Hit Elk Creek this morning and fished until later afternoon with a great day of fishing.
Started and finished the day at Sertania fishing up from the Public Access area to KOA. Fish were thin in the fast waters but holding in the pools.
I did find a few fish in the fast water but wasn’t having any luck.
First hook up was a smolt early near the concrete wall where there was some steelies holding. Hooked up on 2 of the Steelies on minnows but couldn’t land them because they went ape shit in into the current. I was happy to see most of my hookups were fresh steel so FISH ARE ON THE MOVE!
Found some steel in the deeper poles as I made my way up to KOA landing them on single eggs and minnows.
Water high a nice stain color in the morning changing to clear later in the afternoon. Wind started to pick up afternoon bringing in all the leaves 😡 but was able to land one more before called it a day.
I hooked up and lost 5+ fish and landed 3. caught tons of smolts which is odd for this time of the year.
Still early in the year but get up and fish if you can.
IM going to go off on a small rant just because I left the stream frustrated as I spilled my minnow can over because I was helping another angler land a fish. Typical Erie crowd I had a gentlemen come up in crowd into my fishing spot as I was landing the steel above. After I released this chrome above the guy started fishing in my spot and quickly hooked up on a Steel I was working on. I wasn’t upset much about that since I like to share the experience with others but what made me mad is he accidentally snagged it but then proceeded to land the fish and keep it after he snagged in the back. I landed it in my net and he came over and put a stringer in his mouth. I said to him “that doesn’t count you know…” and he replied on “who’s ruling”.
The point is he didn’t land the fish fairly and why keep them? These fish are great meat fish but why keep them? Throw them back and leave it for others to catch. I know there will be someone else coming along to keep it but try to through these fish back if you can. Some anglers like to take them to Poor Richards and do a fish exchange for a smoked one but is it worth it?
I hate that Erie is a meat fishery… end rant
Nice work Rye! I am only interested in going up there if we don’t have to deal with crowds and that kind of BS. You should have head butted him. Those fish are nasty. Anything tastes good in a smoker with seasoning all over it.