# First Chrome - Fall 2015



## kayak1979 (Jul 13, 2014)

This morning I was hesitant on going out at first when I woke up. I hunted in my treestand the previous evening with the 40 mph gusts of wind and wondered how it would be in the morning on the river. Around 8 am I decided to get ready and head to my favorite steelhead river. I launched at 9:30 am and saw only one vehicle in the parking lot which was two wader fishermen in the river. I asked if they had any luck and they hadn't as they had just got there too. I trolled on downstream and then back upstream 30 minutes later and they were already gone... probably from all the rain. It was raining the entire time and it was very cold. I wore neoprene waders, layers underneath, plus some warm fleece underneath my rainproof hunting jacket. It finally paid off weathering the elements because around noon the familiar bending of the pole bouncing back set the adrenaline rushing!


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## zimmerj (Oct 17, 2014)

Good job. I give you kayakers a lot of credit. Playing a fish, trying to maintain some control of the yak, making sure the paddle doesn't get lost, and grabbing the net. I'd need four more hands, and dry clothing to replace my wet stuff.


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## berkshirepresident (Jul 24, 2013)

Congrats, Nathan. You definitely earned that fish!!!

Was that the Chagrin or Grand....or somewhere else?


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## flyfish227 (Oct 16, 2014)

Glad to see some chrome being caught. I cant wait to get out on the river and get my first for the year.


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## Erieangler51 (Sep 24, 2012)

He fishes the fairport harbor a lot so I'm guessing the grand.

Nice fish. I hooked my first of the year about 3 weeks ago but lost her.


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## ducman491 (Oct 31, 2011)

Nice fish!


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## kayak1979 (Jul 13, 2014)

zimmerj said:


> Good job. I give you kayakers a lot of credit. Playing a fish, trying to maintain some control of the yak, making sure the paddle doesn't get lost, and grabbing the net. I'd need four more hands, and dry clothing to replace my wet stuff.


It can get pretty crazy especially when I still have another line in the water since I am trolling with two rods. 



berkshirepresident said:


> Congrats, Nathan. You definitely earned that fish!!!
> 
> Was that the Chagrin or Grand....or somewhere else?


It was the Grand


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## ejsell (May 3, 2012)

Nice looking fish. Doesn't get better than that!


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## bwarrenuk (Jan 4, 2015)

Nice fish. I'll be in my yak all day Wednesday looking for the same. How were the leaves?


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## kayak1979 (Jul 13, 2014)

bwarrenuk said:


> Nice fish. I'll be in my yak all day Wednesday looking for the same. How were the leaves?


Leaves are not a problem right now. Some of the deep holes had long strands of bladed grass in them where the water is stagnant towards the edges, but I think it's probably from all the wind the night before.


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## Buckeyefly (Apr 28, 2007)

kayak1979 said:


> This morning I was hesitant on going out at first when I woke up. I hunted in my treestand the previous evening with the 40 mph gusts of wind and wondered how it would be in the morning on the river. Around 8 am I decided to get ready and head to my favorite steelhead river. I launched at 9:30 am and saw only one vehicle in the parking lot which was two wader fishermen in the river. I asked if they had any luck and they hadn't as they had just got there too. I trolled on downstream and then back upstream 30 minutes later and they were already gone... probably from all the rain. It was raining the entire time and it was very cold. I wore neoprene waders, layers underneath, plus some warm fleece underneath my rainproof hunting jacket. It finally paid off weathering the elements because around noon the familiar bending of the pole bouncing back set the adrenaline rushing!


Great job in the yak!


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## silverbullet (Apr 14, 2004)

wtg Nathaniel. Nice start to many more. I was gonna ask about two rods and you answered that. I'm gonna try the west side this week or the weekend. Didnt get motivated to go sunday like i wanted to. I see the ole vibrax struck again.


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## ducman491 (Oct 31, 2011)

Did you add weight to keep the Vibrax down or just go slow?


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## kayak1979 (Jul 13, 2014)

ducman491 said:


> Did you add weight to keep the Vibrax down or just go slow?


I go between 1.5 and 2 when paddling/trolling. No weights. I look at the finder and see where the fish are and will speed up or slow down to try to get to the level they are. I think the amount of vibration the vibrax make are a big factor in helping the fish find it especially in stained water. In the deeper areas I will sometimes just drift briefly and I've found that is sometimes when they hit, because they are probably following and at the slowdown they strike. I read a trout fishing article once that included that tip so I try to mix it up. Blue and silver worked for me again. I tried silver and pink, all silver and all gold vibrax and finally put back on blue and silver and that worked.


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## ducman491 (Oct 31, 2011)

I've brought 3 steelhead to hand in my very short career and 2 were on that same Vibrax but I was casting it. I have a boat now and I'm going to give trolling a shot this weekend hopefully. Thanks for the tip.


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## laynhardwood (Dec 27, 2009)

The vibrax should be in everyone's Arsenal nice fish has to be fun out of a yak


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## kayak1979 (Jul 13, 2014)

Well I had the day off work today and headed to the Grand River again. Instead of an empty parking lot it had 8 vehicles and 3 of them had boat trailers! I was on the water by 8:45 am or so and ran into someone on here who hadn't had any luck yet. They said they thought they were all upstream more but I kept going downstream towards the harbor and limited out by 10 am. I believe it helps to not use a gas motor trolling for the steelhead. I'm pretty sure it will scare the fish away. Saw two boats doing that this morning. 26 1/2" buck and 27" female. Now I'm enjoying the rest of my day off in the treestand!

"The fish aren't here they said, they are all upstream they said"


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## laynhardwood (Dec 27, 2009)

Nice those must have been the only two lol


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## bwarrenuk (Jan 4, 2015)

Nice fish. Good luck in the woods.


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## silverbullet (Apr 14, 2004)

Fresh chrome.


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## oh'-gahn (Aug 28, 2015)

Also fished the Grand this morning and caught this chromer on a jerkbait.


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## oh'-gahn (Aug 28, 2015)

Also staged a top water smallmouth beat down. They couldn't resist the sexy dawg and the pop r. Fish ranged from 16 to the 19.5 pictured. Went 10 for 12 on the smallies. Lots of bait in the river.


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## kayak1979 (Jul 13, 2014)

Way to go @oh'-gahn It was a great day to be on the water!


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## bighomied (Dec 17, 2008)

Hey kayak if you don't mind me asking what like do you use


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## ldrjay (Apr 2, 2009)

kayak1979 said:


> Well I had the day off work today and headed to the Grand River again. Instead of an empty parking lot it had 8 vehicles and 3 of them had boat trailers! I was on the water by 8:45 am or so and ran into someone on here who hadn't had any luck yet. They said they thought they were all upstream more but I kept going downstream towards the harbor and limited out by 10 am. I believe it helps to not use a gas motor trolling for the steelhead. I'm pretty sure it will scare the fish away. Saw two boats doing that this morning. 26 1/2" buck and 27" female. Now I'm enjoying the rest of my day off in the treestand!
> 
> "The fish aren't here they said, they are all upstream they said"
> View attachment 195135


Yep we were way off best bite was down by the harbor. I did get some good exploring in past the pipe bridge. That guy with the smallies was a blast to watch whack the hell outta them. Heading out in the morn to go to where the intel said to go. I troll with electric. I only use the gas to get where im going to save juice in the batteries.


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## kayak1979 (Jul 13, 2014)

Good luck I hope you get into some! That is a really nice waterfowl hunting boat you've got.


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## MadMax1 (Aug 27, 2012)

kayak1979 said:


> ......26 1/2" buck and 27" female. Now I'm enjoying the rest of my day off in the treestand!.....
> 
> View attachment 195135


Nice fish Kayak! Any good in the tree stand? Goin for the ole North Coast surf n turf eh!


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## MadMax1 (Aug 27, 2012)

ldrjay said:


> Yep we were way off best bite was down by the harbor. I did get some good exploring in past the pipe bridge. That guy with the smallies was a blast to watch whack the hell outta them. Heading out in the morn to go to where the intel said to go. I troll with electric. I only use the gas to get where im going to save juice in the batteries.



The pipe bride.... Is that still accessible by foot? My buddy took me back that way a couple times years ago when I was still pretty green - both times we just hammered them in there! I tried to find my way back out that way last fall or maybe the previous, it seem like it was heavily posted and you weren't allowed to park back on those residential sidestreets anymore... Id love to fish that stretch again.


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## kayak1979 (Jul 13, 2014)

MadMax1 said:


> The pipe bride.... Is that still accessible by foot? My buddy took me back that way a couple times years ago when I was still pretty green - both times we just hammered them in there! I tried to find my way back out that way last fall or maybe the previous, it seem like it was heavily posted and you weren't allowed to park back on those residential sidestreets anymore... Id love to fish that stretch again.


It isn't accessible by foot as there is a company that owns that property. I saw guys get yelled at and kicked out by a guy in a company truck last spring.


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## MadMax1 (Aug 27, 2012)

kayak1979 said:


> It isn't accessible by foot as there is a company that owns that property. I saw guys get yelled at and kicked out by a guy in a company truck last spring.


That stinks... Had some good days back there. If I recall there is, or was, a pretty great riffle upstream from there too... I wish OH could make better headway with anglers access rights. I had mentioned that on the survey they have out now... After fishing the PM and it's Big South Branch this past summer, MI seems to give their wading anglers better opportunities.


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## ldrjay (Apr 2, 2009)

kayak1979 said:


> Good luck I hope you get into some! That is a really nice waterfowl hunting boat you've got.


Thanks I payed 600 for it.gonna make a blind next week for it. Found an inexpensive kit. Just gotta get it. Itll go in 1.5 foot of water. Gotta tinker with the motor and I can go a lil shallower if needed. 40 steel off the wall this morn. They are slamming in the harbor.


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## bighomied (Dec 17, 2008)

What were you using ldrjay


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## TheShoreman (Sep 17, 2015)

kayak1979 said:


> Well I had the day off work today and headed to the Grand River again. Instead of an empty parking lot it had 8 vehicles and 3 of them had boat trailers! I was on the water by 8:45 am or so and ran into someone on here who hadn't had any luck yet. They said they thought they were all upstream more but I kept going downstream towards the harbor and limited out by 10 am. I believe it helps to not use a gas motor trolling for the steelhead. I'm pretty sure it will scare the fish away. Saw two boats doing that this morning. 26 1/2" buck and 27" female. Now I'm enjoying the rest of my day off in the treestand!
> 
> "The fish aren't here they said, they are all upstream they said"
> View attachment 195135


Think I met your dad at short pier today he was throwing a spinner too. He was telling everyone about your two fish.


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## kayak1979 (Jul 13, 2014)

TheShoreman said:


> Think I met your dad at short pier today he was throwing a spinner too. He was telling everyone about your two fish.


Yep that was him, I guess he caught a nice size one today as well. He releases them all though unlike me who enjoy eating them.


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## SelfTaught (Mar 27, 2014)

ldrjay said:


> Thanks I payed 600 for it.gonna make a blind next week for it. Found an inexpensive kit. Just gotta get it. Itll go in 1.5 foot of water. Gotta tinker with the motor and I can go a lil shallower if needed. 40 steel off the wall this morn. They are slamming in the harbor.


Pretty epic day. Congrats. Trolling around or casting?


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## oh'-gahn (Aug 28, 2015)

Hit the river again today too. Landed this decent fish while trolling a challenger jerk bait in emerald shiner color. Also laid the top water smack down on the smallies again. Caught a few on the jerk bait too.


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## ldrjay (Apr 2, 2009)

bighomied said:


> What were you using ldrjay


I used jig and maggot. Trolled cleos blue fox couple rapalas and flicker shad. Couple other spoon brands as well.


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## 1MoreKast (Mar 15, 2008)

Awesome fish guys.


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## bwarrenuk (Jan 4, 2015)

Fished all day yesterday from my kayak. Fished from the uniroyal hole to HTP in the harbor. Hooked into one steelhead by the Richmond Street bridge but lost it at the boat. Also caught a personal best smallie in the harbor.


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