11-25-04 - Cascade Creek runs (more or less) through some pretty urban areas of Erie, PA.

The water, when up, is honestly rather inviting. Lots of good water structures for fish to hold in!

Randy reties after losing a "rainbow" in Cascade Creek.

11-25-04 - Thanksgiving Day, # 3/6 in PA!

Waters Fished: Cascade Creek, 4 (Four) Mile Creek, 7 (Seven) Mile Creek, 12 (Twelve) Mile Creek
Fish Caught: 1 for like 20+!
Outing Date: 11-25-04
Weather: Rain
Air Temp: 30's
Water Temp: N/A
Water Level: UP considerably
Water Color: Most All were DIRTY!
Fish Species: Steelhead
Pattern Fished: Eggs Eggs Eggs (and Speys!)
Pattern Color: various
Fishing Quality: tough!

It had continued to rain sufficiently throughout the day that things weren't looking good! Bart had driven through the night with Margaret....a total of over 10 hours (it's normally only a 7 hour trip at most). Snow had completely choked Chicago!

Rain was the plague in PA - today we'd actually follow through on our tour of the Eastern Tribs with good reason; we had to find a stream that wasn't blown out!

Randy and I met up with Bart at Cascade Creek around 8:45 AM. It was DEFINITELY raging, though not to the extent we found it the year prior (when PA had their 50-year floods). It took some mountain-goating to get down, but we all put in a few casts. While I was putzing around with the camera, Randy managed to hook up with (and lose) a "rainbow". Perhaps a stocked trout, or perhaps a skipjack steelhead...can't be sure.

While it showed some promise, we hardly wanted to stay down here. The wind was whipping in from the north off the lake. Uncomfortable to say the least.

Last night Randy and I had scouted out ALL the streams between Erie and NorthEast (we were staying at the Super 8 just of 90 at exit 41). Taking advantage of our free evening we had located all of the access points on all of the publicly accessible tribs - it made things much easier today!

Next stop - 4 Mile Creek! We had found it to be a-ragin' the night before, and even though the rain had pretty much stopped during the night it was STILL flowing high and muddy. Bart broke out the centerpin and we all covered the water close to the dam. NO LUCK, not a single steelie sighted or hooked into.

After wasting arguably too much time on 4 Mile, we proceeded east to 7 Mile Creek. In some respects this, and 4 Mile, reminded me a lot of streams back home. Riffles and pools, somewhat developed surroundings, and DIRTY WATER!

Four Mile Creek reminded me a lot of the Root River in WI...except that 4 Mile is shorter!	Another look downstream at 4-Mile Creek.
	Probably only flows during the rain, but what a "cute" feeder creek flowing into 7 Mile!
Bart and Randy work a pool on Seven Mile Creek.
7 Mile flows through a convent's property who allow walk-in fishing only. It's well worth the hike!

Again, we spent quite some time on 7 Mile Creek. We started high up (which turned out to be a bad choice). Again, the scenery was nice, the access was easy, but the fish were lacking!

We only bumped into another couple guys while on the stream; none were having much luck. We found ourselves at a deep pool below a 2' waterfall...perhaps this was why we hadn't found fish upstream???

I opted to work the water below the falls while a gentleman was working the plunge. Meanwhile Randy and Bart disappeared downstream. I figured they'd show up not too long after with typical news...no fish. When the gentleman working the plunge was retying, I asked if he would mind my giving it a shot. "By all means, go right ahead" he replied. I've come to find the local anglers in PA to be some of the most levelheaded, easy going tributary anglers around, and this man was no exception.

After thoroughly covering the pool and it's outflow with a Dragon's Tooth, I gave up, ready to go to the next spot. I returned to our cars, expecting to find Randy and Bart already waiting, but instead I only found Margaret trying to keep warm! Where were the guys?

This barrier on 7 mile didn't hold any fish when we were there!

Bart showed up not too long after but Randy was nowhere to be found! Nature was calling all of us, so we all left Randy somewhere on 7 Mile while we found the rest stops! I happened to go all the way up to the Travel America by 90...turns out there was a country restaurant up there...good info for later.

When I returned to 7-Mile (having sent Bart on to Twelve Mile) I thought I'd find Randy milling about at the road wondering where everyone was. I HOPED that was the case. When I pulled up though, still no Randy to be found! So there I went, hiking downstream again, only to find Randy WAY WAY downstream working the tail of a pool. Not surprised, Randy had found fish. He had landed at least 6 by this point! Personally, this was not how I wanted to spend my afternoon, fighting over one pod of fish...Randy didn't need much convincing to leave them in search of something better.

12 Mile Creek with Lake Erie in the background.	Another look at 12 Mile Creek.

We finally got to 12 Mile Creek and our luck improved. The long story is that Randy landed fish after fish. I on the other hand, did nothing but lose fish after fish. Things didn't sound like they went much better for Bart and Margaret! I personally ended my day landing only ONE fish, a huge hog (by PA standards)....something like 1/20 today!

Finally steelhead - Randy lands a few!	Randy with another steelie from 12 Mile Creek.	Yes, that's yet another steelie from 12 Mile for Randy.
And yes, again, another steelie for Randy!	My ONLY steelhead for the day out of over 20 hookups, truly a beast around 8-10 lbs.	It's snowing (again), despite that we're still fishin' 12 Mile!

After dark, we all headed back to the T&A's Country Restaurant, probably the only place that would be open! To our surprise, not only was it open, but they were throwing a massive Thanksgiving Spread - $10.99 All U Can Eat Buffet. Turkey, Roast Beef, Ham, Stuffing, Chicken' and Dumplin's, corn, mashed potatoes, cranberries (somewhere I'm sure), Lemon Meringue Pie, Apple Crisp, man talk about a spread. WE all ate WAY too much and all felt like crap the remainder of the evening - pretty standard for Thanksgiving!!!

Chris (my bro) arrives from Jersey and I get him busy tying the flies he'll need for the next couple days.	Randy's well-stocked fly box, essential for success on the Erie Tribs!

The best part however, was that my brother arrived around 8:30 PM, having driven from New Jersey. Tomorrow would be his first time out in pursuit of steelhead!

  MP