April 8, 2021

The Rocky River and other area streams continue to offer low and clear conditions coupled with warm temperatures, but rain is on the way and will hopefully freshen things up.  Anglers are advised to monitor the most recent river water level and temperature at the following link: <Rocky River flow gage data><Chagrin River flow gage data> <Rocky River NEORSD station with turbidity>.  The East Branch Rocky River in Strongsville and Shadow Lake were stocked with rainbow trout last week (details below).
 
Welcome to northeast Ohio where we transition from winter to summer in less than a week!  Locals streams are low, and clear with rocketing temperatures this week.  During warmer periods anglers should bring in steelhead as quickly as possible and release with a minimum of handling, as warmer temperatures have the big trout more physically stresssed.  Fortunately, rain and cooler temperatures are on the way to freshen things up.  Most steelhead observed lately have been post-spawn "dropbacks", but I do hope/expect that some fresh fish will enter the rivers with the next rain that raises and cools the waters.  Steelhead are well distributed throughout our area watersheds, although greater concentrations of fresher fish are available closer to the lake.  In low and clear water finesse rules, with small marabou jigs (1/32 and 1/64 ounce are most popular) tipped with maggots, live minnows, 3" rubber worms (pink and white have been good) and salmon egg mimmicking beads and soft rubber eggs drifted near the river bottom under a float will take a greater share of the fish. Lighter 6 lb flourocarbon leader and smaller floats, hooks (some anglers go as small as size 16) and even smaller split shot can help. Fly anglers have been doing well ona variety of egg, nymph and baitfish patterns.  The spring run of white suckers is going strong and numbers of lake-run smallmouth bass are building this week.

Many of our lakes and ponds are offering stocked trout.  Just last week the Ohio Division of Wildlife stocked 500 rainbow trout at Shadow Lake and this past winter a total of 6,000 lbs of trout were stocked between Wallace, Shadow, Ledge, Judge's and Ranger lakes (Wallace recieved almost half of the total fish) and plenty of these trout remain.  The majority of the fish were 1-1.5 lb rainbow trout, but a good  number of brook, brown, golden rainbow and trophy rainbow trout were in the mix.  Note: the daily limit at Wallace, Ledge, Ranger and Judge's lakes is 3 trout/angler and the limit at Shadow Lake and the Ohio & Erie Canal is 5 trout/angler.  Trout often bite well on small to medium size spinners/spoons/crankbaits, a small marabou or tube jig tipped with a waxworm or a few maggots, canned corn kernals fished on the lake bottom or a dime size ball of colorful PowerBait. 

Last week Wednesday 800 lbs of rainbow trout were stocked in the East Branch Rocky River, complementing the 1,200 lbs of mostly 14-16" rainbow trout stocked on March 15.  The stocking zone is largely in Strongsville and extend from Royalton Road (Rt. 82) heading north to across the parkway from Wallace Lake.  Note: traditional stocking spot at Bonnie Park WILL NOT be stocked this year.  Vegetation and ground at the site is still stabilizing from a large restoration project to remove a dam and interconnect a wetland complex to the floodplain.  The area will be stocked again later next week.  Stocked trout in the river bite the same types of offerings mentioned in the paragraph above.

Docks have been installed at Edgewater and E72nd boat ramps, and a single dock is installed at Emerald Necklace Marina boat launch on the Rocky River (more will be added in about 2 weeks once annual dredging near the boat ramps is completed).   In spring, sunfish, largemouth bass and northern pike can be found prowling the Lake erie shoreline harbors and marinas.  On the lake side, anglers at Lakefront parks can try their hand at steelhead and yellow perch. 

Lake Erie Kayak Anglers Podcast.  I recently had a chance to sit down with Chuck Earls and Jason Duca as a special guest for their inaugural Lake Erie Kayak Anglers Podcast to talk all things local fishing and fisheries.  The podcast, about an hour long, is a nice way to learn while driving to/from work, among other things.  It can be found <here>.

Cleveland Metroparks Annual Boat Launch Passes are Now Available.    2021 season Cleveland Metroparks Boat Launch Pass can be puchased online at this time at the following link:  <2021 Boat Launch Pass>.  The base price (there are certain discounts) is $30.  Note: this applies only to motorized watercraft that are trailered.

Photo Release Waivers for Fishing Blog Photos (fast and easy to complete online).  Photo release waivers can easily be completed online through Smart Waiver (takes only about 30 seconds to complete) at the following link: <Smart Waiver link>. 

If you have a photo that you would like to contribute to the fishing report, or if you have any further questions regarding fishing in the Cleveland Metroparks, you may contact Aquatic Biologist Mike Durkalec at (440) 331-8017 or  [email protected] .

Tight Lines,

Mike
 

Mike and his little helper teamed up[ to land this nice steelhead (photos courtesy of Mike Wolf).



Brian reported "Vinny and Brian had a great start to spring break! Hooked lots of fish, but only landed three. Small spinners gave us the most success." (photo courtesy of Brian DiGioia).




Emily had a great week!  She landed her personal best steelhead at 32", then followed that up with her first walleye (photos courtesy of Emily Pechaitis).



Mark caught this fine 16 inch brown trout at Shadow Lake (photo courtesy of Mark Cwalina).




Grace took her fiance fishing on the east Branch Rocky River and they caught some nice rainbow trout (photos courtesy of Grace Gansor).





Josh reports "Got my first steelhead April 5th on the Chagrin near Todd Field on a fly rod swinging a purple minnow pattern, thanks to Max, Richard and Jon. Jon, in the mask, got his first one also. If you can give me shout out to them in the post, I would be appreciative!" (photos courtesy of Josh Petro).





Alex hooked 5 trout, landing two, on tiny crappie crankbaits on the East Branch Rocky River (photos courtesy of Nick Zarzeczny).




Ted has been catching rainbow trout in the east Branch Rocky River on white twistertail grubs (photos courtesy of Ted Choukalas).



Nick landed a chrome beauty this week (photo courtesy of Nick Kosiba).



Matt caught a largemouth bass at Wallace Lake along with a pair of trout (photo courtesy of Matt Janowski Jr).



Ephraim shows off a Rocky River Marina steelhead, one of five he hooked last Friday.  can you believe we were dressing that warm only a week ago?! (photo courtesy of Ephraim Bowser).




Last week we sampled Mentor Marsh as part of a long term study investigating fish usage of the area for spawning in spring.  Among the catch we saw lots of quality largemouth bass, northern pike (pictured was the biggest one), steelhead, bowfin and some HUGE common carp!





Big schools of yellow perch are not to be found, but anglers looking around enough may find enough for a meal or two.  It should heat up along with the water temperature.  Note: the Ohio Division of Wildlife just announced a reduction in yellow perch limit to only 10 per person from Huron to Fairport.  Some huge white perch, a close relative of white bass but lacking the stripes, have been mixed in with the yellow perch.  For reference the state record white perch was 14 1/8" and 1.72 lbs.




We are just easing back into in-person trainings.  On Tuesday we took a small group of Watershed Volunteers Program volunteers and sampled the Rocky River.  The most unique among the catch was a blackside darter, which I don't see very often in the river.  We also had a nice opportunity to compare and contrast a largemouth bass (top in first image) and smallmouth bass.



In Cleveland a dropped steelhead = OPPORTUNITY! (photo courtesy of Jimmy Pease).