Curt Wagner, Ohio Division of Wildlife District 3 Fishery Management Supervisor, Ann Marie Gorman, Fisheries Supervisor at the Fairport Harbor Fish Station and Chris Amen, DOW Fish Biologist will be our featured speakers this month. They will report on the current state of the Ohio steelhead program and answer any questions we may have. They will also report on the 2023-2025 steelhead creel survey.
Curt, Chris and Ann Marie have a lot of current information about our steelhead program to share with OCBS members. We are very fortunate to be able to learn about the latest news regarding the Ohio Steelhead program directly from DOW management.
This will be another excellent meeting you will not want to miss. I hope you can attend.
Tom Blotzer, OCBS President will kick off the Steelhead Expo with short presentation detailing OCBS 2025 to 2026 meeting programs and club events.
Curt Wagner, Ohio Division of Wildlife District 3 Fishery Management Supervisor, will report on the current state of the Ohio steelhead program and answer any questions we may have.
John Brochue, the Orvis Crocker Park Store Manager and expert fly fishing instructor, will make a presentation on fly fishing for steelhead in our local Lake Erie tributaries.
Roger Hinchcliff, Steelhead Manifesto, FishUSA and Lamiglas VP/pro staff, will make a presentation outlining advanced fishing techniques for steelhead.
Wael Dardir, OCBS Board Member, will make a presentation focused on two handed spey Fly fishing.
Mike Durkalec, Cleveland Metroparks Aquatic Biologist, will make a presentation focused on center pin fishing for steelhead.
Matt Hainzey with a beautiful 32 inch alpha male steelhead caught in the March 13, 2022 OCBS Tournament. Well done Matt!
This season’s OCBS Steelhead Tournament is dedicated to the memory of David K. Esner, a long-time Ohio Steelheader who passed away on May 6, 2018.
FISHING DATES:
November 2, 2025
November 30, 2025
December 14, 2025
March 1, 2026
March 22, 2026
Our annual OCBS Steelhead Fishing tournament, sponsored by Erie Outfitters, is for OCBS members only. If not a member, you are welcome to join OCBS in order to register for the tournament.
Members can register for this year’s tournament as follows:
All participants are required to fish with another OCBS member who is in the tournament and is responsible for verifying the length of each fish checked in.
Check in has been modified to permit members to call or text their catch to the Tournament Director.
Entry fee is $20.00 per participant.
Be certain to read the tournament rules.
A record 218 anglers attended a Barbie Rod Steelhead Derby fundraiser on Saturday March 30, 2025
Several steelhead were caught by anglers who persevered. Jason Lawson took first place with a 29.0 inch steelhead. In second was Kevin Kolesar with a 28.25 inch steelhead and Sam Gibson was the 3rd place finisher with a 26.25 inch steelhead. The “coveted” biggest sucker award went to Marcus During with a 21.625 inch white sucker catch.
Everyone enjoyed the cookout and went home with a full belly and a 38 folks won some great raffle prizes.
We raised a new event record $16,460 for our Metroparks Fishing Fund in the process (we’ve raised $79K for public fishing over the past 10 years of these events!).
A huge thank you to all our volunteers who helped pull this off, our awesome sponsors, and Ohio Central Basin Steelheaders for hosting the raffle portion (which a good chunk of the proceeds). Additionally, OCBS awarded Cleveland Metroparks a grant check for $4,400 from the Ohio Division of Wildlife and OCBS to support our Spring Children’s Fishing Derbies coming up on May 17 & 18, netting a grand total of just shy of $21K for public fishing for the day.
Mike Durkalec
Cleveland Metroparks
