Elk Creek, Erie County, Nov 24th

[sholgate]

Fished Elk Creek for the second time ever yesterday. We arrived at 830AM and fished to about 1130AM. The air temperature was about 34 when we started and close to 40 when we left. The wind made it pretty difficult to cast with a fly rod (IMHO) and the lake surf was a but too difficult for me to work the lake.

We concentrated on the area near the mouth and worked back up to the main parking area. We saw about 2 dozen other fishermen on the stream. I hooked up with 3 and land 2. 1 male and 1 female.

Good times, but not sure if it is worth the 5 1/2 hour drive from Reading, PA.

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

Not when BWO's are coming off the Upper Tully, which they are 🙂

Glad you had a good time!

 

[troutslammer]

they are coming off oil creek too !!!

 

[albatross]

Fine looking steelhead!

 

[jdaddy]

Nice one Steve! Has the wife gotten into one yet?

 

[sholgate]

Still no. ;( I need to convince her to stick with fly fishing. Not many were successful around us that day except those fly fishing. Even as large beasts, they seem somewhat selective. (In my limited experience).

 

[ryguyfi]

It's just a bad run this year. I decided after the steelhead JAM that it isn't even worth my 2 hour drive up there. Hopefully next year will be better. Stick with it. When it's good, there's not many things out there that it compares to!

 

[troutslammer]

lake temps are low enough and with the blast of rain i would say the creeks are loaded right now ! as a matter of fact i might even bet on it ...lol ;-)

 

[jkilroy]

Nice fish Steve, salmon river is only 4 hrs. I was up beginning of the week and caught 9 in 3 days and lost a few more.

 

[jdaddy]

Nice fish Steve, salmon river is only 4 hrs. I was up beginning of the week and caught 9 in 3 days and lost a few more.

Still concentrated in the upper section of the river?

 

[jkilroy]

I'm not sure.

 

[Maurice]

Piggyback on the report.

Sunday Monday Nov 28, 29. Water coming down to clear on Monday. Middle Elk. Mostly taken on estaz. Here are a couple bigguns.

My bro in law found a steelhead rig at a parking area. let me know if you lost one.

 

[JackM]

Sweet! Where have all the fish gone?

 

[sholgate]

Maurice, outstanding fish!

Where are the fish? Every fish (5) I hooked were all near the mouth on Elk. We visited some of the other tribs in-between Elk and 20 Mile. Most, at that time, were pretty low. Like the 20 was so low, we could see to the bottom easily. I did not see any fish. Earlier that morning some fishermen did catch a few, but no one there with success while we were there.

Walnut had many fish, but the pressure was just nuts. We sort of stayed clear of there.

In the channels of the Elk we could see some fish still holding. I am still learning about the whole thing up there. Much of our 2 trips were orientation stuff. Attached is a picture of my wife fishing. The interesting thing is how uncrowded the mouth was.

I am a talker, I will be the first to confess. If locals are willing to give info, I am willing to take it. A couple guys told me that the numbers are just not there. We have no other experience to gauge by. The only thing I know for sure is that before visiting Erie area, the largest trout I ever landed was 24" and now I have 2 more over that size. I have to admit it is pretty cool.

 

[Acristickid]

For me, it took me several trips to get a decent feel for how to identify steelhead in their holds and to get the right drifts for strikes. Then I would add a few more trips on playing and landing steelhead. Would even say a few more trips to find relative uncrowded areas.

Probabaly like any kind of "new" or "foreign" fishing it's gonna take an acclimation period- or Rome was'nt built in a day.

 

[albatross]

Sholgate,

You nailed the addictive part of this -- few things compare to regularly catching energetic rainbows that average 4-6 pounds!

Those of us who are carping (no offense to the carp fishermen) about the lack of fish are really just spoiled. With a little work, you can still go up there and catch one or two of what would be the fish of a lifetime anywhere else.

Maurice,

Some fine looking fish...

 

[PaulG]

Maurice

Great looking fish! Is that Fred under that hood, in the second pic, what was the size of that fish?

PaulG

 

[Maurice]

While we didn't measure it, I'd put it at somewhere between 31 and 33 inches. (Based on the reference from his hand, measuring from the photo) That'd put it up over 10 lbs.

Yes that Fritz under the hood.

 

[albatross]

Maybe 12 pounds Mo...

Girth dimension plays a large role in more accurately calculating weights of released fish, the "Length Minus 20 Rule" is the simplest method of determining a steelhead's weight. To get the approximate weight of a 29-inch steelhead subtract 20 inches and you come up with 9 pounds. Simple; and this works for average-girthed steelhead, plus or minus 10%, in the 25 to 35-inch range.


http://flyanglersonline.com/begin/fishweight.php

 

[fritz]

Elk Creek should be good over the weekend. It was very high and off color Tuesday and Wednesday.