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From The River Report
By: Don Dfishinfool Mathews
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11-28-01 Wed. update Jeff fished the Elk with Shawn and the boy's from Marietta. Found the river in nice shape and caught lot's. Shawn's group were all experienced at fly fishing for trout and all have steelhead fever now. Fish were on the move upriver and could be found in the rapids and the pool's. Water temp has warmed to 48*. Rain has brought geat numbers of fish upriver and some of Pa's best fishing of the year could be here. Egg patterns and floats were hot. It will pay to keep close watch of river conditions for that prime period.good reports can be had on fish Erie reports page. Poor Richards post's up to date river conditions there.
11-28-01 Wed. As I look out at the rain I must admit I am a bit jelous at those who have been fishing. I have heard that the fishing has been great. I have been playing dog the last couple of day's . I was lucky enough to score a six point buck first thing monday morning. So I have spent the last couple of day's driving deer for my buddies it's a tradition . We have been seeing lots of deer but I must admit I can't wait to get the fly rod back in my hand. Look's like I'll get up to the river's on Fri. and I'll try to post a report that night. This rain should be bringing ton's of fish upriver and condition's should be great as the river's clear. GOOD LUCK !!!
11-25-01 Sunday Rain !!! Look's like this rain will bring the rivers up. I'll miss the action as this is my deer hunt week. I still hope to make it to the streams later in the week . Fishing should be great for those not hunting. GOOD LUCK !!
11-24-01 Sat. Fished with Paul from California and Adrian from Ohio. Paul made the trip to chase steelhead and hunt Ohio's trophy whitetails. We had a good day on the Elk despite the low clear conditions. Paul got his wallhanger and him and Adrian hooked lots of fish. We used alot of fly's switching patterns often. Some hens were dropping eggs when we landed them . Fish were in the deeper holes early and noticed good numbers moving upriver when it clouded up in the afternoon. Paul is a African outfitter and Adrian is a booking agent. These two are first class hunters and fishermen. They have hunted and fished in those places most of us only dream about.I would highly recomend them to anyone looking to book a African safari. Check them out on the web at WWW.allafricansafaris.com
11-23-01 Fri I was joined by Larry from Boston and Dave from cleveland for a day of fly fishing. We started at first light at Elk creek . Water has turned low and clear. There still are fair to good numbers of fish in the river. We had success all day long but we had to work at it. Larry and Daves excellent casting ability made it alot easier. Dave made the double digit club and Larry was close behind. Fish started off wanting white #14 sucker spawn. As the day went on we switched to #10 moe eggs in natural colors. Light florocarbon tippets were a must. Conditions will remain the same until we get some rain, lots of fish but tough fishing. We need rain. GOOD LUCK !!!! Don
11-21-01 Wed. Started at walnut today and the rain had brought the water up a few inches and gave it a little color but it was clearing very quickly. River is loaded with fish and they are fresh chromers. Spent a few hours here and took lots of fish on egg patterns and Crystal minnows. Next we headed over to Elk creek and found it a nice greenish tint. Water has came up enough to alow the fish that were stacked at the mouth to start upriver. We did very good here also. Caught a huge 32" male that made jump after jump . Fish wanted the crystal minnows and clousers here. Fish will be spread out through the rivers but without more rain the rivers will turn crystal clear very quickly. A friend fished Conneaut today and reported it to be in nice shape he caught fish both downriver and way upstream. He reported minnows and spawn sacks were hot here. Looks like tomorrow will be a great day for those fortunate enough to make it out. Hope everybody has a happy thanksgiving holiday!!! Don
11-18-01 Sun What a day! I traveled back to Oak Orchard N.Y. this weekend with my wife Erma. We got a early start Sunday morning and were left in awe at the meteor shower.This was my wife (Erma's) first day flyfishing. I wish everybody learned as quick as she did. On her second cast of the morning she hooked and landed a nice 6# brown trout. She gave it 100% and was rewarded with five browns and a nice steelie. She accidently foul hooked a couple of others and quickly broke them off without being told. She sure made me proud, and a great day was had by all. The boys ,Tom ,Jeff and I landed fish after fish. We spent as much time waiting on others to land fish as we did fishing. Tom landed a nice 12# 4oz brown and we caught several other hog browns. King salmon were still present in the river and we landed a bunch of them. They were beat up bad but still willing to hit. Steelhead are showing up in good numbers also. #12 sucker spawn in orange was the ticket. They shut the dam off Sat night and the flow had slowed to a trickle so I doubt the good fishing will last. It should pick up again when they open the dam.GOOD LUCK !!! Don
11-16-01 Friday Sorry no report yesterday, had a long day. Last
few days have been following the same routine. Starting early in the morning at the Elk access and trying to hit the freshies as they come in it the morning. Seems to go good for a while there then peter out as the day goes on. saw a few making it up past the boat ramp thurs. but mainly they are staging in the lower river. Foul hookups are unavoidable with the numbers of fish. Bait fishermen are doing good on minnows and powerbait. After lunch we have been hitting the skinny water and walking. Not very high numbers of fish but have had enough action to keep it fun. We have had our best success on small minnow patterns and # 12 sucker spawn in natural colors. Water is ultra clear and the rain Thurs. didn't affect the creeks. Did catch a lost king salmon on thurs. I estimate at 15# quick photo and release but he was beat up bad (Missing tail) probably fertilizer by now. With all the flys we broke off in fish at the access and lost in the trees upriver I'll be at the bench late tonight. Looks like we might get some rain next week . Keep those raindances up. Don
.11-10-01 Sat Made the trip to Oak Orchard in western New York. This is a new stretch of river to me and I met up with Tom AKA eggsack. His intimate knowledge of the river made the day a great success. We landed lots of kings to 30# and browns to 11#. The action continued all day long and if I wrote the numbers nobody would believe me anyhow. We used size #10 kevorkians and #8 estaz eggs. Kings were on their last leg and browns were gorging on their eggs. Amazed at the absolute lack of litter and how everbody imediatly broke off foul hooked fish so they didn't tie the hole up. Great company for a GREAT day on the river. See the pictures CLICK HERE Don
11-07-01 Decided to fish Elk again today even after yesterdays poor success. My brother Brian wanted to practice with the flyrod as he is new to flyfishing. It turned out to be another beautiful fall day. We had much better success than we had on tues. I landed five and Brian landed two. We were using #10 Black stonefly's and crystal minnows. Had to keep moving around the pool and long casting to the fish. Seemed like a bigger than usual crowd on Wed. Saw a couple of guys hooking them quite regular. When we walked by noticed they were using little cleo's. A while later a fish swam by with a little cleo in it's back. I don't think these fellows were intentionaly snagging they just lacked common sense. Spoons are effective lures on steelies but please replace the trebbles with single hooks when fishing the streams. You will not loose as many to snags also. Water at Elk creek is still very low and clear. Elk creek would probably be your best bet for the weekend as there are still lots of fish and on Wed. we saw pods of fresh fish moving up even in the very low water. I drove over conneaut and the grand and both of them are very low and clear also. Think I'll fish N.Y. this weekend as they got some rain . Salmon river is actually too high. Hope to cash in on the last of the Kings. Don
11-06-01 Tues. Fished with Don from Painsville. Don has fished for years with the noodle rod but wanted to learn to flyfish. We fished all over on Elk Creek and had no luck getting the fish to bite. The fish were there but we couldn't get them to take anything. Had a total of three fish on the line and it would have been a skunk if it weren't for a smolt . Tried every fly in the box. Weather was beautiful . Water is low and very clear at Elk and all of the tribs. We need rain.
11-04-01 Sun Jeff fished with Dave from Ohio and they started at Conneaut with the noodle rods an fresh eggs. Dave caught six here before lunch. They then headed to Elk Creek and fished the lower section with the fly rod. Dave caught two more here. Water level continues to drop but there are fish in both rivers. Of course Elk creek on the Pa. side has bigger numbers of fish. Elk is crystal clear and Conneaut is almost crystal clear.
11-03-01 Sat. Started before light to get Jeffs favorite spot on lower Elk creek. We got the spot and the fish were there. Getting them to hit was the hard part. We did manage to catch a few on crystal minnows . about 9:00 we took a walk through some fast water and found a few fish tucked back in a tree. We had some takes here but it was futile to land them on 4# test in the trees so we gave up , but not before I landed a nice little 18 brown out of the trees. After lunch we headed way upriver and did some walking we found a few fish scattered in the pockets but didn't have great success getting them to hit. But we had a few takes on egg patterns repeatedly cast into the pockets. Only the deeper holes alowed the fish room to fight. We landed a few more including a nice fat hen jeff caught. Water is crystal clear on the Elk and I didn't see Conneaut in the daylight but a friend of mine did real good trolling in the harbor untill a ship stirred the water up. C YA ON THE RIVER ! Don
11-28-01 Chuck on the Elk with jeff behind fishing the tree's with his new Orvis 10' steelheader LOL!
11-26-01 Opening morning
11-24-01 Paul with a nice Elk creek steelie
11-23 Dave's huge Elk steelie
11-23-01 crew at the Elk
11-21-01 Elk Creek Steelie
11-18-01 Erma's first steelie and Brown
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11-03-01 Jeff Elk Hen