Being second

[rob allen]

All of us wish we could always be the first one through the water we fish. That however rarely happens. Sometimes it's discouraging to have to fish behind someone or behind a lot of people For years I hated fishing behind other anglers and all but gave up after a boat full of plugs goes through. Over the past few years though I have been forced to fish more and more "used " water and the fact is I catch just as many fish behind people than I do in virgin water. I want to encourage people to not give up hope when you are forced to fish second.
On day this last summer a friend of mine and I were fly fishing on a steelhead river. The run we wanted to fish was occupied by a guy throwing bait. We started in upstream of him in the water he had already fished. Not far into the run I hooked a beautiful native summer run.
We were moving through the run faster than the bait fisherman. He was very gracious and allowed us to move in below him where a boat with 3 plugs in the water had just finished. We fished through the run and hooked another 5 steelhead all on flies.
I guess the point i am trying to make is that steelhead are very individualistic there is no telling what they will or won't hit at any given time. There is no way to know the skill level of the guy in front of you. There are just flat out too many things you don't know to pass up good water that has been previously fished.
So next time you pull up to a favorite spot and a driftboat is there pulling plugs or drift fishing or however don't be discouraged jst wait til they are done and fish a different type of bait or lure if it's food water and there are fish around your chances of hooking a fish are just as good as they'd be if there were no boat there...

[SandySteel]

I totally agree with you. Often I will use different methods than the fellows who preceeded me and I think this is the key to hooking up.

Eric

[Flatfish]

Good thread Rob.
Even if you follow pluggers,remember-only certain plugs catch fish. About 1 in 5 is a winner. So if plug boat in front of you has no clue, you still got game. If you see them whacking fish, thats another story. If thats the case, either get in front of them. Or fish the untouched waters. Big flats, pocket water, ignored slots at the extreme end of a tailout. Even the fast water. It may not produce every time, but if it gets ya a fish every 2 trips then weird water is not a bad deal.

Besides that, fish lie in more than the classic runs and pools we always fish. Think about it, plugs work well on long runs that are deep, but they take too long to cover flats.Drift gear is nice in slot water, but slow to cover massive water.Spinners don't fish deep well.Thats all OK. But remember, fish are where they lie, but they are caught where we fish.You may not be fishing where they lie...
Mark and the dog.