CLEVELAND, Ohio — Panfish are a great way to start the ice fishing season, and while Cleveland area ponds and lakes are not safe enough for anglers, Lake Erie’s East Harbor is swinging into action in the Marblehead area.
“We’re already seeing some very good catches by anglers who know where the fish are hanging out at this time of year,” said Brad Miller of Rock Harbor Cottages on the East Harbor shoreline. Miller, a summertime Lake Erie guide with Reef Bobber Charters, is also guiding ice anglers this winter with good success.
The East Harbor area is a prime summertime spot for largemouth bass, and often crowded with small bass boats competing in club tournaments. In winter, plentiful access at the East Harbor State Park Kayak Launch and the park’s main boat launch attract crowds when the ice is thick enough.
This week, the ice is generally about five inches thick, the minimum for safe fishing. East Harbor is very shallow in spots.
“You do have to know how and where to fish for bluegills and yellow perch around East Harbor to find success, though,” said Miller. “Once you have the techniques down pat, and know the hot spots, you can have a great day here.”
For panfish anglers, Bay’s Edge Fish Cleaning in Port Clinton is still filleting fish for anglers in winter. A group of anglers filled their cooler with bluegills last week, and it weighed in at about 80 pounds
Ice cover still sketchy around Cleveland: Wallace Lake in Berea is one of the top Cleveland area ice fishing lakes for catching stocked trout and schools of bluegills, but this week’s big snows have foiled much of the fishing for now.
Heavy snow cover is a thermal blanket on the smaller lakes, including Wallace Lake, preventing good, solid ice from forming. Some anglers are trying to jump the gun at Wallace Lake by fishing along the northern shoreline of the gravel lake, where water depths drop off quickly.
With frigid nights in the forecast, Wallace Lake should offer the area’s top ice fishing soon. The Cleveland Metropark will make its final lake and pond stockings of rainbow trout next week at Wallace Lake, which gets the lion’s share, as well as Shadow, Ledge, Ranger and Judge’s lakes.
Steelhead trout fishing tough in rivers: The Northeast Ohio tributaries of Lake Erie are filled with slush right now after the heavy snows this week. While that makes the fishing difficult, the Rocky River is still open enough to catch some of the dynamic trout on a small fly or marabou jig tipped with maggots or waxworms.
Rocky River’s East Branch to get trout: Rainbow trout stockings in the East Branch of the Rocky River will begin in mid-March and run through April. The river bank fishing can be very good while casting small spinners and spoons, or jigs tipped with live bait and suspended under a small float.
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