L Erie tribs steelie fishing

[copo427ss]

Im located in the derby/hamburg area. I always wanted to fish for them but i need a little guidence. thank you

You have eighteen mile, canadaway, Chautauqua,silver, walnut and Catt to choose from near you.

Unless ur an avid fly fisher I would just stick to using a spinning rod n reel. Basic gear to get you started: rod n reel. If you have a long spinning rod 9ft. Use it. Otherwise use what you have. 8lb test mainline. 4-6lb flourocarbon leader. A good small swivel. And I'll get to bait in a minute. You'll need hip boots or waders. Polarized sunglasses. Scissors or clippers, needle nose pliers. A backpack or waist bag. Take a couple bottles of water with you, pack light. You'll be doing alot of walking in unfriendly terrain. Spin fishing arsenal should include, hooks. I like octopus hooks. Size 6-10 depending. Assortment of splitshot, and small trout floats. Not those plastic red n white bobbers. Next is bait n lures. Forget those pre packaged salmon egg sacs. Waste of money. You might get lucky on them but I never have. Trout beads work good though I've never used them. You'll have to google it. Jigs under a float is a great rig. Small 1/8 oz n down. White first then various colors of pink to black. Trout egg sacs, steelie skien, night crawlers, emerald shiners. 3 inch white power grubs are sometimes killer tumbled down the ripples and into a hole. Mousies, grubs. Berkley power wrigglers, new Berkeley gulp maggots on a 10 or 12 hook is a good combo. In fact that's almost all I use on my fly rod for inland trout the last couple seasons.

Your biggest challenge is gonna be presentation. A fish can pass up the same bait 10 times. And hit on the 11th. That's because it was a perfect presentation. Learn to read the water. Ripples, lines, eddies ect. It takes patients to fish for them. Don't get discouraged if you don't catch anything ur first few times out. Once you get the feel for it and you hook that first fish you'll be hooked.
Think that about covers some basics needed for steelies. Any other questions let me know.

[copo427ss]

Well all streams are muddy do to runoff. Even smaller Cayuga creek. Inland starts tomorrow. I hate when work gets in the way of fishing

[cheesesteak]

Hey Guys,

I'm coming up to fish the Zoar Valley section of the Catt at the end of April. Think most of the snow will be gone and the creek will be at an acceptable flow by then? Also, with the cold weather you guys had do you think the spring run was delayed a bit? I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the rains hold off and the creek is full of Steelhead. Any info would be greatly appreciated

Thanks