Lake Erie Steelhead, Fishing Report Oct 1

Steelhead clearly have taken over the top spot in fishing interest along the Lake Erie coast. Fishing will not get a lot better until stream flows improve. In the meantime, there is plenty of great steelhead fishing at the tributary mouths.

There are steelhead off all of the tributaries. Fishing has become good enough that steelhead can be caught all through the day as pods of steelhead pass close to shore.

Probably more steelhead are off the mouths of Elk Creek, Walnut Creek and Twenty Mile Creek; however, some steelhead are managing to get into all of these larger creeks. According to reports, a few steelhead have gotten upstream at least as far as Girard in Elk Creek. They are into the Manchester Pool on Walnut Creek.

At Twenty Mile Creek, steelhead are in fair numbers up to Route 5, and some have gotten above posted land. Elsewhere on the east side of Erie, Kirk Rudzinski, owner of East End Angler, surveyed the creeks Thursday and saw a small number at Four Mile Creek, maybe 20 at Seven Mile Creek and only a couple at Twelve Mile Creek, where at times there is not enough water for fish to get past the gravel at the mouth. Sixteen Mile Creek holds more steelhead than any other 'mile creeks' except Twenty Mile Creek.

At Walnut Creek, several anglers watched a fish survey in the channel and reported seeing very large brown trout and steelhead. The largest steelhead reported so far are a 13-pound fish on the west side, and on the east side, 13-pound and 15-pound steelhead. According to some reports, bait anglers have had their best results at Twenty Mile Creek using small shiners fished about 18 inches under bobbers in the creek, while in the lake egg skein and egg sacks, in that order, have been best. In smaller creeks, wax worms and nightcrawlers appear to be more effective bait.

Several brown trout have been caught from creeks on the west side. Most are 5 pounds to 7 pounds. Brown trout to 7 pounds have also been caught on the east side.

A few pink salmon have been reported on the west side. Watch for unusual-looking fish that probably will be 5 pounds or smaller. Tails are more forked than steelhead. If you catch them from the lake, or low enough in the creek that they have not started to be covered with fungus, they are the best eating of the salmon.

Fishing in Presque Isle Bay is good. Steelhead have moved into the bay in good numbers, giving the bay more variety. Anglers have been catching crappie all over. The Lagoons and Misery Bay have been giving up pike and largemouth bass. At the North Pier and the South Pier, anglers have caught a few steelhead, reportedly a few walleye, white bass, rock bass and perch.

Excuse me, but where is this information coming from?

Pink salmon are certainly NOT the best eating salmon last time I checked. That is certainly the case on the west coast.....just look at price per pound and that will tell you.

They also deteriorate faster than any other salmon I know of.

My information is based on 5 years of commercial fishing salmon on the west coast............it taught me never to buy another can of pink salmon.

if you do purchase these, ponder this one. why are there sometimes bone chunks in the can ?

Longshank, could you elaborate on that statement a little for me. I eat a lot of fish, not tons of salmon, but certainly my share. Give it to me straight, how bad is it.

All I can tell you is from first ahnd experience with Pinks on thr west coast..........and this is decades ago.

They were the most abundant and roamed in vast schools and when caught either by gill netting or what I did 'salmon trolling". They had to be cleaned in a vey short peioed of time as their stomch conained enzymes etc. which would quickly deterioate the flesh of th fish.

Even when packed on ice and brought in to a "packer ship" on th same day, the ones caught early in the mroning were already."mushy", that;s whay we often undloaded with the aid of a shovel You could try and pick one up and it would just squish into pieces. and thee were fresh ocean fish . not river run

When they reached the canning plants......it was the first time I ever saw neither dogs nor birds..gulls eat salmon.

For that reason, you find bone parts in the canned salmon...

At least that is the way it way back then, I do not have first hand knowledge of how it is now......but I have not eaten a pink salmon.canned for ober 30 years.

Sockeye and coho, yes

Hopefully, it's different these days.........do you know if that is the case?

Again, thye are obviously safe to eat, but the statement of them being the best salmon is questionable at best.

And I am not slamming the industry either, just telling you from 1st hand.