Steelhead - Elk Creek, Erie County, 11/5-6/14

[wbranch]

Drove up to the Green Roof Inn Tuesday afternoon so we would get a good nights rest. It only rained .24" over night but the next morning Elk was blown out brown. We drove over to Twenty Mile and it was very discolored and totally full of leaves. Pretty much unfishable. My buddy caught one bright fish and I got blanked.

Around noon we drove over to Sixteen Mile and it had less leaves, better clarity, but no fish I could see and the wind at the mouth was blowing at least 30 mph. I called Folly's End and they said the creek was a little off color but fishable.

We fished around Folly's from 1:00 to 5:00 and on Thursday we fished Legion and the area around the Rte 20 bridge. The river had fish but not in the numbers we had expected.

 

[trike23]

Been up myself three times now. Two of the three we had rain events during the trip or the night before. Your report is dead on. Guys say runs are good im not sure?. The walleye population in the lake in 2005 was estimated at 90 million fish. This spring the population was estimated at 30 million. Cant solely blame walleye's. Personally I believe the state is not stocking numbers of smolts they claim they are. You add that with walleye and lamprey predation plus the smaller smolt's they stock and a three fish limit,and there is your bad returns. Otherwise mortality rates in the lake or near 95%. Because they are not getting 10% of the million fish stocked each year back . Or the fish are all entering a trib they were not smolted to? Its not complaining its just presenting facts. Guys that travel a long way its almost not worth it at times unless you are ok with one or two fish a day. Which is awesome if you are and $$$ is not a issue.

 

[moon1284]

Travelling a long way doesn't mean you are entitled to catch lots of fish...

 

[Rollingdog]

no offense

But your perceived "lack of fish" is probably more based on inexperience than fact

 

[RLeeP]

If returning fish numbers are indeed down (and I don't have any information, let alone a viewpoint on this) I don't think I'd assume there is a single or even multiple reason for this that we can point to and say: "there, this is why..", at least not with any confidence.

It's not a two mile section of 20' wide trout stream or a 75 acre WW lake or even a 15,000 acre reservoir, it's a Great Lake. As such, a lot of the fisheries management questions and standard speculations are like shining a very dim flashlight in a very dark room.

Many years ago, I interviewed the Commission's Lake Erie Unit leader for a newspaper piece about the (apparently) diminishing numbers of perch in Lake Erie. He had a few theories, but he basically told me: "Hey, its a big lake, so who really knows"?

I would imagine the same holds true for the present day's comings and goings of the Chamber of Commerce's favorite fish as well...

 

[Chaz]

I recently read the lakes are up from very low levels for many recent years about 2 feet, That's good, but it may also mean fish have more space to not be found in the lakes.

 

[jim_k]

Gotta love out of all the excuses for why one doesn't catch fish, the one so many anglers favor is "they ain't stocking enough".

I would like to try the smaller Erie streams someday. But the Salmon R is so good to me...