Fishing report for the week of April 8, 2012.: , ,
Fishing Report Posted: April 08, 2012

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[ Lake Erie & Tributaries Fishing Report ]

Posted by Capt. Walt Ermansons on April 08, 2012 at 15:45:19:

Fabulous fishing ! I mean, really ABSOLUTELY fabulous Walleye fishing ! “The Trophy” finally got to go to work here in this new season after pretty much sitting around in the water doing nothing for almost 2 weeks. Mostly because of bad weather and lack of sign ups. We were supposed to go on Thursday, but the weather yet again didn’t allow for anyone to get out. Friday was supposed to be nice, but I was horrified to wake up to yet another day of howling winds and about 5 footers washing in from the northeast. With smallcraft warnings scheduled to come down at 10am however, I put the guys on a weather delay and by 11am we finally did take off.

With all the wind that we had almost all of last week, it was off to the Niagara Reef for us, the furthest northerly reef adjacent to the super deep waters of the flats to the north of there. I wanted to position ourselves in what I felt would be our best possible chance at halfway decent water clarity and catching a few fish in the first day out in the post blow conditions. Even if it was further out then I wanted to run. It ended up being a good decision and a pretty good day! It was not record fast by any stretch of the imagination out there but we caught one or two on each and every drift and eventually, my party of 4 had their limit ! We used 1oz. weight heavy big jigs because of the choppier water out there at first when we got there but they worked just fine. I even had one guy get his limit with some purple little ( but heavy ) jigging spoon ! Hey, maybe a new way to “skin the cat” ! lol

Saturday we woke up to dead calm and mirror like conditions on the lake. Having had a chance to have settled all night, I felt we could return to the more traditional closer to shore reefs where I have had so many superb trips over the years. Once again, we were not disappointed. Our stop on the Toussaint Reef started out kind of slow just like it had the afternoon before but with each short drift on the relatively calm lake, it just got better and better ! Pretty soon, it was a fire drill ! Using the lighter 5/8 oz. jigs on Saturday, we went on to catch 6 limits of really nice fish by 10:30am. Not bad ! The only thing that really sucked was when I stopped in at the fuel docks to top off at the end of the day and was greeted with $4.60 a gallon fuel price. WTH (what the heck) It pretty much sickened me. This first fill up was $436 dollars for not much time on the water. It’s going to be a long year at this rate. We have not raised our rates here at the western basin for years. We will hold the line yet again this spring, but if things don’t change, next year might be another story. This just plain sucks.

And finally today, special thanks goes out to Bill, Jim and his wife Debbie for celebrating Easter Sunday aboard “The Trophy” and chartering the boat rather then spending it at home with family. The Easter Walleye Bunny rewarded you well with some of the fastest action I’ve seen in years. Together with my wife acting as first mate, we went on to catch 5 limits of Walleyes in one drift ! Heck, it was so good, they were practically jumping in the boat ! Way to go guys ! Well, they are calling for some more rugged weather here the next few days. Tomorrow sounds like it might be border line. At this point I hope to get my scheduled day in. I think I found a spot today on the way in where we can catch some and be protected from the forecasted westerly winds on Monday. We stopped in there this morning on our way in and caught and released about half a dozen Walleyes along with a couple of Smallmouth Bass in pretty short order. We’ll just have to see how it all plays out. With fingers crossed for tomorrow... HAPPY EASTER everyone !

Capt. Walt





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