Steelhead Trout Ladder at Lake Erie

On Thanksgiving morning, we left the water park and headed out to see a Trout Ladder located on Lake Erie.  Our friend, Mark, had told Jeremy that we needed to it check out.  We are so glad he told us about it because it was unbelievable! We pulled into the parking area, and saw this amazing old stone house.  Not sure what it is used for now, but it was so pretty.  

Old Stone house and pond

The parking lot was busy, and there were already anglers in the water.  They wade out into the water and attempt to catch the fish that are coming into the stream.   

Checking out some of the trout near the mouth of the stream.

A beautiful  trout caught by one of the anglers.

We headed over to the stream to see all the fish Mark told us about.  Sure enough, there were hundreds of Steelhead trout in this small stream, swimming up stream in a very small amount of water.  It was amazing to watch them fight the current and the rocky stream bed.

That black mass is LOTS of fish!

Here are a few trying to make it through some very shallow water
to get to the pack of fish in the above picture.

The fish swim crazy hard and make all kinds of splashes!

I didn't get a picture of the natural slate ladder between the lower pool and this next pool of fish.  We didn't see any fish attempt to get up that natural slate ladder, but it was probably a good 15 feet long.  I don't know how they can swim over that surface in such little amount of water.

More fish hanging out in an upper pool.

Another small slate ladder that one fish was thinking about trying!

While standing near the top of the ladder, one of the fish lept up over this water fall and was trying to get past the gate.  The Dept of Wildlife has closed off this stream because they don't want invasive fish or diseases to get up stream to the hatchery.  I could not believe this fish!  It was swimming with all its might against some pretty fast moving water.

Can you see the fish on the left side, near the gate?

When it didn't succeed on the left side, it skittered over to the right side.  Unbelievable and amazing to watch!  See the water flying off of it's tail as it fights the current and wants past that gate?

This fish didn't last long up here;
it finally gave up and flipped over the edge to the pool below.
I really felt sorry for it, and amazed at how much
energy they must expend trying to swim against that current!

So glad we had a chance to come here, and glad Mark told us about it.  It was really cool.