Last Updated: April 25, 2017

Flow rates are near or just above average and are steady to slowly receding. Warmer weather is predicted through the week, and stream temperatures are now in the low 60s.  U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service crews are treating the Grand River with the lampricide TFM early this week. Ohio Division of Wildlife hatchery staff are beginning annual stocking activities in the other tributaries this week, and will wrap up stocking in all receiving streams by May 5th.  If you catch a smolt (small stocked fish) please release it carefully, as they are the future of this fishery. 

There have been some good steelhead reports in the main rivers and in smaller tributaries when fishable conditions persist - throughout stream reaches from low in the rivers to miles upstream. Fish will be in shallow water and are starting to drop back to the lake.  Some fresh fish will be seen in the lower river stretches. Anglers have been using stickbait lures, spinners, jigs tipped with maggots, minnows, or spawn bags. Fly anglers are using streamers, nymphs, buggers, sucker spawn, or egg patterns.

There are many public access areas on Ohio streams. If you are on private property, you must have landowner permission. Don't trespass! Private landowners have the right to restrict access on their property. In Ohio, you can gain access to the stream from public access points, but private land ownership includes their land under the stream. Many of our main steelhead streams listed above are navigable streams, meaning you can float a boat through them to fish; however, you cannot get out of your boat and stand on private property to fish unless you have the landowner's permission.

Typical set-ups are long (7-10'), limber, spinning or fly rods with light line (4-8 lb. test). Common lures in the fall, early winter, and again in the spring include small (1/16 to 1/80 oz.) marabou or synthetic hair jigs tipped with maggots rigged with split shot under a light pencil-thin bobber.

Spoons (Little Cleo, KO Wobblers) and spinners (Rooster Tails, Vibrax, etc.) are commonly used on piers, beaches and lower stream reaches.

Flyfishers (using 6-9 wt. rods and weight-forward lines) prefer larger, weighted fly patterns, such as nymphs and streamers like woolly buggers, princes, egg-sucking leeches, stonefly and shiner patterns and clouser minnows.

Egg fly patterns (single or cluster, sucker spawn, etc.) work well as a single fly or in tandem with a nymph or streamer once the fish move upstream. Salmon or trout eggs are fished as either individual eggs or grouped together in mesh "spawn bags" about the size of a dime or nickel. Eggs can be bounced along the bottom with the current or fished at or near the bottom suspended under a bobber.

The fish will be oriented to cover or moderate to deep water pools in the fall, and move into cuts or gravel runs as they make their way upstream for spawning. As stream temperatures warm during the spring, expect fish to be more likely to chase flies, lures or bait and to be found in riffles and runs. Then in mid April - mid May, they move back downstream and into Lake Erie for the summer.