Busting Ice

Ten-foot long icicles hung from the cliff high above the Rocky River. Winter is here in Ohio, and that means one has to work a little harder for the steelhead. Late Saturday afternoon I headed down to the Rocky to see what was happening on the local stream. A combination of work and weather has kept me off the Rocky for most of the fall. And the ice wanted to keep me off on Saturday. The shelf ice on the pool I wanted to fish extended out about 5 yards and was a good half-inch thick. I spent 10 minutes breaking it up from the tail end of the pool. Huge ice flows crunched and cracked as they drifted through the rapids downstream. After resting the pool a bit, I started drifting flies through the tail of the pool. No fish showed themselves.

A plug fisherman, trying the run at the head of the pool did manage a 26-inch male. It was a reminder that these steelhead like to eat large stuff.