rain rain rain

Well, like I said above, you won't really know where you'll be better off till you see how much rain there is.  And the smaller cricks I mentioned ain't all confined to the east side.  Check the maps and read the stream descriptions.  Steelhead can also be caught off of many public access points in the bay when cricks are blown and waves are pounding the lake front. 
 
Yes, upper reaches of Elk and Walnut clear first, generally. 

Hoping to head up next weekend myself, if all the heavy rain they're calling for happens by, say Wednesday, it may be an incredible weekend.
 
But, if you are looking for tribs that will clear quick, you may be better off fishing the east side tribs, as they seem to clear pretty quickly. I've legitimately been at 16 mile in the early morning, and had it blown out, and with no rain the rest of the day, went and fished somewhere else, and came back in the evening, and the stream was clear enough to see fish. On the other hand, the larger tribs will take more rain to get up, and be slower to come down.
 
These are the guildelines I've used for the tribs, for estimating the time before they will be clear after a blowout, assuming no additional rainfall. This is for a typical average rainstorm that would cause an average blowout, not for days of torrential downpour, or flooding:
 
Smaller tribs (most east side tribs excluding 20 mile)= 6-24 hours
 
Medium tribs (20 mile, Walnut)= 24-48 hours
 
Elk (largest trib)= around 3 days.
 
Again THESE ARE CETERIS PARIBUS ESTIMATES, and they can and will vary, depending on multiple factors (amount of rain, winds, materials and makeup of nearby land, leaves and other materials clogging mouth, etc.), and of course I'm gonna get some moron on here later telling me "oh you're so wrong, this one time it poured and (stream name) was blown out, and it was clear again in a different amount of time than you said." This is from my own experience, and perspective, I'm not a steelhead expert, but I've fished in Erie enough to know what I'm doing, and as an out of towner who only makes 5-10 trips up each year, I've learned to take what conditions I'm given when I can get up there, and each I enjoy the trip (about 2.5-3 hours one way). I've had low and clear flows where I've caught fish, low and clear flows where the fish avoided my fly like the plague, high and muddy flows where I've caught fish, and high and muddy flows in no end in sight downpours, where I came up, fished for an hour or two, had no luck, got back in my car and canceled my hotel room, and went home the same day.
 
 
 
 

fishingood
This is for a typical average rainstorm that would cause an average blowout, not for days of torrential downpour, or flooding:
 
Smaller tribs (most east side tribs excluding 20 mile)= 6-24 hours
 
Medium tribs (20 mile, Walnut)= 24-48 hours
 
Elk (largest trib)= around 3 days.
 
I would say your close but cut them in half  for average rain fall that gets a solid flow.
smaller tribs clear in 6-12 hours
walnut-20 mile clear in 8-24 hours
Elk clears in 18-24 hours sometimes sooner.
conneaut clears in 24-36 hours sometimes longer.
Again this is average like we just got the last few days.
 
You dont need to see the fish to catch em. learn the runs/holes and fish tendencies. In high muddy water fish where you normally walk....you would be surpised
 
 

Loopy,you got it bass ackwards.

Bigfoot does not determine water levels, Chuck Norris does.  

Thanks Dano

The big leaf flush is scheduled to occur this coming weekend on all the tribs. I been told the tankers have been lined up for weeks to supply the water. Water has been low and clear because of the pumps are working overtime to fill them.

Stand by the epic run is just around the corner!!!!!!!!

Have any of you actually fished the east side?  Try tomorrow morning.  Yes, please wait till Wednesday or Thursday!!!

Yinz both beat me to it....jus sayin..

Riverbum

joebaker79
Have any of you actually fished the east side?  Try tomorrow morning.  Yes, please wait till Wednesday or Thursday!!!

some people just dont get it...

Yeah I don't understand the fishing report posted from the guy who drove up Sunday and said; "Made the long drive for nothing. Weatherman got it wrong again."   I wanted to make the trip yesterday, but it was clearly evident by the Walnut water gauge on this site that Sunday would be totally blown out all day.
 
To simplify it for anyone who hasn't figure it out yet:  100cfs and rising on the Walnut gauge is pretty much blown out,  100cfs and dropping should make for some good water somewhere.  Of course it's not always that simple and the east side might be fishable when Walnut is over 100cfs, but stick to that rule if you have a couple hour drive or longer and you won't waste a trip on blown out streams. 
 
In the case of Sunday (Oct. 20th) just looking at the Walnut gauge below you can easily see that the streams would be totally blown out all day, that the ones with faster run off would fish well today, and Elk will probably be better this evening or tomorrow morning.