Yes, since early December. Same as last year. Most of my fish had been nats. This year it's been 50-50. I hooked 2 nates on back to back days fishing jigs for Chum. That was sweet.

Me and my fishin buddy went up high again on the Green. No one in sight, no wind and clear sunny skys. The water was crystal clear with a med/low flow. We drifted eggs, shrimp,and yellow,orange,pink,white jigs for almost 3 hours with nothing. I changed leader weight and color and tied on a tiny 1/32oz jig. Fourth cast in the same spot i had fished for a good hour and whammo. A beautiful 12+lb Nate chomped it. A nice battle and a few pics and i let her go. Saaawweeeeeet. Only a few days left in the season, time to skip work for some big Nates. I have pics of a few of them at [url=Http://hometown.aol.com/NWNatives][url=Http://hometown.aol.com/NWNatives][url=Http://hometown.aol.com/NWNatives]Http://hometown.aol.com/NWNatives[/url][/url][/url]

Hey FFF, thanks for the link on your site
Be sure to add your site to the Readers Links section.

No problem Mike. I finally got those pics up of that nice nate from saturday. Went up yesterday, no wind but it did rain,snow,sleet, and ice pellet my azz for a good 3 hours and i loved every bit of it. Most of it was light though and not a soul in site. The water was a tad lower and just as clear. Saw lots of fish surprizingly, but none of them or any others wanted to smile for the camera. Hope this rain/snow thing holds off to a minimum.

I see this topic is on large chums over 20 pounds.

I managed to catch a couple of chums in saltwater on fly gear that were larger than the state record at the time. Caught some that were pushing 23 pounds and back then the saltwater record was 14 pounds. Didn't find out until a couple of months afterwards that the record was that low.

Key thing to handling big chums is use a rod at least a 7 weight... 8 is preferrable and also use a good drag. I ended up using an SA 2 just for the drag.

One of the biggies I hooked, but didn't land, took the whole fly line out... an additional 100 yards of backing before I got it stopped... and then was showing major signs of taking even more backing out. I broke it off at that point. That time I was using a big Pfleuger reel... and switched to the SA the next trip as the Pfleuger drag wasn't up to the task. I had that puppy screwed down all the way.. and still needed more. SA.. you can tighten them up enough to where it can break the tippet.

I saw guys over at Hood Canal fly fishing for Chums. I could not believe it, looked like a lot of fun. I was having a hard time taming those beast with a spinning rod. I could not imagine using a fly rod.

Hey Zen, thinking about those powerhouses on a fly makes my mouth water. That would kickass. Just green yarn? Gotta be something different than yarn. This thread originally started out as chum but has kinda turned toward steelhead since people have asked how the Green has been for chromies. Or i'm really just a lone poster on a thread that was dead 2 months ago. SO Zen, if you throw the long rod as steelhead, what choice of fly would you pick? Riverwise, i feel naked without a muddler, but i have never hooked a chromie on the fly. And catching them on eggs and jigs isn't much of a challenge anymore. Can ya help? I tied up a few purple/purpleblack flies on 6 and 4 hooks, but have yet to use them. Any suggestions on color and size would be great. Also, would you suggest putting eyes on my flies like for Salmon? Any help would be great.

Lime green chum candies work best on the 34007 hooks. They're tough enough to where they won't bend on you.

Check your email for a longer response.

[img]http://hometown.aol.com/NWNatives2/D12lbSteelGRK.html[/img]

just seeing how this turns out

Thanks Zen, i look forward to it later this year. I may have to upgrade my 6wt, it's a stiff 6 but not that stiff. oooooooooohhhhhhmmmmmmm