Well, its march 26th, and we still have big snow storms rolling across the country into Northeast Ohio.  This time last year, I had already had a half dozen days out on Erie; I still haven’t had a chance to get out on the big pond yet.   The MWC kicked off last weekend, and the boys were dealing with temps in the 20s, snow, and 30+mph winds; last year I have a picture of myself at Spring Valley, on and 80 degree day, with my shirt off holding a sauger.

This all may seem like bad news, AU CONTRAIRE…  It means the rivers have that beautiful winter green color to them, and are still loaded with steelhead.   The problem with 80 degree days in March (like last year), is that the rivers will warm up and a lot of the fish will say the “Hell with this!” while boogieing  back to the the lake.  Our river fun takes a major hit in the Spring.  So instead of heading out to the Lake the last few weeks, we’ve been floating rivers for NE Ohio Chromers.

Last week, I had former TRFA guest and avid fly fisherman Bill of Louisville, along with companion Keith come for 2 days floating NE Ohio’s Lake Erie tributaries.  These guys are fishing fools that travel all over the World in search of fly fishing thrills.  The mission was slightly different this time: learn the art of center pinning and sticking into some hot steelhead in Great Lakes tributaries.  Mission complete.

We floated the Chargrin and the Conneaut,    as those rivers were seemed to give us the best opportunity flowing right at about 300cfs.  With some rain turning to snow overnight on day 2, the Conny bumped a little during our float, making the bite a little tougher, but we still managed to tie into some fish.

I’ve also taken a few walk and wade trips on the Rocky in recent days with good success, and word all around Steelhead Alley is excellent fishing in recent days.

I’ll be shifting gears this weekend, as I just picked up my new 2013 big water toy, and the first Walleye tournament of the year is this weekend out of Fenwick Marina.  As of now, it looks like mother nature is going to cooperate for us, and I would expect some hawgs to be caught this weekend.  Stay tuned for picks of the new boat, and details on the big water fishing…