Steelhead population on the decline

Fished Erie tributaries since 1995 and this is by far the WORST 4 seasons for pods of steel.  Have heard many theory's on the cause such as walleye kill rate, many people keeping them, algae blooms, lake to clear from zebra mussels, stocking program, bait ratio, ect...  But the fact of the matter is that I only got 1 jack this season and the 3 year old fish were only 24/26 inches in all the Erie tributaries from the Conneaut to the Cattaraugus, Trout run had 15 or so fish in it and Elk was just as bad as of Feb 28,2016  This is unacceptable and should be looked into by fish and game. Reports of 50 fish days are over, why, when pods of 30 fish were in every hole from access to McKean, what changed in the last 10 years to hurt the steelhead population so bad???  I made at least 20 trips to Erie per season just for Steelhead and another 5 trips or so for the Smallmouth bass, now maybe 6 or 7 if the fishing is good, I am certain that most avid Erie anglers are doing the same.
 
Erie has to realize the money is not pouring in like it use to from the huge population decline of fishermen that use to go, with poor fishing reports from the guys who practically live there from Sept to May, people are making fewer trips! 
 
I saw a truck at Trout run with sonic equipment last season measuring how many Smoltz left trout run and the time it took to do so from the hatchery.  Where is that information?  Must be bad or it would have been shared.   
 
It just sucks to see what is happening to the fishery and not being able to do anything about it.  SAD
 
FISH ON,
Brian
 
 

This past season was the first year I fished the Tribs and I have to say I was extremely disappointed as well, some days I wouldn't even see a single fish! Hopefully it's different this year but they're calling for an even dryer and warmer fall than last year. Oh well, at least they're hammering every spoon I stick on a downrigger in the summer!

I used to think the "not as many fish as there used to be" theory was just a cop out for those who couldn't catch them, but, as optimistic and positive of a guy as I try to be, I have to agree the past few years have been rough, seems when you go, there are either fish, or there arent. Not really sure if it's an issue of less fish overall, or just less fish in the streams. 

Also notice that there aren't many smaller holding areas left on the streams. I remember as late as 2009-2011, there were the usual popular, deeper holes where many fish congregated, as well as several smaller holes on each stream that would hold maybe 5-10 fish that you could fish on the way to the bigger holes, or if you were waiting for some room. Many of those areas now seem to have been filled in.

Really need to have those in the know do some sort of study into whats going on.

Could the decline in number of fish have something to do with conditions in the lake during the summer (forage populations, water temperature, water quality, predation by walleye, etc), or perhaps stream conditions are simply unfavorable for some reason now.

Lamprey

I will say the guys that did the best this season were at the mouth of trout run in the fall, they were lined up from the creek to the break wall and a lot of the guys were standing in the creek fishing the lake. 
 
I did not see any lamprey marks on Steelhead this season, in fact I have only caught one maybe two fish in the last 5 years with a lamprey mark.  I will agree that the water table in the streams have been low in the fall but 7 years ago with low water in the fall steelhead and fishermen were lined up at the Elk access buy the hundreds. Anyone remember that?
 
New York is going to start stocking larger Smoltz in there tributaries I believe this will help the survival rate and with the work on Scoby dam ladder that should help as well.  Why isn't PA looking at the geography of PA tributaries so deeper holes can be made to hold fish as mention in a prior post. Look what they did to Walnut stop sign hole with the jack dam and the past few winters have been hard on that, are they going to repair it?  I realize Erie has the worst winters and the ice flows fill in holes we love and give us barren waters but Ohio has large pieces of concrete from old dams that make for nice holes and stay in place from year to year but even some of there holes have been filling in over the years. 
 
 
FISH ON,
Brian

Not sure about the streams because I always take my boat out and troll the mouths of trout run and walnut when the lake allows. I havn't noticed any dropoff of fish at all we had some of the best years lately .we caught a good number of fish every time out kept just a couple and released most. I do think they are of smaller size though no real hogs anymore.My other buddies usually fish trout run and they all said the fishing was fantastic with many many fish running up the creek.i actually fished there a couple times also and did very well. I guess what I'm saying its timing and conditions. Maybe the times ive fished were the good ones but I don't believe its a decline of the fishery

BeenThereDoneThat.
I know yinz ain't gonna believe this one but, "I don't know" [permission granted to quote] so I gotta ask.  Like Walleye, if conditions are not right when they are ready to spawn, will trout re-absorb their eggs.  

I've read that they will, if they do not find suitable spawning conditions.  There also seems to be some opinion that Great Lakes steelhead have adapted to spawning on gravel in the lake when they don't make a push upstream.  
 
Like Ice Nut said, lake fishing reports from boaters and shore fishermen even into December seemed to be pretty average to above average.  Have heard opinions from seasoned vets that the trib temps for much of the fall were warmer or too close to the lake temps, which suppressed their inclination to enter the tribs.  
 
The steelhead my son and I struggled to catch this year were definitely smaller than we find in a typical year.  2014-15 was similar.  The previous 3 or 4 years were great for 6-8 pound steelhead, while this year the norm seemed to be 3-5 pounds.  Heard/read lots of reports in various places from guys that spend a lot of time on the tribs that 8-10 pounders were much scarcer than normal the past two seasons.  I'd chalk that up to two very brutal winters that saw historic levels of ice coverage on Lake Erie, and colder than normal springs.  I would think that probably impacted bait fish populations and probably impacted the steelhead's normal metabolism throughout the year which suppressed gorging on baitfish all spring and summer.  
 
If these thoughts and opinions are accurate, and we have a fairly normal spring, summer and early fall, I would think we'd see a greater number of bigger 4 and maybe even 5 year old fish in the fall of 2016 in the mix with the normal 3 year olds.  Overall numbers may continue to be down given the historically high numbers of walleye though.  
 
As for how it impacts those who make the trip 'mup, my son and I only made the 2 hours trip 3 times this year, as opposed to our typical 6-8 times.  We'll be skipping our normal March trip, and will hold off until May or June to see if we can figure out some trib smallmouth.  
 
 

Pa fisher is spot on, spawning only contributes maybe 5% of the entire population in Erie tributaries and the Cattaraugus would be most of that.  Stocking is were the rubber meets the road and PA really needs to step it up, stocking several million fish in one hole is like going into the desert with one bag of gummy snacks there just is not enough food in the stream to support them for several weeks until they reach the Lake so float stock them, yes, this is time consuming but I believe the troops would rally if called upon. Even if the stocking truck hit all the bridges from McKean to RT 5 instead of dumping them all in Steratainia.
 
I get 4 licenses every year PA,OH,NY and the Reservation just so more options are open to me and I can tell you the Steelhead fishing is just as bad in those states but they are working on it. I can tell you what other states are doing to solve the problem but not PA and this is the scary part (I'll bet they will not admit that there is a problem and say that everything is just fine).
 
FISH ON,
Brian
 
 
 
 

pikepredator2
Maybe it's as simple as the Commission just isn't stocking the numbers of fish they're telling us they stock.  They're always crying poor mouth and the trout stocking program alone has to cost a fortune, then throw in the cost of raising and releasing steel head smolts.  In reality, I never believed for a minute that the revenues for the Lake Erie Stamp stayed here.  A lot like the feds raiding social security and putting it in the bind it's in, I believe the PFBC raids the Stamp revenue to fund projects in other parts of the state.  Just my opinion.

You might be right there. But for the sake of the lake's fisheries, I hope not. Still, I feel that if they are actually stocking the numbers that they claim to be, one million fish is much more than enough! Especially for a lake where the Steelhead is not indigenous and native species like the Lake Sturgeon, Whitefish, and Sculpins are on the fringe of extirpation and would benefit from stocking programs funded by Erie stamp funds as well. But, I do believe if the fish commission was using all of the money from Erie stamps for Erie projects that perhaps if they stocked 800,000 steelhead instead of 900,000 they would be able to use the extra money to grow the smolts to a larger size and thus there would be a higher survival rate among stocked fish. Also, perhaps raising a few to yearling size (and giving them some sort of tag to distinguish them from others) and then stocking them in open water in the spring would increase survival rate by allowing them to avoid nearshore walleye predation for a year. Just a thought.

On another post, guys were reporting seeing "itty-bitty" smolts in the tribs.  If that's the case, they almost sound fry size and not smolt.  A lot cheaper to release them at this smaller stage than paying to raise them larger.  Sure doesn't bode well for the survival of those fish tho.  But you're right Dive, 1 million fish should be plenty if they're a decent size and can survive.  Like I said above, we're just being told that's how many are being stocked.
 

ITY BITY...they couldn't even hold onto the egg sacs I was throwing just peck peck peck like piranas.
 
This is one thing I feel the PFBC is not telling the truth about...saw in video of meeting guy claimed they were bigger then ever.
I hooked 1- 5in long at most the others looked smaller.
 
ITY BITY...WCW

I remember many years ago we were waiting on the stocking truck to help stock preseason Trout in our local creek. They said this creek was to receive 2,000 Trout on it's first stocking. There were 3 bridges on this creek so lets say roughly 600 per bridge should have been tossed in. We put in 9 buckets of Trout at our bridge and the truck took off ! You do the math.
 
Moral of story..... believe what you see not what you hear.
 
There are lots of good holding holes on Elk Creek there just not open to public fishing. Look at the map I-90 up to Follies posted solid. I know there are at least 15-20 excellent holding areas up thru that stretch . I fished them all many moons ago, and yes they were loaded with fish. 
 
I just posted the report about Canada netting Walleye and hitting their quota every year. Wonder what happens to all the Steelhead in those nets......oh , I'm sure they are all returned unharmed ! 

Dive master, they already stock about 100k steel/browns in presque isle bay.

Wow, Captain Hook nailed it but stocking less fish and less fishermen making trips, means less money for the business and at sometime there is going to be a tipping point the other way because the bait shops have to hurting bad at this point.  A lot of money was put into parking lots, fishing waters, fruit baskets, ****ters, and steelhead signs at rt5/18 to please landowners, the community, fishermen and newcomers.
 
I hope and pray the tipping point is soon,
 
Fish on,
Brian