May 30, 2024

***NOTE: The Fishing Report Blog is updated weekly on Thursdays from September-May***  Fishing has been very good for channel catfish in the Rocky River and lake-run smallmouth bass are still available. Anglers can monitor the most recent river conditions at the following links: <Rocky River flow gage data> <Chagrin River flow gage data> <Rocky River NEORSD station with turbidity>. Rainbow trout and farm raised catfish are available in Wallace Lake and the Ohio & Erie Canal fishing area.
 
Lake Erie smallmouth bass on their migration up our streams is tapering off but lake-run channel catfish opportunities are excellent. Smallmouth bass will strike artificial lures such as medium size crankbaits, spinners, tube jigs (dark brown and olive are good) as well as marabou jigs under floats and streamer flies that imitate gobies, minnows and crayfish. Lake-run bass are typically available in the streams until early June. 
 
Channel catfish are most concentrated in the few miles of stream closest to Lake Erie. Drifting shrimp or a nightcrawler through deeper holes with a float set to suspend near the river bottom works well, as will tightlining the same baits on the bottom with a sinker. Some of these whiskered brutes can exceed 10 pounds in weight. Catfish do not mind muddy river conditions since they feed primarily using their senses of smell and taste.
 
In mid May we stocked 800 lbs of trout and 700 lbs of farm raised catfish at Wallace Lake and 500 lbs of trout and 700 lbs of catfish at Ohio & Erie Canal off E49th Street. Trout often bite 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. Trout and catfish will bite a piece of shrimp or worm fished on the bottom for anglers happy to catch either species. More farm raised catfish will be stocked around Cleveland Metroparks in June so stay tuned for details on that.
 
A highlight this week has been the Cleveland shoreline yellow perch, bluegill, and rock bass fishing. The breakwalls at E55th, Edgewater Park, and Wendy Park at the old Coast Guard station are offering opportunities to catch yellow perch from shore using minnows on a crappie spreader rig on the bottom. For bluegill, anglers are doing well fishing smaller bobbers suspending a redworm, waxworm or a few maggots from the rocks at the east end of E55th Marina and Gordon Park harbor. Rock bass can be found in the aforementioned areas as well. Plenty of largemouth bass and some smallmouth are also being caught along the Cleveland shoreline. There are still some post-spawn walleye available for anglers casting shallow running stickbaits from shore after dark, as well. 
 
25^th Annual Rocky River Volunteer Clean-Up is Saturday June 1st.  Please join us on Saturday June 1 starting at 9:00am at the Scenic Park/Rocky River Marina picnic shelter for the family-friendly 25^th annual volunteer river clean-up! Cleveland Metroparks is partnering with Cuyahoga Soil and Water Conservation District and Rocky River Watershed Council to host the event. We will break up into groups and clean up trash from along the river banks, then re-convene at the picnic shelter starting around 11:30 a.m. to host a thank you cookout. Trash bags will be provided and long pants and boots are recommended. Please pre-register here as an <adult> or for <youth> if you are parent or guardian.
 
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] .

Tight Lines,

Mike

 

 

Yellow perch, bluegill and rock bass fishing along the Cleveland shoreline has been great lately.




Keith and a buddy had a great outing on the Rocky River by the marina targeting channel catfish over the weekend. They caught 20 catfish in 3 hours on Sunday and on Saturday Keith was the only one fishing there and caught over 30 catfish! (photo courtesy of Keith Crawford).




Kyle has the Rocky River smallmouth bass figured out. He caught these bronze beauties on Saturday (photos courtesy of Kyle Fisher).




Chris shared “Swung flies on my 8 wt Skagit setup and this fella sure bent the heck out of my rod. I never in a million years would have thought to catch a catfish on my size 8 wooly bugger. You can see the bead head in one of the photos. Probably 15" or so....definitely had a fat belly. The Rocky River never fails to provide a good time!” (photo courtesy of Chris Ligan).






Jeff got out a few times perch fishing off Cleveland with his sons Jacob and Kyle and they did well, even catching a bonus walleye (photos courtesy of Jeff Deluca).









On Friday we had a fish collection outing with Davis Aerospace and Maritime High School at Gordon Park (E72nd boat ramps). In the end we got 30 students on the boat and saw all kinds of neat fish (a highlight being about a half dozen bowfin with males still in vivid spawning coloration). Largemouth bass were all over!







My staff and I recently had the opportunity to tour the US EPA Lake Guardian which is the largest scientific research vessel on the Great Lakes. It has been docked in Cleveland harbor because it is collecting local data.