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Lake Erie Fishing Reports "Aboard Denied"
September 2008
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Fishing Reports |
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Send Fishing Report to Erie Reports |
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September 29, 2008 (Monday) Travis |
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It has been quiet on the report front. Only one report came in since last Thursday, and it's a Geneva perch report. Based on the forecast it looks like we're in for a little bit of wind this week.....
Geneva: "fished for perch 42 ft. bottom is loaded with fish mixed bag sorted and limited in a couple of hours perch are 3 to 12 inches went through 5 dozen minnows."
Travis |
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September 25, 2008 (Thursday) Travis |
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Three new perch reports came in today. Here they are:
Wednesday: "Two of us fished for perch out of Cranberry Creek. Fished 10am to 4pm, 22 FOW, from Queen of the Lakes to the chimney (old greenhouse), moved three times. Caught 42 perch, 7"- 12", total weight 13.6 lbs. Used shiners with spreaders, plain (no spinners), gold, chartreuse. Bites were EXTREMELY light. Caught one white perch for every two yellow perch, but only two dozen or so throwbacks. Winds were 10, south, then ssw, finished with sse. Water fairly stained with green algae. A good friend caught 45 in the afternoon in 40 FOW NE of Kelley's by the green can."
Today: "Another good day near the Green buoy, at the east end of Kellys Island Shoal. Four of us fished from 0900 until 1330 and had 90 keepers.
About 3 throwbacks to 5 keepers. About 15 fish larger than 10" with the largest just over 11". Very few trash fish today. There were between 70 and 80 boats in the area. The Wildlife official that checked our fish at the dock, said that he had checked some really nice catches today."
"Caught 50 perch at Newman's bouy in 22 fow Wednesday and today. Nice fish."
It sounds like the perch fishing is picking up.
Travis |
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September 22, 2008 (Monday) Travis |
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Three reports came in today:
"On Saturday we caught a 3 man limit of perch. Started by Kelleys Island Shoal but finished off the Island stone dock. Started around 9 am but fish never started biting good until 230 pm. Up until 230 we only had 21 but after the bite started we finished by 415 pm. Had to sort some small ones off the stone dock and had one sheep head but over all fish were in the 8 to 10 inch range."
"Two of us fished the East side of the Sandbar out of Lorain on Saturday. Trolled in 45-52 FOW for over 6 hr. with spoons. Finally quit about 1:30. Marked lots of fish. However, we never caught a single fish of any species the entire day, let alone a walleye. I can’t remember ever having a day when things were that slow."
"Saturday I fished from 9:15-12:15, and kept 21 perch 7-9" in 40-41
FOW, 1/2 mile north of the Luetz's Point Green Can off the east end
of Middle Bass. (a.k.a. Lucy's Point) several white perch and more drum.
Monday with another fisherman, fished North of Rattlesnake Island
32.5 FOW, kept aprox 40, 7 1/2 to 11 inchers, but threw back 2 or 3
times as many smaller yellow perch, but only 4-5 white perch and no drum."
Travis |
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September 21, 2008 (Sunday) Travis |
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I finally got out again for the first time since mid August. I pre-fished Friday and then fished the Hawg Fest out of Vermilion on Saturday. I found fish, and it turns it they were the winning fish, but unfortunately for me it was team Reel Naughty that won. Both days I fished west of the sandbar not far from the Canadian border. The middle numbers (minutes) for the area were the north 39-40 lines and west 24-26 lines. There were decent walleye scattered all over the area, along with plenty of bait.
On Friday the fishing was tough and we only caught 3 walleye with the biggest one being just under 5 pounds. On Saturday we caught 6 walleye, and 1 of them was under 15". Our 5 legal fish weighed 16 pounds and were only good enough for 38th place in the tourney. In hindsight it actually hurt us that we caught some fish up high. As we started getting bites up high I moved more lines up in the top 15', and it turns out that the biggest fish were caught right on the bottom with 8 ounce bottom bouncers all around us. Our hottest set-up was a size 6 gold colorado harness 60' behind the board with a 1 ounce snap weight clipped on the line at 30' (60' out total, with the weight half way between the board and the harness) at 1.5 mph. We caught one fish on a purpledescent deep tail dancer 170' back on braid, and had two good hits that didn't hook up on a pink lemonade reef runner 160' back on braid. We did try fishing near the bottom with a bottom bouncer and also with a snap weight. Every time we put harnesses down there they got cleaned by white perch. The teams that had success with bottom bouncers just kept re-baiting and putting them back down and the persistence paid off. It took 34 pounds to win the tourney and the big fish was 9.8 pounds.
Here are two reports that have come in:
Geneva- "walleye 01 to 03 /47 line same as summer program down deep spoons and harnesses purple... perch slow but improving 42 ft to 64 ft you have to work for them but some nice jumbos out there."
"Friday: Sep 19: Four people fished by Green buoy at the East end of Kellys Shoal. 45 fish after 2 hours. Waves 3-5, decided to move to Carpenters Point. 21 more fish in about 2 hours.
Saturday Sep 20: Three of us trolled for walleye off Marblehead beginning about 0745. Ended up with 5 walleye, largest over 26". Around 0945 we decided to go perching. Stopped north of Lakeside in 31 FOW. Ended up with 35 perch, 13 lbs, in about 3-1/2 hours. Lots of throwbacks, WB and WP. Probably caught a total of 150 fish. They were biting quite aggressively. All in all, another good day on the lake."
Travis |
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September 18, 2008 (Thursday) Travis |
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One more perch report today:
"5 guys 38 pounds out 14-15 miles 4-5 miles north of west sister 30 foot water 125 fish right on the bottom very nice fish biggest 12 1/2 inches with alot of 8-11 inch fish. went through 10 dozen minnows had shinners and gold ones they hit the shinners not so much the other ones."
It blew out of the NE today and kept a lot of people from pre-fishing the Hawg Fest. We'll see what tomorrow brings. That tourney might be wide open with most teams basically pre-fishing on the day of the tourney.
Travis |
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September 17, 2008 (Wednesday) Travis |
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One perch report came in today:
"Four of fished off the Green buoy at Kelleys Shoal in 41 FOW. We started at 0915 and fished until about 1315. Kept 62 total with 10 that were over 10". Largest just over 13" Large pack of boats in the vicinity ( 20 to 30 depending on the time.) Very few trash fish, but did have about 20 throwbacks. This is the third straight trip to this spot and have not been disappointed."
Travis |
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September 15, 2008 (Monday) Travis |
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One walleye report came in since my last post:
"We have been pretty successful the last four weeks right out of Turtle Creek, from 20 fow to 30 fow, didn’t take long to find them. I have been running RR deep divers almost on the bottom for the last month. I have stuck with blue baits almost exclusively. Seems the slower the better 1.2 to 1.4 my luck ran out Saturday night after the front moved thru. It was beautiful out there, found clean water NW of West Sister saw very few marks but gave it a shot, took two’ 03 fish, that was it. I have never seen my screen so void of fish in my life. We stopped 6 or 7 places and nothing. It may have been the fish where buried deep I don’t know."
Travis |
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September 14, 2008 (Sunday) Marc |
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I got an email from one our regular readers a few days ago telling me that the email address listed above wasn't working and hasn't been for quite some time. I apologize for that and it is fixed now. Hopefully if you've had trouble with it in the past that you will once again give us some imput, because 95% of it comes from you all. Please let us know if something isn't working right so we can correct it as it happens. We are very low maintenance and don't check often for dead links or things that don't work. lease let us know if there is a problem, we probasbly aren't aware unless we are told.
Yesterday, Sep. 13, 9 WBSA members took 9 kids (8-14 years old) out on lake Erie for their Annual Championship tourney put on by Outreach Walleye. Cranberry Creek marina was the hosting Marina. It was wet but the kids although soaked for the most part were all smiles. Some of the boaters didn't do too well and some did great with all fish being measured. I don't have pictures up yet but some of the guys got into some really nice Walleyes, even in the less than desirable conditions (I had an inch and a half of water at 1 PM in a cup that was empty when I left the dock at about 9AM). We had a cookout afterward and were blessed with some much needed sunshine. Every kid took home a nice big bag of Walleye filets along with many prizes awarded by Outreach sponsors. Great day and we'll get pics up soon!
I can't go into detail on the programs used because so many of the successful anglers are entered in next weekends Hawg Fest, but will say that crankbaits ruled the day and that fits right into the time of year. Start looking for them in traditional spots off of Huron, Vermilion and Lorain. The Sandusky basin bite is about to take off and probably around the islands as well. |
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September 14, 2008 (Sunday) Travis |
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The remnants of hurricane Ike are making their way through and the wind is really blowing. The buoy on the sandbar just reported gusts over 40 knots. It's going to take a few days, if not more, for everything to settle back down.
Two reports have come in since my last post:
"Hit two fish west and northwest of the Huron Pier Thursday. Lost a big one a the boat "rats"!!!! Harnesses purple and also gold/orange. Lots of nice marks patchy on that side."
Geneva- "fished for 9 days, turn over or dead zone kill off shutdown the fishing for the first 5 days all the fish were on the top 15 cranks up in 68 feet of water. fishing improved as the week went on but still very slow you had to really work for a nice mess of fish lots of small fish. weather was terrible it went from 90 to low 40 s in the mornings also wind was bad blew hard in every direction. fish are moving down to the bottom again i hope the jumbos move in soon. few walleye seekers out to the 015 line and beyond."
Travis |
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September 11, 2008 (Thursday) Travis |
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Going into this weekend I don't have any new reports to give you. If you are headed out for perch try some of the spots in the prior reports or head to the historical fall areas. For walleye the sandbar off of Lorain should be good and it sounds like some fish are being caught NE of Kelleys Island. It looks like the weather isn't going to be very stable so keep an eye on the sky if you head out. The 105 boat Hawg Fest will be going out of Vermilion next Saturday Sept. 20. I'm going to try and get out this weekend to pre-fish for it. Hopefully by next Saturday the weather will be straightened out and there will be some big weights brought to the scales.
Travis |
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September 8, 2008 (Monday) Travis |
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It must have been a relatively slow weekend, because the first report since last Thursday just came in today. Here it is:
"Two reports: Saturday 9/6 East side of Niagara in 27 FoW 2 man boat brought in 30 Perch in 4 1/2 hrs. most in the 8" - 9" with one 10.5", lots of small throw backs and very few non-target fish. Sunday 9/7 went North side of Niagara in 29 FoW as heard from fish cleaning company behind Wild Wings that the day before boats there brought in some nice sized perch. Two man boat limited in 4 3/4 hrs. with nothing under 8" and half in the 9"-10" range and 1 at 11". They were any where in the water column from 29' right at the bottom to 20' with the larger 9 1/2" to 10" fish higher up. Consistent bite the whole time threw back 175 to 200 small perch and only 3 white base and one 13" walleye as non-target fish. Used spreaders. Very enjoyable two days of catching fish."
I thought it was interesting that some of the bigger perch were 9' off the bottom. I don't perch fish, but I've always wondered if there were days that it would be better to move up in the water column. That really must of been the case over at Geneva this June as we were catching 9 and 10" perch trolling in the middle of the water column for walleye.
Travis |
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September 4, 2008 (Thursday) Travis |
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Today was cloudy and windy. One perch report came in:
"Perched today 5 on boat, rough water strong winds. Fished west of loading dock on Kelleys no luck then went north of Rattlesnake again very few moved to west of South Bass off the freighter and ended a long day with only 73 fish (20 lbs)."
Travis |
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September 3, 2008 (Wednesday) Travis |
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The perch reports just keep rolling in, plus one steelhead report. Here is everything that has come in since Monday's report:
"A tough day Wednesday. Four persons started 0.5 mile SW of Green over some marks that turned out to be undersize perch, WP, SH, etc. Moved around and up to west of Rattlesnake with same results for 2 hours. Ended up 2-3 miles west on North Bass and caught 62 (17#) in 3 hours."
"Today three of us fished East of Kellys Airport, in 40 FOW, and Kellys Shoal , in 43 FOW. First spot wasn't productive, 2 keepers, so we moved East of the Green Kellys Shoal buoy ( 41d 38.7, 82d 37.7 ) and caught 48 more. This doesn't sound like a good day to most, but the good news is that of the 50, only 8 were under 8", and 18 were over 10". The smallest was 7" and the biggest was 11-1/2. NO THROWBACKS, and only 5 SH, 1 WB, and 1 WP. Even caught a couple catfish. Water was GREEN and smooth. We were in a pack of a dozen boats at the Shoal."
"got numbers from a buddy went to them and never moved. between west sister and turn around 1-2 miles from candian line. very big perch we kept 9-12 inch fish 5 guys 36 pounds. went through a lot of minnows sorting for the jumbos caught 300 fish to keep 125. best catch of the year"
"We made the run over to Wheatley Sunday for one last crack at the Steelhead this year, ended up going 10 for 15. Fished for 3 hours without a release or trip on the Dipsys, but when we found them all 15 hook ups came within one hour. 62 to 64 foot of water with bumble bee spoons 4 feet behind a ball 59 and 60 feet down, and nascar spoons on dipsys set on 1.5 60 feet back, Speed was 3.0 to 3.2 MPH."
Thanks for all the reports. I've been sending e-mail replys to everyone that sends a report, but sometimes they come back as undeliverable. I apologize to anyone that isn't receiving my thank-you's. It's probably a spam filter issue or something. Needless to say I appreciate every single report, and if you haven't gotten my e-mail responses I'd like to say "thank you for making this page what it is".
Travis |
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September 1, 2008 (Monday) Travis |
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I hope that you all had a great holiday weekend. In the last day 5 perch reports have come in. Here they are:
"Started out Saturday to half a mile North of Green-4 perch; then tried 3 miles west of Rattlesnake in the large pack of boats, very small perch and a few junks Third move went to Northwest Reef, 4 fish in a hour. Finally went west from Northwest reef to the "Kidney" 30' flat about 2 miles west of West Reef. Finished 4 man limit in 2 hours, total weight was 25 pounds. Did a lot of sorting and had several 11"."
"Started north of Nellie's Point where we'd been Saturday. The morning was VERY slow we finally moved up near the cans on the north side of North Bass. Better fish, very light bite. Finished up with our limits."
"take alot of minnows. we were out at noon very small fish and a lot of them 1/2-3/4 miles east of turnaround we caught 250 fish to keep 50 biggest 11-1/2 lots of 4-5-6- inch fish we had 12 pounds 1 buddy got 28 pounds for 130 perch.one 37 pounds 150 perch they had 350 fish to keep 150."
"Two of us tried perching SW of Rattlesnake on Sunday. There were tons of boats out there. We fished close but south of the biggest cluster of boats in 30 feet of water. We fished from about 10:30 am to around 2:30 pm and picked up 21 nice perch that weighed in at 6 pounds at a local cleaners. Fishing was slow, the bite was light, and you had to tease the fish a bit. We only had about 6 under 7.5 inches. They went back. Not a single sheephead, white bass, white perch, or goby. Very unusual."
"Fished north-east of Lucy's point on Sun, close to the border. Caught real nice perch in the middle of the afternoon 2 to 4 o'clock. Largest was 12 but most were eight and half to ten."
It looks like most of you have switched over to perch fishing. I'm patiently waiting for the Hawg Fest walleye tournament on Sept. 20, and then I'm hoping for a much better October/November than last year.
Travis | |
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