Fly Fishing

jeremy · Location: Portland, Maine

I've done a fair amount of fly fishing for steelhead on the Lake Ontario tribs, but never have had the opportunity to fish any of the Lake Erie tribs for steelhead. Does anyone have some recommendations for flies to use for steelhead in Lake Erie tribs?

kory_k · Location: New York, NY

I have only been to the lake erie tribs twice and i guess i shouldn't say "tribs" because i only fished the cattauragus creek. Both of the times i was there though, I was successful with the exact same patterns that I used on the Salmon River in NY. The last time I went there it was the last day of a 5 day trip and we fished the Salmon all four previous days and then drove to the Catt. I actually kept my rod rigged from the Salmon and used the exact same rig although I ended up shortening it up quite a bit since the water was a lot smaller and lower. As far as fly pattern goes, I used the same flies and was pretty successful.

chromefinder · Location: Southeast PA

For low clear flows = small natural colored trout nymphs, small egg patterns / small sucker spawn, small streamers, small flouro tippets and blackbird BB1 & BB3 shot

High Muddy Flows = big ugly nymphs, big streamers

A few flys I would never be without on small clear Erie tribs are:
-sucker spawn patterns tied on a size 14 nymph hooks colors = chartreuse, mccheese, white, blue, peac
- small streamer patterns to match the Lake Erie Emerald Shiners

For the Big NY Erie Trib
- if your lucky and hit it right - all the streamers you can carry or standard Ontario trib patterns. Not much need to go small here unless its very low & clear but that doesn't happen too often.

hookmeup · Location: Willoughby, OH

Korky_k and Chromefinder are pretty much on the money. Any of the many egg patterns: sucker spawn, blood dots, crystal meth drifted under an indicator. We tie a dropper fly off that such as a size 14 beaded prince nymph or stonefly. If not using weighted flies, you got to play with placements of BB shot and distance of float. THE key is getting the goodies right in front of their noses. And yes you will get hangups on the bottom and branches.

When swinging, any baitfish pattern will work: sculpins, decievers, streamers, wollybuggers, leeches. I've made 5 or 7 foot lengths of T14 sink tips to get it down as well.

We need some rain bigtime up here on the Ohio side of Steelhead Alley. It's been a very dry fall, about to change in a few days I think. Like my one buddie said, " You got to bring your own water to this river if you want to fish it "

Rob