Northwest Fishing Reports

I know yarnies are dynamite for steelhead but they are mostly drift fished and I was wondering if anyone has ever tried float fishing them and which is the best weighting system to keep them down. Also started to tie up leaders with yarn balls on them and wondering what are some good colors for hatchery steelhead.

"Clown" pattern

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cH21UaMr_zk[/youtube]
White/Pink/Pink

I used to use yarn ball in cali 20 years ago for steel. But i had better sucess wid just plain piece of yarn..as float fishing yarn i used a small splitshots above yarn alls im gonnasay is darker in am and lighter as sun come out...its gonna be easy limits of steel and springs for me and my friends this weekend my bud has some firecure eggz i got some experimental jigs dat im gomma try at cowlits also . Its actualy a modified bass jig need to fine tune it for salmon and steel ill see what happens

Alright that's what I thought to use were the split shots. Any other good tips?

Beau Mac Bait Weights - they are basically slip sinkers only smaller and painted with jig paint. They sizes and colors of corkies. Come in different weights in 5 packs. Just slide it on your leader above your hook and go.

that a good idea as well gringo, I use them a lot with eggs but never thought about it with yarn balls. Any body bobberdog them? Also what are some favorite color combos for hatchery steelhead?

Yarn balls are my favorite method in selective gear methods. My favorite is steelhead orange and cerise pink. I have had success on chartreause/flame, straight cerise pink, straight orange, peach and pink. just about any combo works. I bobber dog them just like I would bait. Use pretty much a drift rig under a float. I go with 24-40inches of leader. Make sure the weight is dragging bottom as the float carries it along. If I can use bait I love to put a small piece of shrimp or clump of eggs with it, if you dont have either shrimp scented smelly jelly is great. Yarn balls are super deadly. This year me and FF watched a 15lb dark buck move over 8ft to grab my unscented pink yarnball. it was awesome!

yarn balls rock under floats! and drifted as well

In the fly tying world a thing called lead thread or something, maybe try putting that or a small diamiter lead wire on your hook neer the eye. Make sure to tie your yarn ball on the lead so that it covers the lead up. This will allow you to fish it like a jig, it might not be heavy enough to keep your float upright so adding some split shot on a foot to about a foot and a half above your yarnie. I'v never fished yarnies before but I'v did some fly fishing and some guys did that with their woolly buggers.

bonker, weve talked about bobber dogging before, do what i showed you with them, drift fish under a float with them, its the best way to do it in my opinion

alright ff, yeah I kinda of came to that conclusion this weekend thrying them out at the cowlitz as well as my yarn ball tying needs some work thanks guys. Any other good color combos that have not been suggested yet for hatchery steelhead, I have been tying up some nightmare pattern glowballs lately and they look pretty good, I meant to try them on the skook this past winter so maybe some cowlitz or calawah summer runs want to volunteer to try this new idea.

cant go wrong with any combos of pink, red orange and white. Hawg quest makes a very effective yarnie that has 3 strands of cerise pink, 2 strands of white and one strand of steelhead orange (glowbug yarn)

yeah I've seen that, it's called the amato ball or something like that I thought. I like Glenn halls style of yarnball but Dave's style is also very nice and I perfer using more stretchy thread and and thread the hook through it so it sits on the top of the hook, which style do you suggest for bobber dogging or does it not really matter?

Doesnt matter too much. Whatever looks good. I do it a totally different way, hard to explain. Im gonna make a video of it soon tho

I learned how to tie them from ff and this way is very easy and effective. The way that we do it enables you to have a separate bait loop at the top where your eggs and shrimp can go, that combined with a good looking yarnie=many dead hatchery steel.

And many hog sore mouthed natives as well dont forget!!

haha nice, just what I want.

a few big steel hungry for da yarnies

The top fish is the one that swam 8ft over to smash my all pink yarnie. Remember too, when fishing yarnballs to keep your scissors in your front pocket, that way if the strands get messed up at all you can trim the yarnball back into shape. The bottom fish has my favorite color combo, the steelhead orange and cerise pink.

kochman you da forks yarnie slayer