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Lake Erie Salmon and Steelhead Runs

19 tributaries on this map, 362.7 miles of run water, across New York and Ohio and Pennsylvania. 19 rivers have something inside a window as of 1 October 2026.

The steelhead shore. Three states run it — Pennsylvania's Erie tributaries, Ohio's Seasonal Salmonid Habitat rivers and New York's south-western creeks — and almost none of it is a salmon fishery. Shallow, flashy water that comes up on autumn rain and drops fast.

The run calendar across Lake Erie

One row per species, one cell per month, and the number in a cell is how many of these rivers have that species inside its window that month. Two densities rather than a gradient: the source is month-grained curated guidance and a smooth ramp would claim a precision it does not have.

Steelhead — 19 rivers
Lake-run brown trout — 1 river
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in the window at peak — outlined cell is the month this page was built in.

Where these rivers are

19 run rivers on 3 shores, drawn one shore at a time and each river in the colour of its own run stage today. One frame over all of them would be mostly open water, and these shores sit under 3 different rulebooks.

Lake Erie — the Pennsylvania shore13 run rivers on this shore, 13 inside a window today First runners
Lake Erie — the Ohio shore5 run rivers on this shore, 5 inside a window today Staging
Lake Erie — the New York shore1 run river on this shore, 1 inside a window today Tail-off

Drawn 1 October 2026. The ground is the subbasin mesh the app scores in, so the coastline is where the mesh stops rather than a separate shoreline; the mark at each river is its mouth, drawn for every river including the handful whose whole run corridor is under a mile and has no line to show.

Every Lake Erie run river

RiverStateMilesCeilingStage today
Conneaut Creek PA 56.5 no barrier First runners · Steelhead
Cattaraugus Creek NY 35.7 Springville Dam Tail-off · Steelhead
Grand River OH 31.5 Harpersfield Low Head Dam Staging · Steelhead
Elk Creek PA 30.1 no barrier First runners · Steelhead
Chagrin River OH 27.5 Chagrin Falls Staging · Steelhead
Ashtabula River OH 25.6 no barrier Staging · Steelhead
Vermilion River OH 23.6 Wakeman Low Head Dam Staging · Steelhead
Walnut Creek PA 21.3 no barrier First runners · Steelhead
Twentymile Creek PA 18.9 no barrier First runners · Steelhead
Sixmile Creek PA 13.7 no barrier First runners · Steelhead
Rocky River OH 11.9 no barrier Staging · Steelhead
Crooked Creek PA 11.2 no barrier First runners · Steelhead
Sixteenmile Creek PA 10.2 no barrier First runners · Steelhead
Fourmile Creek PA 9.3 no barrier First runners · Steelhead
Twelvemile Creek PA 8.5 no barrier First runners · Steelhead
Sevenmile Creek PA 7.0 no barrier First runners · Steelhead
Eightmile Creek PA 7.0 no barrier First runners · Steelhead
Raccoon Creek PA 6.7 no barrier First runners · Steelhead
Turkey Creek PA 6.5 no barrier First runners · Steelhead

Stage as of 1 October 2026.

What runs Lake Erie

The rest of the run

Open the lake-run map →Every run river, with where the fish are holding today.Or get BirdTrout on the App Store