April 1, 2021

The Rocky River and other area streams continue to offer low and clear conditions, but steelhead fishing has been good this week.  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>.  The East Branch Rocky River in Strongsville was stocked with 800 lbs of rainbow trout yesterday morning (details below).
 
The Rocky, Chagrin and other area streams have all been producing good catches of steelhead this week despite the low and clear water.  Fresh run steelhead are still coming in, but lots of the big trout have been visible spawning in the shallow, gravelly riffles and a fair number of post-spawn, or "spent", fish are around.  Steelhead are well distributed throughout our area watersheds, although greater concentrations of fresher fish are available closer to the lake.  In low and clear water 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. Lighter 6 lb flourocarbon leader and smaller float, hooks (some anglers go as small as , and Fly anglers do well in spring with a variety of egg, nymph and baitfish patterns.  The spring run of white suckers is going strong and numbers of lake-run smallmouth bass have continued to increase this week.

Many of our lakes and ponds are offering stocked trout.  This 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 plenty 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. 

Yesterday a total of 800 lbs of rainbow trout were stocked in the East Branch Rocky River, complementing the 1,200 lbs of mostly 14-16" rainbow trout stocked on 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 again in 2 weeks.  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 2 weeks once annual dredging near the boat ramps is completed).   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 look for steelhead and pre-spawn yellow perch. 

Rocky River Watershed Council Fundraiser T-shirts.  Want to show your local colors and support an organization that helps protect and preserve the Rocky River.  Then check out the RRWC cool new t-shirt design and please consider purchasing one and showing your support.  More here: <RRWC Fundraiser T-shirt>

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

 

Elijah and levi went trout fishing for the first time on the East Branch Rocky River with their grandfather this morning and caught a rainbow trout each on a spinner and plug (photo courtesy of John Hall).



Brad took his work buddie's 10 year old son Charlie steelhead fishing for the first time and he landed this beauty (photo courtesy of Brad Martinez).




Sean was targeting bass and pike at E72nd boat launch harbor casting a big shad swimbait and was surprised to catch this chunky steelhead (photos courtesy of Sean Johnson).





Matthew caught these beautiful steelhead on the Rocky River on Monday (photos courtesy of Matthew Ohly).



Andrew shared "Managed to get out and find some dropback steelies while looking for smallmouth, managed to hook into one but it spit the hook for a quick release" (photo courtesy of Andrew Shevchuk).





Matt shared "No measurements taken.  Just a quick photo and a quick release. Love the informative blog!" (photos courtesy of Matt Katona).



Steve caught this beautiful buck steelhead on an egg fly in a local river on Saturday (photo courtesy of Steve Pileski).




Justin was fishing the Rocky River not far upsteam from the lake this week and was surprised to land this good size brook trout.  The fish is most likely an escapee from a trout club west of here that strayed into the lower river (photos courtesy of Justin Telep).



Christian caught this large redhorse sucker while steelhead fishing the Chagrin River.  Although they are sometimes mistaken for carp due to appearance, they are a native fish not closely related to non-native carp (photo courtesy of Christian Furlong).



Jimmy landed this brute steelhead recently (photo courtesy of Jimmy Pease).



John shared his nephew's impressive catch (photo courtesy of John Burkhart).





Nick started the day catching several steelhead in the Rocky River on soft beads this morning, then moved upstream and caught several stockled trout in the East Branch Rocky River on the same rig- and was done by noon! (photos courtesy of Nick Zarzeczny).