Big Bright Female
I still look forward to the coming and passing of Halloween but for a different reason. November signals the start of the larger Steelhead that begin to ascending the rivers flowing into the Great Lakes. These 4 and 5 year old fish weighing in at 7lbs and up will run the rivers till freeze up. For the next two months, I will have ample opportunity to pursue these larger fish but Halloween tells me that the season for these big Steelhead has begun.
Planning my adventure began with looking at the flow charts yesterday and selecting a river to go to. The Cattaraugus is a large creek that flows into Lake Erie. Although it is classified as a creek based on it’s width and depth, it is a big river to me (it’s 68 miles long). 7 days have past since the last major rain so the Catt should be running clear, my ideal conditions to fish in. Last night, I tied up about 60 small roe bags in peach, chartreuse and yellow.
A 2 hour drive and a 15 minute wait at the US customs at Fort Erie had me on the river at 8:30am. I started somewhere not too far from Gowanda mainly because I had to get a quick breakfast and coffee at McDonald’s. With recent cold weather, I wasn’t expecting much to happen till after 10am which would give the sun enough time to warm up the water. Usually, there are a handful of fishermen here so I stopped to fish a bit and see if anything was happening. Fishermen were coming and going and I didn’t see anyone hook fish so I quickly left after 30 minutes to hit a section of the river about 5 kms further downriver which would be less crowded.
A quick 5 minute drive in my truck and I was at my next location. The large pool was void of anglers. I quickly took a temperature reading of the water to help me decide what type of water to drift through first. If I can work this pool for a while, I be sure to hit a few fish as I know from past experience where they would sit in 44 degrees Fahrenheit. I hooked into a skipper (small Steelhead) when my drift was off of the main current. It seems the smaller fish tend to be on the side of the main flow when the flow is high so I started to drift down the main flow to see if I could hook into something bigger. I was able to hook into a fish of about 7lbs in the main flow soon after. After a few runs made by this fish, I was able to beach the fish, take a few pictures and release it. The action was pretty consistent from 10am onward till 3:30pm when I left the river to head home. Most fish were 5lbs and up and silver. About 1/2 of the fish that were hooked broke the surface which meant the water temperature had dropped somewhat from previous days.
On a side note, I broke my Loomis 15′ MX float rod in September when the line wrapped around the top guide as I hooked into a Pink Salmon. I had that rod replaced under warranty with a Loomis 13′4″ 1601 float rod which happens to be a nice rod, much better than a MX. I did get my hands on a Loomis 15′ GLX float rod. I am really enjoying this rod and I find it fits well for large flows like the Catt.
Same Fish
Coloured Female
