Fishing Reports

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Today's reports (from this past weekend) are the first reports all year where the fishing east of the islands was clearly better than around the islands.  The two best limit reports came from Lorain and Huron.  Out of Lorain the 34.4/16.6 lines (45' of water) gave up limits on dipsys and stinger spoons at 2.5 to 3.0 mph.  Confusion and killer bee were the best colors.  Out of Huron walleye limits were caught in 34 to 36' of water NW of the Huron pier lighthouse (not far from where I caught them last Wednesday).  Dispys on a 0 setting 40' back and on a 3 setting 60' back were used with purple, blue or gold stinger spoons.

Around the islands fish were caught, but less than limits.  Better areas included Mouse Island Reef all the way to the red can SW of Kelleys Island, north of West Reef in 31' of water, and from Ballast Island to Middle Island.  Most of the island reports came from casters using weapon style lures or weight forwards.

If you are sending reports from SW of Kelleys it would help to include specific coordinates.  I want to make sure that we're all on the same page.  Carpenter's Point is the SW corner of Kelleys, Carpenter's Point reef (as far as I understand) is right around the red buoy SW of Carpenter's Point, and American Eagle Shoal is W-SW of the red buoy about 1/4 of the way from Carpenter's Point to Catawba point.  I'm not even sure if all of the maps agree if you look at more than 2 or 3 of them.  Anyway, I want to point people to the right locations, especially when fishing is good SW of Kelleys.  If you do well in that area include as much detail as possible (preferrably with coordinates) when sending reports.

It's extremely hot and humid out there and is supposed to stay that way through at least the end of the day Wednesday.  Use sunscreen, drink plenty of water or Gatorade, and get out of the sun if you don't feel well.  We've been lucky this summer and need to just get through this hot spell.  It looks better later this week.

The latest observation at the Vermilion weather buoy has 5 knot S wind, no waves, 83 degree air temperature, 80 degree water temperature, and falling barometric pressure.  I'm sure that only the surface layer of water is 80 degrees.  Hopefully the cooler weather later in the week will bring it back down.

Travis

Based on a few reports there is a good school of fish SW of Kelleys Island around American Eagle shoal.  One of the reports came from 24 to 26' of water SW of the red can.  Green and chartreuse Erie Dearies were used to catch a limit of walleye.

Even though fishing is still great it seams that we're seeing the normal late July slow down.  Charters have fewer bookings than earlier and the campgrounds aren't quite as full.  This would be a good time of year to go out and not have as many boats to deal with.  Pick a day that isn't as hot as this weekend was and enjoy the Lake.

For anyone interested the Kalida Fish and Game Club in NW Ohio (Putnam County) is having a Sportsman Expo this Friday through Sunday (4th through the 6th of August).  There will be speakers, vendors and activities for hunters and anglers.  Check out their web site for more information.  I grew up in Putnam County and I'm glad to see outdoors activities in the area.  The web address for more information on the expo is:

http://www.northwestohiosportsmanexpo.com/

It looks like it's going to stay hot through at least Wednesday, but relief is on the way later in the week.  Hopefully they are right and we'll get back to highs in the upper 70's.

Don't forget that the WBSA August meeting will be this Tuesday August 1 at Margarittaville on the west side of Sandusky.  Roger Knight, the ODNR-Division of Wildlife Lake Erie program administrator will be the speaker.  Stick around afterwards for good fishing discussions.

The latest observation at the Vermilion weather buoy has 3 knot SW wind, 1 foot waves (a storm just went through), 77 degree air temperature, 79 degree water temperature, and falling barometric pressure.

Travis

Yesterday (Wednesday) I had the pleasure of taking a friend and some of his family out trolling off of Huron.  In the end 4 kids from 3 to 12 years old and 3 adults got their first chance to enjoy Lake Erie.  With my boat we had to make a few trips in and out to get everyone a few hours in the boat, but it was worth it.  There is a great school of fish in 35' of water just northwest of the Huron pier lighthouse.  It really didn't matter what we did, we just put lures in front of them and reeled them in.  The fish were in 35' of water from 20 to 30' down.  In the end we caught 30 of them with all but 2 being from 15 to 19 inches.  We did get two better ones at about 22 and 25".  Most of the fish came on reef runners 60 to 90' back on both mono and superline rods.  Best colors were blue hawiian, purple prism and eriedescent.  Deep husky's in tennessee shad 80' back were also good.  All of the crankbaits were on inline boards.  We ran one flatline off the corner of the boat with a jet30 150' back and a gold bladed harness.  It took one of the better fish and caught a handful of 2003's.  Our speed was 1.6 to 1.9 mph on the GPS.  We never went any farther out than the SW corner of the Huron dumping grounds and the single best depth was 35' as I mentioned earlier.  It was a lot of fun seeing everyone enjoying themselves and catching their first walleye, and second, and third... especially the kids that could barely reel some of them in.

I honestly believe that right now you could fish anywhere from Cedar Point to Lorain (and probably even farther east) in 34 to 36' of water and catch limits.  That depth has been loaded lately.  Also don't forget to look in shallower at times.  A report from in front of Cranberry Creek produced limits in 23 to 25' of water on weight forwards.  At the end of our trip we stopped just west of the Huron River in 15' of water and saw a lot of marks and caught a few walleye (in addition to some monster drum and a few small white bass).

The latest observation at the Vermilion weather buoy has 13 knot SW wind, 1.6 feet waves, 76 degree air temperature, 74 degree water temperature, and steady barometric pressure.

Travis

The best report that has come in since my last post was a perch report from 3 to 4 miles west of Green Island in 25' of water.  A 160 fish limit was caught in 3 hours with only a handful of sub-8" throwbacks.  Most were 9 to 10 inches.  That's exceptional for the western basin in July.

It sounds like the walleye fishing is still very good north of West Sister.  Some other areas that produced over the weekend were the dumping grounds north of Cedar Point (east of Marblehead), Sawmill Creek, 1 to 3 miles off of the Huron lighthouse, and either in close (15' of water) or deeper (38' of water) around Cranberry Creek and Ruggles.

The latest observation at the Vermilion weather buoy has 7 knot E-SE wind, waves that just subsided to 0, 76 degree air temperature, 76 degree water temperature, and falling barometric pressure.

Travis

Walleye are still being caught all over the lake.  The number of anglers seems to be dropping off as it usually does this time of year, but it certainly isn't because of poor fishing.  Here are the weekend walleye reports up to this point, in no certain order:

3 miles N of West Sister Island on Erie Dearies in silver, and bottom bouncers with harnesses in green or gold (I also have heard from other sources that N of West Sister has been very good).

The dumping grounds out of Bolles Harbor on jet20's 100' back and dipsys on a 3 setting 35' back using spoons in Red October, Killer Bee, and Confusion.

North of Ward's Canal (Metzger's Marsh) to the 41 deg 45 min line.  Jet20's 80' back with monkey puke or gold/orange spoons and size 0 dipsys on a 3 setting 85 to 105' back with size 6 copper or gold hammered colorado blade harnesses.

SW of Green Island on dipsys 73 to 80' back with blueberry muffin spoons and green or gold harnesses at 2 mph.

Between Ballast Island and Middle Island in 30 to 34' of water on dipsys at 2.3 to 2.5 mph with spoons in superman, killer bee, raspberry dolphin or confusion.

N of Ruggles in 28 to 33' of water.  Dipsys on a 0 setting 30' back or 3 setting 40' back using monkey shine and bumblebee stinger spoons.

From the McDonald's buoy to West Sister Island on gold harnesses 10' down in 25' of water.

And finally, avoid Stoney Point in Michigan waters because the weeds and white perch are nearly unbearable.

Now that the LEWT season is over I'm looking forward to a little muskie fishing possibly on Lake St. Clair and then in September during a week long trip to Leech Lake Minnesota.  The Huron Hawg fest walleye tournament in late September is also on the horizon and is always a great time whether you catch fish or not.  It's a fun tournament with an incredible dinner afterwards.  Stay tuned to the WBSA and OhioGamefishing.com for more details.

The latest observation at the Vermilion weather buoy has 17 knot S-SW wind, 2.3 feet waves, 78 degree air temperature, 76 degree water temperature, and steady barometric pressure.

Travis

Dad and I had a great week of fishing.  We fished out of Lorain Wednesday, Thursday and Friday to pre-fish for the LEWT tournament that went out of Spitzer's marina yesterday.  The pre-fishing paid off and despite rain storms and waves that built to 6 feet by 10:00 (not to mention a few waterspouts) we ended up finishing second with 5 fish that weighed just under 18 pounds and we took the big fish award with a 6.9 pound walleye.  It would have been a much different tournament if the wind wouldn't have picked up.  Fishing was tough to say the least.  With 4 to 6 feet waves we ended up fighting the conditions more than the fish.  The second place finish was just good enough to give us the points championship for the year.  The four tournaments were a lot of fun and I can't even tell you how much we learned from fishing them.  The LEWT has a great group of anglers fishing it, and Marc, Matt and all of the volunteers make it a first class circuit.

We started out Wednesday looking for bigger fish east of the sandbar along the Canadian border.  We fished all the way from 7.255 west line back to the bar.  We ended up catching around 12 walleye on spoons and dipsys, but couldn't get a consistent pattern going.  All of the fish were under 20".  A 5 pound steelhead was the only excitement that day.  Thursday was a much better day.  I didn't keep track, but we had to have handled around 50 walleye.  The only area that gave us any fish over 20" was the north end of the sandbar from 38.778/23.702 to 40.670/22.497 with nearly all of our fish coming on harnesses with size 6, 7, or 8 gold plated colorado blades.  We pulled the harnesses on dipsys on a 2 setting from 70 to 90' back and also on jet40's 100 to 125' back.  Our best area for numbers of fish on Thursday was by far 35' of water from Beaver Creek to Lorain.  The screen was loaded and we caught them on literally anything.  We ended up with all crankbaits out.  Deep huskys, reef runners, deep little rippers, ripshad 400's, and TD-11 tail dancers all caught fish.  The fish were 20 to 30' down in 35' of water, but they were all under 20".  Friday we fished the north end of the sandbar again and also fished a 5 mile stretch along the border east of the bar.  The same harness set-ups worked again and we probably handled another 40 or 50 fish.  Only one was larger, but it was in the 7 pound range and came on a TD-11 tail dancer (purpledescent) 160' back.

Yesterday for the tournament we started 5 miles east of the bar on the border and trolled west to the bar.  We had 5 fish fairly quick but only one was over 3 pounds.  We ended up running crankbaits on our outside boards and jet40's with harnesses 100' back on the inside boards.  When we made it over to the bar around 11:30 we turned south and headed down the bar.  That's where we picked up the 6.9 pound big fish of the day on the purpledescent tail dancer 160' back.  It was barely hooked and fell off in the net.  We didn't handle near as many fish Saturday as we had the prior two days, but the weather was a significant challenge.  Even with a trolling bag out speed control was nearly impossible.  We had been running from 1.7 to 1.9 mph, but yesterday we were jumping from 1.3 to 2.1 as we rode up and down waves.  The boards were tough to read so we ended up constantly checking lines to see if they had small fish on or not.  We culled through enough small fish to end up with 4 that weighed around 11 pounds to go with our 6.9.  It's probably worth mentioning that we ran both nightcrawlers and Berkely Gulp worms on our harnesses and both caught fish.  If you don't want to deal with live worms and dirty containers the Gulp works just fine.

Congratulations to Gary and Wayne on their second win of the year and third place in the standings, and also to the Sibert's on their great season.  We thoroughly enjoyed fishing against everyone and are already looking forward to the Hawg Fest in September and next year's LEWT.

When reports from the weekend come in I'll summarize what went on in the western basin.

Travis

We've had several more reports come in the last 2 days with one from Travis. Travis numbers are better but so far (weds.) he's not getting the larger fish he's looking for. Hopefully today was a better day for him. There are just so many of those 2003's that i think it's just a matter of them being more aggrssive rather than a lack of bigger 23-24's being there.

The area between Ballast and Middle Island produced again in a 3 hour evening trip. Fish were 15-22" and came trolling cat/dog stinger spoons 75 back with 40 jets.

After a slow start Cranberry produced again with weight forwards from noon- 3PM in 22-25 FOW with the biggest at 25". This was a trip with 1 adult and 3 kids. They had a blast with all the fish they caught. This would be a good year to introduce your children or grandkids to walleye fishing. One thing a kid can't tolerate is being bored and the chance of that this year is better than it's ever been. I also heard from a couple guys that fished Cranberry today that had their limits in less than an hour drifting. Althought the whole lake appears to be good fishing, the area between Cedar Point and Vermilion looks to be the hottest from the reports I get.

The gravel pit produced a less than limit on Weds using spoons and dipsy's at 2.5-3.0 but because fishing has been so good this year they didn't move anywhere to find better feeders or adjust their presentation but just enjoyed the day. I like that attitude! Solid gold color worked best for them. Another family trip took a bunch of eyes in 19' off Wards Canal, I assume they used either harness's or weight forwards because they went through 11 dozen worms.

We got a good perch report yesterday from the area 5.1 miles WNW of Turtle Creek. As we get into August I'm sure more perch reports will start showing up. that is usually when a lot of people start tiring of Walleye and go after the sandwich fish.

I may or may not get a report in on Friday. I'll be getting things set up for Saturday's LEWT and if I have wireless in my hotel room I'll post something. If not it may be Sunday before we get anything else up. It's shaping up to be a lot cooler this weekend. Usually cooler temps mean north or northeast winds. I hope they don't come on too strong so we can enjoy a weekend without sweltering heat and too many bugs! Good luck everyone and keep sending in those reports

Marc

I had the opportunity today to attend the official announcement and signing of an agreement between ODNR and the City of Huron to purchase the Con Agra property on the Huron River and to build a public launch facility there. I personally think it is a good thing but I have reservations about what may happen to some of the area ramping facilities already in the area. Hopefully those existing businesses find a way to not compete with but to grow along with the probable increase in boat traffic in the area. For those of you that haven't caught the subtle hint of my reports the area between  Huron and Vermilion has been my by far favorite area of Lake Erie for several years. For year round good fishing other than possibly March and April it just doesn't get any better in my opinion and this new facility will make getting there even more user friendly.

Walleye reports are still leaking in slowly from the weekend. Someone else had a slow report other than Travis and they were in the Lorain area. They did manage a few fish when they moved to 39-40 FOW NE of Vermilion but even then they only got 5. They fished north of Cranberry Sunday and picked up 11 pretty quick but then their bite died and they couldn't get that last fish. Other reports just NE of Vermilion and nearshore around Ruggles are still strong. Second hand reports indicate that the bite around Crane Creek is still going good and of course north of West Sister and west of the islands. All methods are working but reports indicate a preference for jets and spoons with dipsys and spoons a close 2nd.

Thanks again to those of you that send in reports good or bad. We don't have daily access to Erie the way Dean did and depend on you guys for timely reporting. We couldn't do it without you!

An interesting statistic I looked up today showed that the WBSA website has had over 7000 unique vistors in each of the last 2 months and is on a pace to hit that again in july. A lot of that traffic and maybe the majority of it is due to the Denied reports. It is very gratifying to us to see that kind of interest being generated.

I've been tossing around doing a personal helpful hints page ALA what Travis did a few weeks ago. Is there any interest in this?

Marc

Marc here again. Travis is unavailable for the next couple of days. 

Walleye are being caught between the Portage River and G Can. 40 jets and spoons 20 & 30 back. 40 jets 75 back took a single limit in 34 minutes between Ballast and Middle Island. That's a big area but I suspect he was closer to Ballast than Middle. Drifting with gold blades and a 15-20 count took eyes 1 1/2 miles NNE of Green Island Saturday and then again 2 miles west of Rattlesnake on Sunday. Some fish were caught near Starve Island as well by the same anglers. North Bass near the border produced limits both weekend days with gold and orange harnesses 115-130 back and Reefrunners and Hot n Tots 200- 250 behind boards. Cranberry Creek remains hot with the bite nearshore in 15-24 and also offshore in 34-43' crankbaits and spoons are the 2 hot methods over that way. Drifters and trollers are catching fish in this area pretty regularly now for the last couple of weeks.

PERCH: Lucy's Point produced a 4 man limit using crappie rigs and spreaders that also connected with 5 walleyes. Thursday a 6 man limit was taken 1.25 miles off West Harbor in 2 1/2 hours that averaged 7.5".

We got quite a few reports this weekend and they were spread out from the shipping channel at Toledo to nearshore in Cleveland and all points in between.

Travis is the only person I know that struggled and that was probably because he was trying too hard. Lighten up and enjoy Travis! Any of you that are in the Lorain area on Saturday are welcome to come watch the LEWT weigh in at 3 PM. It'll be interesting to see if anyone figures out how to catch 5 big fish in that area or if they decide to make a run out to deep or far east waters. This hot weather may push these fish further east or north but summer is starting to fade and we have a cooler weather break coming tomorrow though the weekend so maybe that will keep the eyes around for a while yet. Good fishing all!

Marc 

I finally made it back out yesterday, but it was a frustrating day.  I went out of Avon early, and it continually got rougher throughout the morning.  By noon I had a sick crew member in the boat and only a few small walleye to show for it.  It wasn't a good start to my pre-fishing for Saturday's LEWT tournament out of Lorain.  Hopefully the days leading up to the tournament will provide better results than yesterday.  With the oppressive heat today I decided to spend a day getting everything ready for later in the week.  I got the boat and truck ready and tied harnesses.

The best recent reports that have come in are from the western basin.  20' of water around Metzger's Marsh and Crane Creek is still hot.  Casters have done well with green and chartreuse weight forwards.  Green Island has also been good.  I guess there has been a pack just west and also north of Green.  Dipsys on a 1 setting 45' back and on a 3 setting 55' back with spoons or harnesses caught fish, along with blue/chrome wiggle warts on leadcore line.

A recent Michigan report said that white perch made walleye fishing nearly unbearable.  Yellow perch were caught along the shipping channel in 24' of water.

The latest observation at the Vermilion weather buoy has 5 knot S wind, no waves, 79 degree air temperature, 77 degree water temperature, and falling barometric pressure.

Travis

Not much new to report out west.  The 20' depth contour around Crane Creek and farther west to the Toledo intake continues to produce limits on a regular basis.  The catch fest continues.  The stable weather predicted for most of the weekend should only make it better.

My most recent reports today came from Cranberry Creek.  Marc has been fishing the last few days.  His two best areas have been the 28 north line due north of Cranberry Creek and also up shallow in 15' of water on Ruggles Reef.  I don't remember all of the details of Marc's presentations.  He uses so many techniques it's hard to recall them all.  What I remember includes colorado harnesses behind jets, #5 shad raps (pearl color) behind dipsys, cranks, and small spoons with copper backs (I assume behinds dipsys or jets).  Basically get something decent in front of the fish and let them tell you what they want.  If I butchered that too bad maybe Marc will add a report to undo the damage.  Woody at Cranberry Creek also reported that 15 and 16 feet of water on Ruggles has been hot recently.  It's mostly 2003 fish, but bigger fish are mixed in.

Right now I'm focusing my attention on the Lorain area for next week's tournament.  I'm planning on fishing both days this weekend and from Wednesday through Friday next week.  I will see if Marc can fill in a few days while I'm "out of the office".

The latest observation at the Vermilion weather buoy has 11 knot E-NE wind, 1.3 feet waves, 72 degree air temperature, 73 degree water temperature, and falling barometric pressure.

Travis

Make sure that you read Marc's report from yesterday if you will be fishing east of Cleveland any time soon.  The fish must be on fire over there.

The nearshore (relatively speaking) bites continue.  A hot spot from a recent report was E-SE of the Gravel Pit at 41 deg 45 min and 83 deg 12 min.  A limit was caught on dipsys on a 3.5 setting 90 to 100' back with spoons, and jets (not sure what size) 85 to 100' back with spoons.  The two best spoons were a Jann's Netcraft 2-3/8 inch pro-eye hammered gold with blue holograph tape and a stinger in Blue Parrot.  There were also 8 bonus yellow perch over 10" added in with the walleye limit.

Another good report came from 1 mile NW of the Toledo lighthouse.  Gold harnesses produced a limit fished 10' down over 20' of water.

I talked to Rick Ferguson over at Al Szuch Live Bait on Corduroy Road near Cooley Canal.  He said that the 19 to 21' contour has been good all the way from the Toledo harbor light to Metzger's Marsh with the Toledo water intake being the best area.  Rick is a great source of information if you're fishing out west.

Good Lorain reports keep coming in.  Over the weekend limits were taken 4 to 5 miles NW of the harbor in 45 to 50' of water.  On Saturday limits of '03's came from the 45' of water 5 miles out and on Sunday limits were caught in the 50' of water 4 miles out with the fish being bigger.  If you're not familiar with Lorain the south end of the sandbar comes up shallower than the surrounding water and there is a 50' deep trough that runs south of the bar.  The program was dipsys with stinger spoons.  Best colors were Killer Bee, Confusion, and Superman.

The latest observation at the Vermilion weather buoy has 7 knot S wind, 1 foot waves, 72 degree air temperature, 72 degree water temperature, and falling barometric pressure.

Travis

Travis' report is just below this one!

After spending 4 days at Geneva I am just spoiled beyond belief. We fished the area 17 miles NW, 14 miles due north and 23 miles NE of Geneva State Park for prefishing and literally caught fish everywhere we stopped with less 2003's as we went east. In 4 days of fishing we never caught anything except for walleyes ranging from chunky 03's to 10 pounds in the boat and had some bigger ones hooked that spit the hook before we got them in the net. We tried so many presentations and they all worked except a spoon bite.

Our hottest action came on 5 colors of lead with either stick baits or deep diving Renoskis and Reefrunners. The new 400 Ripshad did well for us on tourney day as well. We also ran 8 to 10 colors of lead and pulled quite a few fish on that as well with both deep and floating Renoski's.

Another presentation that worked very well was running Fish Seeker divers behind an Off Shore Board. I ran that rather than a jet or lead core because we could get deeper with less line out and still use a small planer to pull it with. Wednesday and Thursday that was one of our hottest setups at times. We pulled both double willow and single Colorado blades with the fishseeker and both worked equally well. Dipsy's with harnesses worked for us on Wednesday at a 2 setting 70 back but the rest of the week we had to run them 115-150 back. We used harnesses behind the dipsy's as well because the spoon bite just didn't work for us although I heard others were doing well with them. Press releases and detailed results are on our website here.

Last year when we made a couple reports about the Central Basin east of Lorain we got a couple of complaints but because the action is so hot over that way we feel it deserves a mention at least. My sense of numbers may be askew but I've heard figures of 40 million catchable walleye in Lake Erie but with the way the bite is going everywhere on the lake I get the sense that that number may be way low. Granted, I'm not involved in the number crunching but when you think about how big Lake Erie is and how easily these fish are being caught just about everywhere it becomes kind of mind boggling on how many fish there are out there right now. 2003 is for sure a year we will all relate to and be grateful for, for several years to come!

I'll be fishing the Huron-Vermilion area my next few trips and I'll let Travis know how it goes over that way.

A few good North Bass reports came in.  One was from West Reef with less-than-limits, but fish in the mid 20" range.  1 ounce snap weights with purple harnesses trolled with an electric motor caught fish.  On the border north of North Bass limits with a few upper 20" fish were caught.  The best set-ups were harnesses in perch, pink or orange trolled at 1.5 to 2 mph.

Over off of Lorain the action continues to be hot with a good report coming from 3 to 4 miles straight north of the harbor.  A poor day of steelhead fishing was salvaged on the way back to the ramp with small white bass being the only factor that prevented walleye limits.

I haven't received many western basin reports from the weekend.  The "unofficial" reports that I've heard seem to point at the best bites moving closer to shore in more gas-friendly locations.  Some of the best areas have been not far out of Maumee Bay off of the harbor lite and farther east, out from Metzger's Marsh in 20+ feet of water, around A and B cans of the Camp Perry range, and east of Niagara towards Green Island.  These reports are all second hand so take them for what they're worth, but this year I think you will catch fish in a lot of places if you work hard enough at it.  We are seeing a perfect combination of tons of 2003 eaters no matter where you go, along with cooler temperatures keeping the big migrators at least in Ohio waters, even if they are moving slowly towards the east end of the state.

The latest observation at the Vermilion weather buoy has 11 knot E wind, <1 foot waves, 72 degree air temperature, 72 degree water temperature, and rising barometric pressure.

Travis

Walleye were caught at the following spots based on weekend reports- 2 to 4 miles east of Niagara Reef (near the bottom casting or trolling), old "F" can on the border (jet40's 75 to 125' back with cat-dog and supermuffin spoons), and northwest reef near the border.  Over near Lorain the 32/18 and 28/20 lines were good.  In Michigan waters fish were caught in 26' of water and deeper off of Stoney Point and also around the "E" buoy.

The WBSA had a tournament out of Geneva on Saturday.  I didn't fish this one, but it sounds like some big fish were caught.  It took 5 fish over 41 pounds to win.  Maybe Marc will log on and give us a summary of how fish were caught.

One perch report came in from west of the Gull Island Shoal buoy.  Limits were caught over the past week and yesterday nothing under 8" was kept.

I spent another weekend without fishing, but that will end next weekend.  I hope to fish over the weekend of the 15th, a few days the next week, and then the WBSA LEWT is out of Lorain on the 22nd.  I won't be real specific with my pre-fishing reports, but after the tourney I'll give you all of the details, good or bad.

The latest observation at the Vermilion weather buoy has 11 knot S-SW wind, 1 foot waves, 75 degree air temperature, 72 degree water temperature, and falling barometric pressure.

Travis

The reports trickling in from earlier in the week are mostly slightly less than limits.  The weather systems and north winds behind them "slowed" fishing down.... a little.  It's hard to call this slow fishing when it's still better than any week last year.

Fish were caught near the Toledo lighthouse, 3 to 4 miles west of Green Island, and limits were caught in 20 to 21' of water off of Stoney Point in Michigan.  1 ounce inlines 60' back with harnesses (size 4 gold blades), 40jets 100' back with supermuffin or cat-dog spoons, and off Stoney Point gold harnesses near the bottom all caught fish.

I've heard second hand that B-can of the range and off Metzger's Marsh in 20' of water have both been good in the last few days.

A perch report from this week said that a half limit was caught in the gravel pit west of West Sister, and one of the perch was a whopping 14.25 inches.  That is a trophy anywhere.  Also an article by Steve Pollick in the Toledo Blade said that good perch are being caught right now around the firing range reefs.  Some of the fish are running around 12 to 13 inches, but no specific reefs were mentioned.

The latest observation at the Vermilion weather buoy has 3 knot S wind, < 1 foot waves, 70 degree air temperature, 75 degree water temperature, and falling barometric pressure.

Travis

Limit reports continue to roll in from the weekend.  For a gas-saving bite check out the Crane Creek area.  One report said that 3 days in a row fish have been caught one mile offshore east of Anchor Point towards Crane Creek.  The other Crane Creek report came from the 41/11 lines about 6 miles out in 22' of water.  Spoons on dipsys or jet20's trolled in the bottom 5' of water at 2.3 to 2.5 mph were best.  Another good report came from the Canadian border near North Bass Island on harnesses with perch, pink or orange blades.  The North Bass report mentioned that weeds are becoming a problem for trollers around the islands.  I also heard today that the bite N and NW of the turnaround buoy of the Toledo shipping channel has been good.

At this point the offshore forecast looks fantastic with very little wind through Sunday.  It should be another great weekend if you can make it out.

The latest observation at the Vermilion weather buoy has 15 knot N wind, 1.6 feet waves, 68 degree air temperature, 71 degree water temperature, and steady barometric pressure.

Travis

The reports that have come in from over the holiday weekend have been exceptional.  It sounds like the Canadian border is the hottest area on the lake, but not the only area producing limits.  The best reports on the border have been 2 miles W of west reef, the old "F" can area, and E of "the pack" (probably somewhere between the old "F" and "G" cans).  Limits have been fast on the line.  The following techniques have worked.  40jets 100 and 110' back with spoons, and one report said crankbaits outproduced anything else 3 to 1.  Spoon colors mentioned were anything with purple or gold, and Michigan Stinger "supermuffin".

Other good areas were just off the beach at Metzger's Marsh, 20' of water off of Stoney Point in Michigan, and 26' of water off of Bolles Harbor in Michigan.  Gold harnesses on the bottom at Stoney and purple or gold stinger spoons behind dipsys or jets off of Bolles.

Farther east around Lorain the 32/16 lines were good at the end of last week with spoons or harnesses, and mid last week the 32/09 lines produced limits on big dipsys (no rings) run 30 to 35' down in the water column with scorpion spoons in copper/orange patterns.

I received an island area perch report.  Limits were caught in less than 3 hours 1.5 miles NE of Starve Island.  Most were 8" with some larger ones mixed in.  Limits would have been faster without all of the junk fish.

The latest observation at the Vermilion weather buoy has 9 knot SW wind, less than 1 foot waves, 74 degree air temperature, 72 degree water temperature, and falling barometric pressure.

Travis