Steelhead, Fishing for the Great Lakes greatest Gamefish

[Burtess]

I would not call them "the fish of 1000 casts" either as if they are in a system and your presentation is correct you should meet with success.

When I began fishing steelhead as a teenager, float fishing was not a very common method. I started with bottom bouncing with spinning gear and a noodle rod. This is when I learned to read the water and identify where fish would hold in different water conditions. Once you have a grasp of identifying holding water, float fishing with a center pin set-up can be deadly. I have seen my catch rate double since using this method.

So while they may not be the most difficult fish to catch, you have to learn how to read the water and how to effectively present the bait to the fish in a most natural manner to ensure consistent success.

Burt

 

[Burtess]

ur talking about small stocked trout they stock in the inland streams and stuff they dont stock large steelhead they all come out of lake erie in the sping and fall runs.

Almost all of the steelhead running the south shore of Lake Erie are stocked fish as those streams flowing in do not have the required spawning habitat needed. It is almost entirely a put and take fishery.

Burt

 

[focker]

that is completly incorrect. u can go to the pa fish and boat commission website and they post all stocked fish and stocked waters and i can guarentee u that lake erie is not stocked with steelhead at least from the pa part of lake erie and every year like clockwork they come up into the streams to spawn..

 

[Burtess]

that is completly incorrect. u can go to the pa fish and boat commission website and they post all stocked fish and stocked waters and i can guarentee u that lake erie is not stocked with steelhead at least from the pa part of lake erie and every year like clockwork they come up into the streams to spawn..

This is all from your PA Fish and Boat Commision website ( http://www.fish.state.pa.us/images/fisheries/research/erietribs2004/000index.htm )

"The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission (PFBC) has been managing for a potamodromous (freshwater fish migration between lake and stream) fishery on Lake Erie for over 40 years. Species stocked by the PFBC and local sportsman’s cooperative nurseries to create and maintain a seasonal (fall-winter-spring) tributary fishery on Pennsylvania’s Lake Erie streams have included; Chinook salmon; Coho salmon; rainbow/steelhead trout; brown trout and brook trout."

"Since the inception of the program, the steelhead fishery has been successful beyond the expectations of many. The original PFBC steelhead management plan for Lake Erie hoped for an annual harvest of 20,000 steelhead, based on annual stocking efforts of 500,000 steelhead smolts (PFBC, 1986). Estimates from the 1993 Lake Erie Angler Survey estimated a total catch of 68,000 steelhead and a harvest of 34,000 steelhead. Based on a stocking rate of 1 million smolts during that survey, the program was meeting the expectations of the PFBC, but had room for growth. "

Mostly put and take....

Burt

 

[focker]

i stand corrected. there is a part on there were they list yearly stockings and the only stockings ive ever known of is the small stockies as they call them. ive never heard of stocking steelhead but i do believe now. even though they stock those 8 inchers so there is a couple year turnover rate for them to reach that large size so that means there roaming around the lake for a couple years before they are caught so i really dont call that a put and take situation. i call it that when they dump 5000 small stockies in a small creek one week and they say go catch em.. but good info and like i said i stand corrected. ty

 

[ae2359]

There are quite a few streams in PA that are not stocked that do still get a run but these are all stray fish, like said above PA gets almost no natural reproduction so when a river is refferred to a put and take fisherie it means that the only fish taken from the river were put there.