April 22, 2021

The Rocky River and other area streams are elevated and muddy from snowmelt, but are dropping in level and and should offer good fishing conditions into the weekend.  Anglers would be wise to monitor the most recent river water level, turbidity and temperature at the following links: <Rocky River flow gage data><Chagrin River flow gage data> <Rocky River NEORSD station with turbidity>.  The East Branch Rocky River in Strongsville and Shadow Lake were stocked with rainbow trout recently (details below).

The Rocky River and other area streams are elevated and muddy from snowmelt, but is dropping and should offer good fishing conditions for the weekend.  A fair number of fresh steelhead are mixing in with the post-spawn fish, as well as good numbers of lake run smallmouth bass.  The cooler temperatures are also good for the steelhead.  As the water begins to clear it will be hard to beat a brightly colored dime to nickel size spawn sack with trout or salmon eggs.  As the water clears finesse rules, with small marabou jigs (1/32 and 1/64 ounce are most popular) tipped with maggots, live minnows, 3" rubber worms (pink and white have been good) and salmon egg mimmicking beads and soft rubber eggs drifted near the river bottom under a float will take a greater share of the fish.  Fly anglers in spring do well on a variety of egg, nymph and baitfish patterns.

Many of our lakes and ponds are offering stocked trout.  Over the past month, the Ohio Division of Wildlife stocked rainbow trout at Shadow Lake, Hinckley Lake and Ohio & Erie canal off E49th.  in addition to that, this past winter a total of 6,000 lbs of trout were stocked between Wallace, Shadow, Ledge, Judge's and Ranger lakes (Wallace recieved almost half of the total fish) and a fair number of these trout remain.  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 were in the mix.  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.  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. 

Today the last bunch of rainbow trout will be stocked in the East Branch Rocky River, complementing the 2,800 lbs of mostly 14-18" rainbow trout already stocked since March 15.  The stocking zone is largely in Strongsville and extend from Royalton Road (Rt. 82) heading north to across the parkway from Wallace Lake.  Note: traditional stocking spot at Bonnie Park WILL NOT be stocked this year.  Vegetation and ground at the site is still stabilizing from a large restoration project to remove a dam and interconnect a wetland complex to the floodplain.  The area will be stocked one additional TBD time this spring.  Stocked trout in the river bite the same types of offerings mentioned in the paragraph above.

Docks have been installed at Edgewater and E72nd boat ramps, and a single dock is installed at Emerald Necklace Marina boat launch on the Rocky River (more will be added in about a week once annual dredging near the boat ramps is completed).   The fish cleaning station at Gordon Park boat ramps is back online for the fishing season (it had been winterized previously) and the restrooms there will be opened next week.  In spring, sunfish, largemouth bass and northern pike can be found prowling the Lake Erie shoreline harbors and marinas.  On the lake side, anglers at Lakefront parks can try their hand at steelhead and yellow perch. The launch ramp kiosks have been installed at all Lake erie access locations in Cleveland Metroparks and either a daily pass (purchased with credit card at kiosk) or annual pass (see how to obtain one below) are required.

The Trout Club of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History Presents Fly Fair 2021.  When: Saturday, May 15, 9:00 AM – 3:00 PM.  Where: Lake Metroparks Helen Hazen Wyman Park Pavilion.  What:  This fund-raising event aids the Trout Club’s efforts in supporting a variety of fishery-focused conservation programs in NE Ohio. An extensive selection of donated pre-owned, new and gently-used fly fishing focused items including rods, reels, flies, fly-tying tools and materials, fly lines, leaders and tippet, vests and packs, artwork, and an assortment of outdoor clothing items will be on sale.  Several larger items available include a 17’ Grumman square stern canoe (used) and Big Sky Rod Holder (new).  In addition, there will be several raffles for local guided fishing and other activities.

Cleveland Metroparks Annual Boat Launch Passes are Now Available.    2021 season Cleveland Metroparks Boat Launch Pass can be puchased online at this time at the following link:  <2021 Boat Launch Pass>.  The base price (there are certain discounts) is $30.  Note: this applies only to motorized watercraft that are trailered.

Photo Release Waivers for Fishing Blog Photos (fast and easy to complete online).  Photo release waivers can easily be completed online through Smart Waiver (takes only about 30 seconds to complete) at the following link: <Smart Waiver link>. 

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

 

Levi went fishing on the East Branch Rocky River with his grandfather and they caught some fine rainbow trout (photos courtesy of John Hall).




Bill shared from the Rocky River "Hi Mike. Will got a silver/bronze on Tuesday 4-20 with some decent steelhead and a little smallmouth, plus a few suckers.  No walleye though. Haha." (photos courtesy of Bill Boyle).




David caught some beautiful smallmouth bass in the Chagrin River this week (photos courtesy of John Russell).



John went fishing with his wife Karyn on the East Branch Rocky River and reported "Did great at the covered bridge again. You put some really incredible fish in there this time around. Thanks for what you do!" (photo courtesy of John Gabella).



Brian shared "Zachary and I fished our usual spot this afternoon. Banged out 19 rainbows in 90 minutes. All the fish were like steelhead size. Caught 2 pushing 21". Very nice fish this round." (photo courtesy of Brian Zaptocky).




Michael shared "See the attached pictures from our Sunday outing on a local stream.  I took 4 of my buddies out who are new to steelhead fishing.  We hooked into 4 but only landed this one.  The guy in the blue hoodie is Martin.  Love the report - keep up the good work" (photos courtesy of Michael McConnell).



Steve scored a dandy largemouth bass on a spinnerebait this week (photo courtesy of Stephen Farley).




Matthew caught a few bauutiful Rocky River smallmouth bass on a Blue Fox spinner and a small crankbait (photos courtesy of Matthew McCoy).







Grace and Ryan had a great outing for trout on the East Branch Rocky River (photos courtesy of Grace Gansor).



Chris caught a gorgeous golden rainbow trout (photo courtesy of John Rode).




Ted has been catching lots of trout in the East Branch Rocky River (photos courtesy of Ted Choukalas).



Victor found success trout fishing on the East Branch Rocky River this week (photo courtesy of Victor).




Mike and his buddy Bob caught some nice steelhead in the Rocky River (photos courtesy of Mike Sekerak).




Nick caught some beautifukl steelhead on jigs at euclid Creek (photos courtesy of Nick Kosiba).



Carl caught these trout on a kiddie fishing rod.  I wonder if he had his eyes closed while fishing, too? (photo courtesy of Carl Schweisthal).




I had a chance to chat with the Director of ODNR and Chief of Ohio Division of Wildlife at a PR event while stocking steelhead in the Rocky River on Monday morning. They put the first 37,000 juvenile steelhead (Shasta strain from California) in of 81K total going into the Rocky River alone. This whole undertaking takes 45 truckloads of the little trout to complete all the stocked Ohio steelhead streams.