Well, I have spent the last 3 weeks on and off the water on a daily basis, and let me just tell you, the fishing has been fantastic!
It all started with prefishing for the National Walleye Tour that came to Lake Erie on June 14-16th. My team, of Scott Geitgey, Jason Kopf, and Greg Yarbrough took on Lake Erie from Catawba north to Pelee point, and all the way East to Cleveland in search of Erie hawgs that would send us to the top of the podium. Most of the fish we found around the islands out west were smaller 3-7lb fish, but were very plentiful. We did find some nice shallow water fish on structure around Pelee Island. In my mind, there is no more fun way to catch hawgs on Erie, than contour trolling light weights and spinners around shoals and rocky shorelines. Pelee shines for this. Out East, from Lorain to Cleveland, we found hawgs on a daily basis, 8-11lbers, but they were always on the move, and sometimes took a little while to round up. It was going to be a risky move to run 40+ miles and try to land on these fish. This time of year, the Vermillion Weather Buoy on the north end of the sand bar always loads up with nice fish. A day before the tournament, we were greeted with 25mph North winds, and unable to get on the water for the last day of practice. Decisions were going to have to be made…
Day 1 of the tourney came, and it was blowing out of the North at 15-20mph and we had 4-6′ waves. After launching the boats, they decided to postpone the tournament last minute, and we were forced to spend another day off the water. Decisions, decisions, decisions to be made the next day. Run North to Canada and fish the reliable structure bite of smaller fish that would probably be little effected by the weather of the last 2 days? Run East to Sheffield – Avon area in hopes of landing on those hawgs that are migrating East? Or go in the middle to the weather bouy where there should be big fish gathering, that would be semi-immune to the big winds of the last few days? As a team, we all decided to take the shorter of the runs, and start at the bouy, half way between the take off and Avon Point. If we weren’t on them right away, we would bug out of there.
So my co-angler and I start off with a spinner program and right off the bat, boom 8lber. It turned into a constant pick for us all day, and I could never leave. Upgrade after upgrade, and by late afternoon we were feeling pretty good sitting on high 30s, maybe 40lbs we thought for our 5 best fish. Our program was 2-3 oz weights, 50-60 back, 1.3mph, gold Bugsy Blades with a plump night crawler. Bugsy Blades, I’ll tell you what, I feel like I can just throw away the 500+ other blades I have in my boat, the Bugsy’s outfish everything else I have!
After getting back to the weigh in, I shouldn’t have been shocked, but I kind of was with how many other big weights hit the scales. Our 39.43lbs for 5 fish was only good enough for 33rd place out of the 130 boat field. Still in good shape for the next day, but I thought we would be better off than that. The next day brought some morning storms and moderate west winds. To my dismay, they decided to cancel day 2 for fear of winds kicking up later in the day. I was ready to rock and do battle with Mother Erie. Instead I was stuck with 33rd place, .04lbs and 1 place away from cashing a check in the tournament. Heartbreaking, but sometimes that’s just the way it goes. Turns out that most of the big bags in the tournament came from Avon Point: woulda, coulda, shoulda… Makes it even more heart wrenching. Oh well, that’s tournament fishing, lesson learned.
The good news, was that I had charters every day the week of the 17th-21st after the tournament. I was ready to put the smack down on those Avon Point fish. And that’s exactly what we did. Each day we landed several fish Ohio’s over 28″, and even a few over 30″. We were at limits or very close every day. The fish were everywhere around Avon, and moved a little each day. We caught them in as shallow as 9′ of water, all the way out to 55′ north of the wreck. Both spinners and crankbaits caught fish, the key was finding current, and dialing in the trolling speed in relation to the current.
One of the many laughing points of the week was a charter I had with some guys that fish inland in PA. On the way out of the harbor, I hear “My personal best is a 23 incher, do you think we could beat that today?” Talk about putting the pressure on! Just kidding, with in an hour or so, a 31″ 10lb 14ozer hit the deck, followed by a couple more 30s, two 29s, and a several more over 28″.
Certainly a week to remember of Erie walleye fishing at its best. Right now, fishing is still fantastic at the weather bouy, lorain sandbar, Cleveland crib area, and out East to Geneva. I am looking forward to getting into some chromer steelhead in the next week or so, as this is the season they start to bunch up off shore north of Avon-Lorain area. Tis the season for some walleye steelhead combo trips! Call to book a trip, as I still have some days open in July! 440-666-3265
