Tiny Trout, Thrilling Catch

On Saturday evening I caught the smallest steelhead of my life and was thrilled to do so. This tiny smolt was my first-ever river-born steelhead that I've caught in the Lake Erie watershed.

From Chautaqua Creek 2010

There is little reproduction of steelhead in the Lake Erie streams because they get too warm in the summer for the smolts to survive. But Chautaqua's water quality and temperatures do support steelhead until they head downstream to the lake to grow up.

Unlike hatchery fish, this steelhead has an upright dorsal fin. Would love to meet up with this fish again in a few years.

Chautaqua's Beauty

Judge John said it best:

"I fish because ... I love the environs where trout are found, which are invariably beautiful, and hate the environs where crowds of people are found, which are invariably ugly."

Chautaqua Creek is as beautiful a south shore Lake Erie stream as I've fished. Jack and I explored it on Saturday and Sunday. The leaves were far from peak, but the woods were still painted in yellows, browns and crimson. Each turn in the river offered a new miniature waterfall where the whitewater plunged through shoots, rushed across gray shale, and then fell to the pools below. The river's rumble drowned out the geese overhead. The only reminders of civilization were the occasional freight trains heading both east and west along the tracks that parallel the lake's shoreline.

From Chautaqua Creek 2010

The steelhead cooperated, as well. Their silver flash, green backs, pink stripes and red gill plates added to nature's abundant palette.

From Chautaqua Creek 2010

Judge John was fortunate to be able to leave the crowded environs and return permanently to his beloved northwoods. I am back in the ugly place were crowds are found, but I carry the memories of Chautaqua's beauty with me.

From Chautaqua Creek 2010

Newbie Lessons

On the drive east to explore Chautaqua Creek, Jack (a steelhead rookie) asked a very good question. What are the most common reasons why an angler loses a steelhead? Over the next 48 hours Jack would learn the answers for himself, and a few other lessons too.

Friday night wee declared Saturday to be a learning day and Sunday to be a doing day. And things worked out pretty much that way. Here are five of the lessons that all newbies learn as they explore Steelhead Alley for the first time.

1. Forget the back cast -- there's too many trees back there on the narrow streams that flow into Lake Erie. A simple roll cast or flip cast (with the help of a few split shot) does the trick most of the time.

From Chautaqua Creek 2010

2. Without a good drift there will be no fish. A drag free drift is necessary in most types of fly fishing. But I've found that steelhead are much less forgiving than most trout, particularly the hatchery fish that many new anglers cut their teeth on. Getting a good drift requires the angler to pay close attention and understand what is happening under the water. No daydreaming.

3. Set the hook downstream. The fish are facing upstream. An upstream hook set simply pulls the hook from the fish's mouth.

4. Set the hook even if you think it's the bottom. Steelhead hug the bottom for the most part, and that's where the fly needs to be. That means your flies are going to get caught on the bottom. Any pause in the drift, set the hook. Jack learned that sometimes the bottom moves and puts up a heck of a fight.

5. Don't hold the line or the reel too tight. When steelhead take off nothing can stop them, just let them go. Having a death grip on the cork with the line underneath your fingers will result in a snapped leader, punctuated with a sharp crack that sounds like a gun shot.

From Chautaqua Creek 2010

Learn these lessons and you too can find yourself getting ready to release a mighty steelhead into a Lake Erie tributary.