Before I started fishing with a guide on the OP rivers, if there was one piece of fishing advice I considered to be gospel, it was "keep your rod tip up!" The first fish I caught with him, that's what I did, as that's all I knew and had really never considered anything else. My guide almost jumped out of the boat. His gospel is to keep the rod tip low - "we aren't fishing in Puget Sound!" Once given, he considered his lesson taught and on repeat offenses he's threatened to introduce me to the salmon priest of love and/or the thermos of love. I'm hardheaded, but I am a mammal and I can learn - if not from verbal instruction, then from aversion therapy.

Maybe I don't get out enough. Is this something all experience river fishermen take for granted? Was I a cracker, or are there different schools of thought. (Is it better to just sit there in your yellow rain jacket and have everyone think you're a cracker than to get a fish on and prove to everyone that you are?)

In some sort of Pavlovian response, I have switched to the low rod angle.

I see people fighting fish on the rivers both ways. I see extremes on both sides. I see people with their arms extended over their heads. I see people with their rod butts pointing up in the air and their rod tips almost submerged. I see people changing rod angles like they were fencing.

I think the major reason I was given for the low rod angle was that it tends to keep the fish off the bottom, in the pool and out of the air. But it sure makes for a more radical movement when you have to change the direction from which you are pressuring the fish.

Which is the better/preferred/more efficient technique on a river of typical depth and for what reason? Does it really matter? Is the answer: "It depends"? What would you instruct your clients, or, if you aren't a pro, what would you instruct your children or a friend new to the sport?