Page 25 - Mid America Boating - January 2025 issue

Last spring, the expansive
Cuyahoga River joined them, with
a stockings of 50,000 steelhead
trout. The 7- to 9-inch youngsters
would head to Lake Erie for the
summer to feed and grow, then
head for their natal streams in
the cold water seasons to spawn
— and provide a world class fly
rod fishery from late fall through
early spring.
The Cleveland Metroparks
controls much of the Rocky and 25 [ MID-AMERICA BOATING ] JANUARY 2025
Chagrin rivers, urban and industrial
areas where the steelhead spawn.
“No Fishing” signs don’t exist, and
1-day licenses are $14 for residents
and non-residents. Season licens-
es are $25 and $50.96.
In Spring 2024, the Cuyahoga
River followed the lead of the
Maumee River as the Ohio Divi-
sion of Wildlife released 60 young
hatchery-raised sturgeon, with
the promise of 1,500 more of the
precocious prehistoric yearlings
A Cleveland Metroparks crew checks out the status of the yearly steelhead trout to follow this year.
spawning run on the Rocky River, showing off a trophy fish that arrived very early in Beside steelhead trout and
the season. (Photo: D’Arcy Patrick Egan) sturgeon, Ohio already had a
vibrant spring spawning run
ries ago and the first hatchery in the U.S. tantly came to life. of walleye in the Maumee and
couldn’t reverse the loss in 1853. The Division of Wildlife, which created an Sandusky rivers that brought
Surprisingly, to those of us who grew up amazing steelhead trout fishery on Lake Erie thousands of anglers to North-
on the Cuyahoga River and its tributaries and its tributaries, had proven the glamor- west Ohio. While those walleye
more than a half century ago, a team effort ous trout could flourish when raised for a raced back to Lake Erie after Gregg Gallagher of Fremont, Ohio caught the
by federal, state and municipal agencies year in the Castalia State Fish Hatchery, and spawning, major runs of white largest smallmouth bass ever weighed from the
tackled the Cuyahoga’s pollution problem. now releases 450,000 of the young trout in bass followed the walleye runs. Great Lakes while guided by his son, Grant Galla-
Few thought they would succeed, but — lo the Vermilion, Rocky, Chagrin, Grand and The last few years, anglers gher, on Lake Erie while fishing in November 2022
and behold! — the Cuyahoga River reluc- Ashtabula rivers and Conneaut Creek. See Angling Promise page 26 off Pelee Island. (Photo: Grant Gallagher)

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