After more than a week of no fishing aboard LD due to family commitments and one cancelled trip I finally got out again yesterday. Roamer wasn't doing anything important (LOL) and said he'd be glad to join in. The two of us hit the water around 10:30.
Recent reports seemed sporadic and we had several areas we wanted to try. First area was just outside TBM and N a little in 14-15 fow where one recent report had been promising. We made a quick pass thru the area and didn't see what we were looking for. Next we moved out near the turn around buoy. We marked decent numbers of fish and set down to try it out. After nearly 2 fishless hours, I finally broke down and called a charter capt friend for some help. Just then a rod fired and we were hooked-up while I was on the phone. Hal landed the 18" eye unassisted. The fish took a purple perch Husky Jerk 130' back. I took a few numbers from the capt and let him know the skunk was out of the box. After another fishless hour in the area we pulled lines and headed off to one of the recommended areas.
We marked fair numbers of fish but picked up only 1 more by 14:30 bringing our boat total up to two at that point. Fish took a blue melon Dreamweaver WD spoon 70' back. Decided to troll in a generally S direction to the West Sister Island area where we had been doing well prior to my hiatus from the lake. We picked up walleye #3 on the troll south (mixed veggies SS, 110' back).
Trolled the area for a couple hours with not much to show. With 3 in the box at 18:00 we were hoping the evening bite would save the day. We weren't disappointed. At 18:05 the bite switched on. We boated 5 nice eyes in the 18:00 hour and finished our 2 man limit at 20:09. Our best lead for the day was 110' and best spoons were Mixed Veggies, Green Slick, and Blue Dolphin, all copper backed.
Our catch ranged from 16.5 to 22 inches with most around 20-21. We threw back 5 or 6 walleyes that were in the 8" size class. We also threw back about 7 or 8 sheep, about the same number of silver bass and a white perch. Took a couple yellow perch on spoons including 1 keeper.
Since it was pretty slow and a lot of marks were on the bottom, we got out a Slide Diver Lite Bite and hung a purple Fuzzy Bear spoon. Sent it back 60' and out 75' on a 2 setting. My first time using the SDLB, and it tripped twice w/o a fish??? Third time was the charm and we caught a ~15" sheep on the rig.
Weather was beautiful though not ideal for fishing. Waves <1' and cloudless blue sky most of the day. The fishing was tough but we stuck it out and were rewarded. Looking forward to the next trip.
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That was a long day of fishing. Glad to see that you finally got into them. Good report though. I see a lot of people looking at our reports but not much comments or other reports except from the regulars. Don't know why? With the high gas prices right now it's all about networking to get on the fish sooner and not make it a day of spanning Lake Erie in search of walleyes. I hope to see more people reporting soon. I'm trying to get out on Thursday and Saturday this week. Hope to see you out there.
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The fish we caught on Thursday were stuffed with minnows, even the 8" ones were spitting them out when we got them in the boat. We caught about 20 of the 8"ers. I see some good years ahead of us with the 2003 year class and all the 8"ers growing up. Did you hear how this year spawn turned out? I know the water was dirty.
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As you said last night, every once-in-awhile you need a tough day to test your resolve and make you appreciate those days when you limit out in 2 hours.
Hal
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Spoonman - that will probably always be the case, more lookers than posters. Good news is there are more guys posting reports this season than last. I'm sure more will join in. You can burn a lot of gas looking for fish without a network (even with one sometimes - like yesterday).
Weather permitting, I'll be out Thursday afternoon with BFG, SalmonRoy, and a buddy of his. Saturday BFG, Roamer, Cantgetenough & I are fishing an informal gig for bragging rights.
I haven't heard anything about this year's spawn. I am encourraged and optimistic about the numbers of smaller fish we're seeing though. Seems like lots of ~8 inchers swimming around.
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You mentioned spoons. I am new to spoon fishing for walleye.
Gave it a shot from 3pm-9pm 7-5-08 with little luck. Fished from the Raisin channel 24 fow out to 27 east of Fermi. Tried tots, then spoons on divers varying 40-80 back, then bouncers. Picked 1 walleye on a bouncer and crawler harness just east of fermi in 24 fow. I dont have an Ohio license so I didnt venture across the line. What is TBM? Were you using divers with the spoons? How fast were you going?
Appreciate any ifno to help. Not doing well this year for some reason.
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You mentioned spoons. I am new to spoon fishing for walleye.
Gave it a shot from 3pm-9pm 7-5-08 with little luck. Fished from the Raisin channel 24 fow out to 27 east of Fermi. Tried tots, then spoons on divers varying 40-80 back, then bouncers. Picked 1 walleye on a bouncer and crawler harness just east of fermi in 24 fow. I dont have an Ohio license so I didnt venture across the line. What is TBM? Were you using divers with the spoons? How fast were you going?
Appreciate any ifno to help. Not doing well this year for some reason.
First off, Welcome to EA!
TBM = Toledo Beach Marina, home port for me. The area I referred to in my original post that we were checking out was between TBM and Bolles Harbor. We had several days of very hot fishing in 14 feet of water there earlier this year. I'd heard a report of another boat punching limits in the same area general area between 14 and 18 FOW recently. Our precursory look with the fish finder wasn't real promising and we decided to head deeper. In that shallow, the FF doesn't give you a very big picture though and we may have picked some fish there had we stayed.
I use the Big Jon mini-divers about 5-6 feet ahead of the spoons. A lot of guys use Jet Divers too.
Standard walleye speed for us is 2.1 knots measured by the GPS. We vary that anywhere from 1.7 to 2.5, usually 1.9 to 2.3 works good though.
Looking at the log, yesterday we took fish from 1.6 to 2.2, the vast majority came at 2.1 though. Leads off the tow line ranged from 70 - 110 feet yesterday (measured by the line counters), with 110 being far and away our best.
On blue sky days with a flat lake, try to get stuff further from the boat. In my old boat we would run Storm Thunderstick Jrs and Wally Divers 160 back and take fish on these type days.
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Fished sat and sun.Sat left dock at 7:00 quit fishing at 3:00 worked the 48 and 4 area.size 30 jets 110 back shrimp, confusion, frankenberry and monkey puke stingers.Caught 20 walleye and 9 perch.Sun tried same area only caught 4 first 2 1/2 hrs trolled toward east sister,no luck,moved southeast saw a pack of boats set up short the closer we got the more fish we picked up.We got a good line working about a mile long we probably lost 7-8 fish within 10-20 ft of the boat went in at 5:00 with 23,1 short of our limit we ended up out at 46 and 54.nice day,visibility was pretty good as i could see perry's monument pretty clearly.Great loooong day on the lake good luck,Matt
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We headed out between West and Little Sister on Sat. afternoon. Got lines set about 2:00 in 30 feet of water. Ended up with 11 nice keepers including a respectful 5.5 lb. Most fish were on #30 jet back 85 to 100 with mixed veggie and boy/girl. The other producer was a walleye-wonder floating spinner (pink) with a snap weight at 25ft. and back 120. Trolling speed was mixed between 1.6 and 2. Also 3 nice keeper perch with bellies stuffed with zebra mussels. Pulled lines at 6:00.
Rick
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Since it was pretty slow and a lot of marks were on the bottom, we got out a Slide Diver Lite Bite and hung a purple Fuzzy Bear spoon. Sent it back 60' and out 75' on a 2 setting. My first time using the SDLB, and it tripped twice w/o a fish??? Third time was the charm and we caught a ~15" sheep on the rig.
Hey Mike,
What is a Slide Diver Lite Bite?
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Works like a regular dipsy with these primary advantages:
1) You can make the lead from the dipsy to the bait as long as you like.
2) The Lite Bite version has an adjustable trigger bar that allows even small fish to trip the diver. That way you're not dragging a dink around all day not knowing its there.
I got a pair dirt cheap at the Birch Run fishing show earlier this year and Sunday was my first time running them. The first couple false releases we had on Sunday may be due to me having the trigger bar adjusted too lite. I'll play around with it some more. A couple charter captains I know really like them.
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