Fishing Reports

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Only one report came in today, but it was new information from Michigan waters.  The report said that fishing has slowed, but limits are still being caught.  Over the weekend 18' of water off of the Fermi cooling towers was good, and then earlier this week 18' of water from Toledo Beach to Luna Pier also produced limits.  The best set-ups were size 1 dipsys on a 3 setting 60' back with stinger spoons in purples, and hot-n-tots 80' back with a 1 ounce snap weight (20' in front of the lure, I assume) trolled at 2.5 mph.

The wind forecast looks pretty good through the weekend with everything being 15 knots or less from the west or southwest.  The temperature forecast is in the upper 70's into the mid 80's and it looks like thunderstorms are possible most days.

The latest observation at the Vermilion weather buoy has 36 knot W-NW wind gusts (a storm front just past through and it has actually calmed down already as I'm typing this), < 1 foot waves, 69 degree air temperature, 73 degree water temperature, and falling barometric pressure.

Travis

Two more reports to add to the past weekend.  Near limits were caught trolling along the Canadian border west of North Bass on a 330 degree heading.  Fish were caught on downriggers with #7 Rapalas, Jet20 and 30's 70 to 100' back, and dipsys on a 1 setting 50' back.  Hot spoons were halloween or anything with purple.  Limits were caught 4 miles NE of Niagara Reef in 29-30' of water.  Gold or rainbow bladed harnesses were trolled with snap weights (1.5 and 2 ounces) at 1.5 to 1.7 mph.

The latest observation at the Vermilion weather buoy has 7 knot E wind, < 1foot waves, 71 degree air temperature, 71 degree water temperature, and rising barometric pressure.

Travis

Today I had the privelege of fishing in the ODNR-Division of Wildlife "Fish Ohio" day.  I got to go out with captain Jerry Abele of Headhunter charters.  I was excited to see that I was on Jerry's boat because I knew Jerry's reputation for fishing shallow rocks.  Most of the Fish Ohio boats went west of the islands and caught a lot of fish, but we went north to Gull Island shoal and fished in 9 to 15' of water for bigger fish.  Our boat caught over 20 walleye up to 29" with many of the fish being over 20".  We were casting 3/8 oz and 1/2 oz Tiny Teasers (weight forward spinners).  The best colors were gold or variations of green.  Between walleye and drum we were busy all morning.  Division of Wildlife chief Steve Gray was on the boat and showed us all up by catching the most fish and the biggest.  I'll have to admit that is the first time that I've caught any walleye casting weight forwards since the 1990's.  After I remembered how to cast I had a great time.  We didn't get limits, but the average size was outstanding.

More reports coming in from the weekend confirmed that the West Sister to Middle Sister area is on fire.  It seems like farther north towards the border is where the best action is.  Fish have been caught on size 1 dipsy's on settings 1, 2, and 3 40, 50, and 60' back, respectively, with spoons or harnesses, and Jet30's 80 to 95' back with stinger spoons.  One interesting presentation mentioned was drifting snap weights 30/30 (30 feet of line, snap weight, 30 feet of line) with harnesses (gold blades of course).  Other good locations included 3 miles north of B-can and the northwest reef area (it's picking back up there after cooling down compared to a few weeks ago).

One of the reports included a timely reminder about how important towing insurance is.  For $90 to $140 you can get unlimited on-the-water towing from companies such as Boat US and other local companies, compared to a $600 to $800 dollar tow without the insurance.  I use Boat US because you can call them no matter what water body you are on and they will contact a local tow company to come get you.  It's good wherever you boat and they also have an option to add road coverage for your trailer.

The latest observation at the Vermilion weather buoy has 7 knot NE wind, < 1foot waves, 68 degree air temperature, 70 degree water temperature, and falling barometric pressure.

Travis

I just finished my second weekend of three straight weekends at home working on the house.  I'll get back out again in early July to start looking for fish around the sandbar for our July 22 tournament.  Right now I'm relying on all of you for reports.

The early reports from the weekend are mostly limits.  The great fishing hasn't slowed down based on what I'm hearing.  Out west limits were caught 4 miles NE of the turnaround buoy in 29 to 30' of water and also about half way from West Sister to Middle Sister.  It sounds like the largest pack was between West and Middle Sisters.  One report mentioned that everyone that owns a boat was there.  They were casting gold Erie Dearies and reeling them slow to keep them near the bottom.  Yellow perch continue to hit 1 mile north of the Toledo water intake.  Limits of 8 inch and larger perch were caught with about 1/3 of the fish caught being throw backs under 8".

The only island area report so far came from Gull Island Shoal.  Quality fish (up to 6.8 pounds) were caught even though it wasn't limit-filling action.  One ounce inlines 35' back with harnesses were used (hammered gold size 5 blades).

Over around the Lorain sandbar limits were caught both saturday and sunday around the 32/17 lines.  Spoons were hot, but casting also caught plenty of fish.

Keep the reports coming until I can get back out to give you some first hand information.

The latest observation at the Vermilion weather buoy has 3 knot E-NE wind, no waves, 68 degree air temperature, 71 degree water temperature, and falling barometric pressure.

Travis

Over the weekend reefs produced the biggest fish by far again.  Up in Canada Chickenolee gave up 5 fish tournament limits in the mid to upper 30 pound range.  Early in the day 1 ounce inlines with size 4 gold bladed harnesses 15 to 20' behind the board caught fish, and later in the day 30 to 40' back was better.  Down in Ohio waters Gull Island Shoal and Kelleys Island Shoal produced 5 fish that went 33 pounds.  The shallow rock fishing might not give you easy limits, but you will be rewarded with quality fish if you put the time in.  Some days they will give you both limits and size.

I received a rare (for this time of year) night report from Vermilion.  After good fishing the past few weeks Tuesday night was bad.  Not a single walleye was landed in 7 to 22' of water both east and west of the Vermilion River.

Last night an incredible 6 hour lightning show and downpour went through.  Some areas got as many as 10 inches of rain, and that's not an exaggeration.  Right now there are more strong storms going through this evening.  We went from dry to flooded in a hurry.  I would expect to see some tremendous mud plumes coming out of the river mouths very soon.  You might want to consider where you launch this weekend.  The river launches might be treacherous.

The latest observation at the Vermilion weather buoy has 9 knot N-NW wind, no waves, 73 degree air temperature, 70 degree water temperature, and falling barometric pressure.

Travis

A report from last Thursday said that the same area of the MI-OH border that has been good in Ohio waters is also producing limits on the Michigan side.  Bottom bouncers drifted/slow trolled with harnesses that had gold or hammered gold blades were best.

Walleye limits were caught off of Lorain this morning in an hour.  The 29/14 lines (the middle numbers, or "minutes", of the coordinates) provided fast action on dipsys and small spoons trolled 30' down over 40 to 50 feet of water.

The latest observation at the Vermilion weather buoy has 7 knot S wind, 1 foot waves, 71 degree air temperature, 67 degree water temperature, and falling barometric pressure.

Travis

Today was a beautiful, refreshingly cool day along the lake.  Reports are still coming in from the weekend.  7.5 miles east of Monroe MI (should be in Ohio waters based on my mapping program) in 26' of water limits were caught on Jet30's 80 to 100' back with stinger spoons in confusion and mass confusion at 2 to 2.5 mph.  Spoons out-produced harnesses and crankbaits.  A report from Niagara and "C" can didn't have much luck catching walleye, but said that 3 miles north of "C" can was much better.  Gold weapons were used to catch limits.

Perch limits of 7" and larger fish were caught 0.5 mile east of the south tip of Ballast Island.  If you're not familiar with Ballast it's the small island just east of Middle Bass and just north of South Bass.  Spreaders with blue blades or blue/pink blades did the most damage.

The wind forecast through at least Friday doesn't look bad at all, but watch out for the possible thunderstorms Wednesday and Thursday.

The latest observation at the Vermilion weather buoy has 5 knot E wind, no waves, 68 degree air temperature, 70 degree water temperature, and falling barometric pressure.

Travis

This is really amazing.  It's a lot of fun doing these reports when fish are being caught in so many areas with so many techniques.  Here are the reports from the weekend, in no certain order:

1 to 2 miles west of Port Clinton off the Moose Lodge in 8 to 12' of water (yes, that's right, it's not a mistake)- casters are catching limits using gold or chartreuse weapons and also gold weight forwards.  I'm not sure how long this one will last.  It sounds like it's attracting quite a pack of boats including charters and headboats.

0.25 mile west of the Niagara green can- walleye in slightly less than limits were caught on deep tail dancers (purpledescent) 185' back, gold/orange hot-n-tots 160' back, and bottom bouncers (2, 2.5 ounces) 110 and 125' back with gold or chartreuse/orange bladed harnesses at 1.9 to 2.7 mph.

West Sister Island (NE on Saturday, 5 miles N on Sunday)- limits on spoons in orange and gold or purple and copper.

OH/MI border (east of Monroe, Stony Point area)- no solid reports, but I've heard that it's still going.

Farther east the Cleveland crib is producing limits in 51' of water W of the crib.  Jet 20, 30, and 40's 70 to 100' back with willow bladed harnesses took fish up to 30" (unfortunately the 30" fish didn't quite make it into the boat).

I'm sure that more good reports from the weekend will keep coming in.  Get out and enjoy this fishing while it lasts.

The latest observation at the Vermilion weather buoy has 11 knot S-SE wind, 1.0 foot waves, 68 degree air temperature, 68 degree water temperature, and falling barometric pressure.

Travis

It has been a warm, windy day and it looks like rain and/or storms are headed our way.  The only new information that has come in since Friday's report is that the northwest reef area (west of West Reef) has slowed down and the fish seemed to have thinned out compared to earlier in the week.  Over between Vermilion and Lorain the 30/16 lines were producing fish on about anything that you could get down in front of them.  I'm sure plenty of reports from the weekend will come in over the next few days.

Last night the WBSA had a great meeting at the Cranberry Creek Marina with plenty of good food and spirited conversations on current topics.  Chris Redfern was there to update us on political topics and Jeff Tyson from the ODNR also gave a presentation.  If you are looking for an active fishing club to join this is the one.

The latest observation at the Vermilion weather buoy has 15 knot S-SW wind, 1.6 feet waves, 77 degree air temperature, 69 degree water temperature, and falling barometric pressure.

Travis

Yesterday (Thursday) I had the privelege of taking out a few students from the OSU Stone Lab for a day of on-the-water trolling instruction.  Fred Snyder and the Sea Grant crew are running an incredible one week sportfishing course this week.  Eleven students are getting a chance to learn about fishing techniques, tackle, and Lake Erie ecology.  Marc and I, along with a handful of other WBSA members, were assigned students to take out to show them how we troll for walleye.  The weather couldn't have been better and the fishing was great.  Numbers of 2003 walleye were caught and 3 or 4 fish Ohio's topped the day off.  Fish were caught mostly north of C can of the range and from Northwest Reef to North Bass.

I made my first pass between Northwest Reef and West Reef from the Canadian border headed south.  We started at N 41deg 44.933 min - W 82 deg 51.981 min and went to N 41 deg 43.761 min - W 82 deg 52.175 min.  2003's came fast and furious on harnesses trolled behind 1 ounce inlines 30' back at 1.2 to 1.5 mph with green or gold/firetiger colorado blades being best (as usual).  We made a second pass using jets and spoons to try a new technique, but only caught drum and white perch.  Then we went up on West Reef and caught 5 more fish that went 22 to 28.5".  The biggest fish came from approximately N 41 deg 42.876 min - W 82 deg 51.524 min.  We were in 15 to 20' of water on the reef pulling 1 ounce inlines 15' back (imagine that).  Just like gull island shoal last week the 17' depth contour seemed to hold the active fish.  4 of the 5 came on harnesses with 1 coming on a clown deep husky jerk 20' back.

Speaking of Gull Island Shoal it is still producing big fish.  Most of the reports I'm hearing second hand are coming from the deeper water north of the reef, south of Middle Island.  Our fish last week came from 17' of water (see Tuesday's report).  I just pulled the coordinates off of my GPS.  The best stretch was from N 41 deg 40.059 min - W 82 deg 40.963 min to N 41 deg 39.927 min - W 82 deg 41.108 min.

Other reports that have come in are still very good. Over near Toledo at the OH/MI border the best action has been at the 52/12 lines (straight east of Bolles Harbor in OH waters).  Between Vermilion and Lorain at the 29/18 lines 47' of water is producing fish on stinger spoons (superman).  Niagara and C can are still giving up limits, but I don't have any specifics.  4 limits of yellow perch were caught today 300 yards SW of the Green Island navigation light tower in 30' of water.

After spending a lot of time on the water recently I'm going to take a break to get some things done around the house.  Please keep sending reports if make it out this weekend.

I'd like to personally thank Fred and the Sea Grant staff for giving me the opportunity to take students out.  If you ever have a chance to take the class or help out it is more than worth the time.

The latest observation at the Vermilion weather buoy has 7 knot E-SE wind, no waves, 71 degree air temperature, 67 degree water temperature, and falling barometric pressure.

Travis

Two new reports came in today.  Limits were caught in three hours near the OH/MI border at the 52/14 lines.  Fish were caught by casting weapons and sureshads.  The best action was near the bottom.

The other report was from between Green and Rattlesnake Islands in 30 to 31' of water.  Dipsies 30 to 35' back and Jet20's 70' back with gold and chartreuse Erie Dearies worked best.

We are getting spoiled with good weather.  If the forecast is right the conditions will be excellent through Sunday with light winds and no precipitation.

The latest observation at the Vermilion weather buoy has 13 knot N wind, no waves, 67 degree air temperature, 65 degree water temperature, and steady barometric pressure.

The water temp is 5 degrees cooler than it was at the end of May.  That will help keep the larger fish around longer.

Travis

I'm back from a great weekend.  First I'll summarize all of the fantastic reports and then I'll talk about where dad and I finished second in the LEWT on Sunday.

Mayflies are starting to hatch in force, but fishing is still incredible.

Ohio waters-
Niagara to West Sister (closer to Niagara) continues to be hot.  A report from the area caught fish on bottom bouncers (2 and 2.5 ounces) with harnesses 110 to 125' back at 2 to 2.5 mph.  3 miles W of West Reef produced limits on jet40's 90' back with Pooh Bear Purple spoons.  The red and green cans around North Bass were also good with Dave's Nitro Shiner in yellow goby and gold deep husky jerks catching fish.  W of West Sister the gravel pit and turnaround buoy have been good. 3 miles NE of Kelleys Island Shoal (by the border) gave up some big fish on harnesses trolled slow at 1 to 1.2 mph.  From Vermilion to Lorain the 28 north line has been hot with the 16, 18, and 20 West lines being the best spots.  30jets (65 to 85 back) and 40jets (110 and 120 back) with spoons are catching the Vermilion to Lorain fish.  Speeds were around 2.2 mph with orange crush, frankenberry, blueberry muffin and catdog spoons.  Straight north of Lorain in 40 to 50' of water was good using dipsys and spoons.

In Michigan waters Brest Bay is producing limits while 25' of water east of Bolles Harbor gave up some bigger fish.

The Pelee bite continues to be great with Mill Point Reef producing limits of quality fish. 2 ounce inlines 20 to 30' back using gold or rainbow trout blades on harnesses were hot.  Sounds familiar.

Yellow perch have been caught out west most recently in 14' of water off of Little Cedar Point.  Limits came on blue-bladed spreaders.

OK.  A lot of fish are being caught.  Limits aren't hard to come by, but bigger fish take a little more work.  We found 5 fish that weighed just over 31 pounds at Gull Island Shoal Sunday.  The original plan was to troll between the shoals (Gull and Kelleys Island Shoal) from the border to Kelleys Island where we had caught fish Friday.  When that only gave us a 2 pounder and a 3 pounder in two passes we went to G.I. shoal to try where I had caught fish just before the past week's tournament.  They were still there.  We ended up in 17' of water on the NW drop off of the shoal.  We were pulling harnesses behind 1 ounce inline weights 15' behind the board at 1.2 to 1.5 mph.  Size 6 colorado fluorescent green blades and gold holograph firetiger blades both caught fish.  Deep husky jerks (gold/orange) 20 to 25' back also caught fish in the same area.  At one point we had three big fish on and a real fire drill trying to land them.  All of the fish that we weighed in were from 25 to 29".  It was a lot of fun catching them so shallow in the middle of the day.  It reminded me of night fishing.  There were very few other boats actually fishing on the shoal.  Most were out in deeper water around the shoal.

The muskie fishing yesterday was slow, but we still saw 6 or 7 and landed one just under 40".

The latest observation at the Vermilion weather buoy has 3 knot E-SE wind, no waves, 64 degree air temperature, 65 degree water temperature, and steady barometric pressure.

Travis

Hi Everybody, Travis is taking off to Musky fish again after doing very well in the Lake Erie Walleye trail tourney out of Sandusky today. He asked me to fill in again(he thinks I have no life other than walleye fishing and may be right) so here I am.

The LEWT was won today by Trent Lee and Andrew Wilson from Michigan. They trolled spinners with inline weights on Gull Shoals to pull 38 pounds and get a decisive win over Travis who came in second with around 35 pounds. Congratulations to both teams, more details will be available tomorrow when we get our final results and press release done.

Elsewhere on the lake, Vermilion to Lorain is on fire with lots and lots of 2003's coming on everything from worm harnesses to jets and spoons and Dipsy's and spoons. Cranks are working at times but those fish are still loving harnesses better than anything with spoons coming in a close second. I'm still preferring the harnesses but you can expect to catch a lot of incidental fish like Sheephead and White Perch along with the eyes. If you want a few less bites but less aggravating by catches you will still catch lots of fish with spoons.

There are very good reports coming from 2-7 miles out of Cooley Canal, SW of West Sister, between A and L Can, West Reef, Niagra and of course better quality fish are still being caught around the Shoals north of Kelleys and near West Reef near North Bass. Spoons, harnesses and crankbaits are all being used to get limits of those aggressive 17-18" fish all over, west of the islands so you don't need to pile into a pack of boats and may do better if you don't.

Mayfly reports are coming in although I haven't seen any yet, since I usually fish further east but when they fire up, switching to may fly rigs of some sort and small spoons may be in order to increase your odds. Sometimes a splash count or a very short lead while trolling is all that's needed to catch these fish while they are slurping mayflys from the surface. By short trolling leads I mean lures less than 10' behind the board and Splash count, means starting to reel as soon as your lure hits the water if you are casting.

We've got some good fishing ahead of us and if you go for perch we could sure use some more info on them.

Thanks and enjoy this bonanza we are having right now!

Don't forget about our fish fry and meeting at Cranberry Saturday afternoon at 5 PM. It will be great food, good people and some interesting discussions going on. Please let us know if you will be coming and how many will be with you. Use the link above for the fish reports.

Marc 

The frenzy off of Catawba State Park has cooled off, but fish are still jumping in the boat.  Today the hot area was between Niagara Reef and "C' can of the range.  Over in Michigan waters Brest Bay produced limits on wiggle warts in 19' of water.

The forecast doesn't look perfect for the weekend, but it should be fishable.  The 3rd WBSA LEWT is Saturday out of the Sandusky City Ramp in Sandusky Bay.  With all of the fish being caught it should come down to who finds a few big fish to go with the decent ones.

Today the wind was calm and the lake was glass-flat.  Reports from charters out west were very good.  Walleye were being caught anywhere from 2 to 7 miles out of Cooley Canal and the biggest pack was W/SW of West Sister.  Yesterday the bite W of Catawba stayed hot.  16 to 18' of water west of Catawba was producing limits of 16 to 22" fish on gold harnesses.  It also sounds like there was a good weekend bite around A can.  One drifter was dragging harnesses with gold/red blades on a common trolling set-up by clipping a 1 ounce snap weight 30' in front of the harness and then letting 30' more out.  They also caught fish on a gold weapon-style lure.

I'm adding a better description (on the helpful hints page) of the inline weight set-up that I run to further clarify our tournament set-up.  I received a few questions about it and I realized that you might not know what the heck I'm talking about if you haven't run a similar set-up in the past.  I've only used them the last 2 years or so, but they are deadly.

The Vermilion buoy is down for service for the near future so I will be using the South Bass station for weather observations.

The latest observation at the South Bass weather station has 12 knot E-SE  wind, 72 degree air temperature, and falling barometric pressure.

Travis

I'm back from an incredible 4 days of fishing.  The Pelee fishing was excellent Thursday through Saturday.  I still am surprised at the excellent grade of fish up there considering that it is already June.  10 fish at 75 pounds Friday/Saturday speaks for itself.  To follow up on what Marc said yesterday we fished 2 ounce inlines 20' back with harnesses to catch most of our fish.  Size 5 gold colorado blades with green and red patterns caught most of our fish with our biggest on Friday (9.3 pounds) coming on a size 6 fluorescent green painted blade.  1 ounce inlines 15' and 35' back also took a few fish.  Another blade that worked was a size 7 gold magnum willow.  I knew from pre-fishing that with decent conditions a 30 pound bag wouldn't be too tough to get, but I really didn't expect to hit the upper 30's two days in a row.  Marc is a lot fun to fish with and he has so much Erie experience you can't help but learn from him.  I think that most of the time he doesn't even realize how much information he passes on to the people that he fishes with.  It's no surprise that we work well together considering how much of my fishing style comes from what I've learned from him.

The Catawba State Park bite continues to be excellent.  Drifters are catching fish on Gold weapons in 16 to 22' of water.  Another good weekend spot was 2 miles south of the Toledo water intake.  Another report mentioned good perch fishing for the last month around the Toledo intake.  Over at Lorain walleye were caught over the weekend at the 28/18 lines.

Stop reading now if you don't want non-Lake Erie information.

On Sunday, as Marc mentioned, I went up to Lake St. Clair and the Detroit River.  Three of us casting boated 5 muskies from 7:30 to around 3:15.  The size range was 35.5 inches to 41.5 inches.  While we didn't see any giants it was an awesome day to kick off the muskie season for us.  We caught fish on 9" jerkbaits, a shad style glide bait, and a large clothes-pin style spinner bait.  You can't beat casting for muskie.

Travis

Hi everyone! Marc here again. Travis will be Musky fishing for the next day or so at Lake St. Clair and asked me to fill in for him.

Travis and I fished the last 2 days together in the Catawba Michigan Walleye Trail tournament and nailed down 3rd place. It was a very close tourney and I don't have complete details but only a pound separated the top 3 teams I believe. Approximately 76 pounds of fish were needed to win the 2 day tournament for an average of 7 1/2 pounds per fish.  We fished the Northeast corner of Pelee and used the exact same program that Travis listed here about 2 weeks ago. We also made a short stop at King George reef in Canadian waters on the way in and picked up a 9 pounder and a 6 after a thunderstorm chased us away from Pelee. I had a great time fishing with Travis and he was an excellent tourney partner. Thanks for fishing with me Travis!

Walleye reports since Weds have been mostly good. Big fish are still being taken around Kelley and Gull Shoals and of course in Canadian water near reefs and the islands. We got ours in depths ranging from 32 feet down to 10. The key seemed to fish the breaks near deeper water very slow with spinners although on Friday we did get some with crank baits like Reefrunner and deep Husky Jerks. We also had reports of nice fish in the 5 pound range coming from the D Can area at the firing range.

Smaller walleye limits are coming from the B & C can range buoy area (41-42/ 01-03 GPS) on 20 jets and small spoons.  Limits also came from SE of West Sister trolling with Reef Runner crank baits 40-60 back at 1.7-2.0 MPH, and drifting SW of West sister with gold casting harnesses with gold blades and red beads on a 10-15 count. there was a large pack of boats just NW of Catawba State Park on Saturday (June 3) and the people I talked to at the State Park had limits of 2003 fish. This is a spot that if it lasts long could save on the gas cost of catching fish. 

I fished the Vermilion area a couple days last week and while I never got a boat limit I did get some quality fish and that area should fire up big time in the next week or so. Sheephead are active most everywhere and so are the White perch and other incidental catches so it will be nice when the crawler bite becomes less prominent. Yellow perch results aren't coming in at all but as I get around the lake there are people out there perching. Let us know about your perch successes please and we'll report them as they come in.

Open invitation to WBSA Fish Fry/June Meeting
WBSA is having a fish fry at Cranberry Creek Marina just East of Huron on June 17th. Details are on our front page and you all are invited to attend. We will have 2 well known speakers there in House Representative Chris Redfern (District 80) and Jeff Tyson from the ODNR Biology Lab in Sandusky. Rep Redfern will be introduced and may be open to some questions concerning legislation or possible Lake Erie related laws coming down from the house. Jeff will be giving an update on the Cormorant reduction plan that is ongoing. Please send us an email indicating whether or not you are going to attend so that we can be prepared for a good meal. You can also call me at 419-332-4254 so we can reserve a spot for you   

I'm sure I missed a couple things but Travis can fix that Monday evening.

Good Fishing is here, enjoy it while you can!

Marc