Jeff Blood, the creator of the Blood Dot and White Death Flies will be the featured speaker at our October membership meeting at the Firehouse Pub and Grill. Jeff has a wealth of steelhead fishing knowledge to pass on to membership. His presentation will focus on his thoughts and experiences of Steelhead Fishing.
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 23, 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
