Lake Erie fishing report for the week of July 19, 2020: , ,
Fishing Report Posted: July 19, 2020

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[ Lake Erie & Tributaries Fishing Report ]

Posted by Capt. Walt Ermansons on July 19, 2020 at 13:01:49:

Brutally hot with some tougher fishing days mixed in. The past two weeks saw some of the hottest days that I ever remember fishing in. Wee Bob was it uncomfortable shortly after daybreak! And as I write this article, it looks like round two is about to kick in again for the next few days. Perhaps the reason it seems to be hotter then I remember fishing in is that most days we are out there much longer to get our limits then in the past few years. Aboard THE TROPHY we like to get out super early if for no other reason then to beat the heat. Well, we’ve been leaving early like we always do but with the tougher fishing this year we’ve come stumbling back to the dock closer to noon time more times then I care to talk about. Except for a few of my groups that cried Uncle mercifully because of the horrible heat and humidity and said they were fine with being a few fish short of their limits. That sure did not make me mad! Lol! Although I guess that means my streak of continuous limit catches aboard THE TROPHY is officially over with now. Boo!

Again by not writing for a while, a lot of things have happened. I’ve covered a lot of ground in search of the mother load. Including two trips right out to the Canadian line. Although the fish were there and we did just fine out there, it was no better out there then the other scattered schools that we have been bouncing back and fourth on so far all of summer. There are fish out about 10 miles also and unbelievably there is still a band of fish right down the shoreline in water as shallow as 25 feet. And I have been in there as well! You want to talk about weird, try fishing one day a mile from shore and then the next day 20 miles from shore and catching the same amount of fish say in the same 6 hours of fishing time. Both areas have their downsides. In close you work your tail off sorting thru undersized fish to get your keepers. Way offshore you take a pounding just to get there and then you have some ugly fuel bills to face at the end of the day. Ugh. Always something!

Well as I threatened to do in my report the last time I wrote, I finally did break out the old wire line rods and have now resorted back to the deep water techniques that I have used chartering up here for over 30 years. This being my 34th year of full time guiding, it was OK by me if I never saw that crap again! The last 2 years we didn’t need it. Fishing was soooo good that once the fish went deeper then our Jet Divers on braid would reach, we just went to a all Dipsy Diver program and literally couldn’t keep a rod in the water the rest of the year. It was that good! So far though, there is no way I don’t think we could knock out daily limits with just our Dipsys. It’s taken everything that I can collectively throw at them and twice the time out there to get the job done on most days. And that now includes dealing with the horribly long leads putting out 300 or more feet of wire fishing line not to mention the amount of line that we have to run down the the tow line to the planer boards. That all has to be reeled back in every time a fish is hooked. Man does that suck after dealing most of the summer with only 100 foot leads on the Jet Divers! I’m sure glad I don’t have to reel those things back in! Haha!

So we have two weeks left in July now. If there are any huge schools of Walleye on the move out there and moving this way, they should be here any day now. That is if they are going to show up at all this year! If they do maybe then we can get back to just using 6 Dipsys to get the job done. But for now, we keep putting out 16 rods each day. We put in fuller days covering many more miles trolling each day but still by the end of the day we still manage to capture nice full racks of fish. I guess I’ve just been spoiled real bad here the last few years with how easy things have been for us. Getting older with more aches and pains each year don’t help any either. But I’ll get thru it. I always do. And after these next 2 weeks, heck I only have 2 more months to go before this season is over with! How hard could that be? Lol! Oh, and by the way I am really liking this writing just every other week. So for those of you that miss my weekly reports like I used to do, I’m sorry. I guess you’re just fortunate that I still manage to do this much at this point of my career. So next time I write again, it will be August. Can you even imagine? Almost August already! What a screwed up year this has been! I’m personally ready to just get this whole year over with. Unless the Walleye fishing gets back to being silly easy that is! Ha!

Capt. Walt
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