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The 7 gram clear Drennan loafer float uprighted itself trailing 11 dark grey sure shots, sized (5 AAA, 3 AB, 3 BB) on the 9' 12lb Trilene XT green moss leader down to the ant-sized black Spro swivel and 18" of 3x Rio fluorocarbon tippet. Swiftly, the whole spawn bag/egg bead rig swept down the current of the Big Mo (Muskegon River, MI).

The float accelerated 100' in less than 10 seconds and the little fluorescent orange tip of the clear float disappeared into the morning mist rising from the Big Mo. Under the water the accelerated shotting pattern delivered the juicy nuclear spawn bag ahead of the rest of the leaded warheads.

Over and over again, 100-150' drifts produced frustrated anticipation. The anticipation of a diving float lost into the daydreams of yesterday. Under the water, the fresh chrome steelhead were oblivious to the floating ball of orange egg sac, as it floated well above their fast water lies.

My friend Chris suggested using "Chuck-n-duck" a deadly Midwest technique using as weight, a sliding 1/4oz pencil lead weight on a black snap swivel, checked below by a small solid ring black swivel. 

Chris fished the middle section of a beautiful weedy green run and almost immediately landed a colorful 14" wild rainbow. After its release a small brown sucker was netted and a small trout wiggled loose before being netted. Another drift and then came the aggressive strike of what we, at first, thought was a coho, instead it was a 12lb buck steelhead. The buck steelhead was pissed-off that we interrupted its afternoon lunch and jumped and tore around the middle of the river for 2 minutes before leveraging off the hook in its mouth.

The "magic" of the C&D system lay in its ability to deliver the bait bouncing right along the bottom of the river. After all, brown suckers have a bottom facing mouth and feed almost exclusively on the river bottom, sucking.

Lessons learned: The accelerated shotting pattern did not meet two of the three fish catching criteria of "3-D: Depth, Distance, and Declination" (Jason Borger, 2011). The D of Depth and the D of Declination were not met and the offering floated above and by the steelhead.