This is part 2 of a fly fishing adventure to Erie Pennsylvania for Steelhead!
In part 1 of my Erie steelhead adventure I delt with some of the most miserable conditions imaginable for fly fishing. A white out lake effect snowstorm, 40 mile per hour wind gusts, and high temperatures only making it into the teens with wind chills well below zero. Trust me, it’s not something I’d recommend. But believe it or not I learned that the worst part of fishing these creeks came in the day or two following those conditions. Because although warmer weather made it more comfortable for me, the damage had already been done…
One thing that started to become clear is that there appeared to be a lot less steelhead in the creek than the day prior. And although it’s possible the fish had left and gone back out to the lake, I knew that wasn’t likely. So the only other option was that with the new ice that had formed the night prior had given the fish more cover and that they just weren’t out in the runs like they had been. So I decided to focus on ice shelfs.
I fiddled around a littler longer in that spot before decided to try another creek that I hadn’t been to yet… I’d love to say I slayed out at the other creek but, well, just take a look at it.
So after I left that stream I full sent it back to another creek I had seen fish at the day prior. The drive was a little long, but I felt it might be worth it because at least I knew for a fact there were steelhead in the creek.
So now I think you’re starting to see what I mean when I said “the damage had already been done” at the beginning of this video. Because of that brutally cold weather and snow from the previous day or so, the creeks had started to lock up with ice, making fishing impossible. There’s nothing more frustrating than trying to time a cast with slush coming down the creek just so your flies can even get down to the steelhead, which is what you’re watching me attempt to do right now. To make a long story short, I didn’t catch any fish the rest of the day, which meant I only had another half day to make something happen before I had to head home.
So yeah that’s among the dumbest things I’ve done while fly fishing. Obviously that fish was never going to eat, but I HAD to try it. I mean how often do you find yourself in that situation? And in my instance I hadn’t seen many steelhead that morning so even seeing one I could put a fly in front of was exciting to me. But unfortunately it never ate, and I was forced to move on. And I know this may shock you but I never did catch another fish. There was just too much ice for the steelhead to sit under and the creeks were rapidly locking up entirely. I did drive by a few other streams, but it was all pointless. Anyways I hope you enjoyed this video, I know there weren’t many fish catches but that’s real life. Not every trip can end with a trophy. Having said that I had a blast and I’m already planning another trip up to Erie in a few months! So stay tuned if you enjoyed these videos, because there’s more to come. Thanks for watching!
