CLEVELAND, Ohio - The Ohio Division of Wildlife will focus on bringing wild strains of steelhead trout back to the Northeast Ohio rivers and streams in the years to come, said Fisheries Supervisor Kurt Wagner of the Akron Office. Criticism of the steelhead trout runs the past two years have been justified, he said, for a variety of reasons.

This year’s steelhead trout returns had initially been compromised by a summertime drought that drained Lake Erie tributaries and a lack of the autumn rains that fuel the waterways, luring steelhead trout to their spawning areas from the Vermilion River to Conneaut Creek.

“All the rivers were low going into the fall seasons, and even the rains we experienced in the fall didn’t bring decent runs of steelhead,” said Bob Ashley of Mentor, a veteran steel

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