So Close...Yet So Far

Steelhead Alley is only three hours away....three short hours. Three hours is a very short drive to go fishing, especially for steelhead, but it is a very long drive when the water and weather are going to be iffy. Fall fishing in the alley usually means swinging flies, and swinging flies is fun.

Last fall we had to deal with low water which sowed the run down.  Then we fished through downpours that muddied up the rivers in a matter of hours and blew them out for three days. Another time is was 5° F temperatures and trying to punch flies through self ice. 

This fall two of our trips to Steelhead Alley have already been literally washed out by heavy rains and run-off pushing high water through the Lake Erie tributaries, and there is now rain in the forecast looming our next scheduled trip. Rain is great and we need it to keep those shale rivers flowing, but our trips seem to be hitting the rain and not the prime conditions that occur after wards. I guess this is just the price of admission for steelhead fisherman while others will say that we are "paying our dues." I really can't complain too much though. There are guys on the West Coast that swing flies for days on end through perfect conditions just hoping for a tug, but I am jealous of the fly fisherman who call Ohio's North Coast their home.


A full box of steelhead streamers eager to go for a swim



We are not going to cancel another trip though.  We are going to find fish come hell or high water.