February 15, 2024

***NOTE: The Fishing Report Blog is updated weekly on Thursdays from September-May***  Steelhead fishing prospects are very good as local streams are offering favorable fishing conditions. Some rain may be in the forecast leading into the weekend and anglers can monitor the most recent river conditions at the following links: <Rocky River flow gage data><Chagrin River flow gage data> <Rocky River NEORSD station with turbidity>. Cleveland Metroparks stocked 500 pounds of mixed trout at Wallace Lake recently (details in report below).
 
The Rocky River and other area streams are offering excellent fishing conditions which should continue through the weekend. Good numbers of steelhead are available in all our streams, and we’ve also had a fair number of stray brown trout turn up in our streams over the past two weeks. There is some rain in the forecast today, but as long as it is not too much steelhead fishing prospects will remain very good through the weekend. Dime to nickel size spawn sacks (trout or salmon eggs in hot pink, chartreuse, orange or white mesh), live minnows, 1/64  or 1/32 oz jigs tipped with maggots, and salmon egg mimicking beads drifted under floats are all catching plenty of fish, as are fly fishers drifting egg patterns, beadhead nymph and streamer patterns. There are a mix of pre-spwan, spawning and post spawn fish present in the streams. 
 
Two weeks ago 500 pounds of mixed trout we stocked at Wallace Lake. This was the final winter trout stocking, with a combined 6,000 lbs having already gone into Wallace (1,800 lbs), Shadow (1,500 lbs), Ledge (1,300 lbs), Judge’s (200 lbs) and Ranger (200 lbs) lakes. The majority were rainbow trout averaging a pound each although there were plenty of bonus brook, brown, golden rainbow, and even rare tiger (brook x brown hybrid) trout to keep things interesting. Anglers shared photos of the various trout species caught this week as presented below. Small marabou or hair jigs tipped with a few maggots or a waxworm, a dime sized ball of Power Bait, and smallish to medium size spinners are all great offerings to try for trout this time of year. Spring stocking of rainbow trout in the East Branch Rocky River will commence around mid March. Keep posted to this report for details on that.
 
Cleveland Museum of Natural History trout Club offerings. Saturday, Feb. 17, 4-6 PM, at Merwin's Wharf Restaurant. The CMNH Trout Club welcomes Capt. Dave Hurley who will do a presentation on "Fly Fishing Freshwater Flats- Lake St. Clair, Michigan". No cost and open to everyone. Cash bar and food menu available.  Please register with [email protected] # of persons coming. Tuesday, Feb 27, 7-10 PM at Gormley's Pub, "There's a Fly in my Beer!", Open Vise Fly Tying. Come and share a pattern, come and learn, or just come and watch! No charge to attend.  
 
Barbie Rod Steelhead Derby is back on Saturday, March 30 and ONLINE REGISTRATION IS COMING SOON! The always popular Barbie Rod Steelhead Derby is back this year and scheduled for Saturday, March 30. Cleveland Metroparks will be leading the event and Ohio Central Basin Steelheaders (a non-profit) will be hosting the raffle. Trophies for three largest steelhead, raffles, and a cookout are all part of the day's festivities for this fun event where anglers must fish for steelhead with a kiddie fishing pole! 100% of proceeds from the fundraiser event go to support the Cleveland Metroparks Fishing Fund (this event has raised $49K since 2015).  The event headquarters will be at South Mastic Woods Picnic Area (immediately south of the Putritas Road bridge), a central location on the Rocky River that offers lots of space. Mark your calendars for this fun event for a great cause! You can save $5 versus the day of the event ($30 vs $35) by registering for the Barbie Rod Steelhead Derby online – which will be going live soon. Stay tuned to upcoming fishing reports for updates!
 
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 already covered.
 
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


 

Congratulations to Gabriella on catching her first steelhead ever! (photo courtesy of Mark Durkalec).




Christian shows off two beautiful golden rainbow trout. His is having the larger one mounted (photo courtesy of William Thomas).





Wow! Jared caught this trophy brown trout at Ledge Lake on a Vibrax spinner (photos courtesy of Jared Kassouf).




Chris shared “This was my first ever brook trout so I thought I’d share as I enjoy seeing the pictures under the weekly fishing report but this is at Wallace Lake on Feb 10 (photo courtesy of Chris Curry).




Santo caught and released this tiger trout at Wallace Lake late last week. He hooked it on a spoon (photo courtesy of Ted Choukalas).




George caught this trophy golden rainbow trout at Ledge Lake (photo courtesy of George Prokopovich Sr).




Captain Gary Norman of Dog Pound Charters shared this large steelhead caught by a client this week (photo courtesy of Gary Norman).




James caught this 20 inch rainbow trout in a Metroparks lake (photo courtesy of James Householder).




Dwayne caught one shy of his 5 trout limit at Shadow Lake, a group of rainbow trout punctuated by a colorful male brook trout. NOTE: limit varies by location! It's a limit of any mix of trout of 5/day at Shadow Lake and Ohio & Erie Canal, 3/day in Wallace, Ledge, Ranger and Judges lakes and 2/day this time of year in all Lake Erie tributary streams and Lake Erie. In the latter a minimum size of 12” also applies (photo courtesy of Dwayne Marshall).




Alecia caught a colorful golden rainbow trout at Wallace Lake (photo courtesy of Daniel Coon).




Steve shows off his first steelhead ever caught in the Rocky River (photo courtesy of Ted Choukalas).




Matt has had a lucky year hooking two stray brown trout in the Chagrin River among his steelhead catch (photo courtesy of Matt Olson).




Ben caught this pretty hen brook trout in a Metroparks pond (photo courtesy of Ben Mott).




Denver caught his first golden rainbow trout at Wallace Lake (photo courtesy of Denver Ladd).




I’ve heard of thick steelhead being described as a “football”, but I think Chris caught a honey glazed ham in this case! (photo courtesy of Chris Ligan).





Steve and his buddy show off a pair of big Shadow Lake golden rainbow trout caught this week (photos courtesy of Steve Farley).





Every year I get several folks send in pics of dark colored buck steelhead, often with more pronounced teeth, wondering if they caught a salmon. It’s a reasonable mistake, as buck steelhead can acquire these characteristic around spawning time (photo courtesy of Mike Kocon).




Ron displays a golden rainbow trout caught from a fishing platform at Wallace Lake (photo courtesy of Jimmy Miranda).




John considered keeping this stocked brook trout, but decided to be generous and release it so that someone else good have the same great experience (photo courtesy of John Schultz).




An angler shows off a fresh steelhead caught by the marina on the Rocky River (photo courtesy of Mark Durkalec).




MARK YOUR CALENDARS!!!  The Barbie Rod Steelhead Derby fundraiser is coming back on Saturday, March 30. Details in the report above and online registration will be live soon.