Annual trips, pilgrimages really, to upstate New York to fish in two of the Great Lakes (Erie and Ontario) and their incredible, fish-laden tributaries have been on my docket for several years now. Whether it is the Niagara Falls area where outings on Lake Ontario, the Lower Niagara River or Lake Erie near Buffalo Harbor are on the plate or Chautauqua County, the westernmost county in the state, New York never disappoints in terms of her freshwater fishing opportunities.
Mid-summer trips to Chautauqua from early June to early September offer prime opportunities for catching lunker walleye, as in fish to 10 pounds or more. Coupled with New York’s generous six-fish limit on Lake Erie and a three-day possession limit, a Lake Erie excursion out of Dunkirk or one of the other nearby marinas, can mean a cooler full of delicious walleye. And I love me a good pan-sautéed walleye with some seasoned wild rice and a glass of fine dry white wine from one of Chautauqua County’s many vineyards. The dry riesling from Liberty Vineyards comes to mind here.
While walleye are wonderful, it was another fish during my late August 2024 excursion to Dunkirk that saw me hooked and hoping for another encounter. I’m talking steelhead, those open water migrating powerhouse rainbow trout. I’ve tried to catch steelhead before, mainly in the Niagara River, with no success. Another trip to Dunkirk a few years ago had me fishing with local creek and fly fishing expert Marty Klemann. That outing was in conjunction with a spring turkey hunting expedition. It was the end of the late winter run of steelhead. I caught a nice smallmouth bass in the creek – always fun on very light tackle or a fly - but no luck with the steelhead. This year, my luck changed on August 30.
Weather Demands Flexibility
An earlier scheduled August trip to Lake Erie saw the plug pulled as the remnants of Hurricane Debby meandered across the eastern United States. Conditions were rough for a couple of days with the lake “turning over,” meaning the usual thermal stratification of water in the lake busted up with the high winds. Water down at the bottom of the lake typically has less dissolved oxygen while the top level of the lake’s waters is often high in dissolved oxygen, something critical to fish. When the lake flips, the sudden changes to oxygen levels can be a problem for some fish. For example, the aftermath of Hurricane Debby's winds saw a big die-off of sheepshead, freshwater drum.
Fishing for walleye in Lake Erie can be exceptionally technical. Summers often present a well-defined thermocline, the point where the water stratifies into levels of significant temperature difference. Anglers usually find success placing lures in or just above that depth. The thermocline might be envisioned as a small underwater river of warmer water, with much colder water below and cooler water above. Sophisticated anglers often employ a Fish Hawk unit, an electronic tool that lets them assess temperature and current at fishing depth. Lures may perform completely differently when fished at 20 feet versus 80 feet, for example, due to variations in how the water is flowing at that depth. Finding the temperature breaks and understanding the changes in underwater current helps anglers better present baits and achieve greater success. As I said: technical.
Postponement of the early August trip was made just in time. It’s about an eight-hour drive from my part of Virginia to Dunkirk and, given the time and expense, ensuring a couple of fish-able days is important. My rescheduled trip had me booked a trip with Capt. Jim Steel of Dream Catcher Sportfishing. Jim is president of the Eastern Lake Erie Charter Boat Association. This association of professional captains is an excellent resource for any angler contemplating a trip to western New York, with links to member captains' websites, lake condition reports, tourism information and more. It’s a great organization, which annually holds information sessions related to fishing and lake management policy. Jim and his wife Diane Steel also created Innovative Outdoors, a company focused on selling and promoting new products that enhance the enjoyment of hunting and fishing. They also stage an annual walleye tournament called the Innovative Outdoors Walleye Challenge.
I’ve fished with Jim before. His boat, a 31-1/2-foot Tiara with an ample 12-foot beam, is exceptionally comfortable, with abundant seating and a cockpit that backs into protected covering, great for getting out of the sun or the rain. Given the weather conditions for our August 28 trip, which included a little rain, substantial wind and up to five-foot rollers out on the water, I’m glad fellow outdoors writer John Hageman of Ohio and I were on Jim’s boat. It would have been too rough for most smaller craft.
Stand-up fishing can be a challenge on days like this. Fortunately, Jim, Diane and first mate Rich Fliss are used to the big lake rocking and were able to deploy a full complement of lures. With the thermocline still recovering from the earlier flip, lures were set at wide-ranging depths. We caught fish all
over the water column, showing how walleye are incredible, adaptable opportunists. The walleye, though, were finicky. We’d often mark fish very close to the downrigger baits, eyeballing things but not biting. Sometimes, popping the lure free from the downrigger weight and giving it a couple of twitches enticed the fish to bite. John also cranked in a nice lake trout off a downrigger, his first ever. John has fished Lake Erie a lot, but most of those trips are in the much shallower western basin near his home. The eastern basin, near Dunkirk, is considerably deeper. Lakers like cool, deep water. Lakers are frequently deep and, in my experience, almost always hit the lure closest to the bottom. We also caught a couple yellow perch and a hefty white bass.
It took a few hours, but we eventually scratched out a limit of nice walleye, including a few for the crew – they like a good meal of walleye occasionally, too. Jim discusses our trip and outlines how he believes the region could amplify its already impressive fishing opportunities in this short post-trip video.
Steelhead – Bending Hooks and Ripping Off Line
Wind caused a one-day postponement of my trip with Capt. Jim Plintzke of Fishunter Charters. We also launched out of Chadwick Bay in Dunkirk. Jim has been fishing the lake for a long time but only began guiding in earnest a few years ago after retiring from his previous line of work.
It was just Jim and I fishing aboard his 28-foot boat. The morning started with the lightest of breezes, creating what Jim called a good “walleye chop” on the water’s surface. But that breeze often died during the morning and the big lake became near slick calm. Since there was just the two of us on the boat, we kept things minimalist, deploying just six lines, two running off small planers with the stick bait lures several hundred feet behind the boat, two more stick baits in the mid-column of water attached to Slide Divers, similar to Dipsey Divers which bite the water and pull the lure deeper, and two worm harnesses with spinners just above the two-hook nightcrawler setup on the downriggers.
We started fishing in shallower water and caught a few chunky walleye, especially when we had a beautiful surface chop. We also boated a couple of big sheepshead, fish likely pushing 10 pounds. One powerful early hit came on a shallower lure running off a planer. This resulted in about a 8-second fight before the fish pulled off. Retrieving the line, we saw that the hook, a finer gauge treble ideally suited to walleye, was partially straightened. “Steelhead,” Plintzke guessed. “They’ll attack, run. They can create a real mess at the back of the boat because they rarely come in peacefully.”
We were working on catching our limit of walleye when I saw a huge cloud of bait fill the screen of the graph. The right-side rod popped -- hard. The lure on this line was a Yaleye Hooligan in a pattern they dub “gin and tonic.” The Slide Diver released from biting into the water, letting me better feel the fish. “This is no walleye,” I suggested as I felt the fish trying to go left to right, offering strong head shakes and tugs. After a couple of minutes, as I worked the fish steadily toward the boat, we caught a glimpse of the beautiful flash of silver and blue. “It’s a steelhead!” Jim said. “Be careful when you get it near the back of the boat.”
Moments later, Jim deftly netted the gorgeous fish. I lifted my first steelhead. It only weighed a few pounds but as I tried to control the fish for some photos, I was astounded at its strength. These fish, like salmon, are voracious feeders, aggressive and full of attitude. Man, I was stoked!
As noon came and went, we needed to begin trolling our way back to Dunkirk. We moved from 100 feet of water into depths of 60-70 feet. The game was almost over. We began pulling in the lines, beginning with the Slide Divers. Suddenly, the right-side downrigger popped hard enough that the line instantly released. I grabbed the rod and gave the reel a few turns. Nothing. We pulled in the worm harness. The bait showed no sign of attack. The nightcrawler was intact. Hmmm.
A minute later, the left side downrigger rod similarly popped. Same result. Plintzke surmised that steelhead were hitting the bait, only instead of going after the nightcrawlers like a walleye would, they were nailing the spinner positioned a few inches above. It made sense. Trout love that flash. The worm harness baits on the downriggers got a workout that morning as the light wind subsided and the waters became serene.
Fish of the Day – the Steelhead that Got Away
We didn’t have much time to discuss things because minutes later the fish of the day hit. The line on the right-side planer began screaming off the reel. The only time I’ve heard anything similar was when I’ve fished for big redfish or, dare I say, wahoo in the Atlantic Ocean. I quickly grabbed the rod but resisted trying to stop whatever fish was hooked. It didn’t matter. That slight resistance prompted the steelhead that had smashed the lure to launch itself several feet out of the water. As it crashed down, I tightened the line.
Unfortunately, the line on the small planer board is the toughest one to negotiate. You must methodically wind that line in, get the planer to the back of the boat and unclip it before you can resume fighting the fish. The steelhead made another jump, this one more vertical, like a tarpon. I felt the resistance abate. The steelhead got away. It turns out the light (18-pound) leadcore line broke above the leader. The inner thin strand of lead helps the line sink, but it adds no strength. The braided nylon sheath that wraps the lead strand does the work.
Maybe the braid had frayed? Who knows? Jim has stronger 27-pound leadcore on some other rods, but the fish hit this one. My bad luck. It’s hard to judge the size of a distant jumping fish but based on the power of this steelhead I’m guessing it went at least 10 pounds. A 14-pounder reportedly had been caught nearby earlier in the week.
Here's a short video of Plintzke outlining our day on the water.
Jim says early spring and fall are great times to find steelhead staging near or leaving the tributaries. Anglers specifically targeting steelhead often use spoons as lures. Marty says come back in November and we’ll catch them in the creeks – a tempting proposition. I can’t imagine – well, yes, I can – what it’s like to have a 10-pound fish hit on light tackle in a shallow creek. I need to look at the calendar!
For a full rundown of things to do, places to stay and eat, check out the Chautauqua County Visitors Bureau. I stayed at the Clarion hotel along the waterfront just a few steps from Dunkirk Pier. A new restaurant and microbrewery just opened at the hotel. For one of the nights, the evening of the day when weather postponed our fishing, I stayed at - get ready - The Chautauqua Women's Club, an incredible old building on the Register of National Historic Places at the famed Chautauqua Institution on scenic Chautauqua Lake, about 25 minutes from Dunkirk. This waterfront, old mansion turns into a bed and breakfast once the regular summer guests have left, typically by late August and certainly by Labor Day weekend. The rooms are incredible and it was really cool strolling around the grounds of the institute and marveling at the late 19th, very early 20th Century architecture. The entire region is brimming with early fall activity.
Lake Erie Steelhead - from NY DEC
The following is excerpted from the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (NY DEC) website post regarding steelhead fishing in the Lake Erie tributaries. Posted limits for brown trout, rainbow trout (including steelhead), coho and chinook (king) salmon are three in any combination with a 12-inch minimum size limit.
Lake Erie's tributary streams, both big and small, receive an annual run of migratory rainbow trout called "steelhead." From October through April, thousands of steelhead ascend New York's Lake Erie tributaries on their mission to spawn. Excellent fishing opportunities await any angler who wishes to try their hand at steelhead fishing. Between the acrobatic leaps, long drag-screaming runs and rod quaking head shakes, the fight of an early run steelhead is a truly exhilarating experience. This steelhead fishery draws anglers from across New York, surrounding states, and Canada.
New York's Lake Erie steelhead fishery is supported by an extensive stocking program and natural reproduction. Current NY DEC stocking targets are 230,000 Washington strain yearlings that are stocked annually between 9 major tributaries. In recent years, the DEC has also stocked surplus Skamania strain steelhead in Cattaraugus Creek (near Dunkirk) when available. Stocked steelhead typically spend two years in the open lake, feeding on smelt and other forage, before maturing and returning to the tributaries as three-year-olds. Besides steelhead, brown trout and a small number of domestic rainbow trout are stocked into Lake Erie as yearlings. These stockings supplement and diversify the harbor, main lake and tributary fisheries. In addition to stocking, the steelhead population is further supplemented by natural reproduction in the New York tributaries, most notably Cattaraugus Creek and its feeder streams.
Mature Washington strain steelhead enter the Erie tributaries as early as mid-September; however, the bulk of the run occurs from mid-October through April.
The DEC has stocked Skamania steelhead in Cattaraugus Creek since 2005, hoping to boost early runs by having fish enter the creek in late August through September. A portion of stocked Skamania steelhead have a double fin clip: adipose fin and left pectoral fin.
Any stream emptying into Lake Erie has potential for a steelhead run. Major tributaries such as Cattaraugus, Canadaway, Chautauqua and Eighteen Mile Creeks are the most popular, due to the high quality of steelhead runs and public access. Other tributaries such as Buffalo, Cayuga, Cazenovia, Silver and Walnut Creeks receive good runs but have very limited or no public access. To fish sections of stream on private lands, you must have landowner permission. Lake Erie harbors also offer steelhead angling activity, most notably Dunkirk and Barcelona Harbors. Anglers can catch trout in these harbors from October through April when the water isn’t frozen. The most productive months are March and April. Buffalo Harbor and the head of upper Niagara River also have some trout fishing activity.
Starting in mid-August, steelhead begin staging in deeper water off the major tributary mouths in preparation for their seasonal run. (Note: these were the fish we were likely experiencing) At that time, trollers can target steelhead in 70-90 feet of water. Spoons work well when run near the thermocline at 2-2.5 miles per hour. The deep-water bite can last through September. As creek temperatures drop during September and October, trolling closer to the creek mouths becomes productive as the first of the steelhead start to enter the creeks. Also at that time, wading and casting spoons near creek mouths or from the Cattaraugus Creek breakwall works well at dawn and dusk.
Steelhead Streams with Public Access
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