We caught fish on just about everything this past week, but the real studs were Hot n Tots off of 2 colors or leadcore, as well as mini-discs back 60-80' w/ Jr. Streaks and Dreamweaver WD spoons.
We also caught some very nice fish off the riggers with Reef runners and Hot n Tots.
Speed was around 2.0mph on the Depth Raider.
Most productive water seemed to be 24' and deeper, as it was noticeably cleaner out there.
Hope that helps..
Official Ohio Delegate to Team Heavy Super-Sized Fishing Specialists bfg@educatedangler.com
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For some of the new guys that are just getting started fishing Erie and asking questions on this thread:
Reason I ask about your boat and equipment is I'm not going to recommend you run to Sputnik or W.Sister if your in a 16'er with a 40 tiller outboard. Alot depends on how far you can comfortably and safely run your rig. For example: my last boat was a 17' Lund with a 50 Yamaha outboard and what what was reasonable to do in that boat is totally different than what I can do with my current rig. Nothing wrong with the Lund, I caught a bunch of fish from it over many years. The current boat is geared towards offshore fishing and is FAR more at home on the big lakes. The type boat you have and how she's rigged can also determine how easy it is to employ certain techniques. Example: inline boards are easier to use on a 16' tiller boat w/o autopilot than a mast/ski setup.
A lot of guys like fishing worms, I'm just not one of them. When on my boat, we troll pretty much exclusivly. The wormers take fish and the trollers take fish. Some days one method may produce far better than the other, but I'll venture a guess that most days either works just fine. I do enjoy a trip jerkin' perch now and then with minnows though.
Like BFG and cantgetenough, I do not charter. It's just a (serious) recreational fishing thing for me. Well, maybe an addiction if you talk to my wife. Not that the idea of chartering hasn't gone through my head once in a while.
The list of waypoints in the link cantgetenough posted is a pretty good starting point. I did notice that it shows Sputnik & McDonalds at the same (pratically) location. I didn't verify the entire list. I looked at those because thats where we've been fishing this past weekend. Here are the locations I have for them:
Sputnik (red & white, with horn) 41* 49.56'/83* 11.46' McDonalds (green & white) 41* 47.65'/83* 15.28' or in "middle numbers" terms: Sputnik 50/11 McDonalds 48/15 (a little S & W of Sputnik and closer to Toledo Harbor Light)
Be sure you understand how your GPS shows position, my personal preference is for Degrees, Minutes and Decimal minutes as opposed to seconds. I'm pretty sure all GPS's can be configured to your preference. If you're having difficulty with what the numbers represent, you really should check into a boaters course that covers navigation. It's not hard, you just NEED to know it on the big lakes.
And if it seems like I'm being anal about safety stuff, well I'm just not young and immortal anymore. I've been on the water too many times when people went missing, souls were lost, and bodies recovered. Its fun fishing the lakes, but they can be VERY unforgiving.
Questions? Fire away...
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thanks for making me feel welcome guys! been looking for this kind of site for awhile. unfortunately no fishing for us this weekend(maybe a work charter sat.) death in the family, mis and fathers day. gonna try like hell to get out after work next week. we are looking to meet some of the guys that have been helping us with the tricks and locations and lingo. we trailer and can pretty much get anywhere(at a reasonable time). anyone fishing out of sterling s.p. next week after work about 4:30 or so? would like to meet and exchange cell #'s and try to hunt in a pack.
thanks again D
GOOD FISHIN,
D
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do you know what the name of the charter is for sat?
i might be going out on steve's grady white on sun. won't know till probably sat.
glad u finally registered! now you can get your questions answered. still think we need to move the attatchment point back on the planer boards, maybe 2 inches.
GOOD FISHIN,
D
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peaser is the other half of the crew. i've been trying to get him to sign up for a week or so. would you mind if i share your # with him. he might be out sometimes without me(i hope not much though).
D
GOOD FISHIN,
D
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My buddy was out with his wife Tuesday night and got 5 in 2 hours. 3 on dips and spoons and 2 on wiggle warts. He fished 25 fow due east of stony point inside the state line. The water was clear, No dirty water from thr rain.
My other buddy was out on the Monroe charter fleet yesterday. 19 charter boats went. Not one limited. His boat got 26. They fished 24 fow straight out from Toledo beach marina just over the state line. Jet divers and spoons took the most fish off the planar boards. They used big dips and downriggers also. The average catch was about 20 fish. The water was clean from a couple miles out.
I was going out today but had to help a friend. Also the 3 - 5 footers caused me to rethink. I've gone out in them and the fish bite good but it's hell!!!
Welcome aboard Peaser!!!
Steve
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Were west of Toledo Beach Marina in 23' to 24' of water. Waves were 4-6' rollers. Actually not too bad, but had an appropriately sized boat. Boat kept 17 Walleye, but nothing of great size. Trolled spoons on jet divers. Best color was purple (Kevorkian). If you guys go out tomorrow, watch for storms.
Did you guys exchange cell phone numbers yet? If so, I will see Douggun tomorrow and Saturday.
Later,
Peaser
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Fished Sputnik Wednesday night. Fished move further east 23-25 fow. We pulled spoons 70ft back off 20 jets and mini dipsy's 2.0=> 2.1 mph on GPS. Vegie/ Watermelon/ Firetiger/ chrome was working on my side of the Boat. Other side was Monkey Puke /brass. 3 man Limit in 3 hours. Speed was critical. I'll be out tomorrow am if weather permits. Take care, Larry on Fish Hawk 21
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I've only ran Jets a few times, but it seems that the discs are a very simple way to fish for our walleye-friends.
Little Dandy and Cantgetenough run 'em off of big boards and do VERY well with 'em...but we ran 'em off of inline boards last week at the Smackdown and they worked great in that manner as well.
One thing I learned last week for trolling the inlines on Erie is to put the reel on a "hair trigger"...meaning set the drag as light as possible with the clicker on...you hear one little "zzzzz" and you better grab the rod...as you just had a hit...and even if it's a whitie you'll still know.
One issue I've noticed is that when you are running long leads off the towline with the discs (i.e. 80'+) you have to wait a long time for the line to clear the other lines on the towline. Occasionally this will result in a lost fish...but that is better than tangling an entire side of the boat.
You can tell really quickly if you have hooked a walleye or a white bass, as the disc will come right to the surface with walleyes, and will stay down with the whities.
Good to see this Lake Erie forum up and running...thanks to all of you guys for the updates and current posts. No fishing for me this weekend, as family committments will keep me off the water.
Hopefully I'll be back out a couple times next week.
BFG
Official Ohio Delegate to Team Heavy Super-Sized Fishing Specialists bfg@educatedangler.com
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peaser and i hooked up a charter paid for by his boss(perfect). we went out of brest bay marina sat. morning(6-14) and found good sized fish right on top of the weather buoy. i mean right on top of it!!! 25-26 f.o.w. and were using silver streaks 75 feet back off the boards. we boated 13 keepers but wasted a couple of hours or so running way into ohio and then came most of the way back. 2.0 to 2.2mph was working and boards almost hit the buoy. hope this will help some of you going out this evening. lots of silver and 2 nice perch. also a ohio sheephead(15 lbs. at least) had to handline it in. wish we would have had our rods, could've winched it in. alot of fun though. seemed to do a little better trolling downhill but another boat next to us was better uphill. probably running faster than us.
hope it helps
D
GOOD FISHIN,
D
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