Lake Erie walleye trip

[nwihunter]

Made our first trip to Lake Erie this year and fished Friday and Saturday. Left the house on Friday around 5am and made the 4 hour drive to the launch in Mable Head. Lake was a little rougher than we had hoped but the forecast was for winds to die down as the day went on. We launched into 2 to 3 foot waves that ended up being 3 to 4 feet the farther we got out. The 3 of us were pretty much soaked from the 5 mile run out to the area we wanted to fish. We set up our 9 rod trolling spread and almost immediately started catching fish. We ended up catching our 18 fish limit in about 5 hours. I think the smallest walleye was 21” and the biggest was 28” and 7.25 lbs. We started fishing around 11 and was pulling rods at about 4. Even got an extra fish, number 19 while pulling in the rods. Wind died down nicely and was pleasant ride back to the ramp. Checked into a hotel, had a nice dinner and early to bed. Hit the ramp at about 6am Saturday to a beautiful cool calm morning. Headed back to the same area as the day before and got the rods set up. Caught 13 fish in the first 2.5 hours and struggled a bit to get our last 5. Ended up with our 18 fish limit in about 6 hours. Every walleye we got on Saturday was 23” to 25”. We fished 2 days and never got a single fish under 21”. Its hard believe what an incredible walleye fishery that lake is. It was a great couple of days with my youngest son and a good friend of mine.

 

[Corn king 60]

Well that’s good news on the size of the fish. We fish out of north east pa. it will be awhile over here last year all the shorts was a pain .
I really like Lake Ontario for salmon. If you hit the right time you’re arms get tired fighting them

 

[Deleted member 38069]

That’s a bucket list trip for me. You guys cleaned up, thanks for sharing!

 

[Mosquito]

I live 45 minutes from the lake ... walleye fishing has been fantastic the last few years . I sure wish they would do something about the perch though. Congratulations

 

[nwihunter]

Did a lot filleting today and had an awesome fish fry. Man it’s hard to beat fresh walleye !!!

 

[Mosquito]

Ya buddy, i can't eat fish from a restaurant. When u get used to that everything else sucks

 

[prhunter]

Very cool!!! TFS

 

[nwihunter]

Ya buddy, i can't eat fish from a restaurant. When u get used to that everything else sucks

I’m the same way. Unless I’m near the coast and getting fresh seafood, that’s abut it.

 

[Falcon75]

Way to go. I almost went up sat after kids soccer. My main engine is blown on 21 ft bayliner was going to just troll with 7.5 everywhere. I know have to really careful. But knew winds shifting so lake would calm down. Just spent 148 bucks on lures at cabelas today. Looking at next weekend if conditions are right unless someone talks me down. Probably should just stick to buckeye with little saugeye. Question when people say they are fishing Bandits is that like kleenex and facial tissue or really use just them not reef runner and cabelas brand deep divers? Heard Bandits are no longer being made so I snagged a few.

 

[nwihunter]

I think all we used were pretty much bandits. I’m not the brains behind our success, It’s a buddy of mines boat and gear. He has a couple of boxes full of nothing but custom painted bandits.

 

[Duck-Slayer]

The Great Lakes are on my bucket list,
Matt

 

[Gellar]

A coworker was fishing on Erie last week, they got 42 walleyes in 3 hours with a 4.5lb average.

 

[nwihunter]

A coworker was fishing on Erie last week, they got 42 walleyes in 3 hours with a 4.5lb average.

Dang!

 

[Gellar]

Dang!

They were trolling, with a charter. The day before they only got 20 but they were pitching jigs he said that day.

 

[DirtyDan]

They're hitting off of Cleveland as of last week. We'll be splashing down sometime this week if the weather cooperates. On a side note, when offshore says 2-3's, bank on 4-5 footers. Erie's the choppiest lake you'll ever see.

 

[Mallardsx2]

Nothing like dragging a fish across the surface for 200 yards....lol

Board trolling is not what I would call a "Bucket list" trip. But they sure are good to eat.

 

[SFC B]

I am not generally a fish eating guy, fried walleye is just plain amazing.

 

[MITCHMO]

Nothing like dragging a fish across the surface for 200 yards....lol

Board trolling is not what I would call a "Bucket list" trip. But they sure are good to eat.

I’ve started using mini boards on spinning rods with 8lb. It’s a riot. Truth be told, I catch the vast majority on a spinning rod right straight out the back that I can jerk while trolling. That twitch on one rod will out fish the whole spread of boards most nights.

 

[nwihunter]

Nothing like dragging a fish across the surface for 200 yards....lol

Board trolling is not what I would call a "Bucket list" trip. But they sure are good to eat.

Agreed. It’s nothing like finesse fishing for them with a spin cast rod and reel and fighting fish the same size as we were getting. It is a good time though and a good way to put some fish in the freezer