Current Angler Reports Before you go fishing in the Erie area, check here for recent reports from other anglers! Please share your recent fishing experience and Submit a Report. To discuss fishing in the Erie area, or to post a question, please use the FishUSA Forums. Date Fished: 11/14-18/09 Location: Elk, Conneaut, 20 mile Water Conditions: Clear Posted By:  "OhioFlyHeader"      11/19/2009 3:35:18 PM   Report ID: 24746 Report: No rain in 2+ weeks hurt. Fished big chunks of Elk from Rt 5 to Rick Rd - low and clear in all locations. Able to get a few fair each day, but stealth and small natural patterns were the key (16-18 pheasant tail was the best). Tough to land them if you could manage to get in the mouth with light tippet and small flies. Sunny days were the worst - almost impossible to get anything fair from 8-4, had to wait for the sun to be low. Cloudy helped, but still tough. Riffles better, but not a lot of fish in the riffles. Stealthy approach helped (crawl to stream and fish from knees). Fish located all the way to Rick Rd - saw hundreds or even 1,000 fish, but tough to get hooked truly fair (i.e. the hook inside the fleshy part of the mouth - not outside). 20 mile a little better, but still tough. Hit virtually the entire non-posted PA stream except the little bit by the mouth. Plenty of fish throughout. Conneaut was beautiful water - decent flow, a slight color, etc. We landed several small (6") fish, but saw no steelhead in PA. We even started walking down the stream and kicking trees to see if there were any there (no other fisherman parked or in sight, so figured OK to "ruin" the fishing for a while). Went into OH by mouth and saw 1 steelhead in half mile walk - 2 guys reported zero luck. Not sure why no fish, but water was perfect! Overall toughest 4 day trip in 6 years. 4 of us managed only about 30-40 truly fair landed fish in 4 days of 9+ hour days on the water. Normal would be at least 30-40 per guy for the trip, and in some years 30-40 per guy on our best day. Looks like we got a little rain last night based on the water gauge on Walnut - that should help (except the leaves are going to be a pain once they start washing down in big quantities). Need another blowout like late October to get the fish moving and clear out all the leaves.

Date Fished: 11/15/09 Location: Walnut and Elk Water Conditions: Low and clear Posted By:  "PCfisher"      11/18/2009 11:55:09 PM   Report ID: 24745 Report: My buddy and I made the trip from NorthCentral PA to Erie again to try our hand at the action. Last time we were there it was blown out and we didn't have a hit. This time it was low and clear, but we managed to hook up with quite a few fish and my buddy landed 4 and I landed 1. Neither of us had much luck on Walnut as it was very low and clear, but my buddy did hook up with about a 30" female and fought it for about 5 minutes before she jumped and broke his line. We did the best at Elk, and there were less people to contend with as well. The majority of fish hooked were on muddler minnows or woolly buggers, but my buddy did find a jig in a tree and began to hammer fish on it. We also managed a couple on pink crystal meth. Most of the fish that we hooked up with were in fast water and many were very aggressive toward the bait. The fish that were holding in the slow moving water were very spooky and we didn't waste much time on them. If you can find fish in the fast water you can get them to bite. Its gonna take a great deal of effort, and walking, but its worth it. We went through our entire flyboxes trying everything we could throughout the day and it worked out pretty well. I would have landed more but a few of the fish ran me under trees in the water and broke me off. Still a great time and can't wait for the next trip.

Date Fished: 11/17/09 Location: 16 and 20 Water Conditions: clear Posted By:  "monstersteel85"      11/18/2009 9:42:20 AM   Report ID: 24744 Report: I fished early monday and tuesday morning. I caught a few fish on number 16 crystal meth purple and pink. I found more fish were eating with a light tippet but broke a few off. I had no luck on nymphs. Also i found and inexpensive motel called the Tallyhotel on state street. It was a close drive and nice rooms if anyone else is just staying in a few days to fish.

Date Fished: 11/16/09 Location: 20 and 16 mile Water Conditions: very low and clear Posted By:  "Bobs Creek Boy"      11/17/2009 9:26:26 PM   Report ID: 24742 Report: Went fishing on 16 mile and 20 mile on monday. Water was real clear and low. Fish were very spooky but would bite if you could find them in the faster water. I saw a few fish being caught but no luck myself. Used small beads and white crystal meth most of the day. Need rain. Try small nymphs with light tippets and try to find fish in faster water that havent been pressured as much. This is a little video of our last trip which shows how good the fishing can be with higher water.

Date Fished: nov 17 Location: 16 mile Water Conditions: crystal clear Posted By:  "numbs"      11/17/2009 9:04:43 PM   Report ID: 24741 Report: low water, small nymphs worked well tipped with a mag (6 hooked 3 landed). I also heard today that the fish commission shocked fifty fish from sixteen today too, Can anyone tell me what that's all about.

Date Fished: November 14-16 Location: Elk Water Conditions: Gin Clear, Low Posted By:  "kkeretz"      11/17/2009 3:56:36 PM   Report ID: 24740 Report: Went out for a couple days to pass some time, ended up catchin some decent fish. Sunday (15th) seemed to produce some active fish which sat in some moving water. Most success with tandem rigs (flashback egg patterns to a small stonefly nymph). Went out with some friends, and we were surprised at the lack of people showing up for the morning bites. Hopefully check it out mid november...need to do a rain dance or two.

Date Fished: 11-16-09 Location: walnut Water Conditions: low clear Posted By:  "softtail24"      11/17/2009 11:13:48 AM   Report ID: 24739 Report: Made the trip up from Johnstown. I landed 5 my dad landed 7 with a nice 17 inch brown trout and my son landed 2.

Date Fished: Location: mouth of elk Water Conditions: bad Posted By:  "nickbell2"      11/16/2009 8:15:39 PM   Report ID: 24738 Report: a week ago i was up and fishhed all morning for one hook up at the access me and a friend moved to the mouth where we found a guy catching a few on singles we moved in and we shot the bull with him as the fishinf progressed it seemed lik we was doing well every drift we was getting a hit slow but a hit landed a few but for bad conditions and fresh fish it was wonderful seemed like we could stand there for awhile and keep going until this no brain come floating up the creek in a float boat you got to be kidding me please tell me that it is not unlawful to walk into the water and flip this guy the water is 3 feet deep and elk creek has many places for walk in fisherman with out waders this guy ruined our day worst part about it is that he parked the boat and decided to fish near us after floating through please people have consideration alot of people travel along way to fish these creeks and enjoy a day away from work or home dont ruin it.

Date Fished: 11/13 AND 11/14 Location: OFF OF PRESQUE ISLE BAY Water Conditions: 2' OR LESS Posted By:  "Hammer Handle"      11/16/2009 8:48:59 AM   Report ID: 24737 Report: Went perch fishing this weekend. Friday we had a hard time finding the perch. We kept 16, average size 10" one perch was 14". We also caught 12 smelt in 58 fow. Saturday it took us 3-1/2 hours to find them. Fished off of the point in 53 fow. Kept 43, average size again 10". Two jumbos, one 12-1/2", one 13-1/2". Perfect day on lake, 60 degrees, sunny and the lake was dead calm. Time to put the boat away.

Date Fished: 11-15 Location: Presque Isle Bay Water Conditions: nice Posted By:  "saltydog"      11/15/2009 6:55:14 PM   Report ID: 24736 Report: caught about 100 perch, but only a couple keepers. saw a bald eagle busting up a group of ducks. trully awesome

Date Fished: 11/10-11/16 Location: Water Conditions: Posted By:  "joebaker79"      11/15/2009 5:08:46 PM   Report ID: 24735 Report: Water is low and stagnant in some places. For 5.5 days we worked what seemed like every inch of the larger waters. Low to high. Fish piled in best numbers in lower parts and bigger holes but water is low and crowds are not so fish dodging everything. Walking long distances only found other fishermen already on fish much of the time. Fish in upper sections are in small pockets and there are long stretches void of fish, and there is simply little room for many guys to fish them. When lake fished there was not fish staging for the most part....did not fish Trout Run but watched for a while and not many hookups were seen. In short every day fish were landed and many first Steelhead were landed. But not in the numbers we like and have had in better water. Hookups on everything from jigs, Flatfish, single eggs, nymphs and other fly patterns size 14 and smaller, yarn, small egg patterns, skein below falls, but nothing by itself produced more than others. Fish are stressed, it is low, and we need rain. It's no one's ideal conditions, but fish can be hooked if you work hard and put some miles in in the hopes of maybe finding some fish before others do. A few times when fish were found early it was easy, the rest of the day difficult to draw strikes. Wherever you fish make the best of the early hookups. Please keep WCO numbers on you to report violations. Way too many instances this week of snagging, keeping foul hooked fish, littering, etc. Not much you can do about behavior that may not be illegal such as standing in the middle of the stream or being crowded in but you can make do something about clear violations. Joe Baker Erie Steelhead Experience eriesteelheadexperience.com

Date Fished: 11-14-09 Location: ashtabula river Water Conditions: low-clear Posted By:  "genefly"      11/15/2009 12:28:55 PM   Report ID: 24734 Report: Low and clear conditions call for different techniques. The dry fly should get attention with fish suspended so high in the water column. A big Royal Wulff heavily dressed in floatant with a 12 inch dropper bead head prince. The prince got most of the action of course. Eight fish ate the dry fly. Legitimate takes, head out of the water, aggressive grabs. I had to wait for the water to warm up a little. The dry fly didn't bother the fish like a strike indicator would have. The fish were skiddish so you need to stay out of sight. A long leader of 3x flouorocarbon with a 4x dropper fished from a downstream location below the fish. The dropper got fish all day. This made for a very pleasant day with no foul hooked fish or snags in the rocks. I went through two dozen nymphs, most were chewed beyond recognition. I think the air temp was part on my success, making the fish more active and very strong fighters. I find myself wanting more low and clear conditions, WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?!!!!!

Date Fished: 11/13 11/14 Location: 12mile Water Conditions: low and clear Posted By:  "ishkabibble"      11/14/2009 10:21:55 PM   Report ID: 24733 Report: got 2 on friday and 1 on saturday --sure was tough going --water in the holes barely moving --there were many fish under the road at 12 but they sure were not doing alot --when they would chase each other you could get a foul hooked one but they were biting very little --surely do need rain --lots of jewelry on them there steel

Date Fished: 11/13/2009 Location: Elk Creek Water Conditions: Low & Clear Posted By:  "don629"      11/14/2009 9:04:03 PM   Report ID: 24732 Report: Fished Elk creek with my Son and Duaghter on Friday. It was their first steelhead trip, and my first trip for the year. We started at the conrail tubes to find the only fish pooled up in the tube at the south end. Combat fishing conditions! Quickly moved to the mouth of Elk were we were able to spread out and hook up with 2 fresh fish. The fish were eager to taste skein, but my kids were slow to set the hooks. Still, we managed a couple and the kid's first steel. The fish in Elk seem to be in the bottom end. They will bite if you find the right bait. The water is very low and clear. There were fewer people fishing the mouth than I had seen on any of my trips last year. Good Luck!

Date Fished: 11/08-11/10 Location: Grand and Catt Water Conditions: Excellent Posted By:  "Fish Pistol"      11/11/2009 3:23:33 PM   Report ID: 24730 Report: I've been spending a great deal of time fishing the grand from Madison to the mouth. Haven't had a day with less than 10 fish in a while. If you're going to fish it soon, you're going to want caddis patterns. Fished near egg fisherman the other day and out-fished them 5 to 1 on caddis flies alone. Being that the water is clearer you may need to scale down to a 12 or 14 with a 3/32 bead or 1/8 at the largest. Fished the Catt as well and have never been more impressed with the creek. The water is holding green and the flow was up. A ton of fresh fish have moved all the way up into NY waters. Got a heavy dose of my own medicine and got beat up by egg fisherman all day, literally beat up by some centre-pinners (a strain I'm unfamiliar with) slinging 8 gram floats with about 10 split shots and double egg sacs directly overhead from the bank. Took a few fish drifting but did the best swinging leech patterns in the lower ends of the runs. Both waters should fish real well into the weekend and wouldn't recommend going anywhere smaller.

Date Fished: 11/4-8 Location: Elk Water Conditions: Low, Clear Posted By:  "Pathfinder"      11/11/2009 12:47:31 PM   Report ID: 24729 Report: Most of the reports hit it solid. Low, clear, realtively few fish. Fish in holes surrounded by more fisherman than fish. A few fish in runs 1-2 feet deep. No fish moving during the day. Covered stream from Folly's to mouth. Very little flow at mouth. Surf fished the lake with spinning rods. Saw no fish rolling, moving, or being caught. Boats off mouth searched for fish. Saw none landed. Landed ~30 fish between two of us on fly rods over four days all hooked in mouth. Broke off several others and foul-hooked a few (unintentionally). Sounds like a lot of fish, but we worked very hard for each one and walked 2-4 miles during a day. Baitfish patterns like white zonkers, clousers, and wooly buggers, and size 12-14 prince nymphs were the ticket. Biggest fish caught on big buggers (dark). Hooked none on egg or sucker spawn patterns. 3 big split shot to get down to fish level. Many frustrated fisherman, but most were good companions. Helped a couple of guys build a good fly rig and saw them hook up. Now that was fun! Wait for a good rain. Locals say big run has not yet come in.

Date Fished: 11/8/09 Location: Elk Creek - Girard Park Water Conditions: CLEAR CLEAR CLEAR Posted By:  "bigcat15001"      11/9/2009 12:36:47 PM   Report ID: 24724 Report: Fished Elk Creek from the park to the disposal plant, and from the park to the "railroad bridge". Action was very very slow, with only the occasional fish being hooked, and even fewer landed. Used every color egg, sac and spawn I had with no hookups. Some were having minimal luck with live minnow. Elk most definatly needs rain to move more fish up to the holes. On an up note, the weather was beautiful, and we did not have to worry about missing the Steeler game.

Date Fished: 11/8/09 Location: 20 mile Water Conditions: low and clear Posted By:  "cerm"      11/9/2009 9:30:29 AM   Report ID: 24723 Report: I found a nice hole near the mouth. Fished from 7:30 to 11:30. Caught 3 nice fish, biggest was about 10lbs. Surprisingly I was alone most of the time.

Date Fished: November 7 & 8 Location: Conneaut Creek & Grand River Water Conditions: Low & Fairly Clear Posted By:  "carpinator"      11/9/2009 9:29:51 AM   Report ID: 24722 Report: My girlfriend and I went up for our second steelhead outing of the year. We figured that the rains of last week would have brought in a large run of fresh fish, considering the large number of reports of fish congregating at the mouths of creeks. It didn't take long to discover that our optimistic outlook was not going to play out. We fished two places (Rte. 5 bridge and in town), and it was clear that the fish just were not there (at least not in large numbers). We fished two-nymph rigs throughout the afternoon but didn't hook a single fish, and we only saw two fish hooked all day. We spent the night at Hollywood Motel in North Kingsville--an awesome hotel of a bygone era. I highly recommend this place (especially if you are a poor graduate student): only $40 bucks/night. We went to the Grand River on Sunday to check things out. We didn't fish, but merely watched for a while as a whole mob of people fished a promising run, but no fish were hooked. I don't know if it's too early in the season or we are just in need of a LOT more rain, but for now, things are not good. The beautiful weather this weekend certainly did not help.

Date Fished: Nov 01 - Nov 04 Location: Various creeks Water Conditions: From a bit high to low & clear Posted By:  "1flyman"      11/9/2009 8:56:19 AM   Report ID: 24721 Report: Fished various creeks and many sections of the popular waters. We hooked many fish in four days but if you didn't get up early and locate fish quickly you had to contend with many people. Almost all the sections we fished were mobbed. Only sections where you had to walk long distance to the water were we able to find unpressured fish. I'm a relative newcomer to Erie creeks and thought the lifters were only on the Salmon River. Saw more on this last trip than during my 2008 trips or my October 2009 trip. Some guys blatantly are lifting and keeping foul hooked fish. IMO there is just too much explicit info on this board about where to go and what to use. There are probably more lurkers here than guys who post and those lurkers look for posts blabbing about the dozens of steelhead that are in such and such a creek and go to a specific pool to limit out. Personally I think it is more fun to locate fish on your own and have an opportunity to fish alone, or with a buddy, than to share a bunch of fish with ten other guys. Admittedly the crowds were tough but with long leaders tipped to 3X or 4X and smaller flies one can enjoy the day.

Date Fished: October 30th - November 6th Location: Erie tributaries Water Conditions: good water until 11/01, then low and clear Posted By:  "landlocked"      11/9/2009 7:44:59 AM   Report ID: 24720 Report: So the skunk monkey crew made it back to Erie after a 2008 absence, and the outcome of the trip was fantastic. Fishing on Elk was great until November 2nd, then it seemed that most of the fish had moved way upstream, and indeed later in the week we fished up at Sterretania and did very well. Crooked creek holds only few fish these days, but if you find them you will find them to be BIG. The eastern tribs have a good concentration of fish, with an honorable mention being 20-Mile Creek, where we did very very well, especially November 6th in very clear water. You will do well if you read the water well, and use appropriate flies/nymphs. Do some reading (Nagy) and some exploration to find waters with rather little fishing pressure and you will hook those steelies. Yeah, little fishing pressure is hard to find during prime steelhead season, but if we can find it, you will too !! Thanks to everyone that joined us, thanks to the Tavern for great food, to the GRI for great lodging and for the PA Fish&Game Dep. for stocking the browns, which we will be looking forward to the next couple of years. Dress warm, fish fair and respect mother nature and everyone around you. Happy fishing to all of you !!

Date Fished: 11/6/09 Location: Lower/Mid Elk Water Conditions: Low and clear Posted By:  "OC Steelheader"      11/8/2009 11:52:48 PM   Report ID: 24719 Report: Fished railroad bridge to Girard Boro park in the A.M. Very few fish and no takers. Move to the flats in the afternoon, and joined about 8 people pounding the only visible fish at the wall. It reminded me of the fish tank set up at the Millcreek mall when I was a kid. Believe the bad reports - the water is very low, and the first surge of fish has moved upstream, and nothing else seems to be coming in.

Date Fished: 11-8-09 Location: Elk RT20 North Water Conditions: Low/Clear Posted By:  "pudge1970"      11/8/2009 10:53:45 PM   Report ID: 24718 Report: Got to the stream at 10:30 fished til 3:30. Went 4 for 6 in less than ideal conditions. ALL FAIR HOOKED!!! Size 14 Dark orange sucker spawn with 4lb. Mean green as leader took all strikes. saw no foul hooked fish. Tried green,chartruese,pink yellow,black, light orange, nymphs,white,white/red with no takers.Tons of fish in Elk below Rt.20. Suck it up and get out there...better than yard work!!

Date Fished: 11-06-09 - 11-07-09 Location: Elk and Walnut and mouth of Trout Run Water Conditions: Clear and Low Posted By:  "therock1559"      11/8/2009 9:13:23 PM   Report ID: 24714 Report: First time up to Erie and what a beautiful sight. Many fish in the streams but most were spooked. Had a few chasers and a few accidental snags but did not land any. In the creeks most of the fish that were caught were by the guys fly fishing. Most were snagged but for some reason no one was saying anything. With so many people around its funny how they just let people walk away with fish hooked by there gill plate or fins. If a fish is coming in sideways then you know that its foul hooked. Being from out of town no one listens to you. A few guys were getting sneeky and waited for the larger trout to come by and set the hook like it bit it. I guess it is normal for the locals to snag fish but I thought according to the Fish Commission its not. Oh well, I don't live there so not my issue. Where is the Fish Commission when you need them? The only place where I saw people really CATCHING fish was at the mouth of Trout Run. Floating green egg sacks and throwing Silver/Green spoons.

Date Fished: 11-8 Location: elk Water Conditions: low/gin clear Posted By:  "WaxWorm"      11/8/2009 6:36:57 PM   Report ID: 24713 Report: landed 4 missed a few others. tons of fish but most had lock jaw. used jigs,waxworms,single eggs and minnies. we need rain and cold temps.

Reports Archive (All older reports, by month)

Contact Us   Advertise With Us   Privacy Policy   Terms of Service FishErie is a FishUSA.com member site © Copyright 1998 - 2009 FishUSA, Inc.  All rights reserved.