Doc Spratley, and a black woolly bugger.
I start with a wooly bugger because leeches make up a substantial
part of most trout’s diet and it is included in their
diet almost continuously throughout the season. If there is
a hatch on I will go with the hatch but I still anchor just
off the drop-off. The big fish come in from deep water as
the sun sets and the light starts to dim and it gives me first
crack at them.
Generally I use the same method to fish the drop-offs regardless
of the time of day. I position the boat about 15 - 20 feet
off the deep end and there I anchor. I make my first cast
parallel to the drop-off’s edge and hand twist or strip
retrieve the line back. Then I angle my next cast more towards
shore and, with successive casts, I carve out a 180 degree
arc until my last cast is sent parallel to the opposite edge.
If I don’t get a strike I will move the boat further
along the drop-off’s edge and start again. This method
allows me to cover a maximum amount of area while presenting
my fly naturally, that is, retrieving from shallows over the
edge of the drop-off.
Now many fly-fishers may argue that flies like the damselfly
nymph migrate from deeper water to the shallows where they
crawl up the reeds to eventually become adults. That’s
true, but the majority of insects at the drop-off are milling
around in search of food (i.e. scuds) and this often causes
them to swim out over the drop-off’s edge exposing themselves
to the fish lurking below. I have had great success fishing
damselfly nymphs as well as many other patterns using this
method.
Although I strictly fly-fish, fishing the drop-off areas
of a lake should produce for spin-casters and gang-trollers
as well. The same principles apply for spin-casting, but gang-trollers
will have to troll along the drop-off’s edge in order
to avoid snags. Watch out for the fly-fishers too!
The drop-off is one of the primary areas that consistently
produce trout. If you take my advice and give it a try I’m
sure you will be pleasantly surprised by the results. It’s
a great place to start.
Bill Luscombe has been hunting and fishing for most of his
42 years. He has been flyfishing for 20 years. He instructs
flyfishing, and has done so for the past 12 years. He also
instructs the federal FSET firearms course and the BC CORE
hunter training course. He is an award-winning outdoor writer
and has been writing freelance since 1987. He has been published
in BC Sport Fishing Magazine, Outdoor Edge, BC Outdoors, Western
Sportsman, Island Fish Finder, and the BC Hunting Guide.
Bill Luscombe was born an army brat and raised in Ladner
(Delta, BC) where he was raised hunting waterfowl and pheasants.
He presently resides in North Cowichan on southern Vancouver
Island where he has lived and worked full time as a professional
forester since 1982.
He presently works in Nanaimo for the BC Forest Service and
continue to write the fly-fishing column for BC Sport Fishing
Magazine as well as contributing articles freelance to various
outdoor magazines in western Canada.
Bill Luscombe is also a BC Director of the Northwest Outdoor
Writers Association. "Catching fish is not hard. You simply
need to understand what makes them tick. If you think like
a fish, you will catch fish. It’s as simple as that."- Bill
Luscombe
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