Spring Mystery

A frequent question on the Rocky River this spring goes like this: "Where are all the fish?" And they're not talking about suckers. The white suckers are in the river in unprecedented numbers, but the steelies are still relatively speaking scarce.
Today should have been a perfect day -- with river flows at 300 cfs and dropping and the water temp in the mid 40s. The bright sky in the afternoon went gray with the clouds from a new storm heading into Northeast Ohio. The West Branch didn't give up anything other than suckers. I did hook into two steelies in the main stem of the river below the Nature Center and landed one spent female in the 30 inch range. She took a orange glue egg. Many of the stretches that normally hold a handful of fish only held dozens of suckers. And the deep runs didn't seem to hide any fish.
Reports of numerous fish in the lower river late in the week didn't translate into many fish today... Lots of anglers on the river today, but not many seemed to be catching anything. A cold April may translate into a light run of fish this year. But the optimist will say, it's early yet.