Now that we've discussed steelhead, how 'bout trouting?

[Gunrod]

Ok, I mis-took a lack of posting on steelhead as a lack of interest in these silver bullets in Ohio. How 'bout trout fishing?

Seems I remember seeing that Ohio lacks the trout waters that Michigan has but the steelies have to smolt somewhere. Is there good trout fishing in Ohio? Has Ohio introduced Browns like Michigan did?

[mattgmann]

There are really only 3 destinations in ohio for stream trout fishing. The most recognized, and in my opinion best, is the Mad river, which is stocked with browns. It has a pretty dedicated audience of fly fishermen who fish, and take care of the river.

The next option is the clear fork of the mohican. The upper stretch is meandering creek, and the lower is a tailwater. It doesn't have the same trout water feel of the Mad, but is a worthwile place to fish.

The third place stocked by the state is clear creek in the hocking hills. It's only been stocked for a few years, and is starting to fish better. The trout fishing isn't as good as the other two, but the scenery is tough to beat.

There are also a few private clubs with stocked creeks. One is the wolf creek trout club which is supposed to be quite nice, and have alot of large trout. It's sort of a country club format though, and tough to fish if you don't know a member, or aren't well endowed.

Ohio doesn't have the trout habitat that michigan and PA do, hence the stocking programs are limited to the small areas where trout can flourish. There are also alot of public ponds stocked with rainbow trout for public enjoyment, but if you're looking for "traditional" trout fishing, it isn't similar.

As for steelhead smolting, ohio steelhead reproduction is severely limited at best. Nearly all of the fish are stocked by ohio and PA. In michigan, some rivers have very high numbers of naturally reproduced fish. Here, warm weather, and water conditions prevent the fry from surviving long enough to make it into the lake.

[Lance]

Matt did a pretty good job of summing things up. There is actually a number of people who trout fish here in NE Ohio but most of them drive to PA. 1hr 15 minutes I can be to some pretty decent fishing in NW PA where it's 1 hr 30 min to the Clearfork.

As far as the smolts thing goes, there was a guy named Creekcrawler on here before we broke away from the MI site that had a pic of a very young steelhead smolt that he found in a trib of the Cuyahoga in JULY which was very cool. At least a handful may survive.

Getting back to the Clearfork, we drove down on fathers day to check out the campground and such. It's a very scenic river through the park and baring major rains I should get to fish it a morning or two the last weekend of the month after I get back from MI. I'm really looking forward to it and I'll post how that one goes later.