December 10, 2020

Road closures: sections of the Rocky River Parkway are closed because the recent winter storm took down more trees than Hurricane Sandy. The main closure is between Puritas Road and the Rocky River Nature Center.  For the adventurous, you can park elsewhere and walk into that section- just don’t go around any barricades whether on the parkway or on all purpose trails.

In late fall and early winter steelhead trout are the highlight species targeted by anglers along the Rocky River and other area streams. The Rocky River and other area streams are in great shape currently after being elevated and muddy most of the week.  There is rain in the forecast on Saturday so weekend conditions will depend on how much rain we recieve.  To monitor the most recent river water level and temperature you can check the following link: <Rocky River flow gage data><Chagrin River flow gage data> <Rocky River NEORSD station with turbidity>.  Shadow, Ledge and Judge's lakes were stocked with trout yesterday (details offered below).  Lake Erie anglers are primarily targeting steelhead and walleye along the shoreline.

The Rocky River and other area streams are in excellent shape after being elevated and muddy much of the past week.  There is rain in the forecast Saturday so weekend conditions will depend on how much of that we recieve. I'd advise anglers to keep an eye on the flow gage data to determine the trend in flow. Anglers the past few days have been doing well for steelhead on the Rocky and Chagrin rivers, in particular.  Most fish have been caught in deeper holes spread throughout the watersheds. With the stained water, a brightly colored (neon pink, orange and chartreuse) dime to nickel size spawn bags under a float will take many of the fish.  As water clears downsizing to salmon egg mimicking beads (8-12 mm)juu, small (1/32-1/64 oz) jigs tipped with maggots or live minnows under a float will gain the edge.

Steelhead prowl the Cleveland Lakefront all winter and can be found off the rocks at Edgewater and breakwall/rocks at E55th/E72nd areas, the pier at Wildwood Park and Wendy Park at the old Coast Guard station.  An abundance of baitfish has been hampering the bite in these areas at times.  Casting a spoon (ie 2/5 oz Little Cleo or KO Wobbler) or spinner (ie 1/8 oz Vibrax or RoosterTail), or drifting a 1/32 or 1/64 oz marabou jig tipped with a waxworm or a few maggots under a float at these locations are a good bet for connecting with a steelhead trout.  Walleye fishing in these lakefront areas has been tougher than usual this all season from shore after dark.  Walleye anglers typically do best casting Perfect 10 and other shallow running stick-style crankbaits and lipless rattle baits.

Yesterday we stocked 1,500 lbs of trout as follows:  Shadow Lake (800 lbs), Ledge Lake (650 lbs) and Judge's Lake (150 lbs).  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 up to 7 lbs were in the mix.  A fair number of trout remain at Wallace Lake and Ohio & Erie Canal from stockings in October.  Note: the daily limit at Wallace Lake is 3 trout/angler and the limit at the canal is 5 trout/angler.  The trout bite well on a hook filled with kernals canned corn, colorful dime size balls of power Bait dough, and smaller spinners.  Wallace Lake and Ranger Lake are scheduled for trout stockings on Friday December 18.

Cleveland Metroparks Boat Ramp updates.  This year the Lakefront Reservation park manager is going to try something different and leave one set of docks in at Edgewater boat ramp all winter for the convenience of late season anglers and waterfowl hunters (the others docks were pulled last week).  Docks at Gordon Park (E72nd) and Wildwood boat ramps were pulled for the season this week, but there are permanent concrete/metal docks there year around. Launch ramp parking tags are not being sold currently and will not be enforced again until Spring of 2021. Also please note that the fish cleaning station at Gordon Park (E72nd) boat ramp area has been winterized and closed for the season, and will re-open in March or April of 2021.

Photo Release Waivers are now Required for Fishing Blog Photos (and are fast and easy to complete online).  Photo release waivers are now required for any fishing blog photos where individuals are identifiable.  The good news is it only has to be done one time per person (and then it's good for any subsequent photos) and there's a super easy and secure online form to do it through Smart Waiver that takes only about 30 seconds to complete.  So please use this link to complete the waiver if you send in any images for there report: <Smart Waiver link>.  Sorry for the slight inconvenience and THANK YOU for all who have contributed in the past to make this report a fun and personal offering!

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

 

David is at it again this week catching bigger steelhead than the adult anglers! (photos courtesy of John Russell).





Kelsey and Ross caught some fresh chromers the past couple of days (photos courtesy of Ross Bailey).



Billy caught this colorful buck steelhead in the Rocky River yesterday (photo courtesy of Billy Szabo).



John displays a fresh hen steelhead from the Rocky (photo courtesy of John Fay).



Randy diverges from the crowd a bit and uses a baitcaster reel for float fishing, and it worked just fine on some Rocky River steelheads yesterday (photo courtesy of Randy Gerrick).




Josh landed some gorgeous fresh steelhead drifting spawn sacks in the Rocky yesterday (photos courtesy of Josh Zabor).




Victor scored a pair of steelhead in the East Branch Rocky River on Sunday (photos courtesy of Victor).



Sean fished a smaller stream when the main rivers were muddy on Sunday and it paid off (photo courtesy of Sean Johnson).



Nick also found success on a smaller stream when the bigger streams were still muddy.  The smaller streams clear quicker than the main rivers after being elevated (photo courtesy of Nick Kosiba).



Brad is yet another angler who scored a colorful buck steelhead on a smaller creek over this past weekend (photo courtesy of Brad Gardner).



Andy hooks a dime bright steelhead caught on a chartreuse tube jig under a float at the marina on Tuesday afternoon.












Experienced steelhead angler Nick has taken his buddy Sam under his wing lately to teach him the ropes and they've both been catching some nive fisg in the Rocky River (photos courtesy of Nick Zarzeczny).








Yesterday we stocked a combined 1,500 lbs of trout at Shadow, Ledge and Judge's lakes.  Most of the fish were 1 lb rainbow trout, but plenty of trophy size rainbow trout as well as brook, brown and golden rainbow trout were mixed in for fishing diversity.