Steelhead Alley: Read the USGS Gauges for the First Cold Rain

Steelhead Alley is the stretch of tributaries feeding Erie's south shore. When the timing lines up, it is the best chrome fishery in the country. And timing is the whole game. The fish are staging in the lake right now, waiting on one thing. They want water in the rivers.

The trigger is the first real cold rain of fall. A system drops the river temps into the 50s and puts a stain and some flow in the creeks. That is when the first push runs, and they run hard.