Steelhead, 2019-2020 Season

[allthingsfishing]

It's time to start a steelhead topic for the upcoming season. The bell will ring shortly.

 

[Bruno]

Yep - I need to go more this year. Only had one banger of a day up there last season. I was out of it for most of the season due to health issues.

My advice to all - quit fishing egg patterns. Just use your trout nymphs and wet flies. They have seen and been stung my a million egg flies by the time the get to you. It is kinda like me and Miller Light. Won't / can't drink it makes me ill - just one. Same thing with fish and egg flies.

My .02 of the day.

 

[tomgamber]

FOUND THIS ON A REMOVABLE DRIVE THE OTHER DAY

 

[flyflicker]

Hey! Don’t knock Miller Lite! DSR is reporting salmon in the river already (I love their posts...). Cheers and I am getting antsy!

 

[CRB]

They will be in soon. ;-)

 

[drakeking412]

I finally completed my steelhead setup and now just need line and flies. This is my first season chasing them on the fly and I'm extremely excited and admittedly nervous too

 

[flipnfly]

I'm in the process of getting ready if you let me know when you guys are going up I'll come (if I can make it) and fish with you guys

 

[flyflicker]

@drakeking be prepared for bloody knuckles after your reel turns into a buzzsaw with a fresh King ripping upstream!! I am headed up 26th through the 2nd.

 

[drakeking412]

I'll try and go up sometime one of you guys are so maybe I could get some help if that's ok. I saved 6 PTO days just for steelhead this year so I want to go up a couple times. Do you all camp or get a room?

@flyflicker ya I'm not quite sure whats going to happen in that situation haha I have a fairly decent reel so I might be able to put the brakes on him

 

[flipnfly]

Also check out the Irondequoit in Rochester on the way to the salmon River for a nice brown and some steel if you're looking to get out on a weekend in October I'm game I can offer some help (or bad habits) if you want

 

[Sylvaneous]

All you need is a 9 ft 6 wt with a fairly generic disk drag reel and 2 to 4 colors of angora rabbit yarn sucker spawn: orange, pink, chartreuse, pale yellow. I use 5X tippet 90% of the time.
I hope you get after them when the water's right and not get too hung up on equipment or techniques.
If you haven't had one on a fly rod, when you get one, clear your line. Have general good line 'hygiene' anyway. Let it go when it wants to go. Don't even try to do anything except have tension on the line. Get them on the reel fast, but don't go nuts about it. Fight the fish with the rod low and to the side, the more perpendicular to the current the better. When they finally calm down, put the torque to them and get them in the net or on the bank quick. Fight (pull) them with the rod butt, not the tip. Think about hauling a milk jug onto shore.
Big steelhead make GREAT Christmas pictures! (the whole red stripe thing)

 

[dryflyguy]

CRB wrote:
They will be in soon. ;-)

Is the lake finally starting to cool down?
I stopped at a beach in NY on the way back from Niagara Falls with the little lady. This was in mid sept - and the water temp was still 71

 

[krott243]

Quick update for you guys. Things in Erie are still on the slow side. Lake temps sitting around 68-69. We wont see any large numbers of fish staging until the lake temps get around 66. Creek temps are about the same 68-70 with no flow. There are a few fish scattered in the lower parts of the creek but nothing I would make a drive for. Beach fishing has been getting better, still no big numbers. Even trolling nearshore 5-20ft range has been slow, indicator fishing has been better than chucking streamers or spoons off the beach as we have had a lot of chalky water along the shore due to winds, keeping something still is a better tactic than a fast moving presentation through that type of water. 90 degrees here yesterday and 75 as I type this. Things should improve into next week with some good looking low temps and rain forecasted, beach fishing should start to get good, of course with rain, some fish will move up the tribs.

 

[moon1284]

I went to a pier on the niagara river last saturday - didnt fish. I saw kings,cohos, browns, and steelhead on the pier. The niagara river usually gets the earliest run of the western lake ontario tribs.

I'm sure there are steelhead in the big wny erie trib. IMO mid to late september is the best time to fish tribs. Less crowds than october and fish are hot. Not as into the lake run fish as I used to be. If I was I'd have been fishing hard the past two weekends.

 

[PennypackFlyer]

I'm going up to Salmon River this Saturday. I leave at 3:00 in the morning and get back around 10 or 11 at night. Anyone interested pm me.

 

[FarmerDave]

moon1284 wrote:

I'm sure there are steelhead in the big wny erie trib. IMO mid to late september is the best time to fish tribs. Less crowds than october and fish are hot. Not as into the lake run fish as I used to be. If I was I'd have been fishing hard the past two weekends.

Normal years I would agree, but we had the second warmest September on record. It hit 94 in Cleveland yesterday for the hottest October day ever. At 5:30 pm last night, it was still 92 in Cle. People were swimming at the beaches. And I doubt it dropped out of the 70s this morning.

The streams are also low.

Oh, I'm sure some came in, but how far, and how long did they stay? I've caught steelhead in Elk Creek in late August before, but not this year.

Water temperature at the Eastern end of Lake Erie at 30 food depth this morning is 68. News station said it was 71 at Cleveland.

I don't know what the magic mumber is, but it's likely lower than that.

 

[bigjohn58]

I'm heading up to NY on Oct 11th, the weekend of the 26th, Nov 2nd, and November 9th. Erie has completely lost my interest when I have the opportunity for so many more species in the same amount of drive if not closer in NY.

 

[Prospector]

bigjohn58 wrote:
I'm heading up to NY on Oct 11th, the weekend of the 26th, Nov 2nd, and November 9th. Erie has completely lost my interest when I have the opportunity for so many more species in the same amount of drive if not closer in NY.

I’ll be on the Lake Ontario tribs the weekend you are skipping, Oct 18-20.

 

[gulfgreyhound]

I agree Prospector. Pray for RAIN. GG

 

[CRB]

Sand bar completely across elk creek