- Steelhead Alley in Chautauqua County, NY offers 5 streams with tributaries off each of these for steelhead angler choices.
- The streams rise and fall – low water moves the fish back to the lake, rainfall brings them back in. Multiple priods of “great fishing” occur.
By Forrest Fisher
The southern shoreline of Lake Erie, which includes Northeastern Ohio, Pennsylvania and Western New York, offers many tributaries for spring, fall and winter steelhead fishing. The great variety of tributaries is well known for its steelhead runs, and anglers travel from near and far to test their skills here. Anglers use various techniques, including open-face spinning, fly fishing and center-pin fishing.
There are five Lake Erie tributary fishing streams in Chautauqua County and each spring, they articulate through a metamorphosis of sorts, from overflowing banks with excessive snowmelt to extremely low-flow conditions. The result of low flow in spring is clear water and spooky fish, prompting anglers to use their very best stealth tactics. But when clear water prevails, the anticipation of rainfall becomes a beacon of hope, promising to move the streams closer to perfect for spring fishing. As streams rise and fall, low water moves the fish back down to the lake, and rainfall brings them back up to the upper end of the creeks – or as far as they can go, resulting in multiple periods of “great fishing.” The cycle allows returning fish to rejoin the streams, relax and head into a spawning/feeding period during which anglers may expect to test their stretched lines and full parabolic bending rods.
Durng the low flow, clear water periods, crafty anglers like Andrew Frelock head upstream to check on pockets and holes that may have isolated some numbers of fish from migrating downstream. It’s a smart play, though not all anglers think of trying it. Moving to one of his favorite spots in tiny Walnut Creek, Frelock confesses, “It was a couple of hours before I found any fish, and finally, I did manage to fool one fish. Tiny Walnut Creek flows into Silver Creek near the mouth with productive fishing upstream to the falls located below Route 39 in Forestville. Continuing, Frelock shared, “I threw egg sacks with brown trout eggs and some typical Marabou-style jigs with nothing to show. My cousin and I believe I “Matched the Hatch” with a jig that I threw on.” Frelock crafts his own jigs as the understudy of his mentor, Gerald Brydalski. Brydalski owns Jigmaster Jigs and administers the social internet sites of “Western New York Steelheaders” and “Steelhead Jig Tying.” Brydalski has helped legions of anglers to learn more about catching steelhead.
Frelock continued, “It was a different style jig that I was gifted from the very kind Ryan Lassick at the Hairy Trout Tackle Store during their jig-tying night. The run we fished was not far from the car; it warmed up later that day, and we were both exhausted from the heat in our waders. It was a good thing we didn’t pass that pocket.” It was a sunny day that day. Frelock added, “We found that good pocket; it had a slate drop that deepened to about 4 – 5 ft and was about a 20-yard drift. The fish hit right off that slate drop. I twitched the jig three times, and the bobber went shooting down. After I landed the fish and took some pictures, about 15 minutes later, I had another take, only this time at the tail end of the drift. Had it hooked for a minute, and it shot downstream. To be honest, I lost that fish due to hesitation. If I were to move with the fish even the slightest, I would have had a better chance, but hey, they call it fishing, not catching!”
Adding more details to share, Frelock shared, “The jig is crafted out of chenille and hackle. You tie the long end of the chenille of the back and wrap the hackle around that, then fold it back into the jig to get the tail. The remaining chenille becomes the body.” This ‘Chenille and Hackle’ technique involves using chenille, a type of yarn, and hackle, a type of feather in the colors shown, to create a jig that mimics the appearance and movement of a natural food source for the steelhead. I thank Andrew for sharing these details, which I’m sure every steelhead angler will find invaluable. I must admit that the jig that fooled the fish that day was tiny and not very handsome.
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Gotta love the outdoors.