Steelhead 2013-2014 Thread

[streamerguy]

Fished Conneaut Creek today from a little ways above the ball fields down to rt. 20 and back. The holes that had fish were few and far between, but where there were fish there were usually a good handful of them. The very low and clear water didn't help, but I was still able to tease some fish into biting. Only saw 3 other fisherman all day. Two of them said they didn't have any luck, and the other said he got some earlier in the morning quite a ways upstream of where I was fishing. Also got a bonus smallie.

Never made it to Elk.......

After I took off all my gear I decided to walk on the bridge and see if there were any fish below it, and as my luck would have it there were. They probably wouldn't have hit anything anyways.....

 

[CRB]

elk was the same yesterday. Need a soaker badly. Shore fishing was great early am.

 

[streamerguy]

It rained(lightly) about half of the time I was there, but it didn't do anything other than get the ground wet.....

 

[fishingood]

Made the trip up and fished with my father on Saturday. Started at Elk, a few pods of fish around Uncle John's campground, so we moved down to lower elk and just dead drifted streamers, my father caught one here, and I had a hook up and a missed hook set. Saw a lot of spinning fisherman catching them through here, and the guys who were going out in boats said they saw alot.

We moved over to the east side, fished lower 16 mile, a good number of fish below the falls, but very low and clear water, I got a steelhead and a citation brown out of here, also had multiple hook ups, a break off (still had my maribou streamer in its mouth), and had a fish pick it up and spit it out. We headed over to 20 mile, and there were some fish around that were very spooky, we each caught one out of here, water was very low. Also saw someone catch a steelhead with a lamprey attached, a first for myself.

Everything was caught on minnow streamers, primarily the dfishinfool crystal minnow, and my maribou variation of it, that was the only fly I could get anything to even look at, was even getting chases. Once we get a little more rain, and some more fish in, it should be a great year.

 

[PatrickC]

Good stuff. Nice looking LR brown!

 

[Pghtrouthunter]

Man I really want to catch myself a lake run brown trout....

Any suggestions? Is it a target fish or just a "chance" encounter when fishing for steelies? Like shooting a banded bird?

 

[ryguyfi]

StarvinMarvin wrote:
ryguy, where did you fish in NY?

Fished Oak Orchard. Fishing was really slow. There's some fish in the creek, but not many. They need rain as well to get the run going.

 

[StarvinMarvin]

I was there Saturday from prob 8 to 2 fishing the lower end. I didn't stop to fish the upper end, from there we went to a place to pay $3/person to park and the water was brown and muddy and we saw lots of browns, dead and alive. I lost one that was probably the biggest fish I've had on, on my 6 wt. but apparently I wasn't allowed to land it because my second fly had foul hooked and lassoed the tail.

 

[streamerguy]

Nice fish fishinggood. Jealous of that brown..

Pghtrouthunter, from my very limited experiences with LR browns, it's just luck. Steelhead outnumber them by a large margin. When they're visible some people say they're harder to catch than steelhead, but it's kinda like targeting a specific steelhead(or in this case the lone brown) out of the entire pod of fish rather than having the entire group have a shot at your offering. Don't think Erie will ever have a really good run of them like NY, but they're a nice bonus. I've only been able to catch one so far

On a side note, on my way to Conneaut yesterday I had to drop my brother off at the Linesville hatchery because of a project for school, and he said one of the things they did was fin clip browns that are going to get stocked in the tribs. Not sure if they just started the fin clipping this year or if they've been doing it for a while. Looking forward to seeing how the program plays out....

 

[StarvinMarvin]

They've been doing that for a while now, I think there is a place to find the year and clippings on the fish commission website.

 

[fishingood]

Man I really want to catch myself a lake run brown trout....

Any suggestions? Is it a target fish or just a "chance" encounter when fishing for steelies? Like shooting a banded bird?

It's really a chance thing, IMO, usually you just toss your fly into a pod, or a pool where fish may be holding, and sometimes a brown, or if you're lucky, a salmon, instead of a steelhead grab your fly. Not really sure how to target one over the other, they both take the same flies. That is, unless the water is really low and clear, and you're able to sight fish, and you have good enough eyes to tell between the two. The one I caught I wasn't targetting, I targetted a different fish that refused my streamer, and I let it keep swinging, and sure enough, this one came up and took it. But, I didn't know it was a brown until I was fighting it.

 

[ryguyfi]

There seem to have been more reports of browns in the mile streams the last few years. I know I've seen more there personally, but there's still a good handful in Walnut and Elk.

No way to specifically target them unless you see them first.

 

[bjkaledas]

ryguyfi wrote:
There seem to have been more reports of browns in the mile streams the last few years. I know I've seen more there personally, but there's still a good handful in Walnut and Elk.

No way to specifically target them unless you see them first.

That is where I saw most of them last year, in the East. I had a few hooked up over there, but caught my first one ever last year in Elk. It was a beauty!

 

[pcray1231]

Looks like a wet few days for Erie. Showers and storms for a while, then the big wallop at the end (Mondayish). Front's gonna make it here.

Then it wants to dry out again. Maybe for a while. But Karen could put an end to that idea before it even gets established, depending on how far west her remnants go. When she comes up, farther east = wetter.

 

[wbranch]

The most recent NOAA report is indicating from 1.5" - 2.75" of rain. This should blow the creeks out through Tuesday but I'd bet by Wednesday there will be nice green water on some of the creeks. I've booked three nights in a Girard motel and am probably leaving Tuesday morning so I can do some scouting and be on the water at first light Wednesday.

 

[CRB]

Just retured home from elk still very little color to water flow was just a bit better than last sunday.

 

[CRB]

Need more steady rain

 

[fishingnoob]

my buddy mickey (yakquest) and I just got done with a weekend of fishing elk and walnut. Only 2 catches for the weekend. lots of anglers at all creeks. This was mickey's first time steelhead fishing and he got a nice 22 inch on elk on the first day. I'll post a pic.

 

[fishingnoob]

mickey's (yakquest) first taste of steel

 

[wbranch]

Nice fish, by the color of the fish it appears it might be a resident rainbow rather than a true steelhead.