Fishing Adventures: Transitions

Warm temps and two weeks of low water might mean the end of steelhead season and the beginning of trout and warm water seasons. The lake-run small mouth are in the rivers, the suckers have spawned. Elsewhere, hatches are early and water is at June levels. There are still a few steelhead in the rivers, but water temps are close to 70 degrees which will put an end to the run.

Looks like Steelhead season is just about over.

I've been out three times in the past few days. The first day I fished a spot near the house, it was about 75 degrees and sunny out, the water was about 67 degrees, allowing me to wade wet. I caught one smallie and had another chase the fly and turn away at the tip of my rod.

The next time out I went trout fishing on Neshannock Creek. The water was low and clear. It was about 60 degrees out, I didn't take a water temp reading. I talked to a couple of guys in the parking lot, one had done well on top and the other guy struck out. Fish were rising, but I had a streamer rigged so I fished the streamer for a while to no avail. After a while and seeing rising all over the place I tied on a caddis with a dropper. I fished the dry for a little while before I had to head back to the car with nothing to show for it. In hind sight, I should have fished the dry the whole time or fished a nymph rig. The water was too low for streamers.

I went out on the 19th for an hour or so before my wife got home from work. The water was about 67 degrees and the air was 72 degrees. I wore shorts and waded wet. I fished a crayfish and a white streamer pattern. I fished the baseball diamond near the house. the water was low and clear, like it is in the summer. There was a dead steelhead on the bank which was a sign that the steelhead run is over. The warm water species were pretty active. I caught a few smallies, chubs, sunfish, and some fat rock bass. As I was drifting the streamer through fast water just below a riffle I hooked into a beast of a fish, I thought it was pre-spawn smallmouth. As it surfaced, I realized its back was spotted and its sides weren't green, it was a STEELHEAD! I beached the fish, as I was reaching for the camera the line slacked as the rod tip got tangled in a tree, the fish flopped off the hook and wiggled its way back into the water. The steelhead was gone, my line and rod was all tangled in a tree, and I was standing there with camera in hand defeated.