Today I went on a steelhead scouting trip and decided I would visit the eastside of Erie. I went to 12 mile creek to see how many fish moved into the stream from the past couple days of rain. I was surprised to see that very few fish were in the stream, perhaps a dozen from the mouth up past the concrete wall. There was a couple fisherman and luckily while I was there, one of them hooked a nice fresh fish right in front of me. He fought it for a few minutes and then landed and released it. Stream levels are once again lower than desired for the fish to migrate up the streams. Rain is in the near forecast and maybe after the next couple days of rain more fish will move up the streams. Happy fishin'

Lake Erie Steelhead Streams - Erie County PA

Here is the direct link...Erie County Steelhead Streams

2009-2011 Lake Erie Steelhead Run Outlook

Around Erie Pennsylvania there will be very large steelhead runs making this area one of the top destinations for steelhead trout fisherman in 2009 thru 2011. Pennsylvania's Fish Commission releases approximately one million (that number is correct!) steelhead smolts annually into Lake Erie. Many of these fish venture out into the depths of Lake Erie and become very large and then return to local streams.

Most fisherman not familiar with the Erie area fish just a couple of the many streams that harbor steelhead in the fall, winter, and spring months. For your information I have included a very good link for you steelheaders to browse through. It shows our local steelhead streams and here it is: http://www.fish.state.pa.us/steelhead.htm

The date today is September 28 2009. The past couple days we have received quite a bit of rain that increased stream levels. The steelhead that have been staging the past couple weeks are now most likely moving up the streams and fishing for them will greatly improve over the next few days. Remember to pick up all of your trash as a lot of our fishing is on private lands. May your lines be tight and your hooks be happy!

Perch Showing Up Along Piers.

The cool nights are cooling down the lake temperature. Steelhead are moving into the shallows and streams and the jumbo perch are beginning to show up along the piers. Today I scouted the south pier and hardly anyone was fishing. I don't know why as conditions were perfect. Anyhow, the two men that were fishing near the end of the pier were catching quite a few fish. They had a whopper of a perch which was 13 and one-half inches and a couple around 11 inches. They also had four crappie and a 27 inch channel catfish.

Today was the first day I saw any signs of perch showing up for the fall. Fishing for perch should improve over the next month as more jumbos move into the shallows to feed on the baitfish. I will be trying it again this coming Saturday and am hoping for conditions like today. Last Saturday it was extremely windy and chilly and all I caught were two small bluegills. Happy Fishing!

Big Fish -Catch Big Fish Game

With the fall and winter weather coming, I thought I would post a neat fishing game on my blog. So when the weather is too bad to get out, you can stay home and catch these computer fish. Here it is, have fun!

Big Catch Land as many fish as possible. Can you make the Big Catch?

Play this free game now!!

Panfish Hitting Fairly Well.

Today was sunny and quite warm (around 75) for a September day. I tried to fish for crappies anyway and bought some minnows from a bait store. The minnows were all extremely large and I thought that I would not catch any fish on them. I headed out to the North Pier on Presque Isle around 5:00 p.m. and fished until dark. The bite was late, as I expected, and I managed to pull in a few crappies and a couple nice bluegills. A gentlemen came up to me and told me that they killed the crappies yesterday and that he too thought my minnows were way too large.

It all depends on the weather. The crappies are now staged along the piers and the fishing will be best on dark overcast days. No perch showing up along the piers yet but I look forward to catching some pretty soon. Good luck fishin'

Fishing Improves for Local Panfish.

The cooler temperatures and more stable fronts have the fish biting pretty well. Last Friday my cousin and I caught 15 nice bluegill and 1 crappie off of the south pier. Other fisherman were doing equally well and the past couple days the fishing is improving. On Monday, there were a few fisherman catching quite a few crappies during the evening hours. I saw a gentlemen with about 15 average sized crappies.

The North Pier at Presque Isle is heating up. Yesterday, I watched a couple fisherman reeling in crappies one after another. And the best part is that they are pretty big. One fish caught was about a 12 incher. As the water temperature drops a couple of degrees, the fishing should remain good to excellent. If you are fishing the piers and not catching any fish be sure to move around and try to find a school. Some people are not catching any and 50 feet away they are killing them. Good Luck! It's time for me to go fishin'.