PF&BC, volunteers collect steelhead for spawning

Erie, Pa. — The Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission recently offered an inside look at how it keeps one of its most unique fisheries going strong year after year.

On Nov. 18, volunteers helped to collect hundreds of steelhead from the commission’s Trout Run nursery water along lake Erie in Fairview Township.

The stream is protected from fishing, but it’s filled with huge steelhead trying to get upstream to spawn. Once netted, male and female fish are separated and sedated so that eggs and milt can be collected.

The adult fish are unharmed in the process and are returned to Lake Erie, while the eggs are taken to the nearby Fairview State Fish Hatchery where they will hatch.

After about a year, the small steelhead, known as smolts, are then stocked into the many tributary streams along Lake Erie, where they will imprint on the water as if they were born there naturally.

They will then swim out to Lake Erie to grow into adults, and after about two to three years, the large steelhead will follow their natural instinct to return to their home stream to spawn, which is what creates the world-class steelhead run each fall and winter.

The Fish & Boat Commission aims to produce about one million steelhead annually to sustain the fishery and ensure good numbers of fish return to the tributaries each year.

It is estimated that steelhead fishing generates about $11 million in economic impact annually for Erie County.

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