Oct 18, 2014 5 min read

LAKE CITY – Steelhead lured Altoona anglers Mike Wheland, 42, and his son, Noah, 15, to western Erie County last week.

The two spent Wednesday at the Fish and Boat Commission’s Walnut Creek Marina fishing access area in Fairview Township.

Though the waters there – about 300 yards south of where the creek empties into Lake Erie – were high, muddy and strewed with leaves and debris, the Whelands hooked two steelhead and considered it a good day.

“It made it worth the trip,” Mike Wheland, 42, said. “We had fun. We heard this is where the steelhead are and we thought we’d just try it. This is the first time we’ve fished for steelhead,”

Steelhead is a type of trout that is heavily stocked in Lake Erie and its tributaries. The fish migrate upstream in autumn to spawn.

The average weight of a steelhead is 5 to 7 pounds. Trophy-class steelhead weigh more than 10 pounds.

Each fall, anglers flock to some of the region’s steelhead hot spots at Walnut Creek, Elk Creek, Twenty Mile Creek, Sixteen Mile Creek, Four Mile Creek, Seven Mile Creek, Presque Isle Bay and Cascade Creek.

Rick Gauriloff and a friend spent Monday afternoon fishing for steelhead in Elk Creek.

In two hours, the two anglers caught a combined 28 steelhead in the western Erie County creek, which flows through Girard, Fairview and McKean townships.

“A lot of guys are telling me they’re catching 30 fish in a day, and some guys are saying they’re not catching anything,” said Gauriloff, co-owner of Trout Run Bait & Tackle at 7490 West Lake Road in Fairview.

“There’s a lot of steelhead in Elk Creek, Walnut Creek and Crooked Creek – all the tributaries,” Gauriloff said. “The last couple of rains brought the creeks way up and brought the steelhead in. They were packed at the mouths and now they have come up the creeks. These little rains we’re having are helping.”

Mid-October through November is the peak window for the region’s steelhead fishing season, which attracts anglers from various parts of the nation and abroad.

Steelhead fishing annually pumps about $10 million into Erie County’s economy, said John Oliver, president of VisitErie, Erie County’s tourism promotion agency.

“It has a big impact because of the popularity for that type of fishing and the abundance of that fish,” Oliver said. “We do attract a lot of people. I’ve heard of people as far away as Japan and the United Kingdom who come here to fish for steelhead.”

That means big money for regional bait shops, outdoors stores, hotels, motels, restaurants and convenience stores.

“It’s away from our traditional summer season and it certainly helps these additional businesses at a time when we might be slower,” Oliver said.

Each October and November, Gauriloff said he sees an influx of anglers from Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, West Virginia and Virginia descend on Erie County streams.

Steelhead season at his Fairview bait shop means sales of assorted bait, accessories and clothing. Anglers spend freely on waders, jackets, boots, socks, hats, rods and reels, he said.

“It’s great to have this,” Gauriloff said. “It helps the economy all over town. The restaurants and hotels are packed to the gills.”

Millcreek Township resident Sam Constantino, 80, sat atop a plastic bucket along the wall at the Walnut Creek Marina fishing access area Wednesday afternoon.

After an hour of fishing under overcast skies and windy conditions, he had minimal bites and no catches.

It was a reminder how conditions can change from good to bad, or the reverse, in just a few hours.

“About a week ago, the conditions were better than they are now,” Constantino said. “You didn’t have the leaves to contend with. They get caught in your bait and you don’t have the right presentation for the fish.”

Steelhead fishing is high on Erie angler John Kitcho’s agenda.

Kitcho, 34, has been fishing since he was 4, and he said he prefers to catch “anything that swims.”

“Steelhead ranks in the top three with muskie and perch,” he said.

Steelhead, though, pose unique challenges.

“I truly enjoy stripping a fly right by a fish’s head and to see that fish open his mouth, dart toward that fly and just annihilate it,” Kitcho said.

During the past two and a half weeks, Kitcho said he has fished for steelhead eight times, concentrating primarily in Elk Creek and Twenty Mile Creek.

He prefers the larger creeks.

“There are larger schools of steelhead at Elk and Twenty Mile Creek right now,” Kitcho said. “They’re larger because the creek mouths are more wide open and even when the water is low, the fish can still get in and out of those creek mouths.”

Gauriloff said favorable conditions have led to good numbers of steelhead migrating into western Erie County tributaries in the past couple weeks.

That scenario, however, hasn’t played out in eastern Erie County streams and creeks, said Tim Truitt, manager of the North East Marina.

“There’s fish in the tributaries, but the numbers are fewer out here,” Truitt said early last week.

“We need some rain. A good rain could trigger a good run. We’ve had a week of windy weather. Conditions have not been conducive for staging fish offshore.”

More steelhead are being caught at the mouth of eastern Erie County tributaries and streams due to low water conditions in streams, Truitt said.

Truitt said some inland waters there are still too warm for steelhead.

“Conditions are not right for the steelhead,” he said. “It’s all temperature oriented. If we get a 45-degree to 48-degree rain and an inch to a couple inches of cold rain, that, I believe, will trigger the fish to come into the tributaries and make all the fishermen here happy.”