It is time.

Steelhead season is here!  Things seemed to have kicked off quite a bit earlier this year than usual, but you won't hear anyone complaining.  I have seen pictures of steelhead being consistently caught in OHIO tributaries since the middle of August!  Temps are dropping, the rain is falling, and the steelhead are pushing. Unfortunately I won't be a part of this season other than vicariously fishing through friends.  I still plan to update this blog regularly, and I will have to steal some photos from friends for the fish porn effect.

So far the majority of fish that I have seen caught are being taken on eggs.  Spinners cranks and jigs are certainly not overlooked this time of year.  The fish are rather aggressive in this warmer water as they are coming straight from the lake where they gorge on baitfish.  Lower parts of the river systems will be more crowded, but don't overlook the middle sections of the rivers.  There have also been reports of people catching steelhead very far up the river systems for this time of the year, so don't be afraid to put in a little legwork.  Looks like the rain this weekend will push even more fish into the systems and I fully expect reports to start flying around, I will keep updates on here.  If anyone has any questions feel free to shoot me an email, pseelie@kent.edu.

The fruits of your labor.

Hot chrome

2012-2013 Steelhead Season

Hello everyone, it has been quite some time since I have updated this blog.  I have been busy preparing for my upcoming deployment that I have been slipping on this big time.  For the next 9 months I will be stationed in the middle east in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.  I will miss out on the Canadian Invasion this year also.  I still plan on updating the blog as much as I can, and I will have to use pictures from other sources but I plan to keep an updated, current blog running even though I will not be fishing myself.  Ben See from Steelheadalleyangler.com has been busy this summer playing with different recipes of cures with Pautzke egg cure products.  He has made some amazing looking eggs, and it is definitely worth checking out if you have no already.  Fall is just around the corner, and PA will be flooded with hot chromers before we know it.  Get those eggs ready because soon enough that night time temperature will be dropping, and you will develop an unknown itch that we all crave.

Steel

Got out for a few minutes on Sunday afternoon and managed to hook into a couple fish.  The highlight of this creek is that there seems to be a decent amount of naturally reproducing steelhead in this creek.  This is my opinion of course but I feel this is a fairly accurate statement, based on some people I have talked with and my observations and I will just leave it at that.  Fished some Pautzke cured natural colored eggs this weekend and they did quite well.  I love the BorXofire because I can cure my eggs even after they have been tied into sacs.  I will tie uncured eggs up and after a day of using them, if I still have extra I just sprinkle the cure in the egg container and shake it around and I have eggs that I can fish next week instead of going to waste.  They hold their color great, and always seem to produce.  I will be fishing on the Rock tomorrow with Don and we will be covering a lot of water, hoping to pick a few fish off in every hole that we hit.  Here are some pictures from the last few weeks.

2/23/12

Fished the lower Chagrin and didn't seem to find much going on.  So after lunch we headed out to the Grand.  Should have fished there in the morning haha.  Did pretty well right away, then consistently caught fish for the next few hours.  All on uncured steelhead eggs, pink being the best.  All fish were caught in tailouts or slower moving deep pools.  Weather was crazy, went from cold, to sunny and warm, back to cold and windy.  It was a good day to be out.

Got out on the mighty grand today. Special day today as it was my first float trip for steelhead. My buddy Jay was nice enough to invite me and Don out on his boat. We hit a mid section of the grand. Floating roughly 4 miles of river. What a great way to cover a lot of water. We all were fishing eggs and did pretty well for ourselves. It was a great experience and I look forward to the next trip. Here are some pics from the day.

Winter?

Fished in the 60* sunshine on Tuesday. What a great way to be out and enjoy the weather. Knew it would be crowded, so we hit up Leroy's Landing. Found some fish in the slower water. Eggs took all fish today. Pink BorXofire colored eggs were best in the murkeyish water. Remember to fish all types of holding water. Hit a fish in some fast shallow water, my favorite. Also don't be afraid to fish behind people. Someone left a popular spot, I walked up and hit 2 fish right away. The avg angler on the Rocky isn't too experienced, so take advantage. I'll be out tomorrow, should be a good day.

Internet forums and steelhead fishing

There is no doubt that internet forums provide a wealth of steelhead fishing information, and information in general.  When I was getting started I looked through the last several years of posts on the forums and you can find every answer to any question you could ever want to know.  However, there are some negative aspects of this I would like to discuss.  "spot burning" is 100% real.  That is when someone posts a picture of a specific location that is known.  On the internet there are hundreds of "trolls".  People that surf the forums looking for information but do no participate in conversations.  Post a picture of a popular spot, and the next day you will notice an increase in the amount of fishing traffic there.  I have seen this happen several times in my young steelhead career, and am much more guarded about things like that.  It's a different story to post them on my page, because you as a reader choose to come here and I appreciate that.  Plus many of the pictures I post people know about, and if you have never seen it, you probably won't know where it's at.  Anyways posting pictures with obvious backrounds can come back to hurt you, especially if you plan on fishing there the next day.  I am just now starting to see the other side of things regarding sharing specific spots.  There are certain spots that I will share with any of my steelhead friends, then there are a few "gems" still out there that I or a close friend may have stumbled upon and keep to ourselves.  It is great to help out fellow fisherman and watching a new guy/gal catch their first is a very rewarding experience.  At the end of the day though, there is nothing wrong with holding those select few spots close to yourself and your "circle".  Facebook has been the single most helpful tool when it comes to steelhead fishing.  I can see friends post pictures of water conditions, as well as reports and some funny stories that come along the way.  There is tons of information on the internet that can be very helpful to angler, but the best information of all is the kind that you learn on the water.  So you hear of a creek that may be great how do you know if it is? Go fish it, if it sucks then you know not to go back, never know it could be that last secret here on the Alley.

Got out with my buddy Don today. Fished one of our most productive tribs without even a sniff! It was weird to say the least, so we packed up and hopped around the alley. Ended up finding a decent number of fish to save the day. All fished picked up on BorXofire cured salmon, and steelhead eggs. Fish were in the tailOuts as well as the heads of some of the runs. Ran into one other fisherman all day, it was nice. Felt like we had the places all to ourselves. Seems that a lot of the fish have spawned and may be dropping back to the lake. We hit one fresher fish but most were colored up nicely. Overall it was a great day to be out in January!

Winter

It has been fairly cold here the last week. But with warmer temps this week things are looking good. Rocky has been producing this last week, and I even snuck out to a feeder and hit a fish before it locked up. Ice has been the burg issue on lines, guides and tackle. Ice off past applied the night before will help tremendously.

Check out this forum, it's a pretty cool place for us fisherman. Awesome name too.

http://www.bdfishermanspub.freeforums.org/

January

Fishing this January has been great so far. Good numbers of fish all throughout the system. I have fished from the V all the way east. Fish are all over, most in tails but on the warmer days they have been in the quicker runs too. All over the systems too. Most fish I have landed have been on Pautzke cured eggs. Their cures have UV in them, and this to me makes a difference. UV colors are easier to see in the murky water, making. Huge difference in catch rates.

Fire brine

Fishing has slowed down for me a little bit lately. Got out a few days ago and caught a couple. My go-to creeks are starting to see some pressure now, so in the next few weeks I will be out looking for some new creeks to hit before the main tribs come down.

Here is a great write up from Pautzke pro staffer Duane Inglin on how effective fire brine is for curing eggs here in the great lakes.

http://www.pautzke.com/fireblog_read.php?read=29