Archive for January, 2010

With the warmer temps and rain forecasted we should see dramatic melt off through and after the weekend. The last week has seen some open water but still a lot of ice and slush to contend with, not to mention icebergs flowing downstream and causing true hazards to anyone wading. Too often fish hide under remaining ice shelves and the better holes and drifts are still iced up. I will be on the streams next week and I think most all areas will open up.

Late winter and early spring open water Steelheading in Erie can be very easy and very productive if you find the fish. Even when the water is still cold they are super aggressive after a melt. Think about it, they haven’t seen much action in about a month. These fish are hungry. Just like ice fishing for them, they will often strike the first thing they see if it’s presented properly. As the water warms and fish go on the move we see even more aggression and if fish are in front of you they are often hitting whatever you are throwing properly. Once they settle and get out of a suicidal tendency you should be triggering them with jigs when possible and to some extent Flatfish lures. If you are a fly enthusiast a well stripped streamer won’t go untouched if you have the room and the right water for it.

Carrying a variety of options will keep you in fish until early April if you are confident in what you are fishing. Skein, egg sacs, and large egg and other fly patterns for brown water; jigs, single eggs, smaller egg flies and nymphs for good flowing green water, and the same offerings in smaller sizes for clear water. Put it this way, some of my highest number days have come from January to March. When I used emarald shiners years ago I once ran out of 4 dozen. I once ran out of skein in brown water and then went through an entire jar of Powerbait I had in my vest. I don’t think most of those jars get used in a lifetime. I’ve stood at holes in the spring and used 1 jig all day long until the material was gone and the hook was broke.

Because our Steelhead season is just about over by the 2nd week of Spring, post-thaw fishing is our “Spring season”. As long as we don’t go into another deep freeze I will be guiding and fishing myself as much as possible before April when the fish head back to the lake. And don’t let the low numbers from the fall fool you, there are plenty of fish in the streams, plenty of fish that will be dropping back to the lake from the southern most waters of our streams, and possibly a wave of fish in the lake that will be spring runners. It doesn’t happen every year but it’s more likely to happen in a year with a hard freeze. Those of us lucky to see it have seen the lower parts of streams crawling with fish invading the tribs like an infestation. It’s usually quick and they may leave as fast as they came in depending on the weather. Fish early and often and you may find by April that you have zero desire to go out for regular trout season and catch 7-10 inch stockies.

-JB

Ice fished a deep hole today with jigs and landed some real monsters. First fish was 30″ 10 lbs. 2nd fish was 28″ and 10 lbs -she was a fat female absolutely bloated with eggs. 3rd fish was 30″ and 11 lbs. Absolutely amazing. Still hard to believe I landed the first one on a 27″ ice rod. The others were landed on a 5′ Trout rod that had a little more backbone. May not be too many days left to do this with warm weather in forecast. Landed a few other average sized fish and called it a day around 1:00. Missed a few on single eggs about mid way down. Some real long fights and just a great day. There are not many winters that get harsh enough to really deep freeze the streams and allow this type of fishing. When it does take advantage of it! These fish are hungry and often go after the first thing put down a hole after drilling through with an auger. Fantastic day and check out the videos I took while landing the 11 lb fish. Didn’t realize it was such a monster or I probabaly wouldn’t have had the camera out and rolling. Felt bad but had to keep the larger ones as they were not in good shape after the fights and coming up through the hole in the ice. They will of course be put to good use. Many of the fish in the hole were observed on the Aqua Vu camera frozen to the ice and slush above them, so these fish may not have survived the winter or the coming thaw anyway. That same ice when blown out of the streams by a thaw crushes a lot of fish. Again not a fan of keeping large fish like this but they just weren’t in shape to be released. Lt. Commander Jeff Baker will be receiving some more smoked fish on the USS Firebolt in the Gulf! Here are the links for the videos I uploaded to Youtube:

The streams, the lakes, pretty much any water in Western PA at this time to some extent. The only stream Steelhead fishing I’ll be doing in the next week is some ice fishing on some of the deeper areas that hold fish over the winter. This is not something I suggest doing unless we get the kind of freeze we are currently getting. Even then going on top of a creek, even in the deeper holes, can be precarious and iffy at best. Even drilling test holes close to shore doesn’t guarentee the ice is safe in the middle of the hole, basin, or lake shore.

I’ll be starting my ice fishing season on a SW PA lake tomorrow and Sunday, and hitting PI Bay next week. Good luck if you are doing the same, and when we have open water Steelhead fishing I’ll update accordingly.