Any reports of early season chromers pushing into either Ohio or Western PA streams?
Due to an inordinate number of bait fisherman and centerpin stream hogs along the Lake Erie tributaries, the steelhead have walked away from their 2008-2009 contract talks. Perhaps if there are more converts to fly fishing, the steelhead will return to the bargaining table in the Summer of 2009.
Sorry, but you’ll have to go to the Bahamas to get your adrenalin rush.
That’s funny. Centerpinners need megaphones so they could yell to me when I’m 100yards away from their perfect drift that it’s “comin through!”"
Any chance we can try this steelhead get together again this year? Last year was a wash…literally.
Janus
Brian,
I sure hope so…I’ll be talking to a bunch of the guys soon & we’ll get it set up. I’ll be in touch.
Mike
OK then, any ideas on how to coax my wife to spend a weekend in Nassau over spending a weekend in Geneva On The Lake, up to our butts in snow?
Janus,
I’d love to give it another try this fall. And if the river doesn’t cooperate there’s always breakfast. I drank way too much coffee at the “Rain-out Breakfast Club” meeting.
I was hoping this would be brought up again.
I’ve been tying like a mad man hoping that we could actually make it work this year. With the drought we’ve had, I say we make plans for sooner rather than later so we have less of chance of a repeat ‘wash!’
I’m thinking we stick with all our same plans from the last time (location, time of day, purpose, etc) and just decide on a day in mid-early November or late December. I’m being a little selfish here on the dates because we’re due to have a new little one sometime round Thanksgiving.
Ryan how many kids do you have!!!:shock: I never use these emoticons but is this your 14th child!! I’d prefer Nov. I’m a wimp I don’t want to freeze my kahoonies off standing in water made for polar bears, hoping a fish gently nips at a pink fluffy little ball I am trying to float across the bottom all the while shivering and thinking " all though I have no way of knowing or feeling it, I think I just crapped my pants"…but that’s just me.
Janus
I could be in for the week of Thanksgiving…either side Sat-Sun before or after but of course won’t know until the last…
“all though I have no way of knowing or feeling it, I think I just crapped my pants”…but that’s just me."
Humm, combine very swift moving water, deep holes and surroundings of private property with the “unspoken agreement” that it’s OK to fish as long as you don’t get out of the river and that to a tee describes my last November trip to the Mad River for Trout…all I got was exhausted and COLD.
Dude, that is hilarious!
I think this actually makes 18 kids and they’re all about a year apart. Suffice it to say, birth control is not only not 99.99% effective–I’d say most of it is about .34% effective!
Actually, this will make number 3 for us. And yes, they are all only about a year apart from each other.
Oh well, at least I’ll still be young enough to keep up with them when they’re teenagers I guess.
And now, back to our regularly scheduled program…the second, semi annual not-a-fish-in fishin in the North Country of the the Island Nation!
I think I’ll stay on the wagon and try to make this my second full year “steelhead free.” OMG, I loathe the crowds…I despise the class-less hogs with no stream etiquette who try to push people out of their spots so they can fish a particular spot (where’s my Glock when I need it?)…and in #1 position, I abhor that abomination called the centerpin. It’s truly a demonic device for steelhead fishing, analogous to gill nets which cover large areas of water real estate with one individual holding title to that water and chasing off anyone who dares to come within 300 feet of that evil device. I get an ice cream headache just thinking that type of combat fishing. You guys are welcome to it.
its about 4 years for me—i quit before centerpinning became popular— my favorite day to steelhead fish was superbowl sunday because of the crowds.
Catching 6 steelhead before going to work in the morning wasnt exactly the most challenging experience.
The one thing that interests me is to blind cast for them in open water at the mouth of the river with an intermediate line from a boat where you can get some room away from the masses.
They are staging right now but i just got an email and the first albies are being caught at Cape Lookout last week.
Id be glad to meet for breakfast at Gene’s again—now That was fun.
well hey this is positive. Two of the best fly fishers I know of are not interested…I’m interested. I have only hooked up with one and it was a fluke and it shook me off quick so I didn’t land the fish. I don’t like the crowds but Rocky has some free water if you search it out…I really just want to legitimitely land a steelhead. I have an Echo 8wt coming for that purpose and plan to attempt this with an old medalist 1495 with one of those newer RC spools…just want to see what all the hub bub is about.Figured that someone would come along and give me a tip on how to have a chance…but it’s never been top on my list…too much of the unexpected out there during steelhead season. In the summer when I go down to the river I really know that I’m gonna have mostly all of it to myself. when the steelhead come in that isn’t always guaranteed. But I’m not avid enough about fishing for them and haven’t had a bad experience yet. I’m sure if I pursued them more it would happen out there…but about four times a season is about what I try. I’m still fishing for smallies now and they get mixed in for a small stretch in the begining and end of the runs…I usually try and build a rod in the winter…and then wiggle it for 3months in the basement…(the rod that is) But regardless I’m up for and outing.
Janus
I’m interested too, but a lot depends on daughter Maggie’s healing & dog Cocoa’s health. Add 7 Grandkids & that results in…“I can’t plan ahead at all right now!”. If I can make it, I will.
Joe & Mike…I’ve caught steelhead, never (yet!) run into crowds (I would find another spot or leave) the few times I have gone out, but WHAT is “centerpinning”?? Please excuse my ignorance.
Mike
Mikey, your ignorance is part of your charm. 
Ah, cheap shots as only close friends can do. Have you had your SPAM and eggs today?
Anyway, Here’s everything you ever wanted to know about float fishing (centerpinning) but were afraid to ask.
http://www.flyandfloatfishing.com/centerpin_videos.htm
BTW, I know the guys in the videos (local NE Ohio boyz), and you may have met them also. Domenic is an outstanding rod builder with more talent in his little finger than I have in my whole body. He does beautiful rods.
Don’t blame me if you fall into the trap of this demonic method of fishing. It’s probably the easiest way to catch steelhead that I’ve ever seen, but uses the most real estate to do it. They float minnows and maggots under a bobber, and some have tried to legitimatize their behavior by floating flies under the float and calling it a different form of fly fishing. It’s also a great way to snag fish due to the large amount of split shot that’s used to get the bait/fly down to the fish in a “natural,” drag free drift presentation (what’s natural about 1.5 ounces of shot?).
Mike, its getting worse if the only days you can get out are weekends. I would go on the marginal weather days or early in the morning when i lived 5 minutes from the river.
Dont get me wrong, the fish are big and plentiful and its a great thing to be happening in your back yard. Maybe for me, its the “been there done that” attitude.
Centerpinning is the use of a system of floats, split shot and a precision reel to present your offering into the “line of drift” in the river in a natural manner, many times for very long distances, and sometimes other fishermen feel like its encroaching on thier “claimed” section of river for the moment. Its getting a growing following. Its just another method to do what we do with a single handed rod but in a grander scale with very specialized equipment.
Thanks for the explanation guys!..Obviously NOT my “cup of tea”, & I didn’t think it would be. I had just never heard of it. I’ll stick to the old, traditional method of fly fishing for 'em…as long as I am NOT in a crowd!
Joe…As far as “cheap shots”…I would NEVER do that to you, would I?? :rolleyes: 
Thanks again,
Mikey
The “Rock” is nothing more than an urban drainage ditch that collects ethyl glycol from Cleveland Hopkins Int’l Airport’s de-icing operations and sends it downstream into Lake Erie contaminating everything in its path. This is also mixing with effluent from the sewage untreatment operations along said waterway. A true Urban Jewel…and there’s actually people who eat fish from that stream. Gag!
Sounds like most of our Ohio flows!
Shower, wash, gargle and hand sanitizer after every wade.