April 14, 2022

***The Fishing Report Blog is updated every Thursday***   The Rocky and Chagrin rivers are elevated and muddy this morning and still rising. Weekend river fishing prospects will depend on how much more rain we recieve.  Anglers can check the flow and temperature data at the following links: <Rocky River flow gage data><Chagrin River flow gage data> <Rocky River NEORSD station with turbidity>.  Trout will be stocked in the East Branch Rocky River for the final time early next week if conditions are amenable (recent stocking details are offered below).

The Rocky and Chagrin rivers are elevated and muddy this morning and still rising.  Weekend river fishing prospects will be dependant upon how much more rain we recieve.  Before riivers rose, anglers reported good success this week, with a mix of active spawning, pre-spawn and post-spawn steelhead present.  Best bets include nickel to dime size spawn bags (especially when the water is stained), salmon egg mimicking beads and soft rubber eggs (8-12 mm), small jigs (1/32-1/64 oz) tipped with maggots and live minnows under a float for anglers fish noodle rods or centerpin rigs.  Fly fishers are doing well with eggs flies (ie glow bugs and sucker spawn), streamers (ie Clouser minnows and wooly buggers) and beadhead nymphs.  Anglers can also keep it simple and cast a medium size Little Cleo spoon, Roostertail spinner or similar on a standard medium action spinning rod spooled with 8 pound line. As long as temperatures stay cool steelhead will remain in the streams, although the runs typically taper off quickly into late April as many of the post-spawn fish return to Lake Erie.

Lake-run smallmouth bass and white suckers are also running in the Rocky and Chagrin rivers.  Smallmouth bass will strike artificial lures similar to steelhead- such as medium size crankbaits, spinners, tube jigs (dark brown and olive are good) and marabou jigs under floats.  This time of year offers a great opportunity to score the "silver and bronze", which is catching a steelhead and lake-run smallmouth bass in the same day, often from the same pool on the same offering!  Suckers are great for beginners and bite well on small flies, jigs or a worm on the river bottom with a sinker.

Lake Erie harbors, such as Edgewater, Wildwood and E72nd boat ramp area offering mixed catch opportunities for steelhead, northern pike and pre-spawn largemouth bass, yellow perch, rock bass and sunfish species.  Courtesy docks are in at Gordon Park and Edgewater boat ramps and one is open at Emerald Necklace Marina on the Rocky.  The launch fee pay kiosks have been reinstalled and be aware that if you save your daily launch fee receipts you can put what you paid towards an annual launch tag at a later time.  Next up: the fish cleaning station at Gordon Park is scheduled to re-open the week of April 18th.  Boat Launch Annual tags for the 2022 season can be purchased online <here>.

Many of our lakes and ponds offer stocked trout.  This past Friday April 8 the Ohio Division of Wildlife stocked just over 1,500 rainbow trout in Hinckley Lake at the boat house.  These fish average a half pound, about half the size of the trout stocked by Cleveland Metroparks, and are perfect for kids.  This 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 a decent number 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 even some tiger 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.  In the river, the combined rainbow trout/steelhead limit is 2 trout/angler of minimum size 12 inches.  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. 

The final spring stocking of the East Branch Rocky River is scheduled for early next week with another 900 lbs of 14-16" rainbow trout planned for the East Branch Rocky River in Millstream Run Reservation (the river stockings are 100% rainbow trout, unlike our lakes).  These complement the 2,700 lbs of trout already stocked in the same stretch of river since mid-March.  The stocking zone is largely in Strongsville and extends from Royalton Road (Rt. 82) heading north to roughly Wallace Lake and at this point the fish should be well distributed throughout the entire stocking zone.  Stocked trout in the river bite the same types of offerings mentioned in the paragraph above.

Castapalooza 2022 - A Celebration of All Things Fly Fishing.  On Saturday, April 23 from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM Angling Consulting Services, Inc, and Great Lakes Flyfishing have teamed up to bring us Castapalooza.  The event will be hosted at the Cleveland Metroparks Scenic Park Pavilion on the Rocky River- just upstream of the boat launch.  Fly casting and fly tying demos, displays, and more- free of charge and open to the public (just show up, there is no pre-registration)  This year’s presenters include Jerry Darkes, Jeff Liskay, and other fly-fishing professionals. Women’s programs by Ohio Women on the Fly. Learn the basics of fly fishing, advanced techniques, plus how to fly fish successfully Lake Erie and other local waters

A Request From The Rocky River Park Manager.  I had a chat with Rick Ditch, the Park Manager at Rocky River, recently and although he loves seeing so many anglers enjoying the park in spring, folks tearing up the roadside ground is causing more work for his already busy crews. He asks that folks utilize official parking areas or at least hard packed gravel areas. Anywhere with grass (especially) or soil is VERY soft right now. And do not park where ruts are already present. If unsure you can put your hazard lights on and check the ground first (as long as it's not too busy with traffic). He could put up signs and have the park police enforce with tickets- but he's going a friendlier route and asking folks to be conscientious hoping it will work. And this message carries over anywhere along our steelhead streams. Thank you.

Photo Release Waivers for Fishing Blog Photos (fast and easy to complete online).  Photo release waivers for photos sent in for the fishing report can easily be completed online through Smart Waiver (takes only about 30 seconds to complete) at the following link: <Smart Waiver link>. You only need to do this one time and any future additional photos submitted are covered too.

Ralph shared this week "This was Will's first time fishing for rainbow trout, and he did well under the covered bridge in Strongsville.  We had a blast and the fish were biting on a small white Rooster Tail spinner and also on chartreuse Power Bait.  We made some smoked trout dip for Sunday family dinner!" (photos courtesy of Ralph Stock).



Adrian shared "My 6 year old daughter Adriana.  Kept begging me to go steelhead fishing.  First drift hooked up and actually landed her first Steelhead." (photo courtesy of Adrian Zachary).




Max and his buddy caught sunfish, crappie and a largemouth bass on an outing to Wallace Lake (photos courtesy of Corey Butram).





Vinnie and his dad have had some successful outings targeting rainbow trout on the East Branch Rocky River (photos courtesy of Brian DiGioia).



Brent scored a golden rainbow trout at Wallace Lake on a black wooly bugger fly (photo courtesy of Brent Oneill).



Austin shared "I thought this was worth sharing. I didn't notice my net was stuck on the teeth of this fish until after. Made for a funny picture. A screaming steelhead! " (photo courtesy of Austin Lumpkin).



Dominic shared "Thank you for all your efforts keeping up with the fishing report.  I caught my personal best steelhead on Saturday at the Rocky.  31in buck weighing 11 lbs. went 10/14 on the day." (photo courtesy of Pat Cramer).




Elmer caught a limit of Wallace Lake rainbow trout, including a trophy size fish, on Tuesday fishing Power Bait near the bottom with a sinker. (photos courtesy of Elmer Garcia).




Carl and a buddy made a fine catch of Lake Erie walleyes on Tuesday.  They did best trolling red and white Bandit crankbaits in 41 foot of water (photos courtesy of Carl Schweisthal).




Michael was casting for walleye from the Lake Erie shoreline on Saturday and was surprised to catch this prehistoric bowfin (photos courtesy of Michael Greenlief).




Sam caught the "silver and bonze" (a steelheasd and smallmouth bass) in a local stream this week (photos courtesy of Sam Horn).








Tony and Roxanne had a banner week on the Rocky River!  They caught a bunch of steelhead, including a few over 30", then Tony capped things off perfectly with a beautiful brown trout! (photos courtesy of Tony Perrin).



John, who manages the Orvis Westlake store, swung up this bright steelhead on the fly rod.  Coming up in May Orvis Westake and Cleveland locations will be collecting donations for the Cleveland Metroparks Fishing Fund- where any donation of $10 or more will get customers $10 off their order!  Stay tuned for more on this Orvis Giveback Days program (photo courtesy of John Brochue).



Chuck shows off a perfect pan-size East Branch Rocky River rainbow trout (photo courtesy of Pete Surace).



Lake Erie boaters in Cleveland please note that value of saveds daily launch reciepts can be put towards an annual launch pass at a later date if you wish.