Fishing Reports

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The temperatures have been warm recently, but the wind has really blown out of the S and SW.  It let up a little today, but now the rain is here and strong NW wind is predicted for the next few days.  The early forecasts for the end of the week and weekend don't look too bad at this point.  At least we're headed for some more normal cooler fall temps that might help turn on the fall walleye fishing once things stabilize.

Two recent walleye reports came in from Huron.  The first was from Sunday in the strong south winds.  3 walleye were caught trolling, two on wonderbread reef runner 180' back and a nice 29" fish was taken on a jet30 100' back with a harness.  The other report came from 30/28 today (Monday).  A two man limit was caught at the 30/28 lines and to the west.

The only recent perch report was from last Wednesday.  A 3 man limit weighing 25 pounds was caught north of West Sister Island at N 41 47.2 W 83 06.5.  The bite was good with most fish going 8 to 9.5" and plenty of fish from 10 to 11+".  When the bite slows the reporter suggested making a very small move by letting out an additional 25' or so of anchor line.  That makes sense to me.  If you are on good fish and all of a sudden they shut down maybe they just moved around a little.  You might not need to make a big move to get back into them.

The Vermilion buoy is sporadically reporting, but I wouldn't trust it yet.  The readings don't seem to line up very well with other stations and very few of the parameters have been reported when it does transmit.  I doubt that it will get corrected before it's pulled for the season.

Travis

I have two perch reports to pass along.  On Monday 4 guys caught 80 fish 2 miles E of the Toledo water intake from 11:00 to 6:00.  On Wednesday a 3 man limit was caught 2 miles N-NE of West Sister Island after plenty of moves to find them.  A stack of perch and bait on the depth finder gave them away.  Most of the fish were 8 to 11" with plenty of them being 10 to 11.

One trend that has shown up in many of this fall's perch reports is that the bite is extremely light this year.  If you're not paying attention or don't have sensitive enough rods you'll never feel the hits.  Also much of the action has been right on the bottom or just off of it.  Shiners have been hard to find, but sometimes only half of a shiner has been necessary, and even nightcrawlers have worked.

After a few relatively calm days were headed into a few windy days.  The direction looks like it will stay south or southwest, but the forecast says that it could hit 30 knots over the next few days.  If you're coming up you should plan to look for nearshore areas or in the lee of islands.  The walleye central bragging rights tourney is scheduled for Saturday and if they have it I would expect most of the boats to be within a few miles of shore from Cedar Point to Lorain.  Maybe we'll get some good reports on whether or not there are any big walleye moving inshore.

Travis

I got a very detailed perch report from Sunday.  This regular reporter always supplies a lot of information and I really appreciate how detailed his reports are.  He did so well with the report I'm going to copy the whole report in:

"Fished from 0800 to 1600 hours today. Took 75 Perch at 20 pounds. Not quite a three man limit but we kept some really nice fish. We were very satisfied.
 
The lake conditions were not what Saturday's weather report said it would be. Waves were <2 foot at 8 AM and by 10 AM the lake was flat/calm. Water was just a bit muddy. Water temperature was 63 degrees F. Wind Speed was almost negligible, Maybe 3 knots. Air Temperature at the start was 45 degrees F and by noon it was in the low 60's. At 4 PM there was a haze developing and visibility was reduced. Again, we fished the same Lat/Lon numbers for the area just west of the Gravel Pit until they shutdown on us then we began to move around trying to make the 3 man limit but it didn't work out. Used minnows, smaller seemed better, on Perch spreaders with silver blades and green beads, Fire Tiger Blades and red beads, a simple single hook Crappie rig with no jewelry and another Crappie rig with a gold blade and gold beads, for once all worked equally well for us. The bite was the same as in our last reports, i.e., let it sit on the bottom, slowly lift, if you feel additional weight  - set the hook. Had several 11 inchers, quite a few 10's and the rest were >8 inches. We caught several white bass, two Gobys, and one young walleye at 7 inches. Did a moderate amount of sorting but nothing outlandish."

I received a report of a muskie that got caught around Kelleys Island Saturday night with pictures.  It's nice to hear about muskie showing up around here.  I've heard a handful of legitimate muskie reports this year.  With all of the vegetation returning I'm not surprised that they're around.  They used to be a very abundant fish in the western basin until we destroyed so much of the wetland habitat.

Travis

As you might imagine there haven't been any reports from Thursday through Saturday as the weather got a little rough.  I did get a report from a week ago, though, that is worth passing along.  Last Saturday 12 walleye were caught from 5 miles west of Green Island to Northwest Reef.  Six of the 12 were from 26 to 29".  The best set-up was Jet30's 100' back with a small Cat/Dog spoon (purple and orange for anyone not familiar with it) at 1.9 to 2.1 mph.  On Sunday and Monday they fished the 38/28 lines with Jet30's from 100 to 140' back and caught 17 and 9 fish.  Cat/Dog still worked and Pooh Bear Purple also caught some fish.  On Monday they made a stop in 42' of water off the NE tip of Kelleys Island and caught 55 yellow perch.

For me it's finally fall crankbait time.  When I get back out I will be somewhere between Cedar Point and Vermilion pulling a mix of ripsticks and reef runners looking for big fish.  If the weather cooperates the best time of year is any time from Veteran's Day through Thanksgiving and then as late into Dec./Jan. as the lake allows.  I really like the afternoon and evening.  It seems like the biggest fish come up in the top 10 feet of water towards the end of the day and can really turn on just before sunset.

Travis

I received a notice from ODNR this morning that may be of interest to several of you. It is always advisable to be aware of obstructions in the water but especially so now, since more and more people are fishing after dark. It would pay to scout the area you are going to fish before dark so that if there are nets in the area you won't be surprised by them.

Subject: Gill nets in Lake Erie

Christopher S. Vandergoot

Fisheries Biologist
Sandusky Fisheries Research Station

Ohio Department of Natural Resources- Division of Wildlife
305 East Shoreline Drive
Sandusky, OH 44870 

phone: (419) 625-8062
fax: (419) 625-6272

Marc

According to reports this past weekend is really proving to have been a good one.  For perch a 4 man limit was caught in 31-32' of water north of North Bass Island on Saturday with the perch ranging from 7.75" up to 13.75".  On Sunday a 2 man perch limit was caught SW of West Reef in 31-32' of water.

For walleye limits were caught on dipsys and spoons on Friday and Saturday off of Huron at the 37/27 lines.  On Sunday limits were caught off of Crane Creek in 18' of water on dipsys and spoons and also some reef runner crankbaits.

I'll be away from my computer on Wednesday and Thursday night.  Watch the Denied forum of the WBSA message board for any updates from Marc or other Denied readers.

Travis

A lot of great information is coming in from the weekend, mostly for perch.  Here it goes:

Perch limits at the following places-
1 mile north of "D" can of the camp perry range (3 hr. limit)
Off Beaver Creek at the 32.5/12.5 lines (off water by 10:00)
1.5 miles NW of West Sister Island (6-man limit)
39' off Kelleys Island airport
SE of the Kelleys Island shoal green buoy

Near-limit w of the gravel pit at 41 45.1, 83 15.0

For walleye a Saturday near-limit and Sunday limit at the 37/27 lines on inline weights (1 ounce 30' back and 1 ounces 60' back) and harnesses at 1.2 to 1.5 mph.

At the 38/17-22 lines it was tough, but in a 5 minute period three 8 pounders were caught (the only three walleye of the day).  There were good bait and walleye marks there.

A few miles west of North Bass purpledescent tail dancers 200' back caught a few walleye.

Travis

Two more perch reports came in.  On Thursday and Friday limits were caught in 1.5 and 2.5 hours in 44' of water near the green buoy east of Kelleys Island (I assume the Kelleys Island Shoal buoy).  The fish were 8 to 11 inches.  Another report from Thursday in 47' of water a few hundred yards off the Kelleys Island Shoal buoy also produced limits with some throw backs.  The fish kept were all 9 to 11".

After two days of the Cabela's MWC championship out of Monroe a total of 10 fish around 60 pounds is leading going into the final day.  We'll see this afternoon what it took to win it and how the fish were caught.

Travis

Two perch reports came in from today.  The best report was just east of the Kelleys Island airport at N 41 36.5 W 82 39.2.  A 4 man 120 perch limit that weighed 35 pounds live was caught in 3.5 hours.  The water depth was 41'.

A slower report came from northeast of the Toledo water intake.  5 guys fished 6 hours and kept 86 yellow perch.

The Cabela's MWC walleye tournament championship started today out of Monroe Michigan.  On the first day of the 3 day tournament 5 fish that weighed 37 pounds took the lead and it took 20 pounds to stay around the top 25.

Travis

One fishing report came in from the last two days.  On Tuesday one of our regulars went looking for bigger perch.  He and a buddy spent 8 hours sorting through 150 perch to keep 60 that weighed 21 pounds.  They fished 5 miles out of Ward's Canal in 23-24' of water.  If you aren't familiar with Ward's Canal it is right beside Metzger's Marsh (west of Turtle Creek, east of Cooley Canal).  The trick was to keep the spreaders right on the bottom and have plenty of shiners to sort through all of the small perch.

The WBSA meeting was great last night.  The highlight of the meeting was hearing how all of the LEWT teams in attendance fished each tournament this year.  It's always interesting to hear how the competition approaches the tournaments.  If you were at the meeting last night you couldn't have left without learning something.  The meetings where everyone adds to the discussion are always the most enjoyable and productive.

Travis

Well it's back to reality after my week long trip to Leech Lake MN.  It was a great trip with unfortunately tough muskie fishing.  My best guess is that the weather was so erratic early in the week that it had them shut down.  More stable weather late in the week tried to turn it into a great trip, but a few missed opportunities were frustrating.  My brother-in-law caught a beautiful 50" 34 pound muskie on our second to last day.  It definitely made up for a slow week of fishing for him.  On our last day I had 2 chances at a very similar sized fish, but she didn't hit.  She followed two different baits within 20 minutes or so.  On the first follow she was dis-interested, but followed to the boat.  On the second follow she was right on my bucktail and followed into a figure 8.  I really thought that I had her, but in the end she turned off and disappeared not to be seen again.  That's what keeps you coming back.  She had my heart rate increased and made my knees weak.

Marc has a lot of good information up on the Denied message forum.  See his report below.

I have this new report to add from a regular reporter:

"Saturday started out in usual productive perch area SW of the Rattles, nothing there this week but white perch.  Moved a couple times, finally ended up midday a little north of D can, decent perch size with few trash and 1 nice walleye.  Near limits, ran out of minnows because of the early trash.
 
Sunday trolled a few hours in the area west of West reef.  Harnesses with bottom bouncers down on the bottom by far the best, crankbaits (without worms) zero.  Didn't limit, but decent fish around 23".  Didn't use boards for same reason as Marc and because of rough water, bothered some by weeds and white perch.  Fish were there in scattered groups, mostly down low, but most had lockjaw."  Thanks Bob.

I'm really excited about this fall.  I can't wait to get out and troll crankbaits for big walleye.  After casting 9" jerkbaits for a week and standing on the front deck running the bow mount trolling motor in Leech Lakes waves I'm ready for some relaxing fun trolling.

Travis