Lake Erie Steelhead

Sunday November 17th, Jodi and I visited Trout Run in PA where Rt. 98 ends at Lake Erie. There is a large parking lot there beside a small creek. The parking lot was filled with vehicles of fisherman and  curious sightseers like the two of us. Everyone was there to witness the migration of stocked rainbow trout or Steelhead (the migrating variant found wild in the Pacific ocean). There were about 20 men wading hip-deep in the cold November lake water, trying to catch these large fish before they made it into the stream. It is Illegal to fish in this particular stream because the steelhead are packed in so tight that it would be like shooting monkeys in a barrel. They are packed in so tight because there is a dam maybe 400 ft. up stream. The dam was put there intentionally to block the fish from mingling with native species inland, and possibly infecting them.

Steelhead in the pool below the dam

Jodi meets the steelhead

Fisherman in front of the stream outlet waiting to catch trophy fish

Catch and Release in action. Notice the size of the fish tail