Law enforcement officials are seeing a higher-than-normal number of anglers illegally taking steelhead trout in Erie County, but the arrests might only be the tip of the iceberg.
“This year, in particular, the numbers are a little bit higher,” said Clyde Warner, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission director of the Bureau of Law Enforcement.
“I think (with) the exceptional weather we’ve had up until a week or so (ago), and the availability of fish, we definitely have seen the fishing pressure being extremely heavy. From past years, violations were definitely up this year,” he said, including weeks when stream water levels were shallow.
In the fall months, steelhead trout swim out of Lake Erie into small tributaries to spawn. Some of the waterways are low enough that anglers can illegally net the fish, that are often more than 20 inches long, or snag them with large hooks at the end of their fishing lines.
Between Sept. 15 and Dec. 15, waterways conservation officers (WCOs) issued 258 citations and 245 warnings to anglers. While the most common warning was failure to have a license on person, snagging (58) and being over the limit of steelhead (26) were the two most common violations WCOs encountered. Anglers are permitted to keep three steelhead a day. A total of 18 WCOs from outside the Northwest Region helped in the effort.