Unsavory conduct closes popular Lower Grand River (Ohio) steelhead fishing hole

Just at the cusp of Northeast Ohio’s spring steelhead fishing season, anglers have lost a popular – and productive – angling location on the lower Grand River in Lake County.

Blame poor behavior by anglers as the reason behind the closure.

Now off limits is what local anglers have long referred to as the “Asphalt Plant Hole.” The name is in reference to a now-deceased asphalt manufacturing plant. This site is located off Fairport-Nursery Road (Ohio Route 535) just west of Mantle Road in Painesville Township.

Though located entirely on private property, the site has long enjoy an “open fishing” status with little complaints from previous owners. There, steelhead anglers would fish for trout hovering in the hole’s deep and long stretch, awaiting to make their spawning runs further upstream.

It had proven enormously popular with both fly fishers along with bait anglers who often used it as a way point to fishing upstream toward the Ohio Route 2 bridge.

The Asphalt Plant Hole also is one of several other choice steelhead, smallmouth bass, spring river-spawning walleye and even muskie fishing spots in the lower Grand River. This stretches runs for several miles between the Route 2 bridge and downstream to the North St. Clair Street bridge in Fairport Harbor.

This entire distance is found exclusively within private property with angling access ebbing and flowing according to the wishes – or indifference - of current property owners.

However, Wildlife Division law enforcement officials say the latest closure at the Asphalt Plant Hole came about due to several unsavory and recent incidents.

Among them were anglers caught urinating while standing in the river and in front of a father-daughter duo who had obtained actual permission to fish there, said a Wildlife Division law enforcement official who requested anonymity.

The Wildlife Division officer said also the person hired to watch over the property encountered the gutted carcasses of steelhead, perhaps the result of fishers catching female trout for their roe but then leaving the rest behind.

Consequently, the law enforcement officer said, the Wildlife Division has been instructed to begin issuing “trespassing” citations to person caught angling at the Asphalt Plant Hole.

Asked about the rest of the lower Grand River between the Route 2 bridge and the North St. Clair Street bridge, the Wildlife Division law enforcement officer said the agency has not yet been contacted by any other landowner to begin enforcing the state’s no trespassing law.

“If we do get complaints than we will have to close off the fishing and start issuing tickets,” the Wildlife Division officer said.

Lake Metroparks does own and maintain several nearby sites that offer free, good public access to the lower Grand River. Among them is the agency’s Grand River Landing, Beaty Landing, and Helen Hazen Wyman Park. And the city of Painesville also has its Kiwanis Recreation Park.

See www.lakemetroparks.com as well as www.painesville.com.

- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn

JFrischk@Ameritech.net

JFrischk4@gmail.com