# Yates Today



## TroutSniffa (Jul 14, 2012)

Taking my girlfriend and her fam for cider donuts and trout??

headed up to yates to check out this river and see whats up from the shore.. leaving teh waders at home as i will have my lady and her fam with me but anyone who wants to join and say what up is more then welcome Grey hoodie and jeans for me, might have the steelheaders vest on or near by for the tools it holds... 
if your near by just shout troutt snifffaaaaaaaa and ill know whats up... 

late


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## TroutSniffa (Jul 14, 2012)

small mouth bass and creek chub... 

brought 3 rods.. 1 with an inline spinner, 1 with eggs and a float, 1 with a hot n tot.. ended up losing the jeans and walking the river down from the dam past the mill about a mile river distance... few decent holes in that stretch and even less fish.. i worked each hole and any piece of depth soildd with all three baits before moving to the next skipping none as well fishing a few "rapid" heads and tails.. 

Fished about 3.5 hrs got a cpl SMB and a few chub.. 
got no strikes aside from the landed garb feeesh...
0/0 wooo! no chasers, no flashers, and sure no jumpers.. 
saw oneeeee dink boil, a couple streakers as i entered the river at different points but im assuming the were suckers from their slow glide and no flash... saw no fish holding in any hole or behind any rocks/structure ..

Fishing pressure was to my surprise minimal but the place was a mad house with cars people and dogs... dogs... lol .. 

have nooooo idea why this spot gets so much attention (for fishing anyway) but next time i head to the clinton it will be with out my girlfriend and no where near yates...

beautiful day at the park none the less lol...


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## mrjimspeaks (Aug 23, 2009)

You have to put in your time to get Steel out of the Clinton. I didn't take any fish my first year giving it a go... The guys putting up numbers have been at it for awhile. Still probably a little early for Yates, I'm giving it a couple weeks and hoping for a good rain or three.


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## MichiganAngling (Dec 31, 2012)

I've been fishing at Yates downstream to sterling heights just about every day for the last 4 years. I know every single hole for Yates to river bends and haven't gotten so much as a nibble from a steelie, and I've only seen 1, and only gotten some pike and suckers using every method in the book. But I'm still trying! 

Sent from my XT907 using Ohub Campfire mobile app


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## ClintonRiverKing (Apr 19, 2013)

keep trying. it took me 5 years to figure the clinton out but now i catch a lot of good fish and have tons of fun. there shouldn't be too many fish at yates yet. more fish downriver of sterling heights but no numbers yet


_Posted from Michigan-sportsman.com App for Android_


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## TroutSniffa (Jul 14, 2012)

yea was defff no fish up at yates.. will wait a month or so n try again somewhere away from that mad house


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## nighttime (Nov 25, 2007)

Yes leave the woman at home and bring one or two rods max. One for hardware and one for float or bottom bouncing. Steelhead can be found by Yates this time of year but numbers will be low best bet is down stream. Start fishing it whenever you can, learn the runs when the water is low and clear so you know what your casting at when the water rises. The more time you spend the better chance you'll have getting into fish. When I get a bite or hook a fish, remember that spot and go back to it.

Steelheading is not easy anywhere, you will go thru many lows before things get better. I've been fishing the Clinton for ten years and most times the Clinton will make you work for it. Get out there doing some learning and it will pay off sooner then later! Good luck!!


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## Minner_Chaser (Jul 9, 2013)

nighttime said:


> Steelheading is not easy anywhere, you will go thru many lows before things get better.



Uh, I second this. I fish two years straight for steelhead and I have only landed two, one from the Betsie in March, and one from the Grand in December. I fished yates four times last spring, with steelhead constantly trying to jump the dam when I was there, and nothing, not a hit.

You would benefit from understand that a river does not make the fish who they are, it is the fish that makes the fish who they are. They are rather difficult to catch in general, and most of these guys with all these fancy pictures of fish put time in on the water they fish for those pictures


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## TroutSniffa (Jul 14, 2012)

yeaaaaa anddd thats why we fish them... I got my first Bow when i was 6... 23 years of obsessive fishing later, i feel pretty confident in my ability to access a river and tell if theres fish in the shallow waters im walking... Especially water as small as the piece at hand.. im also pretty confident no matter what river im on having fished it before or not, that the fish are going to be in the same places they have on alll the other rivers i have fished.. the river decides where the fish are going to be by what it offers them.. no offense to anyone who thinks years is a reasonable amount of time to fish a piece of water with out success but at this point i expect more of my self and the waters i fish... i wasnt trying to say that fish dont come in there or that they are easy to catch, i was just trying to inform others that the river as i walked it, where i walked it, when i walked it, was NOTT HOLDINGG... 

i mean no discredit to those catching fish and putting in hours... obviously you cant catch fish with out wetting your line... but we all know, at least those of us who catch fish, if its taking you hours, let alone years, your likely in the wrong spot, or there at the wrong time, or using the wrong techniques .. not to say every time out your first cast will be fish on, but if you know what your doing, and your on fish, it shouldn't take hours for you to either catch them, or realize those fish are not interested in what you have to offer and move on to others that may be.. 

how long does it take to get 6 baits through a hole 9 times each?? or even 3 baits 15 times... not long if your prepared... if you havent got anything in 50 mixed presentations... likely time to move to the next hole... 

i did not give most of the holes i fished at yates thattt much attention but i did hit them hard enough to know it was time to keep moving in SEARCH OF FISH... Not even saying i would have caught anything if they were there, just saying that they were not... weather i would have landed a fish or dawn a strike was not my point, my point was that i would have known if there were fish there.. You know when theres fish in front of you, usuallyyyy as sooon as u walk up to a spot... some spots we walk by some we run to... of course u cant always see the fish when you walk up to them, but you can see your in an area where they should be then work that area appropriately... with holes that small, moving water that clear and shallow and fish that are large and shiny, iiiii am fully confident that if there was fish in that river where i walked it, it wasnt a number yet worth targeting.. 

I do appreciate all the advice / support / tips and encouragement, and dont mean to discredit any of it.. stilll i dooo mean to inform any and all of you that my statement to there being no fish was drawn from experience, not the inverse... While time spent on the river can only help,mostly locating fish, i have no questions about how to attempt catching them when i do... 

Good luck to all as this thread was only meant to help youuuu locate fish as i just spent an afternoon confirming where they were notttt..


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