Fishing report for the week of September 22, 2013.: , ,
Fishing Report Posted: September 22, 2013

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[ Lake Erie & Tributaries Fishing Report ]

Posted by Capt. Walt Ermansons on September 22, 2013 at 12:16:10:

Fabulous fall Walleye fishing! Simply fabulous. I guess our central basin Walleye fishing here in Ashtabula, Ohio is going to end the way it started way back in the beginning of June of this year. Simply fabulous... You know, if it weren't for all the lousy weather this summer, all of the White Bass woes, the extreme spikes in marine fuel costs and all the other events that constantly seem to get me down, this would truly be the summer of all summers. How could this Walleye fishing be any better? And this past week, probably my last big hurrah for this year for the Walleyes was no exception. The fish have really moved in now and they are stacked maybe as thick as they have been this entire season. And they are real eating machines right now, putting on the fat for the winter months.

It really was as fast as I could go. From the moment that the first lines would hit the water up until we pulled the last line out because we were limited out, it was just a non stop crazy fire drill with many times as many as four fish at a time on being reeled in. Huge fish at that. Just like all summer long. But at a crazy non stop pace. The real problem was when you are bringing fish in that fast, you just can’t get any other lines back out there and the next thing you know, you just have nothing left out there. Wish all my other problems this past summer were so pleasant! Thursday and Friday I had four guests in from W.V. for a two day trip and both days we were done by around 9:00am in the morning with massive full boxes of fish! For their efforts, they took home 48 beautiful fall Walleyes. God, what a pace that we had out there and what a pile of fillets that they had to take home!

But it wasn’t all gravy though. We did all of that most all week long in very strong southerly gusting winds again which had the lake whipped up into a frenzy many days. Just nuts how much wind we’re having here up on the north coast this season . If it would have been blowing that hard out of any other direction then the south, these trips may have been in jeopardy as well. But being on the lee side of the lake with the south winds and the fish being in much closer, we were able to get our trips in even though we were in very steep 4 footers. Each day we would start in the upper 50 foot of water depth and then just troll out with the winds and waves. Each day it was immediately game on even in the 50 foot range of water. By the time we would crack into the lower 60’s, it was out of control good as the fish finder would light up like a Christmas tree. And all those hooks that I was marking on my fancy Raymarine color fish finder, well they must have been Walleyes because that was all that we were catching, and again simply as fast as we could go. You would no sooner get a line out and sometimes not even get it clipped up to the planer board before the rod would double over. Fish on !

So this coming week I believe I pretty much go into the Perch fishing mode. Figures. The Walleyes finally move way in and are suicidal and I am pretty much out of Walleye trips now. Understandable though. Most of my upcoming Perch trips are previous guests that have already fished for the Walleyes with me this season. Some several times even and are now coming back to cap off the year with their final outing with me to catch a mess of those tasty Perch for the freezer as well. Really a lot more laid back of a trip for me and a whole lot less work. I should be very happy. And I will really appreciate that if this crazy wind keeps blowing like it has been. But I know me. The first really nice day that we have out there I will be looking longingly to the north and wondering, gee are they still out there? Are they still biting like like they were? And reflecting back about the long road that I’ve been down already this season. Thankful that I had a good schedule even though we lost a lot of days to weather, thankful that I had no major mechanical problems, Very thankful that the Walleye fishing was so extremely good once again here off of Ashtabula. Thankful for all the new friends that I made along the way and all of the old ones that I got to see once again and so faithfully fish with me each season along with everyone's generosity. Hmmmm... Maybe it really was the summer of all summers...



Capt. Walt





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