I returned north to tributaries of Lake Erie, fishing for steelheads (a lake run rainbow trout). My brother Larry and long time friend Steve Mayfield, both of them being retired and always up for a new adventure, agreed to join me.
I had planed the trip for a while. With a little investigation on the internet, I picked a date that would not interfere with the up coming Turkey and crappie season. The area we went too is known as Steel Head Alley which included Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York.
To help us on our quest for steelheads I contacted a guide in Ohio by the name of Don Mathews from fishinfool guide service.
We got a call two days earlier than our scheduled departure date from our guide telling us that the rivers would be low enough to fish and the bite was on. During this time of year rains or melting snow can raise the rivers to unfishable levels.
We headed up noon on Tuesday for a 9 hour drive, which took us closer to 11 hours because of wrong turns (We even had a GPS) and purchasing a license from Wal-Mart after hours was also a delay.
We met the guide the next morning, slipped into our waders, and were soon on the river. The three of use are novice fly rod fishermen at best and are more comfortable with a spinning rod and a coffee can of worms. The guide was not against us using spinning tackle; in fact he carried three spinning rods the entire time, but suggested that we try the fly rods first.
Before Steve and I could get rigged up, Larry had a nice fish landed. Minutes later we were all in fish, several times all three of use having fish on at the same time. This kept Don busy dipping up fish and taking pictures, which he did well. We may not have been the poster children for Orvis fly rod equipment but did appreciate the quality of the equipment and now have a new respect for fly rod fishing. The fly rod made it easy to present the lure in front of the fish repeatedly to trigger a strike.
It was now time to crack open the packed lunches and swap some stories. Lucky for us, Don had some West Virginia relatives that where the hillbilly of most of his jokes.
By the end of the day we had landed over 45 fish with some pushing the 13 pound mark and lost that many as well. We were beat and ready to call it a day. We set the meeting place for the next days fishing and parted our ways.
On advise from the lady working the front desk of our hotel we headed off for some of the worst Chinese food that I have ever eating. If it wasn’t for the soft serve ice cream, I would have went to bed hungry.
We awoke with excitement of a repeat of the previous days fishing. The fish in this river were spread out and were in smaller schools. The first area that we fished produced several nice fish. We moved down the river and picked up fish just about every where we tried.
It was noon and time for lunch. Don left us at the river to fish while he went back to the vehicle to prepare lunch. We fished for about 30 minutes and headed back to the vehicle for lunch. We had parked at a school overflow parking lot that Don had gotten permission to use earlier. When we arrived, it looked like a tailgate party. He was grilling chicken breast and had camp chairs set up for us. As we were eating, the Principle of the school came by to check on us and ask us not to be their when the parents returned to pick up their children. I guess we did look a little like gypsies.
Besides the quality of fish and the hospitality of our guide, the one thing that surprised me most was the lack of fishing pressure on the rivers. We may have seen a total of ten other fishermen in two days. On local trout steams like Citico creek or Tellico creek which are smaller rivers with much smaller fish, you would see hundreds of fishermen on the river.
I would highly recommend a Steelhead Alley fishing trip to anyone that likes to catch trout and Don Mathews would be an excellent choice for a guide.
Take someone fishing, Greg
