January 9, 2020

In winter steelhead trout are the highlight in the Rocky and Chagrin rivers.  Stream levels have been ideal the past several days and has been accompanied the best steelhead fishing of the season so far.  There is lots of precipitation forecasted into the weekend, though, so wise anglers will keep an eye on the flow data at the following link: <Rocky River flow gage data><Chagrin River flow gage data> <Rocky River NEORSD station with turbidity>.  A total of 3,000 lbs of trout were stocked at five Metroparks lakes in mid-December, as well, to expand winter fishing options.

Local streams have dropped into great shape for steelhead the past several days following the rain over the weekend, although the streams were slushy this morning.  Great news is that the steelhead fishing has been the best of the season so far this week, with good numbers of fresh run fish spread throughout the Rocky and Chagrin rivers.  The Cuyahoga River at the Rt 82 dam in Brecksville has also been producing catches.  As a nice surprise, some of the larger fish I've seen in several years have been in the mix, with an impressive number of fish reaching the magic 30" mark being reported.  Unfortunately, there is quite a bit of precipitation in the forecast into this weekend so wise anglers will keep an eye on the river flows at the links above (see tips section below for fishing for steelhead in elevated muddy conditions).  Steelhead in stained water earlier this week were biting dime to nickel size spawn sacks in bright colors, and as the water has cleared small marabou jigs (black with orange head and white with flash have been producing well) tipped with maggots, live or salted minnows and salmon egg mimmicking beads drifted near the river bottom under a float have all been taking a share of the fish.  Increased flows throughout winter will allow fresh steelhead to continue trickling into local streams following a fairly slow fall season.

On Monday December 16 & 17 we stocked 3,000 lbs of trout at Wallace (1,400 lbs), Shadow (750 lbs), Ledge (600 lbs), Judge's (150 lbs) and Ranger (100 lbs) lakes.  The size of the trout averages about a pound and a half each, although there are a few trophy fish between 3-6 pounds mixed in.  Along with the predominantly standard rainbow trout are fair number of colorful golden rainbow trout, brook trout and brown trout (see photos below).  The second (and final) round of winter trout will go into the same lakes around mid to late January or early February.  These trout bite on jigging spoons, brightly colored PowerBait, and small jigs tipped with a few maggots or a waxworm.  NOTE: the limits on these trout at 3/day at Wallace, Ledge, Judge's and Ranger lakes and 5/day at Shadow Lake and Ohio & Erie Canal fishing area (there is no size limit, unlike the river where trout need to be minimum length of 12" and you can harvest 2/day).  There was a skim of ice on most of our inland ponds this morning, but that should disappear over the next day or so given the forecast.

Where can steelhead be caught when the rivers are high and muddy?  Time on the water is precious for many of us.  But how many times have you heard friends all week enthusiastically talk about the great steelhead fishing, only to have rain on Friday frustratingly mess up your weekend plans?  Muddy rivers are simply a reality at times and, in fact, it looks like rain on the way this weekend could very well lead to that.  The good news is that you can have some options when the water is elevated and muddy, as long as it's not too elevated.  I have personally caught a steelhead in the Rocky River when it was flowing at 800 cfs!  Far from ideal, and you won't catch large numbers, but when the water level is up fishing spots like dams and fords will halt or at least slow their progress upstream and thereby concentrates fish, increasing the odds of drifting a bait into their limited zone of vision in muddy water.  Some such spots include Lagoon Dam and Morley Ford on the Rocky River and the Rt 82 Dam shared by Brecksville Reservation and the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.  The marina area on the Rocky River is also a good option because the water is deeper and slower here (so it's not rushing too fast) and if you're lucky you can find a concentration of fresh fish moving in from the lake before they get more spread out upstream.  Using larger, bright or contrasting colored offerings with scent will definitely also increase your odds when the water looks like coffee with cream.  Finally, you can seek our smaller waters that drop and clear more rapidly.  Some options locally are the East Branch Rocky River, which has a smaller drainage area than the West and Main branches, smaller tributaries of larger streams like Tinker's Creek (a Cuyahoga River tributary), or smaller tributaries that flow directly to Lake Erie, such as Euclid Creek at Wildwood Park and Porter Creek at Huntington Reservation.  Sure, there will be times we get so much rain that it's best to just stay home or do something else, but implementing some of these strategies can definitely add to your number of "fishable days" during a season.

Steelhead Talks at the Cleveland Boat Show & Fishing Expo.  For anyone interested, I'll be giving steelhead talks at the Cleveland Boat Show & Fishing Expo next week at the IX Center at 1:00pm on Thursday the 16th, 6:30pm on Friday the 17th and at 11:00am on Saturday the 18th.  I will be covering the basics of the Ohio steelhead program, a bit on steelhead biology and run timing, and where and how to catch them in the greater Cleveland area.

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

 

Bill proudly shared "I'm attaching the photos of Emma and Will from New Years Day. Even though they both have caught steelhead before Will reeled in a nice female.  Emma was very excited though pulling four that day because she caught on drift by herself without dad's help. And the large buck was a double with dad even though I wound up losing that one.  I had more fun watching and helping her land hers. Great day on the water all around. Thank you so much for all you do with the fishing community and the fishing report. It is so awesome to see when you highlight the kids especially or someone's first steelhead." (photos courtesy of Bill Gill).






Adam and his dad had a great day trout fishing at Wallace Lake, capped by the very chunky hen brook trout (photos courtesy of Mike Flachbart).



Nick shared from the Rocky River on Tuesday "Got this guy off the Ford yesterday.  Probably 28 inch and at least 8lb. He treed me (hung up on fallen tree in the water) and I thought it was over,  but I let some line loose and he swam out of the tree! " (photo courtesy of Nick Bryan).





Adam caught his limit of rainbow trout at wallace Lake this week and released several others.  Check out his blog at this link: <CoolwaterFish blog> (photos courtesy of Adam Eibling).





Robert shared "Got into some great fishing on some of my secret creeks these past couple of weeks! Happy new year!" (photos courtesy of Robert Dean).







Dan, Mike and friends are chasing those CLE walleye until the bitter winter end! (photos courtesy of Dana Daugherty-Klonowski).



Dave shared this week "I landed this guy on the Rocky River.  I was my first ever.  If you could please mention Danny Manning he gave me a lot of advice on setting up my leader.  Thank you" (photo courtesy of Dave Gardener).



Dale shared "Just wanted to add my first fish of the new year, a nice seven pounder from The Rocky last Thursday. Caught on Berkeley minnow on a plain jig head under a float, released strong and healthy. The flow rate and clarity were perfect and everybody knew it, lot of fishermen out there. But everyone gets along so well. I absolutely love fishing in our Metroparks. Thanks for all you do to educate and inspire our population!" (photo cortesy of Dale Novotny).








Paul made his annual trek from West Virginia to fish for steelhead and shared "Rocky River fishing with buddies Joe from West Virginia and local angler Kevin and Seth from Ravenna" (photos courtesy of Paul Goodman).





David and his buddy John took the kayaks to Wallace Lake this week for some trout fishing.  It's not every January that you can do that! (photos courtesy of David Simmons).




Ed shared yesterday from the Rocky "Second drift today...Bang!  Then missed another 30 min later between 4:00 - 5:00, both on Brad's Jigs tipped with maggots.  Here are 2 pics from the frozen tundra at about 23 degrees." (photos courtesy of Ed Schmitt).




John, who manages the Orvis shop in Westlake, succeeded in the challenge to swing flies for steelhead in the Rocky River this week (photos courtesy of John Brochue).





Max shared "I caught a lot of fish at both local rivers this past week fishing this fresh run on eggs and beads" (photos courtesy of Max Madden).





Mikale and buddy Ephraim caught lots of quality fish from the Rocky River this week.  On Monday alone he hooked 14, landing 12 of them, in only 2 hours (photos courtesy of Mikale Mosack).



Nick caught this bruiser hen steelhead in the Rocky River yesterday (photo courtesy of Nick Zarzeczny).



Todd displays a fine Rocky River buck steelhead from Tuesday (photo courtesy of Todd Davitt).




The marina area on the Rocky has been producing lots of nice fish this week for anglers drifting smaller marabou jigs tipped with maggots between 3-6 feet under a bobber.



Liz shows off a bruiser steelhead caught in a small local creek while the main rivers were elevated and muddy this week.  See the fishing report highlight for more tips on catching fish when river conditions are elevated and muddy.