CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio — In Cuyahoga Falls, there's an effort underway to attract people to the banks of the Cuyahoga River and get them hooked on fishing.
Sections of the river were recently stocked with about 1,000 rainbow trout.
Chasten Sees, who lives in the Portage Lakes area, heard about the fish stocking and came to Water Works Park hoping to reel in a trout or two.
"I'll spend all day fishing," he said. "If I catch a trout today, it's coming home for dinner for the family tonight," Sees said.
The Cuyahoga River, once a national punchline for catching on fire in 1969 and for its pollution, has made a comeback and some consider it a crown jewel gaining more attention for recreational activities and wildlife.
The trout release last Friday was a combined effort by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, the Western Reserve chapter of Trout Unlimited and the city of Cuyahoga Falls.
"This is unprecedented. I don't know that this has ever happened in the river so now it's stocked," said Mayor Don Walters.
Jason Pullin, recreation program manager for the city, said the conditions were perfect for a release that would seem unthinkable not long ago.
"Trout typically live in cold water, but it has to be very clean. It has to have a high level of oxygen so the reason they release trout now is as fall comes in, the temperatures of the air and river get a little cooler," Pullin said.
Of course, there's no way of knowing which way the trout will travel. Some will swim downstream, others will head upstream.
But city officials feel confident the fish will be swimming around the area for a while.
"Trout will live in super clean waters now and they're elusive, so the trout that we released, they're not all gonna get caught this year. They're gonna grow and they're going to be there," Walters said.
Mike Hawes, of Ravenna, has been hooked on fishing most of his life and also decided to cast his luck in Cuyahoga Falls when he learned of the added species.
"There's small mouth bass and hopefully some of those trout that they said they stocked," Hawes said.
The idea of the trout dropping is to get more people to the river and into the sport. Sees hopes it catches on.
"The more you get the younger crowd out here enjoying nature, getting out of the house, out of video games, I'm all for it," he said.
Neither Sees or Hawes had any luck reeling in a trout on Tuesday, but that won't stop them from returning and trying again.
"That's why they call it fishing, not catching," Sees said.
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