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Covered about 3 miles each way of a large trib.  When the water started to clear fish were everywhere and striking everything.  I blind fished runs with Flatfish lures to get fish I couldnt see, and targeted the ones  I could.  Same thing all day, swing the lure through the entire drift, against the bank, through the fast water and into the slow water.  I did this all day with great success.  Landed fish up to 9 lbs and put over 20 fish on the bank with many more lost, broken off, and just plain missed.  I still don’t understand why people drift fish all day and miss out on watching fish chase and strike lures with violent intentions.  Done if for 11 years and I’ll do it until the last day I fish the Erie tribs.  Fish are everywhere right now and can be caught multiple ways, but getting these fish on their own aggression bests all techniques.  That’s not an opinion, that’s a fact.  You might get good numbers of fish drifting a fly or bait under a float, but would you rather see a float go under or a mouth open up on a lure from a fish that just shot 30 feet ahead of his pack to get it?  With this kind of run this is what I’ll be doing through Christmas, with jigging being a second option in slower pools.  Float fishing is always my last option.  I want to catch fish in any way I have to, but we all know the rules of an angler.  We start out wanting to catch a fish using any method possible.  Then we want to catch a lot of fish.  After that we want to catch the biggest fish.  Finally, we want to catch fish how we want to catch them.  It’s a good day when you know you can change it up in a certain situation and catch a few more fish but you stick with what you got on because that’s how you want to catch the fish….and if they don’t want it that way, see ya later….go upstream or downstream to find fish who want to play your way.

Monday and Tuesday were incredible days on the creeks.  Perfect water, fish running all over.  The kind of stuff I can’t wait to show my 2 very soon to be born sons.  Good luck to everyone out there and have fun.  Here’s some pics, and yep, they’re fish on a rope.  Stocked up the freezer for holiday meals.  Now which one first?  Blackened cajun, teriyaki kabobs, panko breaded????

Fished with Jay and Marc for 2 days and we covered water from the mouths to Route 20 on multiple small and large tribs.  The water was low and clear but fish remained aggressive enough to provide a great day on Friday and a slower day on Saturday.  There are plenty of fish still holding at the mouths so the next big rain will bring in even more fish.  The middle and upper sections will fill up even more.  Good packs of fish were found in most good holding water.  I landed a personal season best 12 lb fish measuring 33″ on the tape.  Big buck that took a Flash Candy egg pattern in a quick run.  Amazing part was he was with a female fish just as large if not bigger.

Flatfish, jigs, and floating single eggs and trout magnets worked well.  While the weather is nice I’d love to see it get back to 50′s and rain for the next push of fish and for the ones already in to keep moving.  I can tell you first hand one large trib already has more fish in it now than I saw all of last year.  This could be a much more normal year for Steelhead fishing in Erie, hopefully comparable to the 2007-2008 runs.  Long way to go before winter hits and we have a good barometer to judge by.  I’ll be changing it up and trolling the bay and a creek mouth next week if the wind and weather cooperate.  Otherwise who knows what streams I’ll be stalking fish on.  Make those first strikes count this week as you might find it tough to get many more when you get on a pack of fish.  It’s easy to hook those first 2-3 fish but then they will start to spook easy and downsizing your offerings and being extremely stealthy will help get more fish.  Rain is in the forecast later this week and we will need it.  Good luck and have fun out there.  -JB

Creeks were brown, all of them, and didn’t clear much later in the day.  The lake has been rough so no good reports from the mouths.  Good numbers of fish came in Sunday and were on the move low and high on larger streams.  When the water clears today you will be able to find fish in some capacity about anywhere you want on larger streams, but good numbers will be in the middle sections for sure.  As for the smaller streams some have more than others and I know of one getting good numbers of Browns as of Sunday.  I’ll be on the streams later this week for 3 days and will have a full report East to West as far as numbers.  Water will most likely be low and clear by tomorrow with not much rain in the forecast.  If the lake calms down we should see more fish staging at the mouths and with 70 degree temps coming back the mouths will fish best early and late.