Rich Landers : Steelhead king runs derby streak to five years
The cash king of Snake-Clearwater steelheading is enjoying the off-season, a little richer, as usual.
Robert Bass hasn’t dropped a hook in a river since November. He doesn’t have anything more to prove.
“Once the derbies are over, I get on my snowmobile,” he said Wednesday.
For nearly 15 years, the owner of Great Northern Interiors in Spokane has been making steelheading his business starting sometime in September. He moves a motor home down to the Lewiston area and leaves his boat so he can commute to the Snake and Clearwater rivers at every opportunity for the following three or four months.
Persistence has given him a competitive edge revealed conclusively by the bottom line.
Five years in a row, Bass has won the prize for the “skins game” – catching the three heaviest fish during the Snake Clearwater Steelhead Derby.
That’s considered dominance in any sport.
Furthermore, he creamed the field in the 2005 Camp, Cabin and Home Derby. After Bass won the prize money for four of the top six places, derby officials changed the rules so no angler could take more than one of the top six prizes.
“I don’t think some of those Idaho fishermen appreciate me taking the money out of their local economy,” he said.
But the smart ones are paying attention to how he fishes.
“I used to do quite a bit of trolling, but that wasn’t getting it done,” he said. “Once I learned to bobber fish, things got exciting pretty quickly.
“That’s the way I fish all the time now, the only exception being when I’m on somebody else’s boat. Then I do what they want to do.”
The winning technique is the same, whether he shoulders in with the other anglers near Dworshak Dam and casts from shore or whether he’s drifting through the runs in his boat:
“Basically, I fish a jig baited with shrimp or yarn under a bobber,” he said.
But anglers shouldn’t get too hung up on tackle, he added.
“They auctioned off (for charity) the two jigs I used to win the Camp and Cabin and derby: One was white and the other was black and pink. That should tell you something: Not much rhyme or reason to it, although I can tell you that since then I’m seeing a lot more white jigs on the racks at the Black Sheep.”
The two factors he considers more important in whipping the competition are “time” and “touch.”
“By touch, he means a sense for knowing when steelhead are mouthing the jig below the bobber. “I see people fishing right beside me, tossing the bobber up and drifting down, but they’re missing the bites again and again.”
“By time, he means hours on the river. “I’ve paid my dues and I know where fish like to be,” he said. “And when the derby is on, I put a lot of time on the water – about 13 hours a day. The only exception is Thanksgiving Day, when my wife says I have to come home.”
The winning formula comes from a natural progression of being on the water for hours and hours.
“You go back to areas where you catch fish, and you get more familiar with them in different conditions, then you can move on and test yourself to catch steelhead in other spots. Pretty soon you know where fish are likely to be as they move throughout the river.
“I’ve caught steelhead as shallow as 2 feet and as deep as 38 feet.
“I adjust my bobber in 3-foot increments until it clears the bottom through a drift. Adjustment, adjustment, adjustment – that’s very important.”
With the steelhead settled in for winter, waiting for the urge to resume their spawning run in February and March, he’s getting the urge to make a few more visits to his kingdom. “I’ll probably go up the Snake to the Grande Ronde area,” he said. “You never really lose the itch.”
Bass has a goal that goes beyond winning derbies.
Even though he’s hooked and released some huge wild steelhead and caught enough high-placing fish and daily winners to earn $1,575 in the 2006 Snake Clearwater derby, the cash king has yet to catch a fin-clipped “keeper” steelhead heavier than 20 pounds.
“It’s just a matter of time,” he said. “That’s the fish that I’ll mount and put on my wall.”