February 9, 2023

***NOTE:  Next week the report will be updated on Friday February 17 (instead of Thursday)***  The Rocky and Chagrin rivers got a bump in flow from rain but should drop in level and be in good shape for weekend steelhead anglers.  Anglers can monitor the most recent river water level and temperature at the following links: <Rocky River flow gauge data><Chagrin River flow gauge data> <Rocky River NEORSD station with turbidity>.  The second and final round of winter trout stockings took place last week (see details below).

Area streams recieved a bump in flow from overnight rain, but should drop in level and be in good shape for weekend steelhead anglers. You can visit the links above to stay abreast of the latest trend in flow.  Anglers this week have been doing well on a variety of offerings, including dime to nickel size spawn bags (in varied colors), 1/32 and 1/64 oz marabou/hair/tube jigs tipped with a few waxworms or maggots, soft or hard salmon egg size beads, and live and salted emrald shiners- all drifted under a float.  The size of the larger fish continues to be outstanding this year, with quite a few steelhead exceeding 30 inches in length in the mix (as evidenced several of the images below).  A good number of steelhead have migrated well upstream in the Rocky and Chagrin rivers, as well as others streams, with fish being well distributed throughout the watersheds.  The Cuyahoga River, Euclid Creek and other unstocked streams are also offering fishable numbers of stra steelhead at this time.

Last week we stocked Wallace (1,400 lbs),and Shadow (750 lbs), Ledge (650 lbs), Ranger (100 lbs), and Judge's (100 lbs) lakes with the second (and final) round of winter trout.  These stocking locations and quantities are a duplication of the 3,000 lbs of trout stocked back in mid-December.  The majority of the fish are 1 lb rainbow trout, but a good  number of golden rainbow, brown, brook, and even some tiger trout and another sigle albino brook trout (stocked at Wallace Lake). 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 often bite well on colorful dime size balls of Power Bait dough, a waxworm or two on a small marabou or tube jig, and jigging spoons. The ice on local lakes is not safe to walk on at this time, but anglers can target these fish through the thin ice from the safety of fishing docks/platforms a nd areas where the shoreline slopes more rapidly into deeper water (being an old sandstone quarry, Wallace Lake offers various areas where shoerline ledges are good for doing this).

CMNH Trout Club talk this Saturday February 11.  This Saturday, February 11, from 2-4:00 PM, the Trout Club of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History is pleased to host fishing guide Damon Newpher for a presentation on fly fishing the Clarion River in western Pennsylvania.  The program will be in the Museum's Rare Book Room and is open to the public at no charge.  Registration is requested.  Please contact [email protected] to register.
 

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] .

Roger shared from the Rocky yesterday "Well, I got a few this morning but after countless trips out fishing with my dad and me being the only one to catch fish he finally hooked up and landed his very first steelhead ever this morning ! This was one of the coolest things I’ve ever experienced in my life! Moments like this are priceless!" (photo courtesy of Roger Schroth).



Tommy shows off a beautiful steelhead caught on his centerpin outfit (photos courtesy of Mike Angelucci).





Joshua shows off a rare Chagrin River brown trout as well as a few recent bruiser steelhead that he caught (photos courtesy of Joshua Bryant).






Walt and his son Christian took advantage of the decent ice we had at Shadow lake this past Saturday and got their two man limit of rainbow trout.  Baits that worked for them were gold Swedish Pimple and silver/green KastMaster jigging spoons as well as PowerBait.  Note: limit varies by location.  See report above for details (photos courtesy of Walt Gedeon).






Matt shared from the Rocky "Good week as usual drifting bags, beads, minnows, and streamer patterns." (photos courtesy of Matt Ohly).





Jimmy and Ron show off a pair of golden rainbow trout from Walace lake (before it froze over), as well as a bruiser Rocky River steelhead (photos courtesy of Jimmy Miranda).





Jack is an OSU fish & wildlife student who drove all the way up from Columbus to assist me in stocking trout last Friday.  Above he shows off a few of the beauties we released.







Paul, from West Virginia, and a buddy drove up to fish the Rocky on Monday and Tuesday and were not disappointed.  Above are a few nice specimens from their catch (photos courtesy of Paul Goodman).







I headed out ice fishing with old friend (and retired Metroparks officer) Sean Flanigan on Saturday and the recently stocked trout did not disappoint!  We were using small peices of cooked cocktail shrimp and dime size spawn sacks.  Above are just a few from our catch (most were released).  Hopefully that was not the end of the decent ice for this season.