Lake Erie Brown Trout: Pennsylvania's Small Stocked Fishery

The scale

In 2021 Pennsylvania stocked 1,091,197 steelhead into its Lake Erie waters. The same year, the whole lake received 46,607 brown trout, all of them in Pennsylvania.

That is the brown trout fishery on Lake Erie: real, deliberate, and a small fraction of the trout in the creeks. The fish turn up on float rods in November and on trolling spoons in August, usually in the hands of someone fishing for steelhead or walleye.

If brown trout are the reason for your trip, Lake Ontario is the place. If you are already coming to Erie for steelhead, this page is about the extra fish.

Where they come from

The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission began stocking brown trout into its Lake Erie tributaries in 2009. The original eggs came from New York’s DEC, and the fish are spawned at the Linesville State Fish Hatchery in Crawford County. The stated aim was to add diversity to the fall tributary fishery, build a nearshore spring fishery, and add to the offshore summer boat catch.

The stocking points are the creeks and the bay. In spring 2024 the Commission put yearlings into Seven Mile Creek, Twelve Mile Creek and Presque Isle Bay, and adult fish into Walnut Creek. Sites and numbers vary year to year.

New York has stocked browns at Barcelona Harbor in past years, but the current program is Pennsylvania’s.

In the creeks

From October through April, browns run the same short shale creeks the steelhead do. You fish them the same way: a 10- to 13-foot rod, a float, a spawn sac or a bead drifting 12 to 24 inches off bottom, and a light fluorocarbon leader when the water drops clear.

The difference is where they sit. Steelhead hold in the middle of a run. Browns tend toward slower water, undercut banks, wood and the tail of a pool. When a creek is crowded, the slack water nobody is fishing is where a brown is most likely to be.

Our guide to fishing Great Lakes tributaries covers reading water after rain, which matters more than anything else on these creeks.

Spring along the shore

In April and May the shallow water around Presque Isle and the creek mouths warms first, and browns move in to feed. Troll small spoons and shallow stickbaits off planer boards 5 to 20 feet down, at 2.0 to 2.8 mph, close to shore. Expect steelhead on the same rods. From the piers and breakwalls, a 1/4 to 1/2 oz spoon worked slowly does the same job without a boat.

Summer deep

Erie’s surface water gets too warm for trout in midsummer, and the fish drop into the cold layer offshore. The Pennsylvania record — 20 pounds, 9 ounces — came on August 8, 2020, from an area anglers call the Condos, east of Walnut Creek and west of the peninsula. It hit a small spoon on a downrigger set 56 feet down in 74 feet of water — suspended in the cold band, well off bottom.

That is the pattern: small spoons 50 to 60 feet down over 70 to 80 feet of water, usually as part of a steelhead or walleye spread. It is a by-catch pattern, not a steady pick.

Handling and the cold

Browns in the creeks share water with heavy steelhead pressure. Land them fast, keep them wet, and release them in slow water. In winter, the same rules apply as for steelhead: shale is slick, the water is near freezing, and bank ice gives way without warning. Wear a wading belt and carry a staff.

Regulations

The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission sets the rules for Pennsylvania’s Lake Erie waters and tributaries. New York DEC and Ohio DNR manage their own shorelines. Seasons, sizes and possession limits differ and change; check the current regulations for the water you are fishing.