# April 23-25 TRIP



## riverdoctor (Jun 27, 2012)

Hey guys -
I know it is anyone's guess as to how the fishing will be then, but because of my test schedule and my wife taking our son to visit her family, I am planning a solid few days of chasing steel. I will most likely fish the Vermilion if conditions are good that Tuesday and then will base myself out of Cleveland Wednesday from lunch time on (I have to attend a class that morning) and all day Thursday as I will pick my wife up from the Cleveland airport that night. 
I know it is a little later in the month but I am hoping that with the cold winter the fishing will still be good then. It seems like I might be targeting more drop backs but I am new to the timing of runs here. Does anyone have any suggestions for what streams and general areas fish better then? Any general fly fishing strategies, presentation, or flies that are hot then? I know these are extremely vague and general questions. I have only fished the V twice because it is close enough for a day trip to Toledo (and have caught and missed steel both times although it has been slow), so this will be my first time on any of the other tribs close to Cleveland. Just trying to put some thought into it before it gets here. I've heard reports of massive amounts of fish during the spawn but have yet to experience that myself.


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## pafisher (Mar 10, 2013)

With the coming rain your questions will be answered,tune in in a couple days.


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## riverdoctor (Jun 27, 2012)

pafisher said:


> With the coming rain your questions will be answered,tune in in a couple days.


Yeah - I am hoping for a big push with this rain. As I heard the storm outside today I think I faintly heard some sloshing steel working their way up river.


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## ReelPower (May 18, 2009)

Drop backs are great sport, often still chrome at that time of year. Spawning activity will be on the downside but still there, even a few freshie late runs sneaking in. Hire guide if financially possible as it is not the peak of the run for easy fishing. PM me if you want a lead for a quality trip.

I'd focus your efforts further east that time of year.

Good luck, fishing can be good if the temps. don't get crazy.

Jarrett


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## c. j. stone (Sep 24, 2006)

Pushing the season a mite but sounds like you have luck on your side from your initial posts so why not go for it! You may find some late spawners still on beds so look for/tie up some streamer flies in predominately RED colors. Something about red is like a red cape to a bull for bedding steelies. You will be sight fishing for the most part so be as stealthy as you can and keep drifting those red flies past them til you PO one enough to strike. They fish will be beat up pretty bad that time of year so don't let their appearance bother you. Once they get back into the lake for a while, they will clean up pretty quickly.


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## Lawman60 (May 17, 2010)

riverdoctor said:


> Does anyone have any suggestions for what streams and general areas fish better then? Any general fly fishing strategies, presentation, or flies that are hot then? I know these are extremely vague and general questions. I have only fished the V twice because it is close enough for a day trip to Toledo (and have caught and missed steel both times although it has been slow), so this will be my first time on any of the other tribs close to Cleveland. Just trying to put some thought into it before it gets here. I've heard reports of massive amounts of fish during the spawn but have yet to experience that myself.


Hello Doc.

I was in Conneaut "my home town," this past Sunday. I didn't get to fish, but had to stop and talk to a couple fishermen that were just leaving. They reported the water low and gin clear. That's great for comfort for the angler, but it also gives the fish a good chance of seeing you. Seeing you, will often keep the fish very spooky and very hard to catch. Now that we've had some good rain, the creek will be muddy with a lot less visibility. If you're fishing a fly rod, I would suggest a bright 1 1/2" bright worn pattern. Egg sucking leach in a great fly as well. If you're fishing with spinning gear. Live minnows on a small split shot, and live earth worms will get you bit. With high water, worms get washed into the creek and it's actually "matching the hatch." It should be the same on all are steelie streams, but Conneaut, being my home town, has always been my favorite. Try to get away from "tourist" water. That's the places that all of the out of towners fish, and they get whipped into a froth. Try finding more remote spots buy using something like Google Earth, or Bing maps. Good luck to you.

John


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## Fishman (Apr 5, 2004)

Airport is close to the Rock, fish near the Spring riffle pool. Lot's of steels stacked in then. Probably will catch a sucker or two and they're good eatting!


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## ngski (Aug 16, 2005)

The spring run really has not really started, by the 25th you should be in the middle of the run, I would not expect drop backs you are jinxing the rivers to early. I'm going to blame you if the water temps are in the upper 70's, no rain, sunny 85 degree days and low water conditions.

Course the the fish are going to be on the reds by then, always target the fish below the female who's dropping the eggs. I've seen too many noobies hook the female and then the the other fish clear out. 

Lawman60 has some excellent advice, take a hike away from the car if your fishing during the weekday it's not bad till the afterwork party starts around 4pm.


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## riverdoctor (Jun 27, 2012)

Fished Monday night for about an hour and further upstream yesterday for a good chunk of the day. Sadly, even without rain the water seemed muddier. Couldn't believe the water could be flowing at below 150 cfs and look like that. 

Got the :S on Monday night although a fish nearly scared me to death when it came bolting from the side of a rock as I came up on it. When I went to an area further upstream yesterday, I was expecting to not see many guys but the place was pretty crowded for how remote of an area I was on. Add to that the poor water clarity and then some guy coming out telling me that I was on private property (everyone was for that matter) and that he wanted to hunt turkey so we had to leave. Not sure what that was about because he didn't have any signs up and I went to an area someone had told me about where they fished often. Anyhow - I was just getting ready to go when I met a group of guys who were also heading back downstream from the newly found "private property" we were all on.

I was literally at the point of just heading out in defeat. I had been working the water like crazy all day and since it was my first time out, I didn't even know what I was casting to because it all looked like crap - literally. haha. But one of the guys was a steelheading Jedi from Columbus and planned to scout out some fish downstream. We had talked on our trek down the river and I just kind of kept following along - I told him I hoped he didn't mind and he said he didn't and kind of expected I would follow him anyhow. We came up on some good fish and he let me take a stab at them. After a few casts and some misses - BOOM!!! Probably the best fight I've had on a fly rod. It ended with a male that was right around 32 inches and weighed 13 pounds  I caught another little guy after and missed one or two more. 

I learned more in the hour or two I fished alongside that guy than I probably learned in hours of reading about it. Two of the best experiences I have ever had in fly-fishing came largely as the result of help from a stranger. As a result I've always tried to pass on that same spirit of kindness on the water as well. I ended the day by fishing a hole close to a father and his 12 year old son. The fish I was casting to seemed to have had too much harassment for one day and wouldn't seem to hit anything. I felt kind of bad for fishing the hole so long as I tried to figure them out. I decided to leave the hole to the father and son and head out, and gave the boy about a dozen flies - hoping to pass on in some small way the kindness that had been shown to me earlier that day.

So much for making it brief. Hard not to talk a lot about what you love. I still feel like I haven't really gotten to see a steelhead stream in its prime here. I can't complain as I've been out four times and landed 4 fish - 2 of which have been trophies. That's plenty for me to be grateful for.


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## riverdoctor (Jun 27, 2012)

Just curious - anyone have a good prediction about how much longer steel will go here??? This is my first year, but it seems kind of screwed up due to the largely cold winter and random bursts of rains and flooding.


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## bigduck10 (Feb 15, 2009)

The smaller tribs are just about done. However the larger ones will be holding fish well into may this year.
I have caught Chrome in NY LE tribs in June before while I was chasing Smallmouth.
Cold winter this year so they will be around for a while.
Best trip I ever had was the second week of May on the Elk in Pa. Had been a warm spring.
First one on the stream at day break. Look down at the stream and there must have been a 100 drop backs laying in the hole. Caught 8 fish all on a Purple egg sucking leech 
Amazing and not another person in sight. Called a friend of mine to tell him. He went the next norning and they were gone.
Don't be afraid to do some walking. Sunday on 18 mile in NY fishing from 1pm until dark and didn't find the fish until the last hole at 6:30pm.
This picture is the last one we took before it got to dark down in the valley. Managed 2 in about 20 minutes as well as a couple of Smallmouth. 
Click where it says photobucket at the top of the page.
[ame]http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b321/tcipcolbw/IMG_0151.jpg[/ame]


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## ejsell (May 3, 2012)

Nice post. I hope the kid had some luck.


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