The Erie Fishing Diary

The Erie Fishing Diary by Captain Hook 
 
 A quick look back at Erie trib fishing over the past 40 years as it progressed by some of my past notes.   
 
70's - 80's  decent runs of Coho with a light mix of Steelhead / no crowds on creeks except for the mouths of the tribs. Most creeks wide open to fishing. Trout Run and Walnut are the major targets. It's the beginning of a new fishery!    
 
80's - 90's Steelhead runs increase, Coho slowly fade / crowds still mainly near mouths and shorelines. Runs are mixed good and not so good numbers. Most creeks are wide open, traffic still very light. Most new fishing ideas and information came from the West Coast, and the Great Lakes Fishing magazine. ( most ERIE fishermen didn't know this) Flies, Egg Sacs, Lures ,Rods, all West Coast ideas! They had the experience way before us.   
 
90's - 2000  Steelhead runs continue to get stronger every year. Mouths of creeks are packed with fish and people. Awesome runs of fish are entering the creeks fairly steady. The internet becomes a major media, newspapers are printing steady articles from Erie to Pittsburgh. Cell phones are ringing steady. The crowds start to increase stronger. Creeks are busy but still decent room if you walk a little.   
 
2000-2010 Steelhead runs are crazy ! Fish are packed in all areas of water from Rt.5 - I-79 ! People are everywhere , cars are jammed parked , Internet is on fire with info !  12-20 fish a day is normal for most fishermen. People from Canada to South Carolina to Wyoming to Maine are all flocking to Steelhead Alley ! I-79 traffic is tripled from Sept. - December ! Land is being posted fast , parking is a major issue in most areas , litter is everywhere, bathrooms are almost non existent, no fish cleaning stations, cell phones are now part of fishing gear !  The writing is on the wall. There is no way this can, or will continue like this ! Combat fishing has entered Erie Pa.strong and the Fish Commission is stymied !   
 
2010-2016  Steelhead runs have decreased fairly rapid with each year becoming less. Crowds are still very heavy in most areas. Some issues have been addressed with some bathrooms, parking and land owner leases. Combat fishing is accepted in most areas with limited access to upper creek areas, regular fishing areas are now overly busy. There are no Steelhead fishing secrets, every day is a Saturday, internet fishing news and weather is daily watched, catch numbers on average are low. Seems fish size has also dropped just by reading the Pa. records past years.  
 Good , bad , whatever you rate it now, it's still fishing.....beats working ! 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

My first time in 98, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Water black with fish, people everywhere. Fish swimming into my boots. Craziness!

My first trip was in the fall of 1972 to Walnut at 5 am. tossing KO Wobblers off the wall. We knew absolutely nothing about Salmon fishing other than what we learned from talking to a few local friends that had gone up once before us. Call it beginners luck, I caught the only Coho Salmon that morning amongst about 15 fishermen. A silver beauty about 2 foot long.......I stayed addicted from then on!....lol 

CAPTAIN HOOK
 Call it beginners luck, I caught the only Coho Salmon

 
speaking of Coho.....
for years I caught them and never knew
I just thought they were "greener/odd" colored steelies...fo-reel 
 
it  wasn't til I was fishing next to guy that saw me land a good sized one (6 pound or better)
and he says, "nice Coho!"
 
 
really?!?   hoo nu??
not me at the time

 
 
..L.T.A.

Yea , I have to admit I had the best of the best so now days it's about a half dozen trips in fall if that and a few spring trips. I still do my fair share of local fishing both boat and wading, but a few hours of wading and casting is enough. After 45 plus years of chasing Salmon , Steelhead , Browns and Lakers across three states ...I've had my fun!
 
Hope it continues for my son and grandson and others, but I'll admit I doubt it will ever be as good.
 
Yea Genie and Pen those were some banner years you pointed out . Had to see it to believe it.
 
I-90 hole 2003 ....took my son ..got in at daylight and we were in awe ! Over 200 Steelhead blackened that whole area from top to bottom...what a site ! Believe it or not we caught fish, but with so many packed in they spook so easy everytime one was hooked it was awhile before you would hook another. Last time I was there years ago the hole was actually gone....filled in with sediment and rocks.

yeah who remembers when the BOTH CONRAIL TUNNELS were deep and held fish   been years since the far one even had water runnin thru it   in the mid 90s  both sides had steel n coho  3 layers thick  i aint kiddin

Summer of '09 there was a HUGE rain event in Erie - believe it was July, and not associated with a hurricane or tropical storm.  Got like 5" of rain in a few hours.  Walnut hit 22,000 CFS (https://nwis.waterdata.usgs.gov/usa/nwis/peak/?site_no=04213152)
 
I remember coming mup that fall and everything was different.  Totally wiped out Walnut under the Rt. 20 bridge, and they had to do a lot structure work there.  Don't remember other specific changes, but everything I knew and was familiar with changed.  I believe that was also the one that seems to have changed the falls on 'Nut above the Manchester, that seems to largely inhibits upstream movement now.  
 
 

I m too young for the Coho years. But I wish they wouldve taken hold.

Yea Captain I'm pretty sure it was the fall of 73 or 74 so you got me beat. I do remember catching a lot of coho. I remember other fishermen couldn't tell a steelhead from a coho. lol It was always a debate. lol Easy to tell if you know what to look for. Those salmon loved the spoons,KO and Cleo's.

Sam my very first steelhead fishing experience was on one of those bus trips. It was put together by the Westmoreland Co Parks Dept and "hosted" by Wyndle Watson, the outdoor writer of the Post Gazette (maybe still the Pittsburgh Press at that time).

I was 15 or 16 so this was around 1989 or 1990. My dad had a friend who was a steelhead fisherman and he convinced us to go. The bus parked at the Elk Creek access area.

We didn't have waders and my dad was NOT a good trout fisherman. We bought knee high rubber boots to wear and put some ridiculously heavy mono on our reels. We made egg sacs with store bought salmon eggs and my mom's old stockings. It was about the coldest I had ever been in my life and we didn't even get a bite. I can't remember if I really enjoyed any part of it except going back to the bus often to warm up by eating Snickers bars.

The second time I fished for steelhead was in the fall of 2001, and I had a friend who liked to fish in the Pig Pen and he took me along.  It was a snotty November Day - huge cold front had just blown through, waves crashing on the beach at Trout Run and the spray topping the walls of the Pig Pen.  We got there with about an hour of daylight left, and in no time at all, I landed 3 steelhead on my 6' trout rod.  Fortunately, there was a nice guy near us that let us borrow his long handled net.  
 
I went in Feb. of '02 or '03 with another friend.  Elk was locked in ice from the mouth up to the access, but was open just above that.  Somehow, I landed 6 on my 6' trout rod, and after that day it became somewhat of an obsession.  
 
So I was getting started just as the best years were kind of winding down.  I had another good friend who had fished for steelhead for many years that taught me about noodle rods, fluoro leaders, size 18 and 20 hooks, black bird shot and small baits.  There were days back then that it truly felt more like catching than fishing, when you could find a ridiculous pile of steelhead that hadn't been pounded by 10 other guys all day long.  

LOL...great beginners stories. I never knew about those buses . Yea it was a crazy learning period back then. Egg sacs the size of golf balls tied in pantyhose netting , rods as long as buggy whips, thick heavy line. Cleos and KO's were sold by the hundreds at local bait shops BAC & Poor Richards. State cops ticketing all the cars parked on the east side of the road to Trout Run every morning. 
 
The best was the Trout Run Marina aka The Pig Pen! What a place.....mad house is an under statement . People paid to fish in shifts, they allowed 50 in a shift during the week 75 on the weekends and many a day there was a line waiting to get in. They got around the law by charging you to use the bridge and park, not to actually fish. Some days I saw well over a hundred Coho caught, Steelhead were not as common then. Talk about crazy....like fishing in an oversize swimming pool, loaded with fish. I seen it all there ....plus lots of laughs watching the show....drunks, snaggers, lines constantly tangled, people getting arrested, rods snatched by fish, fights....it all went on! 
 
An old fishing buddy with 5 Coho in the Pig Pen

Was a student at PSU-Behrend Fall 85-Spring 87 before moving on to Main Campus State College. Had no bleeping idea what to do, but a buddy of mine turned me on to Joe's Flies (Wooly Bugger) for artificial lures . . . already knew how to work a fresh emerald shiner as a pretty decent inland trout fisherman. First Coho in chutes above Manchester Hole (not yet posted) that fall. Learned how to make fresh egg sacs which increased my take . . . decreased the need to find a way to keep a bucket of emerald shiners alive. However, also learned how pungent fresh skein is . . . the trunk of my '72 Dodge Dart Swinger probably still smells like that stuff in whatever junkyard she rests in now.
 
Took a decade long hiatus, and then was turned back on to winter/spring Steel by my brother and friends.  Areas that are now posted upstream of the I-79 pool on Elk . . . no bigger than most mid-size inland streams with water to our waists, but the fishing was non-stop. Panther Martins or a simple redworm and barbless hook the key. 
 
No interest in combat fishing these days, prefer the relative solitude of my local trout streams each fall.
 
Hoping to get out this weekend . . . one nice 'holdover' brownie or rainbow with some color, and my day is made.
 
Tight lines all!

Well yinz ya know I aint gonna be quiet even though I dint partake in the Erie Tribs 'cept one time when snagging was legal and but a few minutes of witness to that, sent me with tail tucked.

But I would like to congratulate the Capt. For his idea of the "Diary". Been some great stories as well as memories so far and hopefully, many more to come.

Good one Cap.....👍

Tight lines and carry on.

PS. Even gooder, sweet to hear I ain't the only dummy, when it come to catchin them stupid fish.

Thanks John,  I'm enjoying the read........
I used minnows one time up NY on the tribs....did nail a few . Most bait shops don't carry live bait like around here. In Lewiston the only two bait shops closed or were closed when I was up a few years ago. Olcott has one, Oak has ......? Maybe one....two closed there also. Can't bring  them in from out of state....VHS virus protection. Good bait shops are becoming a rarity ....tough seasonal business, long hours.  Gulp minnows should work well.