May 28, 2020

In late-spring walleye, smallmouth bass, channel catfish and remaining stocked trout are among the highlight species that anglers pursue.  We have rain in the forecast leading into the weekend so wise anglers will check river conditions at the following links before heading to the streams: <Rocky River flow gauge data><Chagrin River flow gauge data> <Rocky River NEORSD station with turbidity>.

Walleye fishing the Cleveland shoreline has been hot this week.  Anglers are casting Perfect 10s, Husky Jerks, shallow Bandits and similar crankbaits at E55th, Edgewater Park, pier at the old Coast Guard station at wendy Park and E72nd.  The best fishing is at dusk or after dark.  Some jumbo yellow perch are also being caught, especially early in the mornings, off the E55th breakwall using minnows on crappie rigs on the bottom. Harbor areas like Gordon Park, E55th Marina and Edgewater harbor are offering mixed catches of rock bass, bluegill, largemouth bass, pumpkinseed sunfish and a mix of other species.

Area streams are low and clear today but there is rain in the forecast.  Wise anglers should monitor flow gauge and weather information prior to heading out to fish local streams.  Prior to streams muddying from rain catches of lake-run smallmouth bass had been good in the Rocky and Chagrin rivers.  Smallmouth bass hit well on a 3-4" dark olive or brown tube jig, ned rigs, lures that imitate minnows (like a white and silver Rooster Tail spinner, Rapala or white rubber fluke) and live bait (minnows and crayfish).  I have not had any reports of straggler steelhead in the rivers this week.

On May 15 we stocked 1,400 lbs of farm raised channel catfish in Wallace Lake and at the Ohio & Erie Canal.  Catfish bite baits like nightcrawlers, shrimp (raw or cooked) and chicken liver fished on or near the bottom.  We offered a <Facebook Live segment> on the Cleveland Metroparks site about catfish this week (turning up the volume will help hear this video best).  We plan to stock Shadow Lake, Ledge Lake, Judge's Lake, Ranger Lake and Oxbow Lagoon with more catfish in early summer.  These fish are purchased using donations to the <Cleveland Metroparks Fishing Fund>.  Additionally, local streams offer lake-run channel catfish this time of year, and E55th breakwall and wendy Park pier at the old Coast Guard Station are also great spots to hook into a catfish.

In late April 800 lbs of trout (originally scheduled for the now cancelled spring childrens fishing derbies) were stocked in Wallace Lake and the Ohio Division of Wildlife stocked 1,500 trout in the Ohio & Erie Canal.  Stocked trout bite on brightly colored PowerBait shaped into dime size balls, 3" rubber trout worms (pink, orange and white), small jigs tipped with a few maggots or a waxworm and small to medium size spinners.  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 5/day as of May 16th). 

Warblers and Walleye   This week I've seen a bunch of photos of migrating warblers (small colorful birds) visting anglers' boats while walleye fishing off Cleveland.  A few of these are provided among the images below  These tiny but mighty birds are annual international travelers and are now flying north over all of the Great Lakes.  I asked resident bird expert Jen Brumfield to explain more about this phenomenon and she offered the following insight.

Personally, I'd consider such a visit to be good luck on the water!  And please feel free to share any photos you have of your visits from these tiny international travelers.

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 MacKenzie on catching her first walleye ever- a 28" fish on a blue and orange Bandit crankbait- at E72nd on Tuesday (photo courtesy of Randy Smith).



Mack shows off a pair of walleye caught this week off Cleveland (photo courtesy of Irene).



A sunfish doesn't need to be big to bring a smile (photo courtesy of Maria Butram).



Congratulations to sean on catching his first walleye ever last night at E72nd.  The fish bit a Husky Jerk at 10:00pm (photo courtesy of Sean Johnson).




Jack caught a steelhead and some yellow perch at E55th breakwall on sunday (photos courtesy of Jack P.).



Jack, aka "red", shows off a pair of trophy walleye (photo courtesy of Michael Mochan).



Benjamin caught this 32" 9.6 lb walleye among several others casting off shore at Edgewater Park yesterday.  He did well on Smithwick and shallow running Bandit crankbaits (photo courtesy of Benjamin Dingledine).



Although it can be spotty, anglers are scoring some jumbo yellow perch at E55th breakwall this week fishing minnows on crappie rigs on the bottom.  Early mornings have been best, with the luckiest anglers catching up to a dozen big perch.




Zak shows off some monster Lake erie smallmouth bass (photos courtesy of Zak Kmiec).



John was casting a spinnerbait for bass and caught a surprise- a very chunky steelhead (photo courtesy of John Breedlove).



Melvin shows off a pair of qual;ity walleye caught from shore at E55th breakwall this past weekend (photo courtesy of Orenzie Spencer).






Steve is catching all kinds of species at E55th marina. Can you name all four species above? (photos courtesy of steve Farley).



Congratulations to Jesse McKeown on catching his first walleye yesterday off Cleveland on his buddy Ken's boat.  Ken shared "We went out of East 72nd about a mile out (40-45 fow). Crawler harness was the only thing we could geta bite on. Picked up a couple. I talked with a guy who took out some friends. They had coolers full of walleye. They headed west of the of the 72 ramp where the Cuyahoga dumps in. He fished right outside the mudline. Trolling bandits and p10s. He ran them shallow, nothing deeper than 30'" (photo courtesy of Ken Fry).
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Jason had a great week walleye fishing the CLE shoreline and even got his buddies julio and Matt (pictured in order) into their first walleye ever.  Jason has a Facebook group called Lake erie Shoreline anglers that has some tournament sgoing on right now for multople species (photos courtesy of Jason Blakeney).



Eric caught these channel catfish at the ohio & Erie Canal.  The dark blotches on the one fish is a harmless pigmentation quirk called hyperpigmneted melanosis- also very common in smallmouth bass (photo courtesy of Eric).






Phred had the best fishing week of his life- breaking his personal best walleye record four nights in a row and culminating in the 30" bruiser in the bottom photo that was caught last night!  He has been using a Husky jerk 14 crankbait (photo courtesy of phred Carey).



Ray was casting Rooster Tain spinners for smallmouth bass in the Rocky River on Tuesday and was surprised to catch two longnose gar (photo courtesy of Ray Porter).





William and friends had a great week walleye fishing out of E72nd and had a bonus Chestnut-sided Warbler visit their boat during its migration north over Lake Erie (photos courtesy of William Bilski).



Tony was casting for smallmouth bass from his kayak by the Rocky River marina and had quite a battle on his hands when he hooked into this big freshwater drum (photo courtesy of tony Cilluffo).



Joey shared "Saturday at E55th was great, everybody was pulling in perch and even I got myself a nice jumbo and a regular sized one. But there were 2 other people fishing that I swear to God broke the Ohio record size for yellow perch. These things were easily at LEAST 16 inches and could've been bigger. I didn't get a picture unfortunately because social distancing bs. But if it wasn't for the yellow stripes and orange fins I would've thought they were smallmouth. Some incredible perch fishing lately. Also on Saturday I somehow caught a steelhead while bottom fishing straight down off the wall for perch. And it was even unlucky enough to get hooked directly in butt lol" (photo courtesy of Joey).






John (bottom pic) got his buddies Matt, Chris and Allen into their first walleye casting from the CLE shoreline after dark (photos courtesy of John Lusnek).



Steve shared regarding this grass carp caught at E55th "AJ caught it on a swimming minnow swim bait luckily I had my net, though it was a musky when it hit. Incredibe catch-  it was 37 pounds over 40 inches" (photo courtesy of Steve Farley).



Florin displays a trophy 32" walleye caught off the CLE shoreline (photo courtesy of Florin Costache).






Dustin shared "Almost 200 walleye caught over the extended weekend (Friday to Monday) with Elliot Warner and Micah Johnston catching their first Walleyes and over thirty more in their first Lake Erie fishing trip. Fish transitioned from pink/purple Bandits to reaction bites to chrome Bandits (Though all colors catching fish). Bandits with 1 oz weight trolling speeds at 1.5 mph 80 to 120 back worked best; however when fishing slowed down Bandits 30 to 60 back  at 2 to 2.5 mph worked best to target suspended feeding fish. Fish have been marked all over the lake from 20 FOW to 68 FOW both suspended and on the bottom, with most fish being 35 to 40 feet down. Success has also been had with spoons and crawler harnesses off divers and dipsys.With the warm up this the last weekend of May and beginning of June looks primed for spoons and crawler harnesses. Out of Cleveland the mudline is about 5 miles out with a clear water line at 8.5/9 miles out with fish caught in all water conditions.  I will be updating walleye reports on Instagram @dustincarneal throughout the summer." (photos courtesy of Dustin Carneal).



Walleye pro Ryan Buddie had this Magnolia Warbler take a break by perching on his fishing line this week.  Check out the highlight in the report above for more on migrating birds visiting boats on Lake Erie (photo courtesy of Ryan Buddie).