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Sport In Brief
McKeown's squad play four games in one week... Bairns record comfortable victory over The Borderers ... Teen players come to Firs Park... Preston win at cricket...
It's OK to lie about some things such as red-hot fishing spots
Fishing is all about deception -- fooling fish into biting a hook. So it's no surprise that anglers are famous for trying to deceive other anglers, spouses and even themselves.
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The financial impact has quadrupled in 20 years.
That's a stunning number, considering Pennsylvania only has about 60 miles of coastline on Lake Erie and about a dozen fishable tributaries. (Steelhead can be caught in the lake as well as in the tributaries.)
Alaskan and Pacific Northwestern rivers have long enjoyed reputations as steelhead destinations, but over the past decade, the Great Lakes' steelhead fishery is becoming better known.
"I think it ranks with any fishing place in the world," said Young, 55, of Wexford. "The advantage of the Pennsylvania streams that attract all the fishermen is that it's sight-fishing. The clarity, that's what really thrills people."
Even on a recent rainy day when the water in one tributary was up, many of the behemoths could be seen holding in pools. As big as steelhead are -- 2-footers are common -- it can take a while to train the eye to spot their camouflaged form (tip: look for movement, not an entire fish). Then, they're seemingly everywhere.
Steelhead are actually rainbow trout that spend much of their adult lives in the ocean or large lakes. They swim into freshwater to spawn but, unlike salmon, can spawn more than once before they die. Anglers pursue what many consider to be freshwater's most prized game fish with flies, bait and lures. Steelhead in the Lake Erie tributaries average about 24 inches and typically weigh 3 to 8 pounds. The state record steelhead, caught April 1, 2001, measured inches and weighed 20 pounds, 3 ounces.
They make spawning runs from fall to spring. "I think people think of Thanksgiving as opening day," Young said. There are so many people on the streams, he won't take anyone out that entire week.
But Young and others lament the fishery may be getting too popular. He's strictly catch-and-release, believing the fish are resources best left for another day. Nearly 80 percent of anglers release their catch, the study found.
With the increasing number of anglers seeking steelhead come problems of access. Some landowners have posted their land against trespassing, reducing access to the waters. One landowner did so after an angler relieved himself on the property on a recent Thanksgiving Day, in view of the family as they ate, said Tom Cooper, who runs North Fork Flies, an online fly fishing shop in suburban Pittsburgh.
Gary Heubel is president of the Pennsylvania Steelhead Association and owner of Poor Richard's Bait and Tackle shops in the Erie County towns of Fairview and North East. He agrees that an increasing amount of private land is getting posted.
"We need to compensate the landowners in some way for all the money coming into this area," Heubel said. He favors some type of tax break for property owners who grant land easements.
Once you do find a place to put your line in, there's no guarantee of catching a steelhead. On a recent outing, Cooper failed to land a steelhed in several hours' fishing, though he did catch a large brown trout. But the catch rate on Erie tributaries is still high. The study found that more than a half-million steelhead are caught each year, with the average angler catching a steelhead about every 90 minutes. The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission stocks more than 1 million steelhead smolts annually. Local clubs plant another 115,000 steelhead smolts each year on average.
"Out West, the fish are bigger, but out there, you catch two, three fish a day and that's a good day," Heubel said. "But for sheer numbers, Pennsylvania steelhead is the best place in the world. Around here, guys that fish all the time, they'll catch, 20, 30, a day."
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