Up the Creek

	Up the Creek Searching for Rainbow
		Well, as I indicated at the end of an earlier article, we would be heading upstream in search of rainbow and as you can see, here I am literally “up the creek” and having a reasonably good day.
Shortly after ice-out, the rainbow head upstream to spawn with anglers in hot pursuit. Spawn bags are a favourite bait and these are cast upstream and allowed to bounce downstream with or without a float attached.

Here are 2 different styles of drift fishing rigs. Often, I use the float rigging as illustrated and in many cases I also use the same rigging (using the spit shot on the main line) but without the float. I like this better than the drop line. You can fish either from shore or you can slip on a pair of chest waders which will allow you to wade out into areas of the creek that are not accessible from the shoreline. Look for banks that have been undercut by the current and fallen trees in the waterway. Both are areas where rainbow often gather, lurking in the shadows ready to strike out at some food source. Rainbow are spooked very easily and when you approach or move along the shoreline or wade in the creek, move about in a way that causes the least amount of commotion as possible. Even your shadow on a sunny day can spook a rainbow.
Early in the season if you don’t have a source of fresh spawn, you can use commercially prepared salmon eggs that can be purchased in sporting goods outlets. These are tied into spawn bags about the size of a dime or nickel and can be fished as they are or enhanced with cod liver oil, sardine oil or artificial scent in an effort to make your bait more interesting. If you catch a female, this will allow you to switch to fresh spawn which obviously is the best bait. Please note that fresh spawn can only be kept in the fridge for a week or two before it really starts to smell bad and you can’t freeze it because it will turn to mush. To increase the shelf life of fresh spawn and be able to freeze it, it has to be preserved using borax or some other recipe. As the waters warm up further into the spawning season, I like to introduce a variety of other baits such as single rainbow or salmon eggs, red or dew worms, wax worms and small spinners, lures or plugs to entice rainbow that have seen a lot of spawn bags. A wax worm or a red worm can be fished on a plain hook or a jig and also used to add a little relish to a small spinner or lure. When the spawning season is pretty well finished, I move back out to the open water of the lake and troll along the shorelines and the river mouths for spring rainbow and coho. I use a larger size of the same kind of spinners, lures and wobbling plugs often enhanced with tidbits of natural bait. The baited wobbling plug is a novel idea for making your terminal tackle more enticing.
		The orange colour shows the baited area on the underside of the plug. You can use a variety of baitfish strips (smelt, minnow alewife) or even try sardines. Salting the baitfish helps to make the strips firmer and hold together better. Sardines are kind of soft and mushy — hard to use. Elastic thread used for tying spawn bags and available in sporting goods stores works very well for tying the bait to the underside of the plug.
Another good rig.
You can also use spinners and lures as terminal tackle with this rig.

“Environmental Note” Burning garbage adds poisonous dioxins to our environment. Please remember this the next time you are out camping.
Have a great day out there and if you catch some fish, that is a nice bonus.