Last month Jim Bedford and I made a visit to the Cleveland Ohio region for a seminar appearance and to fish the Northeast tributaries for “drop-back” steelies and lake-run smallies. Our visit was a blast and the welcome we received by the Ohio Central Basin Steelheaders was first class. This large group of steelhead fanatics is well organized and managed to say the least. If you live in the Cleveland area and are looking to get involved with a local club then you need to make an appearance. Here’s a link to their website for more information- http://www.ohiosteelheaders.com! Jim and I would like to personally thank OCBS President Joe Morevac and Vice President Tom Blotzer for the invite to guest speak. And, a special thanks to Jerry Darkes and Jeff Liskay for organizing our appearance and taking the time to share some of their favorite fishing locales with us!
I did mention we fished…right! Good friend and colleague Jerry Darkes and his loyal D9 companion Aspen put us immediately on steelhead in the upper section of the Chagrin. The Chagrin River is a medium size steelhead river, winding through the suburbs on the eastside of Cleveland. This watershed has a variety of scenery not to mention all the favorable pools, runs and riffles you want to encounter on a “steelhead alley” tributary! It was truly my favorite on the tour and a great place to swing tube flies too!
Success came early for Mr. Darkes who was fishing his Boa Minnow TF on the swing. I had some luck field testing the new Nuke Egg Leech on these Little Manistee strain steelhead. It’s kind of fun to be fishing in Ohio waters (Lake Erie) for wild Michigan born brood stock (Lake Michigan strain) but it is what it is and they fight like crazy ask steelhead guru Jim Bedford! He added four new steelhead rivers on this trip (a river is added if he successfully lands a steelhead in that particular watershed) to his lifetime list which is approaching the one hundred mark!
Steelhead Alley is remarkable and sometimes underrated in comparison with our wild steelhead fisheries of the Northwest. But, for those of you who get a chance to fish these waters on a regular basis…consider yourself the luckiest steelhead angler in the world. You have a gift from the steelhead gods that needs to be appreciated, protected and preserve so future generations can enjoy what you currently have which in my opinion is second to none!!
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