Lake Erie fishing report for the week of June 25, 2017: , ,
Fishing Report Posted: June 25, 2017

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[ Lake Erie & Tributaries Fishing Report ]

Posted by Capt. Walt Ermansons on June 25, 2017 at 10:35:58:

Working very hard with what we have to work with! It was another very tough week of weeding through hundreds and hundreds of undersize Walleyes to come up with some that we could send home for our fishing guests this past week. It does not seem to matter how close to shore you fish or how far out you are. The young fish are everywhere. And anywhere from the surface clear to the bottom. All parts of the water column too. I watched as one of my guys this past week was bringing in a under sized Walleye in on a Dipsy Diver which was almost to the boat when the small Walleye got off on the surface just a few feet from the boat. I saw the fish swim away. I told the guy to just finish reeling it in. He made a crank or two and as I’m watching the spoon flutter on the surface, in disbelief I see another 14 incher appear on the lure! The guy yells, “no, he’s still there” I’m like “no, that’s another one that just hit it!” I watched the other fish swim away I told him! Right on the surface, right in the prop wash, these smaller Walleye are EVERYWHERE and they are in a feeding frenzy!

But as has been the case right along, almost each trip out we manage to catch a couple few really good ones. Some that you could actually consider “monsters” It’s a weird mix of smaller keepers and the giants when you look at the fish box. My guess is that these big fish are still from the record breaking hatch of 2003. The hatch that carried us for over a decade which by now has been pretty much decimated. The lack of any real successful hatches till these last couple of years is really rearing its ugly head. But as I have been preaching right along this summer, it is going to be insane when these fish start reaching “keeper” status. I was around for the early years right after that huge hatch back in 2003 and what we got going on now makes that hatch look pale in comparison. How many dog gone Walleyes are in this lake right now? Wow! And knowing how fabulous the fishing was for well over 10 years after that 2003 hatch makes me wonder about what's to come from this unprecedented hatch. How many of these babies will live to be the future wall hangers even 10-15 years from now? Did I mention, WOW!

As I struggle to try to get away from the onslaught of throwbacks near shore and try to give my guests the best shot at a really big fish “The Trophy” has been venturing further and further from shore. This past week whenever the weather allowed we cranked it out well offshore away from all the other boats. It’s pretty much a good news, bad news story way out there. The good news is there are some really big Walleyes out there along with some Steelhead. The bad news is that they are very few and far between. And even 10 miles out, there are still plenty of small Walleyes that you have to weed through. At this point, our only hope is that they hurry up and grow another inch so that rather then keep throwing them back we can box them and and not have to handle as many fish as we are now to get limits of barely keepers as everybody is getting right now. Then there will be all the years to come thereafter. Keep your chins up everyone! Better days are coming!

So we had another trying week weather wise as well. Tuesday out of the clear blue we had a day with near 40 mph sustained winds. The day itself was beautiful. Blue sky's and wall to wall sunshine. Very comfortable temperatures but just a stupid high wind. With my annual crew in from Iowa for their 3 day fishing trip, Tuesday was a blow day for them and myself and a no fishing day. Plain sucks. Then there was Friday. Oh boy did it pour cats and dogs on Friday! It’s been a long time since I fished through such a all day torrential down pour. A low pressure system over the Erie basin fed by wrap around effect moisture from the tropical depression Cindy surging northward from the Gulf region created the perfect storm for a major rain event. The lake was very fishable but my goodness was it ever miserable. The Walleyes however did not seem to mind and if anything, the fishing was on fire! I was so busy in the back of the boat when the rain started early in the morning that I was drenched before I had a chance to put on my rain gear. And when I did, it was about as uncomfortable as it could be. Slopping wet clothes with raingear wet inside and out sticking to everything. We only ran four Dipseys to make it easier on my crew and to give them a chance to duck under the hardtop rather then be glued to the back of the boat reeling in and resetting the longer board lines. And even at that, we were as busy as we could be landing 22 keepers, two short of what we needed and throwing well over 100 under size ones back. We made it a shorter day as I think everybody had about all the fun that they could stand! We’ll see what next week has in the cards.

Capt. Walt

Trophy Charters





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