Northeast Ohio’s Steelhead Alley Is World-Class, but Catch Rates Are Falling: CLE Daily

💨 52°; Windy with rain

🗳️ Ohio's New Governor Is Getting Her Own Bobblehead: The National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum unveiled an Amy Acton bobblehead showing a smiling Acton in a dark blue suit on a stars-and-stripes base. Each is numbered to 2,026, costs $30 plus $8 shipping per order and is expected to ship in April. A bobblehead of Dr. Acton released during the COVID pandemic has sold out.
🍗 Good Company Reopens in Little Italy Today: The family-friendly tavern opens today, Nov. 12 at 2175 Cornell Road, in the former Wolf Pack Chorus space, after its Battery Park location closed Oct. 25. It has more indoor and patio seating, parking, and a menu of burgers, sandwiches, milkshakes and "72-hour" wings, with lunch and dinner daily and Sunday brunch coming in a few weeks.
🚀 Christopher Nolan's Space Epic Returns to the Big DOME: Matthew McConaughey stars as an ex-NASA pilot searching for humanity's next home in Interstellar, Great Lakes Science Center's next DOME Movies After Dark pick, showing next Thursday, Nov. 19, at 6 p.m.

🎻 Apollo's Fire Previews Its Carnegie Hall Program Tonight: Trinidadian soprano Jeanine De Bique joins Cleveland's Baroque orchestra for Echoes Across the Atlantic, a program tracing links between 18th-century Europe and its Caribbean colonies with works by composers such as Handel, Purcell, Rameau and Vivaldi and words by Caribbean poets. 7:30 p.m. Gartner Auditorium, Cleveland Museum of Art, 11150 East Blvd., Cleveland. The program then heads to Carnegie Hall, London, Paris, Lisbon, Brussels and Dusseldorf.

ICYMI: Remember our A Christmas Story timeline? The 1983 film opened just before Thanksgiving, with the Santa Claus scene shot at Higbee's; TNT aired its first 24-hour marathon in 1988, and the Cleveland house that played Ralphie's home opened as a museum in 2009.

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Today's Trivia

What pediatrician and author had his awakening as a social activist while a professor at Western Reserve University’s medical school?

Outdoors: Northeast Ohio’s Steelhead Alley is one of the best fisheries in the country, but catch rates are falling.

By Dillon Stewart

Steelhead Alley, the string of Lake Erie tributaries running from the Vermilion River east through Pennsylvania to Cattaraugus Creek in New York, has at least 15 fishable rivers within a four-hour drive. But anglers are catching fewer fish, and Cleveland Magazine’s Dillon Stewart went looking for why, fishing at least weekly from October through March.

• The Numbers: The Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ average catch rate fell from 0.387 steelhead per hour in 2008-09 to 0.23 in its most recent study, below the Lake Erie Committee’s 0.25 benchmark. It’s still better than the Pacific Northwest’s roughly 0.1.

• The Fish: Steelhead are a non-native strain of migratory rainbow trout stocked by the state at a cost of about $600,000 a year, with the Castalia State Fish Hatchery raising roughly 460,000 annually. The Cuyahoga River got 60,000 in 2024 and again in 2025 and 2026.

Worth Noting: The fish enter rivers in the fall as temperatures cool, the run peaks in early spring, and steelhead can be caught all winter. “It’s a world-class fishery,” ODNR fisheries biologist Curtis Wagner says. “I don’t think a lot of people appreciate that.” 

Read the full story.

Talk of the Town

Cuyahoga County's budget deficit is shrinking. County Executive Chris Ronayne told County Council the forecast 2027 deficit of $19.2 million dropped by about $10 million thanks to sales tax revenue and delinquent property tax collections, leaving the budget "nearly balanced" as hearings begin. County employees get a 2% cost-of-living adjustment, and county agencies have 200 fewer employees than a year ago.

Ohio has passed 300 measles cases. The state has 310 confirmed cases this year, and Geauga, Ashtabula and Wayne counties account for about half. Two doses of the MMR vaccine are 97% effective.

About 200 Ohio drivers say gas stations didn't pass on gas tax holiday savings. Complaints to the attorney general's office, which are allegations, name Speedway, Marathon and Kroger most often, and Attorney General-elect John Kulewicz says he intends to "vigorously pursue legal action." The holiday cut the state gas tax by 38.5 cents a gallon for 90 days.

Canton is planning a museum expansion for first ladies. National First Ladies launched a $4.5 million campaign Nov. 10 for The First Ladies Experience, a 4,000-square-foot interactive museum next to the Saxton-McKinley House, set to open in early 2028.

A bulldog with a cleft palate is the face of a free health expo Saturday. Four-month-old Charlie Bear helps promote the Star Center Foundation's feeding and swallowing expo from 1 to 4 p.m. Nov. 14 at Rocky River Memorial Hall, with free screenings, speakers and vendors. 

Food & Drink: Where Doc’s on Harvard chef Kolnita Riggins-Walker eats, drinks and unwinds in Cleveland.

By Christina Rufo

Chef Kolnita Riggins-Walker, whose culinary roots run four generations deep, leads the kitchen at Doc’s on Harvard, an upscale restaurant celebrating food, community and Lee-Harvard’s history. She got her start in kitchens at Giovanni’s Ristorante, Classics at Cleveland Clinic and The Ritz-Carlton before launching Classic Cuisine Catering more than 28 years ago.

• Where She Eats and Drinks: She’s a fan of Sasa in Shaker Square, where she says the sushi is the best and “If you go to Sasa and skip the fries, you are sorely missing out.” For breakfast, she heads to Cleveland Breakfast Club for skillets and salmon croquettes or Big Al’s Diner, and Luna Bakery in Cleveland Heights for ham and cheese or almond croissants. Her go-to cocktail spot is Quintana’s Speakeasy, tucked above a salon.

• How She Unwinds: She took the senior tap dancing class at Karamu House last year, caught Syncopated Ladies at Tri-C’s Eastern Campus, and hikes Cleveland’s trails and competes in triathlons.

Worth Noting: Doc’s on Harvard began with a pandemic-era visit to her father-in-law’s former dental practice, which sparked the vision for the restaurant. 

Read the full story.

Yesterday's Trivia Answer 

What Rock Hall inductee wrote and sang “Across 110th Street,” but grew up on East 84th Street in Cleveland? Bobby Womack

Check back tomorrow for the answer to today's question.

From the Editor

One of the best things about living here is how quickly the city gives way to the outdoors. Just a short drive from Downtown, the rivers that feed Lake Erie support a fishery many anglers prize.

Dillon Stewart’s Steelhead Alley story asks whether it can stay that way. Whether you fish or just enjoy a walk along the water, it’s a reminder that our natural treasures deserve as much care as our skyline.

Give it a read, and then consider getting outside this weekend to see it for yourself.

— Ron Ledgard, Managing Editor

Let us know what is on your mind at conversation@clevelandmagazine.com.

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