Steelhead Fishing Elk Creek 2024 (PA Steelhead)! 

I got on the ice this weekend at a small reservoir that had 5" out in the Allegheny's. I live on Chautauqua, people were starting to venture out on Chautauqua today, so it should be doable this weekend but it's still in that time period where you need to be supper careful and spud your way out. North Basin and most of the lake was still open water at this time last week, the Lake didn't lock up until this weekend, the wind kept things open despite the cold.

@@CrayOutoors ya my dad lives in Ashville, I’ve been getting a few updates. Someone posted about 2” of black ice out there last night so I’m thinking by Friday it should be fairly safe. Tight lines brotha lookin forward to some ice vids

It’s appears to be a centerpin setup similar to a fly setup but different

I was throwing the plugs on a 9.5' med-fast spinning rod. I was float fishing with a 13' centerpin rod/reel. An Okuma Aventa to be specific.

I believe in PA, anything is fine. Your obviously not allowed to snag them is all.

I'm not supper familiar with the area myself, but I believe I was further upstream from there. It's near Mckean

I live right next to Chautauqua Creek. NY still stocks browns inland and in lake Ontario, but they stopped stocking Lake Erie and its tributaries. We still get the occasional stray brown trout from PA and there is a little bit of wild reproduction in Chautauqua and Cattaraugus, but brown trout in the NY Erie Tribs are general considered to be "unicorns" nowadays. NY has also cut back on the Steelhead stocking in the Erie Tributaries over the years. NY has put some of the funding that used to go to steelhead towards restoring Lake Erie's lake trout population. I get that lake trout are the native salmonid in the lake, but funding lake trout instead of steelhead doesn't do anything in terms of fishing opportunities for us shore-bond fisherman. Fortunately I live close enough to PA. If I want to get away from people and enjoy nature I fish NY, if I want to actually get into good numbers of fish and have a decent chance at a brown trout I go to PA, so it works out for me I suppose.

@Creighster sounds very reasonable, thanks for the info. I've noticed steelhead fishing in ny has gotten much worse in the last decade, especially ontario tribs. Some of the tribs I fished that I rarely saw people on and used to have bumper runs, now have very few fish even when water and conditions are perfect. Been fishing these ny erie and ontario waters for close to 50 yrs. Fishing is getting worse and just about everyone knows. Can't see it getting better anytime soon.

I've really only been fishing in the last decade so I guess I haven't noticed the decline as much, but everybody I've talked to who has been fishing since the 90's has said the same thing about the tributary fishing in NY.@@peterchalk1192

Wouldn't matter how he handled fish it would have pissed you off anyway.

@brandonalloe-xy1ci this is why there are so many beat up and infected fish in that creek

@@patrickhelmuth3111 So you think pollution isn't a factor? Right. I work near Elk creek where a carbon factory polluted Elk creek all the time.

@@patrickhelmuth3111 People handling the fish have little to do with the reasons they die or are sick. PH levels in the water alone is the reason fish get sick. I used to raise fish and my grandfather was a warden for years.

@brandonalloe-xy1ci shows what you know, people like you are exactly the problem