Lake Erie fishing report for the week of September 9, 2018.: , ,
Fishing Report Posted: September 09, 2018

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[ Lake Erie & Tributaries Fishing Report ]

Posted by Capt. Walt Ermansons on September 09, 2018 at 09:58:42:

The good, the bad, and the ugly! The good is what has been good all summer. The splendid Walleye fishing that we experienced once again all of last week. Nothing has changed. Yet. It was literally as fast as we could go once we arrived at the fishing grounds each day. The Walleyes are getting plumper with each passing week and they are still biting like crazy! The bad was the heat we once again had to endure for the first four days of this first full week of September. We added several more days of 90+ degree to this years record books. I think I heard on Cleveland's Fox 8 Weather that this has made 21 days so far this summer. They said the normal average is only 9 days! Along with the unbearable heat it was super sticky, humid and very uncomfortable. Even in the early hours of the morning while we were out there on the water the sweat just rolled off of you! The ugly was this weekends total wash out weather that has set in shutting down all fishing activities both Sat. & Sun. and will be lingering into Monday which at this point is a no go as well.

Thanks to the remnants of last weekends Hurricane Gordon sweeping up the Ohio Valley and colliding with several low pressure systems sitting over the great lakes regions we now have a stalled system of rain and high winds pounding the Ashtabula area. Small craft warnings went into effect early Saturday morning only to be replaced with gale warnings on Sunday. Wind and rain is supposed to linger well into Monday before diminishing very late in the day. It remains to be seen what this will do to our Walleye fishing. We have not had a 3 day blow this entire summer. Just a lost day here and there. Certainly not one with such associated low pressure and major rains. Earlier in the summer it may not have been such a big deal. But once you get into late summer like this there is always the danger after a big weather system of the lake “turning over” also known as “flipping”. That’s where the warmer water in the upper part of the water column sinks to the bottom and the cold dead water rises. This homogenizing of water is very hard on the fish. Many smaller, weaker fish often die. The whole lake can take on a stench that is not all that pleasant. And it can really mess up the hottest of bites till things begin to normalize again!

I myself am going to out on a limb and predict that it’s not going to hurt us all that much no matter what. There is just such a massive block of Walleyes out there this year, hundreds upon hundreds of millions of fish in so many parts of the water column that the lake can be stirred up all it wants I think, there's really nowhere for that many fish too go. They are literally thick as fleas out there! They might be in a bit of a negative mood for a day or so but I think we will be just fine. I remember in contrast past Septembers over the years where we were targeting more isolated schools of fish where when we got back out there after a big blow like this it was a whole new world. The fish were just flat gone! I remember also past Septembers where after a big blow where the lake flipped it would either drive the fish way deep or way high in the water. There's a lot of factors that causes this. Oxygen levels in the water, water temperatures, impact on baitfish and who knows what all else. Who knows, we might actually have to go back to fishing and figuring them back out for a few days this week as opposed to just going out each day harvesting and easy “berry picking” like it’s been! Ha!

So THE TROPHY gets a 3 day unplanned and unwanted vacation. Just ahead of a really long off season which now lumbers on the not so far horizon. About 3 full weeks of fishing is all I have left to go now. I’ll probably wrap up the fishing reports here the end of this month even though I plan on keeping the boat in the water for a week or so into October. Maybe longer. That's all depending on upcoming weather and if I get any interest in some October Walleye trips. WE WILL BE DOING NO PERCH TRIPS THIS FALL. Perch reports have been just way too bleak and too hit and miss to bring all the equipment up and set the boat up just for Perch. Not when you can easily go out and get a load of Walleyes each day. That was the case well into October last year. My how things have shifted over the years! For now, we need to get this nasty weather system out of here and get back out there and hopefully keep this dream season going. Oh yeah, did I happen to mention my string of perfect limits leading up to this weather setting in? Lol! Still intact, well at least it was. We’ll see what happens when we pick back up on Tuesday. Stay tuned!

Capt. Walt

www.trophycharters.com





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