Lets Try This Again - Ohio

After a few tying sessions mixed with beer, and virtually no planning, Leland and I were headed west to Ohio to try it again. If you remember from our last trip, cold weather and slush made it almost impossible to fish the Ohio tribs, so we headed over to Elk and landed one fish. So this time, heading up in November instead of January, we were hoping for a better outcome. But hey its steelhead fishing, anything can happen.

We started off our trip on the Chagrin, going back to the same place we hooked the only 2 fish of the day, last trip. We fished for a while, leaves and high wind made it difficult to get good clean drifts, so we headed up stream. We walked around the corner and found a sweet run, looked deep, with a slight riffle to it. About 15 mins later I had a beautiful hen in the net. Seeing almost no one all day, it was an awesome day, Leland hooked 3 and lost them all, so 4 fish on was already better than last year.

Day 2 we headed to the Conneaut, to a spot Casey told us about. The water was a bit high and off color, but man was it a sweet section of river. No fish there, so we headed up river to a spot we looked at the last time we were there. Not a person on the river, and again some awesome looking water, we nymphed a while with no love, so I put a sink tip on and started swinging the slower water. After a bit of a quite spell, I hear Leland yelling "theres a fish!", I look up to see a chrome fish jumping out of the water. After that we went 3 for 3 and one on the swing. It was an awesome trip.

Good Friends, Road Tips, and Steelhead

One of my goals for 2012 is to fly fish in 10 different states. With Steelhead season in full swing, what better time to start than now. So, Leland and I met up at 2:30 Sunday morning to make the 6 to 7 hour drive to Cleavland Ohio.

Looking down off the bridge into a slush-filled river had our hopes of an easy, enjoyable day just about gone. Fighting slush and shelf ice all day kept the hook up rate low. But hey that's steelhead fishing. Days when the conditions are less than ideal and the fishing is all but hot really make you cherish and enjoy holding every fish you get to hand. The Chagrin River outside of Cleavland is an awesome river. What it lacked in fish, it made up for in scenery. From the reports and pictures I've seen from friends and the internet, when the conditions are right it can produce some beautiful fish. 

Leaving Chagrin Falls OH, we headed for Conneaut OH to try out the Conneaut River or the Conny as many call it. Standing on a bridge looking down, we saw a very familiar sight; slush and shelf ice. Not wanting to waste any time, I got on the phone to check the reports and get some inside advice. This led us to Elk Creek in PA.

The fishing was slow but it was nice to have the whole river to ourselves. We managed to hook 4 fish, but only landed just one. You can tell when you have a good friend when he goes swimming just to save your fish from breaking off... 

Leland had the net in had ready to scoop my Steelhead, when all the sudden she turned and went right between his feet. He knew it would either lift and jump back or it was all over. He jumped backwards and into the frigid water. I saw him go down--luckily the fish was running down stream, so I lifted the rod as high as I could, I grabbed him and lifted him up so he could get his footing back (saving him from a full wader shot). The fish started upstream and I was back in full fish-fight concentration. Then, as if falling in weren't bad enough, she decided to test us once more; under the shelf ice she went! I could see her flopping around trying every trick to get off, I lowered my rod tip and guided her out, and into the net. Thanks Buddy!

Enjoy...

Leland rigging & battling slush

Breaking ice as the train rolls by

After 2 days of hard fishing!

Flies

Driving to the river 

Conneaut River

Lunch on the Ice

A beauty 

Also A big Thank You to Greg Senyo from Steelhead Alley Outfitters. Thanks man for all the help and Directions!!!

Flies that Worked: Prince Nymph, Psycho Prince (Black), Hot Beadhead Prince, Black Marabou Streamer

Featured Fly - Egg Sucking Leech

The Egg Sucking Leech fly comes in all shapes and sizes. This is one of my favorite flies to fish for Steelhead and Browns. It is also a great pattern for fishing just about any Alaskan stream. With warm water temps, and spring rapidly approaching, this is a great fly to swing or dead drift under an indicator for aggressive fish.

Materials:

Hook: Fish Skull Articulated Shake 35mm or TMC 300

Thread: UNI Thread 6/0 - Black or Red 

Tail: Marabou - Black or Purple

Flash: Holo. Flashabou - Black or Purple

Body: Ice Dub - Black or Purple

Body 2: Rooster Saddle Feather - Black or Purple

Collar (optional): Senyo's Shaggy Dub - Black or Purple

Head: Ultra Chenille - Med. - Red, Pink, or Fl. Orange

Step 1: Take the hook and slid it onto the back loop of the shank.

Step 2: Lay a base of thread sealing the gap of the back look. Tie in the Marabou so the hook is covered.

Step 3: Tie in the Rooster saddle feather.

 

Step 4: Dub the body, leaving about 2 hook eye length with no material.

Step 5: Tie in the Holo. Flash at the front of the hook. 

Step 6: Holding the flash tight, wrap the saddle feather once around at the start of the marabou. This will secure the flash. Palmer the feather through the Ice Dub. Once at the front of the fly warp 1 or 2 extra times making a collar.

 Step 7: Center tie a clump of Shaggy Dub; One on the stop and one on the bottom. This will add movement.

Step 8: Wrap the Chenille around 2 or 3 times depending on how big you want the egg. 

Step 9: Whip finish

Finished:

2 fish that fell to the egg sucking leech.

Jesse with a beautiful Alaskan Rainbow.

Joey was dead drifting an egg sucking leech this fall when this monster ate.

Lake Erie in January

I headed out to western PA this weekend to visit my girlfriend and her family.  One nice thing about visiting is that she is only an hour and a half from Erie; the even nicer thing is her dad Jim is also a Steelhead addict. With permison from our ladies we headed to 20 mile for the day. Last March we tried this trip, with less than ideal conditions; needless to say our results were less than successful, not seeing one fish.

Getting to the river around 10, our hopes were high with almost no cars at any of the access points we passed.  The river was about average flow, and slightly off color. Sight fishing for steelhead can be very tough, not because the fish might see you per say; but it is very hard to hold your composure when you are looking at a 10lb fish right in front of you. Often times I walk away scratching my head wondering why it didn’t want what I was offering.  When it all does come together,  watching that fish hit a streamer or seeing the slight movement towards your nymph…well that’s what its all about!

January steelhead fishing often times is not a numbers game but more for the experince, so one or two fish is all I was looking for. Only seeing 4 other guys over about a mile and a half river all the while landing a few fish, it was a very successful day. Not to mention losing a couple in there as well.

Jim and I stopped mid-day to start a fire and have a cold beverage.  Warming up and cooling down at the same time we cooked some lunch. We fished until around 3 and made our way back to the car. The deal was we could fish as long as we were home by dark, Yeah we were still late J

Here are a few pictures from the trip:

Hot Patterns: Copper John,  Egg sucking Leech, Little Black Stoneflies

Feature Fly - Psycho Pince

This weeks featured fly is Mike Mercer's Psycho Prince nymph. This is a great pattern for both Great Lakes Steelhead, and trout. With all is flash it works well as a anchor fly, or just a solo nymph for picky fish. I tie this fly from size 18 up to a 10.

Psycho Prince Nymph

Hook: TMC 3761 sz. 18 – 10

Thread: Uni Thread 6/0 – Purple, Pink, Black

Bead: Cyclops Beads or Tungsten

Tail: Goose Biots – Brown

Body: Ice Dub – Purple, Pink, Peacock

Rib: Ultra Wire – sized to match hook

Back: Turkey Tail or Pheasant Tail

Legs: Goose Biots – White

Wing: Ice Dub – Yellow

Collar: Ice Dub – Contrasting color to body

Step 1: Flip hook over and slide Gold bead up to the hook eye.

Step 2: Add a small dubbing ball at the top of the hook bend. Tie in the brown goose biots in front of dubbing ball, wrapping the thread towards the ball as the biots flair out.

Step 3: Move the thread to behind the bead, Tie in the Ultra wire and turkey tail fibers. (wrap thread back to the dubbing ball and brown biot tail.

Step 4: Dub the body with ice dub, tapering a thicker body the closer you get to the bead.

Step 5: Fold the Turkey fibers over the body.

Step 6: Wrap the wire towards the bead making a rib.

Step 7: Tie in the white goose biots on either side of the fly. 

Step 8: Take a clump of Ice Dub and make a wing. Trim the fiber leaving about 1/4" for the wing.

Step 9: Dub a collar with Ice Dub - either same as body or a contrasting color. Whip Finish 

Step 10: Go Fish!!!

Here are a couple fish that fell to the Psycho!