February 1, 2024

***NOTE: The Fishing Report Blog is updated weekly on Thursdays from September-May*** Steelhead prospects are excellent in local streams as levels have dropped and are clearing following the thaw. 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>. Cleveland Metroparks stocked 500 pounds of mixed trout at Wallace Lake this week (details in report below). Ice fishing should not be considered safe at this time.

The Rocky River and other area streams are thawed and have dropped to fishable levels. Given the weather forecast, steelhead fishing prospects are looking excellent going into the weekend. Dime to nickel size spawn sacks (trout or salmon eggs in hot pink, chartreuse, orange or white mesh), live minnows, 1/64 or 1/32 oz jigs tipped with maggots, and salmon egg mimicking beads drifted under floats will all catch plenty of fish.

On Tuesday this week 500 pounds of mixed trout we stocked at Wallace Lake. This is the final winter trout stocking, with a combined 6,000 lbs having already gone into Wallace (1,800 lbs), Shadow (1,500 lbs), Ledge (1,300 lbs), Judge’s (200 lbs) and Ranger (200 lbs) lakes. The majority were rainbow trout averaging a pound each although there were plenty of bonus brook, brown, golden rainbow, and even rare tiger (brook x brown hybrid) trout to keep things interesting. Small marabou or hair jigs tipped with a few maggots or a waxworm, a dime sized ball of Power Bait, and smallish to medium size jigging spoons are all great offerings to try for trout this time of year. Spring stocking of rainbow trout in the East Branch Rocky River will commence around mid March. Keep posted to this report for details on that.

Any remaining ice should no longer be considered safe to venture onto. Anglers can still pursue newly stocked trout by drilling or spudding holes the ice along shore and fishing from the safety of docks and areas where the shore slopes rapidly into deeper water, such as is common at Wallace Lake which was a former sandstone quarry.  

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 md@clevelandmetroparks.com .

Tight Lines,

Mike

Shaun was jigging a Swedish Pimple spoon tipped with a minnow at Wallace lake and scored this massive 16” white crappie. He is getting the trophy mounted. Of course ice is not safe to be on at this point (photos courtesy of Shaun Cassidy).

David shared his catch of a beautiful golden rainbow trout as well as the beer battered results later that evening which he reports tasted “awesome” (photos courtesy of David Kushman).

Joe Miller’s brook trout catch from Shadow Lake was shared in the fishing report last week. He was so taken by its beauty that he used to skin to make this cool brook trout knife sheath. In the one image the skin is soaking in 50/50 glycerin and denatured alcohol. The whole process took him about a week. Very cool, Joe! (photos courtesy of Joe Miller).

We stocked our last 500 pounds of mixed trout of the winter at Wallace Lake on Tuesday. Some beautiful brook, tiger, brown and golden rainbow trout punctuated the mostly standard rainbow trout stocked. We will begin our spring stocking (that will be only rainbow trout) on the East Branch Rocky River sometime around mid March.