#WEstern New York Steelheaders – Share the Outdoors

Decision making can be confusing, but it’s all about beads, bugs, and other related decisions – like color.
Look for: soft seams alongside faster current, inside bends with depth, gravel tailouts below riffles
Hard beads excel in higher, stained water for durability and consistent profile. Soft beads shine in clearer flows.

Spring steelhead don’t sit still. Fresh fish push through faster water, pause in transition zones, then slide into deeper pools. *Adam McInerney photo*

By Forrest Fisher

Ohhh yeah, this is that time of year. The snowbanks are shrinking, the tributaries are waking up, and chrome is on the move.

Western New York’s Lake Erie streams are officially in go mode, and if you’ve been pacing around the garage staring at your waders, it’s time.

Every thaw pushes new steelhead upstream, and this year’s steady melt cycles are doing exactly what anglers hope they’ll do: refreshing the runs and keeping fish moving. Each bump in water level invites another wave of chrome-bright steelhead into the tributaries. That means aggressive fish, less pressured fish, and fish that haven’t seen every bead in the tackle box yet.

The larger systems like Cattaraugus Creek tend to hold muddy water longer, but they stay fishable even after bigger melt events. When other creeks drop and clear quickly, the Catt often keeps that perfect steelhead green tint for days. If you like covering water and hunting for pods of fresh fish, pick your playground.

Meanwhile, smaller tributaries such as Chautauqua Creek, Canadaway Creek, and Silver Creek respond fast to weather swings. They rise quickly with snowmelt or rain — and they typically drop just as fast. That means timing is everything. Hit them on the drop when flows are falling, clarity improves, and you might find fish stacked in classic runs, tailouts, and deeper bends.

This is prime wool sock and chest-high wader season. Mornings still bite, but by midday you’ll feel that spring sun on your shoulders. The fish do too, and they become more active. Layer smart, pack dry gloves, and don’t forget that second thermos. Steelhead fishing in Western New York rewards the angler who’s comfortable enough to stay out “just one more drift.” And trust me — this is not the time to leave early.

Decision making can be confusing, but it’s all about beads, bugs, and other related decisions – like color. That’s one of the joys of tributary season: Options.

Hard beads excel in higher, stained water when you want durability and a consistent profile. Peg them clean and drift them naturally; that dead-drift is everything.

Soft beads shine in clearer flows. They move subtly and compress when fish bite, often leading to better hook-ups in pressured water.

Small jigs tied in never-before-seen colors can also fool fish. *Will Watkins photo*

Small jigs tied in never-before-seen colors can also fool fish. When flows bump up or visibility drops, don’t hesitate to go bold. Larger profile offerings and brighter colors can trigger reaction strikes from fish pushing upstream.

For fly anglers, streamer patterns can be downright electric when steelhead are fresh and aggressive. Swinging flies through tailouts or stripping them through softer seams can produce those heart-stopping grabs. Meanwhile, nymphs and glo-bugs remain steady producers when fish settle into holding water. If they’re hugging bottom, get down to them, adjust split shot and leader length until you’re ticking occasionally. If you’re not occasionally losing a rig to the rocks, you’re probably not deep enough.

Spring steelhead don’t sit still. Fresh fish push through faster water, pause in transition zones, then slide into deeper pools. Cover water deliberately. Make thoughtful drifts. Change angles. If a run looks right, give it multiple passes before moving on, but don’t camp too long if you’re not seeing signs of life.

Adam McInerney fished yesterday and said, “It was beautiful and sunny, but a cold day on the cricks. The temperature was down in the teens this morning, so I fought a lot of slush. The water temp was right at 32 degrees, but I still managed to put a few fish in the net.”

Hard beads excel in higher, stained water for durability and consistent profile. Soft beads shine in clearer flows. Homemade jigs can work well too. *Andrew Frelock photo*

Look for: soft seams alongside faster current, inside bends with depth, gravel tailouts below riffles, and don’t pass up speed runs with 2–4 feet of visibility.

Remember, too, that every melt cycle can reposition fish. Yesterday’s empty run might be loaded today.

What’s ahead? Line-stretching fun. The forecast? More melt, more movement, more opportunity.

As long as temperatures continue their gradual climb, waves of steelhead will keep entering the tributaries. The mix of drop-back fish and fresh chrome means strong fights, acrobatic runs, and that unmistakable scream of a reel under pressure.

There’s something special about this early spring window. The air smells like thawing earth instead of winter. And every drift carries that feeling that something powerful could grab hold at any second. So, dust off the waders. Re-spool that reel. Organize the bead box. Western New York’s Lake Erie tributaries are flowing, fresh steelhead are charging upstream, and the kind of days that bend rods and stretch lines are stacking up fast.

If you’ve been waiting for a sign, this is it. Visit the Western New York Steelheaders on Facebook to learn much more from more than 7,000 members in that club. Drop a note to President Gerald Brydalski, also on Facebook, for more information about catching steelhead in Western New York. Visit the New yok State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) for rules and regulations.

Gotta Love the Outdoors.

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

*Tiny Walnut Creek flows into Silver Creek near the creekmouth close to Lake Erie, and young angler, Andrew Frelock, found a way to fool some wary fish in the Chautauqua County headwaters of the creek.*

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.

**This tiny little jig is about one-inch long and fooled steelhead in the clear water fishing conditions the last several days. See the story for details. Andrew Frelock photo.**

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.” 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.