Much to Their Chagrin.

The Chagrin River is another great tributary on Steelhead Alley in the Cleveland Area.  I finally made time to explore this trib during the early Spring of 2010.  Greg and I made the initial trip to the Chag together.  We were hoping to find some productive waters a little closer to home.  We were not disappointed.

The Chagrin River is another tributary that runs through the Cleveland Metro Parks.  Once again, this tributary can get a lot of pressure due to it's proximity to the big city.  And as with the Rocky River, if you are willing to do a little walking and exploring, you can find some less pressured waters.  The Chagrin River is stocked with about 105,000 steelhead smolts each spring and is a very productive fishery.

The Chagrin River is a shale bottom river much like the Rock.  I have found the Chagrin to be the most slippery river I have ever been in.  I have taken a spills more than once...several times while chasing a steelhead down the river.  But, if you can overcome that little issue, you will be well rewarded for your efforts.

The Chagrin River fishes best with flows between 150-350 cf/s.  When Greg and I initially hit this trib the flows were about 400cf/s, but she was still very fishable.  We started out in the upper river and wasted no time in finding fish.

We landed out first fish on the Chag out of a deep fast cut.  When we saw this hole, we both knew we were where we needed to be.  Greg had the first hook-up.  He nearly landed the fish...but his fishing parnter did a poor job of landing her.  I still count that fish because it touched my net several times, I just struggled to land her for some reason.  We can't hold that against Greg's fishing skills...my bad.

A few minutes later my reel was singing and I was battling my first Chagrin River steelhead.  She was a beautiful fresh hen.  We continued to drift this area for a while and decided to move up river.

As we moved up, we found a long stretch of shallow shale bottom river.  This stretch had a few deep cuts with overhanging shelves, some nice riffles, and some gravel bottom areas with spawning redds.  I was about to get an unexpected thrill.

I found a deeper cut behind some spawning redds and was watching a steelhead drop back into that cut.  I decided to cast at the fish that was dropping back.  The cast I made was a little short and drifted right past the fish I was targeting.  SMACK!  A large buck that I did not see hammered my fly.

This fish was absolutely nuts.  He drug me about 50 yards down stream with incredible energy.  All I could do was hang on for the ride.  This fish must have been an acrobat in a former life.  He was impressive with his jumps and somersaults.  I actually had to corner the fish next to a rock and concrete wall to finally land him.  He was 30" and about 11lbs.  I was winded after landing that guy.

Greg was next to get into the act.  He was casting through a riffle. It didn't take long for Greg to have one on.  Another nice fresh hen for the day.

I had the privilege of hitting the Chag several more times this spring and was never disappointed.  This trib offers miles of fun and great access.  I feel very fortunate to have several great steelhead fisheries withing 30 miles of my home.