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Dfishinfool's Guide Service
Steelhead Fishing Reports
From "Steelhead Alley"
No B.S.
Ohio fishing reports and Pennsylvania fishing reports
compliments of licensed professional Steelhead fishing guide, Don Mathews and the staff of guides at
Dfishinfool's Guide Service.
4-20-08
What a week. I'm dead tired, I pulled the oars
over 50 miles on Ohio's Grand River this week. It paid off with lots of
smiling pictures. I hate to talk numbers but we
put well over 200 fish in the net last week. Probably
had a half dozen or so over 10 lbs. What a week..!! My hands
look like hamburger from unhooking fish. I'm
really looking forward to a day off on Wednesday.
Last week our guides were out on the Conneaut, Chagrin and Vermillion but the
Grand is where its at for right now. Fish are
spread out on all of the streams and the warm water temperatures are making them
drop back to the lake. I have been chasing a few
big pods of drop backs on the Grand River from the boat
and they are headed downstream at about 1 mile per day.
The upper river was hot early in the week but now the
fish are in the mid river. The Grand was 61* today and
it was really starting to stress the fish out.
Vermillion river has been producing. A couple of fellows did over 100 fish in the
lower river last week but they had to get up real early
every morning to beat the crowds ..Grinning.. The Rocky River has lots
of suckers but very few steelhead. I think she's about
done for the year. Conneaut has been slow but
things should improve as drop backs from Pa start
working downstream. Forget about the ditches they are
real low and clear. The Chagrin has quite a few fish
still but most are dropping back due to the high water
temps. Clyde over at Folly's End Flyshop in
Pennsylvania reports that there are still quite a few
steelies in Elk Creek but the water is real clear over
there. It ain't over yet folks BUT do keep your fingers
crossed for some cool weather.. Good Fishin..!!
Don
4-17-08
Gotta keep it short. I'll let the pictures do the
talking. The last few days have been spectacular.
We have been hitting some real nice fish in all of the
rivers. The trick is to get away from the crowds
to find un-pressured fish. HOT fly was Tellico
Nymph for me today but Buggers, Sucker Spawn and Skein
flies all produced. A lot of our fish are coming
on the swing. Have Fun and Good Fishin..!! Don
4-16-08 Floatin the Gand
4-16-08 Another victim of swingng sink tips on the
Grand
4-16-08
Short and sweet. The Grand, Rocky, Chagrin,
Conneaut, are all fishing now. Floated the Grand
today and had a banner day. Good Fishin..!! Don
4-15
Pat with a nice fish caught swinging sink tips
4-15 Fresh
Ohio Steelhead on the fly
4-15-08
Nice day in Ohio. We started on a
smaller stream this morning. It got cold enough to
freeze the wet wading boots in the truck last night. The
guys had a heck of a time getting their boots on.
Water temps dropped quickly on this small stream and we
only caught a couple the first few hours. All the
fish were in the deep holes and none were on gravel.
We made a move to a larger trib and found the water in
nice shape and a few degrees warmer. Had the stream to
ourselves and we found a bunch of fresh fish. We found a
few on gavel and we had fresh ones pushing up by us all
afternoon. Hot fly seemed to be woolly buggers but
we had to change the menu often. We ran 4' T-14 sink
tips with 30" of 2X tippet. Flow was still up a
bit but water color was nice on the East Side Streams.
Lower Elk creek was low and clear but there were lots of
guys fishing. Grand is still a bit over 1000 CFM with 18
inch vis. I'm going to float it tomorrow. Chagrin and
Rocky are both fishin. From the reports I got the V was
still a bit high but should shape up tomorrow. Good
Luck..!! Don
4-14-08
Back to Steelheading..!!
I
had a blast last week in Mexico, Grand Cayman, Belize,
and Rotan Honduras. Of the Islands I visited Rotan was
my favorite. I didn't get to fish there but from
what I saw diving, the fish were very abundant and
un-pressured. I saw lots of Permit and bones with
nobody fishing. I didn't score on any Marlin
during my trip but I did get a nice 59" Barracuda on the
Last Night with Capt Lorenzo out of Cozumel. I
also got into some nice Dorado's while trolling. Oh well
its back to Steelheading for me. Jeff, Dick, Jason, And
Greg Lum were all out last week and they did well most
days. The high water caused them to cancel a few
trips but overall they got into some great fish. I'll be
out everyday for the next couple of weeks and I'll keep
you posted. In the meantime check out some of our
pictures from last week. Good Fishin..!! Don
OOk
so.. its not a steelhead check out those teeth..!!
4-3-08 I had the same group of guys from Knoxville
Tennessee today. We
fished the chagrin on the drop and did good. Not
huge numbers like yesterday but still lots of fish. They
seemed a little sluggish as the water temps went down.
We had guides out fishing four different streams today
and everybody had good reports. On the down side more
rain is headed our way. BUT..!! I'm on my way for a
sunnier place . Good Fishin..!! Don
4-03-08 Steve with a Chagrin river hog
4-03-08 then he caught this one 20 minutes later
4-03-08 Larry with a colorful fish
One
of many
4-2-08 Greg's big Ohio buck will look good on his
wall
4-2-08 A
great day on the Ohio streams. Finally some of the
streams are at a fishable level. We fished a smaller
stream today and by the time we quit it was too low and
clear and the fish were spooky. Of course that's
probably because my group from Tennessee sore mouthed
almost every fish in the river. We used both fly's and
bait but the fish had a definite preference for flies.
Eggs, nymphs, buggers, and streamers all produced.
We mixed it up. They did very well and Greg got
one 33" fish for the wall. Action was non stop all day.
I look for the next week to be excellent fishing. I
better go get some sleep. I got those same three
guys from Tennessee tomorrow and I gotta a feeling I'm
going to need my energy. Good Fishin..!! Don
4-2-08 Steve with a fresh hen
4-2-08 Larry showing off a fly caught Ohio steelie
3-31-08 Mark with his monster 15 lb steelie
3-31-08
Monday Report What a day..!! My best
day of the spring season thus far. Cowboy Bob is going
to regret not making this one. I had three
guests from West Virginia up. They wore me out and put
over 40 fish in the net today. Now these guys are far
from rookies. This is their sixth year fishing
with me. You may recognize them as the group I guided in
the 2002 episode of the North Eastern Outdoors show over
on Elk Creek in Pennsylvania. Thing is they
usually spin fish. Well the fish snubbed my fresh
sacs this morning and wanted flies. We couldn't
even roll one fish on bait. So in short order I had all
three of them with a fly rod in their hand. Dave
held out the longest but once Steve had five in the net
he was ready to be a fly fisher.. Not to my
surprise, They caught
on quick. Steve had 10 fish in the net by 9:05 AM
and the crazy thing is they were all caught on the same
chartreuse bugger. I didn't even have to change
the tippet. We had several doubles and I showed
off when they tripled up, I netted all three fish at
once. The heavy load ended up ripping out the
front of my net. There you go show off.. A
good push of fresh fish was in the river and they
appeared to be moving up. Freshest fish I have seen in
quite awhile now. Water temp was 41* this morning.
Fishing should be good from here on out as long as the
weather lets us fish. Like I said the fish wanted flies.
#12 Kaydays Crystal Meth and #10 Chartruse Wooly buggers
were on the menu today.
3-31-08 Steve with his 10th fish by 9:00 AM
3-31
Heavy rain missed us last night but we did get enough to
bump up most of the streams a little bit. Still all of the
larger Ohio streams are too high right now. We fished a
unmentionable ditch today and even it was off color.
We kept getting muddy periods from the melting clay
banks falling into the river. More rain is on the way.
Lets keep or fingers crossed its not a heavy one. I'll
post an update tomorrow. Good Fishin..!! Don
3-31-08 Dave is liking the fly rod more and more
3-31-08 Tripple header that ripped my net - all fish
released
ABOUT OUR FLIES: You
may have noticed that Dfishinfool's Guide Service is now
selling flies online once again. Some of you may
remember that I sold flies on my web site for seven
years from 1997-2004. In April 2004 I decided to focus on running
my guide business and I got out of selling flies. I
introduced one of the guys that used to guide with me to my African Fly suppliers in Kenya.
Since then I have referred all of my online fly order
customers to him. (See old
Report Page Archives). I have not profited from any fly
sales since then. Over the past four years, I'm sure many of you have had
success using our patterns tied in Africa and sold at a
network of local fly shops.
Things
didn't quite work out as planned. Recently I received my
Import license from the US Fish and Wildlife Service. I
will once again be importing and selling our proven
patterns online. The same tested and proven patterns we
use on our guide trips each day. Seems like we are
bombarded with new steelhead patterns everyday. I'm sure
some work and these
new patterns sure look good in your fly box. We tend to
stick with our time tested favorite patterns, flies that
look good to the fish. Over the last few months. I have worked
hard with my friends in Africa getting my patterns
perfected. I also weeded out some of the
African Suppliers who offered a poor quality product.
Today I have narrowed it down to three suppliers in
Africa that tie my proven fish catching patterns on high
quality heavy hooks. The flies are tied to my strict
specifications. The price is almost too good to be true.
Watch in the coming months for our new line of proven steelhead,
trout and Salmon patterns developed over the years by friends and
guides throughout the great lake region. Remember
our flies are "Cheaper By The Dozen"
GOOD
FISHIN..!! Don Dfishinfool Mathews
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