Serving  all of "Steelhead Alley" in Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York     Turkey Creek Oh, Conneaut Creek Oh, Grand River Oh, Chagrin River Oh,  Rocky River Oh,  Vermillion River Oh,  Twenty mile Creek Pa,  16 mile Creek Pa,  12 Mile Creek Pa,  7 Miile Creek  Pa,  Walnut Creek Pa,  Elk Creek Pa,  Crooked Creek Pa,  Racoon Creek Pa,   Cattaraugus Creek NY,   Zoar Valley south branch,  Clear Creek NY,   Canadaway Creek NY,  Silver Creek NY,  Chataqua Creek NY,                      WE GO WHERE THE FISH ARE....................... 

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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.

5-03-08 My wife Erma's big late season Steelhead Trout

5-06-08  Ohio Steelhead Fishing Report        Well our steelhead season is just about over.  There are still a few fish around but I'm calling it quits for the spring. A couple of the other guides will still be fishing this week. The rivers will start to fish again today but the fish are on their way out. It was a great spring season and I want to thank my staff of guides for all the hard work they put in making sure your trips were successful ones.  It was our busiest spring ever fishing Ohio in the spring and we batted 1,000.  Every angler landed a fish.  We are looking forward to a great fall season.  There are still openings for the Garden River Trip in September.  This is the best fishing destination I have ever experienced and its a great group of guys to enjoy it with. FishTheGarden.com  In October its back to "Steelhead Alley".  Our staff of NY and Pennsylvania licensed guides will be ready when the mutts come home.  We still have lots of prime dates available give me a call to book a trip. For now it's vacation time for me.  I'm getting the boat all ready for some striped bass action out at Cape Cod over Memorial day.  I'll be up at the  Salmon River and over at the Eastern Pa limestone's in the near future too.  Plus there's always those Lake Erie smallmouth, walleye and perch.  So many fish and so little time ..Grinning..!!   It's not going to be all play for me this summer.  There are going to be many changes to the website and I have lots of work to do with the new fly suppliers.  Want to book a trip or just talk fishin..??  330-565-5457 Give me a call this summer.  I would love to hear from you..!! Good Fishin..!!  Don

5-03-08  Guide Jeff Novak caught this Ohio steelhead swinging flies

5-03-08  Another big Steelhead caught by my wife Fly Fishing Ohio in May

5-05-03-08  Lori on her first day of fly fishing with a big Ohio Steelhead Buck

5-03-08  Rich caught this Ohio Steelhead on The Fly

5-4-08  Sunday    Ohio Steelhead Fishing Report   The streams are all blown out from Friday and Saturday's rains.  We cancelled our trips today due to the high water.  We got blown off the stream on yesterday but managed to have a banner morning.  I had Rich and Lori from Maumee, Oh over for the weekend.  It was Lori's first day of fly fishing and she got a few real nice Ohio steelhead. My wife Erma joined us and Guide Jeff Novak helped out. It was a fun day and they kept me busy netting fish. We found mostly drop backs but they were on the feed and took the fly well.  Lots of big males around and they are sparing for the few remaining hens.

5-02-08  Ohio Fishing Report    Awesome day of Steelheading in Ohio.  Water temps dropped 10* this week and it has prolonged the runs a bit.  It was a great day to fish. No one was out and there was a bunch of fish around.  Mostly drop back males with a few fresher hens mixed in.  Lots of bonus smallmouth and Ohio bonefish (Suckers) in the stream as well. Jeff said he had several fish over 11 lbs on his scale today.  It was definatly a big fish day.  I'll get up Jeff's pic's as soon as I get them.  Fish were hot today and tube flies on our custom tungsten sink tips produced some bone jarring strikes.  Man you gotta love it when a 12 lb male slams the fly so hard you almost loose the rod.  I must admit now that I have drastically scaled down the sizes of my tube fly patterns they are producing much better.  I'm still not ready to give up my nymphs and eggs but there is a time a place where swinging the tubes can be a blast. Today was one of those days.!!  Good Fishin..!!  Don

4-27-08 Tim with a big Ohio buck taken on a size #14 caddis fly

4-27-08 Match the hatch for success. Bug I found on the stream today pictured next to one of my #14 Biot nymphs. 

4-27-08  Pictured is a Rock Caddis I found today in Ohio. Notice how bright green the belly is in the bottom photo

My #14 Rock Caddis fly fooled them today

4-27-08  Ohio Steelhead Fishing Report    I ended my day on the stream looking into a hole that had about 50 mint chrome steelies in it.  We had ten minutes before we had to leave. So we tried one of guest Tim's secret Anise -Vaseline sponge's on them. I rigged the huge bright pink bait up on one of our fly outfits. Next I added 6 oz's of lead to get the thing to sink. The secret sponge wasn't in the water ten seconds and a big buck swam up and took it. Unfortunately he swiped the bait without getting hooked. This is testimate to the power of smell in a steelheads world. Fish smart enough to resist a live shiner drifted repeatedly by them but unable to resist a new strange smell smeared on a huge bright pink sponge.   Lets not forget these fish find there way back to their home stream by relying only on their incredible sense of smell. Anglers in the know often add scent to their offerings.  Anyhow, I ended up with a whole jar of Tim's secret anise scented bait sponges.  My truck may never smell the same again..Grinning..  Fishing was great the last few days in Ohio.  Lots and lots of fish and we managed to keep away from the crowds. Water was very low and Ultra Clear.  Forget about anything bright and flashy when it like this.  We had great success matching the hatch with small #14 nymphs fished on 4X tippets.  Caddis were coming off the stream today and that's what he fish wanted.  We have been targeting both the holes and the gravel.  Swinging flies on the gravel and high sticking nymphs on indicator rigs thru the holes has paid off for us. Most of the fresher fish are coming from the holes and we did good Saturday fishing the deeper runs with Emerald Shiners and fresh eggs on the spinning outfits.  The gravel flats are covered with big pissed off males but most of them have seen it all by now and are tough customers. Small well presented flies are what it takes.  Use heavy tippets or big flashy flies and your just lining them in the low clear water.

4-27-08 Scott kept me busy netting fish all day in Ohio

April Vermillion River Ohio Chromer

4-27-08 Ohio Steelhead Fishing Report- continued-    They are calling for rain tonight and a cool down over the next few days. This is good news because the warm water was really starting to stress the fish out. We will have to wait and see if we get enough rain to blow the streams out.  They are calling for less than 1/4 inch so I think we will be OK.  This cold weather will prolong the fishing for at least a week or so.  We have openings all week if any body is interested in a guided trip in Ohio.  Good Fishin..!!  Don

Sorry if you don't see your picture here yet.  I'm working on getting the photos from my other guides and I will post them here as I get them.  If you took pictures with your camera and would like to see them here e-mail them to me. Everybody should have their trip picture CD's now.  If you don't let me know. Good Fishin..!!  Don

Mike with a bonus Vermillion River smallmouth on the fly rod

4-25-08 First time fly fishers in Ohio

4-26-08  Ohio Fishing Report   We started real early this morning to be sure to get the spot I wanted.  To my surprise there were not many people out fishing today.  We had a great day..!! We had nine anglers on the streams today.  I had three first time fly fishers with me and they were all good students.  Everybody ended up landing fish with both fly and spin gear.  We were fishing a hole with lot of wood in it and it was challenging getting the fish in before they got wrapped in the trees. We had some great fights and the fish gave us some real good jumps.  We ran emerald shiners and fresh egg sacs on the spinning gear.  We mixed up the fly patterns a lot but eggs and nymphs  seemed to produce best.

4-25-08  Squeeze that tail tight or he will wiggle away

4-26-08 First day of fly fishing

4-26-08 Proud dad and 12 yr old Emma with her first Steelhead taken in Ohio

4-25-08 Nancy with one for the hair dresser

Tim matched the hatch for success on this big Ohio Steelhead

4-25-08  Ohio Steelhead Fishing Report     We had four guides on the water today.  We had a large group of fly fishing guys and gals from Kentucky out fishing today.  Most of them had been with us before so it was an easy day. For the most part we just netted fish and we netted a whole bunch of them..!! Fishing was very good on some of the Ohio streams.  Its all about water temperature now.  Some of the Ohio streams are too warm to get any more fresh fish but thee are dropbacks on all of the streams.

4-25-08 A fresh Ohio hen taken fly fishing in Ohio

4-25-08  Tom shows off a nice Hen he caught high sticking nymphs in Ohio

4-25-08 Ohio Steelhead Fishing Report - cont.-  On some streams there are quite a few fish around and many of them are fresh from the Lake. Yes I said fresh from the lake. You see a few of our Ohio fish run late each spring. Most will run in December thru March but there are always a few that are late for the party.  Here in Ohio we stock fish who's parents were wild fish from the Little Manistee watershed in Michigan.  I have fished the Little Man many times and it is a cold water stream. It is cold enough that the salmon start to run it in July and August. A couple of years ago I hooked three Salmon in the Little Manistee River then went to see the fourth of July fireworks in Ludington. The Little Manistee never gets as warm as our Ohio streams already are this spring. Most of our streams are now in the mid sixties. Many of the wild fish in the Little Manistee river are just now making their spawning run. It was much to cold for them to spawn in March. Their Ohio offspring tend to run about the same time as their parents did.  Problem is some years they find our Ohio streams to warm.  Their biological clock is telling them its time to spawn but the water temps are too high to run the stream. So the fish enter the coldest stream they can find.  Often the warm water stresses them out so they don't run far upstream.  Dropbacks males coming downstream mix in with these fresh fish and the action can be hot if you find one of these pods. They tend to move around a lot and will not tolerate much angling pressure. Spook them and they head for the holes.  So put on your walking shoes and you might just be rewarded with a spring steelhead bonanza. Good Fishin..!! Don

Nice weather, big fish, good company, Ohio Steelheading

4-25-08 a nice Ohio steelhead taken on the fly

4-23-08  Another great day in the buckeye.  We found a bunch of fresh fish and the crowds were slim. Had a bit of rain but for the most part it was a beautiful day.  We got fish high sticking the holes and swinging flies in the shallows.  A assortment of dime bright fish and beat up male warriors. We mixed the flies up a lot today but egg patterns seemed to produce best. All Ohio streams are low and clear and fishing. Some better than others. Good Fishin..!!  Don

DOUBLES..!!!!!!

4-22-08  Ohio Steelhead Fishing is hit or miss right now.  Warm water has most fish dropping back.  We hit the lower Grand for a few hours this morning and we found a bunch of fish. Most were drop backs but they took our flies well. The water 63* this morning and great care had to be used to revive the fish. It will be over son if we don't get some cooler weather. Good Fishin..!! Don

4-21-08  I had the same two guests from yesterday this morning.  After a day of floating for drop backs on the Grand yesterday, I decided to go looking for some fresher fish.  It was time to put on our walking shoes.  I compared the water temperatures from all of the streams and noticed one river was almost 10* cooler than the rest.  So we loaded up the trucks and took a drive. We struck silver...!!!!  Things started out a little slow with just a few old beat up fish on gravel.  I was scouting around when peered into a deep hole.  I couldn't believe what I saw.  Fish lined up like soldiers.  At first I thought , No way,  They have to be suckers.  Then one moved and I saw that un-mistakable chrome flash. In no time I had my two guests high sticking nymphs through them. We hit dime bright fish that were in Erie yesterday. Hungry un-pressured chromers full of fight.  Some jumped three or four feet into the air when hooked.   We found the same scenario in every hole in that section of river.  Literally hundreds of chromers. Best part of the day..??  No one else was there and we had them all to ourselves.  Life is good sometimes.. Good Fishin..!!  Don

4-21-08 Chromers in Ohio

4-21-08 Another late season Ohio chromer

Finding cooler water paid off with fresh fish.

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Welcome to our Steelhead Fishing Reports page.  Here you will find, Ohio fishing reports and Pennsylvania fishing reports, compliments of Ohio Steelhead fishing guide, Don Mathews and the staff of guides at Dfishinfool's Guide Service.

Owner-Guide Don Mathews

Guide  Jeff Novak

Guide  Dick Keagy

Guide Mark DeFrank

New York Steelhead fishing is best in October

Pennsylvania Steelhead fishing peaks in November and December

Ohio Steelhead fishing peaks in March and April