Fishing Reports - Recent Trips!

Left Fenwick around 1pm and headed to a summer waypoint. It was blazing hot with no wind. Biting flies were bad but the fish were biting just as much We had fish as soon as we set lines. Was very hard to get them all set. Had 2-4 on at a time, most of the time. Insanely good bite. Mid day in August, in the far western basin. Blazing hot, no wind, 83 degree water, only 23ft deep and ridiculously good action. Who would have thunk it? We had our 12 and plenty of throwbacks in just over an hour. Flicker Shad 7s 75 back with a 2oz at 50ft was best. Bandits next best with best leads 100-120 back unassisted. The feeding fish were the bottom fish again today. They have been chasing bait on the bottom for weeks in this area. Caught and released a few more fish, then went looking for perch. Found a few nice ones then the sky turned black to the west. Time to go. Gave our fish to a few gentleman fishing at the mouth of turtle creek. They were super happy. Love doing that!

We waited out the rain yesterday morning and launched at 9:30am. Stopped and got minnows from A n J. Mix of golden shiners and emeralds. Emeralds were huge and mostly dead, so they became cut bait. The SW wind was ripping by the time we got set out to our waypoint from the day before. Didn't mark as many fish as the previous day but still scattered small pods. Set up on the same waypoint. Started popping fish right out of the gate. We were filling the cooler fast when I noticed the trolling motor was having to run on high to hold anchor lock in the gusty winds and waves. At around 40 fish we turned the kicker motor on and ran it in forward gear at the lowest speed. This allowed the Terrova trolling motor to run at a constant 3-5 setting vs 9-10. The method worked just long enough as the anchor lock let go on exactly the 60th limit perch. Great tip for those using an I-piliot system to anchor! Saved our day for sure. They wanted a snelled hook off the weight today. That was most productive. The day prior we were catching most on the top hook or perch fly. The snelled hook was MVP today. Whole goldie's and pieces of emeralds both did well. The perch were STUFFED with bait. They were literally about to burst they were so full. Definitely a well balance in the Lake Erie ecosystem right now. We were amazed they were even eating being that full. Had our limit by 11:30 and headed in. Swung by the cleaners and they told us it would be hours. Went back to Fenwick and cleaned them ourselves this time. 37 minutes for 60 perch wasn't bad at all! We clean all of our walleye but like to get the perch cleaned. We saved on the cleaning bill this trip! Good luck to everyone! Hopefully this perch bite continues through fall! There are perch EVERYWHERE in the western basin right now. From the Toledo water intake all the way to the islands. Don't be afraid to leave the pack and find them. They are all over! Trolling for walleye Friday night we found perch at almost every stop when putting on 15-20 miles scouting for walleye.

Got our perch limit in the morning, launched in the afternoon to get our walleye! BANNER day on the water! We covered a LOT of miles to find fishable water tonight that wasn't covered in floating weeds. Went to where we caught the walleye last time out and got hammered by the weeds. Lost some gear to floating mats the size of cars. Ended up 10 miles east of where we started just to get out of the weeds. West of west sister was almost unfishable. Ended up in the heart of the reef complex in 26-28 ft of water. Temp was 78, speed was 2.3-2.6. Hot n Tot madflash were our best crank tonight. Bandits, Rapala X-Raps behind dipsies and scorpion stinger spoons all caught as well. Fishing got hot around 6pm. The bottom marks came to life and they were on the feed. At one point we had no rods left in the water. Very chaotic! Watching them come alive on your graph is awesome! Great day on the water and a combo species day at that! Also found commercial nets from C can due north. The boat was coming to drag them in, heads up!

Great start to our Lake Erie Perch season! Fished from 7-930am this morning and got our limit of very nice perch! Average size was awesome. Lots and lots of 10" fish today. A few 11" mixed in. We were only on bottom for seconds usually before getting hit. Awesome bite today! Got minnows from Butch and Denny's. They were on the small side but worked just fine. Water temp was 78. Fished 25ft of water. Straight line perch rigs and perch flies. We were only baiting a single hook since the bite was so good. Only a few junk fish. SE wind was stronger than predicted but we found them in close, so it wasn't too much of an issue for us. Seeing reports from perch being caught from Michigan all the way to the islands. Get out and get you some!

Headed west this weekend to check our perch spots on Lake Michigan. It's a little early but we gave it a try. The boat had to pulled from it's Lake Erie home for a kicker motor repair, so it was a viable option with the boat back on the west side of Ohio for a week or two. Friday the wind forecast was off and we could not get out on the lake. Today the winds were much better, although a big cold front was pushing through. Got minnows at Chiefs bait shop as usual. Launched at Trail Creek Marina since Washington Park was roped off for an event. Didn't get on the water till 730 after a few roadblocks and hurdles. Stopped on some old waypoints as we were marking some bait. Nothing. Ran and scanned for fish for miles, checking 15'-50'. Most consistent signs of activity were in 23-35'. Stop 4 we found a large school of Alewife. When fishing shallow this time of year, the perch will often be found with/near the Alewife. It was the case today. We caught a dozen really nice perch, a handful of throwbacks and a dozen Alewife. Biggest perch was just under 13". As noon was approaching, so was a weather system and the wind starting picking up. With a slow bite, we decided to head in. Orange perch flies were all they would hit today. Talked to a few boats that got skunked. Only a handful of boats out. Still early. Water temp was 72.5 on the surface. 23-25' was our best depth. Caught one keeper drifting, the rest spot locked. Cut minnows were favored to whole. Dropping the boat on the way back to the shop for kicker motor repair. 

Happy Independence Day to all of our fellow fisherman and fisherwomen! We hit the lake today at sunrise and were greeted with big rollers out of the NW. It was a LONG run out to our numbers from yesterday morning. After we got to our spot from yesterday, we quickly learned that the fish had moved. Story of this year, very hard finding a pattern that sticks two days in a row. We ended up finding some nice fish after moving another 3 miles. We had to fish the water with 4-5' plus visibility to get bit. Bite got red hot between 9:30-10:30am. Today was a very hodge podge program with a mix of everything catching. Spoons behind #0 Dipsy Divers, spoons on Tru-trips 30's, Reapers and Bandits. Bandits 60 back were best today. Speed varied from 2.1-2.6 as our kicker died and we had to use the main. 77 degree water with floating weeds being a slight issue today but not major. Beautiful sunrise and a great 4th of July morning on the water!

Started late this morning to let the north winds die down a little. Lines set around 7:15. Stayed in tight and fished 23-25 ft today. Lots of bait balls and mayflies on the graph. Lots of mayfly mats floating everywhere. Got swarmed by bugs for the first hour. The wind switched direction and the bugs were gone thank goodness. Bandits were the lead bait of the day by far. Spoons caught a few, shaky Shads caught a few and an old school Rebel Crawfish Crank caught 2nd most to the Bandits! Started the morning 65 back and before long we were running bandits down in the mud. The bait was so thick on the bottom, we just ran the bandits right through it and got em good. If we tired to catch em mid water or higher after 9am it was a bust. Had to fish deep. 100 back was best. 2.3mph. Water temp was 76 degrees. Plenty of walleye chop today! The wind was blowing pretty good. Bandits with purple were our most consistent color. The new "storm chaser" color was doing very well today. Gave some anglers our walleye at the cleaning table who had only caught a few. They were excited since they were a little short of enough fillets for their planned family grill meal! Enjoy your holiday weekend and good luck if you are spending it fishing!

After two weeks the lake finally looks like it has settled back to normal after the crazy NE blow we had. The water looked great everywhere we checked this morning. No more chalk/silt look like we had. The East wind this morning was producing consistent 2 ft waves where we were at. It was 11-13mph according to the closest buoy. We left the launch around 6:15, got out to 31ft around 6:45. By 8am we had our limit and threw back a ton. 5 and 6 on at a time. Lots of quads. We started out setting a few cranks in addition to our spoons. We couldn't keep up with the cranks since we were so busy with the dipsy rods, we just stuck to those. Ended up running size zero dipsy divers on a zero setting out of the command center and size zero dipsy divers on a 2 setting out the sides. 38-46 back on the zero setting, 52-58 back on the 2 setting.This is what June fishing and SPOON season is all about! Insanely quick action and super easy style of trolling. Water was 72 degrees. We trolled 2.5-2.9mph today. Westerly troll with the east wind to our backs. Purple Demon was our best color but all were catching good today. Caught fish on shaky shads, reapers and bandits the few minutes we had them in the water. Lots and lots of shorts mixed in still but only a few sheep today. Bass fished the marina and caught a decent amount on the way in to add the cherry on top! It's on like Donkey Kong! Get out and put some spoons in the water! All divers and spoons used are in stock on our website!

Didn't want to make a 14 mile run this morning, so we tried to find clean water closer to home. Water was still a mess out to 8 miles out. Checked 26-34 ft, east and west for miles in front of the launch and it's still chalky. Set lines a few times on the motherload of marks but dirty water and just short walleye. Around 9am we ran the the inside edge of the reefs in 18-22ft of water and started picking away. Water was much cleaner in close with the south winds we've had. We caught a ton of fish with lots of short walleye and Sheephead mixed in. Fishing faster today. 2.5-2.8. We were targeting the top 12' of the water column mostly as they were feeding high on bait. They were puking up minnows in the boat. 69-72 degree surface temp. Tru-trip 30's with spoons, blue chrome bandit and shaky shad size 7 did the damage. Shaky Shad was probably best overall. Shakys 25-60 back. Bandits 30-40 back. Had some doubles and triples. Tru-trip 30s caught keepers deeper at 40-45 back. Lake was glass today! Sun was getting hot when we started pulling lines around noon. Good luck to those heading out this afternoon! Cool cloud above the marina on the way in looking like a fish

Started out of the marina this morning with the wind picking up. Our area we had been fishing was still extremely dirty from the blow and had less than 6" visibility, so we were starting over again. Ran out the opposite direction 8-9 miles to find some decent color water and good marks in 31ft. Got some nice fish on the first few passes, then the waves got stupid lol. We ran in tighter to shore on the reef complex and found some decent water and marks in 20-21'. We caught a TON of fish! Multi-species day to say the least! It took 10 assorted fish to get a keeper eye. Monster Sheephead, white perch, white bass, short walleye. Part of the game this time of year fishing in close in the western basin but still a blast! Didn't want to battle the wind and search for fish elsewhere, so we picked away in this shallow area and got our fish. The wind laid down for a bit then around noon it started to pick back up and white cap again. I imagine the afternoon will be rolling pretty decent. Bandits, Shaky Shads and Tru-trip 30s with spoons all contributed pretty evenly. Best for us overall today was the Purple Flash Bandit @ 55' back. Overall cranks beat spoons today. The last few trips that was not the case, but today it was! Our biggest fish of the day was on a spoon behind a Tru-trip @ 35' back. 2.3-2.7 mph was our best speed today. Water temp was 64-65. 1-2' of visibility. Still some chalky tinge to the water from the blow, in the western reef area anyway. Good luck to everyone this weekend! Hopefully the wind doesn't kick up too bad tomorrow!