Mad River Outfitters

Mad River Outfitters started guiding on the Mad River in 1990 and still treats that spring fed river as the center of its Ohio trout program. The shop sits at 833 Bethel Road in Columbus, an easy drive west to the river, and its trout page lists brown trout on the Mad as a year round target rather than a seasonal one. Other trout water in the rotation includes the upper Clearfork of the Mohican near Mansfield for browns, the lower Clearfork and Clear Creek for rainbows stocked from November through May. Trout days are sold at a single price of $525 for one or two anglers, and that same rate covers either a walk and wade day or a float, with an added $100 per angler for walk in trips carrying a third person. The guide roster named on the site includes Josh Trammell, Ryan Ratliff, Steve Pileski, Donnie Knight, Katie Johnstone and Rob Huffman. The same shop books Lake Erie steelhead days on the northeast Ohio tributaries.