Pinpoint casts put fish in the boat!
Have you ever went fishing on your local trout stream and caught nothing? How about fishing your local trout river for two or three hours and only catching one or two fish. From shoreline, pinpoint casts are not overly vital but float fishing a river, it is paramount. One thing I focus on is casting accuracy; so much so that I used to practice in my back yard throwing a lure with no hook at a hula hoop. The more I practiced landing that spoon inside the ring, the better my casting accuracy was on the river.
In a craft with a motor, casting accuracy is a must for more trout to the boat. In a drift boat where you only get one pass at a prime location in the river, whether it be a rock or an over hanging dead tree submerged in the water, you need to be on the money with that cast. If you miss your spot behind that rock then that trout lurking there is not hooked and landed.
I was out on an overnight camping trip on the Bow River this past weekend. We ate dinner Friday night and fired the boat up for a late night fish. We motored upriver to prime Brown Trout territory; shut the motor off and drifted quietly near the south bank of the Bow River. I spotted a large boulder sticking out of the water that left a nice seam behind it. “Right there Todd said”. “Oh I know buddy, I see it too”. I launched the Rapala towards that seam and my lure fell short of my mark by about two feet. Needless to say I never hooked that fish I predicted would be behind that rock.
I asked Todd to drive me back up to that spot once more, I had a gut feeling there was a monster lurking in that area. I was disappointed that I never made a pinpoint cast behind that rock. We lit up the motor and burned back upstream for one more kick at that location. “Pull a little closer to the bank so I don’t miss it again” I stated to Todd. “Go for it; yard him out of there because if you don’t, I will”. I clicked the bail back and stood ready to fire, and then I let loose. The lure sailed passed the rock just over the seam it created. A perfect cast it was! As soon as the lure smacked the surface I clicked the bail over and gave it two revolutions. A trout slammed the Rapala and make a run for it upriver. I turned him and began to quickly reel in the line he peeled out. This was no minnow, this was a BIG fish. As I was fighting this monster he breached the surface and spit the lure out like a baseball player throws a fastball. That trout left me thinking all night by the campfire. The one that got away! At least I got to see him was my only solace.
It does not mater to me if I landed the fish or not, it would have been nice but oh well. What really matters is the pinpoint cast I made to hook him. If you are fishing from a boat, make sure you key in on accuracy. Believe me, if you drop that lure on the dime, you will get into more and bigger fish!
