Chris DePaola has soaked up so much fishing experience in his lifetime as an angler that one might guess he doesn’t have much more to learn.
Not true, admits DePaola, of Austintown, particularly as it applies to his frequent fishing trips on several of America’s great steelhead rivers.
But DePaola isn’t jetting to the Pacific Northwest to work the runs, seams, and riffles of the famous Trinity, Rogue, and Deschutes. Rather, he’s motoring north on Ohio 11 and pulling on his waders at the side of streams named Ashtabula, Conneaut, and Elk.
DePaola is a true-blue Lake Erie steelhead aficionado with a logbook packed with data ranging from river flow rates and weather to each day’s productive tactics and results. He’s netted steelhead caught by all manner of popular rod, reel, and lure combinations, and has learned along the way that no two days of fishing Erie tributaries are the same.
So far in 2021, DePaola said, the numbers tell a fantastic story.
“This has been a really good year for steelhead,” he said. “We’ve had a lot of good run-offs – exactly the right amount – and the fishing has been very productive.”
Erie’s corps of steelhead anglers score with whatever fits their fancy, including spoons, spinners, jigs, plugs, flies, eggs, and even nightcrawlers and minnows.
“On a typical day, you might see several different methods being used on the streams. One group will be casting spoons, spinners, and crankbaits. Another will be using center-pin drifting soft beads and then someone will be using a single-handed Spey rod swinging large flies.”
DePaola’s preferred technique is drifting his stoneflies on a 10-foot, 6-weight Scott flyrod with a high-capacity reel loaded with a floating line. He ties his own flies and leaders tapering down to 6-pound-test fluorocarbon.
Success, he’s learned, demands that he go to the water every time with an open mind and attention to detail.
“Every time I go, I learn. It’s important to determine where the steelhead are holding on any given day – and that includes where they are positioned in the pools and runs and even where they are hanging in the water column. Sometimes they are suspended and sometimes they are on the bottom. It’s possible to run your fly under suspended fish and miss them entirely.”
Attention to detail actually begins at home, two or three days in advance of his fishing trips, as he scouts for waters most likely to be producing steelhead. He has downloaded apps that keep him informed of stream flow rates and other information critical in determining the fishes’ behavior.
“You really need to know the conditions even before you go – or don’t even make the drive. I look two to three days before I leave the house. If the water is too high and muddy or too low, the fishing will be lousy. My apps tell me which streams will be fishable.”
DePaola’s biggest steelhead this fall was a spectacular 28-inch acrobat that smacked his little black stonefly drifted below his egg pattern on a dropper line.
He will be fishing the Erie steelhead runs throughout the winter as long as the streams aren’t frozen. He offered a bit of advice for anglers who might be thinking about making their own trek up Route 11 in the days ahead.
“Recently, most of the fish have been in the tail-out of holes, the very back end of the holes. They prefer that water as the season progresses. Now that the water is very cold, they will usually be in the tailouts instead of the current at the top of the pools.”
Jack Wollitz’s new book, The Common Angler: A Celebration of Fishing tells the tale of many extraordinary anglers, including Chris DePaola. He enjoys emails from readers. Send a note to jackbbaass@gmail.com.
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