April 7, 2022

***The Fishing Report Blog is updated every Thursday***   The Rocky and Chagrin rivers are currently in good shape for anglers, but weekend steelhead and stocked trout fishing prospects in the rivers will depend on how much more rain we recieve.  Anglers can check the flow and temperature data at the following links: <Rocky River flow gage data><Chagrin River flow gage data> <Rocky River NEORSD station with turbidity>.  Trout will be stocked in the East Branch Rocky River again tomorrow, and a few may also be stocked in Wallace Lake if the river is up and muddy (details below).

The Rocky and Chagrin rivers are offering good conditions for anglers this morning, although steelhead and stocked trout fishing opportunities into the weekend will depend on how much more rain we recieve.  Anglers on all streams reported good success this week, with a mix of active spawning, pre-spawn and post-spawn steelhead present.  Best bets include nickel to dime size spawn bags (especially when the water is stained), salmon egg mimicking beads and soft rubber eggs (8-12 mm), small jigs (1/32-1/64 oz) tipped with maggots and live minnows under a float for anglers fish noodle rods or centerpin rigs.  Fly fishers are doing well with eggs flies (ie glow bugs and sucker spawn), streamers (ie Clouser minnows and wooly buggers) and beadhead nymphs.  Anglers can also keep it simple and cast a medium size Little Cleo spoon, Roostertail spinner or similar on a standard medium action spinning rod spooled with 8 pound line.  Lake-run smallmouth bass and white suckers are also running in the Rocky and Chagrin rivers.  Smallmouth bass will strike artificial lures similar to steelhead- such as medium size crankbaits, spinners, tube jigs (dark brown and olive are good) and marabou jigs under floats.  Suckers will bite well on small flies, jigs or a worm on the river bottom with a sinker.

Lake Erie harbors, such as Edgewater, Wildwood and E72nd boat ramp area offering mixed catch opportunities for steelhead, northern pike and pre-spawn largemouth bass, yellow perch, rock bass and sunfish species.  Courtesy docks are in at Gordon Park and Edgewater boat ramps and one is open at Emerald Necklace Marina on the Rocky.  The launch fee pay kiosks have been reinstalled and be aware that if you save your daily launch fee receipts you can put what you paid towards an annual launch tag at a later time.  Next up: the fish cleaning station at Gordon Park is scheduled to re-open the week of April 18th.  Boat Launch Annual tags for the 2022 season can be purchased online <here>.

Many of our lakes and ponds offer 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 a decent 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 even some tiger 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.  In the river, the combined rainbow trout/steelhead limit is 2 trout/angler of minimum size 12 inches.  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. 

The third spring stocking of the East Branch Rocky River is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon with 900 lbs of 14-16" rainbow trout (the river stockings are 100% rainbow trout, unlike our lakes).  If the river is elevated and muddy I will likely split the trout and put some in Wallace Lake to allow for weekend opportunities during the relatively short spring season.  These complement the 1,800 lbs of trout already stocked in the same stretch of river since mid-March.  The stocking zone is largely in Strongsville and extends from Royalton Road (Rt. 82) heading north to roughly Wallace Lake.  Stocked trout in the river bite the same types of offerings mentioned in the paragraph above.  The final river stocking of the season will be roughly the third week of April.

Barbie Rod Steelhead Derby Recap.  We had beautiful weather on Saturday april 2nd and attendees I talked with expressed that they enjoyed the day.  And in addition to hosting a fun event we raised $13,145 for the Cleveland Metroparks Fishing Fund!  We had a total of 161 registered attendees and a number of additional folks who stopped by to take part in the cookout and Ohio Central Basin Steelheaders raffle.  Over 30 lucky competitors rose to the challenge and caught one or more steelhead on a kid fishing pole!  Biggest steelhead was caught by James Brown at 28.75”, second place was Dave Wagner with a fish of 27.5” and third went to Dan Huber with his 27.25” steelhead trout.  David Koci was the lucky winner of the grand prize custom North Fork Composites float rod and Majestic Prophecy centerpin reel in the OCBS raffle.  We are already looking forwarding to the next event.  I have included a few photos from the event at the bottom of the report.  Thank you for your support!

A Request From The Rocky River Park Manager.  I had a chat with Rick Ditch, the Park Manager at Rocky River, and although he loves seeing so many anglers enjoying the park lately, folks tearing up the roadside ground is causing more work for his already busy crews. He asks that folks utilize official parking areas or at least hard packed gravel areas. Anywhere with grass (especially) or soil is VERY soft right now. And do not park where ruts are already present. Just today he watched a fellow park on some soft ground only 100 feet from an official parking lot! If unsure you can put your hazard lights on and check the ground first (as long as it's not too busy with traffic). He could put up signs and have the park police enforce with tickets- but he's going a friendlier route and asking folks to be conscientious hoping it will work. And this message carries over anywhere along our steelhead streams. Thank you.

Photo Release Waivers for Fishing Blog Photos (fast and easy to complete online).  Photo release waivers for photos sent in for the fishing report can easily be completed online through Smart Waiver (takes only about 30 seconds to complete) at the following link: <Smart Waiver link>. You only need to do this one time and any future additional photos submitted are covered too.

Josh shared on Saturday "I took my daughter to the East Branch Rocky River where she reeled in some rainbows! I think we have a lifelong fisherwoman!  Thank you for all that do!" (photos courtesy of Josh Hanes).



Roxanne and daughter had a successful outing chasing steelhead this week (photo courtesy of Roxanne Schultheis).



Chase from Cinncinnatti shared "Had an awesome day fishing in the 7th annual Barbie Rod Steelhead Derby with my dad. Managed to land my 1st Steelhead ever on a Buzz Lightyear pole. A great day and shout out to the amazing Cleveland Metroparks fishery!" (photo courtesy of Chase Witte).



Nate caught this trophy 10 pound hen steelhead (photo courtesy of Jimmy Pease).



Kelly landed a beautiful smallmouth on a streamer on her fly rod (photo courtesy of Kelly Bailey).





Dana and Mike have been doing trolling crankbaits for early season walleye.  The bite will really pick up around Cleveland during the post spawn period from late April through May (photos courtesy of Dana Daugherty-Klonowski).



Juan shared regarding this nice brown trout "Thanks again for hosting the Barbie Rod Derby this weekend. Although we didn't catch any fish, my buddy and I had a great time and learned a lot about reading the river. After getting skunked on the Rocky, I went out to Wallace Lake Sunday evening to try for some of the stocked trout. As the sun was setting I saw plenty of trout surfacing and tried a worm under a bobber and several spinning lures. I watched two or three fish follow my lure right to the edge of the water before I hooked into a nice fighter. I brought it in with a Mepps #2 Comet Minnow in shad. I plan on going back with some top water flies to catch the rising fish in the evening." (photo courtesy of Juan Jeffrey).



Congratulations to James Brown on winning the Barbie Rod Steelhead Derby out of 161 contestants on Saturday (photo courtesy of James Brown).



Joyce may not have won the steelhead derby on Saturday, but she had a great time fishing with her husband and was one of approximately 30 competitors who rose to the challenge and caught a steelhead on a kid fishing rod (photo courtesy of Joyce Smith).




Zach had a great week steelhead fishing thye Rocky River with his father.  Above are a few highlight fish (photos courtesy of Brian Zaptocky).







Jake visited his orginal home in Ohio from Florida this week and he caught a bunch of dandy steelhead in the Rocky River with his buddy Nick (photos courtesy of Nick Zarzeczny).










We had an amazing Barbie Rod Steelhead Derby event on Saturday and raised $13,145 for our public Fishing Fund in the process!  Here are some highlights from the day (a more in-depth event recap is offered in the report above).