2006 Reports

Fishing Reports

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Two good perch reports came in today.  A limit was caught in 3.5 hours today 0.5 miles north of Green Island in 29' of water.  The other report was 60 perch from 41' of water east of the Kelleys Island airport.

One walleye report came in today from a regular reporter that just spent the last month fishing out of Geneva.  It sounds like he had a great month pulling spoons and crankbaits.  I'm as guilty as anyone for not fishing east of Cleveland enough in July and August.  The fishing can be fantastic down there and this year hasn't been any different.  From this point on the fish will start heading back west, but there is probably at least a month of great fishing left down east.

Travis

Today I received 3 days worth of walleye information from one of my regular reporters.  It went something like this:

Sunday- Fished Northwest Reef and caught 9 walleye.  Jet divers 75' back and dipsys on a 1 setting 40' back and on a 3 setting 70-75' back were best, but no spoon color stood out.

Monday- Caught 18 fish on the west side of the middle of the sandbar.  Dipsys on a 1 setting 80' back and on a 3 setting 100-110' back caught the fish with "Crazy Ray" being the best spoon color.

Today- Started out at Northwest Reef, but there was too much floating vegetation to troll.  Moved 3 miles south and it got better, but there was still floating weeds.  Caught 6 fish and quit around noon.  The highlight of the day was a 7 pounder that came on a dipsy on a 3 setting 65' back with a watermellon spoon at 2.0 mph.

The Vermilion weather buoy is still down and apparently will be for a while.  The nearshore forecast says 72 degrees off of Toledo and 74 degrees off of Cleveland.

Travis

Three good reports came in today.  For walleye Lorain has been very consistent.  Limits were caught at the 33/11-13 lines on size 1 dispsys on a 0.5 setting 105' back and on a 2.5 setting 150' back at 2.5 mph.  Wonderbread and pearl watermellon spoons were the best lures (large and small sizes).

Limits were also caught 3 to 7 miles due north of Lorain. Dipsys on a 1 setting 55-65' back and jet40's 100 to 120' back with spoons at 2.4 to 2.6 mph did the damage.  A large stinger spoon that was copper with a black ladder caught the most fish.  In this case straight line trolling didn't work, zig-zags and hard turns produced bites.

For yellow perch limits were caught Friday, Saturday and Sunday west of Rattlesnake Island despite rough conditions.

Travis

It's Sunday evening and so far one report has come in from the weekend.  Yesterday the walleye hit pretty well just before the front went through over in Michigan waters.  The best marks were due east of Bolles harbor in the transition from dirty to clean water just inside the Michigan border.  6 fish were caught (4 around 19" and 2 around 13") on dipsys on a 1 setting 40' back with confusion and blueberry muffin spoons.

This afternoon I watched part of the Little League World Series game between Japan and Georgia.  With all of the negative stories in the sports world right now the game was refreshing.  It was a well played game that went into extra innings with Georgia winning on a home run.  The sportsmanship during and after the game is hard to find anywhere else in sports at higher levels.  Maybe we need to learn from the 12 year olds.

The weather buoy north of Vermilion has been down for over a week now.  When it is back online I'll post the current water temp from out there.  In the mean time the nearshore forecast says that the surface temp is 71 off of Toledo and 73 off of Cleveland.

Travis 

Two new reports came in today.  This morning a walleye limit was caught on the SW corner of the Sandbar.  The best set-up was dipsys on a 3 setting 100-110’ back and on a 1 setting 55-65’ back with a copper stinger spoon with an orange stripe.  A downrigger with a pearl ghost ripstick took a few and so did a pearl ghost reef runner 170’ back.  The biggest fish was 8.5 pounds.

On Wednesday a near limit of 118 yellow perch for 4 people was caught in 4.5 hours about 0.5 miles N-NW of Green Island.  There were plenty of white perch and under-sized yellow perch mixed in.

Right now there are some storms coming through and it looks like it could be a rough Saturday after the front passes.

I had a few people wish me happy birthday and I was really struggling to figure out how they knew it was my birthday on Wednesday.  When I logged on to put up this report I noticed Marc's post from Wednesday..... Thanks Marc.

Travis

The reports have been silent since Monday and the severe flooding from west central to north central Ohio is probably partly to blame.  Up here along the lake we are pretty lucky to have missed the worst of the rain, other than areas right along rivers and creeks that are flooding from the rain farther south.  My thoughts are with all of the families that have been affected by this unprecedented flooding.

I just saw that the Vermilion Hawg Fest tournament at the end of September is full with 105 boats entered.  No more enteries are being taken.  Unfortunately my Minnesota muskie trip conflicted with the date and I'm going to miss the Hawg Fest for the first time.  It's really a shame, because the tournament and meal are so much fun, but hopefully I'll be having my own Hawg Fest by catching big muskies casting up north.

Travis

Two new reports have come in.  The first was a 3-man 5-hour yellow perch limit from "a few hundred yards" north of Green Island.  The second report was from over in Geneva from last week.  The walleye fishing continues to be pretty good in the 70 to 72' range.  It sounds like the perch fishing is also picking up about 2-3 miles NW of the harbor.

I'm glad to see that some of you are starting to use the Denied forum of the WBSA message board.  There are some new fishing reports in there today.  Check them out at the link below in yesterday's report.  All of you should feel free to directly post your reports in there.  I have decided that I won't re-post reports that show up in the forum since you can all click over to the forum just like I can.  I'll continue to post all of the information that I get here on this page, but I won't regurgitate posts from the forum.

Travis

Believe it or not I just got my first report since early in the week.  On Saturday a walleye limit was caught out of Lorain at the 35/18-20 lines in 45' of water.  Size 1 dipsys on a 0.5 setting 100' back and on a 2.5 setting 150' back caught fish at 2.5 mph with mixed veggies spoons (both small and large sizes).

Marc has been getting out recently and his fishing reports are posted in the "Denied" forum on the WBSA message board.  The forum is open to the public.  Check it out if you haven't already.

I've been using my time off of the water to tie crawler harnesses and to tape and paint spinner blades.  You can never have too many.  We went through quite a few harnesses earlier in the year and I would have been in trouble for the last tournament on Sept. 8 if I didn't make any more.

The most recent weather report from the Vermilion buoy has 17 knot E-SE winds, 1.6 feet waves, steady barometric pressure and 74 degree surface water temperature.

Travis

Only one new report came in since yesterday, but it was a good limit perch report from both Saturday and Sunday.  On Saturday it took 5 hours to get a 5 man limit 1.5 miles N-NW of Green Island.  On Sunday a 60 fish limit was caught 1 mile off the NW corner of Kelleys Island towards Ballast Island.

Travis

From the weekend a mixed bag of good and bad perch reports are coming in with a few walleye reports scattered in.

For walleye a limit was taken off of Lorain (including a 30” 10 pound fish) from the 33/15 lines to the 34/12 lines in 45 to 49’ of water on Saturday.  Large stingers on size 1 dipsys on a 0.5 setting 120’ back and a 2.5 setting 170’ back took the fish with large copper stinger spoons in shrimp and blueberry muffin.  Up on the Ontario side of Lake Erie steelhead and walleye were caught over the weekend 7 to 8 miles out of Erieau in 70’ of water.  Over the course of 2 days 38 steelhead and 41 walleye were caught on size 1 dipsys on a 2 setting 125’ back and on a 3 setting 170’ back, and also on downriggers 48’ down with spoons in bite me elmo, copper sister sludge and Ludington watermelon.

My parents took a trip to Geneva over the weekend and dad managed to work in some fishing without me.  In a few short trips he caught walleye in 68 to 72’ of water from Geneva to Ashtabula.  The biggest that he landed was around 8 pounds with the others mostly being 2003’s.  It sounded like the best lures were reef runners either flatlined or with 1 ounce snap weights at 25’ with a total of 130 to 175’ out.  Gray ghost, bare naked and rainbow trout were the best colors at 1.4 to 1.8 mph.

Earlier last week before all of the storms got fired up it sounds like the walleye fishing on and around Gull Island Shoal was pretty good for some of the charters, but I haven’t heard anything over the weekend.

For yellow perch 25’ of water west of Kelleys Island produced 41 perch in 2.5 hours up to 10 inches.  28.2’ of water between Green and Rattlesnake Islands gave up a limit of 60 perch on Sunday, but only 10 of them were over 8”.  One reporter had a tougher weekend for perch on the E, S and SE sides of Kelleys with 30 perch on Saturday and only 1 perch on Sunday with plenty of moving around.

Travis

A good perch report came in from this morning out of the Mazurik ramp.  In 4.5 hours 4 anglers caught 106 perch from 7.5 to 9.5" along with small perch, drum, white perch, white bass and catfish.  The fishing was good early and then died after 11:45.  The fish came from 24' of water at N 41 34.3 W 82 45.3.

The most recent weather report from the Vermilion buoy has 5 knot E winds, no waves, rising barometric pressure and 77 degree surface water temperature.

Travis

Marc was right, I did make it out last night.  It wasn't a typical trip for me.  It seems like this year I have only fished when I "needed" to pre-fish for a tourney or actually fish a tourney.  I'm not complaining, but I haven't fun fished much at all this year.  Last night I had one of the most enjoyable trips that I've made this year and it only lasted 3 hours or so.  I took a friend and his family out for some catching.  We didn't care what, we just wanted his two young girls to catch fish and enjoy Lake Erie.  We pulled out of the Huron River, turned left and started trolling.  We put reef runners on the two outside rods and inline weights with harnesses on the four inside rods.  Over the 3 hours or so that we fished we caught something like 3 walleye, 4 or 5 drum and 2 white perch.  If you ever get frustrated with not catching fish, or not catching what you had expected to catch, this will cure you.  Take your kids or someone elses kids out and watch them reel in fish.  They didn't care what they were, or how big they were.  Actually they got excited when we would get the planer board into the boat and we had to remind them that there was still a fish to reel in.  It really reminded me of how special it is to fish Lake Erie and share it with other people.  How many you catch and how big they are just doesn't matter and I'm probably guilty of forgetting that at times.  I really do enjoy each trip out and I don't get upset over bad trips.  As much as I fish for "bigger" fish I'm probably guilty of being a little down when I don't find big fish, but that's still not the point.  Fishing Lake Erie is about enjoying the experience and spending time with friends and family and last night was as good as it gets.  My friend's youngest daughter (not even 3 years old yet) was very excited to have caught a baby fish (white perch), daddy fish (walleye) and momma fish (drum).  The momma fish, by the way, was nearly 26" and 10 pounds 10 ounces.  I was about 1/3 of her weight.  One of the other drum also qualified for fish Ohio.

As for the details, the best marks that I saw were on the "hump" between Sawmill Creek and the Huron River that tops out around 17' and drops into 27' or so.  That's where all our fish came from at 1.7 mph on 2 ounce inlines 20' back with gold bladed crawler harnesses.  The most fish (including drum) came on one particular wide willow blade (gold with a pink stripe).

Sorry about the rambling, but I thought that it was appropriate to tell you about how great of a trip it was and how it didn't have much to do with fishing.  We finished the evening by "going fast" as the girls called it.  We took a 50 mph trip down to the castle and back so that the girls could squeal as the wind blew their hair.  Although it was hot and humid it was a calm cloudy evening and the conditions were pretty good compared to most of the recent days.

The WBSA meeting was a very good one tonight and I learned a lot about harness fishing even though I was one of the 5 speakers.  I would have to say it was a very productive meeting on a evening that wouldn't have been fit to fish with all of the storms and rain moving through.

Travis

Well Travis is fishing tonight so tomorrow you should expect a dynamite report! There weren't many reports this weekend with the unexpected blows we had Sat and Sunday mornings but here ya go.

Perch:

Just SW of Rattlesnake limits of 8-10 perch were taken in 3 hours Sat and 5 hours on Sunday. Sunday had more trash fish but also some perch in the 11" range. A good number of small 4-6" perch as well which bodes well for next year and beyond. Perch were caught just off the green can by Catawba State park and perch were slow off of Huron's river bell buoy and also off of Vermilion this weekend although a second hand report claimed good perch off the castle and Old Woman Creek. I didn't get a depth on those. Minnows were harder to get last week with a couple shops running out. That may happen more often as the summer wears on.

Walleye: The best bite reports have been coming from the Sand Bar area using Reefrunners 170 back and an added 2 ounce snap weight at the 33-17 line, Grey Ghost was their Best lure with Bare Naked and Pearl Ghost Taking some too and also the Conneaut and Ashtabula areas in deep water, Dipsy and any other method to get deep is taking fish over that way in 70-75 FOW and about 50' down. Fish are moving around a lot and some searching by radio and bait shops before going out is advised. The nearshore bite between Huron and Vermilion is an on again and off again bite but when it's on it's very good. Reefrunners and other crankbaits are taking some really nice fish along with the 03's.

We did get a couple reports from west of the islands, one from the C Can to West Sister area of limit catches using 20 jets and spoons at 100 back off big boards. Dipsy's didn't produce much for them and another report west of Green Island that produced a limit but lots of grass clearing on the lures had to be done. West of the Rattles also produced a limit in 3-4 hours using Reefrunners in Fruit Loop 165 back, Goldflash Taildancer at 175 back and #1 dipsy's at 45 and 60 back on a zero setting with confusion and Dirty White Boy spoons.  Speeds are varied in all locations with 1.5- 3 MPH being mentioned. We didn't hear anything from the casters except for second hand stuff from the big blow on Saturday and that was Gold flippin Harnesses in 6 foot waves.

WBSA's August meeting is at the Angry Trout in Bay View at 7 PM on Tuesday evening Aug 7. We'll have some harness tying experts on hand to demonstrate making your own harnesses and also a speaker from Coastal Ohio. As always you guys are welcome to join us.

I got an Email from Dean yesterday. He is feeling good enough now after his infection ordeal to ride his motorcycle again and said it feels good to get out and about. You can still keep up with Dean at www.cliftond.com He says he still hears from some of you once in a while and I know he appreciates it.

Marc

I have a few new reports to pass along.  For walleye the 33/15 lines out of Lorain in 45' of water produced limits on dipsys with spoons.  The dipsys were on a 0.5 setting 120' back and a 3 setting 170' back.  The best spoons were raspberry dolphin, hawg wild and superman (all with copper backs).  About a week ago walleye fishing was good east of Fairport Harbor off of Perry in 72' of water.  Downriggers with spoons or dipsys on a 3 setting 150' back with spoons worked well. Colors were blue raspberry and Kevorkian.

For yellow perch a 4 man 2.5 hour limit came from N 41 40.2 W 82 53.0.  A week ago 3.5 miles NW of Fairport also produced a perch limit.

Travis