Fish ABOUND!

Sounds like an awesome day. Congrat's

It has been a welcome April.  There are good numbers of steelies from the places I've been to in western Erie county.  And as stated, the suckers are few at best.  Get out and do some fishing while it lasts.

Congrats on your success! I gotta say, I experienced the same conditions you guys are talking about this weekend. I had by far my best trip of the year, including fall. Basically saw and caught a few fish at every stop, and then, by luck, found a huge group that was seemingly unfound or unharassed for some reason. I wont post numbers so the bashers don't yell, BUT it was truly unreal. Fished this spot Sat and Sun and literally caught fish for hours straight. Erie truly does never cease to amaze.
 
I was one of the ones saying that this would be a poor spring run, due to the warm winter, boy was I wrong. I saw more fish in the areas that I fished than I have in years in early April.

I've never seen fish attack a swung streamer like they did today.  Truly amazing.

Greg, on Sunday Walnut was perfect.  Elk was pretty swift with good color.  It should be good for the next couple of days.   Streamers man, streamers.

I caught fish on light blue buggers, glo bugs, sucker spawn and nymphs.  I even had one come all the way across the riffle and crush a bugger.  Most of the fish caught were males and they were very aggressive.  We fished for about an hour or so for the fish on the gravel.  After landing a few, my buddy and I decided to move on to a different area.  Frankly, it was getting a bit boring hooking and dragging them up on the gravel.

I was using ones that where light blue.

This afternoon I had several fish crush a copper brown bugger.  They did not even give the light blue ones a second look...  What a difference a day makes.

I am not sure that we are having a spring run so much as the fish have been in the streams all along, but are now spreading out to spawn.  I have seen quite a few jacks around this spring.  Those little guys sure can fight.

There are always a few fresh hens that come in the spring.

Same thing was going on at Trout Run when it was running fast and muddy last week.

there is usually at least one more run of fish that will be running right now. i have noticed through the years more and more fish in the spring. it used to be 10 years ago that steelhead were harder to come by. my theory on this is the fact that you have the cross breeding of the ohio manistee strains starting to come through. since it is very easy for the ohio breeds which are predominantly spring breeders to venture into trout run. i have picutures of dime bright fish i was catching while i was standing beside my father as he was catching brown trout stockies a week after trout season started. that day i hit a ton of fresh fish as they were running up stream. again this is just a theory of mine.

yeah we really got a break this year with for once AVERAGE temps remember the last 3 years or so water temp and levels in the tribs were much warmer and water levels lower trout being cold water fish lingered longer this year and prolonged the spawn,also now that we pretty much only have a fall run that is sooooo spread out over the winter the season does go longer it seems,but i do remember about 15 years ago we caught what i can only guess were manistee strain steelhead in april along with a few drop backs from the fall run did all the breeding source from trout run dilute the manistee strain or did the state ever put them in again or was there ever truly a spring run manistee in elk then i am confused but i can sure tell you i caught my biggest steel almost always in march and april back then and they were really true real mccoy big CHROMERS. any info to help me put this conclusion to rest would be greatly appreciated thanks koke

ohio stocks the manistee strain. they stock their fish at the mouths of the streams unlike pa that dumps them in upstream from the mouths. being that they are stocked lower they don't imprint very well. basically any moving water is likely to get a fish in it. same goes really for pa fish. many of them run up conneaut and such before pa did the stocking. most of these fish are in the streams less than a month, maybe two. then they are out to the lake. that amount of time is not long enough for them to imprint very well. in streams with native fish the steelhead will stay for a year before they venture out. that is why you see many steelhead in streams that don't get stocked with them. i have the privledge of watching elk year round. in the almost 20 years of growing up on that stream the amount of fish that run in the spring has drastically increased through the years. as i stated in a previous thread, there are differences between the fall run fish and spring runs. fall runs will come in and stay in pools for the correct temps so they can try to spawn. our falls have been rather dry so the fish can't do anything but sit and wait. thus they build up in the pools. spring run fish do not need to do that. they are running when the temps are already right for them. there is no need to wait. they come up do their business and leave. you could easily have just as many fish run now and not realise because they can come and go in a matter of days. a fall fish could spend a 2 months in the streams where as a spring fish might stay days. i have pictures of dime bright fish i was pulling out of elk on april 30 of 05. i that day in one pocket my hook ups was in the double digits. that day i was having trouble landing them due to bad tippet matieral. i was kicking myself that day for not getting fresh line.

I noticed the last few days more fish in upper Elk, but no dime bright fish.  The fish were holding in the riffles and with the low and clear conditions, they are a bit spooky.