Lake Erie fishing report for the week of April 20, 2014.: , ,
Fishing Report Posted: April 20, 2014

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Posted by Capt. Walt Ermansons on April 20, 2014 at 17:47:01:

A wild week. Mother Nature threw it all at us this past week! We had it all. Snow, cold, high winds, calm seas & nice sunny days. You name it, we had it. WOW! OK, this is going to be a bit of a shorter report as today is Easter as I sit here and write this up and I have company. By the way, Happy Easter to everyone! Anyway as I suspected last weekend, Monday & Tuesday to start this past week off with were totally brutal and of coarse resulted in lost trips. Tuesdays high temps were somewhere in the mid 20’s accompanied by several inches of snow and big wind! Unbelievable.

We managed to get back out Wednesday with icy decks and muddy water. The rest of the week the weather improved dramatically except for a hick up on Saturday where a very stubborn persistent cold north east wind kicked in and just would not back off all day creating a chilly, choppy and a slower fishing day for us. Somehow, we got through it all though and even had a few respectable catches mixed in this strange week. Port Clinton in April is a very tough place to be at times. Especially if you make your living on the water!

There is not much going on in the traditional beachy areas that we like to fish this time of year as of yet. Just way too many blows keeping the water clarity very chocolaty. Although I mark real good on the fish finder, catching in the darker near shore water is another story. The reefs and the surrounding slightly deeper waters is where we ended up doing most all of our damage. The very shallow and treacherous Crib Reef was probably the most popular and most productive area. Water depths slightly to the sides of the reef anywhere from 7 to 11 feet were the best for us aboard “The Trophy”. The same old hair jig jigging program was our technique of choice once again this past week. This should still be the case for the next week to 10 days.

Finally, I would like to take a moment and reflect on a very tragic boating accident that happened mid week here in the western basin. Details are still sketchy but a 21 foot fishing boat was found capsized and four fishermen are presumed dead with two of the bodies recovered including a 17 year old girl and the other two still missing. The search and rescue operations were executed right where we were all fishing on Thursday and it was a very sad event to witness. Although I did not know any of the people involved in this accident personally, I join all my other fellow fishermen in this area that have very heavy hearts over this terrible event. It definitely puts things in perspective when you think you’re having a bad day. Stay safe everyone...


Capt. Walt





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