# Medina Fish Hatchery??



## creekcrawler

Anybody remember the Medina Fish Hatchery?
It was on Sharon-Copley Road (rt162) off River Styx.
Was wondering if anything's still going on there.
Used to go there every March 20th, had a lot of fun there.


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## mrphish42

Creekcrawler..... Man.......had some great times there, over the years..... Up to a dozen of us would go there at a time, would take up the end and part of the side of the first pond (by the Lodge) .....Great sausage sandwichs.. I haven't been there in years. Hope that someone will fill us in on any thing that might be going on over there..... (Red Boston )the orig. owner......was a cool guy.....could keep you on your toes.. Place also had great ice fishin for trout.... Jon SR...PS.....Thanks man, for cranking up the memory machine.


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## williamonica0214

Iremember that place. i lved fishing there. i am interested in knowing if anything is going on there too


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## creekcrawler

I remember those guys would have fun!
They stocked an eel about 4ft long in the first pond once!
Sure was funny trying to see the guy net it.  
Caught a huge burbot out of the second pond once.
Never saw one before, so I let it go. Then they tell me 
they taste just like lobster.  
One March 20th, there was a huge blizzard, but we were there early
anyhow. Those guys couldn't believe we drove out there! Had the whole place to ourselves for the day.


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## Hetfieldinn

I'm pretty sure that it's just a wasteland anymore. Red and Mary Boston sold it to some guys from out of state. They ran it for a while, then Red and Mary bought it back. I think Red passed away, then Mary shut the doors. That was probably ten or more years ago.

I haven't driven by there in a long while, but last time I did it was a ghost town.


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## creekcrawler

I remember that they sold it & bought it back.
That's too bad.


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## mrphish42

Creekcrawler and Hetfieldinn......do you guys remember, just how crowded that place could get,,, it could be totally insane at times "no place to park". At first...only the front ponds were open and the stream.......then they started to open the back ponds.......one year he stocked "tons of white bass and holly crap-----everyone had got the fever......like we said.....Oh what memories..... thanks guys. Jon Sr.


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## PapawSmith

In the mid 90's I used to buy stocking fish for my pond and fatheads as feeders from whoever owned it at the time, he was a younger guy. He made a trip to Canada one year for gills and called me when he was about an hour from returning. I met him there and bought 250 gills from him and, I swear, none were under 8' and probably 100 were over a pound a piece. I've never seen so many huge gills. I stocked a pond with them and lost probably about 50 fish, mostly mature bulls, in the following 3 or 4 days, none after. They eventually crossed with my hybreds and that was a phenominal fishery. It probably still is, you'll have to ask my exwife. Several years ago I was driving past there and saw a car parked by the old ofice. I stopped and asked the guy what was up with the property and he said he was a real estate investor/developer that had just bought the property at auction. He said he paid about $100,000 for it and there was about 36 acres and all the ponds and trout stream. He seemed elated. Had I been drinking I probably would have killed him and homesteded the land. Squatters rights, you know. That would have been great because you would all be welcome to fish there with me. Sorry I was sober and let all you down. The mistakes of our past are eternal.


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## fishin4five

my dad introduced me to fishing and taught me how to fish at the medina fish hatchery 20 years ago. we always caught something. i have some great memories from that place. there were some huge fish in the back ponds. i wish it was still open.


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## Bluegrass Boy

I went to Medina Fish Hatchery once with my dad as a boy. I remember fishing with traditional tactics and getting frustrated to no end untill some kind gentleman gave me some Velveta cheese he was using. Before long we had more trout than we knew what to do with.


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## Hetfieldinn

I started fishing there about 1977 or so. I was about twelve or thirteen years old. A neighbor started taking me there. He was in his late sixties. We'd start catching fish, and he would start drinking. By the end of the day, he would be pretty smashed, and I would have to drive us home in his '70 LTD with Krager mags and the rag top down. He got a big kick out of it. I could barely see over the steering wheel.

We used to get there early and setup shop by the back door of the bait shop where the water pipe inlet was (first pond). We would fish with Patzeke's Fireballs on the bottom, and catch the snot out of the trout. I remember it was about $4 a person, and you could keep all you caught. When the new guys bought it, they raised it to $7, and you were only allowed to keep seven fish. You could then buy another ticket, and keep more, if you caught them.

I remember they tried to put walleyes and pike in the second pond, but it didn't work out.


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## Lewis

Funny Het..I too did quite a bit of fishing there around 1976-1978.
Caught a ton of fish out of that place!
They used to call me Catfish Charlie.


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## Hetfieldinn

Lewis said:


> Funny Het..I too did quite a bit of fishing there around 1976-1978.


Do you remember a guy named Joe? He used to drive a brown chevy pickup with a cap on it. The cap had trout stickers on it. He used to fish with a jig and maggots all the time. When he would 'jig' it back to him, he'd hold the rod way up high over his head.


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## Lewis

Yeah...that sounds familiar.I do remember him.
Saw some funny things there .
All the deep sea tackle and giant bobbers.   
Saw a fistfight one time after one guy got hooked in the back by another guy with a large hook and wad of liver! 
I cant remember the exact year...it was around 1977-1979.
I arrived there before daylight.
As I was arriving a big old Buick was pulled over along side the road just up from the entrance.
Found out later someone dumped a body.
I called the authorities and gave them the info.

I had lots of good time there catching tons of Channel Cats and Trout.

Did you ever see the guy there slaying the Cats on Catalpa worms?
Dont know who he was,but he caught lots of fish.


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## mrphish42

Stories of Medina Hatchery always bring thoughts of a certain guy back and his ability to tell fantastik......stories of those days gone bye. That guy is none other than "Ray" from the Rod Makers Shoppe in Strongsville. He used to mfg..... and sell a line of his own "jigs" under the title TNT Lures.......greatest little jigs I ever use back then..... If you are ever in his store, get him started on the tales of fishing there.....you wont be sorry. I've known this guy, for over 30 years now.........he can be one fish catchin fool and tell him JON SR. from Cuy. Falls. told you to ask about these stories.


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## Coot

It's about 10 miles from my house.

I fished there as a kid in the early 70's

It has been closed for a number of years.

I wonder what fish still lurk in those waters ?

:B


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## Steel Cranium

Lewis said:


> Did you ever see the guy there slaying the Cats on Catalpa worms? Don't know who he was, but he caught lots of fish.


If it was a young guy, I know who it was.... Catalpa worms were all over a field near where I lived in Cincinnati, and I never heard of them until moving down there. Brought them up to the Cleveland area quite a bit and had a field day at the hatchery and area metroparks lakes (including flatties in Baldwin when it was a lake) on those worms. Also brought helgramites to the area (bought from Cinci bait stores) and had fun with the creek smallies.

The hatchery has a lot of memories, since it was one of the only places to consistently catch trout back then (Metroparks stocking was still in it's infancy - dump a ton of trout in one place, fished out a few days later). I learned the trout finesse game there, long rod, 2lb test line, small hook with a single maggot. Once the trout stocking in the rocky improved (weekly seeding replaced dumping) and I found that I could catch decent trout just downstream of the hatchery after a rain, I quit spending the money to catch trout. Would still make a few trips when my dad wanted to relive old memories.

Along with the trout and cats in the front ponds and the stream, caught a northern and a few nice brown trout in the upper big pond. Also caught some nice cats in the hatchery that was in Elyria (rte 57?) on the smelt that they would stock in their ponds.

In it's heyday, the Medina trout hatchery served a purpose for easy access and some fish not easily available elsewhere. Now, we have so many public opportunities in the area (stocked rainbows, steelhead, cats, shoreline accessible perch/walleye) that a facility like that one probably wouldn't be profitable.


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## shroomhunter

I remember it too!! I used to enjoy going there and catching those trout. I remember sitting there for a couple hours with nothing happening then all of a sudden someone would catch one and they would bite like crazy for 15 mins or so. Small black hair jig tipped with a maggot jigged about 18" under a weighted bobber. Then I got into the catfish ponds man was that a ball, as soon as they'd bring in the truck to reload the pond the bite was on. I have some good memories of that place.


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## Shortdrift

Hetfieldinn said:


> Do you remember a guy named Joe? He used to drive a brown chevy pickup with a cap on it. The cap had trout stickers on it. He used to fish with a jig and maggots all the time. When he would 'jig' it back to him, he'd hold the rod way up high over his head.


========================================================

Joe is a very good friend of mine and we still get together now and then. 
Joe married the neighbors daughter when I lived in Parma and that is how I met him 39 years ago.  
I used to take my Dad to the ponds when after he lost his desire to go to Canada bass fishing. Joe always made sure there was a parking place open for us and would stop and fish with us on his lunch break. Many good times there with Dad and Joe.


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## freyedknot

i always hit there once or twice in the spring. thats where i started to use jig/maggot and learned to move it a bit to get strikes and it still works on the rivers when there is no current. i heard of him stocking some huge catfish in the last 3 ponds and i think 1 went 60 pounds.


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## Beer:30

I live in Medina and fished the hatchery as a kid.... It has been a ghost town for at least the last 5-6 years. The whole farm (in spring - summer) is over grown with grass & weeds. I have lived in Medina since 88', and that was the place to go, to catch trout. That area has grown, with a golf course across the street and housing development on the backside.

Where the golf course is, it was Medina Game Club. It is a sign of the times, everything has a $ on it. The shame of it all, is the hatchery just sits idol. Everything has to be stunted by now.

Sorry to bring this new to all of the memories everyone have.


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## c. j. stone

I used to take my two boys out there at least once every weekend during the winter. Catching trout thru a hole in the ice is something quite mystical. 
Red was a great guy(former Goodyear hourly worker, so we had something in common). Mary's chile, with the medium hot peppers, as to die for. We caught tons of rainbows on copies of "Bedford Joe's" black jigs and maggots. He was quite a character-always bringing a new batch of jigs(with little tweeks) and always somewhat arrogant in his fish catching abilities(because he was darned good at it). My oldest caught a 20 lb. northern in the second pond once and had his picture on their bulletin board for years-little kid holding a northern as long as he was tall. Same kid grew up to be a total fishing fanatic. He once brought home several limits of trout during the winter in a cooler with an aerator and stocked my pond thru a hole in the ice nearly each weekend. We caught them all winter thru the ice, and early Spring but I told him he had to catch them out by the middle of May or they would die when the water temp got to 70 degrees. Well, I ended up netting them along shore on June 1st and hauled three five gallon buckets full of stinking dead trout back to the woods for the raccoons. Stopped the stocking after that!


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## TRIPLE-J

sorry guys that property is privately owned by a local family.
Triple-j


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## crankman

Gosh, I remember that place so well. My dad used to take us there as kids (early 70s) and I had a blast. When I was a kid of 6 or 7, they used to have this tiny little pond right by the road and entrance just for little kids. I caught several huge trout (well, huge for me at least) out of there. Later, as I got older, I loved fishing in the trout stream by the dam. Does anybody else remember the tiny "kid pond" by the driveway?


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## flylogicsteelhead

First I will mention that I learned how to fish jig and maggot there and found my obsession for trout. Before it closed up the stockings of fish started to get smaller in size 12-14". Then a bacteria broke out and many of the fish started to be caught with numerous sores. I pulled 5 cats out in one day at the last pond there with sores all over their bodies. The same held true for the trout stockings as well. They attempt to do away with most of the fish but could not re hatch and grow quick enough to stay open. Whatever infection that those fish had was horrible. I learned so much there and I owe it to that place as the roots of the fisherman I am today.


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## CRAPPIE LOVER

...The words Medina Hatchery and just about all the older fishermen remember the years gone by and there experiences at the Hatchery...My first trip down there and I remember all the tangled lines...Everyone seemed to have fun...I guess that was the good old days...
 GOOD FISHING GUYS


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## fishon

i too have many fond memories of the Medina Fish Hatcheray.. i just to like eto fish the Creek there and use a little black rooster tail.. and caught my first trout that way.... I was 10yrs old... i remember i used my baseball cap as a Net..LOL

Ahh.. thanks to memory lane guys...

FRank


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## Hetfieldinn

crankman said:


> Does anybody else remember the tiny "kid pond" by the driveway?



I remember it. Wasn't it like a concrete square filled with water? BY the time I was going there, it was overgrown and only had a few huge goldfish in it.


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## flylogicsteelhead

Yeah it was right next to the main drive. I know I use to fish the creek in the summer and hike back in there, about a hour later I would come out with a stringer of fish. Man these guys would be pissed, but when your 8-10 years old you fit in places some guys wouldnt. I'll never forget the guys fishing deep with the bobber attched to their line. By the way, Do I still have milk on my breath Het?


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## Mutley

I was just wondering about this place the other day.

We never went there. My dad always made disparaging comments about it....like "fishin' out of a barrel" et al. It sounds like I missed some fun times.

Anyway if you were there back in the 1980s and idiotic teenagers drove through there blasting their horn....it was probably me and my friends.

Now I've had that done to me while on the dock at Mogadore...what comes around goes around.


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## crankman

I remember when I started getting interested in bass fishing, I'd leave my dad and go off to the back ponds on the other side of the stream. They were all overgrown and weedy, but I was convinced there were bass in there somewhere. Never did catch any, though.:B


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## crankman

used to spend a ton of time over at Sunny Lake in Aurora, too. Back when it was weedy and sloppy and full of nice bass. Now, it's just a family park, all cleared out and worthless, i suppose. I used to love looking at all the photos of bass and northerns that they kept on the boathouse wall. Anyone else remember?


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## Barney

Hey Guys
Take a look.


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## CRAPPIE LOVER

A lot of great memories..down there from years gone by...
GOOD FISHING GUYS:C


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## thekingz16

whats the deal with it now? why did it close? why cant anyone fish there? ???


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## mrphish42

In response to CRANKMAN"S Sunny Lake inquiry.....Joe Seveck was a gentleman that owned the farm that had this lake on his property. Before it was sold to Aurora as a "Green Space" area. This was one of my grandfathers favorite places to spring fish (back when he was alive) because Joe would have a tanker truck or two each spring down from Canada to deliver walleyes and northern pike to be stocked. Man, grandpa sure loved to toss those spinners (CP SWING ) being one of his favorites.....tipped with half a crawler.. The old time bassers in this and the Akron area were well aware of the great bass populations (and sizes) that those large lily pad areas and the weed beds would hold. Was a Barney Spoon and Josh Pork Frog haven...Creme worms and Evil Eye Spoons also took more than their share of 5# and up bass.......Yes, those were the DAYS.......and thanks to crankman for a flash back down memory lane....also as times have shown, there are ever so many of those "OLDIES BUT GOLDIES (that never will again be the FISHIN HOLES THEY WERE 30 or 40 YEARS AGO......And that is totally a shame.............And Medina was also a true MEMORY MAKING PLACE and it's a shame....Because Red Boston ran a fine business that touched the lives of ever so many people and better yet (familys)......Jon Sr.


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## icefisherman4life

i do alot of landscaping in that area and pass that place alot. its like a ghost town as someone said before on here. but i was really tempted to take my pole and give a couple casts to see what happens.


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## Beer:30

Icefisherman4life, you would have Montville Twp. Police on you like "turkeys on a junebug" or "stink on $h!t". I have a buddy that works for that department and they are over there all the time for trespassers. There is never any activity by the owner, that is why it is such a shame. So inviting, but so expensive when you get caught!


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## icefisherman4life

well that just convinced me that im not taken a pole this week when im on that route haaaa.


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## creekcrawler

I remember fishing Sunny Lake when I was a kid. Great crappie, bass, pike, you name it. I think they charged us $3 to launch a rowboat back then. My older bro' used to sneak in the back way off some old road and fish the back end of the lake. You couldn't even walk around the whole lake then. Stopped out there years back, what a wreck! Almost made me cry, don't there's anything left there but carp.


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## DrGeist

Well, here's some good news. The guy that works at a store I stop at in the mornings, recently bought it. Right now he has to jump through all the proper political and environmental hoops before he can open it back up to the public. This morning he said he was going to keep the upper lake(?) a pay-to-fish lake, and as things progress, he'll open the others later. He plans on raising and selling Malaysian Prawn, and selling them...they're like a huge shrimp the size of a lobster tail, he said. He's hoping to open up June 1st., if all goes well for him.


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## B-Dub-

DrGeist said:


> Well, here's some good news. The guy that works at a store I stop at in the mornings, recently bought it. Right now he has to jump through all the proper political and environmental hoops before he can open it back up to the public. This morning he said he was going to keep the upper lake(?) a pay-to-fish lake, and as things progress, he'll open the others later. He plans on raising and selling Malaysian Prawn, and selling them...they're like a huge shrimp the size of a lobster tail, he said. He's hoping to open up June 1st., if all goes well for him.


Its been over 20 years, I miss that place!!!
:F


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## c. j. stone

Was a sad day indeed when Red Boston died. I knew Mary would not be able to continue on with it. Some very fond memories with the kids, Red's grouchiness, Mary's chili and sandwiches, Parma Joe's arrogance, the big fireplace roaring, pulling those frisky rainbows from soft and hard water-seems nothing good ever lasts!(sigh)!!


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## bAssKisser00

there are still fish in the hatchery. I know this for a fact. lets just say my Grandmas farm pond got an 24 inch albino cat put in it for free last year....it is closed though. but not at 3AM


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## creekcrawler

> it is closed though. but not at 3AM


LOL!

If I was closer, I probably would've done the same!

I mean, no ,that's bad, don't do it.


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## sliver138

My father talked to a guy the other day at work that brought up that him and a friend bought the hatchery and will be opening it again in a couple months. My father said he wouldn't of believed him but the guy brought up the hatchery on his own and said he had been working there all week in the rain. If anyone goes by let me know if you see any work being done. I grew up trout fishing there and would love to take my son.


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## flylogicsteelhead

Many great memories with my dad and I there. I'd love to see it reemerge. 


Sent from my iPhone using Ohub Campfire


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## B-Dub-

creekcrawler said:


> LOL!
> 
> If I was closer, I probably would've done the same!
> 
> I mean, no ,that's bad, don't do it.


I would have been a lil nervous, but thats just me...lol
:F


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## c. j. stone

sliver138 said:


> My father talked to a guy the other day at work that brought up that him and a friend bought the hatchery and will be opening it again in a couple months. My father said he wouldn't of believed him but the guy brought up the hatchery on his own and said he had been working there all week in the rain. If anyone goes by let me know if you see any work being done. I grew up trout fishing there and would love to take my son.


Wow, that'd be great! Took my kids there, now could take my grandson!


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## Bass-Chad

Growing up, it was just my Mom, my sister and I, she would tell me stories about how they went and would catch fish every bit 30#, just total rod busters. She said she took me a couple times when I was really young but, being 24 now, I can't remember it at all, only pictures. Not to hijack the thread but, rumor has it, Bass Lakes was poisoned? I have went there at least twice a year for the past 20 years. I guess, it is my Medina fish hatchery.


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## guppygill

Man, remembering when I was young, freezing out there, going inside and ate bologna sandwiches and drank hot chocolate............those were the days.


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## Bluefinn

yeah, I remember it all. Started fishing there in the late 70's till it closed. Fun place to fish. Had great days there. I can't even think of how many trout & catfish we caught out of there.


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## BigDaddy300

I remember the hot chocolate by the fireplace when I was really young. Anyone remember fishing in the little stream behind the lakes? I hope they do reopen it. I would like to take my kids there.


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## flylogicsteelhead

I forgot all about the hot chocolate!!! I used to love fishing that little creek. I'd trek off through the brush and keep emerging with a fish about every 10 minutes or so. People were always like "What the hell!"


Sent from my iPhone using Ohub Campfire


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## sliver138

Any new news on the reopening?


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## mikeat

Looks pretty over grown don't think it's opening any time soon!!!


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## B-Dub-

mikeat said:


> Looks pretty over grown don't think it's opening any time soon!!!


Wow, I wonder whats the hold up!?!?!?!?!


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## mikeat

Maybe money ? the place looks pretty run down kind of sad they let it get that way a lot of memories for a lot of people


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## Nate In Parma Hts

Spent many a Saturday there when I was young with my father, and in turn spent Saturdays there with my wife and daughter. Even almost drowned there! I think I was maybe about 10 years old at the time, Dad and his friends were trying to hook cats and just sitting there was too boring for me. Dad rigged up an old fiberglass rod with a Zebco 33 on it with a Roostertail and told me to walk the creek behind the ponds and drag the Roostertail along slowly. I took a wrong step too close to the edge, next thing I know I'm being pulled out by a little old man who had to be pushing 70 and darn near as small as I was. Old guy even fished my rod out of the creek after making sure I was OK. 

I surely do hope someone reopens it. Just had my first grandchild, would be great to be able to take him there in a few more years.


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## Shortdrift

flylogicsteelhead said:


> I forgot all about the hot chocolate!!! I used to love fishing that little creek. I'd trek off through the brush and keep emerging with a fish about every 10 minutes or so. People were always like "What the hell!"
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Ohub Campfire


That was the same place I used to do most of my fishing at the Hatchery. I also had permission to wade fish the creek for about a half mile down along River Styx road. Quite a few fish would escape over the spillway and survived as the water remained fairly cool due to all the overhanging cover.


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## James F

Many good times with my Dad. Parma Joe, Red, Mary, and that roaring fire place! And lots of trout. It was a drive for us, but worth the memories.


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## TheAngler

I mow grass near the old hatchery....Seen two guys opining the barn 2 months back. .i never seen anything about or anyone else around since


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