Enjoy reading the comments and other pics - glad to see some other posts and success stories from 'back then'. (I wish I can find the pics of Trout Run from the mid 70's when cars would park on the beach...talk about a circus! I think you can see a car or two on Captain Hook's post, but honestly there'd be 15-25 cars parked right along the beach! What an absolute zoo!!)
What I enjoyed though back then were the streams and the way they ran. I personally enjoyed fishing the pocket water at Walnut before the lower stretches were changed to what it is now. Not saying it was better - but just liked the challenge of how those small pockets changed from year to year, without the 'holding water' or man made pools that are there now. I haven't fished Walnut since '96, but still stop by to watch the "show" now and then......
Also, Elk Creek in the 70's and 80's was so much more different. Yes, streams change from year to year, which is part of the challenge. But those pics of the falls were just a small portion of some of the best water I'd ever seen. Pool, riffle, pool, fast water, tailouts, pools again - honestly that stretch of water where the old 'hatchery' was by North Creek road was phenomenal. It's still nice now, but nothing like it was back then. You literally had a dozen BIG and long areas that stretched quite a distance from which to pick and choose, from where that small feeder creek empties to the tubes, each area having its own distinct personality as to how the water flowed making it challenging yet so exciting. When the falls washed out in early 90's, that area has become more of a fast flowing run with still some nice spots, but nothing like it was then. Then after the Hurricane aftermaths in 2003 the area from Whiteman's Bridge to Route 5 changed dramatically all the more. Still nice water, but it just seemed so much more 'fishable' and appealing as there were a LOT more areas of what I considered 'fishable' water back then.
Enjoy everyone's posts - gotta laugh, guess I'm still considered a "NEW ANGLER" based on my posts, but still enjoy fishing the Erie area all these years later. (And I'm still waiting for any other remembrances of when the railroad tubes collapsed in '85(?) - Elk was more of a lake when that happened, and to see that water rush through when it was released truly gave new meaning to the term "blown out!")
P.S. - I forgot to add one other thing......(sort of like going back to school 40 years later, where the classrooms and halls seemed so much bigger back then.) But using that analogy, does anyone who fished back then seem to think that Elk has changed from the standpoint of the pools and deeper runs? Honestly the pools were larger and deeper back then - there's still some areas like that now, but in the 70's and 80's I felt there were a lot more areas of really, really (relatively) deep pools that ran 6 to 8 feet deep, I'd say. Just an observation, and not saying it's had an effect on my fishing success, but it just seems there's not as many deeper areas on Elk like that years ago.....???
post edited by albionsteelhead - 2014/11/15 10:21:31