Most of them will tell you how bad Steelhead taste, while wolfing down their 2000 calorie salmonella big mac special.

There shouldn't be any salmonella in those big mac patties.  The beef from most fast food joints is pushed through tubes filled with ammonia gas to kill the salmonella, before injecting a chemical beef flavoring back into the meat. 

It's really sad what our food supply has turned into (especially meat).  All just so that corporations can produce a cheaper product and make larger profits.  I try to buy most of my chicken, beef, and pork from a couple local farms in the area and hunt/fish for the remainder.

I like a thin strip of smoked steelhead between a slice of tomato and fresh mozzarella and Baltic Vinegar it is the perfect combination

I fished the mouth of walnut from about 5am to 10 picked up a few small ones and one around 24 hit jigs tippet with a salted minnie. They have been coming in early and leave right once the sun peaks out. There are a few that have made it up you just have the ability to FIND the fish. They are really late this year I just can't wait hammer them and see of the guys on the creek its been a long year!

can you bleed the steel and then drag it around on the rope. i usually just rope em and drag them.

I'm not sure, I don't even bleed mine.  I only keep fish on my way out and fillet them as soon as possible.  They are usually still alive when I return to my vehicle and the first thing I do is get them processed and on ice.

The green roof inn has a great self serve stainless steel cleaning station complete with sprayer, plastic bags, and waste disposal only minutes from Elk creek.  It's mainly for patrons, but I have asked about using it during day trips and they have never turned me down.

ORIGINAL: genieman77

ORIGINAL: spoonchucker

"I just wish there were some numbers on how many were stocked
and how many were kept?"

There are. Stocking has been fairly consistent at around 1.2 million. As has harvest rates, at around 22%.

it went all to he11 when they started stocking less in MY favorite creeks and put more on the East side .
There i said it...it's you EAST SIDE GUY'S FAULT


on a serious note, some of you younger duuds and those that haven't been chasing steel for 20 years wouldn't believe the bonanza we had in the late 90's and early '00s
They were stocking over 2 million smolts .
I think Elk alone got more than ALL of Ohio's tribs at the time

Tell someone you landed 20-30 fish in a day and no one batted an eye .
When they were "turned on" to your junk, you could literally stand in one spot for hours and catch fish after fish after fish on every drift

"fishin' in a bucket" you say?
Who gives a chit .... it was FUN

..L.T.A.

You're not serious are you, Genie? The last two years have been terrible on the east side. Sure, there are fish, but some creeks had very few. I went to 7 mile several times, walked my usual spots, might have seen a dozen fish, most times, zero. This is a creek that just 8 years ago had hundreds, just from the aquarium hole down. I haven't seen a fish above it in 5 years. If they really are stocking more fish on the east side, that may account for the great walleye fishing, but not for more steelhead on the east side. Ask Skip or WW what it used to be like, and how it is now. Oh, yeh, wait for the ladders on 4 mile. What a joke.


fmp

I read an article in "Outdoor Magazine" recently that blamed the lack of return to the East side streams on the fact that the smolts have to be stocked so close to the lake that they do not get a proper "imprint" from the mile streams, and end up running up larger water, like the Cattaraugus. The article called them vagrants. The PFBC is supposedly going to take some steps to stock further up on some of the East side streams. A lot of the info in the article came from studying Conneaut. Some of the smolts in Conneaut are stocked > 3o miles from the lake. Makes sense to me.

ORIGINAL: FiveMilePete


You're not serious are you, Genie?

I'm just goofin', Pete

I have no experience with the East Side tribs .
Just 20 years of observation of Elk, a couple lesser west side tribs and of coarse my beloved creeks  on my side of the border

Some years ago they did divert some numbers away from Elk and Da Nut and gave you East Side guys more.
There wasn't "as many" fish in Elk after that, but  there were still TONS   of fish in Elk.

Numbers have been down the last few years EVERYWHERE ..including Ohio.
While average size has  increased (Ohio too) ...less steel in the lake = less competition  for food for those that are there  = bigger fish
That suggests to me it's a "smolt mortality"  thing, not a stocking numbers thing

I'm not a fish  bio guy and don't play one on TV, but the decline in overall numbers seemed to coincide with the boom in the walleye numbers .
Just stands to reason to my simple brain, that there are more  'eyes  enjoying the "all you can eat"  buffet of smolts

.I don't think the sky is falling . I don't buy the Henny Penny's story that the lake system is about to collapse .
I don't think the smolts/steelies  are defecting  to Canada either.

I think it's just the ebb and flow of a large  eco system ...more predators in the system (walleye) =  more smolts getting munched


..L.T.A.

wow

ORIGINAL: genieman77

ORIGINAL: troutguy




Interesting, do you know if OH and PA stocks Conneaut in the same location?

I'm not sure, but i doubt it.
The ODNR knows you Pa'yinz follow the stock trucks around .
We don't want the pHicksburgers to seine our Manistee strain smolts out to make fish patte' that their dirty fingers will  smear all over their stale  crackers while watching the Hicksburgh sQueelers on Sundee 



..l.T.A.

Actually I live in Ohio.

ORIGINAL: troutguy



Actually I live in Ohio.

cool.. cause we're more accepted by the locals than the pHicksburgers .





















 it's all  just fun and games, folks .
Gotta laugh a little between threads like;

 "need more rain"
"Need more fish"
"need reduced creel limits"
"Need C&R sections"
"unethical anglers"
"littler"
" those dam pinners again "
"Guys with flyrods are foul hooking  snObs "
"Guys with spinning reels are hen belly slicing trailer trash"

"Taste great/ less filling"





but honestly, years ago on upper Elk I met a local.
Nothing unusual about that, 'cept  we just happened to be in the same area at the same time several times that year.
An older gentlemen and pleasant fellow, he said to me while we shared  a run  one day,

"You Ohio guys are alright, it's those guys from Pittsburgh  we could do without".......fo-reel




..L.T.A.

I was down at the nut tonight.  There were fish as far as the manchester hole, with maybe about 15 fish. My friend lost one, last yr was my first year fishing for steelhead so im not that great at fishing for them yet.  Even though ive lived on rt. 5 literally right in between walnut and trout run my whole life ive never fished for em.  I did catch 2 nice fish last year and boy is it a blast, i didnt know what i was missing!  There were quite a few fish in the creek at this time last yr.

" those dam pinners again "

I bet if they imposed a law to limit pinners to only catching 20 fish per day, the steelbow fishing would improve two fold!!

ORIGINAL: rippinlip

I'd settle for 20 feet of drift

OK, as long as my 20' of fishing space is 10' down stream of me

We just completed one of those exploratory trips to Walnut Creek from Lancaster Pa. We fished Walnut Wall Friday Sept 16 starting at about 4:30 am. There were fish there and they were hitting Little Cleo's ( Blue/Silver and Green/Silver worked best) off and on through out the day. We landed 3, the largest @ 29 1/2" 9.5 lbs, and we had 6 good hookups that weren't landed (seems we did better after we sharpened our hooks even tho they were new?) Saturday the lake was much more calm and there were less fish caught, the boat traffic was heavy and we are thinking that sent the fish out, fish were being caught from the beach immediately east of Walnut Inlet. My next trip will NOT include a Saturday, to many boats. There were fish up stream at Manchester Hole and the hole just above the bridge, but they were surrounded, sunrise to sunset. The people @ Poor Richards Bait shop were a big help to us ERIE ROOKIES and the people fishing at the Wall were Cool too.

WHAT!!!!!

ORIGINAL: ShutUpNFish

What the heck are those idiots in boats thinking???? Don't they know that the motherload is due in anyday now!?!?!? We steelheaders pay good money for our licenses and travel miles and miles and invest tons of money to fish off that wall. And we have to deal with boats getting in our way while we are fishing. I'll be damed if I'm going to reel my cleo or powerbait in while those jerks are going in and out of there! I think they do it on purpose so they can actually go out into the lake and try to catch those steelhead, which is another problem....I think they should outlaw the lakefishing for steelhead!! Why can't they just move that marina or create a seperate channel for the boats??? This is absolutely rediculous!!