January 25, 2024

***NOTE:  The Fishing Report Blog is updated weekly on Thursdays from September-May***  Conditions are in transition on our local waters, with ice thawing on our lakes as well as in the rivers. As our streams thaw anglers can 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>. Cleveland Metroparks stocked 3,000 pounds of mixed trout between five locations this week (details in report below). Ice fishing should not be considered safe at this time.

The Rocky River and other area streams are thawing and anglers can keep an eye on the flow data above to help determine conditions (although ice on the gage sensors cam lead to erroneous readings). After things stabilize the streams will offer winter steelhead fishing opportunities again.

On Monday and Tuesday this week 3,000 pounds of mixed trout we stocked between Wallace (1,400 lbs), Shadow (750 lbs), Ledge (600 lbs), Judge’s (150 lbs) and Ranger (100 lbs) lakes. This is the second winter trout stocking, with the first 3,000 lbs going in the same locations listed above back in mid December. The majority were rainbowtrout 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. See lots of photos of examples below caught on the ice this past weekend. 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. I plan to stock a final round of 500 lbs of trout next week (location TBD). Keep posted to this report for details on that.

Ice fishers were out in full force this past weekend to take advantage of the temporarily good conditions but unfortunately 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

Joe has had a colorful male brook trout on his fish “wish list” for years, and it finally happened for him through the ice at Shadow Lake on Monday! He caught it through the ice on a jig, along with several panfish (photos courtesy of Joe Miller).

Matt and his buddy Roger had success ice fishing at both Wallace and Ledge lakes over the weekend catching several brook trout and a golden rainbow trout 9photos courtesy of Matt Jacquet).

Minh was one of the hardy souls who braved the icy Rocky River to find some open water to fish this week (photo courtesy of Minh Nguyen).

Noah shows off trophy tiger and golden rainbow trout at Wallace Lake on Monday. Our lakes and ponds were just stocked this week for the second (and final time this winter. Details are offered in the report above (photos courtesy of Noah Koscho).

Largemouth bass may not be thought of among the typical species folks target when ice fishing, but they can still bit well in the cold water (photo courtesy of Jimmy Miranda).

Avery caught his first brook trout ever through the ice at Wallace Lake on Friday. He was jigging a worm (photo courtesy of Avery Miller).

Rich Svoboda shows off a nice rainbow trout caught through the ice on Saturday, among others. Before Rich retired he served as Cleveland Metroparks interim Chief of Rangers at the peak of his career.

Brad shows off a pair of nice size golden rainbow trout he caught in jigging spoons along with several regular rainbow trout (photos courtesy of Brad Gardner).

Chuck caught a colorful male brook trout through the ice, which he released, and took home enough crappies for a meal. Can you tell which is the white crappie and which are the black crappie in the photo above? (photos courtesy of Chuck Naujoks).

Kumbo braved the icy waters of the Rocky River this week and was rewarded with an appropriately icy steelhead (photo courtesy of Kumbo Leng).

Brian ice fished Wallace Lake on Saturday and shared photos of two big brook trout he caught (a male and female), as well as the larger of his rainbow trout from the day (photos courtesy of Brian Kich).