Steelhead fishing in the good old days
Steelhead anglers, especially the older ones, love to talk about the good old days. They lament about how today’s popularity has caused steelhead fishing to be too few fish resources for too many anglers. They point to the posters and stream access restrictions as the result of a good thing that has gone bad. In some respects, they are correct. We already covered that in “property rights and wrongs” article. This blog and vintage video are about an opportunity to time travel. Back 16 years.
Many of today’s anglers have no idea what the Trout Run “pig pen” was or why it was called by that name. They never saw the fast water riffles below the Elk Creek mud hole or the days before there was an Elk Creek mud hole for that matter. So much has changed.
The good news is Great Lake’s steelhead fishing has evolved and still it remains one of the greatest fishing experiences in America.
Before IPhone and Go Pro, I started capturing video clips in 2006 with a small Canon camera that had a video mode. They were short since the camera storage capacity was limited.
Since then, all sorts of video capabilities were invented and employed to record nearly every moment of life to the point that no one has the time to view the footage. Anglers are a different breed so I thought they would be interested in seeing the Erie fishery nearly two-decades ago.
Before deleting 72 steelhead video clips that span over three hours of viewing time, I created a movie to preserve the 2006-2008 good old days. If you lived and fished then, you may recognize the pig pen ruins at Trout Run. You can see the Elk Creek ledge that ran from the rocks to the mud hole. It was a great fishing platform that disappeared when the hillside landslide covered the west bank. Before the lake level rose and slowed lower Elk into a wide swamp with current, you could fish fast water above the launch past the now missing log jam. Rick Road parking/fishing area was once called the Iron Bridge because the current concrete span is a replacement.
Some of the anglers in the video clips are no longer with us. They met a fate that awaits everyone reading these words. Like those anglers, we will keep at it until we can no longer do so.
Most widescreen/flat screen TV’s have video mode, YouTube or Rumble connections etc. so you have viewing options beyond a computer screen or smart phone. Next time you are stuck indoors, kick back and look back.
Enjoy.
If this post creates more questions in your mind, or you have a comment, drop a note to j
Good luck.