Its nearly November and the Lake Erie Steelheads are making their move!
I was up on Sunday,drove 2.5 hours each way to get about 4 hours of fishing in. Landed 2, had 7 on...wow..great time.
If your not familiar with erie steelhead, every fall the fish migrate up the trib that they were born in (actually stocked as smolts)...They are now between six and fifteen pounds and scared as a cat most of the time. They got keen eyesite, a good nose and at about an avgerage of nine pound can fight like the best of them in fast flowing water.
Gear differs from fly rods to (my perfered setup) a noodle rod. I have a Orvis which is 11 feet long and can double over into a loop...soft tip cushions the blows from the fight while the rod has enough back bone to haul it out. plus the long rod allows nice drag free drifts to draw out the fish. I use 4 lb mono with a 4 pound Floro leader.
Bait varies...I use anything from the following: Magots, small red worms, 1/80 or 1/64 hair or feather jigs, flat fish lures, a single egg, skein, egg sacs, sucker spawn flies...some days they are picky as hell others they are eating anything coming their way.
Lots of wading and walking is invloved...the steelheads are no secret in the Pittsburgh area so weekend crowds are big, weekday crowds rivial the busiest of opening days of regular trout season.
The runs start in mid october, normally I wait untill Vets day to start going up, the crowd simmer down as the weather gets cold..fish are there until ice over or about April.
If your looking for a fight, I highly recommend the trip. I don't think I burn a single drag during the entire bass season...but my Quantum Energy PTI drag is smoking all winter long.
I included a link, some of the picture don't do the whole exprerience justice as it shows the chair fishermen lined up along the mouth of the creek leading into the lake.
http://www.fishusa.com/FishErie/WCO/Updates/
I was up on Sunday,drove 2.5 hours each way to get about 4 hours of fishing in. Landed 2, had 7 on...wow..great time.
If your not familiar with erie steelhead, every fall the fish migrate up the trib that they were born in (actually stocked as smolts)...They are now between six and fifteen pounds and scared as a cat most of the time. They got keen eyesite, a good nose and at about an avgerage of nine pound can fight like the best of them in fast flowing water.
Gear differs from fly rods to (my perfered setup) a noodle rod. I have a Orvis which is 11 feet long and can double over into a loop...soft tip cushions the blows from the fight while the rod has enough back bone to haul it out. plus the long rod allows nice drag free drifts to draw out the fish. I use 4 lb mono with a 4 pound Floro leader.
Bait varies...I use anything from the following: Magots, small red worms, 1/80 or 1/64 hair or feather jigs, flat fish lures, a single egg, skein, egg sacs, sucker spawn flies...some days they are picky as hell others they are eating anything coming their way.
Lots of wading and walking is invloved...the steelheads are no secret in the Pittsburgh area so weekend crowds are big, weekday crowds rivial the busiest of opening days of regular trout season.
The runs start in mid october, normally I wait untill Vets day to start going up, the crowd simmer down as the weather gets cold..fish are there until ice over or about April.
If your looking for a fight, I highly recommend the trip. I don't think I burn a single drag during the entire bass season...but my Quantum Energy PTI drag is smoking all winter long.
I included a link, some of the picture don't do the whole exprerience justice as it shows the chair fishermen lined up along the mouth of the creek leading into the lake.
http://www.fishusa.com/FishErie/WCO/Updates/
