Stream Fished: Steelhead Alley
Date: 04-28-2018
Angler Name: Skip Nault
Angler Age: 78
Angler Home: Wooster
Fishing Tackle: Fly Fishing
Fish Caught: Steelhead
Steelhead Caught: 11
Comments: Steve Slack and I fished Conneaut Creek for 2 days, 4/27 and 4/28. Over those 2 days we landed 11 steelhead and hooked up with and lost many more than that. The bonus fish was a 5-pound small mouth bass Steve caught on of all things, a pink sucker spawn. We fished mostly with a small white death zonker or a Mickey Finn trailing the egg pattern. Most success was with the Finn which I tied with hour glass eyes to get the small streamer pattern to the bottom of the stream. All fishing was under a strike indicator. We lost a ton of flies on the rocky bottom of the stream.
Water levels low both days. The first day was a sunny, bright day, water temp 57F and the steelhead still hit our flies mid-day. Air temps were in the high 60's. Second day was much colder, following overnight and early morning rain, we fished with cloudy skies and air temp in high 30's. Water temp dropped to 49F. Both days were equally productive. We found pods of spawning steelhead along two stretches of the Connie. We were surprised to find very few anglers on the four stretches of the stream we fished. Talked to another angler who had similar results with steelhead catch, a big small mouth and two species of suckers, some of them pretty good sized.
With the warmer water, the steelhead fought hard and many provided us with an acrobatic show of their leaping ability. Fish ranged in size from 2 to 5 pounds.