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Fishing Reports |
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| March 31, 2007 (Saturday) Marc |
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It was ugly & cold out there today with the NE winds. We only lasted an hour and gave it up for better days ahead. Water clarity out past Cone reef was decent and there were a lot of marks out there. some big. That's where I'll start tomorrow for the LEWT tourney and then I'll work east towrd the islands seeking cleaner water. I'm fishing it now due to a friends boat breaking down and his wish to fish it anyway. I did hear that a couple trollers did well but have no details on their programs.
Travis should have a detailed report about the tourney tomorrow or Monday when he gets his second wind after preparing for the tourney and getting a new prop to keep him in it.
WBSA has a meeting Tuesday, April 3rd at Margaritaville (7PM). The guest speaker will be from the Western Lake Erie Association. They are one of the areas leading groups in fighting for Ballast water rule changes to protect the Great Lakes from further invasive species along with other watershed issues. Should be a good informative meeting. Please attend if possible to keep up to date on this important issue. |
| March 30, 2007 (Friday) Marc |
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The lake is clearing pretty quickly considering how dirty it got on Weds & Thursday. The bite today was tough overall from the reports that I got but wasn't bad considering the water clarity. Trollers were picking at bigger fish around the can line but I don't have specific information. I believe the bite was deeper than normal in the deeper water off the reefs and toward the islands. I didn't get any reports on the jig bite other than it was slow on the reeftops.
The LEWT is Sunday out of Fenwick Marina and the weigh in is at 4 PM. I think with this fast clearing of the water and with the warming temps that chances of a good bite for both the jiggers and trollers is pretty good this weekend. We have put together some of the items we bought from Dean when he had his sale and will be raffling off some tackle this Sunday. We have also added some new lures that are still boxed up so if you are feeling lucky stop by and get a few raffle tickets. We'll draw the winner at the weigh in Sunday afternoon.
We got some really interesting pictures from last weekend and early this week from one of our readers. Check them out here. I have started an album for you all to use to post pictures on the club picture page. It's not too hard to figure out but you have to log in to do it. The username is: Denied users and the password is: wbsa. Please add pictures if you'd like to share them. We all love to look at photos and it will be a way to meet some of you. If you can't figure out how to get them on there yourself send them to us and we'll do it for you but give us some time. If we get even a little interest we'll start a picture of the month contest. Prizes will be a free membership in the club if not already a member and a free renewal if you already belong. Sound good? No off color or off topic pics please. Lake Erie pics are preferred but vacation pics out of state are cool too! We'll post more info on this if we get some good response.
I'll be out tomorrow and will let you know how it goes.
Marc |
| March 29, 2007 (Thursday) Travis |
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Today was "one of those days". It didn't start well and didn't get any better. I thought with the strong E/NE winds that it would be a good idea to try SW of the Catawba ramp. It only took a few minutes to realize that from Catawba to PC is nothing but mud. My only other option to avoid the rolling 2 to occasionally 5' waves was west of the Bass Islands. After a slow trip out there I was glad to see decent looking water and good marks west of South Bass. After one unsuccessful pass we picked up to move and try another pass. That's when the rubber hub inside my prop decided to break loose and spin at any rpm above 2500. I knew the day was over and had to head south and make the 7 mile run back to Catawba going about 6 miles per hour while navigating the big waves. Roughly an hour later we made it back and spent the rest of the day tracking down a new prop and re-grouping for the next few days leading up to the LEWT. Today was either a good break to get something like that out of the way before the tournament, or maybe it was a bad sign. Time will tell.
One report from Tuesday mentioned catching a 26" fish in 20' of water off of Bolles Harbor in Michigan. It came on a wonderbread reef runner 40' back and was the only fish of the day. He also mentioned a lot of floating obstructions including wood, docks, 55 gallon drums and a dead swan. Today out around the islands I also noticed quite a bit of floating woody debris, one the size of a decent tree trunk. Be careful this time of year with all of the junk getting pumped in from the rivers.
The water temp west of South Bass was 37 degrees. The satellite photo from today shows just how muddy the western basin is right now.
This tournament on Sunday (the Fenwick marina WBSA LEWT) is wide open. Nothing would surprise me. Someone jigging for a 5 fish 20 pound limit could run away with it, or the trolling bite could kick in and the top 10 might all have over 40 pounds. Welcome to Lake Erie. Every day is an adventure.
Travis |
| March 27, 2007 (Tuesday) Marc |
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I fished today with the Don from Ole Pete's tackle and Tim from T'N'T tackle. We got our limits but the fish were very specific on how they wanted the lures presented and for color. The winning pattern was a .4 to .6 MPH drift, which I controlled with my bowmount electric, and a casted purple and chartreuse hair jig (1/2 ounce I think), retrieval was almost a drag with an occassional little pick up and drop.
Limits came relatively fast after we fell on this program but we spent a lot of time figuring it out and then experimenting with other colors to see if we could duplicate it with no results. Most of our fish were caught in 9-11 FOW just east of the Wild Wings channel and the water was a surprisingly clear 44-47 degrees with 50 showing up in the less than 10 foot depths.
All the ice was gone from Turtle Creek out to Niagra. I went back out to Crib to look at my ice berg and it too was just gone, like it never was there in the first place. It had to go somewhere though and it is highly unlikely that it melted so there is ice somewhere I just didn't see it. With the high winds on Monday it probably drifted towards the islands or Catawba.
All of our fish were males with the biggest at about 5 pounds. Looks like the fun is beginning! |
| March 26, 2007 (Monday) Travis |
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One report came in from yesterday with jigging limits of walleye coming from 3 miles out of Catawba state park. Chartreuse was the best color (jigs I assume, but I'm not sure).
I was looking back at my helpful hints page today and I noticed that the crawler harness hint from last May needed a little updating based on a few things that I learned last season. I left the hint in the same location on the page (near the bottom), but updated it.
Travis |
| March 25, 2007 (Sunday) Travis |
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Today was a great day, simply because it was the first day out on the water for Dad and I. The top priority was verifying the everything was working after a few months off, and trying our new toy. We added a Minn Kota engine mounted electric trolling motor over the winter. It is the 36 volt 101 pound thrust model. At this early stage I have to say that it is awesome. We consistently trolled at 1.0 to 1.3 mph with zero noise and plenty of steering control. I think that it is going to be one of the best walleye trolling tools that we've ever invested in.
We fished from around 9:15 to 2:30 and managed to catch one 16" male on a glass pink clown size 12 deep husky jerk 70' back. The fish came just west of Locust Reef. We tried S of Toussaint Reef, N of Cone Reef, S of Big Pickerel Reef and W of Locust Reef. By far the biggest marks were N and NE of Cone reef in around 29' of water. Unfortunately they were in the bottom half of the water column and the water was very dirty. They weren't interested in our crankbaits. The water temp was as high as 37 nearshore and as low as 34 offshore.
From talking to other people most of the fish caught today were caught by jigging the reefs. We saw quite a few boats on and around Cone Reef. There is still plenty of ice. Toussaint has ice just E of the reef, Cone has ice around the reef, and you should read Marc's report from yesterday about Crib Reef if you haven't already.
The marks north of Cone were impressive. Check out the following screen capture that came from 41 40.390; 83 02.666 (click on the small thumbnail to see the full picture).
Yesterday I had the pleasure of doing some work-related walleye biology presentations at Dave's Bait in Vermilion. Mark Romanack from Precision Angling and Rich from Erie Reel Works were also there. I learned a lot from listening to their presentations. If you get a chance visit all of their web sites linked above.
Travis |
| March 24, 2007 (Saturday) Marc |
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Well, I have a fishing report for today but sadly there is no catch report for me.
We left Fenwick Marina today at about 12:15 or so and Turtle Creek was completely free of ice. The water near shore was surprisingly clean and over 39 degrees but we found no fish on our depth finder between there and K Can, Locust reef areas. We went out between Big Pickerel and Cone and found a mother lode of fish in the deeper, dirtier, 34.5 degree water out there but couldn't coax any of them into the boat although a few boats were reporting at least some fish being caught by vertical jigging with blades, twister tails and Shall I say it, Hair Jigs. Instead of a robin that must be a Walleye Fishermans telltale sign that Spring is here!
Here's the eerie part of the day! It was foggy, not just a little foggy but major heavy fog. We started trolling because the suspended hooks were as good as I've seen for awhile, Big Hooks and lots of them. We quit trolling because even at 1.3 MPH it was too fast to avoid other boats with a spread of lines out. We could hear people talking long before a silhouette of their boats would appear but could tell exactly where they were. Occasionally we would hear some hooping and hollering which would indicate a fish caught somewhere in the vicinity. Pretty cool actually but spooky just the same.
Keep in mind that we never saw a sliver of ice the whole way out there. We decided to go out between B & C Can and check that area and when we were just north of Little Pickerel we ran into a huge ice field but it was easy to wend our way through and fish were everywhere and we tried ice fishing techniques in several spots to no avail. Water temps were still in the less than 35 degree range. This ice was flat and appeared to be 4-8" thick for the most part with an occasional berg of 2-3 feet high. The low light made photos hard to take but we tried anyway.
We continued our search for biting fish by stopping here and there down toward Flat Rock Reef with no success but when we got to Crib we got a sight to remember forever. The shallow top of Crib had stopped the ice floes from moving and had accumulated to over 25 feet high with lots of bergs in the 10' high range. It was such a spectacular sight that we took many pictures but because of the white fog background they were hard to see unless really close to them. The club Secretary Chris has enhanced them a little so they would show better and here is an example: Ice pile on Crib Reef
In hindsight for today I'd say that I should have gotten the anchor out just north of the reefs and left the trolling rods in the rod locker. Anchoring is the only thing we didn't try and I feel that may have done the trick for us. Ice fishing from a boat is what some call it. We didn't think of it because of the time of year but it makes sense now that I'm on shore. Oh well it was great to be back on the water and Erie never ceases to surprise and astound me at least a few times a year. Today was one of them. Hope this wasn't too long but when I get nice surprises I get windy!
Oh yeah, We have much warm air coming this week, my guess is that awesome near shore and reef top jigging bite is just a few days away. Same goes for the big fish trolling bite. Next weekends LEWT should have some awesome numbers if the forecast stays as is!
Marc |
| March 19, 2007 (Monday) |
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Cabin fever has hit an all-time high as the fishing season is so close that I can taste it. As Marc mentioned the north wind managed to push all of the remaining ice in the western basin right into the Ohio shoreline. Most of it is between Metzger's Marsh and Catawba (including the reefs), and also around the islands. The satellite picture on Sunday was a good one. I did hear second hand today that the Mazuric ramp has open water. I would be extremely careful with so much ice floating around. If the wind shifts while you are out you could get trapped in the open water if ice moves into where you launched from. As bad as I want to go out I'll be waiting until the ice is gone for good.
The first LEWT is on Sunday April 1 out of Fenwick Marina off of route 2 on Turtle Creek. It should be a fun weigh in even if you aren't fishing in the tourney. Historically tournaments this time of year take huge weights to win. If this year is at all "normal" it will take well over 40 pounds with 5 fish to compete for first place. The big fish award usually goes to a 10 to 12 pound walleye. Dad and I will be fishing the tournament. Stop and say hi if you can make it to the weigh in.
Travis |
| March 18, 2007 (Sunday) Marc |
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Since boating season is upon us again we will start updating the firing range notices again. Here is the link
There were some walleye limits caught a couple days last week, before the blows, rains and cold weather returned, using ice fishing techniques from boats. That didn't last long however with the winds moving the ice back in and the rivers mucking up the waters. We do have some warmer temps coming in the middle of the week though and that usually means south winds so that should pretty much finish off the ice and allow boaters to get out again. Ice fishing techniques should still be the mainstay but as water temps near 40 and more the fish will move up on the reefs and drift jigging should start to catch on pretty fast. Vibe's, jigs with twister tails, fuzzy grubs and hair jigs should all be fish catchers very soon. |
| March 11, 2007 (Sunday) |
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I put my thoughts on crankbait colors up on my "helpful hints" page today. I can't think about much other than the first trip out on the boat.....
Travis |
| March 10, 2007 (Saturday) Marc |
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I've been asked about favorite crankbait and spoon colors more than any other question and was again today by one of the Denied readers. This is a tough question but after so many times of being asked, here is what I've come up with but it really isn't as simple as just picking 5 lure colors that will work all the time.
I was also asked about Tackle Shops in Port Clinton and whether they would be open next week or not.
This is my response to the email I got today:
Most tackle shops in PC close for the winter and are still closed. The ones that I know of that are open are live bait or ice fishing gear oriented. This has always seemed odd to me because 30-40 miles away in Vermilion and Avon the shops stay open all year. They have coffee pots and tables to sit at and you can discuss your favorite hobby all winter long as well as pick at a few lures through the winter. I've picked up some pretty useful information sitting around sipping coffee in these places. I understand that there are some shops west of Port Clinton that stay open all year as well but am not familiar with them, maybe Travis can help there.
It's hard to list just 5 colors but I'll try and they will be geared toward ice out and pre spawn but they'll work all year. Even though I'm listing favored colors here, that does not mean that I think color is a top concern. My main concerns when presenting lures while trolling are depth the lures are running and type of action of the lure. Action can be controlled either by speed or by lure type. Color is usually way down my list of concerns while setting up a troll except for light conditions and water clarity but even then depth is my biggest concern.
1. Blue/silver
2. Clown.
3. Eriedescent or some type of purple
4. Pearl or Mooneye (Mooneye is a great dirty water lure too for some reason even though it goes against the grain of what I've always been taught).
5. Mud minnow or other dark lure for muddy water
You can see that I've left off some great lures like Bomber or Reefrunner prism's, glass HJ's and mirror image Renosky's. I'd never go out without them but if I had to pick just 5 colors to go fishing with and leave everything else at home, those would be the five colors I'd choose.
It won't be long til the outboards are running again and we'll keep you updated for as long as you guys keep giving us the info to pass on.
Marc |
| March 8, 2007 (Thursday) Marc |
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Well today I made an unplanned ice fishing trip with Bob Hanko of Cranbeery Creek Marina. Reports were that the fishing was still good around the islands but we didn't attempt to make it over there and instead fished inside a major open water crack a few miles west of Catawba. Ice was about 6-7" thick but in poor shape and the ice boat broke through a couple times going out and back in. We didn't locate any schools of fish and only got 1 03 in 4-5 hours but it was really peaceful and a beautiful day out there in spite of the cold air. With no breeze it felt comfortable and I never got in a shanty or wore gloves.
In the next week or so a few die hards will start pushing their boats in the water for ice out fishing and when a ramp or 2 start opening up more will join them. Some will be looking for numbers and some will be looking for trophy's and if the weather cooperates all should be satisfied with the results because the fish wil never be more tightly packed into one area than they will be for the next month or so. That said however, there will be ice floes around for a while yet so take your time and have someone be a lookout if you are running somewhere. For those of you that are new at the ice out programs you may want to read both Travis and my hints pages or go back and reread what Dean had posted in his archives and hints. I just reread a lot of Deans original hints and there is much good info there and it's worthy of a 2nd, 3rd or 4th look.
Boating season is just around the corner. Make sure your boat is ready to go, fire extinguishers are up to date and flares are up to date. Those are probably the 2 biggest things that keep people off the water after a boat inspection at ice out. You can get a list of required equipment here.
Marc |
| March 5, 2007 (Monday) |
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There was a decent satellite photo today that really shows how much of the ice was lost in the past week. We're not too far from trolling crankbaits around.
Travis |
| March 2, 2007 (Friday) |
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Warmer weather and rain are here and the ice is quickly deteriorating. It's time to get the boat and equipment ready if you haven't started already. I've been getting the boat compartments cleaned out, making crawler harnesses and replacing crankbait hooks. It's already less than a month until the first LEWT out of Turtle Creek. As Marc mentioned you need to have your 2007 fishing licenses from now on and don't forget that the walleye limit is 4 per day during March and April.
Saturday March 24 I will be giving a seminar at Dave's Bait in Vermilion. Stop out if you get a chance. See the link above for information.
Travis |
