It is hard to tell Autumn has arrived in northeast Ohio. The calendar says it is October but most of the trees have not begun their journey from green to orange, red, or yellow. And with temperatures touching the upper 70’s, low 80’s since late September you would almost think it’s August. But steelhead fishermen know better, thanks to a series of storms that dumped up to 3” of rain in steelhead alley. This allowed the first run of chrome to enter the rivers.
Experienced fishermen in the alley know how important a late September storm is to jumpstarting the steelhead season. It’s difficult to put a number to it, but the initial run is usually the smallest of the season. The steelhead that are part of the initial run are found in the lower sections of the rivers. Occasionally a small number of dime-bright chromers may make it further upstream. A few years ago I caught one about 15 miles upstream in mid-September but I thought that was an outlier…..until today.
A one-day cold front knocked the morning temps into the 40’s. I thought it was going to be a tough day. And it was for about a half hour. My favorite stretch of water on the Grand River is about 10 miles upstream from the mouth. Tying on a tan woolly bugger I began working downstream and started swinging through a nice run. I was soon into a cast, swing, step rhythm. Then, after about 25 yards, a tug that I hadn’t felt since last spring jolted me out of that rhythm. Immediately the fish took off downstream, jumped a couple of times, and then reversed course, heading upstream. A couple of minutes later, after making a few more runs, I was able to get the fish into the shallows where the net scooped up a fresh, bright chromer. You have to love the fight that a fresh steelhead gives you. I’m hoping this is the first of many.
26" of pure energy.
(Click on image for larger view.)
Go out and fool a fish!
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