What a great fishery they have over at Lake Erie. Everyone should experience it at least once. I invited three of my brothers to accompany me this time so the trip was sure to be fun regardless of the fishing. It was the first Erie trip for one of them, the other two have been a couple times.
We left on Indiana Monday morning and had enough time to fish a few hours in the evening. Nice weather but the evil NE wind was to blow the next morning so we scouted "tomorrow" spots as much as fishing for maximum catch. Not many fish in some of the areas but our scout-fishing resulted in 10 walleyes in a few hours. The next morning started better than predicted so we started where we caught most of the fish Monday afternoon. The wind increased quickly so we had to bail after only a couple of fish.
Rather than pulling all the rods and moving, I decided to troll downwind to see if there were any fish in the lee of Rattlesnake Island. There were some fish, but not much lee. We had maybe 300 yards X 600 yards to fish comfortably and we'd pick up a fish or two each lap. One here one there and we were done by noon.
The next day was quite calm so we set up north of Kelly's Island near the Canadian border. (Not that far - maybe five miles from S. Bass Island. Fishing was steady there though the "pack" mostly stayed a few miles south. Our limit was picked off by 10:30 so we went gaspergoo hunting and found a steady bit for an hour or so near the boat ramp at South Bass state park. We wanted some "poor man's shrimp" for appetizer to the fish fry that evening.
Last morning there we went back to the same area. Despite slick calm conditions, the bite was faster and we limited in three hours.
We were on the 11AM ferry to the mainland and back home in Indiana in time for another fish fry at my house with wives, nephews and girlfriends.
I'm not much on "hero shots" but here's one taken by one of my brothers.
This message has an attachment image. Please log in or register to see it.
The following user(s) said Thank You: go4bigfish, Tmik34, edac, Bstar, Deadeer
The South End provides useful resources and discussion forums for those that fish The South End of Lake Michigan for Salmon, Steelhead, Perch, and Bass as well as elsewhere in the Region and Chicago area.