Bushwhacking

[Dejon Hamann]

Do you dream of long beautiful drifts while loch fishing in competition?  A cool breeze at your back as you cast a finely tuned sinking line on a never ending bubble lane stretching into the setting sun.  A masterful chess player you've dialed in your sink rate and retrieve perfectly to the speed of your boat and you're taking fish every time you twist through the "zone".  Is this something like your loch dream? Mine too.

Unfortunately, the stark reality is many times you'll be Bushwhacking while fishing a loch.  You'll be casting to cover for weary sun beaten fish under dead skies on a glassy lake. Committing yourself to something that looks more like bass fishing then a refined loch style pursuit of Salmo Trutta.  Your drogue may even end up drier than happy hour at the Betty Ford clinic.  Or there might be wind, maybe even more then you can deal with, but the fish are still hugging just a few lonely spots.  Other boats will come sniffing around and you'll give them your best junk yard dog snarl.  Whatever the case....

Do you guys have any tips on Bushwhacking?

[Jeremiah Hamilton]

I feel this is the exception, in Manitoba we drifted alot and hardly ever bushwhacked for fish and the same goes in BC. The brookies in the fall on the east coast, like the shallows but I fished loch style most of the summer and when it gets hot the brookies go deeper and you have to drift for them with your DI-lines.

That being said here is what I learned

1) floating with a booby at the point (washing line) works great, on not getting caught up.
2) strip fast if you can to try and stay away from sinking to far in the weeds
3) There are pockets in the weeks and fish like to sit in them so try to find the ones the have a open face to the lake.
4) If need be use 1 or 2 flys instead of all 3

[Aaron Laing]

What worked for me at Vinet in 2008 (glass conditions, no wind) was the deep line retrieve--i.e. cast out the DI7 to the approximate depth under the boat, have a sip of scotch, wait for the line to lie dead straight down and then slowly retrieve the line using a figure 8 hand twist. By keeping the top guide of the rod about inch from the surface you should be able to detect the most subtle takes--the rod tip will just touch the water surface the moment a fish takes.

Ultimately being over the fish in "bushwacking" conditions is the only safe bet. My boat mate, Morgan Thorp, was casting leeches to structure just off the beach and managed exactly the same number of fish as me--so the method was probably of secondary importance. Without a concentration of fish to target we would have been as hooped as 3/4 of the competitors that were no where near the fish that day. Luck and a little intel is what you really need.

Aaron