Steelhead?

[ryguyfi]

So there's a fishing report in my local paper every friday and they usually have a report on Erie. This past week it said that there are rumors of the occasional steelhead being caught at the mouth of the streams. Maybe a beginning to the staging. Its possible with all this rain they might come up in the night when it cools down. This is my first full year fly fishing and I just recently bought a 9ft 8wt for larger fish. I know that they don't run till the weather gets colder but I'd like to be prepared. I have a few questions about steelhead.

What size leader do you use. I know some guys up there use noodle rods and 2lb test but thats not fly fishing.

Where exactly to you go, and do you have enough room to actually fly fish with all the crouds or is it more jigging (which I don't want to do).

I'm really pumped to catch a bigger fish on the fly. And speaking of that, what are your favorite fly patterns for steelhead. I tied up a bunch of salmon colored egg patterns (which I caught alot of trout on this year) and a streamer (which I kind of made up)

I see most of the streamer patterns have a hook near the rear of the maribou, or whatever material they're using. I used 2 different hooks and put a few inches of 0x tippet between them. Is this even remotely correct or is there a more effective way of tying. And do steelhead patters use 2 hooks. I bought some up eye salmon hooks to tie this.

Any and all suggestions appreciated!!

 

[sandfly]

depending where and what time of year I'll fish with a 9ft. 6wt to a 15ft 10 wt. I'm not an egg dunker as much as i should, i like tradional swinging flies...or on some water a waking fly...theres steelies around the mouths all year depending on conditions..

as for leaders anything from 12 to 2 lb... 3ft to 18ft. long. just walk aways and bam no crowds....I only use 1 hook on my flies..

 

[jaybo41]

Ry,

I use a 9 foot leader with a 9 ft 7 wt, your 9ft 8 should be fine. As for the leader I like anything from a 4-6 lb depending on what part of the season. 6lbs in flouro in the fall, when the fish are stronger and have more fight and as the fish have been there for a while, and or on lower conditions I'll go with a 4lb or 4.5. Climax Flouro leader that has a 4.5 that's been working well for me.

As for where to go, that's really subjective. Elk and Walnut have always held a special place for me but that's also where the crowds are. I've also explored some of the smaller West Side streams. I prefer to fish south of route 5, since anything north or going towards the lake has too many guys. Even down to RT 20 fish can be had, and even further south than that on Elk.

Sucker Spawn, Crystal Meth, Blood Dots, Estaz Eggs, Crystal Buggers, Buggers all do well for me. Chartruese, Pink, lt. Blue, Oregon Cheese are all good egg pattern colors. As for buggers, the traditional white, olive, brown, black all work well. With Crystal, blacks, whites, olives, root beer all do well.

I'm a little unclear on the last part of what you're asking so if you'll clarify, I'll give it a shot. 2 hooks in one pattern? 2 flys on a rig? I use one hook per fly, but sometimes I'll go with a tandem rig.

Crowds have been BRUTAL the past 8 years that I've been going. Worse it seems every year, so I generally prefer finding solitude while going after trout. Also more land from year to year is being posted mostly due to garbage and anglers not respecting the landowners.

The rush of latching into a steelie on a fly rod is incredible, so I'll go a few times a year.


Hope that helps.

Jaybo

 

Hi, Ruyguyfi!
Naturally, where you'll be fly fishing for Steelhead,and where I encounter them, on a regular basis, are on opposite shores, so to speak. But, "Dem fish is dem fish" and I've been very lucky, over the years, to fish for steelies in your area and mine and I've always used the same set up.................
A 10' Thomas and Thomas-6wt. with a WF/F line, with a 7' "steelhead leader", made up in a special taper for fast water and tricky currents. Cabela's, I believe, still carries them and most fly shops. They're a fastly reduced taper in a 4X tippet end. (here, in my area, anyway?).
I've found a good reel, with an excellent drag, can be more important when a steelie runs, than the rod, line and leader combined!
For flies, I always use the same ones, no matter where I fish..........
"The Skykomish Sunrise"-"Steelhead Bee"-The Paint Brush" and my most productive.........."The Green Butt Skunk".
Good luck and have fun!

 

[ryguyfi]

Thanks for the input guys.

For the fly question here is a good picture. I don't quite understand how the hook is so far back without tying it onto either another hook or a piece of leader. Please let me know and post pictures or recipies for your favorite steelhead flies!!

 

[CRB]

Living up here and working close to Elk and Walnut I have seen no one fishing for steelhead this past week. I have heard there are no fish. They are still about mile off shore from what I have been hearing from the walleye fishermen.
From my understanding the hens that PAF&B gathered 3 years ago had some problems and they were not gathered till well into December of '04. I feel the run will be a bit later this year.
crb

 

[OhioOutdoorsman]

A surge of high water + 45-50 degree water temps = steelhead run.

 

[dryflyguy]

The steelhead used to start trickling in labor day weekend, but with the recent hot spell, I wouldn't bet on it this year.
I just came back from a family trip up there with our grandaughter and niece - and we were all swimming in the lake.
So it must still be pretty warm.
As for a good guess when they'll be running, usually for sure by the last week of sept/early oct

 

[PennKev]

Erie steelheading is not rocket science. I found that all I need is some 3x fluorcaron tippet (7-8lb fluoro spinning line works great and is cheap), and a small selection of flies. Some #16-12 hares ear's, #16-13 black stones, some cream, pink, and blue suckerspawn, and a few brighlty colored egg patterns for stained water. A few white and a few black #8 wooly buggers are good too. Anyone who can swing a streamer or fish nymphs can catch steelhead. The only real trick is to fish in the faster water. The crowds usually accumulate in the slow clear pools where you can easily see the fish. This is the worst place to fish IMO. The fish in these areas are spooky and get pounded by fisherman all day long. Additionally, the large number of fish in these pond-like pools compounds the problems. Spook one fish and they will all go nuts, milling about wildly. Fish the faster water between pools or at the heads of the pools. Look for the deeper runs and deep pockets in the riffles. Any spot in which you can't clearly see the bottom is a likely spot. You might only find a few fish here and there but they will usually be much easier to catch and very few guys bother fishing these areas. Also, eveyone goes crazy about "prime" conditions on the tribs which means slightly high with a cloudy green water color. The truth is, if you're like most people who cannot fish everyday, you're more likely to encounter gin clear conditions which are by far the norm for those streams. Again, fishing the faster water is a good idea. I mentioned before that I use mainly 3x fluoro. The heavy tippet might affect my hookups, but I wold rather hook and land 5 then hook 20 and lose most of them or spend a half hour playing a fish. 3x limits my loss of flies and allows me to quickly land fish. This keeps frustration to a minimum.

Kev

 

[RLeeP]

I was born, raised and lived the first 45 or so years of my life in the Erie area and IMO, Kev pretty much has it nailed.

There are some exceptions, but by and large, these are some of the dumbest fish I've ever put a fly over. I once watched my Dad who knows about as much about fishing for steelhead as I know about brain surgery hook 8 fish in 10 casts using a smoke-colored crappie jig on 12 lb. test with a snap swivel

But they are (or can be) moody and this (IMO) can make them seem much more discering than they really are.

But by and large, if you're the first guy of the day to present to a fish, you're going to catch him unless you spook him first.

Here's a couple things that worked for me over the years:

--The fish between the pools thing is real good advice, IMO. As Kev said, pay special attention to any place where you cannot see the bottom due either to depth or broken water.

--All the lake tribs (or at least the ones of any size) are loaded with these places where the shale bed suddenly drops off a couple feet to form a pocket. There are a lot of these places in between the bigger pools in portions of all the larger tribs. These places, in my experience) hold the least harrassed fish in the creek and hence the most vulnerable. Regardless of how small these places are, they almost always hold a fish if there are any number of fish in the creek at the time. A lot of guys will fish these places and not get down to where the fish is sitting, which is almost always with his nose pretty tight to the upstream wall of the drop off. What I used to do is put enough lead just above an egg fly (like 2 or 3 BB shot) to be able to roll it down the shale bed and have it drop straight down over the edge, into the pocket and bop the fish on the nose. This seems to work pretty well.

--The best fly you can use is one that nobody else is using or has used or a fly any sane person would would be embarrassed to use, whether it's a size 8 Montreal wet or a gold egg fly with a purple eye. I think this is a function of the heavy pressure. More than most fish, these steelhead seem to be interested in novelty.
The more often you change flies (unless you're really killing the fish) the more fish you will probably catch.

-- Tippet size, IMO, is not really a factor unless you want to fish dinky sucker spawn on 6X in the big, slow pools. That works too. Otherwise, I seldom (actually never) had an occasion to use lighter than 3X, even in fairly clear water in the faster runs.

--Consider using really big egg flies in dirty water and lots of lead to get them down. I've done really well on them. When I say really big, I'm talking the diameter of a ping pong ball on a size 6 hook. I used a lot of these in chartreuse with an orange eye and salmon egg pink with a red eye. Actually, I should revise this a little... I've never tied an egg fly that was round. Too much like work... I simply lash three strands of glo-bug yarn perpendicular to the hook shank (two of the body color with a shorter one for the eye in the middle). Then I pull them all up together and give the whole thing a hairvut. So, my egg flies always looked more like mushrooms than eggs as there is no yarn below the shank.

Take a water thermometer. My experience has been that there is a pretty sharp temerature cutoff where these fish will no longer chase a moving/worked fly like a wooly bugger or streamer. It seems to be 40F. Not 41 or 39, but 40. It's like they have a handbook that tells them this is what they have to do. Or so it seems to me.

In a normal year, there will be fish all through the creeks any time after say, Nov. 15 regardless of how much high water there has been. In dry falls, there may not be that many up high, but there will almost always be enough to fish for at this time.

--If you want to have the maximum possible serenity on the creek and the most untraumatized fish, come in December. There will be fish all the way up all the major creeks and at least marginally fewer guys. Come when it's 15 degrees and the wind is out of the north at 30 knots. That's even better. But fish egg flies on days like this. They won't chase a bugger...

 

[Acristickid]

I am really looking forward to Steelheading this year. I hear the crowds are just as bad during rifle deer season?? Hoping I bag a buck the first day so I can hit Erie for several days opening week of deer. Might keep a fish this year. I could not even remember that last time I kept a fish. Paul

 

[CRB]

-If I'm fishing two flies I will use 3x to first fly and 5x to second. This way if my lower fly gets hung up on the shale or other obstruction I can brake it off and only lose one fly.
- less drag the better even on spooked fish.
-clouded/muddy water is very sporting way to catch fish. Bigger brighter and darker flies will catch fish.
-floats/indicators, when low and clear color the bottoms with a black marker.
***VERY IMPORTANT***
treat the stream as your own,
watch where you park,
Keep the noise down in the morning,
Call a WCO(the PA Steelhead *** has cards with their numbers at any of the bait, tackle and fly shops) if you see a fisherman braking the law or fish code,
REMBER MOST OF THE LAND THE TRIBUTARIES FLOW THROUGH IS PRIVATE PROPERTY--RESPECT IT---or we will lose it.
CRB

 

[stonefly]

has anyone ever had any success fishing the mckean hole i stopped to fish there once and only saw one steelhead and lost my fannypack so that was a terrible expericence just wondering if anyone had any better experiences

 

[Maurice]

John,

Thats a tough hole tofish with a flyrod. It is so wide and the banks are high behind you on both sides. There are runs into and out of it. that hold fish during runs.

Maurice