We had an opportunity to get out and fish the Coquille River with Northwest Guide Service and had an awesome day on the water! We hooked three fish before the river got out of shape on us but those fish fought hard. You can check out the quick clip video below! Thanks for watching.

http://www.steelheadstalkers.com/quick- ... elhead.htm

Nice! looked like a blast!!!Yarn balls are hard to beat.

Nice job guys!!!! I fished that river onece.....fun place.......nice grade of fish in there!!!
YARN BALLS

I'm still not sold on yarn balls, they did get out fished by plain boraxed eggs, and I feel we have a much more effective cure than that. I have trouble believing that the eggs we use could be consistently out fished by yarn. Obviously yarn has it's advantages with the ease of use, cleanliness, longevity in the water and color variations, but they are still not eggs. I would have to be out fished with it to believe in it.

i had the same skepticism archer, so i tested them against each other. 2 yrs. ago yarnies out fished eggs 3 to 1. last year 2 to 1. we'll see what happens this year. i going to use e-z eggs/yarnie combo this winter. the e-z eggs worked awesome on the summers. 2 to 1 vs. boraxed eggs. basically it comes down to, no one technique is necessarily better than another.it just depends what they want that day, and what technique you are confident in. this might sound strange, but i think steelhead are like cats they'll chase a yarn ball one day and don't want anything to do with it the next. the next day,they might want it dangled above there heads, say like a jig. gotta find what they want that day. after saying all that, if i had to choose only one technique and one only, it would be boraxed eggs and a puff ball. just my $.02

I agree, steelhead can be a very moody fish, wanting a different presentation every day.

I think some of this could be the fisherman too. Unfortunately you cant fish yarn and bait at the same time so the guy next to you for whatever reason might be a better fisherman that day. It does not mean the yarn was better but that the better fisherman was using them. It can go both ways though. Daniel has drift fished all his life and is good at feeling the bite. Me, I don't have as much experience with drift fishing so for me to out fish him with eggs says a lot about the eggs.

Boys, boys, boys that my friend is why we keep going back. Steelhead are finicky and conditions usually dictate the (bite) or not. I find that most of the time you can use two or three different set ups (that you have confidence in) and usually catch fish. Its the conditions that make them finicky. Water temperature, clarity of the water, change in weather, and fishing pressure. Go to school on these 4 issues and you will catch more Steelhead.

H

Yeah, Daniel and I have a pretty methodical way of fishing water. We have three rods rigged with what we are confident in and each fish opposite ends of the hole and work our way towards the other and end up fishing where the other one started. Then we will change to another rig and do it again. Last time I finished fishing roe where Daniel had just fished with a jig and I got the fish, then he came around and got one on a worm later. It has worked good for us!!

sure you can use bait with a yarnie. i do it all the time. actually my new little secret it to put a little piece of prawn meat in the egg loop above the yarnie. at times it is killer. for lack of a better analogy, i tie my yarnies with a double egg loop. also my data is based on just me/one fisherman. i side drift out of my jet boat most of the time. one drift with eggs the next with a yarnie and so on. that is were i get my data. if it is based on a good fisherman, that's me(toot-toot!!)lol. i could try to explain how to tie that yarnie set up, it works very well. you could put it on one of your videos. on my next outing i'm going to try and side drifting eggs under a float. it just makes since to keep that bait drifting through the slot naturally. i know you guys use floats and bait. give some insight.

25yrs ago I would swear my flame red OKIE and a green bead would out fish dynamite

On the Little N.fork
Dave

That makes sense, I thought maybe you were comparing results coming from a two guys using roe and yarn That seems like a good way to keep track of what is more effective that day. We use floats and bait a lot and it works even on larger rivers. I caught a nice hen last year on the main Umpqua using a float. This was after making many passes side drifting bait and yarn. Then our last drift we pulled out the float rods and towards the tail end, down it went! You should have heard the guide boats around us, they were like, is he using a bobber. Classic.

That would be cool to do a video on how to rig up a yarn ball or yarnie.

i'll try to explain how i tie it. it's basically an egg loop, you just bring the tag end back trough the eye. here go's. run your leader through the eye down the shank. take the tag end a bring it back through the eye about a 1/4" forming a loop. now tie your standard egg loop, about five wraps, then three. pull it up snug, not tight. now you have a loop on the back of the shank. put your yarn pieces half way through the loop and pull 1/4" tag tight. now pull the egg loop tight. cut tag end off and form your yarnie. be careful to not cut the leader. there you go. i hope that makes since. sounds like a lot of work, but when the rivers are blown what else is there to do.

I cant believe you crackered one off, chad!

Usually there is a guy up front using bait and one using yarn balls. I have seen it more than a few times where the yarn balls will out produce the eggs, case in point was a couple of weeks ago on the Main U. Klamathsteel is a die hard bait guy, I was fishing yarn........2 to 0 that day. One of them was in a very slow run, both drifting together, fish had all the time in the world to look at and smell both. The fish bit the unscented yarn ball I am a firm believer in the yarn.....stays in the loop......looks great.......and it works like a champ.
Applegate (George) is about as die hard a bait guy as it gets. Hard to dispute a guy who catches more fish than the hatchery does He says there are times of the year where the fish will get off the yarn balls and bait will work better. Im sure this is true, I just tend to fish alot of yarn balls and have had good success. Just my opinion of course.
To me.......nothing beats the excitement of a bobber down though, you may not FEEL the bite, but it sure LOOKS good

Some insight on side drifting a bobber. Just make sure your bait isn't dragging on the bottom, you can tell if you bobber starts to tilt down stream. Keep the bobber down river of you so you can mend the line without changing the drift to much, and if your like Chad, when the bobber goes down pull up in a fashion that should catapult the steelhead right into the boat

When trout decide they want a micro jig they end up in the trees!

When trout decide they want a micro jig they end up in the trees!



Kinda like flippin' for bass.......when a little guy decides to eat it.....it flies by my ear at 362 MPH!!!!

true that john!

My dad did that to a halfpounder while fishing with a panther martin... Never seen a halfpounder come flying out the water so fast! Luckily it came off!

I have seen the magic of the jig, even caught a few on them. I have seen the Yarn ball outfish the bait
on occasion as well. Call me old school or whatever but i just can't seem to make myself use em much.
Reeltech is right on, i am a hardcore bait guy. Nothing finer than a chrome winter steelhead chomping down
on a well drifted bait of eggs. I love to "Feel The Bite"