Erie Steelheading on Monday

[GonnaFlyNow]

I have the day off tomorrow. Is it worth going up to Erie for the day? Coming from Pittsburgh. Not too much time invested if it doesn't work out. I was wondering if the rain helped enough. Any input is appreciated.

Cheers,

 

[DanL]

Here's the update Poor Richard's shop posted this morning around 11am:

Quote: The creeks came down last night and were fishable this morning. Some fish came in to the creeks but not a lot. It did rain a little again late last night and this morning but nothing really to do anything to the creeks. They are still calling for rain today so it may change. Good luck and happy fishing.
Jr.

 

[CRB]

I sent a PM tonight.

 

[bingsbaits]

Poor Richards latest update.
Today the creeks are low and clear. We had a good steady down pour earlier in the afternoon today but it disnt do anything to the creeks. There were a few fish that came into the creeks with the last rain we had but nothing great yet. They are doing very well on the beaches at trout run and godfrey. Mostly on spoons and spinners and also minnows and powerbait have been doing good.

 

[pcray1231]

Yeah, the story I'm hearing is that the creeks came up and went down, and then the lake water cooled enough.

So there's some fish in the bottom ends of the bigger streams. But not huge numbers. As many fishermen as fish. Smaller streams haven't gotten much yet. And on the big streams they haven't made it up very high yet. So fish and fishermen still concentrated.

Just in the last few nights they have started to catch bigger numbers in the lake by the creek mouths.

So it sounds like the cool rainy weather triggered staging activity, but only a minor run. I think the next high water event will get a pretty good push.

 

[wbranch]

I had seen the reports and forecasts for significant rain. I was anxious to go up for steelhead so I made reservations at the motel and left York at 2:30 a.m. Sunday morning. Driving at night is boring and tiresome. After about 230 miles I got sleepy and pulled into a rest area for a half hour nap. Arrived at the motel at 9:00. Went right down below Uncle John's on Elk. The water was stained but very low. Virtually only about 100' of flowing water with any depth. Very warm too. Saw a couple of little 15" jacks caught and one adult steelhead.

Left at 1:00 and went back to the motel to change into lighter pants and shirt. Drove over to the Conneaut but it was totally blown out and only running at 175 cfs. Drove all the way back to the Project waters on Walnut (I hate that water but it can get good runs) The water was low and it was crowded. I got bored and left at 5:00.

Monday morning I went straight back to Walnut. Quite a good number of steelhead had come in over night. For a Monday morning it was very crowded. I would venture to say that between the Stop Sign hole and the parking lot there were at least 60 guys. There were more fishers than fish. I got lucky and caught a jack and an adult about 4#. The guys had surrounded the dozen or so fish in the pool I was fishing. It was not a pleasant experience. I quit at 9:00 and drove home.

The rain was not of sufficient duration and intensity to do anything for the creeks other than make them dirty. For the creeks to gain volume it has to rain hard much further south in the headwaters of Elk and Walnut to see any meaningful and sustained increase in flow volume.