December 3, 2020

Road closures: sections of the Rocky River Parkway are closed because the recent winter storm took down more trees than Hurricane Sandy. The main closure is between Puritas Road and the Rocky River Nature Center.  For the adventurous, you can park elsewhere and walk into that section- just don’t go around any barricades whether on the parkway or on all purpose trails.

In late fall and early winter steelhead trout are the highlight species targeted by anglers along the Rocky River and other area streams. The Rocky River and other area streams are elevated and muddy at the moment but are dropping in level and weekend conditions will depend on how much rain we recieve.  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>.  Lake Erie anglers are primarily targeting steelhead and walleye along the shoreline and Wallace Lake was recently stocked with trout.

The Rocky River and other area streams are elevated and muddy at the moment but are dropping in level but there is some rain and snowmelt likey based on the forecast so weekend conditions will depend on how much of that we recieve. I'd advise anglers to keep an eye on the flow gage data to determine the trend in flow. Prior to the increase in flow anglers were doing well for steelhead on the rocky and Chagrin rivers, in particular.  Most fish have been caught in deeper holes spread throughout the watersheds this past week. There are still lots of emerald shiners and small gizzard shad in the marina area.  With the stained water, a brightly colored (neon pink, orange and chartreuse) dime to nickel size spawn bags under a float will take many of the fish.  As water clears downsizing to salmon egg mimicking beads, small (1/32-1/64 oz) jigs tipped with maggots or live minnows under a float will gain the edge.  As a bonus this week several local anglers caught stray brown trout, most likely from New York's Lake Erie program, as evidenced in the photos below.

Steelhead prowl the Cleveland Lakefront all winter and can be found off the rocks at Edgewater and breakwall/rocks at E55th/E72nd areas, the pier at Wildwood Park and Wendy Park at the old Coast Guard station.  An abundance of baitfish has been hampering the bite in these areas at times.  Casting a spoon (ie 2/5 oz Little Cleo or KO Wobbler) or spinner (ie 1/8 oz Vibrax or RoosterTail), or drifting a 1/32 or 1/64 oz marabou jig tipped with a waxworm or a few maggots under a float at these locations are a good bet for connecting with a steelhead trout.  These lakefront areas perked up for walleye a bit this week after a tougher than usual fall season to catch them from shore after dark.  Walleye anglers typically do best casting Perfect 10 and other shallow running stick-style crankbaits and lipless rattle baits.  Anglers still have a shot at catching yellow perch along the Cleveland shoreline with boating anglers target around the east end of the city breakwall, Cuyahoga River lighthouse in about 36 foot of water, as well as off Lakewood in 28-32 feet of water and off Bratenahl, using emerald shiners on crappie rigs or spreaders on the bottom.

This year the Lakefront Reservation park manager is going to try something different and leave one set of docks in at Edgewater boat ramp all winter for the convenience of late season anglers and waterfowl hunters (the others docks are being pulled today).  Docks at Gordon Park (E72nd) boat ramps will all be pulled for the season next week. Also please note that the fish cleaning station at Gordon Park (E72nd) boat ramp area has been winterized and closed for the season, and will re-open in March or April of 2021.

At the end of October we released 500 lbs out mixed trout at Wallace Lake (these fish were delayed from stockings in May due to COVID).  Most of the fish were rainbow trout averaging a pound, but quite a few trophy rainbows, brook, brown and golden rainbow trout were in the bunch (see photos below).  In addition, in early October we stocked 1,000 lbs of rainbow trout and 600 lbs of channel catfish at the Ohio & Erie Canal off E49th Street.  Note: the daily limit at Wallace Lake is 3 trout/angler and the limit at the canal is 5 trout/angler.  The trout bite well on a hook filled with kernals canned corn, colorful dime size balls of power Bait dough, and smaller spinners.  If you are interested in catching either species you can try a nightcrawler worm or piece of shrimp fished on the canal bottom.  Over thye next few weeks we will be stocking a combined 3,000 pounds of mixed trout between Wallace, Shadow, Ledge, Judge's and ranger lakes.  Stay tuned to the fishing report for updates on that.

Photo Release Waivers are now Required for Fishing Blog Photos (and are fast and easy to complete online).  Photo release waivers are now required for any fishing blog photos where individuals are identifiable.  The good news is it only has to be done one time per person (and then it's good for any subsequent photos) and there's a super easy and secure online form to do it through Smart Waiver that takes only about 30 seconds to complete.  So please use this link to complete the waiver if you send in any images for there report: <Smart Waiver link>.  Sorry for the slight inconvenience and THANK YOU for all who have contributed in the past to make this report a fun and personal offering!

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  md@clevelandmetroparks.com .

Tight Lines,

Mike

 

David caught his personal best steelhead (a real bruiser!) fishing the Chagrin River with his dad this week (photo courtesy of John Russel).




Aubrey and her dad made some great memories on the Rocky River (photos courtesy of Joe Ward).




Kudos to Ken on showing his friends a great time "Friends came up from Columbus this past Saturday to fish for Steelhead; Chris Huber and his eighth grade son Matt.  Matt is an accomplished bass fisherman and loves reading the Rocky River fishing report. This was his first time out for Steelhead and I never saw anyone, anywhere become so excited about catching and landing a steelhead!  He caught it on eggs.  The fish put up a fight and was airborne a few times.  Now Matt is hooked and wants to fish for steelies again.  I’m glad I was there with his father to be there for his first one!" (photos courtesy of Ken Stein).



Kelsey fished the Rocky River for the first time ever targeting steelhead and caught this dandy buck.  Wow! (photo courtesy of Chuck Naujoks).



On Sinday DeAngelo made this great catch of tasty bluegills from a Lake erie harbor area in Cleveland (photo courtesy of DeAngelo Williams).



This brown trout was so fresh and silver that Garrison was not even sure what it was when he caught it on Sunday!  He was fishing with his father and they also caught a bunch of steelhead (photo courtesy of Garrison Rose).




Speaking of brown trout, Tony also scored a bonus brown trout while steelhead fishing the Rocky on Sunday (photo courtesy of Tony Cilluffo).







It was a good week for bonus brown trout!  Greg was another angler who had a golden-yellow surprise mixed in with his steelhead catch on the rocky this week 9photos courtesy of Greg Palka).






Gary at Dog Pound Charters is making some great late-season walleye catches punctuated with bonus steelhead along the CLE shoreline (photos courtesy of Capt Gary Norman).



A chunky smallmouth bass is always a nice surprise when fishing for walleye (photo courtesy of Carl Schweisthal).




Carmen caught some Chagrin River dandy steelies (photos courtesy of Carmen Colagiovanni).



Matt has been catching the Wallace Lake rainbow trout with consistency (photo courtesy of Matt Janowski Jr).



Check out this beast buck steelhead from the Charin River! (photo courtesy of Richard Foreman).

Fred has those Rocky River steelhead really dialed in (photos courtesy of Fred Mieser).