Monday, January 26, 2009

Let's go fishing (or not)

Sure it's cold. Even bitterly cold.

But that's not stopping some die-hard steelhead anglers.

The bulkhead seawall area at the end of Erie Road in Eastlake has seen considerable fishing traffic with enough parking spaces cleared for around a dozen vehicles.

Problem is, the steelhead fishing there has been really, really slow.

At least you don't have to worry about being ticketed for fishing. Eastlake's mayor Ted Andrzejewski said Monday that the city's not contemplating issuing citations.

Meanwhile, John Sima, head of Eastlake's port authority realzies that while the seawall officially closes November 1 the place still attracts a lot of winter trout anglers.

The fear is that someone is going to slip on the ice and fall into the lake; hence the city warning.

Steelheaders are doing better at FirstEnergy's East 72nd Street plant in Cleveland.
Here, the steelheaders are fishing the short hot-water discharge slip and are catching trout by using either jigs tipped with minnows or else casting spawn sacks.

A few walleye are being caught here, as well. These fish are hitting Rapala Husky Jerk crankbaits.

Stream fishermen are concentrating on the Grand River area below Harpersfield dam in Ashtabula County.

Unfortunately, on the best days the dam is over-crowded with up to 25 anglers spread out along the structure's face. That's way too many fishermen for my tastes.

Another problem is that you can walk downstream to the high shale bank and fish but that area's been taken over by some really poor sports.

Mentor's Bob Ashley has fished there and been hemmed in by pushy fishermen who let their floats and lines drift aimlessly through everyone else's water space.

They're obviously newbees, too, since they've been observed fishing with their spinning reels turned upside down.

It was a lot more fun steelheading 10 and 20 years ago when there were fewer trout but far fewer anglers fishing for them.

My plans call for a second ice fishing outing on Thursday for bluegills.

- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn

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