# Steelhead in odd places



## Lake Erie Angler

Can anyone else tell me the weirdest place theyve ever seen/caught steel? A few years ago while walking in garfield park in mentor i found 2 chromers holding in the current just under the waterfall in a creek that is at most 3 feet across and 6 inches deep. Also, while driving near sandusky, pulled off the road and found one alive and well in a ditch fed by a trickle of a stream.


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## flyphisherman

They do turn up in some wacky places. We've found them stranded on several occasions. Once we stumbled upon a small "pond" (oxbow) quite a distance from the river and the water was crystal clear. We could see 7 steelhead in it just milling around. I thought it would be cool if we could rescue the fish and get them back to the river......but what are the odds you could get them to bite...... They are stressed.....confined......clear water.....no flow......tiny tiny pond. My buddy had a line in there before I knew it. I laughed out loud as his stuff hit the water. As I'm about to tell him there is NO WAY you'll be able to interest them.....he's got one hooked up. I took the fish from him and ran it through the woods a distance and released it into the river. When I got back to my buddy he had another one hooked up. UNREAL! 

We rescued 4 of the 7. I still can't believe any of this actually happened


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## zimmerj

A friend of mine owns a swimming pool maintenance service company. They were asked to clean out a swimming pool in a yard that butted up to the Vermillion River. The water was dirty from the winter and spring runoff. When they drained the water there were three steelhead at the bottom still alive.


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## Flowie

Theres a golf course here on the St. Joseph in Indiana...I have seen them in the pond in the middle of it. To get to the pond they have to clear a 3ft seawall and swim through a 6 inch pipe thats at least 6 feet long...then swim about another 100 feet through a drainage ditch thats 6 inches deep and a little wider than the 6 inch pipe it leads to. But I have seen over a dozen in there at one time.


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## steelhead sniper 860

When I was a kid (before I had steelhead fever) I was riding my bike home from Huron one day and stopped off at a concrete spillway ditch for Rt.2 Just to bike back and forth on the concrete walls. After playing in the area for a little bit I walked down to the base of the spillway where it went into a foot wide or so trickle and found a pair of live steelhead sitting in probably a 10 inch deep 18 inch wide pool.


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## steelhead sniper 860

My buddy has a tiny creek probably 1-2ft wide in most areas by his house in Erie county on smokey road that's turned up a few steelhead also late in the spring time.


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## Rayman

Pipes from Lake erie near east 72nd all the way to the zoo. yep they'll travel a few miles inside pipes before reaching the dam by the zoo..


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## Fuzzygrub

People can really give you some weird looks when you are wading the creek outside the zoo entrance.


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## MadMax1

There's the 'bum hole' - where Euclid Creek goes under those train tracks behind that Marathon at East 185th Street. I've never fished there but I always found it to be a funny thought, standing down there in waders...


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## Rayman

I fished behind the Marathon gas stations your referring to. It was my lunch time blast at times.


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## MadMax1

Rayman said:


> I fished behind the Marathon gas stations your referring to. It was my lunch time blast at times.


Thats awesome! Rayman you are a bum indeed, a trout bum! Given a lunchtime opportunity like that I'd probably do the same thing. I bet you get some interesting looks from people when fighting Cromer's down in that concrete ditch!!


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## ejsell

Not so much odd as unusual, stopped in Grand Rapids Ohio to do some Christmas shopping for my wife and watched a lost steelhead all by himself trying to jump the lowhead dam there on the Maumee River. He must have tried a dozen times before we left. That's the only time I've ever seen a steelhead on the Maumee. 

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk


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## TIGGER

I have heard rumors of steelhead caught in the trap nets in Mosquito lake in the spring. Does it tie into the upper Grand River at some point?


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## Rayman

TIGGER said:


> I have heard rumors of steelhead caught in the trap nets in Mosquito lake in the spring. Does it tie into the upper Grand River at some point?


No the Grand does not lead into Mosquito Lake. Someone may have put the chromers in there if that's true.


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## gottacatchemall

Saw one jump in the canal once, over off canal rd... Not only was that fish lost but that's like a maze of mud in there! Chippewa creek is another wild one to see fish in... Above 82 bridge on cuyahoga, and my cousin lives at TimberTop in cuyahoga falls and said they've made it all the way down there?!?


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## bdawg

I saw one once sitting in a little creek that flows into the Chagrin. There was a pool upstream on this creek below a small waterfall, but for whatever reason it wanted to sit below the tiny riffle in the 2' wide x 8" deep creek between the main river and the waterfall pool. I didn't have my pole with me, but another guy had a flyrod. He casted his egg pattern fly into this 2' wide creek with most of his line remaining on dry land and that steelie grabbed it right away! I had a ringside seat as this steelie proceeded to tear up and down this little creek with this guy battling it! 

He tried to land it before it was ready in a section that was knee deep. That fish swam between his legs and broke him off! It was hilarious! Like watching Bill Dance fishing bloopers! The fish went back to his riffle and the guy dropped his flyrod and proceeded to chase it through the creek with the landing net some more until he finally caught it! He got his fly back and released the fish. Fishermen sure do hate losing lures!


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## bones.

Rayman said:


> No the Grand does not lead into Mosquito Lake. Someone may have put the chromers in there if that's true.


I would say it is a longshot but steelhead could get into Mosquito lake from the Grand river as the two watersheds are right next to each other. Furthermore Mosquito Lake does not have an emergency overflow at the dam. When Mosquito goes to flood stage it will overflow into the Grand
river drainage.


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## GrandRiverBassman

MadMax1 said:


> There's the 'bum hole' - where Euclid Creek goes under those train tracks behind that Marathon at East 185th Street. I've never fished there but I always found it to be a funny thought, standing down there in waders...


Did you ever see them jump through the bum hole?
Semi serious question. Wondering if they make it up to the Euclid creek reservation.


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## MadMax1

GrandRiverBassman said:


> Did you ever see them jump through the bum hole?
> Semi serious question. Wondering if they make it up to the Euclid creek reservation.


I cannot confirm seeing them get over but I'd say give it a shot when everything else is on the up... 

On a side note I always wondered about Doan Brook that runs up to thru Cleveland cultural Gardens on MLK - would be funny seeing someone hooked up in there. I would think they get up there.


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## DuncanCharles

Earlier this week I saw a bunch trying to make it up the dam in euclid creek by the marathon on 185th. I actually saw 2 make it up as well, completely blew my mind. I'm a fly fisherman though, I've never done well in dam scenarios, I've just always figured they are too busy trying to get up the dam than hit a fly drifting around.


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## GrandRiverBassman

MadMax1 said:


> I cannot confirm seeing them get over but I'd say give it a shot when everything else is on the up...
> 
> On a side note I always wondered about Doan Brook that runs up to thru Cleveland cultural Gardens on MLK - would be funny seeing someone hooked up in there. I would think they get up there.


They do. I've landed two there before.


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## smath

MadMax1 said:


> On a side note I always wondered about Doan Brook that runs up to thru Cleveland cultural Gardens on MLK - would be funny seeing someone hooked up in there. I would think they get up there.


As I recall someone posted a photo on the Metroparks blog this past spring of a steelie caught in Doan Brook.


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