Welcome to the 12 Days of Fishmas! That’s where I post a video every day for 12 days, with there being a full long form video every other day. I did this last year and everybody seemed to enjoy it, so I figured I’d bring it back. In this first video Andrew and I are chasing Erie steelhead, which Andrew has never gotten the opportunity to do. Lake Erie has a run of steelhead, or lake run rainbow trout, whatever floats your boat, that runs up the creeks every year to spawn. They can get big, they fight hard, and they’re a blast to target in some of the smaller creeks. But, as you’ll see in this video, it isn’t always easy. Enjoy.
So I’ll be honest this day of fishing was kind of a last second decision. Andrew flew in from Colorado super late the night before and rather drive up to our final destination we decided to get a hotel and stay the night closer to the airport. Of course it didn’t take much convincing for me to get Andrew on board with chasing some Erie steel. So we made the drive towards Lake Erie and started looking for steelhead in some of the creeks I was familiar with from last year.
I have no idea why but the steelhead numbers are apparently down this year for Erie. Which I didn’t totally know at the time I planned to fish the tributaries, but the more water we moved the more abundantly clear it became. We bounced around to several different creeks and the only sign we saw of steelhead was some blood in the snow where people had apparently caught one and taken it home for dinner. But finally I stumbled on to a handful of steelhead, literally. I mean I stepped within a few feet of one and spooked it.
As you can see we made the executive decision to leave those fish alone for the time being. It’s common practice in the Erie tributaries to spook fish and find where they’re at, let them rest so they settle down and start feeding gain, and then return later to catch them. In fact as the creeks ice up some people go as far as to break ice out of the holes to find steelhead and then fish for them afterwards. I’ve never personally done it because if it’s that bad out I’d rather not be fishing, but I’ve been told it’s a pretty effective technique in the winter. So with that in mind we kept fishing up the creek hoping to find more fish.
Of course after another hour or two of fishing without seeing another fish, and the knowledge that we had fished a full morning prior without seeing any other steelhead, we returned to the spot we had seen the fish. We figured they might be the only steelhead in all of Erie and that if we didn’t catch one of them we might as well go home. I tried for a bit but couldn’t get the fish to eat, but the current was weird and we figured the only way to for sure know the fish was getting a look at the fly was to tight line an egg, so that’s what Andrew tried doing.
For a little bit of context I had lost a net that day somewhere, I just didn’t know when it had happened. So rather than go look for it I decided to run all of the way back to the car to grab my other net while Andrew fought the fish. I figured it would take him a second to get that fish in, and I was right.
As Andrew’s fighting this fish I’m fighting for my life. I’m not in good enough shape to sprint the half mile or more in waders back to the car right now. Luckily I worked smarter not harder, and just drove the car to the spot Andrew was fighting the fish.
We were pretty happy with Andrew’s fish but of course after that release I tried to catch one as well. For whatever reason the fish seemed to be reacting to the egg Andrew was using so I decided to try it.
We eventually landed the fish and the egg was in the fish’s side, which certainly wasn’t its original location. Typically if you foul hook a fish it’s because the egg runs over the fish’s pec fin, or at least that’s been my experience from last year. So I was annoyed with the situation because I felt like the fish had been fair hooked to begin with, but that’s not how it went into the net. Foul hooking fish seems to be somewhat normal in Erie tribs, having talked to several people about it from the area. But I just I don’t like counting fish that I foul hooked, purposefully or not, which is why I’m telling the story and not just letting the footage play. Although this fish was a weird one for me there’s no denying the fact that it was an incredible steelhead, at 28.5 inches it was perfect from head to tail. And realistically Andrew’s fish was the only one that mattered because he was the one who had never caught one before. So just like my first steelhead last year where I had to work all day for one bite, andrew had to do the same. Which makes the moment of success that much sweeter. Thanks for watching and I’ll catch you on the next one.
IF you want more video fishing for steelhead from the Lake Erie area let me know! Thanks for watching.
