Lake Erie (PA) Steelhead Fishing

[Cold]

We're rapidly approaching the annual fall run of steelhead in the Great Lakes, and while I'm by no means an expert, I know enough to go up and catch a few fish in the small PA tribs.

I figured I'd post a few articles in my blog to help shorten the learning curve for anyone considering making the 2010-2011 steelhead season their first.

If you think fishing the PA tribs might be something you'd like to try, I'm going to be doing my best in this 3 article series to give you some of the information that you usually don't get until you figure it out for yourself, on the water. It's not the most glamorous look at GL steelhead, but as opinions go, its honest.

http://dharmaofthedrift.blogspot.com/

[Fishin Bill]

Hey Cold! My son and I did this last fall for the first time. I hooked into a big fish on an 8 wt, had it on the line for at least 20 minutes. About 3 feet from netting it, took another long run, went around a pile of shale and the line went slack. My son looked at me and said he was sorry I hadn't caught it. I told him that was more fun fishing than I'd had in a long time. It's frustrating at first but we were lucky to have gone with a local club that's affiliated with our high school. Some of these guys gave me tips that really allowed me to hook up one. What amazed me was that I'd tied a lot of flies in preparation, but every fish I saw caught had gone after small nymphs. You're right, there's a learning curve- but some great fishing!

[Cold]

I'm glad you enjoyed your experience!

A suggestion for landing the next one you hook: Like I said in my post, the streams are small and the fish don't have anywhere to run, when they're on the line, it means you aren't going to be able to play them to the point that they just give up. If you had your fish on for 20 minutes, it was on about 15 minutes too long. After a while, a hooked steelhead goes from 'insane mode' (if its a fresh fish), into 'flop mode' where they aren't really doing anything other than keeping you from getting them.

When you recognize this shift, its time to land the fish. Netting can work in wide open areas or confined, fast water. If you want to net the fish, it's best to have your net man (someone other than the guy with the fish on), waiting downstream. Get the fish to calm down a bit then the net guy can approach slowly from behind, trying not to spook the fish.

Most times, though, I'm alone on the stream, and really, a net of the size you really want for these fish will be too large to be toting around with you, so I'm usually netless. When I get a fish tired and on a short line, I just walk backward, away from the creek and kind of tow the fish up onto the shore (if its a typical area with a low shoreline) or into some really shallow water. Getting the fish out of the water makes it easy to walk up to it and grip it firmly around the base of the tail. From there, you can hold it securely while you remove your fly and then either steer it back into the deeper water, or cradle your other hand under its belly to either carry it back to the water, or to get your stringer ready.

A note on that: you might want to get one of the heavier nylon stringers (available at the local bait shops) for steelhead. I've never seen them break one of the light trout ones, but it wouldnt surprise me if I did. In the rest of the state, an entire day's limit of smaller trout doesnt have the weight of just one hefty steelhead.

[flybugpa]

Cold, thats a cool site, thanks for putting it up there! Maybe we will bump into each other out there dodging ice flows....

[roygpa]

One of these days I'm going to make the drive and give steelhead a shot.

Thanks for the site.

Roy

[Fishin Bill]

Thanks for the advice, Cold. I plan to get out enough times this year that I should have plenty of practice. I was caught without a net, and undoubtedly should have done what you said- get ot over to shore and grab it by the tail.