Saturday steelhead

[Michigan Man86]

Saturday came and went. With the pleasant weather and some fine tips from Rich, a few videos of bouncing bottom, i set out with some friends in search of steelhead. The plan was to work our way up to yates cider mill where the local folktale tells of steelhead coming up that far. First stop was dodge park. Seemed like a nice place. Warm facilities and low water. No run off to cool the river so we tried fishing. Four of us casting, trying with and without floats. Snagging bottom and losing rigs. We packed up after an an hour and a half of loses and moved up river to the river bends park.
To our surprise there was a shooting range there, and active too! The river being down range of the gunshots and none of us willing to take a bullet we moved to our final destination.
Yates.
I was expecting it to be much more crowded, but there were only a handful of fisherman wading. Being prepared, I donned my own and set forth in the water a good ways from any others and out of the way of my friends. Lost more rigs here too. And then I get a good knock on my line and it's shaking left and right heading downstream! When it breaches the water I can clearly see what I have caught is not a fish but a dislodged, water logged stick. It was rolling downstream which felt like a fish to me. After a few hours of this, and decorating trees and snags with hooks and sinkers we called it. If the fish were there they weren't biting.
Even so, the scenery was nice, weather good and our spirits high for learning a new technique and spending the day together. Definitely something to try again that's for sure.

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[Just Steve]

Sounds like you had 9 miles of rough road (old saying) but one things for certain you can't catch fish sitting on a couch, so hats off to you guys for getting out there and giving it your best shot.


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[Michigan Man86]

Thankyou. It was a trek and we all enjoyed margaritas after.

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[yankee doodler]

Nice report MM. Can't beat a nice day fishing with friends. Better luck next time.

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[wicklundrh]

Donating tackle to the fish gods is what keeps the tackle companies in business!

I've caught my fair share of crap from the rivers. My favorite being an old metal gas container.

Better luck next time. I do know that even seasoned veterans have tough times when fishing waters that might not have tons of fish in it. If you didn't see anybody catching fish, I would say they were not there. Water not setup correctly yet!