2006 Spring Steelhead Report/News

The past steelhead season can be best described as wild and wacky with a relatively dry October and November, a cold, snowy December, a record warm January, a somewhat normal February and a very mild March. Very little ice cover occured on Lake Erie this winter with the tributaries themselves mostly ice free. The end result has been a marginal spring steelhead season so far with many steelhead already spawned out (especially in Pennsylvania). The flip side to this is that many drop down steelhead will be available in the tributaries until water temperatures become too warm to hold them by late April/early May. Although Pennsylvania strain steelhead are primarily a fall/winter run fish steelheaders should expect some "mini-runs" of fresh chrome into the Pennsylvania tributaries this April.

In Ohio the verdict is still out on the spring running Little Manistee steelhead (many have arrived early and spawned already) with strong runs possible in April if cold spring rains come. The Cattauragus Creek in New York has mostly been unfishable so far this spring due to late winter snow melt/rains. The smaller NY tributaries of Lake Erie (south and north of the Cat) have been fishing very well though. 

Around the Lake Erie region there are several items of note to the steelheader.

In Pennsylvania on March 31, 2006  the Northwest Pennsylvania Sportsmen's Coalition presented it's second annual Sportsmen's Forum in Albion, Pennsylvania. At the forum the executive director of the Pennsylvania Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs covered issues concerning the new Erie Bluffs State Park along the lower reaches of Elk Creek. Most importantly, Doug Austen, the executive director of the Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission, discussed the Lake Erie tributary access program. He also met with representatives of the Pennsylvania Steelhead Association and the Northwest Chapter of Trout Unlimited (prior to his presentation at the forum) to discuss in detail the public access issue.

In Ohio Lake Metroparks is in the process of acquiring approximately 20 acres on both sides of Kellogg Creek (a popular steelhead tributary of the Grand River) for $238,896. This section of land is located between the Lake Metropark's Greenway Corridor of Ravenna Road and the Lake Metropark Helen Hazen Wyman park off Route 86 in Lake County. Previously posted it will be now open to fishing as soon as the sale is finalized. Access will also be improved with a crushed limestone trail corridor linking the new park parcel with a bike path.

In New York Jim Markum, Chief Fisheries Biologist for the New York Department of Environmental Conservation, has confirmed that the Army Corp of Engineers is presently doing a feasibility study for installing a fish passage ladder on the Springville Dam on Cattaraugus Creek. The concept for this project was initiated by the DEC when it became fundable through Army Corp of Engineers dollars. If the project turns out to be feasible the DEC will also provide matching funds for the completion of the project.

Allowing fish to pass through the Springville Dam opens up 70 miles of water to steelhead fishing on Cattaraugus Creek. Jim Markum said that the DEC would like to manage this upper water strictly as a wild steelhead fishery (at the present time there is a resident population of both rainbow and browns with wild brookies in the most remote/upper areas). This upper water also has good public access (DFR land) with many areas already with DEC special fishing regulations in place. The DEC would prefer not to remove the Springville Dam since it provides an excellent barrier to lampreys and that a lamprey proof fish ladder design would be a priority.

The DEC is very aware of the both resident and wild populations of trout in this upper water and is carefully reviewing Michigan studies that show impacts/effects of steelhead runs on trout populations.

The ball on this project has just started to roll and public meetings (for input/opinions) will certainly be on the aggenda in the future.