CLEVELAND, Ohio — Rainbow trout fishermen got a pleasant surprise for Christmas, thanks to Hooked on Trout Farm, LLC, a family-owned trout facility in Castalia, Ohio.
The trout farm sweetened a local stocking of 3,000 pounds of rainbow trout in the Cleveland Metroparks by including a few trophy tiger trout in Wallace, Shadow and Ledge lakes, to the delight of area fishermen lucky enough to connect with them.
Tiger trout are named for their tiger-like stripes on their skins. They are a rare hybrid between a female brown trout and male brook trout, and the recent batch were released for the very first time in public waters in Ohio.
The flashy tiger trout were included in the pre-Christmas stockings, with Wallace Lake getting some in the 1,400 pounds of rainbow trout released there. Rainbows trout were also released in Shadow Lake (750 pounds), Ledge Lake (650 pounds), Ranger Lake (100 pounds) and Judge’s Lake (100 pounds).
The majority of the fish released by Hooked on Trout Farm were 1- to 1.5-pound rainbow trout, but good numbers of brook, brown, golden rainbow and even the exotic trophy tiger trout were included.
A fair number of trout remain at Ohio & Erie Canal from stocking in October. The daily limit at Wallace, Ledge, Ranger and Judge’s lakes is three trout per angler. The limit at Shadow Lake and the Ohio & Erie Canal is five per angler.
The stocked trout bite well on colorful dime-sized balls of Power Bait dough, a waxworm or two on a small marabou jig, or tube jigs and smaller spoons and spinners.
There’s no place like home: With the weather man cooperating, many veteran Lake Erie walleye anglers from the Cleveland area have been heading west to Huron waters to fish for big walleye. That is usually where walleye can be found at this time of year as the fish gather to feed heavily heading into the Western Basin and the Sandusky and Maumee river spring spawning season.
Surprisingly, the best walleye fishing this week has not been out west. It has been off Cleveland and Lorain, where trolling stick baits such as Bandits and Smithwick Perfect 10 continue to score. Walleye in the Central Basin have been suspending in the 40- to 45-foot depths as southerly winds have pushed the warmer waters offshore.
Pier and break wall fishermen around Cleveland Harbor are casting diving plugs after dark and hooking some trophy walleye. Daytime anglers are finding success casting for steelhead trout.
Northeast Ohio Rivers are dirty, but full of steelhead: Recent rains have kicked up the water levels in the Chagrin and Rocky rivers and muddied the waters, but steelhead trout are still being caught in good numbers.
The bigger steelhead are more common this year, with 28- to -30-inch trout much more abundant than in recent years. There are also lots of 16- to 20-inch fish to catch, as well. As waters continue to go down and clear, this should be prime time for casting a fly, spawn bags, jig-maggot rigs and small diving plugs, spoons and spinners for steelhead trout.
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