On an unseasonably,
bitterly cold day more than 60 people huddled together to dedicate a
30-acre state public fishing access to the memory of Ohio’s “Mr.
Steelhead.”
The new Conneaut
Creek angler access site in Ashtabula County is named after Phil
Hillman who served for more than 30 years with the Ohio Division of
Wildlife before his untimely death last July at age 62.
Hillman was employed
as the fish management supervisor for the agency’s District Three
(Northeast Ohio) office in Akron. However, he is remembered as much
for his passion regarding the Wildlife Division’s steelhead program
as well as his dogged work in expanding angler access throughout
Northeast Ohio.
Dedicated April 14th
was the Phil Hillman South Ridge Road public fishing access site on a
bluff bordering Conneaut Creek. This is the first time the Ohio
Department of Natural Resources has ever named a public hunting or
fishing area after one of its current or former employees.
On hand to
commemorate the dedication was Hillman’s widow, Carolyn, and his
three sons, Matt, Zach (who has applied to become an attendee for the
Wildlife Division’s up-coming officer training academy), and Adam.
Carolyn Hillman was accorded the honor of cutting the ceremonial
ribbon to the new public fishing access site.
“I really don’t
think Phil would have expected this, but I do know he would be
humbled by it,” Carolyn said. “Our family is very much touched by
this gesture.”
Adam Hillman
humorously added that he often fished with his late father, sharing
the opportunity to outrun any other angler they perceived as
attempting to beat them to the choicest Conneaut Creek steelhead
fishing holes.
“My dad loved what
he did every day of his career; this is what he was born to do,”
Adam said. “This dedication and this fishing access point being
named after my dad means the world to me personally.”
Natural Resources
Department Assistant Director Gary Obermiller said during the
proceedings that the department “knows what Phil put into his
work.”
“Maybe we would
not have the steelhead program were it not for Phil,” Obermiller
said. “Phil was the face of the program. This day gives us the
opportunity to dedicate this site in Phil’s memory and to his
family.”
Of course Phil
Hillman was not the only Wildlife Division official who chipped in to
assist with the state’s steelhead program. However, he was such an
integral component that he and the project were joined at the hip,
said Wildlife Division fisheries biologist Kevin Kayle.
Kayle, in fact, is
the person officially in charge of the Wildlife Division’s
steelhead program.
“We were ‘brothers
in arms’ with the program for three decades,” Kayle said. “This
site is a tribute to Phil and his efforts to create and enhance
angler access along Conneaut Creek. And everywhere else, for that
matter.”
Hillman’s former
boss – District Three supervisor Peter Novotny – said it is a
little known fact outside of the agency that the late fisheries
biologist was the dogged advocate behind the state’s move to
replace the stocking of the more erratically returning London-strain
of trout with that of the more consistently returning Little Manistee
strain of fish from Michigan.
“Phil’s
enthusiasm inspired us all,” Novotny said. “I truly believe that
Phil can never be replaced.”
Such an effervescent
approach to helping shepherd the state’s steelhead program was due
in no small measure to Hillman’s own driven angling pursuit of the
species, several dedication attendees said.
“You could say
that steelhead were Phil’s forth son, and I’m not sure which was
his favorite,” Novotny said, a comment that elicited a good laugh
from the dedication’s attendees.
Asked if Hillman was
really that good of a steelhead angler, fellow trout fisher Les Ober
of Geauga County’s Newbury Township responded with “oh, yeah.”
“When it came to
steelhead fishing Phil was always on top of his game, which is why he
won a whole bunch of tournaments,” Ober said. “He really knew
what he was doing.”
The Phil Hillman
South Ridge Road Fishing Access site is located south of Interstate
90 off Route 7, on South Ridge Road in Ashtabula County’s Conneaut
City.
JFrischk@Ameritech.net
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