The famous nocturnal Hex hatch of the Midwest (and a few other lucky locations) stirs to the surface mythically large brown trout that only touch streamers for the rest of the year.
Wbranch on Oct 21, 2011October 21st, 2011, 6:59 am EDT
Had a great trip to the Erie creeks Monday through Wednesday. My buddy and I had the best fishing in three years with plenty of eager anjd aggressive fresh fish and low numbers of other anglers. I won't tell you how many we hooked in three days because I know it is pretty hard to believe. I'm having trouble getting my pictures to come on larger than postage stamp size so if anyone would like to see a few pictures PM me with your email address or friend me at Facebook and in a few days I'll have posted up some of the pictures.
DocWet on Mar 19, 2013March 19th, 2013, 8:53 am EDT
Most people that live here do not fish for steelhead and those that do usually release what they catch. I've had them (steelhead) actually swim up to me...usually its because they have a hook in their gullet. If you insist on fishing for them, use artificial flies or rubber salmon eggs (Burl's nuggets)...it make releasing them lots easier and they will usually survive. We (Co-ops) stock lots of brown trout these days in addition to steelhead smolts in Lake Erie tribs. The browns tend to travel in packs...where you see one, there are usually many others.
Fooling them is not easy...they tend to hit better under low light conditions. They attain large sizes here and 12-15 lb. browns are occasionally seen and caught. A Serbian immigrant caught a 20 lb. brown on July 4 at Walnut creek some years ago and it is displayed at Poor Richards Tackle.
Cheers, Docwet [Everything has limitations...and I hate limitations.]
My favorite trout stream picture; below, shows what a first class trout river looks like. The lack of stream gradient means that this river is not subject to the roaring scouring floods so common here in PA. that wipe out everything in the river.
Wbranch on Mar 19, 2013March 19th, 2013, 2:02 pm EDT
"after you've caught thousands, the allure wears off."
Maybe that is how you feel but not me. I've caught many thousands of trout in the last fifty-two years and the allure and excitement is as fresh today as it was when I caught my first trout on a fly when I was seventeen years old. I've only caught a few hundred steelhead so I have a long way to go before I tire of them.