December 22, 2022

***NOTE:  The Fishing Report Blog is back to regular weekly Thursday updates from September-May***  Anglers on the Rocky, Chagrin and Cuyahoga rivers have been pursuing steelhead trout.  Steelhead fishing has called for a finesse approach given the low and clear conditions and ver cold temperatures into the weekend will lead to slushy river conditions.  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>.  Trout were stocked at five locations last week (see details below) and Lake Erie anglers are targeting walleye, yellow perch and steelhead in nearshore areas.

Local streams are exhibiting low and clear conditions with steelhead concentrated in the deeper holes.  Very cold temperatures into the weekend will lead to slushy river conditions, especially in the mornings.  Although fish are distributed throughout the main branch of the Rocky and Chagrin rivers, given the overall lower flows this fall into early winter the larger numbers of fish tend to be in the few miles of stream closer to Lake Erie. Top offerings continue to be dime size spawn sacks (hot pink, chartreuse, white, peach, and pale yellow being a few effectice colors), live minnows, 1/64  or 1/32 oz jigs (marabou and plastic tubes) tipped with maggots, and salmon egg mimmicking beads (same colors as noted with spawn sacks) drifted under floats on 6-8 lb flourocarbon leaders in the deeper areas.  Fly fishing with egg patterns and streamers has also been yielding hook-ups, as have spoons, spinners and crankbaits.  A few stray brown trout have been turning up locally with regularity over the past month (photo below).

As lake conditions permit steelhead are available off the breakwall at E55th Marina and off the rocks at Edgewater Park, as well as Wildwood Park.  In the colder water, baits drifted under floats, such as marabou jig tipped with a minnow or a nightcrawlers, have the edge over casting hardware.  These same areas are also producing very good catches of walleye after dark, with Perfect 10 and other shallow running stick-style crankbaits working well.  Walleye trolling off Cleveland is also good through the harbor freezing up.  For late season boating anglers, yellow perch are another option off the east end of the Cleveland outer breakwall, as well.  Spotty catches of perch can be made from shore at E55th breakwall and the old Coast Guard Station at Wendy Park.  Emerald shiners fished near the bottom on a crappie rig or spreader can both be effective.  Note to boaters: the final courtesy dock at the Rocky River marina was pulled out by our Park Operartions staff this week.

On Monday and Thursday last week our first round (of two) scheduled winter trout stockings is taking place.  This stockings will consist of a total of 3,000 lbs of trout distributed as follows: Wallace Lake (1,400 lbs), Shadow Lake (750 lbs), ledge Lake (650 lbs), Ranger Lake (100 lbs) and Judge's Lake (100 lbs).  The majority of the fish are 1 lb rainbow trout, but a good  number of brook, brown, golden rainbow and even some trophy tiger trout (more on this below) are in the mix.  A fair number of trout remain at Ohio & Erie Canal from stocking in October.  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.  The trout can bite well on colorful dime size balls of Power Bait dough, a waxworm ot two on a small marabou or tube jig and smaller spoons and spinners. 

For the second year in a row a few tiger trout were included in the stocking mix (see a photo of one of them below).  Tiger trout, named for their tiger-like stripes, are a rare hybrid between a female brown trout and male brook trout and this is the only place they are stocked in public waters in Ohio!  A handful of these neat fish will be included in the stockings this week at Wallace, Shadow and Ledge lakes to offer anglers an opportunity to catch a rare trophy (Ranger and Judge's lakes were also stocked with trout, but no tigers).  We appreciate the efforts of our supplier (Hooked on Trout Farm, LLC), a small family owned Ohio operation, to provide great fish to enhance angling opportunities in Cuyahoga county public waters.

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 already covered.

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] .

Jerry and his sister Jessica went fishing for recently stocked trout on a Metroparks lake and were not disappointed (photos courtesy of Jerry Friedhof).




Auston hit me up last week for some advice about fishing the Cuyahoga River for the first time and proceeded to go there and catch a 10 lb and 11 lb steelhead!  He was casting Little Cleo spoons (photos courtesy of Auston Petruska).




Dan caught these beautiful trout at Ledge Lake this week.  Both are rainbow trout, but the bottom one is a variation without typical pigment that gives it a neat golden color (photos courtesy of Dan K).





Matthew shared "Caught 10 steelhead total this last week, fishing spawn sacs on a centerpin. Biggest fish measured 30 inches" (photos courtesy of Matthew Ohly).




Juan shared "This is a good time of year for me. These walleye were caught off the wall at E 55tn Street marina.  I went out Sunday evening not planning on staying late and ended up staying until around 9 pm. I caught my limit before 8 though, including this 29" FishOH bruiser, all on a deep diving Husky Jerk 12 in clown. Another great night of fishing off the breakwall with awesome people." (photos courtesy of Juan Jeffrey).






Brian shared "Here are some pictures from the last two weeks.  The steelhead I caught and released on Saturday.  It barely touched 28 inches but had to be a least 10lbs.  Super awesome fish.  Chuck Earls the kayak guide actually took the picture as I caught it right after they were coming in from a trip.  It looked like they caught them as well.  I used his measuring board because I thought for sure it would have gone 30 inches.  Caught a couple other steelhead also the last 2 weeks.  These are some of the better walleye I have caught at Edgewater and E55th after dark.  The last one went 7lbs.  Caught a bunch of smaller ones as well.  I also did well on the trout at Wallace the four days after they were stocked but they have slowed down considerably.  Lots of rainbows and goldens.  Everything was released even the walleye." (photos courtesy of Brian Kich).
  


Nick and his buddies had a good day chasing trout on one of our Metroparks lakes just stocked last week (photo courtesy of Nick zarzeczny).



Dan caught the bruiser in the Chagrin River early in the morning right before daylight (photo courtesy of Dan Szabo).






Andrew has been tearing up the walleyes after dark at E55th breakwall this week (photos courtesy of Andrew Smith).



For yet another consecutive week a stray brown trout turned up in a local stream, this one from the Rocky.  All the fish I have seen have been hens, with this specimen having already spawned based on her lean profile (photo courtesy of Kumbo Leng).







Phillip shared "I want to submit some trout I caught this week.  I caught them all on a white jig ended with 23 in two days. A LOT of palominos (Mike's note: this is another name for golden rainbow trout).  I also caught steelhead on Friday morning on king salmon eggs and an orange bead." (photos courtesy of Phillp Shevchenko).



Rich caught this bruiser hen steelhead in the lower river.



An example of a beautiful tiger trout that was stocked last week.