The Rocky and Chagrin rivers are dropping into nice shape at the moment and the forecast into the weekend looks good for that to continue. 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>. The last bunch of rainbow trout were stocked in the East Branch Rocky River on Monday and was split between Wallace Lake.
The Rocky and Chagrin rivers are dropping into good shape right now and the weather forecast looks promising for that trend to be continue into the weekend. Weekend river fishing prospects are looking great based on the forecast. The majority of steelhead being caught at this point are post-spawn fish, although some actively spawning and pre-spawn fish are still out there. 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 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! One lucky angler this week added a walleye t, too, and accomplished the Gold, Silver and Bronze (photos below). Lake-run "smallies" are typically available in the streams until early June.
The Cleveland area shoreline of Lake Erie walleye bite has heated up. Casting stickbaits (ie Husky Jery and Pefect 10) from shoreline rocks after dark at Edgewater Park, E55th/E72nd breakwalls and Wildwood Park are good bets. 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 as well as 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. The fish cleaning station at Gordon Park was just re-opened today, as well. Boat Launch Annual tags for the 2022 season can be purchased online
<here>.
On Monday Cleveland Metroparks stocked 500 pounds of rainbow trout at Wallace Lake and the Ohio Division of Wildlife stocked 600 trout at Shadow Lake today. Additionally, on Friday April 8 the Ohio Division of Wildlife stocked just over 1,500 rainbow trout in Hinckley Lake at the boat house. The state stocked trout are smaller averaging a half pound, about half the size of the trout stocked by Cleveland Metroparks, and are perfect for kids. Some trout stocked over the winter are still available at Shadow, Ledge, Judge's and Ranger lakes, as well. T
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 was completed on Monday with 400 pounds of 14-16" trout going into 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.
Fish Salvage Project this Week. I would like to extend a big thank you to Bainbridge Township Service Department and Davey Resource Group for partnering with us on the fish salvage portion of a restoration project where a lake is being drained. On Wednesday and Thursday this week we transferred 2,842 fish to two areas where we will be hosting kid and family fishing events throughout the year (I am not disclosing locations now so the fish, which are mostly panfish, can acclimate to their new home and make a lot of people happy this summer). The calculated value of the fish is just shy of $16K. Photos from the project are offered below.
Congratulations to Nathan Kuczmarski! Congratulations to Saint Ignatius high school senior Nathan Kuczmarski who took second place in the C-SPAN Student documentary competition with his entry entitled “Dream of Clean Water”. He also won the Fan Favorite award. It was my pleasure to help him with an interview for this along with my colleagues at Ohio EPA and the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District. It’s wonderful to see bright minds tackling these types of meaningful topics. Fantastic job Nathan! You may view his 6 minute documentary here:
<Dream of Clean Water>
USFWS Sea Lamprey Treatment Scheduled. A sea lamprey control team lead by US Wish and Wildlife Service will remove harmful, invasive sea lampreys from Lake Erie’s Grand River in Ohio, downstream of the Harpersfield Dam, starting on April 27, 2022. Prior to the treatment, on April 20, officials had an open house to talk about sea lampreys and the Grand River removal effort. Sea lampreys destroy native and desirable Great Lakes fish and harm the ecosystem and the economy. Sea lamprey control treatments, which have occurred eight times on the Grand River since 1986, are conducted using a selective pesticide known as a lampricide. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), under contract with the binational Great Lakes Fishery Commission (GLFC), will carry out the control measures. Sea lamprey control will take place approximately April 27th to May 4th at various locations on the Grand River between the Harpersfield Dam and Lake Erie. Exact dates are weather dependent.
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.
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] .
Vinny and a few of his fellow Cub Scouts from Pack 252 came out t observe our final spring stocking of trout in the East Branch Rocky River on Monday (photo courtesy of Brian DiGoia).
Ken has been kept away from the river for awhile due to other duties, but found the time this week and was rewarded with this 32" buck steelhead. He shared of this fine catch
"I hooked this fish on my fourth drift (jointed Rapala), and it hit hard, about forty yards from where I was standing in fast water, on a small spot beyond the middle of the stream where I couldn’t run to fight him. A few times, I brought him upstream, only for him to slip into the current and head downstream while peeling line. When I finally got him near me, he wanted to hit the upper adjacent current, but I managed to “steer” him away to a slower moving pool. I continued the fight while wading deeper water to the bank and then released him. This fish gave a different fight from others I have caught, and I cannot comprehend how they make decisions, reacting so quickly looking for current – it’s a mystery." (photo courtesy of Ken Stein).
John shared of his monster walleye caught this week
"Just weighed it in at Shines for the Spring Crazy Walleye Derby. 30-1/8” and 10.38 lbs. caught on a square bill Reaper crankbait around 9:00 pm along the shoreline in C-town" (photo courtesy of John Winters).
Congratulations to Zach Case on acheiving the coveted Gold, Silver and Bronze challenge this week. That is catching a walleye, steelhead and smallmouth bass all in the same day, and this is the best time of year to acheive the feat in our lower rivers closer to Lake Erie (photos courtesy of Zach Case).
Jim shared of this catch
"Hello I wanted to share a fishing story that happened on Easter Sunday recently, April 17. I was fishing the Rocky River by Mastick Woods earlier in the day but unfortunately did not get anything. I packed up and decided to try the East Branch Rocky River near Whitney Rd for some stocked trout. I was flinging a few casts, felt a bite, and managed to catch this decent sized largemouth bass! I was not expecting to catch this species at all in that fishing area. I was using a dark green and brown colored cricket lure made by Rebel. That day was also my birthday so I was very happy to receive this gift! Thank you for continuing to publish these reports on the Cleveland Metroparks website." (photo courtesy of Jim McCormick).
David shared yesterday
"A couple pics from Jacob and David Barnaby spending some quality time at their secret spot on the Rocky River" (photos courtesy of David Barnaby).
Jimmy caught this bruiser Rocky River smallmouth bass last Friday (photo courtesy of Jimmy Miranda).
Dale was rewarded on Easter with these two big steelhead from the Rocky River, the larger of which was 30 inches. He has caught 38 steelhead this season (photo courtesy of Dale).
John had a stellar day on the rocky river with most of his fish (this is just one of them) munching up the soft beads he was drifting under a float. And to cap his perfect outing he saw a bald eagle along the river (photos courtesy of John Burkhart).
A student shows off a nice largemouth bass sampled during a Case Western Reserve University field outing for an Ichthyology (fish biology) class last Saturday. Among the catch we got 3 brown trout. a brook trout, and a rainbow trout- which which remain from our winter stockings (photo courtesy of Dr. Ron Oldfield).
Brad accomplished the "silver and bronze" from the Rocky River this week (photos courtesy of Brad Gardner).
Above are a some photos from the fish salvage project ths week as outlined in the report above.