Ohio's World-Class Steelhead Rivers

November 30, 2008 By: Marshall Cutchin

“In Ohio the vast majority of steelhead begin life in the Castalia State Fish Hatchery in Erie County, where eggs and milt are stripped from ‘breeder’ stock, then incubated, hatched, and reared to yearling size of five to seven inches. Some 400,000 yearlings annually are planted in five central Lake Erie tributaries — the Vermilion, Rocky, Chagrin, and Grand rivers, and Conneaut Creek. The latter stream also receives stockings by neighboring Pennsylvania.” In the Toledo Blade, Steve Pollick and Jeff Basting offer an excellent overview of nothern Ohio’s steelhead fishery.