Its the time of year where the colors are changing, the temperatures are dropping, and the fish are biting to fatten up for winter. And with the summer pleasure boaters gone, along with those who would rather hunt, there are plenty of fish to go around.
The lakes have been fishing decently lately, though a little high with some of the rain. I fished sayers a few weeks back, and hooked a couple of nice catfish, as well as something that snapped me off near a downed tree. I really want to get out on the lakes soon, as the clearer water and cooler temperatures will make the fish more active. Maybe head out to raystown soon in hopes of some striper or lake trout.
More importantly, however, we made our first trip of the season to Erie for steelhead fishing in the tributary. Steelhead are considered to be sea-run rainbow trout, eventhough they are extremely closely related to Salmon. They get into the 10 to 20 pound range, and it is extremely addicting to watch one inhale your fly, and take off, with your reel singing.
Friday, got up early and had to make the decision of the "west side tribs" (Elk, Walnut) or the "east side tribs" ( the mile creeks). There was a huge rainstorm on Thursday night, and after hearing some reports of Walnut being nearly blown out, I decided on 16 and 20 mile creeks, which are over towards the town of Northeast. The stream had more water in it than I thought, but it was still pretty clear. Started out at the mouth of 16 mile, with an olive wooly bugger. Missed one in a small divet along the rock wall, and then moved up to the falls, where plenty of fish, along with anglers, had congregated. Switched over to a red and orange half and half pattern (a few loops of red yarn on the tail as a sucker spawn, and an orange glo bug up near the head.) Caught one on this, accidently snagged another, and missed several up here. However, an older gentleman caught probably five in the couple hours I was over there. At this point, the fish seemed to be weary of the presence of the anglers, so I worked my way up.
Some steelhead were in a pocket behind a downed tree, and I worked these with various flies. A big problem was that the fish would try and run under and around the downed tree, leading to lost fish for myself and other anglers. It was around noon, so I decided I would grab a bite to eat, and head over to 20 mile.
After scarfing down a hot sausage hoagie and an order of fries at the Freeport restaraunt, I arrived at the crowded parking lot at 20 mile. Found a space of about 20 feet between two anglers, in a nice pool with some fish. The hot ticket here was black wooly buggers, fished weightless. Now, for steelhead, I tie these with a very bushy tail, as this adds to the natural action and motion of the fly. I caught two in this hole (D'oh! I forgot my net, so they were flopping around in the leaves for a bit before I got pictures), and had another one that made a nice run upstream before shaking my fly.
Worked my way down to the mouth, and there were a lot of fish. Unfortunately, there were also a lot of anglers, and the winds had picked up, blowing leaves and weeds into the stream. The fish here didn't seem the least bit interested in my wooly buggers.
I switched over to an experimental fly, which was a chartreuse sucker spawn, that I tied with green weenie chenille, since I didnt have any yarn of this color. Surprisingly, I had two hookups within a matter of minutes on this fly, before the 2nd one snapped me off. While I wanted to fish more, I had made some plans for later that night, and I decided I'd better begin the drive back home. A great trip all in all, though!
An important thing is to get creative with your tying, and don't be afraid to try some new patterns. The steelhead see the same egg sacs, prince nymphs, and whatnot day after day, and they'd gladly go after a new fly. The man at 16 mile was fishing a crystal caddis nymph, which I had never even heard of. Go to google and search something along the lines of "hot steelhead flies Erie" or just tie your usual flies, in newer, strange colors. You never know when you might stumble onto a hot pattern, and be the next "only guy catching anything."
