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Fishing report for the week of January 1, 2024: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 06:21:36 1/01/24 |
Happy New Year! 2024! Wow! And I was just getting used to writing 2023! Lol! I guess that means that in a blink of an eye we’ll be fishing again as well. It’s absolutely surreal to me how fast the fishing seasons and life in general seem to fly by the older that I get now. What's even more unreal is that I am still “working” at this. I guess it’s true by what they say “do what you love for your job and you’ll never work a day in your life”! Ha! With that said, we are preparing for yet another year of work, I mean fabulous fishing out of the Port of Ashtabula, Ohio. My 38th season! YIKES! It should be another dandy! Walleye fishing continues to be as good as it possibly could be minus all of the usual little setbacks along the way. Bad weather, the occasional break down and all the other never ending little surprises that every small business owner seems to face almost on a daily basis. One can only hope for a kinder weather year this season and with no major setbacks on the business side of this gig for me. Time will tell and like I said before, we’ll be welcoming all of you back aboard The Trophy for another exciting day of fishing before you know it. Newsletters and trip reminders for everyone that’s on my mailing list will be going out here in a few short days now. And if you’re not on our list and you would like to receive our winter mailer, give me a text with your name & address and I will gladly include you. As always, the number to use to contact me is 216-387-2656. I hope everyone continues to do well as we stumble our way through these last few months of cold weather and then we’ll be getting this party started! Tight lines everyone! Capt. Walt Trophy Charters |
Fishing report for the week of September 17, 2023: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 12:04:26 9/17/23 |
A much kinder September! I wasn’t going to post much about this past two weeks fishing in this final report for this season for me and just get right into my usual end of the year thank you’s. But fishing is still so good that I thought I should really reflect about it one last time. Even at that, this report will be on the much shorter side. As I had already mentioned we finally got some real delightful weather and much calmer seas. Some of the early mornings have been a bit nippy but I’ll take it! We even had some great water spout action all around us as the much cooler air and light northerly breezes sweep across the still warmer water of Lake Erie. Water temps have really gone nowhere still holding strong at around 71 degrees. And as I had predicted and hoped for, the schools of Walleye are finally moving back towards shore some. Almost overnight the best fishing is now only 10 or 12 miles out. Still a long distance offshore for many smaller boats but a far cry from the daily 20 miles plus that we were all running for much over a month. Add to that the calmer seas where we can really crank it up and we’re fishing in no time now! We are still in 72 plus feet of water but the fish are also showing signs of coming up in the water column besides moving in some. All welcome signs! And finally, now the the main purpose of this final fishing report for the season of 2023. I want to thank each and everyone of you that fished with me this past summer. It was a year with plenty of highs and lows for myself as always but your unwavering support, business and incredible generosity got me through it again and make me want to return next year for season #38. With the good Lord willing for everyone, I make you a promise. If you all come back again next year, I’ll be here again to provide everyone with “Just another EXCITING day on THE TROPHY”! You guys are all truly my very good friends and special guests and I can’t wait to welcome you all back again next season. OK, one little bit of news yet for this season. With the incredibly good fishing still going on and in hopes that this nice stretch of weather holding, I’ve decided to keep the boat in the water for an extra week or two this year. My last scheduled trip was supposed to be Saturday Sept 23rd with the boat coming out the 25th but now I’m thinking of coming out sometime in October. None of these days are spoken for including a couple of more weekend dates that this opens up so if anyone is interested in pushing the envelope and trying a late season one final fishing trip with me, give me a call or shoot me a text at 216-387-2656. We can even do a very last second trip. If you see some really nice weather coming up and I am still open and you want to jump on it, I’m game! Otherwise I will see most of you again next summer. Oh yeah, and one more final thank you... Thanks to all of you that have been following along with these now bi-weekly fishing reports of mine whether you fish with me or not. I know my website gets about a 1,000 hits a week and I know for a fact that most of that is people that are faithfully reading my silly ramblings. I appreciate all of the interest and devotion! So till next year, I hope everyone stays safe and warm this off-season and that all of the upcoming holidays bring you peace and joy. Over and out one final time for the fishing season 2023! |
Fishing report for the week of September 3, 2023: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 11:17:52 9/03/23 |
From bad to worst! After I posted my last report that primarily dealt with how bad the winds had been on Erie here off of Ashtabula in that previous time period, I went and re-read my own report. And I thought to myself, man I sound like a complaining, whining little Nancy. After all this is Lake Erie. It should be expected to be rough from time to time. Just suck it up! But as bad as that two week period was, it was NOTHING compared to what Mother Erie had in store for us for the following two weeks. Dear Mother of God has it been rough! Almost everyday in this last two week period it has been down right horrific! Even to the point where I lost a good half dozen trips that I flat out canceled the night before and one trip where I scratched and crawled my way out there about a mile before I aborted in 6 foot plus waves and said, F this! And out of the remaining days, we fished almost daily in just plain nasty crap seas with maybe with just one or two days out of that period that were actually halfway decent conditions. I've been fishing Lake Erie a long time. 37 years as a full time charter captain and fishing guide. And I fished Lake Erie a good 10 years before I started my own charter service. I can tell you that I truly believe that this past month of August, 2023 was bar none the roughest and windiest August that I can ever remember. I mean, just plain horrible! As I mentioned in my last report, August is usually a month where you pray for a breath of air. Super hot air temperatures, stagnant humid air and buggy to boot. We had absolutely none of that . Most mornings we all had sweatshirts and light jackets on in the gusty cool winds. Super long, hard beating slow rides out to near the Canadian line where the big schools of Walleye have been holding tight for the last 5 or 6 weeks at least now. And with no signs yet of them wanting to move back any closer. What a month it was! But if and when you got back out there the Walleye fishing has been simply outstanding offshore! The rest of this fishing report as far as catching is concerned you can just go and copy and paste from my previous reports. Fast and furious! As I had mentioned before, most days in the rough water it takes us longer to get out there and then back home again then it does to knock out full limits of Walleyes. Some very nice fish at that! Steelhead Trout continue to evade us now after a strong showing earlier mid summer. People ask about it everyday. Personally it does not break my heart. Most people don’t enjoy eating them anyway and all they do is break crap and tangle lines. If it don’t go on the counter, it may as well be a Sheephead. Speaking of which as they most always do in the late summer and early fall, the big Sheephead are starting to make their presence known. I absolutely hate when they start turning on. Big brute half snagged Sheephead on a long wire rods will make the toughest of muscle men cry like a little girl after trying to winch them in after about 15 minutes or more! And heaven forbid if you don’t have any real strong guys onboard that are willing to put up with that kind of punishment! Don’t look at me! I’ll cut the damn line before I ruin my friggin arms! Lol! I get people that ask me all the time why are all those Walleye that far out there. In this final picture, you will see the reason why. Smelts! Mountains and mountains of rolling bait towers down super deep and the Walleyes are mixed in right with them just gorging themselves! Believe it or not, this gob of Smelt in this picture was all in one Walleyes mouth when I netted it. I couldn’t believe my eyes! It wasn’t even one of the bigger ones! What a glutton! And almost all the others that are making it to the boat are spewing mouthfuls of bait as well including Emerald Shiners and even some Shad. What a feeding frenzy that is going on out there right now! It’s actually a miracle that with all that forage that’s out there and as full as they are that these fish will still hit a artificial lure. Fortunately they always have room for “just one more” Lol! So it is indeed now September. We’ve put that nasty windy August in the rear view mirror. What will September bring us? Lord only knows. I can’t imagine September being as bad as what we all just went through. Time will tell I guess. This most likely will be my last full bore fishing report for this year. I’ll have a little something for you in two weeks but it will most likely be me signing off for the season as trips begin to dwindle off and my attention will be focusing on winterizing and wrapping things up for another year. Talk to you one more time here in another couple of fast weeks... |
Fishing report for the week of August 20, 2023: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 23:50:23 8/19/23 |
Wind! Wind! And MORE wind! YIKES! After not complaining much this summer about the wind and rough water which is really a common occurrence on this huge body of water, this past two week period has been off the charts particularly nasty. For a summer period, the conditions out on the water have been more fall like then the “dog days of summer” like I had discussed in my previous report. Everyday and I mean practically EVERY day this past couple of weeks it’s been super windy out over the water making for very tough fishing conditions in the high waves and even multiple days where the entire charter fleet in Ashtabula cancelled their trips because it was just too rough to go period. No matter how bad you wanted to go or how big your boat was. The only thing the wind did was change directions and velocity on some days. It hit us on different days from all around the dial but one thing was always the same. It was very windy and very rough EVERY freakin day! And with the fish still so far offshore and having to practically creep out at a snails pace most mornings this made for really long bumpy boat rides out to the fishing grounds. I had many two hour boat rides out in the early morning darkness. Fished in rough conditions and then long bumpy rides home after still limiting out only to wake up the next day to the same nasty rough ass crap water. With a new and fresh eager crew we would head out again on the days that I thought we could get our trip in safely. But while they were fresh and eager, I was far from it. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt this beat up. All my joints hurt from these daily poundings. Every now and then this lake reminds me that this is a young mans game. With me in my 37th season now and myself being 65 years of age I also realize that my career is fast winding down. I just can not continue to take beatings like this summer after summer. We will finish out the remainder of this season and I really intend on being back next year but reality tells me that the end of chartering is nearing more quickly with each passing season now. I am just very tired and hurting as I sit here and try to put my thoughts in print on this Friday evening. Otherwise we continue to fish most days very close to the Canadian line, some 20 plus miles out. Once out there, fishing is still very good even though the younger undersized Walleyes are still making things quite difficult for us at times. With the very rough water, many days I elected to go with just Dipsy Divers only and we still got all of our fish! Dipsy leads have been longer to compensate for wave heights and that the fact the fish seemingly appear to be as deep as they have been all summer long now. I really believe most of our Walleyes are now down about 65 foot over about 72 plus foot of water. The few days that I ran the big boards I ran my big Thundersticks back about 330 foot with great results. But again, if we can get the job done with the shorter and quicker Dipsy Divers, why would we even want to deal with having to crank back a fish from some 450 to 500 foot back? (330 foot back plus the distance down the planer board line, well away from the boat) Also since we are still cycling through so many throw back fish the shorter Dipsys make the in and out again much more quicker for us. The problem has been many times you don’t even know that you are loaded up with babies. I just non stop keep checking rods anymore if I have a free moment. Again, very exhausting! So this will be my last report in this month of August. My next report will be posted in September and then the countdown to the end of my season will begin in earnest. I pray that the winds will finally ease and that these fish begin to move back in closer to the south shore, which they should do based on past yearly migration patterns. But this entire season has been far from normal. We never really had a good tight water bite early this season and then the fish moved way offshore much sooner then in past summers. The masses of undersized fish are really beefing up now although still not of legal length. Many now look like “they should make it” till you go and measure them. I’m sure by next summer they will but people will once again have to get used to the idea of much smaller rack fulls of fish. Really great eaters but not the world class huge Walleyes that the Ashtabula area is known for. It is what it is and I’m done speculating because usually what I tell people is going to happen doesn’t anyway. I guess I will just have to rest up this offseason and return next year to find out like everyone else! But first, we still got these next 5 weeks or so that we need to get through! |
Fishing report for the week of August 6, 2023: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 11:47:32 8/06/23 |
You can run, but you can’t hide! Well after moving out much, much further into the lake in an attempt to get away from the onslaught of under sized Walleyes, the little guys have found us again. Other then the insane fuel bills, it was pretty sweet there for a few weeks to be catching nice keeper after keeper without having to sort through all of the throw backs. But that all seemed to change dramatically this past week as tons of 12”-14” inchers started showing up even out there right along with all the keepers just like the inside waters provided us earlier this summer. So now we have both insane fuel bills AND have to deal with baby Hell out there! Again. Ha! But just like we’ve been doing so all year long, we just suck it up and deal with it each day. Man, unless something catastrophic happens to this lake, the Walleye fishing in this lake is set up to be something absolutely unreal for at least the next 10 years! Other then that, there is not much of anything new to report in this report. Limits are still a daily occurrence. Size remains decent with mostly just good eaters ending up in the box. Monsters are few and far apart this summer. The captains at River Marine again this summer are having their friendly fishing Calcutta tournament amongst the handful of boats that are docked there. As in past years, each captain throws in $50 bucks each week and the biggest Walleye each week wins the pot. But there’s a catch... the Walleye has to be at least a 9 pounder or better to even weigh and be considered. If nobody has a 9 pound or bigger fish, just like the Power Ball, the pot rolls over and everyone throws in another $50 bucks the following week and the pot just keeps growing. Well, I won it way back in June the very first week the contest kicked off this summer with a 9 1/2 pounder. But since then nobody including myself has even had a 9 pounder brought in on their boat to weigh. Some very nice fish but nothing much over 8 pounds. That tells a lot. These guys are all the best of the best at River Marine bringing in daily limits of Walleye, yet nobody is catching any real monsters. Very interesting. Also, after having a good run with the Steelhead Trout here in recent weeks they also have become quite illusive here as of late. Also interesting but honestly, that part doesn’t break my heart one bit! Lol! Fishing techniques are typical summer deep water set ups. For us aboard THE TROPHY, that means deep billed crank baits on wire fishing line. In my case we use the larger Storm Thundersticks fished back somewhere between 250’ to 300’ feet. Then it’s run out on the planer boards to each side of the boat and run out yet an additional 100’ to 150’ feet of line. Lots of reeling when a rod goes off! Even more frustrating when that fish happens to be one of those undersized throw backs! Ugh! Then 6 Dipsey Diver rods always go out and if we find the time, we throw out the 2 downriggers as well. On the Dipseys and the downriggers the only lure that I ever use any more is the larger sized Contender Spoons. I rarely do any promoting or endorsements of any products that I use but I can not say enough good about these Contender Spoons. They just plain work and work extremely well! Probably 75% of all the fish that we catch and highlight on all of our brag board rack shot pictures are caught on these Contender Spoons! They have a amazing selection of colors that hold their paint well and come with super quality split rings and treble hooks. They are very tough and don’t bend easily. They just plain outshine anything else out there on the market. That from me you can take to the bank whole heartedly! So it is now August. We are in a time period that is affectionately called “The dog days of summer”. Usually it’s the three H’s. Hot, humid and hazy. While the rest of the country has been blazing in record heat this summer, we have been spared of most of the uncomfortable weather and have been having relatively perfect temperatures. Coolish in the early morning hours and just pleasant by mid morning. Heck, I think we’ve only had like two 90 degree days up here this whole summer! That certainly does not make me mad! This coming week looks to be much of the same. We’ve had more Canadian forest fire smoke haze out there this summer then just the typical summer muggy haze that everyone usually expects this time of year. Now that’s been something else! Some really bizarre shrouded sun rises! That’s about it for this weeks report. We’ll see what these next couple of weeks bring us. |
Fishing report for the week of July 23, 2023: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 09:05:36 7/23/23 |
Simply fabulous fishing! And absolutely ridiculous fuel costs. More on the latter in a moment. Well, we finally figured out how to get away from all the baby Walleyes that have been driving everybody crazy all summer thus far. Go to another country to fish! Well, almost. For the last two weeks we have been making daily insanely long runs out to just shy of the Canadian border. And the fishing out there has been, well, simply fabulous! Some of the very nicest fish of the year to boot along with more then a generous portion of Steelhead Trout mixed in daily. It’s been like a three ring circus out there and on the nicer weather days, oh so much fun! But it all comes at a cost. And it’s not pretty. A average day now requires 50 miles of travel. And that is no exaggeration. On average, it’s 20 miles out. It requires about another 10 miles of trolling around to get a limit of fish for the day. And then again it’s about another 20 miles home. On average. Some days a tad more, some days a tad less. But definitely right around 50 miles on average. And like clockwork, my daily fuel bills at River Marines fuel prices hovering penny's short of $6 dollars a gallon have been $300 and plus dollars A DAY and around $2,100 plus weekly! Sickening. And along with the grueling long boat rides, engines and machinery wears out like crazy as well. This past week alone I had to replace a alternator, have work done on a distributor which most likely will end up needing replaced as well and do a oil change which is almost a weekly thing now at about $130 for oil and filters for both engines just for one change. Did I mention sickening? Therefore, this is the first time in 37 years that I have had to change our rates mid season but effective immediately and going forward, ALL CHARTER RATES ARE GOING UP BY $50 DOLLARS a trip. No exceptions! We have always specifically stated on our web site that “all rates are subject to change” With us now having to run incredibly far to the fishing grounds this summer and with marina gas at that dreaded $6 dollars a gallon I have no choice if I want to continue to remain in business. It just is not sustainable without adjusting our rates. And it’s not only just because of the fuel. Everything else has sky rocketed on me this summer as well. Dock rent, commercial insurance, it’s been one thing after another and ridiculously endless. I held off as long as I could... So that’s that. I think most all of my groups will more then understand. I’ve said it a thousand times before and I believe it with all my heart. I have the most loyal, longest running generous repeat guests that I am so proud to call all my friends. Never a customer! You guys are truly my guests that make this dream possible for me. We have been through a lot together and I am as always humbled by everyone's enthusiasm, loyalty and generosity. I know that you all want the most exiting and productive trip possible and I know that you wouldn’t want me to base my decision everyday where to fish by skimping on the miles that we have to go to get to the very best spots possible just to save on fuel. I promise I will never do that! Now let’s fuel that 200 gallon tank back up and get back out there! It is simply fabulous fishing out there, you know! |
Fishing report for the week of July 9, 2023: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 11:43:48 7/09/23 |
Marching right along. Our summer Walleye fishing season off of the Port of Ashtabula is proceeding very nicely. We’ve since flipped yet another page on the calendar and have put another holiday in the rear view mirror as well. I guess you could say that we are now in the heart of our season. The period between the 4th of July and Labor Day weekend is considered by many to be the peak of the peak of our Walleye fishing season here in the Central Basin. Seemingly every Walleye in the lake has now ended up here in our back yard as they do every year. Everybody is limiting out rather easily . And if you are not, perhaps Golf is more of your forte! Lol! Most anywhere you try it now off of Ashtabula there are plenty of Walleyes. Plenty of keepers and even more of the relentless onslaught of juvenile fish that seem to be getting worst and worst with each passing year. I’ve since given up on saying how next year is going to be the banner year with all these undersized fish becoming of legal size the next season. And I’m sure many do, but along comes next season and a even more massive swarm of the little buggers seem to show up just to make everyone's life even more trying. I know it’s taken a lot of the fun out of it for me. Relentless sorting of fish from the first line in to the last line out right now. None stop work with many tangles to deal with caused directly because of these little nuisance fish. Of all the reasons that over the years I have given thought about maybe hanging it up, I never imagined that it would be because there are just too many Walleyes in the lake! It’s simply exhausting work and frankly I’m getting quite tired of dealing with it. But for now, we battle on everyday and by days end after all of the sorting and cussing, we’ve been handsomely rewarded with massively full fish boxes of “good ones”. Ashtabula will never disappoint. It may try to break your spirit at times but if you suck it up and work as hard as you can the Walleye fishing is still world class and always will be. And I promise you there is nowhere on Earth where you can catch such beautiful fish like we do on a everyday basis day in and day out like we do here in the summer months. It’s simply amazing! And as a bonus, our Steelhead Trout mixed in along with our Walleyes makes it a even more amazing fishery if that is even possible. There are many people that travel super far and spend big money in pursuit of these silver bullets and we catch them all the time incidentally fishing for the Walleyes without even giving them a second thought! So that’s my bi weekly rant about all the dinky Walleyes that we have to cycle though each day nowadays. I’m still holding out hope that the problem eases some yet this summer but I just don’t know if it will at this point. There are just sooooo many of them out there. At least, that’s not the only thing we’re catching out there. And another positive thing is that the weather for the most part has been behaving very nicely for a change! Some really great summer like days to work with! And that alone makes me very happy! As I look at the various forecasts available to me, it looks like the trend will continue for a good spell to come as well. Double woot woot! By the time I check back in again, July will be about shot leaving about 6 more weeks of the best of the best of our season. Like I said, things are marching along nicely... |
Fishing report for the week of June 25, 2023: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 11:35:18 6/25/23 |
Going Good! Well we are nearly two months in now with our Ashtabula Ohio Walleye summer fishing season. And yes, it is officially now summer with the Summer Solstice ringing in this past Wednesday, June the 21st. And lately we’ve been getting some nice warm summer like temperatures. It wasn’t pretty but I finally also got brave enough to wear a pair of shorts out there on my charters this past week. Coincidentally, starting on the first day of summer! You want to talk about a white pair of legs! Lol! But till now, leaving in the dark in the early morning with air temps hovering around the upper 40’s and low 50’s with a cool wind blowing most days, wearing a pair of shorts just to be styling out there was the last thing on my mind! Water temperatures have also finally leap frogged to 67 degrees after struggling to reach 60 degrees for over a month. The warmer water temps also make it a lot more comfortable out there in a pair of shorts and a tee shirt even in the early morning. And as I started out saying, fishing is consistently very good now. There seems to be many different bands of Walleyes filling in from wherever they may be coming from out there. I pulled a couple trips off in 30 foot of water, spent a solid week back in the 50 to 60 foot range and the rest of my days well offshore 10 to 14 miles out. Every where I fished we caught good Walleyes. Unfortunately with the influx of new Walleyes spilling into the area, a onslaught of undersized smaller fish have followed them down the lake. Some days, almost unbearable. Going about as fast as we can go most mornings cycling thru keepers and throwbacks becomes exhausting! One for one isn’t too bad but when you start having to deal with 3 or 4 or even worst for every keeper that you get, well it’s time to just get out of Dodge and go looking for greener pastures! And that’s what I did. We left the ferocious fast and furious inside waters bite and returned back out there to the offshore fishery where bites are fewer and further apart but the quality of fish is better and there is less babies out there. The same place I found the fish two weeks ago but suddenly left them! Why I even left out there and came back to the inside waters and baby Hell, I’m not quite sure. Maybe it’s something to do with the marina fuel price hovering at $6.00 a gallon! And the fact that after much weeding threw, we were still able to pull limits of nice Walleyes a bit closer. But a man can only take so much punishment. When you literally can’t keep the little guys off your lines, it’s time to go back offshore no matter how ugly the fuel bills have already become this early in the summer! But even out there with each passing day we are starting to handle more and more of the dreaded throwbacks. Ugh! ENOUGH WITH THE RECORD WALLEYE HATCHES EACH YEAR MOTHER NATURE! I mean, SERIOUSLY! So we’ve had a perfect string of limit Walleye catches now since about Memorial Day. Some incredible rack fulls at that. This final picture featured here in my fishing report is from my annual visit of Iowa boys that come for two days and request a second boat each year to keep the party size down on each boat. I really appreciate that! Thank you Matt and Chris Hoopes for being my second boat! You guys did great! We did this same rack full both days with the boys taking home right around 120 Walleyes for the two days that they fished with us! Wow is all I can say! You guys will be eating a lot of tasty Walleye dinners! I rarely give out any names in my fishing reports like others do all the time on social media but I want to give Ron from Wisconsin and his group and Chad from Iowa and all of his guys that came out a special shout out. You guys were a ton of fun to run! I really, really do appreciate all of your friendship, laughs and generosity this year and all of the many, many past years that we’ve fished together. It’s been a heck of a run that we’ve all had! The only thing that I don’t appreciate is all of the threats that no way, no how can I retire till you guys grant me permission to do so! Just too funny and I guess I’ll be seeing you guys next year! Lol! |
Fishing report for the week of June 11, 2023: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 09:47:13 6/11/23 |
Finally! After a so, so month of fair to just good fishing, the last few days have been quite the opposite! Finally fast and furious fishing off of Ashtabula, Ohio is happening with a more then excellent grade of quality sized Walleyes and a handful of Steelhead and even a Coho Salmon thrown in for good measure! We’ve finally turned the corner with the water temperature and have crossed into that magical 60 degree plus mark that seems to be the most important ingredient to a consistently good bite around here. Something that should have happened well before Memorial Day but has just lagged and lagged this year due to our unusual cool spring thus far. Unfortunately the fish are not where they would or should be normally in the late spring and early summer. And just a reminder to everyone that summer doesn’t even officially start till June 21st. These fish should still be in the 40 to 50 foot of water range with some days even a good bite happening in the “skinny” water, 20 to 30 foot. None of the skinny water ever paid off for me this year and in hind site, I spent way too much time trying to get it going in there. We had a week or so where we did do the best in the 50 to 60 foot range but that was rather short lived as well. Most of our better catches till now have been in the 65 foot plus of water. And now, well into the 70’s, 10 to 12 miles and even more away from the harbor. Already. Ugh. And along with mid summer fish locations, we have also had to revert to mid to late summer fishing techniques to catch these offshore deep fish. That includes super deep long leads on Jet Divers, wire line and crank baits along with deep Dipsy Diver set ups and even finally a few downrigger fish! I had in desperation on some past days thrown down the downriggers in just to show 110% effort on my part but never caught anything on them till just a few days ago. Have we all missed these way offshore fish this spring? It’s a million dollar question. Fishing for weeks now by myself, I have had next to no help out there looking everyday with hardly anybody else running trips up until now. There’s a lot of water out there and I have personally been spending most of my time looking where “they are supposed to be”. Something to remember possibly for future years to come if we struggle in the water where “they are supposed to be”! If I’m still in business, Lol! So besides being happy that we are catching good fish well offshore, I am equally saddened that these long runs are starting up already. This is normally the part of the year where I make the bulk of my profits before everything starts going back into the gas tank. But things at the marina pumps are starting out quite painful already. Every tank of fuel that I have already purchased back at my dock thus far this season has been exactly at the ridiculous price of $6 dollars on the button a gallon! (insert shocked emoji face! Lol!) The only saving grace was I was only fueling up about every 3rd day. Well, that ship has now sailed and I am already burning more gasoline then that in just one trip! YIKES! As always, most of my guys are being super generous at the end of the day and that honestly is what keeps me interested and making these charters feasibly possible. Thank you so much guys! You really don’t want me to retire, do you! Lol! Fish on! |
Fishing report for the week of May 28, 2023: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 14:32:11 5/28/23 |
Fishing this month out of Ashtabula has been on the slower side for us aboard The Trophy. Though we have been catching fish with each outing, the days have been rather full with us working very hard for everything that we have managed to capture. Year number 37 for me is not starting out as I had hoped and as some of the past Mays have started in recent years with the fish on fire right out the gate. Such is the nature of the game of fishing I suppose. One never really knows! Blame it on our cooler then normal spring. After a unusually mild winter with little to no ice on the big lake, the “mild” winter just kind of dragged on and on into March and then April. May up on the water here in north east Ohio has been no picnic either with constant east winds and plenty of days of much cooler then normal temperatures for this time of year. Water temperatures have struggled to get into the low 50’s which is very cold for this time of year. And every time water temps do start to climb, we get a big easterly big blow that pushes more cold water into the area from the eastern and deeper colder part of the lake. Ugh! Otherwise, it's been the same old early season techniques and tactics as always for us in May. That means planer boards way out well away from the boat out in the quiet and undisturbed water targeting the higher stealth Walleyes that lurk just outside the watchful eye of the boats sonar systems. And running as many rods as we are legally allowed to run. Not that I really want to work that hard and run that many rods. But when you’re struggling to fill the box and want to give everyone 110% effort, you suck it up and do what you have to do. Tackle used includes rods with braid pulling either Jet Divers and little spoons or a variety of stick baits on braid rods. Same old, same old. So as I mentioned earlier, my 37th season of full time chartering is well underway now. I’ve now settled into my usual summer routines. Early to bed, up at a ungodly hour and off the dock in the pitch black darkness each morning. Make the run out to the days fishing grounds, get all the lines in the water and watch a incredible sunrise. Now that part of the job never gets old! Hopefully as we flip the calendar now to June already, the weather will break for good with summer like conditions sticking around daily and the fishing really heating up as well. I’m more then ready for those mornings where you can hardly get a rod in the water without a hungry Walleye grabbing it! I just know it will break loose any day now and Happy Days will be here again for the rest of the season! I can’t wait! |
Fishing report for the week of April 3, 2023: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 03:24:36 4/03/23 |
Fishing Reports will resume next month! Check back soon! Capt. Walt www.trophycharters.com |
Fishing report for the week of January 1, 2023: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 16:19:14 1/01/23 |
Happy New Year Walleye fishing fans! Here we are, nearing the halfway point of the off-season. It’s been a real roller coaster of a ride weather wise thus far this winter especially here close to Lake Erie with several dramatic lake effect dumps,record cold temps and unbelievable winds. And then each time just a few days later it’s back into the 50’s! Just crazy! At the height of the Christmas weekend storm winds were clocked at 70 mph plus off of Ashtabula Harbor with waves to nearly 30 ft! I bet my Walleyes were out there thinking like, WTF! Lol! Hopefully Mother Nature gets all this crazy weather out of her system and we can return to smooth sailing when we really need it and believe me, it will be here before you know it. Everyone knows how fabulous the Walleye fishing was last summer so there is no need to rehash all of that. In fact, most of you that have fished with me over the This fun and successful fishing is what is keeping me in the game. Although retirement is beckoning and my body is telling me that it is really time, we are Capt. Walt |
Fishing report for the week of September 25, 2022: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 10:52:07 9/25/22 |
And that’s a wrap. Just like that the fishing season of 2022 is in the books for The Trophy. My 36th year of full time chartering and guiding on Lake Erie. Every season seems to fly by faster then the previous one. This year was filled with plenty of highs and lows as every year seems to hold. The Walleye fishing itself was pretty much outstanding. That in itself seems to be getting even better with each passing year if that is even possible. It has lured a whole onslaught of young captains on to the scene that now think they’ve really done something when they limit out. Lol! I often wonder to myself how many of these young guys will see season number 36 in the books as I have now and ride out some of the leaner years like I have I seen over my long career. Most likely leaner times will return someday down the road. But like they say, when it’s easy, anybody can do it. The weather on the other hand is a very level playing field year after year on Erie. When it’s crappy out there, it’s crappy for everyone. Once again like every year we saw plenty of the good, the bad and the ugly on the big lake this year as far as weather goes. There's just no getting around that when fishing Lake Erie. All I know is that the older I get the more I hate fishing on these rougher water days. Perhaps some year soon all those young captains can have it all. But hopefully it will not be next year. I plan on being back for season #37 so hold on to your dates! As I do at the end of each season, I would like to take this time to thank each and every one of you that fished with me this past summer. I’ve said it before and I believe it with all my heart, I have the very best crews that anybody could ever want on their charter boat. We’ve become great friends over all these years and you guys are the reason that I keep pushing on year after year. It humbles me and amazes everyone else how long so many of you have been fishing with me now. Incredible loyalty! This year was financially troubling with all operating costs sky rocketing. Marina fuel prices were the very worst with gasoline costing more then $7.00 a gallon most of the season back dockside. Ouch! But absolutely every group that I took out dug deep into their pockets at the end of the day to help ease this pain at the pump for me. I just don’t know how to express my sincere gratitude! And we pulled it off! With everyone's generosity it was still a profitable year for me even with all the challenges that we faced. I am proud to announce right here and now that barring anything unforeseen I see no reason to increase any of my rates for next year as so many of my fellow captains keep talking about as this season winds down. You guys are the very best and I know I can count on everybody's generosity in the coming year(s) So with all of that, again I say THANK YOU to all of you and I look forward to seeing everyone back on The Trophy in 2023. Till then, stay warm everyone, stay safe and Happy Holidays! |
Fishing report for the week of September 11, 2022: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 12:03:32 9/11/22 |
Winding down fast now. Another fast two weeks has slipped us by. After a couple of near perfect weather weeks leading up to my previous fishing report, these past two weeks were more resemblant of typical September weather around here. Some dead calm days. Some choppy and yucky days where we still fished. And sadly again several flat out no go days where it didn’t matter how big your boat was or how bad you wanted to go fishing. Lake Erie simply said no. Trips for many charters including myself have started to thin out since the Labor Day holiday has come and gone. Kids are back to school now. After school sports practices and weekend kid events dictate many parents turn their attention to other things other then fishing. Hunting seasons which are just around the corner now will steal the attention of many other sportsmen. Most fishermen by now have plenty of fillets in their freezers already. Yes, things are winding down fast around here. Even though the Walleyes haven’t gotten the memo! Fishing is still very strong with perfect scores of full limits on the halfway decent weather days. A bit tougher when you are battling the heavy seas. Aboard The Trophy it’s looking like we will be able to round out our remaining trips doing what we have been doing here for the last month or so. And that is just to run Dipsy Diver rods only. What a pleasant experience that is to be able to focus on just six Dipsy rods rather then those same six rods plus all the additional planer board rods too. I don’t know how I did it so many years before when fishing wasn’t as good running 14 or 16 rods all day long with no first mate to help me most of the time. I guess being much younger helped! But now with the lake literally so polluted with Walleyes and them biting as fast as they do on most days, there really is no need to do so. Unless you’re one of those people that want to catch them as fast as humanly possible and run hot all the way back to the harbor just so you can brag on Facebook or elsewhere how you caught them all in about a hours time. Not me. I’m never in that big a hurry! Lol! The Walleyes as predicted are starting to move back in pretty good now even though the water temperatures have been reluctant to start dropping. Temps are still holding pretty steady in the 70’s. Pretty warm for almost mid September. We are still catching plenty of Steelhead well offshore also so they don’t seem to be in any rush to head up any streams or rivers any time soon from what I’m seeing. A remarkably quiet hurricane season on the east coast has prevented us from getting any prolonged North Easters here on the great lakes so I don’t see any drastic changes in the Walleye fishing for us any time soon either. In fact the weather looks to be quite stable for at least the next handful of upcoming days. This might end up being one of our nicer Septembers actually. No complaints from me if that holds to be true. And I’m going to end this report with some incredibly sad news from my little marina, River Marine where The Trophy is docked. One of our fellow and most active captains, Jeff Fisher who now owns and runs the Taylor Made Charters unexpectedly passed away this weekend in his sleep and just did not show up for his charter the next morning. Jeff was truly one of the best of the best and learned so much of what he knew from Captain Taylor Click before Taylor retired from chartering and sold the boat to Jeff. Jeff took the business to new heights and built up a clientele that most captains on Lake Erie could only dream about. He worked very hard at what he did and none of his guests ever left disappointed. He consistently put his guys on fish even when so many others struggled on the tougher days. Jeff always showed mad respect towards my wife Joyce and I and affectionately called us “Mom & Dad” down there! I really struggled with the decision as to whether or not to share this sad news here in my report but so many of you who fish with me all know all the other guys down there. We’ve all visited and partied together year after year as the days catch is being cleaned at the end of the trip. Jeff's boat was the maroon and gray Cherokee identical to mine and was docked the closest to the draw bridge. Here is a fairly recent picture of Captain Jeff (center). I’m sure many of you will recognize him from this photo. He was only in his late 40’s. Rest in peace Captain Jeff. You will be dearly missed but never forgotten. Fish strong my friend. |
Fishing report for the week of August 28, 2022: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 10:32:30 8/28/22 |
Winner winner chicken dinner! We managed to capture yet another monster this past week aboard The Trophy to again win my little marinas “just for fun” captains tournament. Back in early July I wrote about a nine and a half pounder that we caught that gave me the bragging rights for River Marines captains only Calcutta. In that report I described it like this: Just for fun and for bragging rights, each week all 7 captains at River Marine throw in $50 bucks and whosever boat brings in the biggest Walleye that week, the captain wins the entire pot! The only catch is that it has to be at least nine pounds to qualify! If nobody has a nine pounder that week to weigh, everybody throws in another $50 bucks and the previous weeks money rolls over and builds the pot. The first picture here shows a beautiful ten and a half pounder that we caught in the early morning pre dawn darkness this past week on a Dipsy Diver and a Contender Spoon. It was the first rod out that particular morning and in the #1 position at a 110 ft. back. It wasn’t in the water but a minute when the rod doubled over and had the drag peeling. When I handed the rod off to the lucky angler that drew the first fish honors for the day, I knew that it was a beast and possibly a contest contender! And when the fish finally surfaced under all of my lights, I was like HOLY COW! It looked like a friggin Alligator with huge red glowing eye balls! What a fish! I was actually going to open up this week's fishing report with a catch phrase that I haven’t used much this year if at all. Gorgeous weather! After the brutal last handful of weeks that we had with high winds, big waves, thunder storms and incredible heat and humidity daily, we FINALLY had a two week prolonged period of nothing but delightful weather. Waves even well off shore were predicted to be one foot or less daily day after day. And most days it was. A few days it was actually just a bit more then that but still very comfortable and easily manageable. A far cry from what we had been dealing with. And temperatures most of these days was a pleasant 70 some degrees also. Oh the luck of the draw when you schedule these trips. It almost isn’t fair how some of my guests almost always happen to land on the really nice days while others seem to always draw the short end of the straw and get stuck fishing in crap weather year after year. Almost uncanny how that seems to work! And this welcome change of nice weather came just in the nick of time. I myself couldn’t take much more of the daily beatings that I was taking. That’s one thing to come up for your yearly fishing trip and getting roughed up a little. It’s another thing to be the captain of the boat with all the stress and responsibility that goes with the job waking up every morning to the same old crap day after day. Simply exhausting! But as I have have been describing all summer long now whether it be the lake is rough or very nice, the Walleye fishing is simply just fabulous day after day, week after week and month after month. What a fishery that we are blessed with! It just never has been this good as things are now these last few years. And each year these last few years somehow, someway it manages to get better with each passing year then it was the year before. Truly unbelievable! With us leaving super early each morning like we like to do, most days we are amongst the first few boats back each day to the dock. While visiting with my guests each day while they wait to have their fish cleaned, I am simply amazed by the daily onslaught of boats pouring back in and heading south each morning. Done! Like a parade every time the lift bridge goes up another group of boats, mostly all charters are all heading back to their docks further up river. Almost every day I point out to my guys, see all those boats heading that way? Every one of them is limited out no matter how many guys you see on the boat. If they were not, you wouldn’t see them back this early and all heading back up river. And this goes on every day, day after day after day. An amazing amount of Walleyes coming out of the lake each day and this is just one harbor of many! The same thing is going on in every port and harbor up and down the whole south shore of Erie! Like I said, what a fishery! So another month is practically in the books now. In a couple of more days it will be September. My final month of fishing. Some go longer. By about now though I’ve personally had enough and by the end of September I for sure will be ready for a respite. The fish are already showing signs of coming back to shore some. Hopefully this trend will continue and this nice stretch of weather will continue as well making it easier for my last month. It’s always a good feeling to end my season on a high note rather then be totally beat up and frustrated when I put the boat away. I am to the point of my career now where I really don’t have to be doing this if I don’t want to. I continue to do so each year because I don’t want to let so many of you that I now consider my friends down. I know how much so many of you enjoy fishing with me and being on the super cool tricked out TROPHY! You can all thank the really great and super exciting Walleye fishing that has exploded here in these recent years for me sticking around as long as I have. Otherwise I would have most likely gone into retirement about 6 years ago when I hit my goal of making it 30 years. Man has that ship sailed already! Lol! Oh well. We’ll try to make it this one last month of this year and then get some rest over the winter and set our sites on next year, my 37th season. Yikes! But just like I described the Walleye fishing. It’s now down to one day at a time, one week at a time and one month at a time. And then and only then, one year at a time. We shall see. Talk to you guys again in September... |
Fishing report for the week of August 14, 2022: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 12:23:19 8/14/22 |
Fish, eat, sleep. Wash, rinse and repeat. Four months into the season now and things are becoming just a blur anymore for me. It’s truly like the movie Ground Hog Day. Every morning the alarm goes off at 2:30am and my day begins. A quick shower, fix a bowel of Cheerios and make my thermos of coffee. Sitting down to enjoy my cereal I check my emails and the latest weather updates. My go to apps in the exact order is first I check the current wind reports at the Fairport, OH light house which is approximately 28 miles to the west of Ashtabula. Since our weather most always moves from west to east, that gives me a sense of what to expect in Ashtabula in about an hour. Secondly I check the iWindsurf hourly graphic predictions for the day for Conneaut OH which is approximately 14 miles to the east of Ashtabula. And lastly, I check the National Weather Service’s official offshore forecast for Ashtabula, OH for waters beyond 5 nautical miles of shore. Most mornings these last few weeks after taking in all of this data, I’ve felt like throwing my cereal right back up that I had just ate. Nothing but wind, wind, wind everyday. Ugh. Although this past two week period wasn’t quite as brutal as the prior two weeks before that which I had wrote about in my last report, it was far from a real nice stretch of weather wind wise. I don’t know what it is always this time of year with the strong south west winds but man has it been ever relentless these last few weeks. We did have a few rare delightful days in this last period but only to be greeted the very next day with strong wind and heavy seas. A couple days again where it was just too rough to even go. Seems like so many times my fishing reports are dominated by me talking about all the wind that we have been dealing with but this sport is so weather driven and when we are fishing this heavy offshore it is the single most important thing that we face each day. My day starts each day with me studying the mornings weather and ends with me pouring over all of my sources for tomorrows weather. Wash, rinse and repeat. And again like a broken record, fishing remains quite excellent. Limit catches are the norm and to be expected. Even fishing in some very difficult conditions. Not much has changed out there. We are still out 15 miles plus most days and the fish are quite deep. Aboard The Trophy, I can’t remember the last time that we used planer boards. Our Dipsy Divers have kept us very busy and and are quick in and quick out. Nobody wants to reel fish in from 400 to 500 foot behind the boards if we don’t have to. So we’ve limited our rod count down significantly and have just concentrated on the Dipsys. Contender large spoons have been very deadly for us behind the Dipsys. I just love those things and apparently the Walleyes do too! On a few days if I have enough time I’ve been dropping the downriggers down to about 60 foot with the same Contender spoons as well and they have contributed nicely also to the days catch. The size of the Walleyes continues to be a very pleasant mixed bag of just keepers to very nice sized Walleyes and everything in between. It has been a real representation of all of the highly successful hatches that we've had these past half dozen years or so. This trend should continue for us for years to come. A real mix of different sizes. So just like that it’s mid August already. And as I mentioned earlier on it has become a real blur for me by now. Only 6 more weeks of fishing after this weekend left for me. That means only 3 more reports after this one for those of you that enjoy following along online. I sure hope that I have more to talk about in my last few reports other then the dang weather and all this wind! Otherwise, everything is the same ole, same ole. I guess that’s a good thing. Check back soon... |
Fishing report for the week of July 31, 2022: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 23:59:38 7/30/22 |
Words... It’s funny how something mentioned just in passing can come back to really bite you in the butt. In my last report I casually mentioned “Weather has been rather decent and pretty typical of our average north east Ohio summers as well. We’ve only lost a handful or so of trips due to high wind days thus far and I would say that’s better then average as well for us” describing how the weather has treated us so far this season on Lake Erie. Well I’m telling you, boy did I ever jinx myself! These past two weeks were the most relentless non stop super windy days this whole entire season. To the point where I lost four trips altogether and probably should have cancelled another four trips that were pretty miserable. At least for me they were miserable fighting a bad hip this year. The balance of the rest of the days were no picnic either. Just non stop west by southwest strong winds that seemingly blew all day and all night for the entire last two week period only interrupted by the occasional day that it blew just as hard out of the northwest. Man do I feel beat up. And I also happened to mention that the fish weren't that terribly far out yet. YET! Ha! Boy did that seem to change overnight as well. Just in time for the super windy, super rough days to arrive the bigger schools of fish have slipped yet another 7 or 8 miles further out then just two weeks ago. Runs of 15 to 20 miles are now common place. Even under ideal conditions the rides are long and grueling. Wear and tear on machinery is dramatically increased and always a worry with engines turning high RPM’S hours on end not to mention horrific fuel consumptions for these long trips. And the rougher the lake, the more we burn. Although relief on the street with gas prices has been trickling downward here lately, we’ve yet to see any real drop in marina fuel prices sold on the waterfront. I used to really enjoy the adventure of these long offshore trips. But anymore with all my physical aches and pains and the big pain at the pump that we are experiencing this summer, it’s not so much for me this year. Perhaps if the frigging wind would ever back off for a week or so I might feel at least a little more optimistic about it all. It’s just been a tough two weeks! What hasn’t changed is how good the fishing is once you get to the fishing grounds. The fish could care little how rough the lake is or how expensive the gas is for you to get to them. They are plentiful way out there and they are hungry! Fishing has been more then excellent! And the size continues to be a pleasant mix of all different sized year classes. True monsters have been rare but we are getting a good many 24 to 26 inch fish. Really nice Walleyes! Steelhead continue to be hit or miss even that far out in the cooler deeper water where usually it’s more common to find them. This past week I had a fellow onboard that had fished for them in the Michigan rivers before but told me that his bucket list item was to catch one here in Ohio. Well I made sure he was going to be on the rod should one go off with a silver bullet. And along with a full limit of Walleyes that we caught that day, my guest had his chance with four Steelies that we hooked up with him landing two out of the four. Not a bad average! I don’t think I’ve seen anyone happier in a long time! Lol! Then other days we go all day long and never even hook one up. Weird. So tomorrow is August already. Another fast month is about in the books. I would imagine these long runs that we’re making is going to go on for a while now. Nothing really new. These Walleyes follow the same patterns year after year. What we can look forward to is that usually when September rolls around they start steadily marching back southward reversing this crazy outbound march as the water temps start to lower. The same thing happens year after year. Hopefully we got our rough water over with for a while now and all we have to worry about is just the hot days as we enter the “Dog Days of Summer”! As if we haven’t really had enough 90 degree plus days this summer! Even with all the gusty strong south west winds that we’ve had these past two weeks, almost everyday these winds ushered in super charged hot air. What a bubble of heat most of this country has been locked in now for weeks. We’ll see how it all plays out going forward. So fishing is really good. River Marine where The Trophy is docked has built us two new fish racks And so I thought it would be only fitting to feature all fish rack shots for this weeks pictures! Enjoy! |
Fishing report for the week of July 17, 2022: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 09:48:54 7/17/22 |
Not much new to report on. As we approach and now pass the mid point of my season and pretty much everybody's Walleye season here off of the Port of Ashtabula, there is just not a whole lot of new news to discuss. The Walleye fishing remains very good as it has been. The fish do seem to finally be staging a bit further off shore but not as horribly far offshore yet as is sometimes the case in past years by now. At least not yet anyway. The size is getting much better but there are still a lot of of the three year old fish that have been really dominating this years catches up and down the entire lake showing up even further offshore.. That’s not saying that we are not getting any larger fish because we are and it actually seems to be getting better now with each passing day if I do I dare say. Almost everyday there is at least a couple of handfuls of really nice sized Walleyes hanging in everybody's rack shot pictures. They are just not as plentiful as are these younger Walleyes. But action is action and we are all very busy catching all of these great eating fish! Aboard The Trophy, most days we are simply using only Dipsey Divers to get the job done. We could just as easily use everything at our disposal including the planer boards and even the downriggers. The question becomes however, how fast do you really want to catch them? Everyone knows you will get your fish no matter what you do. It’s been just that kind of a great season. So why not drag it out some for your guests. And that’s exactly what I have have been trying to do for my guys that choose to fish with me. And even though at times it may seem like we are back rather early ourselves, you have to understand that we equally leave very early each day. Beings the very first ones out, we get to enjoy the spectacular LED light show The Trophy puts on as we travel in the quiet early morning darkness guided by radar and powerful spotlights with not a sole to be seen anywhere. The whole time while the music videos are playing on the boats big screen for your in flight entertainment! Lol! And we never get to miss out on seeing a spectacular sun rising out of the water each and every day and let me tell you, that really never gets old! And so I have no real big news as far as the fishing goes but there is super HUGE news for the Ashtabula Harbor district area itself that will impact all of us that run charters down here in the harbor and all of you, our loyal guests. We are getting a brand new hotel! It’s being built right next to the well known and beautiful Ashtabula draw bridge where The Trophy is docked. Ground has broke recently for the new Riverbend Hotel & Suites being built on the south west corner of where the bridge is located. It will be a cozy small hotel but will have 30 rooms that are said to will be spacious, comfortable and highly amenitiized. Rooms and suites will all be individually styled so that no two rooms will be the same. And maybe the coolest thing of it all will be a new roof top bar on the very top of this hotel that will overlook the whole harbor area including the lift bridge and River Marine where The Trophy is docked along with breath taking views of both the river and the lake and all of Bridge Street! I see sunset cocktails in our future and all within spitting distance of the boat. This will add to your options of lodging choices while staying in Ashtabula for your future fishing trips. The completion of the new hotel is said to be by next summer but that might be a stretch in my own personal opinion. But we’ll see. For more information, copy and paste this into your browser: https://www.theriverbendhotel.com/home So that’s about it for yet another couple week fishing time period. Fishing is really good. The size of fish keeps getting much better. Weather has been rather decent and pretty typical of our average north east Ohio summers as well. We’ve only lost a handful or so of trips due to high wind days thus far and I would say that’s better then average as well for us. We all know many years it is so much more worse by now. We’ll see how the rest of the season plays out as we approach the 2022 hurricane season. And yes, we do not get hurricanes on Lake Erie but we do get the wrap around effects when these storms go up the east coast which usually gives us deep low pressure systems over the lake that brings us strong North Easters here on Lake Erie. These systems sometimes shut us down for multiple days at a whack. Fingers crossed that is not the case this year. It’s already been a financially troubling season with the fuel prices and what not. We don’t want to start loosing a whole bunch of scheduled trips on top of all of that. So tight lines for now and fish on! |
Fishing report for the week of July 3, 2022: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 11:34:19 7/03/22 |
Still a few big ones around! They are just few and far between. We are witnessing probably the biggest slaughter of Walleyes that I have ever seen here in the Ashtabula area. Everyone and I mean everyone is limiting out and limiting out easily everyday. Problem is (if it is a problem?) that so many of them are cookie cutter identical twins. 16” to 18” inchers. Some days almost the entire catch. I am guessing that these are all 3 year old fish. There must have been a unbelievable hatch back in 2019 that was just simply off the charts. And we thought 2015 was a monstrous crop! What is going on is certainly unprecedented. Odd thing is that all these fish had to be undersized juveniles last summer. I sure don’t remember handling this many throwbacks last year. Where were all these fish last year? But still if you put in enough days and enough hours, on certain days if you’re one of the luckier groups you do manage to come up with some real dandies. Just not as many as we are all accustomed to doing so here in recent years. My first picture featured in this weeks report is a beautiful nine and a half pound Walleye we caught a week ago aboard The Trophy that won me the weekly pot in River Marine's little River Marine captains only “Calcutta” tournament. Just for fun and for bragging rights, each week all 7 captains at River Marine throw in $50 bucks and whosever boat brings in the biggest Walleye that week, the captain wins the entire pot! The only catch is that it has to be at least nine pounds to qualify! If nobody has a nine pounder that week to weigh, everybody throws in another $50 bucks and the previous weeks money rolls over and builds the pot. Kind of like a mini Power Ball! Lol! Ironically it was exactly a year ago the very same week that I won a pot that had been building for 3 weeks with a ten pound monster. The pot this time around was only a single weeks worth because the week before my buddy Capt. Rick with the Tricky Rickey Charters also docked at River Marine won it with a nine and a quarter pound beauty. Like I said, there’s still a few big ones around! After claiming in my last report that things were heating up out in 70 ft. plus of water, strangely enough it seems like the bulk of the fish have shifted again back southward into the much shallower water where they are usually only found in May and early June. Aboard The Trophy this past week we chased the fish into water as shallow as 41 ft. Some nice chunky “eaters” in there and easy limits. But I never commit to just one depth. The wind always dictates where exactly I start. Every week I look at many different water depths. We had several heavy north winds in the past couple weeks where we were forced to start well offshore so we can put them on the tail and troll south with the wind and the waves giving all my guests the most comfortable ride possible. And that’s how I am rather confident that the fish have abruptly shifted their typical slow methodical march northward and actually appear to be holding out in the 50 ft. range. Plus or minus 10 ft. or so depending on the day. The fishing never got good till we got way shallower. Really weird. We should all be fishing in 70 ft. plus everyday now. But at least for now, that is not the case. So we have now flipped the calendar to July already. Couple more weeks and I’ll have hit the mid point of this fishing season for myself. I still hold out hope that a massive school of larger fish arrives sometime soon. But for now at least we are catching fish and lots of them at that. It could be much, much worst I suppose. Rather then huge Walleye hatches year after year now ever since 2015 we could have had poor to non existent hatches just as easily. I’ve lived through some of those years too and let me tell you, it’s not that fun staring at rods all day praying for a bite either. So far everyone has handled these smaller fish days better then I have and as it should be I suppose. The trip should be all about the outing itself and doing something that you just don’t get to do everyday. Catching fish should always just be a bonus! Although we all know that’s not necessarily the case for some people! Lol! But rest assured, I am trying my very, very hardest to catch everyone whoppers. After all, there’s this little contest... Ha! |
Fishing report for the week of June 19, 2022: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 06:41:19 6/19/22 |
And the beat goes on. Fishing off of Ashtabula Ohio Harbor remains more than EXCELLENT as we approach the latter part of the month of June now and with the metrological first day of summer approaching this coming week as well. Even though we've already had plenty of 90 degree plus days thus far in this month of June! Fortunately aboard THE TROPHY with us leaving at a ridiculously early hour of the morning our departure times have paid huge dividends for us. We have been able to beat the crazy heat of the day by finishing up much sooner than most and having lines in the water when the bite is the most active. Most days there are no long lines at the fish cleaning station when we get back in and things are really nice and tranquil. A far cry from an hour or so later when every charter boat in the harbor all seemingly hits the docks all at the same time! The fish continue their slow methodical northward trek into the deeper cooler water well north of the harbor just like they do every summer. It’s almost uncanny how repetitious things are out there from one summer to the next. Fishing starts out near shore with the fish high in the water column and as the water warms, just like clockwork they start moving out further and further and dropping deeper and deeper into the same water. We’ve hit what I like to consider an important threshold where the water temps have now reached 70 degrees and a lot of the fish are now in likewise in 70 foot of water. Crossing the “70 & 70”! We are already in near wire line fishing territory as the month winds down. I may as early as this coming week start to dabble with some wire line and Jr. Thunder Sticks. Just like I have for the past 35 years! Perhaps we can start to find and catch a slightly better grade of fish by doing so. Although fishing has been on fire for us aboard The Trophy, the size of the average fish this summer leaves a lot to be desired. Just as it has been for everyone. Limits have been very common and fast and furious but it’s been next to impossible to get away from yet another invasion of the 16 to 18 inch fish this season. Definitely all great “eaters” but a far cry from the average size from years past and what we have all grown accustomed to fishing back in the 80’s, 90’s and early 2000’s. It’s been tough though lately with Mother Nature continuously throwing us new record setting hatch year after year since 2015 now. We are all trying our hardest to catch bigger fish for our guests but there is just only so much you can do. It is what it is though. Sometimes you just have to take what the lake gives you and be happy about it! That includes even the captain! So summer marches on, gas prices at the marina continue to creep upwards each week and dealing with all of these younger Walleyes including tons of undersized throwback fish is all starting to get just a bit old. I guess with having lived through some of the very best Central Basin Walleye fishing that anyone can ever imagine along with dirt cheap fuel prices back in the day, things nowadays look somewhat grim. I often wonder to myself how things will be in the coming years. I hope to still be giving it Hell out there but frankly I am glad that the better part of my career is now in the rear view mirror. So many things are working against us now. Fuel is only just one thing that is concerning. It’s just everything. I just bought five cases of motor oil for the boat the other day which I will easily blow through before this season winds down. Before tax, it was $110 a case! I almost gagged! Can you even imagine? I never thought I would see the day. Oil filters have sky rocketed too. Just everything is nutzso. Again, I am blessed with the very best generous clientele on the entire lake. You guys continue to come through for me. Year after year. Big fish, smaller fish. Fast & furious fishing and tougher days both. You guys are the reason that I am inspired to keep on playing this game. You still make it fun for me and feasible. Excuse my mind wandering here. I usually save all of my sincere thanks to all of you for my very final fishing report of the year but you know what, sometimes it just feels good just to reinforce my genuine gratitude to everyone a little more frequently. Thank you! |
Fishing report for the week of June 5, 2022: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 10:15:01 6/05/22 |
Going good! The last time I posted a couple weeks ago I mentioned that the fishing had improved dramatically for me in the last few days leading up to me writing that report. We have not looked back since then! Fishing has remained very solid for us aboard The Trophy with I believe perfect limit catches for all of my charter guests ever since. I won’t say all the days have been super easy but by the end of the day each day that we fished we ended up with some very respectable catches! We have gone from having the lake all to ourselves for nearly a month to now having to watch out for other boats every day that seemingly always decide to fish exactly where I am as soon as I get spotted. The dramatic shift in fishing pressure predictably came right on que with the Memorial Day Weekend that has now come and gone. Almost comical as big as the lake is to see boats run straight up to me and start throwing out their gear. SMH. (shake my head) Some things never change! And I haven’t been hard to find either. At marina fuel prices just shy of $7.00 dollars a gallon at the marina pumps, I’ve been reluctant to just run way down the lake just to get away from everybody like I’ve always done early in the season in past seasons when the fish are in close like they are now. This relentless nonstop climb in fuel prices each week is very troubling. I’ve weathered many business related crises in my 36 year career (thus far). Will this be the straw that breaks the Camel’s back? With a 200 gallon tank and a very thirsty gas guzzling boat each day, you can see my very real concern! Ugh. So by not doing weekly reports anymore the problem become which four pictures do I feature from so many trips and fine catches over the span of two weeks. Do I go with all rack shots or do I highlight some of the exceptionally big Walleyes that we manage to catch here and there on an almost daily basis. Tough choices! But every now and then we catch something so out of the norm that it just has to be shown. So for my fourth picture of choice in this week’s report, enjoy this picture of a behemoth Catfish that we landed this past week while trolling for Walleye! What a struggle that was to land against the tow of the boat! Ha! The fish cleaners weighed it at the end of the day and it went exactly 20 pounds! Did I mention frigging BEHEMOTH? Yikes! Lol! Capt. Walt |
Fishing report for the week of May 22, 2022: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 10:41:57 5/22/22 |
Kind of slow. That pretty much sums it up for me. All week long I've been out there fishing everyday as the lone wolf. No other boats. No other help. No problem. I just went out there and did my own thing everyday like I have been doing for 36 years straight now. And in my humble opinion, it’s been just that so far. Kind of slow. Not the worst that I’ve ever seen it for this time of year. But not the best either. But more then good enough really. And for that I feel very blessed. We’re putting in longer days everyday. But at the end of the day we have been getting a respectable box of fish. I was actually preparing to sit down this Friday evening as I always do when I write these reports and write about how very slow it’s been thus far this year for me. As you know I’m never afraid to tell it exactly the way it is. But in the last few days things have picked up dramatically for me. Maybe still not limits quite everyday, but more then good enough as far as I am concerned. This shot of heat that we’ve had this past week has made all the difference in the world. Only a week ago the surface temperatures everywhere that I had ventured was right around 46 degrees. In one weeks time it has shot up by nearly 10 degrees plus! At least on the surface that is. That is huge! And I tell everyone as I always have, when the lake temperature hits a true 60 degrees, not just the surface temperature, it’s GAME ON everywhere up here! We are sooooo close to that now! As I sit here and write this short recap of this past weeks fishing, I see nothing but warm temperatures heading our way in the coming days. I fully expect to report back in two weeks that it’s on like Donkey Kong! Ha! I personally have not been able to get much going in the real skinny water. I know others that are catching some in there. I guess I’ve always been just destined to fish in the deeper water further out. 50 to 60 ft. has been OK for us. Not a real burn like we would all like, but just OK. As far as I can tell, most all of our fish are being caught in the 20 to 30 ft. below the surface range. Tru Trip Jet divers and little Stinger spoons have been our weapons of choice. No surprise there. Big Contender spoons off of the Dipsys have contributed for a few as well each day. I’ve yet to catch one this year off of a downrigger however. I don’t know why I continue to waste my time on those things other then the fact that I love to fish with them. By far they are our least productive rods regardless of the time of year sadly. But as long as I have the time to do so, I will continue to play with them until I eventually start pulling at least a few on them. And when things are slow, every fish that goes on the counter regardless of how you caught it is very valuable! So soon I’ll have already been in the water for almost a month. Memorial Day weekend is next weekend already! Just unbelievable! Between now and then, the other boats will really start to show up here in Ashtabula. Recon and data from other skilled anglers will start to pile in more freely. In all honesty it all makes my job easier as I take into consideration what everyone else is doing and where they are catching. There are more then enough fish for everyone to go around and working together is not a bad thing. If I could only convince the other captains up this way to start much sooner! Lol! We’ll see how these next couple of weeks play out. I’m already anxiously awaiting June and a lot of those easier days. But for now we’ll take what the lake gives us this remainder of May and try to be happy about it! |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of May 8, 2022: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 06:02:10 5/08/22 |
She is back in the water and she is STUNNING! “The Trophy” has NEVER looked better, not even when she left the factory brand spanking new way back when I do believe. And no matter how hard I work here in the coming months, it will all seem like a picnic compared to how hard I worked giving “The Trophy” a total make over during the off season. I guess the idea to go completely overboard and totally recondition the already in great shape “Trophy” for this year stems back to me going to the Miami International Boat Show this winter and seeing all of those highly polished gleaming gems sitting both in the big showrooms and on the water. I thought to myself, hey these boats don’t have anything on my girl! And so I set off to work. And since I don’t have a fishing report for you guys yet, I thought I would tell my story here about what all I went through to put on a new high tech Ceramic coating on all of my boats surfaces to replace years and years of wax build up, oxidization and minor scratches here and there. Disclaimer* This is going to be a long winded, detailed non fishing tale about what all I had to do to restore “The Trophy” to better then new condition! I have been very intrigued here lately with the new high tech super glossy Ceramic coatings that have really gotten popular in recent years and is taking the automotive and marine detailing world by storm. The only thing that prevented me from trying it sooner was knowing that all of the surfaces that you want to coat have to be absolutely immaculate and surgically clean! No swirls, scratches, oxidization, old waxes or polishes, dirt or stains. No grease or oils, not even from a thumb or finger print! No soap or cleaning residues of any kind! Did I mention that all surfaces have to be surgically clean? Lol! And even though when we put the boat up last fall we cleaned her like crazy for days, I had my work cut out for me now before I could even start with any kind of fiberglass correction work. Working in small chunks and one panel at a time, every inch of “The Trophy” both inside and out, above the rub rail and below, engine boxes, everything got scrubbed down by hand with micro fiber towels starting out with 409 heavy duty cleaner and degreaser then followed by a pure vinegar bath and finally with 90% isopropyl alcohol. Every panel and every section one at a time. Numerous times over. All that before the real work was even to begin. This process to remove any old wax build ups and stains took me days to do in itself! Yikes! And then it was time to get really serious... Starting at the rub rail and working my way up both inside and out, every surface, every square inch got wet sanded out by hand to get rid of any oxidization and any fine scratches. Starting with a 1000 grit wet/dry sandpaper everything got slowly and meticulously sanded out followed by a thorough wiping down with clean micro fiber towels in-between the sandings. Following the 1000 grit, I started the slow and repetitious job of sanding all over again with a finer and then yet even finer sand paper. I went on to follow up with 1200 grit, 1500, 2000, 2500 and finally a 3000 grit paper. All the time wiping down between coats with those clean fresh micro fiber towels. What a job! Then following all of that sanding it was time to take these same sections to the next level and start with the machine buffing. Starting with a wool pad and a aggressive cutting compound, everything started coming in like a mirror! Following the wool pad, I went to a mid grade foam pad and a less aggressive mid grade rubbing compound. And then FINALLY a ultra smooth foam pad and marine fiberglass polish to bring out an incredible luster and super smooth finish. I thought I would never get done! My shoulders ached like a tooth ach! All of those same buffing steps got done to the huge hull itself, minus all the sanding that I did to everything above the rub rail. Then when everything was 100% done inside and out, bottom and topside and all the corrections to the surfaces were complete, it was time once again to scrub the living heck out of every inch of all my hard work. There can be zero oils or waxes on any of the surfaces for the Ceramic to adhere properly! I spent an entire day scrubbing repeatedly every section, every panel and every bit of the boat using 12 bottles of Dawn Platinum grease cutting dish soap and rinsing repeatedly with enough water to fill a Olympic swimming pool I swear! Do you know how hard it is to rinse away 12 frigging bottles of dish soap? Lol! I thought I would NEVER get rid of all the suds and bubbles that kept weeping out of every nook and cranny no matter how much I rinsed! Then when I was finally satisfied that there was no more suds or water beading of any sort going on on any of the surfaces meaning all the polishes and oils were removed, everything got thoroughly wiped down one final time with clean dry big micro fiber drying towels to eliminate any chance of any water spots remaining on any of the surfaces. Working well into the night, I was completely exhausted that day. I have a whole new level of huge respect for those that detail for a living! Then FINALLY it was time to move on to the prize! For my coating of choice, I settled on Crystal Serum Light manufactured by Gtechniq followed by two coats of their EXO4 topcoat for a warm sexy glossy look! Application is slow and again very meticulous doing small 2 foot by 2 foot sections at a time at the very most. Working in gloves, you give each section one last quick wipe down with their panel wipe to insure that there is no dust or contaminates of any kind. Then with a small micro fiber applicator you wipe on in a cross hatch pattern a thin layer of product. Giving the product about a minute to sit there and “flash” you then start the multi micro fiber towel process of removing it. The first gentle wipe down is with a special clean new micro fiber towel to the 2 foot by 2 foot section that you just coated and is called “leveling” where you remove the excess material that has flashed off. That wiping is followed by a follow up with yet another clean brand new short nap micro fiber towel. And then one more time polishing hard to a brilliant slick finish. And if you think that is a lot of work, all of it had to be done all over again with two more coats of their top coat which is applied in the very same fashion. Exhausting but very satisfying when you are finally done. And of coarse just like every other big job in life that you want to do right, it ends up snowballing and metastasizes till you think you are going to go crazy! You can’t correct one thing without fixing everything. I ended up doing a lot of little gel coat repairs, replacing striping, removing old worn out decals and logos. It all seemed never ending! I spent two weeks just alone sanding out and polishing the aluminum rub rail that goes all the way around the boat! All that and many more other little “side” jobs! But eventually I did finish and the results are, well, STUNNING and are said to last for years unlike waxes that after 2 months you can hardly tell that you did anything. Although these are not live links that you can click on, for those of you interested I encourage you to copy and paste these into your browser and check out these links to appreciate what all I did. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzKoP5tLke0 Keep in mind that in this guys video this is all being done to a boat that is already in very pristine condition and did not have to go through all of the sanding and extreme buffing corrections that I had to do to to get it to a flawless mirror like surface. Also, here is a link to Gtechniq and their product line: https://gtechniq.com/ After finishing my coating job I realized that they also have a specific marine line of products but basically both the base coats and the top coats for each do the same exact thing whether it be automotive or marine. So that about does it. Oh, and as always, we did some other fun and cool things to “The Trophy” but you’ll just have to come out to see the rest of everything else in person and to see how fabulous the old girl really came out! And now it’s time to fish. |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of January 2, 2022: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 12:55:15 1/02/22 |
Happy New Year and Happy New Fishing Season! 2022! I don’t think I will ever get used to writing these kinds of numbers when it comes to writing dates down. It just seems weird and surreal to me to be well into the “twenties” already. But yet here we are about to start another fresh year and incredibly for me, preparing for yet another year of running fishing charters on Lake Erie. My 36th year of full-time guiding and operating a charter boat on the lake! I guess my plans of making 30 years and retiring has come and gone! Lol! Could I make 40 years? I really doubt it. But for now for those of you that enjoy fishing with me, rest assured that I don’t plan on going away any time soon. At least not for yet another season. For now we are committed to providing you with another fantastic year of fishing on one of the coolest, most fun boats on all of Lake Erie! If you’ve fished with us before, well you know what I’m talking about! Looking back, 2021 was everything that we expected with the Walleyes on Lake Erie. They were plentiful, good sized and very cooperative. Other then dealing with a onslaught of younger undersized Walleyes (a good thing) and sorting through more junk fish then we have come accustomed to here in the last few years, it was a very good year. This coming season should be no exception. I look for a even larger grade of average fish that we box as the monster record hatches that we had from the years of 2015 thru 2020 continue to mature and grow. This incredible fishing is one of the reasons I continue to hang in there. It’s just too darn good to walk away from right now! So as we set our sites on this summer, right now is the time for you to confirm or set up your fishing dates with me. I continue to be blessed with a high demand from people for a trip with me and I want to make sure that we can accommodate all of our regulars and the people that have been waiting to get on with us first. In the meanwhile we continue to prepare THE TROPHY for another year of battle. As always, we have some really fun and cool upgrades planned for the boat this off season and I can’t wait for everyone to see it all! Yet another reason it is so hard to hang it up. We just love our boat with all the cool lights and everything that we have done with it and we really enjoy sharing it with all of you! It won’t be long now folks... “Just another day on THE TROPHY!” |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of September 12, 2021..: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 08:10:46 9/12/21 |
“Just another year on The Trophy” As my season quickly winds down now, it’s with mixed emotions that I write this final fishing report for the 2021 season. Perhaps if these last couple of weeks had been all gravy, I would be all sad that it’s about to end. It was not. In fact, it feels like I lost about as many trips to the weather these past couple of weeks as I managed to get in. And many of the days that we did manage to fish, well we all got beat up pretty good. What an evil Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde this lake can be! In my prior fishing report I had just wrote about us coming off probably the nicest two week stretch of weather that we had all summer. These past two weeks was exactly the opposite of that. The stiff wind just blew and blew and blew everyday. The only thing that it did was change directions from time to time! Ugh! Adding to my frustration was the huge stinking Sheephead that have turned on almost overnight seemingly this month. We went from hardly catching any all summer long to all of a sudden having days where you just couldn’t keep them off your lines! Truly unbelievable! And big ones at that! Way out there, spinning around and around, many all tangled up and half snagged where you could hardly reel them in. I blew up more reels these past couple of weeks then I have in the last couple of summers combined. These junk reels that they build anymore with the plastic gears and other junk materials, they just can’t handle being used as power winches for that kind of dead weight punishment. Double Ugh! But then again on the brighter side, the Walleye fishing remained most excellent albeit that we had to work extra hard weeding thru all of the junk Sheephead and on certain days still all the dink undersized Walleyes. In fact, I’d go as far to say that we probably had some of our most spectacular catches of the entire year at days end as we probably have had all summer long. Also there around the end of August besides the Walleyes, we had some unbelievable Steelhead trout action all mixed in on a lot of the days as well. Probably more Steelhead showing up in our catches a lot of days this entire summer then I’ve seen in quite a few previous years. I know there’s going to be a whole lot of people smoking some trout this coming fall! Lol! And for those of you that are, don’t forget to check out our ‘bangin smoked trout recipe that we have up on our trophycharters.com website! If you follow the directions as listed there to the letter, I promise you it will be the best darned smoked trout or salmon that you have ever snacked on! Mmmm! So here comes the part that I really hate. Saying good bye for yet another year to all of my guests and friends that graced my humble little fishing boat. Yes, you are all truly my friends. Hard working, fun loving good generous people that I am so proud to have for my base. Without your continued support and genuine kindness each year I wouldn’t have lasted as long as I have in this very tough business. You guys are the ones that still make it fun for me. Bad weather, good weather, monster Walleyes, dink Walleyes... we all went through it together with many stories and jokes along the way! Once again, Joyce and I thank you all from the very bottom of our hearts for coming out and fishing with us this season. And the fact that almost 100% of you guys have already indicated that you want your very same days again next year, well were extra touched. Blessed would probably be a even better word! So that’s about it then. In less then two weeks from now we’ll have already run our last trip for this year. Then in two weeks from today we’ll be crazy busy as we are each year at this time cleaning, winterizing, and packing everything up in both the camper and the boat and getting ready to haul everything back home. Hence as I mentioned earlier, this will serve as my last actual fishing report of this season. One final big thank you to all of you including all of those that just drop in to follow along with these little fishing blogs of mine every couple of weeks. I love having all you guys here! Finally as in past years when I sign off here, I wish everyone a safe and healthy off season. I am already looking foreword to the fishing season of 2022. Peace and out. |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of August 29, 2021.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 00:07:54 8/29/21 |
A very solid two weeks. These past two weeks slipped by as quickly as any this whole summer but without any kind of real drama. That’s a good thing! The weather cooperated very nicely for a change and the Walleyes and big Steelhead did their thing. Fishing has been as strong as it has been all summer long. Just go out early morning, throw your gear in and wait for the fish to turn on. I’ve been a little disappointed with the bite in the predawn early morning darkness here lately but when dawn shortly does arrive, it’s been game on everyday. We saw more days in this last two week period with forecasted waves of 1 foot or less then I remember all summer long. And for the most part and for a pleasant change they were spot on! If we had any weather woes at all to discuss, it would be the extreme heat and humidity that we have been locked in with. It’s been quite brutal if you found yourself fishing much past 9 a.m. or so each day! Even though the official “Dog Days of Summer” has already passed us by, we had more days in the 90’s with extreme humidity this past couple of weeks then I for one care for and that’s for darn sure! After seeming to slip back in much closer to home here in recent weeks, the larger schools of Walleye that we have been chasing all season have seemingly jumped back well offshore again. 15-20 miles out has been the norm for most charter boats once again trying to stay on the best bite. It just plain sucks. With fuel at my marina just pennies shy of $5 bucks a gallon, that was not the trend that we all wanted to see. And again, this late in the season where the fish should all be moving way back in even more if anything. Perhaps this major heat wave that we have been under here lately is the culprit. Surface temperature's at least on my electronics has been registering at a blistering 79 degrees Fahrenheit here the last few days! Dang, that’s warm for Erie! So in just a few days now it will be September already. And just like the song by the rock group Europe, it will be the “final countdown” for me and this 2021 fishing season. After this report there will most likely only be one more final report because in the two weeks after that, the boat will already be coming out of the water for the year and I will be way to busy cleaning and winterizing both the boat and the camper to be doing any postings. But in the mean time we still have some fishing to do and I actually have a handful of open dates to offer if anyone is looking for a fall fishing trip in September before it all slips away for another year. Some of my favorite trips of the year are these late season trips. The fishing pressure on the lake drops off dramatically and the fish are as fat as can be after feeding heavily all summer long. The last chance to put some tasty fillets away for the long winter to come! If anybody is interested call or text me at 216-387-2656 and we’ll get you scheduled. Thank you. |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of August 15, 2021.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 23:41:02 8/14/21 |
A tale of two weeks. The problem of doing fishing reports only every two weeks and I think I’ve mentioned this before is that so much can happen in just a two week period. The first week after my last report I was all giddy and so excited about how good the weather and fishing was that I had already picked out my lead in line for my very next report. “Best weather of the summer!” “Finally! A nice stretch of great weather!“ And then week two happened to roll around. Some of the hottest, most humid, gustiest south west winds and most unstable, unsettled stormy weather that we've had this whole year! High winds, massive thunder storms daily with torrential rains and just plain huge ugly sea conditions! To the point where even I threw in the towel for a few days and flat out cancelled all of my trips! And a couple of the days that I did fish last week, well I was wishing that I wasn’t really there. It was just a plain nasty week! What a strange, strange summer that we’ve had here up on the north coast. Through it all however the Walleye fishing remains rock solid here in Ashtabula. We have had no problems limiting most everyone out with really nice keepers. Even the baby Walleye problem has eased somewhat here a bit lately. We are still getting plenty of throw backs but I would describe the whole situation with them as very manageable right now. The Steelhead Trout on the other hand have been attacking us with vengeance. I’m about sick and tired of them stealing all my frigging Contender Spoons. Man, they seem to really love those things! The down riggers have been really lighting up here lately for us with both those pesky Steelhead and Walleyes with those particular spoons down around 50 ft. or so. Not surprisingly most all of the Walleyes on the riggers seem to make it to the box. The trout on the other hand, well, not so much (insert mad emoji face)! Lol! The Walleyes right now seem to be on a slow, steady march back in towards the south shore as this summer season winds down for us. Something which happens every year about this time of the year. With fuel costing around $5 bucks a gallon this summer, every mile that we don’t have to go out more then absolutely necessary is a big plus for us. The downside is that the boat traffic really gets stacked up when we stop in closer like that. I’m about tired of everyone spotting me and some of the other better charter boats and immediately putting on the brakes and throwing their gear out. Most times right in our way! It’s like, really? You can’t spread out even just a couple of miles? Somebody needs to tell all these nimrods that there's plenty of fish everywhere out there! Some things never seem to change up here, year after year. Deep sigh. So it’s mid August already. The days and weeks continue to fly by. Everyday and everything has become just a blur to me at this point. I can not lie. The few days that I had off last week felt really, really good. It made my mind wander about someday down the not so distant road perhaps where this crazy life style that I lead will become just a memory. Will it be next year? Three years from now? Five years from now? Who really knows. I like to keep everybody guessing. Honestly, I’ll probably be the last one to know even myself. Each year I just press on. But it is truly a exhausting job and it’s really starting to catch up with me after 35 years. By this part of the season I’m so tired of dealing with the seemingly never ending daily rough lake conditions, all the different stupid bugs, all the dink Walleyes, all the dumb rude fellow boaters, all the log jams and the debris back in the river and harbor closer to shore after every friggin little rain that seems to fall anymore. It’s just plain exhausting. I have to chuckle every time I hear someone tell me “you have my dream job captain” Lol! Maybe I do. But even after trimming my season back to just a short five months but still getting up at 2:30am everyday it’s been one long ass “dream”! Haha! Well enough for this weeks rant, I mean fishing report! We’ll see what these next couple of weeks brings us... |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of August 1, 2021: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 00:48:59 8/01/21 |
Attack of the babies! Ugh! In my previous fishing report, the two weeks prior to that report I described the Walleye fishing in that time period as being simply “fabulous”! Well, that didn’t last long! As fast as the really good offshore fishing developed, we suffered a major setback here in the last week or so. The onslaught of juvenile undersized Walleye appearing out there now as well mixed in with the keepers. They are everywhere out there now and they are ferocious! So thick at times that you flat out can not keep them off your lines! Most are about 11 to 14 inches in length bowing well for next year and many more years to come but it has become pure Hell right now trying to weed through all of them to get the occasional keeper. Did I mention Ugh? We already went thru all of this once already earlier in the season when the only game in town for keeper sized Walleyes was the near shore warmer waters where unfortunately the babies first appeared. But we fought thru it all, managed to get our limits almost everyday aboard The Trophy but it was both frustrating and exhausting. Then for a couple of weeks it was almost too good to be true. The offshore good sized Walleyes appeared and it was just as fast as you could go with hardly any throwbacks. But just like earlier in the summer and seemingly once again almost overnight the billion little fish appeared offshore and has made everything a struggle since. I even think it’s pushed many of the nicer fish completely out of the area. It just isn’t the same out there like it was. There's still plenty of keeper Walleyes out there, but oh the work to get them! Aboard The Trophy we have been on the hunt each day for a new area that is rich in keeper Walleyes with minimal undersized fish but I am beginning to believe that at this particular time that there is no such place. I’ve been way east, way west. All the way back to the Canadian border and back into the shallows of the south shore. There are small fish everywhere! Enough with the record hatches year after year Mother Nature! Sheeze! But once again we just have to work through it. I guess the good news is that there are still an ample amount of nice sized fish most everywhere out there and we are still limiting out daily. It’s just not as easy as we would all like it. Contender Spoons continue to do most of the keeper catching for us aboard The Trophy. I’m running them on all 6 Dipsy Diver rods that we run daily as well as both downriggers now. Quick in, quick out. If it hasn’t caught a fish in 5 minutes or so you better check it! Most likely it’s dragging a dink. Off the planer boards I’ve only been running a couple of wire rods with Jr. Thunder Sticks on each side of the boat only because that’s all that I can keep up with. It just takes so long to run out 300 feet of line or more to get down around 50 foot of depth where the Walleyes are hanging out and then another hundred foot plus of line out to the planer board only to have a dink grab it right away. Reel it all the way back in only to do it all over again. The Dipsys are catching plenty of small fish too but we can cycle through them so much quicker then with the long lines. And the biggest of the Walleyes that we are catching are sure liking these Contenders! OK, so it’s officially August now. Only two more months to go for me. The daily routine and the seemingly endless amount of windy and choppy days is starting to wear on me a bit. But I’ll get thru it as I always do. Maybe easier days again are just around the corner. We’ll see what happens here going forward. Stay tuned... |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of July 18, 2021.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 14:36:43 7/18/21 |
Fabulous fishing! Simply fabulous. I ended my last report hoping for the huge schools of Walleyes to move into the Ashtabula area. Not that the fishing leading up to now has been all that terrible. I think I’ve limited every one of my groups that I ran leading up to my last report except for maybe 2 or 3 groups where we fell just a few fish short. But I still wanted it better and easier for myself! Lol! And it happened! And like overnight too! I don’t think the text from my last report had fully circulated cyber space and the world wide web when like magically and like somebody flipped a switch the Walleye fishing around here went from pretty good to like, well fabulous! The offshore fishing that we now have all of a sudden out there is simply almost too good to believe. Where such a humongous school of fish can come from and practically overnight like it happened is one of life's biggest mystery's to me! It seems like now anywhere from 10 to 12 miles out clear to at least the Canadian line and as far east or west as you care to run is just one massive blanket of Walleyes. There are certainly pods of fish within this stretch that are denser then other areas but you never really go very far without seeing continuous fish marks on the fish finder sonar or without the rods bending. It’s finally as good as it gets! If you can’t catch fish out there right now, you really should just take up golf or sunbathing or something! Lol! The only way it could be any better now is if the darn weather would ever give us a break. Man will it ever quit raining and blowing up here? I bet since I last wrote, I bet we’ve received at least a half a foot of rain and maybe, just maybe so much more! This past week alone I bet it’s rained practically everyday. Several of those days I know the meteorologists have been measuring the rain fall in the inches! If I wasn’t already in a boat, heck I’d be tempted to build me an Ark! Lol! But it’s never the rain that bothers us the most. It’s the rain wrapped winds that seem to accommodate all of that precipitation. Thankfully our days have been productively quick and many of the days we’ve had more travel time involved coming and going then in actual fishing time. But nobody seems to complain that the day is over when the box is plum full and the winds are building and the rain starts to come down! So the Mother load is indeed finally here. Everybody and I mean everybody is limiting out. It’s been a mad and frantic rush back to the fish cleaners everyday. Our early morning departures continue to pay us big dividends for all of my guests in a multitude of different ways. It’s been just an amazing early morning bite and we’ve been able to get our fish and get back to the dock on most days before everybody else gets buried in the fish cleaning line. I often say I don’t really care if we are the very first ones back but we certainly do not want to be one of the last ones back, and that's for sure! |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of July 4, 2021.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 07:46:34 7/04/21 |
July already! What a last two weeks we’ve just had here in Ashtabula! Aboard The Trophy we somehow, someway managed to limit all of my parties out everyday that we fished, but for many of those days it was far from easy. And we’ve been everywhere to do so. Off shore, near shore, tight along the shore line in the real skinny water. I mean everywhere. And everywhere we’ve been is holding some Walleyes. But still no massive schools. No signs of any mother loads arriving from who knows where any time soon. Nothing that where I did good the day before I can feel totally confident returning the next day that they will still be there and that it will be easy picking. Everyday is a new day and a new challenge. The weather continues to give us fits. No prolonged periods of stable uniform lake conditions. We continue each week to have a big blow from the north that forces us off shore immediately followed by near gale southerly's that force us tight to the south shore just to get our days in. When we are forced to fish shallow, it’s been dink city with tons of undersized Walleyes in there mixed in along with some really quality fish. Most days you go as fast and nonstop as you can running lines out only to have a dink grab it immediately. One of the most frustrating things I think you can encounter running fishing charters with many multiple rods trying to fill the box for your guests that all have high expectations of nice sized fish. Technique's which I haven’t talked all that much about this year has been all over the map as well. Aboard The Trophy we carry complete multiple rod set ups for any situation and in the past two weeks we’ve used them all. Straight up braid rods for pulling Bandits and other large crank baits. Another complete set of braid rods set up with Jet Divers and spoons. A set of shallow filled wire line rods along with yet another set of deep filled wire line rods for when the fish go to extreme depths. And oh, I almost forgot. And even yet another complete set of heavy braid Dipsy Diver rods equipped with Dipsys & spoons. I hate having to carry and store so many different rods. Yet every time I have been thrust into having to use a particular set of tackle to match the location that I have been forced to fish and the weather conditions I have been thankful that I didn’t thin any out rods off my boat yet like I normally would have done by early July. Normally when I make the switch to wire line I don’t look back and take home all the braid filled rods and even my shallow wire rods that I use occasionally in June. But that was the key word that I just used. “Normally” This year has been far from normal as far as I am concerned! Another thing that I normally don’t talk much about is endorsing different fishing products. Unless something is that good and has helped me out so much that I can not help but rave about it. We all rely heavily on spoons in our arsenal of tackle for these central basin Walleyes & Steelhead. And there are many good ones out there. Stinger along with their line of Scorpion spoons do well right out of the package. But the paint job on all of them sucks. You start catching fish on them and the next thing you know the paint is chipping and flat out falling off. Plus they bend so easily after catching some fish on them. Especially the Steelhead! Kranx spoons, another favorite around here does better as far as all of that is concerned but color choices are limited and the company doesn’t seem to care about captains concerns and requests. I’ve recently turned to the new Contender line of spoons and I have been super thrilled with the results! And this didn’t just happen overnight. I ran them heavily last season and they worked amazingly GREAT. They catch fish like crazy and they hold up better then anything else out there as far as I am concerned. I’m not sure where all you can get them but I buy all of mine at River Marine Supply right where I am docked here in Ashtabula Harbor. They have a very nice selection of sizes and colors and they are priced right! Alrighty that wraps it up for another couple of weeks. Perhaps in my next report all I will be talking about is Mom. I mean, the MOTHER LOAD!!! One can only hope... |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of June 20, 2021.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 12:26:22 6/20/21 |
Excellent fishing many days for us. With the exceptional hiccup. The thing about only doing fishing reports every two weeks is so much can and does change in that long a time period. I can also always only speak for myself. Aboard The Trophy we have been blessed to have really put the whooping on the Walleyes on many days even on days where most seem to struggle. That does not make me happy nor does that give me a lot of confidence that things are good out there and that easy times are here to stay. More like that we were just very fortunate on many of those days. I would much rather that everybody is killing them day in and day out and all in record time. That would be more of a indicator that the tide has changed out there then a string of nice catches that we have been lucky enough to put together aboard The Trophy. I would say that things are actually getting tougher for all of us here as of late. My offshore bite has really been drying up on me the last couple of days and this past weekend we really struggled where only days earlier it was so much easier for us. The marks on the sonar for the most part were flat out gone and bites subsequently were few and far between. Though we ended up with a fair amount of fish on both days, my string of perfect limits that again I feel very fortunate to have put together this year came to a screeching end. Saturday we struggled just to get into the double digits, albeit the Walleyes were exceptionally big that day including one big boy that went 8 lbs! Sunday was much better for us as a whole with 19 fish captured in rather short order and a early quit due to the folks wanting to knock off early because of afternoon Fathers Day festivities that they had planned. But still, I don’t think the fish are filling in all that well offshore for us yet. If you hit a nice little pocket out there like we did on Sunday, you do alright. But there is a whole lot of water out there that is completely void of fish as of the time of this writing in my opinion. That could all change tomorrow, the next day, next week or who knows when. It seems like every year right about now we go through a time period where things are very weird for a week or two. It sure seems to me that we are now entering that time period. As of this weekend, it seems like the only real game in town all of a sudden is back in the real shallow water that always seems to hold some Walleyes. Problem with that is that as the water warms, the dinky undersized baby Walleyes that are in there as well really start to fire making it nearly impossible to have a lure out there long enough to entice a larger fish. And even though there are some really nice sized fish in there, the bulk of the “keepers” in there are not nowhere near as nice as the offshore Walleyes that roam the deep water. There are also scattered very nice Steelhead off shore most days. In the skinny water tight to shore you have Sheephead, White Bass, stupid Catfish and other undesirables to make that experience even more unpleasant. Ugh. So by the time I write again it will be July. Things will surely have changed once again. Hopefully some larger schools of fish will have arrived and for the summer. The pods of fish that I have been fishing here the last couple of weeks are small and are really on the move right now. Here one day, gone the next. A wise old charter captain told me a long time ago, the problem with fish is that they swim! Lol! We’ll see. The weather this past week didn’t exactly make things easier for us either. We’ve had plenty of fronts and high winds to contend with. What we need is some stable weather so things can gel up out there instead of pushing what fish we do have out there all over the place. Simply exhausting out there right now being a charter captain trying to fill the box every day. It’s going to be even worst if we are forced to fish in the shallows for any extended amount of time. I’m not liking what I’m seeing right now. It’s got to get better, right? |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of June 6, 2021: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 12:20:13 6/06/21 |
Going well! At least after we got through last weekends weather event that is! The last time I wrote I mentioned we had some wind coming at us for the following week. Wee Bob was that ever a understatement! We had a full force gale that lasted a full 48 hours! Sustained east, northeast winds in excess of 50 mph hammered Lake Erie's south shores causing massive flooding and destructive waves that destroyed numerous docks and boats from Port Clinton clear to Fairport Harbor just west of Ashtabula. Fortunately The Trophy bucked through whatever was thrown at her and came out unscathed like a boss. Numerous checks and adjustments to the dock lines along with adding many extra ropes helped saved the day. Truly a awe inspiring event that shows everyone how small we all are against the forces of nature. I can not even imagine what people that actually ride out a hurricane endure! But for as fast as it came up on us and for how long it lasted, as soon as it passed it was as if nothing had ever happened. Most all captains on Lake Erie dread the first day back to work after a wind event like that. And perhaps elsewhere on the lake there may have been setbacks. But here out of Ashtabula Ohio if anything, the fishing got even better and certainly got easier for at least me! Go figure! But I’m not complaining! Aboard The Trophy we are back to our winning ways with a perfect string of limit catches daily now along with some really dandy Steelhead mixed in. And although it is never a race, what was taking us close to 8 hours to limit out has now been reduced to mid morning on average with even me reeling in a few extra fish at the end of the day on most days! Lol! Average size has been running I would say 3 to 4 pounds easy. Earlier in the year I posted a picture of a local seafood market having Walleye fillets selling for $20 bucks a pound. Assuming ball park figure that you have 50% waste cleaning that 4 pound fish, that still leaves you with a $40 dollar value fish that you are taking home! Of coarse not all the fish are 4 pounders and you may not get quite a 50% return but still, you get the idea! And that’s just for one fish! Everybody here lately has been getting their full 6 fish per person. Man I can almost smell that Peanut Oil heating up as I type all of this! Mmmmm! So now we are well into June. It is no longer lonely out there. Along With the Memorial Day holiday which has come and gone the onslaught of central basin boaters has begun. Word has gotten out that the Walleyes are here. Other charters are starting to get in on the game. Things are really starting to heat up. But I don’t mind it. There are plenty of fish out there to go around! I pretty much do my own thing anyway. Aboard The Trophy we are like the Marines. We get more done by 6am then most people do all day! Haha! Even if it does mean that I have to get up at 2:30am everyday. YIKES! But it works for me and all of my very loyal guests that I have had for many, many years now. Everyone that fishes aboard The Trophy knows the routine. For us it’s kinda like Larry the Cable Guy... “Get er Done!” See you guys back here in a couple of more weeks... |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of May 23, 2021: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 11:57:52 5/23/21 |
Back in business and business as usual! And business is good! Fishing for us resumed aboard The Trophy this past week and catching has been quite good. These early season trips remind me of what I have always enjoyed about May fishing. You really have to be on top of your game to consistently catch nice boxes of fish this early. Nothing is almost automatic like later in the summer when everybody becomes a Walleye catching “hero”. I guess that’s why nobody else wants to run trips up here this early. You have to earn your right to keep your head up high everyday! Most days there are next to no boats out there this early. This past week was no exception and it was like a ghost town out there. Just the way we like it! You just barely have to keep a watchful eye out. You can make zig zag trolls at will and make big leisurely turns instead of being forced into sharp panic turns because of other rude, non attentive boaters that all believe that they have the right of way. Yes, it’s a different world out here in May. And I love it! The weather has been a thing of beauty as well for us. I simply can not describe how incredibly pleasant it was out on the lake this past week. Dead flat seas with just a gentle ripple each day. It’s as if the lake was welcoming me back and easing me back into the game. I know the real Lake Erie is hiding just behind the curtains but at least for now I have been enjoying one of the nicest, longest stretches of absolutely perfect weather out on the water that I can remember. This coming week looks as if we will have some wind to contend with but temperatures look to hold at normal or slightly above normal. Perhaps we are done with the wild temperature swings that we experienced the first half of this month. So it begins. Year 35 for myself. Just crazy how it seems like we just frigging celebrated my 30th anniversary of chartering. And that’s already been 5 years ago now! Longer then most of these new charters have been in business from this new onslaught of charter captains that have seemingly exploded into the scene on the lake since the Walleye population has multiplied. But I wish them all well. In my mind it was just yesterday that I myself took a chance and jumped in with both feet. But lets see how many of these new guys make 35 years! Lol! OK, enough of this nonsensical musings about myself. Back to the report. Fishing is good and it will only will get better. What more is there to say? See you in June! |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of May 2, 2021: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 07:04:22 5/02/21 |
We’re back in business! The Trophy slipped quietly back in the water a couple of days ago for our 35th year of full time chartering. After a long off season we are truly ready to go back to work. Walleye fishing this year should be simply beyond spectacular! Each of the last few years it’s been building to a insane crescendo. The Walleyes just keep getting bigger and bigger each year now and it seems like we keep having record hatches back to back anymore, year after year. The lake is literally polluted with Walleye right now! Though we have been very busy rigging and getting all of our dockside work done since splashing, Joyce and I managed to sneak out for just a little over an hour on Saturday afternoon just to see what’s what. And we managed to hook 5 fish! The Walleyes are obviously here already and apparently they also are ready to go back to work as well! Lol! I think because of our off and on exceptionally warm days that we’ve had already this spring our central basin Walleye fishing is really going to take off early this year! We have days available for a charter this month and a few still open in June. It’s still not too late to give us a call and spend a super fun filled day catching Walleyes on one of the cleanest most premier charter boats on all of Lake Erie! We went totally crazy this past off season working on the boat with upgrades and other boat improvements. It would literally be easier to list what is not new this year on the boat rather then everything that we did to the old girl! I won’t give anything away, you’ll just have to wait for your fishing trip to see everything for yourself! Regular fishing reports will resume when I have more to write about and then will be updated thereafter on a biweekly basis as we did last season. That seemed to work out quite well. Or at least for me it did! Lol! Oh and by the way, Joyce and I are now both fully vaccinated and we feel really good about it. I encourage everyone to do the same and get these free shots and let's all put this Covid nightmare finally fully behind us! So who’s ready to go fishing? Let’s do this! |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of January 1, 2021: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 10:29:49 1/01/21 |
Happy New Year! I don’t think anyone is disappointed in putting 2020 in the rear view mirror. Hopefully 2021 will be a much better year for all of us! Although there is some uncertainty on where this country will be with the pandemic come the new fishing season, I myself am preparing and moving forward as if it’s just another year. Baring anything unforeseen, THE TROPHY will be again in the water in Ashtabula Harbor come May and we will be open for business running exciting Walleye fishing trips! Last year we started the fishing season out with a lock down. Sales of out of state fishing licenses was shut down by Ohio’s Governor and THE TROPHY sat lonely and idle in the water. It was all so very sad. As things started to open up the damage was already done. Whether real or just perceived peoples fears of traveling really hurt all of the charter industry. I know my little business took a big hit. Cancellations started to roll in at a alarming pace. Fortunately by late June things started to level off and we finally got rolling. Through it all the fishing was excellent. The Walleyes were plentiful, much bigger on average then the year before and for those that braved coming out it was great fun as always and “just another day on THE TROPHY”! With the massive school of Walleyes from the record hatch of 2015 still dominating our daily catches it is amazing to see how much bigger they are each year now! Everyone was taking home really nice big valuable bags of fillets last year after fishing with us. To put things in perspective, check out this picture of what Walleye fillets were selling for last season! I happened to go into a local seafood market in Ashtabula last summer and this really caught my eye. Canadian Lake Erie Walleye for sale at $19 bucks a pound! Keep in mind these are the same Lake Erie Walleyes that we sport fisherman catch with hook and line. But ours is truly fresh as opposed to the Canadian Walleye which drowned in gill nets and were dead in warm water who knows how long before going thru the many stages of processing and showing up in their show case labeled as “fresh caught”! Here’s a picture of the average 4 mans charter catch that those that chose to have their fish cleaned at the marina took home last year! Truly fresh and skinned fillets unlike the fish markets fish on display. I think it’s safe to say almost everyone took home nearly the value in meat as they spent on the whole charter at those fish market prices! Ha! And if the trend continues, those bags of fillets will be even bigger this year! Mmmmm! Lots of GREAT fish fry's and great fun catching them to boot! So hopefully things will settle down again and this world can return to normal. Time will tell but I plan on fishing and I hope all of you do as well. We can do it very safely being outside in Lake Erie's ever present winds! But till then wear a mask, give everyone lots of room and don’t congregate! And don’t forget to book or confirm your dates with me! |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of September 13, 2020.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 09:54:18 9/13/20 |
A very windy September! It’s never a good thing when my lead off line is a negative one. But that has been the trend so far as we enter mid month here already. You pretty much fished in very choppy to heavy seas or you didn’t fish at all it seems like. And that’s if you got out at all! As this COVID shortened season marches on, every day that we’ve had to cancel because of a too rough to fish in lake has had an exceptional stinging effect. And we’ve had a few totally unfishable days already this month as well. Throw in a handful of days with heavy rains and thunderstorms that we had to work around to get our trips in along with the stupid wind and it’s easy to see why this month has been more of a disappointment to most then a early fall delight. But as always, the Walleyes could care less how rough the lake is. They are out there, they are plentiful and they are really biting! With the heavy seas, aboard THE TROPHY we’ve fished many days now the last few weeks with just the Dipsy Divers electing not to even put the planer boards out at all. And most days limits have still come easily. With not having the extra work of putting out the boards and running out all the very long leads and the extra long time landing a fish, we’ve been able to concentrate on the Dipsys which are super fast in and equally fast out with a fish. Many times a Dipsy rod or two or three are sitting out of the water just waiting till we land a board line fish or a couple board lines going back out before we can get them back into the water. Not a very good strategy when the Dipsys divers are working so well. And they really have been these last few weeks! As I predicted a couple of fishing reports back, the Walleyes have been steadily moving back in towards shore. Good catches in recent days have come from under 10 miles out. A far cry from the many days in August where we never dropped lines till we were at least 22 or 23 miles out. I am sure glad that all of that is behind us for yet another year! Especially with the exceptionally choppy seas. It becomes a whole lot more doable when you only have to beat your way out 10 miles as opposed to having to run out clear to the Canadian line. Even though the fish are nicely moving back in they continue to be very deep in the water column. Aboard THE TROPHY we have been targeting fish that are mostly about 65 foot down. The whole lake seems to be rich in Smelt this summer and these bait fish for the Walleyes tend to roam around in cloud like schools close to the bottom. I still find it amazing that the Walleyes will even hit our artificial lures at all as stuffed with Smelt as these fat Walleyes are! So in a couple of more weeks I’ll be giving it up for this this year. My 34th year. Trips drop off dramatically and everybody is still playing the COVID-19 card this fall. I can hardly keep up with all the cancellations that have again seemed to be rearing it’s ugly head. Some I manage to cover, others go down in the books as yet another loss. It’s been exhausting. This fishing report will also be my last one for this season. Doing them as I have this summer every couple of weeks would put the next one right in the weekend that we will probably be very busy cleaning and winterizing everything. As I always do in my final report of the year I would like to thank from the bottom of my heart all of you that still came out in this crazy year and fished with us this season. I appreciated everybody's extra troubles that everyone went through to travel just to get to us. The wearing of masks, the limited services available. All of it. I know it would have been a lot easier just to blow this year off like some actually did. For still coming out and everyone's super generosity I say again, THANK YOU so very much! Thanks to all of you for following along with these fishing reports as well. With the good Lord willing, we will all meet up again next season under hopefully more normal circumstances. Be it on the boat or just right here via my biweekly musings. And as I always like to sign off in my final report each year Happy Holidays, stay warm, and more then ever, STAY SAFE! See you next year. |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of August 30, 2020.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 05:03:08 8/30/20 |
Great fishing! These past couple of weeks have been most excellent for everyone chasing Lake Erie gold, the Walleyes off of the port of Ashtabula, OH! Action has been fast and furious and the really good news is that the basin out here is really filling in. Up to now it seemed like we had two distinct bands of fish. One at the 10 mile mark and another heavier band out around 20 miles. It’s now getting to the point where it is hard to tell where one school thins out and where another one starts. It’s seemingly one big blanket of Walleyes from about 8 miles out clear to the Canadian border and I’m sure far beyond that! I was going to start this report out by saying “Great fishing, great weather”. We really did have a nice stretch of real summer like weather here lately. We’ve had a few breezy and choppy days here and there but it’s been mostly doable. That stretch of “doable” days came to an end this past week towards weeks end and then the weekend itself. Starting with Thursday we had 20 to near 40 mph winds out of the south, southwest shutting down all thoughts of any fishing for everyone. We managed to sneak Friday in with thunderstorms and heavy rain all around us but Saturday it was back to the same thing with strong winds and heavy rains and thunderstorms. Ugh. As I sit here and write this report Sunday don’t look all that swift either. Such is life on the big lake. You just can’t get thru the entire season without having a bunch of blow days. I don’t care how big your boat is or how bad you want to go. The lake does her own thing and and on days like that you have to respect it. When we were able to get out, fishing has been pretty much stupid easy. That’s what large numbers of fish below you provides. You don’t have to be precisely dialed in. Just get it somewhere close to the right depth and a hungry Walleye will grab your stuff. It don’t matter if it’s a $20 dollar custom painted bait or the most beat up lure in your tackle box. The Walleyes simply don’t care! I personally lean towards the old veterans that hardly have a lick of paint left on them anywhere. Kinda like me. Beat up but still going strong! Lol! After a slow Dipsy bite earlier in the summer this year they have really started to shine for us. in fact, I got brave enough on several trips where we never put the boards out. Including this past Friday. That’s the last thing I wanted was wire line in the water off the planer boards with thunderstorms in the area! Lol! Seriously though, I really think that if you didn’t mind being one of the last ones back to the dock on some days and being buried in the back of the fish cleaning line that you could probably finish the remaining fishing season off from here on out with just the Dipsys! Speaking of finishing, the end is now clearly in site for myself. In a couple of days it will be September and next weekend will be Labor Day weekend already. The official ceremonial end of summer. Fishing has finally gotten red hot and here I am talking about the end being near. For me anyway it is. Some charters stay in the water much longer but I’ve played that game long enough over the many years. The weather going into October and even November just becomes way too unpredictable for my likings. Remember when I hit 30 years and I quit going early season to Port Clinton? I said I wanted to round out whatever years I have left in me fishing in just a tee shirt and shorts. Well, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it! Haha! Anyway, check back here in a couple of weeks. It just might be my last report for this 2020 fishing season! |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of August 16, 2020.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 10:26:12 8/16/20 |
Pretty good fishing. Pretty far out! THE TROPHY spent most of the past two weeks fishing well offshore. In fact most days we were within a mile or two from the Canadian border. It really is a crazy long way out. If you put a little northeast in it or just a little northwest in it as you run out you are easily anywhere from 22 to 25 miles away from the harbor. That’s a long grueling boat ride even on a nice lake. The lake most days this past couple of weeks was far from nice however. Most runs that far out in the average 30 ft. charter boat takes an hour and a half to two hours one way depending on how choppy the lake actually is. That’s a lot of motoring. The fishing has to be really good to warrant that kind of a run. And I felt that it was these past couple of weeks. It’s a strange environment being that far out. You don’t see land in any direction. Other boats are few and far between. The lake is almost always much rougher out there then near shore. And we are playing in the east/west shipping lanes that the big lake freighters constantly run. Some days it’s a steady parade of big ships traveling in both directions. That adds to yet another element of difficulty in trying to troll with our huge spread out and only able to move slowly out of their way when they come up on you from seemingly nowhere. And some of those ships can really move! It’s unbelievable to see one appear on the horizon and the next thing you know it’s about to run you over! They are very reluctant to deviate from their course even a tiny little bit. Seems like the burden is always on us “little” boats to get the heck out of their way! But as I mentioned before though, the fishing has been very good out there. In fact, we’ve finally had a few days where we were catching and going just about as fast as we could possibly go. Several days we had much more time invested in traveling then we did actual fishing time! Why those darn fish are that far out is probably directly related to this crazy heat wave that we’ve been having and the near record high water temperatures. Here is a graph of both the surface and bottom water temperatures that a fellow charter captain recently shared with me. The lower picture depicting the bottom temperatures clearly show much cooler water way out northeast of Ashtabula. Exactly where we are fishing! These fish are gorging themselves on Smelt that are obviously out there as well in the cooler water. It’s not unusual to net a Walleye and have it spit out several very fresh Smelts that it had just ate just moments before it hit our lure. It’s a real feeding frenzy out there and I guess this finally qualifies as the “Mother load” that we have all been so eagerly awaiting and searching for all of summer. But why does it always have to be so damn far out when we do find them! Lol! So just like that it’s mid August. It doesn’t really surprise me that the fish are that far out. I’ve spent many a day in past years fishing along the Canadian line. Most always in the same month of August. But the good news is that they never seem to stay that far out for very long. As the water temperatures start to come down the Walleyes start a steady march back towards shore which is a very good thing for us. In past years I’ve seen it where it’s not unusual for the fish to move a mile or two south in just one 24 hour period. In fact, just in the last couple of days I felt that the fishing was better a little further south then just say a week ago! And the real good news is that starting with this coming week we are supposedly going to be experiencing much cooler weather. Finally! I personally welcome putting the dog days of summer behind us! And it won’t make me mad to not have these insane fuel bills that we have been having here lately if the fish start to move back in. It’s been pretty ugly at the marinas gas pumps is all I can say! Lol! Well that about does it for this one. Stay tuned & stay safe... |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of August 2, 2020: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 06:35:44 8/02/20 |
August, heat, Walleyes & masks. Let's get started. We have indeed now flipped the page on the calendar to August. This crazy, messed up summer is slipping away quickly. And I can’t honestly say that I am all that disappointed. After loosing so many trips in the first couple of months to Covid cancellations, we are finally starting to string some trips together. Just in time for this crazy heat wave to set in and for the fish to scatter so deep that everyday has become a real challenge. It just has not been that simple to limit out each day. Sure, we’ve had a few trips that might have seemed easy and quick for my guys but to me overall it’s been very frustrating dealing with wire line fishing again and fighting all the undersized dink Walleyes that seem to be following me around. To me, nothing is more frustrating then taking 5 minutes or so to run a long wire line out, feed it all the way out to the end of the planer board, set the rod in the rod holder and immediately see the same rod tip twitch a few times and then the feel of the lure disappears. Instant dinky Walleye on. Pop the line, pray that it don’t pick up another line which about 40% of the time it does because they don’t drop back like a larger fish does against the tow of the boat. Crank it all the way in, repeat the process only to see another dink on there! Ugh! Yes, August means that summer is starting to wind down for me. It is with very mixed emotions this year. And the heat. We did FINALLY get some relief in these past few days but before that, my God has it been hot out there! That has added to my frustration. I guess I’m not a big fan of a blazing hot sun and insane temperature's coupled with high humidity. Working feverishly in the back of the boat trying to keep lines in the water and everything untangled. After running nothing but Dipsy Divers the last two years in the later part of the summer and catching nothing but keepers as fast as you can go, this isn’t exactly how I thought my 34th year of chartering was going to be! Man and to have to do it all with the sweat pouring down my forehead, fogging my sunglasses and burning my eyes constantly plain sucks. And this stupid heat has really done some weird things to these Walleyes. Water temps have rocketed to almost 80 degrees! I just heard on the Cleveland news that Lake Erie is within a degree or two of a all time record warm water temperature! It has driven the fish super deep, scattered them just about everywhere and for whatever reason the fish are just not acting or hitting things like they normally do. Even though most days we are still hitting charter limits using wire line and Storm Jr. Thundersticks I am amazed how bad our Dipsy Divers have been most of this summer. We get a few fish on them each trip out but for the most part they have been very unproductive. Super disappointing! But we are catching Walleyes! And some really nice ones too! I don’t want to leave anyone with the impression that fishing is bad. It’s probably just back to normal except for the onslaught of little Walleyes in the lake. And that really is not a bad thing. We’ll get through this year and in a year or two all these youngsters will be legal sized insuring that fishing will be great for many more years to come! We’ve had other years that have been challenging as well. Years where we were exhaustingly sorting through White Bass or plagued with Sheephead. Though I complain about everything because that’s what I do in my old age, I gladly will take having to reel in these dink Walleyes over being inundated with big ass foul hooked Sheephead all the time! Been there, done that! Not fun at all! I still don’t think any massive migrating schools of Walleye have arrived from the west end of the lake but there is plenty of fish in the area. You just have to work harder to consistently fill the fish rack. Masks. Oh boy things are slipping backwards around here and everywhere. After cases of Covid have supposedly started to rise again, our Governor has joined many other states mandating that masks must be worn in all public locations. What that means for us is that everyone that comes to the marina to fish with us must have a mask with them and should be wearing them while on the marinas property. I am not asking anyone to wear one while fishing nor how could you really do so in this hot weather but you will need them if you plan on entering the marina store or anytime you can’t be 6 foot apart from other people back at the dock. Whether you agree with masks or not, it’s not my call and we have to abide with the orders and the marinas wishes if we have any hope of remaining open. River Marine is being watched by the health department and we don’t want to be the reason anybody gets in trouble. So most of you know how I like to hang out afterwards with everyone back at the marina when we get back Well don’t take it personally if I leave soon after taking care of my boat. I personally can’t stand to have a mask on so I’m not spending any extra time hanging out down there if I don’t have to. I do what I have to and head back to my air conditioned trailer where I can do whatever I want. So the “after parties” are pretty much over with the rest of this year as far as I am concerned. Sorry! But hey, we’ve already been together for 6 or 8 hours! Lol! Crazy times we are living in for sure. We just have to get through it the best that we can this season! |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of July 19, 2020: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 13:01:49 7/19/20 |
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! |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of July 5, 2020.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 13:09:35 7/05/20 |
A odd couple of weeks. It’s turning out to be much more challenging this summer to stay on top of the Walleyes then in the past couple of years. Although we have still been getting our limits, it certainly has not been a burn everyday. Most days in fact are much longer days then most have come accustomed to. And things are changing daily out there too. Since I have wrote last, we have been back in the shallow water for a few days for some really good fishing and then as far out as 10 miles out in 72 foot plus of water where it seemed better on other days. There seems to be a new “hot” bite somewhere different almost every day. I think the problem is that the fish are super scattered this year for whatever reason and actually are spread out a lot thinner then in past summers. And not all the areas that have Walleyes have active feeders all at the same time. What we are experiencing this year is kind of like, well, fishing! Lol! All the rumors of the record smashing hatches the last year or so must be true. We have started battling a onslaught of small Walleyes. It really is a beautiful thing to behold but the hungry little dinks are starting to make my and every one else's life super miserable. I mentioned that we were fishing very shallow for a few days and we pulled some awesome racks of Walleyes out of there but I finally just couldn’t take dealing with all the undersize babies that we were handling in there. Sorting thru all of them to get those keepers. As long as they stay in close to shore we can escape them for a while but I fear that it’s going to overtake the whole lake as the offshore water continues to warm. We saw the same thing happen with past monster hatches. I don’t know how many Walleyes Lake Erie can sustain but one thing is for sure. It is super loaded with a unprecedented numbers of fish. When these new fish become of legal size in the next year or so coupled with all the legal sized ones out there now it’s going to go back to stupid fast no matter where or how you fish! The weather has had it’s share of swings again this last couple of weeks but we have now settled into a drought stricken real heat wave. I’ve lost track of how many 90 degree days that we've had here as of late but I’m about tired of that as well already. In the past couple of years we’ve been beating the heat on most days so it was not that big a deal when it got this hot. But with the more challenging fishing here as of late we have been fishing in sauna like conditions by mid to late morning. And hustling to weed thru all the baby Walleyes leads to tons of sweat constantly pouring down your face, getting into your eyes and burning like crazy mixed with the sun block. It’s like always something out there. Not so bad for my guests that get to hang out under the shade of the hardtop most of the time but not so great for this old captain stuck in the back working all the rods all the time. Did I mention “old”? Lol! So the 4th of July has come and gone already. It’s well into July now and we are locked into a real heat wave. The dog days of summer has come early this year! Water temps have sky rocketed into the 70’s driving the fish that are offshore down super deep. Most of the Walleyes that we are catching out there now are 50 foot or better below the surface. Although I haven’t felt the need to do so in a couple of years, thoughts of breaking out the old wire line rods has crossed my mind. We’ll see but I am still holding out hope that a strong Dipsy diver bite takes off here real soon squelching any need or thoughts of going back to that torture of those long wire leads. We were so spoiled here the last couple of years! Like I said, we’ll see! This heat should drive some of the usual migrating fish to move east out to our basin here close to the Ohio/ Pennsylvania line. Nothing is more forgiving to dialing in your fishing strategies then just having a ridiculous amount of fish below you! That’s when everybody becomes a rock star! Fingers crossed it happens for all of us here real soon! |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of June 21, 2020.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 11:07:44 6/21/20 |
Another GREAT summer! Although I haven’t run that many trips yet so far this year, I’ve run enough trips to know that our fishing and my season off of Ashtabula, Ohio is off to a fabulous start! I say start, but have to laugh to myself. I can’t help but think about when not that many years ago I used to have the boat in the water in the month of March and was running charters by the 1st of April! My how things have changed for myself over the years. Some things by choice, some things by circumstances. But start we have and fishing is about as good as it can be. I don’t want to dwell on it because I don’t think I can pull it off 3 years in a row but as in the last 2 seasons other then coming up a few fish short of limits on my first charter of the year, every trip there after this year as in the past 2 years has resulted in perfect limits for my guests. Can I do it the rest of the season and make it 3 years straight? I doubt it but it will be fun trying! There are just so many Walleyes out there now that it’s really hard not to for everyone that knows what they are doing and if the weather is half way decent. Speaking of weather, not writing for a couple weeks we have seen just about every weather pattern come and go up here on the north coast. We had record 90 degree + heat, then a strong cold front and now back to the 90’s on Fathers Day weekend. Big winds which resulted in a couple trips that I had to cancel to so hot and flat that we prayed for a bit of a breeze. In other words, just another typical year on Lake Erie! Lol! Water temperatures have surged to the mid 60’s now and the Walleyes metabolism has kicked into high gear. Interestingly enough we also have had a surge in Steelhead Trout activity mixed in with the Walleye catches on some days. This weekend we couldn’t get away from them when we had days prior to that where we caught none. Fishing is just so weird! So in a couple weeks it will already be the 4th of July weekend. The Walleyes are already showing signs of moving well offshore. We sure didn’t have much of a stab at them real tight to the shoreline as in other past years. This means fighting much heavier seas probably for the rest of the year further out where it almost always is rougher and certainly much more pain at the pump at the end of the day. But that’s why we run the bigger, safer boats that we do chartering. THE TROPHY is up for the challenge. I’m not quite so sure about her captain but we’ll give it our best shot. Lol! OK I’ll probably stick to this every other week fishing report schedule for a while longer if not for the rest of the year. It kinda feels good not to have to sit down each weekend and scramble to have to come up with a big article like I have been doing all these past years. I guess I’m getting both old and lazy nowadays. Ha! Happy Fathers Day all you Dad’s out there! |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of June 7, 2020: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 11:49:36 6/07/20 |
So I suppose it’s time to finally write a little something about fishing. Even though the entire world and especially this country has gone totally bizarreo here the last few months the Walleyes don’t seem to care much and their doing their thing as always. THE TROPHY has finally had a chance to get out there and test the waters. And as always, the Walleye are there, they are plentiful and they are more then eager to play. Really nothing new to report as compared to all the other years that I’ve fished up here. You can go through any of my archived fishing reports from over the years for the second week of June and that could be today, yesterday or tomorrows report. The Walleyes are all in same near shore areas. The fish are high in the water column. And everybody is catching them. If life was just about Walleye fishing on Erie, you could say that life is good. It’s a shame that there are so many other threats and distractions nowadays in our daily lives. Might be one of them years for me. After a brutal start to my season with stay at home orders, cancellations from fearful anglers, and lack of any really new business interest, I start fishing finally and pretty much immediately proceed to smack a submerged log. I’m like, are you frigging kidding me? So out comes the boat with a pricey lift from the local marina and then pay to have the props switched out with my spares which thankfully I do own. I really appreciated the fast service from the marina because they are swamped with yard work that they had to put on hold basically all of April and most of May during the same stay at home orders. Thank you Sutherland Marine! I’ve since run my damaged props to Cleveland, the nearest hi tech prop repair shop to have them fixed ASAP so I once again can have a back up set available should disaster come knocking again. They as well are swamped at the prop shop and really back logged so who knows when I’ll get them back. I did come home with a nice repair estimate however. Just a mere $677 dollars. YIKES what a expensive “bump” at such a inopportune time! So hopefully things will settle down for me and we can salvage the remainder of the year. As I mentioned before the fish are here. Everything seems on schedule out this way. Water temps have finally cracked the magical 60 degree mark and fishing is really good now. For as much as I’ve been out there, we have caught Walleyes on practically everything I’ve tried. Best techniques still seem to be the deep diving stick crank baits run shallow on braid line off the big planer boards. But soon it will be a all spoon bite. I look forward to that because I’m about sick & tired of dealing with all the multi treble hooks on the crank baits hopelessly tangling in the net each time after we net a fish. What a pain in the butt! OK, this somewhat of a fishing report will be on the shorter side. And at this point, I’m not sure that I’ll be doing weekly reports at least for a while longer. I still have some open dates I need to work through. Between that and loosing the occasional trip to weather which already has happened to me (ugh) there may be some weeks where I’m hurting for material to write about. We’ll see what happens... |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of May 24, 2020.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 14:56:01 5/24/20 |
We are in the water! But we have not run any charters yet. My little fishing business took a exceptionally big hit this month of May because of the Corona fears and the stay at home orders. Things look much better for me in June however so that will be our official start up date this year I guess. After being ordered to not run any trips earlier this month, we have gotten the go ahead to resume running charters. Non resident license are back up on sale again and many other captains are running trips already. I want to address a few things pertaining to my upcoming trips that I am going to be running here soon. I can only speak for myself. What other charters choose to do or not to do is none of my business First of all, I am way ahead of the curve. I cut my party size to 4 people already a long time ago and I’ve had a touch less big Purell foam hand sanitization station on my boat long before it was ever cool! That in itself meets many of the suggested safe guards that we have been asked to try and follow. I’m going to run through a few other things that I am going to do to try and keep everyone safe. Including myself! OK, first of all, party size. 4 is the PERFECT size group. It always has been and is especially now. My boat is big and spacious. If you can’t spread 4 people out on my boat, you can’t on any boat. When traveling out to the fishing grounds and back, I am asking (telling! lol!) everyone that you must remain seated. I have a big roomy dinette up front. We are going to seat only 2 people at this seating arrangement. One in the forward seat and one in the back seat. Although I have yet to receive it because it is back ordered, I have ordered a clear restaurant table style sneeze guard to split the table and that particular area in half. Hopefully it should arrive here soon before I get too busy. The remainder 2 people in my party will be asked to sit and stay put while traveling on the engine box seating out back. One on each side. Masks: OK, I’m not making anyone to wear a mask while on my boat. I am strongly asking everyone to please bring their own mask along with them however. This will be important for when possibly we can not “social distance”. For example like when we get back to the marina which has their own set of rules that they have been ordered to obey by the health department. Say like multiple charters get back all at the same time. I also encourage everyone to use one when we are forced to be close to each other while fishing. Believe me, I will have one handy at all times myself! Should somebody desire one and they forgot to bring their own, we will have a limited supply of clean commercially made & individually packed masks available on the boat to help keep everyone stay safe. Hand cleaners: As I mentioned earlier, I have a really nice hospital grade touch less hand sanitizing station mounted in my boat. As everybody boards, I’m going to have everyone take several good squirts of foam and rub your hands down good as if you were a surgeon about to go into surgery! Ha! Besides the mounted hand station there will be many smaller bottles of hand sanitizer within easy reach of anywhere on the boat. I encourage everyone to feel free to take a squirt often and especially if you happen to cough or sneeze. On my end we are going to be wiping all the gear down with Clorox wipes before the trip and after the trip and thru out the day as well. The entire boat will get a thorough cleaning each day also. We need to respect each other with this so called “new normal”. Sadly, no more hand shakes and hugs. We need to give each other as much space as possible at all times. No more standing right next to me when talking. I will be watching and correcting everyone as needed. Please don’t think that I am being rude. But remember, not only am I trying to protect you, I am trying to protect myself as well from a new group of different people fishing with me each and every day. And finally and most importantly of all, if you are not feeling good or you have a cold or something, DO NOT COME! If you have or have had a fever in the last 14 days, again DO NOT COME! I’ve lost so many trips already this year that I really don’t care at this point! (kinda) I only want healthy individuals! But for those of you that do come this year, other then some of these mere inconvenience's fishing should once again be beyond fabulous And in the end, it will still be “Just another day on THE TROPHY’! Stay safe my friends and I still hope to see most of you this coming summer! |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of April 1, 2020: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 02:41:31 4/01/20 |
Good news, bad news! The good news is THE TROPHY is just about ready to go! After dumping a TON of money and many, many man hours of work into the big project this winter, THE TROPHY once again has brand spanking new engines! Everything mechanical and electrical associated with the engines has been upgraded as well. Brand new motors, new transmissions, new gauges to monitor our new high output alternator, new everything! She looks good and runs GREAT purring like a kitten! Joyce has been very busy as well cleaning and waxing the daylights out of the hull and all the other surfaces. The boats bottom has a fresh new coat of anti fouling bottom paint. THE TROPHY is basically ready to rock and roll! The bad news is what's happening in the world right now. The Covid-19 virus has virtually affected every person and business in the whole wide world. Unfortunately my little fishing business is no exception. Right now we are under a stay at home order and charters are considered non essential. Although I would really like to be in the water sometime this month, my charters do not start in earnest till the middle of May here in Ashtabula since I no longer go to Port Clinton for the early spring fishing. That’s a month and a half away at this point and much can and most likely will change by then. At this point I hope and fully plan on having another great season and the minute travel restrictions are eased, we’ll be back in the water and ready to show everyone a great time! I will let everyone know what’s up when actual trip dates draw nearer. In the mean time, I hope everyone remains safe and that we can all return to normalcy sooner then later. Take care my friends... |
ODNR Fishing Report 01/07/2020: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 08:41:49 1/09/20 |
ODNR Fishing Report 01/07/2020 The daily bag limit for walleye in Ohio waters of Lake Erie is 6 fish per angler. The minimum size limit for walleye is 15 inches. The daily bag limit for yellow perch is 30 fish per angler in all Ohio waters of Lake Erie. The trout and salmon daily bag limit is 2 fish (singly or in combination) per angler. The minimum size limit is 12 inches. Black bass (largemouth and smallmouth bass): The daily bag limit is 5 fish (singly or in combination) per angler with a 14-inch minimum size limit.
Walleye Anglers are encouraged to always wear a U.S. Coast Guard-approved personal flotation device while on the water. |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of January 1, 2020: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 09:07:09 1/01/20 |
HAPPY NEW YEAR! A brand new year in a a whole new decade and in just a few short months, yet another new fishing season for us! 2020! Just saying that makes me have to take pause. This will be the 5th decade that I will have chartered in! Starting in the 80’s, all through all the 90’s, the 2000’s, the 2010’s and now the beginning of the 2020’s. Wow! And through out all the past decades we experienced some of the very best Walleye fishing imaginable. But as spectacular as it has been, it’s nothing compared to what is setting up to happen this coming decade out on Lake Erie. There is just a unprecedented population of Walleyes swimming around out there right now. Starting in 2015, we've had nothing but record Walleye hatches after hatches. And what started a few years ago after the 2015 hatch with nonstop nuisance undersized fish has blossomed into something so fabulous, so fantastic that mere words can not describe it. The lake is now teaming with several new year classes of adult very catchable Walleyes that most likely this year will all average around 4 to 5 pounds! The last couple of years the Walleye fishing was already just about as fast as you could catch them on most days. The only thing different this coming year will be that they will all be just that much bigger! And all the record breaking hatches since that 2015 hatch will insure that this crazy good fishing will continue for many more years to come. So very exciting! I am thrilled to have such good fishing come along as my long career as a full time Lake Erie charter captain begins to wind down. The easier fishing is about the only thing that is easy on me anymore. Every year just getting the boat ready for another year of fishing becomes more and more challenging. I just don’t bend and move around like I used to. An incredible amount of work goes into getting THE TROPHY to look like a brand spanking new boat before we put her back in the water each year. This winters projects include a complete re-powering with all brand new motors amongst other things. We always do everything ourselves and it’s a lot of work! Most people will never understand just how much and how many days we put in working on the old girl each off season. And the long punishing season of fishing and getting beat up almost every day in Lake Erie's harsh conditions gets harder and harder for me to take with each passing year that I grow older as well. Again, most will never understand as they only fish one day with me and are done till next year again. But it is what I do and I am so very thankful that the fishing is so very rewarding now at the very least. People ask me all the time, how much longer am I going to keep doing this? I keep answering, I just don’t know. And I really don’t. All I know for sure is that we are gearing up for my 34th year right now and I am still excited to be doing so. It’s one year at a time for me now from here on out. None the less, I look forward to having all of you, my good friends back out again this summer for “Just another day on The Trophy”! See everybody soon! Capt. Walt |
ODNR Fishing Report October 30, 2019: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 07:03:47 11/07/19 |
Central Basin Walleye Where: Good fishing in 30-55’ of water northwest of Edgewater Park and in 30-50’ of water north-northwest of Gordon Park. Some fish are being caught in 20-35’ of water northwest of Fairport Harbor and in 50-65’ of water north-northwest of Lakeshore Park in Ashtabula. Shore anglers are catching walleye off the Cleveland Piers and the Fairport Harbor short pier in the evenings. How: Most anglers are trolling using planer boards, dipsy and jet divers with crankbaits, worm harnesses and spoons. Try using bright colors including blue, silver and chrome. Shore anglers are using crank baits. Yellow Perch Smallmouth Bass The Lake Erie water temperature off Toledo is 54 degrees, off Cleveland 58 degrees and off Erie 57 degrees. |
ODNR Fishing Report October 23, 2019: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 05:43:40 10/24/19 |
Central Basin Walleye Where: Excellent fishing was reported in 55 to 75 feet of water north of Edgewater Park and in 55 to 75 feet of water north of Wildwood Park. Good fishing reported in 60 to 65 feet of water northwest of Fairport Harbor and in 60 to 65 feet of water north-northwest of Lakeshore Park in Ashtabula. In the Cleveland area, anglers are targeting fishing depths of 15 to 25 feet down in the water column, and from Fairport to Lakeshore Park anglers are targeting 40 to 50 feet down. How: Walleye have been caught trolling using crankbaits, worm harnesses or spoons with planer boards, dipsy and jet divers. Try using bright colors including blue, silver and chrome. Yellow Perch Smallmouth Bass The Lake Erie water temperature is 56 off Toledo and 61 off Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. |
ODNR Fishing Report October 16, 2019: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 10:48:27 10/20/19 |
Central Basin Walleye Where: Good fishing was reported in 65 to 75 feet of water north of Edgewater Park, in 65 to 75 feet of water north of Wildwood Park, in 65 to 75 feet of water north of Fairport Harbor, and in 68 to 73 feet of water north of Geneva. Fish are suspended and anglers are targeting fishing depths of 40 to 55 feet down in the water column, above the thermocline. How: Walleye have been caught trolling using crankbaits or spoons with planer boards, dipsy and jet divers. Try using bright colors including yellow, purple, and bronze. Smallmouth Bass The Lake Erie water temperature is 60 off Toledo and 65 off Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. |
ODNR Fishing Report October 9, 2019: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 18:57:40 10/09/19 |
Central Basin Walleye Where: Very good fishing in 65 to 75 feet of water north of Edgewater Park, in 65 to 70 feet of water north of Wildwood Park, in 74 feet of water north of Lakeshore Park in Ashtabula, and in 70 to 75 feet of water north of Conneaut. Fish are suspended and anglers are targeting fishing depths of 50 to 60 feet down in the water column, above the thermocline. How: Walleye have been caught trolling using crankbaits or spoons with planer boards, dipsy and jet divers. Try using bright colors including blue, purple, and bronze. Smallmouth Bass The Lake Erie water temperature is 66 off Toledo and 69 off Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. |
ODNR Fishing Report October 2, 2019: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 18:31:43 10/02/19 |
Central Basin Walleye Where: Rough lake conditions slowed down the excellent fishing this past week. The best areas to try are in 68 to 75 feet of water north of Edgewater Park, in 68 to 75 feet of water north of Wildwood Park, in 70 feet of water north of Fairport Harbor, and in 70 to 75 feet of water north of Lakeshore Park in Ashtabula. Fish are suspended and anglers are targeting fishing depths of 50 to 60 feet down in the water column, above the thermocline. How: Walleye have been caught trolling using crankbaits or spoons with planer boards, dipsy and jet divers. Try using bright colors including blue, purple, and bronze. Yellow Perch Smallmouth Bass Catfish The Lake Erie water temperature is 69 off Toledo and 70 off Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of September 22, 2019.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 10:23:53 9/22/19 |
Thank you. My final fishing report of this year is not going to be a fishing report at all. It’s going to be a simple thank you note. If it were a fishing report I would tell you about how unbelievably good the fishing was again this past week. Which it was. Just like the week before. And the week before that. And the weeks and months before that. No, this final entry is going to be devoted to all the guys (and gals) that make this all possible for me. My faithful, loyal and super generous returning guests who come out and fish with me. Most all of you that come back year after year after year. Some for as long as I have been doing this! Without all of you and your tremendous support, none of this would be possible for me. I feel humbled and blessed to have a schedule like I do going into next year before this year is even over. There is nothing sweeter to hear as most all of you leave the boat then to hear everyone say “go ahead and put us down for the same day next year”! We have developed a special friendship and trust that works in both directions. I can honestly say that I am truly the envy of all the other captains back at my little marina. They see and admire the special bonding that we have back at the dock everyday at the end of the trip. Regardless of what time of day it is, the “after party” back at the dock while most wait for the days catch to be filleted has become as big a part of the experience as the fishing trip itself! I had loads of fun again this year listening to and swapping stories and jokes back at the picnic tables. Reliving all of the mornings action and listening to some good music while enjoying a cold adult beverage! Good times for sure! I thank God everyday that at age 62 (in just a few months, lol) that I can still do this at the crazy level that I do. When I started doing this work I was just a young snot nosed punk 28 year old kid. What an amazing journey this past 33 years has been! I thank God for saving the very best for the twilight years of my career. To witness and be a part of this unreal fishery that we now have in Lake Erie. Nobody has EVER seen anything like it. We are all truly blessed! And special thanks goes out to my wife Joyce that works as hard as she does to help me keep the business going and the boat clean and presentable. Although she works full time Monday thru Friday, there isn’t too many Saturdays or Sundays and Holidays if any where she doesn’t go out with us nowadays to try and give me a bit of relief from the frantic and chaotic action by helping to keep all the rods going. She does a GREAT job and most everyone that is lucky enough to have fished with her have come to love her company and all of the extra help! Thank you Joyce! Finally, I want to thank all of you that have been following along with my weekly stories here. I’ve enjoyed telling my story knowing that most all of my readers are guys that have already fished with us or have trips that are coming up. I hope the action on your fishing trip lived up to all the hype that I seemed to be painting week after week! Lol! So till we all meet back up again in 2020, I wish everyone a safe and warm off-season with many Happy Holidays! You guys are the very BEST! Thanks again. Oh, and by the way, at the last second I decided to throw in one picture from this Saturday's charter with Joyce & I and my crews catch. So I guess this was a fishing report after all! Ha! |
ODNR Fishing Report September 17, 2019: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 08:18:27 9/19/19 |
Lake Erie Central Basin Walleye Where: Excellent fishing continues in 65 to 75 feet of water north of Edgewater Park, in 65 to 75 feet of water north of Wildwood Park, in 70 to 75 feet of water north of Fairport Harbor, and in 65 to 70 feet of water north of Lakeshore Park in Ashtabula. Fish are suspended and anglers are targeting fishing depths of 45 to 55 feet down in the water column, above the thermocline. How: Walleye have been caught trolling using crankbaits or spoons with planer boards, dipsy and jet divers. Try using bright colors including blue, purple, and bronze. Yellow Perch Smallmouth Bass Catfish The Lake Erie water temperature is 71 off Toledo and 72 off Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of September 15, 2019.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 01:40:08 9/15/19 |
Biggest fish of the season! For no apparent reason, the big Walleyes decided to bite for us aboard THE TROPHY this past week! Tuesdays catch was the biggest rack of fish that I hung this whole year. Our top 5 Walleyes measured a even 31” inches, a 29 5/8”, a 29 1/2” a 29 1/4”, and a 27 1/4” incher! A potential winning bag in most any tournament on Lake Erie where you check in your top 5 fish at the end of the day. The only thing different that we did that day was troll into a very sloppy heavy head sea dead out of the south where I really struggled to control the boat speed. The boat speed was surging from 3 mph to almost 0 at times as we hit the steep oncoming waves. All the big fish came on the Dipsys and whatever we were doing, the big girls liked it! Tuesday wasn’t the only day that we got some big Walleyes although that was the most that we got in any one trip last week. We even got a couple few really nice Steelhead thru out the week! The Walleyes continue to slide in a bit shallower with each passing day it seems like and the trout are mixed right in there with them. All the Walleyes we’ve been catching in recent days are just gorging themselves like crazy on good sized Smelt. I suspect the Walleyes and Trout both are chasing the same large schools of bait fish. If they keep eating like they are right now, we are all in for a treat next year! The growth rate has to be simply nuts. At one point I questioned if that many Walleyes in the lake right now all had enough to eat but it sure hasn’t seemed to be a problem here in the last couple of months for them. The weather this past week was more summer like then fall like. We added several more 90 degree days to the list. Unfortunately, some of those hot days came in with stout south winds. None of it was enough to keep us off the lake and as I had mentioned earlier, may even have contributed to triggering some of the bigger Walleyes into biting! As I look at next weeks forecast and beyond, it seems crazy nice! The local Cleveland weather cast says no rain at all for like 8 days with mostly sunny conditions! Wow! I’ll take it but I’ll believe it when I see it. Hopefully they are indeed right as I got a bit of a run of trips coming up here in my last hurrah. Maybe this is the bang that I was hoping to go out on as my final couple of weeks wind down. Speaking of which, next weeks fishing report/ blog will be my final one of the 2019 season. Although I will be fishing for yet another week after that one posts, the weekend there after will be a extremely busy one for me as we run our last trips and then bust our butts to get everything on both the boat and camper cleaned up, winterized and closed up. Lots and lots of unloading, moving things around and many other loose ends that will require all of my and my wife's attention. So check back next week for some parting words and a final wrap up of yet another fabulous season. “Just another year aboard THE TROPHY”... |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of September 8, 2019.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 08:26:31 9/08/19 |
22 more days! But, hey... who’s counting? Lol! That’s how many more days before THE TROPHY gets the big jerk. We’re really close now to pulling off our second year in a row of a perfect string of limits for all the guests that have fished with us. Last year in 2018 we got started on our perfect string around June the 4th or somewhere there abouts. Every trip thereafter we limited out all my parties right up to the last trip that I ran. This year in 2019 it took only one trip before we got back into those same winning ways. Every charter that have I run since May the 11th of this summer has resulted in a perfect limit of Walleyes for everyone. At a minimum, perfect limits for all my guests on-board which is all that you are really legally allowed to have as you leave the marina. But in reality most days we came in with a total boat limit including the ones that I caught and ended up giving to my guys. 22 more days away from another perfect record. See, I’m counting the days down for more then just one reason! I have to laugh. The number one thing I hear from practically every group that fishes with me and even the ones that have fished with me for years and years (besides when are you retiring, lol!) is “you must have a freezer full of Walleyes”! How in the heck do I have a “freezer full” when I give all the fish that I catch on a charter to my guests everyday so they can have nice full baggies of fillets when they leave. I could and should keep all MY fish but I don’t! I think most groups do appreciate it when it happens but I think everybody also assumes that I have plenty of fish. I don’t! I always figure that I as a boat owner should be able to sneak out sometime and get a few for myself (although it rarely happens). But for most of my guests, especially the once a year guys this is their one and only chance to take home some fresh Walleye fillets and I want everyone to leave as loaded and happy as possible. But everybody needs to remember that the limit is still only six Walleyes that you are legally allowed to catch and possess and that is what my string of perfect limits is based on. YOUR LIMITS! If I catch a few extras and give them away that’s a BONUS for you but still results in a empty freezer for me! Lol! So this past weeks weather was quite delightful. The last handful of days have been just about as perfect as it gets. Light winds and a light chop along with very comfortable temperatures and low humidity. Just so nice when you’re not battling the big waves everyday! And on top of that the Walleyes have finally moved back in making it even sweeter for us. The downside is along with the nicer weather and the Walleyes being in much closer all of a sudden especially on the weekends is all the crazy boat traffic! YIKES! I haven’t had to battle all of that since way early this summer. But I’ll take the near shore bite and pleasant weather along with the heavy boat traffic over what we went thru the past 6 weeks or so fishing well offshore. It was one windy August! Hopefully we can keep this nice weather going for the next few weeks. So that’s about it. Fishing is still excellent and everything is chugging along nicely for everyone. As I mentioned in the beginning of this report and last weeks entry, I myself am coming out of the water at the end of this month. If anybody would still like to get out and fish with me before it’s all over I do still have a few open dates left before I pull. Call, text or email me for a listing of up to the minute availability's. And if they do go unfilled, maybe, just maybe I’ll get out a day or so and do something about that darn empty freezer of mine! It probably will be the first day that I can’t catch any this year! Ha! |
ODNR Fishing Report September 3, 2019: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 06:13:49 9/06/19 |
Central Basin Walleye Where: Anglers are catching fish a few fish in 60 to 70 feet of water north of Gordon Park and in 60 to 70 feet of water north of Wildwood Park. Excellent fishing continues in 40 to 50 feet and 70 feet of water north of Fairport Harbor, and in 70 feet of water north of Geneva. Fish are suspended and anglers are targeting fishing depths of 30 to 55 feet down in the water column above the thermocline. How: Walleye have been caught trolling using crankbaits or spoons with planer boards, dipsy and jet divers. Try using bright colors including yellow, red, and purple. Anglers fishing from shore are catching some fish off the piers in Cleveland and Fairport Harbor using spinners and stick baits. Smallmouth Bass Catfish The Lake Erie water temperature is 71 off Toledo and 72 off Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of September 1, 2019.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 13:19:49 9/01/19 |
September! My last month of chartering for this season! It is with mixed emotions that I flip the page of the calendar to my final few weeks of fishing. THE TROPHY has been in the water since April and I have been running trips since early May here in Ashtabula. Fishing is so good now a days that I find myself sorry to see it end. Yet end it will but only by my choice. The fish aren’t going anywhere but I know the weather is going to turn for the worst and stay that way and I’m thru fighting it for one year. Last year I stayed in the water much longer then I had planned. Well past when my fishing reports ended and it was all for naught. Although I picked up a few trips in October, we just never got out. The wind just never gave us a chance. I ended up loosing most everything I had scheduled and just ended up sitting around baby sitting the boat. I’m not going to let a great season end on a sour note again like it did for me last year. Come October the 1st, THE TROPHY will be sitting high and dry and will be beginning to enjoy a well deserved break from the water. Just like her captain! Perhaps October this year will be tranquil and more kinder then most Octobers around here. I mean, the stupid wind has to give us a break sometime, right? It sure wasn’t this past week! Holy Cow! I do believe this past week was the windiest week of this whole season! It was just plain nasty every day. To the point where I ended up cancelling a couple of days, did some weather delays on some other days and just fished in real crap all the rest of the days. It’s weeks like this past week that helped me make up my mind about the boat coming out early this year! In years past when we Perch fished before all the Perch disappeared on us, we fished well into November some years. But that was completely different. We weren't trying to troll well offshore. We went out, anchored the boat and just still fished over the side of the boat. You could literally easily fish in 5-6 footers just a couple miles out and fill the boat with Jumbo Perch where if you had to Walleye fish on those days, there would have been no way. But since that ship has sailed on us and knowing that the real winds are just around the corner, I’m just going to focus on trying to get the remainder of my September trips in and get out of Dodge while the getting is good! Lol! Although it was a windy, rough week out on the lake especially offshore it sure didn’t slow down the Walleye fishing any. Most days it seemed like it took us longer to get out to the fishing grounds and then back home again then it did to get boat limits of Walleye for everyone! The fishing is still simply FABULOUS! Most of the big winds that we had this past week were southwest winds. A wind direction that don’t seem quite so bad when you first leave the harbor. But then with each passing mile that you get out it just gets rougher and rougher. And you know once you get to where you want to go, you’re going to have to troll even further out with the wind and waves to your back with the lake getting even rougher. Then when you do finish up, the real fun begins! You have to turn around and pound straight into a head sea all the way home. A long, bumpy ride home! Oh, it was so easy back in May and June of this year and even most of July before the fish moved out on us! I kid around with my fellow captains back at the dock all the time telling them if a guy was really smart, he’d only charter May, June and July and QUIT! Ha! So it is September and it is Labor Day weekend. The unofficial end of summer. It’s only a matter of days now before the leaves will start taking on their fall colors. The days are big time staying dark longer and longer with each passing day now. There already is a bit of a nip in the air in the early mornings. All signs reaffirming what the calendar is already telling us. Fall is upon us. Each fall the Walleyes do tend to start moving their way back in closer to shore as the water begins to cool. We are already down to 71 degrees. Down from a high of 77 degrees. I think once we drop back into the 60’s you’ll notice a significant movement back into shallower water. Or one can only hope! We’ll see. In the mean time we’ll continue to chase them around offshore. Hopefully the heavy wind this whole past week wasn't a precursor of how our remaining weeks are going to go. From what I’m seeing for this coming week it looks nice and like we’ve turned the corner for at least the near term. My body is looking forward to that!! OK, as we get into September I do have a handful of open dates for anyone that may be interested in getting in on some of this great Walleye fishing before it’s too late. I think this coming week I have Tuesday & Wednesday still available. Give me a call for a complete and up to date list of what is available. Happy Labor Day everyone! |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of August 25, 2019.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 10:28:43 8/25/19 |
Copy and paste! You could literally pick your favorite fishing report of mine from say the last three or four past weeks and insert it here in this report and you would have a fishing report verbatim or word for word exactly the same describing the fishing and the weather that we just had this past week. Just nothing is new or ever seems to change. The fish are way out in the same exact areas. They are still deep as they have been. And they are still biting very, very good! And we aboard THE TROPHY have still easily limited out on every trip out. Day after day. Week after week. Month after month. Verbatim of any of my past posts. Ironically the weather this past week was about identical as the past few weeks as well. Very hot but decent lake conditions to start the week on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday followed by a cold front with stiff winds on Thursdays and Fridays. This past week it was just like clock work. The cold front arrived early Thursday morning with north winds picking up dramatically as I was setting the boat up dockside for the day in the early morning darkness. By the time we departed and started our way out the lake was churning solid 4 footers. We took it easy on the long run north and it took us an hour and a half just to get to where we wanted to be. Friday morning, same thing. Both days long rides out then turn around and just troll towards home with the wind and waves to our backs. And catch fish every inch of the way back from the moment the first lines hit the rough water till we have all that we are allowed to catch! Easy Peasy! Aboard THE TROPHY we have just been Dipsy Divering it and haven’t used our planer boards in weeks now. It just makes no sense to put them out when you are so busy with just the Dipsys Divers alone that you don’t have time to run any of the long lines out for the boards. When the fish were shallower and much higher in the water column and the Dipsys weren't quite as productive we didn’t have much choice but to run them. Now with the Walleyes down 50-60 foot or better there is no easier way to quickly get a lure down deep to them where it don’t stay very long before a fat Walleye gobbles it up. Quick to put out and quick to get back in. Take the Walleye off, snap the Dipsy back in place and just that quick get it back down there! Aboard THE TROPHY we use 6 divers. Three per side and that has been plenty enough rods to keep us constantly busy. You just can’t beat it! Last week in my fourth picture and fourth paragraph of my report I showed a fresh Smelt that a Walleye had just coughed up as I netted it. These off shore fish are just gorging themselves on just everything. Check out these fresh Shad that another Walleye puked up this past week as I was unhooking it! Once again, notice any similarities to the lure that we caught the Walleye on? Lol! Simply amazing how well these fish are eating now. We are seeing them throwing up gobs of baby Perch, Emerald Shiners, Smelt and even little Sheephead and White Bass. Almost every Walleye that we are handling now is throwing some kind of little fish up. Most are already pretty badly decomposed but you can clearly make out it is a little fish or a gob of what was fish. Once in a while you get one so fresh that it is still alive yet the Walleye still went for our lure! Piggy's! No wonder fishing is so darn good! So that’s it. This is the last week of August... WOW is all I can say! |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of August 18, 2019.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 09:09:24 8/18/19 |
Wash rinse & repeat, groundhog day, déjà vu, same ole same ole... I’m just running out of ways each week to describe the awesome “rut” that we are stuck in! Every day is just like the day before. Day after day of simply great Walleye fishing and limit catches! Even the weather seems to be stuck in a rut here the last few weeks! We have nice hot weather for the first half of the week followed by a trailing “cold” front that cools things back down a bit for a couple days or so. And of coarse which is always accompanied by stinking wind. This week was no exception. Wednesday morning we departed the dock at 5am in the full fledged darkness and were the first boat out as we most often are. With the powerful LED’s blazing our path forward and all the electronics safely guiding our way I was dismayed to see a large rain cell hovering just off of Ashtabula showing up on my Sirius live Doppler radar weather feed on my big Raymarine multi screen. Not seeing any lighting in it we proceeded to punch thru it. The lake was just like a mirror. Dead flat but it wouldn’t stay that way! When we got under the rain, it was surreal! I believe it was the hardest downpour I’ve ever been in with the boat. The rain came straight down and it just couldn't come down any harder! It was actually pretty cool traveling thru it with all the lights and I made a little video of it that I so wish I could post. Although the GPS was showing that we were doing 16 mph, it seemed like we were frozen in some kind of suspended animation with the memorizing rain in the lights and the dead flat lake spotted with millions and millions of dimples from the sky's opening up overhead. Pretty wild! The thrill of the rain show on the flat lake was short lived. As soon as we got on the other side of the rain cell we were greeted by a wall of wind and rapidly deteriorating lake conditions. We went from a dead flat lake to solid 4 footers along with a occasional 5 footer rolling in from the northeast in a matter of minutes! Wow! That’s exactly how fast little boats can get themselves in big trouble. Lake Erie can turn on a dime! We proceeded a few more miles and went to work in all the slop. But as I stated in the beginning of this weeks report, the fishing was really good as it seems to be everyday regardless of conditions. Thursday morning the wind and waves were a little more easterly but equally stinky crapola. After a long boat ride out we went to work and knocked out our fish in pretty decent time. It seemed like it took longer to travel to the fishing grounds and back home again then it did to get our fish! Ha! So the fish are still well offshore. They certainly are eating good out there! Everyday the Walleyes that I am netting out there are spewing all kinds of bait including lots of Smelt! Here is a interesting picture of a fresh one that a Walleye had in his mouth when I went to unhook it. Notice any similarities? Lol! They are feeding machines out there right now and with them eating as well as they are, they should be getting really fat as fall rapidly approaches. September always seems to yield us some of our heaviest boxes of the year! Ok, last week I mentioned that I have August the 28th and the 30th available. Well, they are still open dates should anyone be looking. OK that about does it for me for another week. Stay tuned... |
ODNR Fishing Report August 14, 2019: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 10:54:55 8/15/19 |
Lake Erie Central Basin Walleye Where: Excellent fishing continues in 50 to 65 feet of water north of Edgewater Park, in 55 to 65 feet of water north of Wildwood Park, in 75 feet of water north-northeast of Geneva, and in 70 to 75 feet of water north of Conneaut. Fish are suspended and anglers are targeting fishing depths of 30 to 55 feet down in the water column above the thermocline. Smallmouth Bass Catfish The Lake Erie water temperature is 77 off Toledo and 76 off Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of August 11, 2019.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 10:55:52 8/11/19 |
The weeks just keep slipping by. Yet another week has come and gone and still nothing much ever changes for us. Other then the fact that we are fishing a lot further out, the results are the same as every other day. Limits, limits, limits. I think if we ever went back to a full 8 or 9 hour day or we did not limit out it would be quite shocking. And not just for us aboard THE TROPHY, but for everyone really. What a incredible year everyone is having! Everyday we are witnessing something truly special. Fishing has never been as good as it is this year. NEVER. We’ve had plenty of great years and we’ve had many, many years where the fish averaged much bigger but we’ve never handled numbers of fish so consistently and so quickly day after day, week after week, month after month. And they are getting to be really nice chunky Walleyes finally! These offshore fish are eating very well, that’s for sure! The weather this past week was almost perfect. Almost. The first part of the week was once again very hot with light winds. By Thursday though yet another “cold’ front swept through the area bringing much more pleasant temperatures and more comfortable lower humidity levels but again it came in with a punch. Winds went westerly late morning Thursday and cranked better then 30 mph sustained the rest of the day. It was just getting ugly when we ourselves finished up. Sometime Thursday night the wind went stiff northerly. You want to talk about a washing machine Friday morning with big swells left over from the west and the wind & chop from the northeast! After a long boat ride out we set up on what might be considered big mogul waves and probably the fastest Dipsy bite of the year for me! The rough water had the fish in a feeding frenzy and made the long bumpy ride out to them all the more worth it! Saturday, same thing, rough again but we persevered and were rewarded with 42 Walleyes for my crew of five anglers and a few dinner fish for my 1st mate and myself for a change! Mmmmm! We are still hitting some Steelhead on a lot of the days off shore now. Not everyday but a lot of the days. I had a interesting thing happen one day this week with them. We had 2 different rods go off simultaneously with a pair of trout and just that fast simultaneously both Steelhead came shooting out of the water at the very same exact time! One was on a short inside #1 Dipsy on the starboard side of the boat and the other one came off the down rigger from the same starboard corner of the boat. The lures could not have been that many feet apart. The silver bullets continued to put on a spectacular aerial show and when one jumped, the other jumped as well! We were actually feeding out a Jet rod long line right out the middle of the boat when all the chaos started and one of the trout hooked literally jumped up and over that line but did not tangle it or anything else amazingly enough! Both trout not only jumped multiple times at the very exact same time and height but both ended up coming in to the back of the boat at what seemed like 90 mph at the very exact time! Lol! Not having much choice I made one huge sweep underwater at both of them with my net and wasn’t quite sure I had both of them till I actually lifted the net! A true double header Steelhead catch! Man, I wish we could have captured all of that on video! It was pretty darn cool! Double headers of Walleye and netting two Walleyes at a time? Those I’ve done many hundreds of times if not thousands of times over the coarse of 33 years of full time chartering. Interesting enough, the two Steelhead were barely removed from the net when the very two next Walleyes came in hot at the very exact time so I swept them both up in one sweep as well! Like I said, it would have all made for great video! So this coming week we will be entering the mid point of this month. Already! OK, it’s been a while since I plugged any available open dates that I have but I recently received a couple of cancellations for the end of this month which isn’t that far away including a attractive rare Friday that I would like to put out there. As of right now I have Wednesday August the 28th open and Friday August the 30th open as well. Both would be an excellent choice for someone as our Walleye fishing remains excellent right through all of September. Anybody interested in either of these dates as always can reach me at any time on my mobile number (216) 387-2656 Call or text. Till next week, tight lines. |
ODNR Fishing Report August 7, 2019: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 05:57:26 8/08/19 |
Lake Erie Central Basin Walleye Where: Excellent fishing continues in 40 to 52 feet of water north-northwest of Edgewater Park, in 35 to 55 feet of water north of Wildwood Park, in 32 to 35 feet and 72 to 76 feet of water north of Ashtabula, and in 70 to 75 feet of water north of Conneaut. Fish are suspended and anglers are targeting fishing depths of 20 to 55 feet. How: Walleye have been caught trolling using crankbaits or spoons with planer boards, dipsy and jet divers. Anglers are also casting and drifting worm harnesses and weight forward spinners. Try using bright colors including lemon, chartreuse, orange, green, and pink and purple. Anglers fishing from shore are catching fish off the piers in Cleveland using spinners and stick baits. Smallmouth Bass Catfish The Lake Erie water temperature is 77 off Toledo and 74 off Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of August 4, 2019.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 12:40:40 8/04/19 |
August! The dog days of summer. Hot, humid and hazy. And right on queue the Walleyes have moved well off shore right along with the heat. Anyone thinking that it wouldn’t happen this year was just having pipe dreams. It has been two summers in a row where we were blessed that the fish stayed in real close for as long as they did but I’ve never seen a summer where come August that they weren't way out. This year apparently is no exception. It truly amazes me how that many fish can seemingly move out that far almost overnight! And along with moving out, predictably the fish have dropped in the water column to depths that we have not had to deal with yet this summer. Aboard THE TROPHY we have not missed a stroke. We moved out right along with the fish each day and have adjusted our lines accordingly and have managed to keep our unbelievable streak of limit catches for everyone in tact! The weather this past week out on the big pond could best be described as pleasant but just plain choppy every day out there. Not horribly rough mind you but just rough enough to force one way trolls and some uncomfort for some of my guests. It sure is a different world once you are out 10-15 miles. Long boat rides out to the fishing grounds and back are now the norm. The slightest of breezes result in considerable wave action. The big packs of boats that were all fishing on top of each other when the fish were stacked in the shallow water are now nowhere to be found out there. You may see a handful of boats scattered out on the horizon but that’s been about it. I’m sure it will get a little more crowded out there as the word gets out that the fish have moved out but that’s a whole lot of water out there and the vastness of it all can absorb hundreds and hundreds of boats and make it seem like no one is out there. That’s the one thing I do like about being way out there but that’s about the only thing. Fuel bills have become ugly now and bouts of sea sickness have become way too common here lately. Big water offshore fishing can be big head aches at times but as always aboard THE TROPHY we do whatever we have to do to fill the box each day! This past week I got to participate in a multi boat corporate event organized by Capt. Tim Caruthers of T&V charters. It involved 7 boats! All the boats at my marina were included as were a couple of others from upriver. This was a well organized executive outing and the company that sponsored it all spared no expense in hosting such a large function. They had high end shirts made up for all captains, mates and team members. And a friendly tournament was also sponsored by the company amongst the 7 boats with 4 man teams on each boat and generous prizes for the top 3 boats. What fun! All of the boats were released with a “shot gun” start and everything was filmed by the company including drone footage! I am looking forward to seeing the footage! All the boats returned well before the time allotted and everyone had easily limited out. Although we had a nice limit of Walleyes on our boat as well, sadly, we ourselves just didn’t have that one or two big fish that it took to place in the money for the boys. But lots of fun was had by all and the after party was great and generously catered by the company as well. Thanks Capt. Tim for including me in your large group charter. I had a ball! So another week is in the books. We are now fishing way, way out there where you never know what you’re going to catch. We are finally handling some Steelhead Trout almost daily off shore now and we even managed to catch a beautiful Brown Trout this past week which is quite rare for our part of the lake. Funny so many captains that I know have never caught one off Ashtabula but somehow it seems like we catch at least one every year! The weather forecast for this upcoming week appears to be a really nice one. Hopefully winds will remain light as well and allow us to do our thing without beating anybody up too terribly much. I could stand for a little break from all the rocking and rolling myself! Lol! |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of July 28, 2019. : ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 10:33:37 7/28/19 |
Three days of hard north winds! The week before last we had almost a weeks worth of unbearable humidity and heat. In closing in last weekends fishing report I mentioned that relief was on it’s way. And oh boy did we ever get it but at a price! We awoke Monday to a sweeping cold front that had settled in over the lake overnight. The heat was gone and it was actually quite comfortable but the wind and the flags were snapping. Dead out of the north east. Ugh! We sucked it up, loaded up and went anyway. Then to add insult to injury, it started to rain out there after we arrived! The wind was blowing so hard it was blowing the rain under the hardtop clear up to the dashboard. Talk about miserable! Using only Dipsys, even in the stout waves we easily got the parties limit of fish and got the heck out of there! No extra fish that day and no arguments when I said we were quitting! Lol! Tuesday, I go down to the boat and it’s blowing even harder then Monday morning. With the winds forecasted to back off I made a executive decision to do a weather delay and rather then leave at 5am, to leave at 7am with full daylight on our side. 7am turned into a 8am delay and with hardly any improvement in conditions and us burning daylight, we decided to try it at this point. After a long slow bouncy boat ride out we arrived and proceeded to set lines. It was a beautiful day otherwise. The rain was gone and not a cloud in the sky and the fish were once again on fire! We got them all and had a ball! Wednesday morning with a “forecast” of light northerly winds and only a 1 to 3 foot wave forecast I was excited to go! Only to be greeted at the marina with 2 footers in the river and all the flags standing straight out AGAIN! I’m like, ARE YOU FRIGGING KIDDING ME! Triple Ugh (Tuesday was double Ugh)! Not wanting to sit around again like we did the day before, we decided to just go for it. And like déjà vu, we had a long bouncy ride out and a gorgeous sunny day after arriving even though the waves were still pretty big. And as the previous two days, the rods were bending fast and furious and everyone had great fun and was very thankful that I took them out where many others cancelled their trips. Thursday and the rest of the week it was like the past 3 days had never happened. Flat seas, kinda hot and kinda buggy with the lack of wind. Once again the Walleyes cared little. Rough lake, flat seas, there's just no stopping these fish! You get a lure in the water and they will bite it no matter what! With me forced the last few days into having to run up north into deeper water to start, it reaffirmed something that I already knew. There are plenty of fish up north well offshore. And when the lake went flat the rest of the week and fishing seemingly being a bit slower near shore, I just pointed it north and trolled our way out to 70 foot plus of water and got the job done easily each day out there. I guess it’s finally happening and we’re going to have start to plying the offshore waters more and more with each passing day now. That means the real easy and economical part of the season is over with for me sadly now. I’ve said it before. Fishing well offshore each day presents it’s own unique set of challenges with the biggest being much rougher water out there each day. Oh well. That’s why I own a Cherokee Sport Fisherman. It’s a big “big water” boat built for snotty water and the charter professionals. So this week we flip the calendar from July to August. Already. We blew thru July in what seemed to be like a blink of an eye. Before this month is over the kids will be back in school and football season will have already started. All signs to me that yet another year is nearly in the books. The easiest part of the season is definitely behind us now. Hopefully the remaining couple months are a little kinder in the weather department. I’m getting kind of tired of fishing in the rain and I know I don’t want to do another 3 days in a row like I did earlier this past week for a long time. That took a lot out of me! As a matter of fact, I’m starting to get a bit worn down period. Not that most days have been long and that hard but it’s the routine that will eventually wear you down. Getting up everyday at 3am and doing everything over and over and over. And I’m still not sure what is more tiring. Being out there all day long picking at these fish or the frantic hectic pace that we have each day for 3 or 4 hours nowadays! Either way, I’ll get through these next 2 months. At least that’s what I keep telling myself! Two more months! Man, I got this! |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of July 21, 2019.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 11:34:15 7/21/19 |
One HOT week! Wow was the weather ever ridiculously hot this past week but the fishing for the Walleyes was even HOTTER! Water temperatures have now soared to 75 degrees or better and the Walleyes metabolism is in super high gear. Not that they haven't been biting very well for us all year long but now they are spitting up all kinds of minnows as we go to unhook them. You better not be looking at them as you work on getting the hooks loose because many of them literally erupt and squirt water along with a pile of tiny minnows straight out at you! There must have been recent hatches of bait out there because most of the minnows that are being puked up are smaller then your fingernail. And many of the Walleyes are just loaded with these little micro fish. The Walleyes must just swim through the schools of bait with their mouths open and literally inhale these tiny little offerings like a vacuum cleaner! These fish are literally in a feeding frenzy, especially at the crack of dawn. Yet packed with as many minnows as some of them are they still go after our rather large spoons (in relation to what they are actually eating now). I guess there's always room for “just one more”! Ha! It was another week of easy straight up boat limits for us aboard THE TROPHY. However many people total are on the boat each day is how many limits of fish we come back in with. Maybe not in record time each day but I am not trying to set any records either. In fact, again most days this past week we only ran 4 rods. Two Jet rods per side. For one thing I’m trying to slow things down and drag it out for as long as I can for my guys and secondly even with so few rods out, that’s all we can keep up with! I’ve never seen anything like it! I know most of my reports are starting to sound like a broken record by now but it’s a GREAT album to be stuck on! Lol! Besides being miserably hot this past week we even had one morning where we fished through the remnants of what was left of tropical storm Barry. Wednesday morning as I arrived to the boat to start my day I was greeted by a deluge! I don’t know that it could rain any harder! The sky literally would open up and buckets and buckets would come straight down. Then it would pause for a little bit and then start right back up again. We set up out there in total darkness and pouring rain and with all my LED’s all lit up, it was a awesome site to see with the rain dumping down being illuminated by the high power lights! It looked like something out of the Deadliest Catch TV show! But as any other day out there regardless of the weather, the fish were on fire in both the darkness and the crazy heavy down pours. I’m not quite sure if it was miserable that morning or just super exciting. Maybe a little bit of both and definitely a memorable experience! So some relief is on it’s way for this coming week. Right now many of the days in next weeks forecast from what I’m seeing is calling for some of the days temperatures to be only in the 70’s. Man, after this past week I’m going to have to put on a coat! Haha! I can’t wait really. Even though we’ve been finishing up at a decent time each day before the real heat kicks in, being that uncomfortable that many days in a row grows old quickly. I’m probably the busiest man on the boat each day running the hectic show in the back of the boat and keeping everyone going and netting fish and unhooking them (and having them spit in my face tiny minnows. Ugh) and I’ve had more then my fill of the sweat running in my eyes and down my back (not to mention other places that I’m not going to mention!) We’ll see. One things for sure. I’ll report for work everyday regardless of the conditions and the Walleyes will do their part as they have been doing all year long in this unbelievable dream season! |
ODNR Fishing Report July 17 2019: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 11:25:40 7/18/19 |
Central Basin Walleye Where: Excellent fishing continues in 48 to 55 feet of water north-northwest of Edgewater Park, in 40 to 52 feet of water north of Chagrin River, in 35 to 50 feet and 55 to 75 feet of water north-northwest of Fairport, and in 50 to 65 feet of water north of Geneva. Fish are suspended and anglers are targeting fishing depths of 15 to 40 feet. How: Walleye have been caught trolling using crankbaits or worm harnesses with planer boards, dipsy and jet divers. Anglers are also casting and drifting worm harnesses and weight forward spinners. Good colors to try are lemon, chartreuse, orange, green, and pink and purple. Anglers fishing from shore are catching fish off the piers in Cleveland using spinners and stick baits. Smallmouth Bass Catfish The Lake Erie water temperature is 77 off Toledo and 64 off Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of July 14, 2019.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 09:09:34 7/14/19 |
Another good week! As we have come to expect now, fishing for Walleyes out of the port of Ashtabula Harbor has continued to be as steady and solid as one could wish for. Everyday has been great! The only thing that changes is my crews and the weather. More on the weather in a minute. But otherwise for me it’s been like being trapped in the movie Ground Hog Day. Each day is like the day before. Everyday my alarm goes off at 3am. I make my thermos of coffee (which everyday I pour out because I don’t have time to drink it. Ugh), a quick shower, a bowl of cereal, check my emails and check the weather and out the door and off to the boat. Arriving a little after 4am I start the engines to warm them up and begin to fire up all the systems and electronics. Anybody that has been on my boat especially in the early morning darkness knows I have a LOT of electronics! Lol! Start each unit up, select the correct settings, dim each screen and move on to the next. You'd think I was firing up a Boeing 747 or something! Lol! Anyway, the list goes on and on. I load up my daily ice, set up the planer boards, get all my tackle that we will need for the day ready and pour my first cup of coffee (which is too hot to drink and I will eventually pour out at the end of the day because I didn’t have time to drink it after it cooled off. Did I mention, Ugh?). All my crews have been very good at arriving on time, somewhere between 4:30 and 5am. I’ve been telling everyone that I want to be off the dock at the latest a few minutes before the 5am lift bridge goes up so that we don’t get caught up in all the boat traffic that is coming out on that draw. Especially on the weekends! The worst thing for me if I get behind other boats is that I can’t use my powerful headlights with someone ahead of me. And with this years flooding conditions, there is a LOT of debris in the water which I rely on my big LED’s to spot before having a tragic collision which can ruin our day and results in possible thousands of dollars of damage to the props, rudders and shafts and so much more. Most days we are the first ones out and I light up the night! I actually see better at night because I am really focused on the water that is illuminated right in front of me and with no morning glare on the water to fight either. First lines in go in with all my side LED’s illuminated now. Again, we see as well as if it were mid day! It’s amazing the technology that is built into todays modern marine LED’s and what $10k worth of this lighting will do to light up the night! The lights are never on very long however as dawn comes quickly and as soon as we can see everything goes off so as not to distract (or attract? lol!) other boats. Most mornings even in the full pre dawn darkness the suicide bite is already happening! This past week and everyday for me was like all the past ones. Wash, rinse and repeat. We did have a few “breezy” days to contend with however unlike the previous week before last where in last weeks fishing report I had reported that it had been gorgeous all week. But with the right crews for the right days somehow, someway we “got er done” as we always seem to fortunately do and were still back to the dock at a decent time. And the few days smack in the middle of the week were again just flat knock out gorgeous. Just the luck of the draw when you are locked into a day pre booked sometimes as far out as a year in advance. I tell everyone. If you come often enough you’re going to experience the good, the bad, and the ugly! We had a little bit of all of that going on this past week! One consolation is on the “breezy” days” there are no bugs to deal with! Ha! So this coming weeks weather looks to be another cooker with temperatures almost everyday in the 90’s so there “shouldn’t” be any fronts moving through which means we “shouldn’t” have to deal with any more big winds for at least a few days. We’ll see. “Shouldn’t” sometimes don’t mean crap! It also remains unclear whether we get any remnants of the rain that is going to dump mid country from the tropical storm Barry pounding the coast. As I write this little blog early on in the weekend, I am getting conflicting reports about rain from that system affecting us by about mid week. Gee, just great! More rain. YIKES! Whatever. We’ll get through it. As long as the Walleyes continue to cooperate nicely as they have been, everything else is just a distraction! Stay tuned... |
ODNR Fishing Report July 10 2019: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 14:20:00 7/13/19 |
Lake Erie Central Basin Walleye Smallmouth Bass Catfish The Lake Erie water temperature is 68 off Toledo and 64 off Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of July 7, 2019.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 08:03:18 7/07/19 |
And just like that, it’s behind us. The big 4th of July holiday seemingly crept up on us out of nowhere in warp speed this summer and has already come and gone now. Unbelievably, we are already entering the second week of July. The downward slide of summer. To me, the 4th has always represented the halfway point of the summer and the half way point of our fishing season. So, depending on if you’re a “the glass is half full” kind of guy or “the glass is half empty” kind of guy, you’re either sad that it’s already half way over, or excited that it’s just now getting to the half way point. Myself, I find it hard to believe that we are on the downward turn now of this magical season and know how fast the remaining weeks will all slip away. The glass is definitely half way empty to me! This past week was by far the nicest week of this summer so far! We didn’t even have our one odd windy & stormy day like we have been getting each week the last handful of weeks. Just flat seas every day, albeit some very hot temperatures. I’ll take it! After fishing in raw and cool conditions in what seemed like most all of the first half of this summer, this little heat wave this past week felt great to me! And honestly, with us leaving at 5am each morning if not earlier, we were done each day with boat limits of Walleye before the real heat ever kicked in! Not only that, I am saving a ton of money on sun block this summer! There has been no need to lather up this whole year! Either it’s been rainy or we are done already each day before the sun starts to really scorch! Or both! Lol! Just nothing has changed so far this year. Week in and week out. So far anyway... The Walleyes are still in super shallow and close to the harbor. Most all the fish we are catching are suspended in about 45 to 55 foot of water and hanging about 35 ft. down. Within easy striking distance of our 40 Jets which are designed to dive to about 40 foot. And especially easily within our Dipsy Diver program where we can get the big divers down to most any depth desired. Both methods are working equally well and it is literally impossible to run both at the same time because it is just too fast and hectic! Aboard THE TROPHY I have settled into a routine of choosing one program over the other depending on my crew size and if I have a first mate. If I have a larger party and or a first mate, I’ll throw the boards out and run (try to run) 6 Jet rods. 3 on each side. If I have a relatively small party, say 3 people I just throw out a few Dipsys out and roll with that. Honestly, neither one is working any better then the other. Both systems are on fire using the small Scorpion Stinger Spoons. Colors? Heck, it don’t matter! I have the same exact spoons on that I put on two months ago and they have been hit so many times now this year that there is hardly a shred of paint left on them! All of the millions of colors sold in the bait shops and especially all the new “custom” colors that lure painters are now cranking out at premium prices is all for chumps! You can catch them on ANYTHING! You most always can. Lol! So we are entering the second week of July now. The Walleyes are still in close and are ridiculously suicidal. The weather for this coming week looks to be another picture perfect week with if anything, much more comfortable temperatures and lower humidity's. It should bow very well for my afternoon nap that I have now come to be accustomed to! Maybe this week I’ll be able to do so without the AC in the camper cranked up on high! It would not surprise me though if any day now the massive schools of Walleye started to move offshore. I mean after all it is well into July now and we’ve never had a July or August in my 30 plus years of chartering where we did not end up at least 10 miles or more offshore. Most years even much more so then that. We’ll see. This whole year has a completely different “feel” to it. It might be the case that even if a bunch of fish move offshore, we’ll never be able to tell because there are so many fish in the lake we can still make a living catching the many stragglers which always occurs even after a big shift in fish movement. I simply love it! |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of June 30, 2019.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 12:07:04 6/30/19 |
“Just another morning on The Trophy” Morning? Wait, what? Hmmmm... It might be time to reconsider my famous catchphrase “Just another day on The Trophy” that I just love to use. It’s been well over a year now except for my 1st trip of this season where we were forced to be out all day or the full 8 hours maximum that all my trips and most all charters are based on. That’s well over a hundred trips for me now where we easily limited out and were back for a late breakfast. Most all of those were total boat limits too with me catching my six Walleyes also! I think this craziness started about a week into June last year and continued the rest of the season last year and pretty much has continued all of this season so far this year! This past week again was no exception. Fishing was fast and furious! No matter where we went or what we did. The week before I had mentioned that all we used was 4 or 6 Dipsys. Most of the time all but a couple of them would be out of the water as we reeled in and unhooked fish. This past week just to mix it up I went back to using planer boards running them out much shorter then I normally do and only using 3 rods per side. Of the 6 rods, again most were out of the water more then they were in the water! Just a super Walleye bite with again super great charter guests. I am so blessed to have the most faithful, fun, and generous charter guests I think of any charter boat out there. Every day is like taking my best friends out fishing! Without the usual stress of “having to produce” I am having the most fun this year I think that I’ve ever had in my whole chartering career. Every day is GREAT! I’m not in the habit of doing shout outs because I run so many trips and I truly love everyone but I will make another exception just as I did in last weeks report. Special thanks goes out this week to my long time running charter guest Chad from Iowa and all his buddies for choosing Trophy Charters for your fishing vacation! With a larger group then I can handle, I got Captain Rick Hildebrand of Tricky Rick Charters to be my second boat. Along with his first mate Mike Quigley, we all worked well together to deliver a couple of fabulous days, I mean “mornings” of fishing! Ha! With the tunes blasting, we rocked it out both fishing and at the after party back at the dock. A very fun couple of days! Thanks Ricky, Mike and especially to Chad and his whole group. Can’t wait to see all you guys again next year! Weather again this past week was great all week except for Tuesday which was the red headed step child of the weather week. What a freakin windy day! What was supposed to be 2 to 4’s out of the southwest turned out to be almost straight westerly's and quickly building after our departure to easy 4 to 6 footers! Before the lake got out of hand, I had the wisdom or luck (not sure which) to crank it out west to Geneva and just troll east back towards Ashtabula Harbor. Even in the stout waves, fishing was a fire drill for us and we had our 30 Walleyes by the time we got close to safe harbor. Next day, a almost flat lake as was the rest of the week. Just a freak one day super windy day. Good old Lake Erie and “Just another morning on The Trophy”. Naw, I don’t like it. “JUST ANOTHER DAY ON THE TROPHY”! Yeah, that’s better! I guess after chanting that for 33 years straight I can’t simply change just because every Walleye in the lake now has a death wish! Lol! |
ODNR Fishing Report June 26, 2019: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 08:41:32 6/27/19 |
Central Basin Lake Erie Walleye Where: Excellent fishing continues in 35-55 feet of water north-northwest of Edgewater Park, in 35-55 feet of water north-northeast of Gordon Park, in 45-55 feet of water north of Fairport and in 45-60 feet of water north of Geneva. Fish are suspended and anglers are targeting fishing depths of 20-40 feet. Smallmouth Bass Catfish
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Lake Erie fishing report for the week of June 23, 2019.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 08:48:46 6/23/19 |
A great week! We had mostly great lake conditions and totally great charter guests this past week. Special thanks goes out to Ron (from Wisconsin) and his group for choosing to spend their entire vacation week fishing everyday with me aboard THE TROPHY! The laughs and kidding back and fourth came about as fast as the bite for the Walleyes did! And as it has been all season thus far, fishing was just stupid fast and furious. Once again, trying to slow the action down even further so that we could all enjoy some more time on the water, I went as far as to never putting out any planer boards and only using 4 to 6 Dipsy Divers all week long. And I still failed miserably. We easily limited the boat out every day keeping my perfect string of Walleyes for all of my guests in tact and sadly (?) practically in new record time as well. Even though I’m trying my best to slow things down. Uncanny! We had a real potpourri of different weather conditions all week this past week. Mostly all good though. We had one dead flat super foggy day. We had a dead flat hot sunny and super buggy day. We had a all day (all morning?) super soaker day on a flat lake. We even had one very rough day on Friday that challenged us and also gave us a chance to look at some new water. With a north wind, we took a long slow ride well north and set up further north then I have been so far all season. Again, it mattered little even out there. We were in 73 feet of water when we finally got started and we were immediately in good fish with the very first couple of Dipsy rods that we put out. Making a short troll south with the wind and waves to our backs, we had our 30 Walleyes easily before we ever hit 60 foot of water. That in itself being way deeper than where we fished all week long previously. And just as I have speculated and mentioned many times already this year, I don’t think that there's anywhere that you can go right now where you can’t catch these 4 year old Walleyes. They are just everywhere and thick as fleas! We did manage to capture a few biggies this past week but the larger older Walleye have been few and far between lately. I shudder to think where we would all be if the spectacular hatch of 2015 hadn’t happened! Pretty much out of business I figure! This past week we also handled a good many one year old (cigar sized) Walleyes along with some two year olds (12-13 inchers). The Dept. of Natural Resources still insists that last years hatch (2018) was by far the biggest, greatest hatch that they have ever accessed. Greater then 2015’s monster hatch, greater then their benchmark all time biggest hatch ever, the hatch of 2003 (I think 2015 was by far bigger myself). We’ll see. So far it’s just been an occasional cigar sized fish here and there for us. Maybe because the zillions of four year olds aren’t giving the youngsters a chance at the lure before they themselves gobble it up. My experience over the years however has been that they really don’t start coming online and becoming a nuisance till their second year in the lake. We all still remember what we went thru in the summer of 2017 when all the nice fish that we’re catching today were mostly all throw backs. YIKES! Hundreds a day! I guess we will know next year if the 2018 hatch was as great as they are touting. So we are entering the last week of June now. Weather appears to be showing signs of being more summer like with each passing day now. Finally is all I can say! This upcoming final week of June appears to be a good one that’s coming. I see some 80’s in the forecast and very manageable winds. I wouldn’t bet my life on the forecast being right but one can only hope that we start seeing more pleasant days like that then the crap ones as the case has been so far this season. It’s good to know that we can go offshore now to catch fish if the need be. Even though no one really wants to. Marina fuel is holding steady at $4 bucks a gallon as it has been the entire season for us even though the price on the street is ticking downward. Oh the joys of having a large boat docked on the water with no other choice then to pay whatever fuel sells for on the water front! It would be OK with me if I fished a half mile offshore all year long. Even though I no there isn’t a chance in the world that that will happen. For now though, barring those pesky north wind days, I’m enjoying the fuel savings, the savings of wear and tear on the equipment and not to mention the savings of wear and tear on my body. Life and fishing for now is good. I’m digging it! |
ODNR Fishing Report June 19, 2019: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 17:10:33 6/19/19 |
Lake Erie Central Basin Last update June 13. 2019 Walleye Yellow Perch Smallmouth Bass Catfish
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Lake Erie fishing report for the week of June 16, 2019.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 10:28:50 6/16/19 |
One of those summers? Man, this weather is starting to get really old. It was another one of those weeks for us. If you didn’t fish in wind and rain, you didn’t fish. Everyday except for Wednesday which was the gem of the week, the old wind just howled and howled out over the lake. The only saving grace was that it had a lot of south on it most days so tucking ourselves up close to the shoreline, we were still able to fish. Up till Friday where it went westerly and picked up to near gale levels. Even my big boy pants didn’t help us any on Friday. There would be no fishing for us aboard THE TROPHY that day. Here is a interesting read about Fridays weather around the Great Lakes. This is not a live link so you will have to copy and paste it into your browser https://fox8.com/2019/06/14/parts-of-the-great-lakes-will-get-pounded-by-13-foot-waves/ Again, the Walleyes did not care however. Even trying to pace myself and using only 6 rods, limits came fast and easily for us no matter what the conditions were. Feeling very blessed as far as that goes and it’s making this lousy summer weather easier to take. Without the massive schools of Walleye being that close to the south shore, we might not have been able to pull off the limit catches daily that everyone is getting accustomed to now. I shudder to think how difficult it would have been to fish this past week if not impossible should the fish had been out 10-15 miles! Usually in the past, the rougher the weather the less rods we can run also. This year on many of the days out there that’s all we can handle because the fish are coming so quickly. Which perfectly coincides with the conditions that we keep getting handed! Again, the Walleyes did not care however. Even trying to pace myself and using only 6 rods, limits came fast and easily for us no matter what the conditions were. Feeling very blessed as far as that goes and it’s making this lousy summer weather easier to take. Without the massive schools of Walleye being that close to the south shore, we might not have been able to pull off the limit catches daily that everyone is getting accustomed to now. I shudder to think how difficult it would have been to fish this past week if not impossible should the fish had been out 10-15 miles! Usually in the past, the rougher the weather the less rods we can run also. This year on many of the days out there that’s all we can handle because the fish are coming so quickly. Which perfectly coincides with the conditions that we keep getting handed! So it’s trying times we are living through right now up on the lake. We even had an earthquake that originated a few miles out in the lake this past week! I had numerous inquiries about it right afterwards from people that heard about it on the news. I’ve told everyone that I take full responsibility for the quake. I’ve removed so many Walleyes from the lake already this year that the water pressure has settled downward, hence setting off the earthquake! Haha! Actually, I think it’s the other way around. There are sooooo many Walleyes out in the lake right now that it’s displacing all the water and that’s why the lake is so dang high! Lol! Either way, there’s some goofy things going on this year up on the lake. From record water levels, record amount of fish and now a earthquake. I can hardly wait to see what this week brings us... |
ODNR Fishing Report June 6, 2019: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 05:07:58 6/13/19 |
Lake Erie Central Basin Walleye Yellow Perch Smallmouth Bass The Lake Erie water temperature is 64 off Toledo and 59 off Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of June 9, 2019.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 08:09:42 6/09/19 |
Great fishing! The weather, hmmmm... Just so, so at best. Even though we are better then a week into June now, there was no real sign of any real heat, dry weather or real summer like conditions yet this past week again. In fact, for fearing that I may have jinxed myself in last weeks fishing report saying that the only thing that could hold us back from doing very well out there would be having to fish in harsh conditions, I awoke Monday morning to a smoking stiff cold north wind. Ugh. The first stiff northerly for me in this young charter season. And had it not been for the fact that last year I sent the very same exact group home because of similar conditions, I would have thought long and hard about just blowing the day off. But not wanting to see the same guys that disappointed again, I put my big boy pants on and sucked it up and we headed out in the dark in about 3 to 5 foot waves. Knowing there would be no circling around or back tracking that particular day, I took it far enough north to be able to do just one troll south with the wind and waves on the tail and give my crew the most comfortable ride possible. We took it clear to 71 foot of water, further then I have been at any point so far this year and pointed it south and got started. And guess what? We opened up with 3 triples in a row! Is there anywhere off Ashtabula that isn’t just loaded with Walleyes right now? Wow! We went on to easily limiting out once again in the less then desirable conditions. Tuesday, oh boy even stiffer winds but this time dead out of the south. I set up this time in 26 foot of water and pointed it north to go with the wind and waves. And you already guessed it. We again opened up heavy in fish and never turned the boat till we had 36 Walleyes in the box for the day. Pretty much ending up where I started well north the day before. By the time I pulled my gear to come in, Wee Bob was it friggin snotty out there! With a bit of sea sickness setting in for multiple crew members, my crew was more then happy to be heading in with their fine catch. And so was I! The next day, same thing. Super stiff southerly's. Not wanting to end up way offshore again, this time I put THE TROPHY in the ditch and just trolled east and west in tight to shore enjoying the calmer water that the shoreline and the lee side of the lake provided. And again, it mattered little. Never getting deeper then 30 foot of water, the Walleyes were literally jumping in the boat! Fishing with only 4 Jet rods, we simply could not keep them in the water. Thursday and Friday, we departed in and fought a super heavy dense chilly blanket of fog in the morning darkness. Through it all though once dawn cracked the Walleye fishing was simply fabulous! Just another great week and a strong sign that even trying weather conditions this year isn’t going to hold this us back any . As long as we can get out that is! So by the time I post again, we will be smack dab in the middle of June. Already! Talk will soon turn to the fast approaching 4th of July holiday. Man, how come winter doesn’t slip by this fast! Anyway, everybody that’s going to be in the water around here already is. All the charters that still go to the western basin in the real early part of the season are all back now and dug in for the real meat of their season. The Walleyes are already here and it’s game on for everyone. I am having a ball out there myself and I’m sure everyone else is too. Too bad the days and weeks fly by so quickly when it’s this good! I encourage everyone that likes to fish to get up here one way or another and get in on this super magical season that we are having. Be it on a charter or on a private boat. Just do it! Blow off work, beg your buddies or make friends with someone that has a boat! Do what you got to do. Just get up here and get in on it! Soon I won’t be talking about the 4th of July. It will be Labor Day and you know what comes after that. Trust me, this summer will seem like it passed in a blink of an eye. All good dreams do! |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of June 2, 2019.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 11:18:40 6/02/19 |
June! Just saying that makes me all warm and fuzzy inside! Living in northeast Ohio, our winters are so long and drug out. It's not that we have 5 or 6 months straight of hard snow and sustained sub zero temperatures around here. Just that it’s seemingly always ugly gray, damp and chilly most of the time around here from October till well into the spring. And when you get cheated out of a normal spring and get additional months of cool and extremely wet conditions like we did this year, well our short lived real summer just couldn't get here soon enough. And that’s what June brings us. The promise of warmth, sun and fishing in tee shirts and shorts! It’s been a very long raw off season indeed. But for whatever reason, the Walleyes have arrived super early this year for this part of the lake in record numbers despite the lousy April and May that we had. Normally Ashtabula and the Central basin in general is considered to peak a little later in the summer when migrating Walleyes from other more shallower parts of the lake pour into the area seeking the deeper, cooler waters that is super bait rich with Emerald Shiners and Smelt. But basically from the get go starting early last month, Ashtabula has been literally on fire! The fish finder is sick with fish marks every day and the “marks” are more then eager to bite our offerings. This past week for us aboard THE TROPHY, the fishing was just ridiculously easy. We scored rack full after rack full of beautifully sized Walleyes along with a handful of real hogs including one monster that went 31 & 1/4” inches. What a fish! We have literally picked right up where we left off last October with our unreal streak of perfect limit days last year. Other then my very first trip of the year this year where we did not limit out but still did well, it has been a perfect score for us with all my guests maxing out their “tickets” and even us catching boat limits on some days with me reeling in fish too! I’m not going to dwell too much on this perfect record thing for too long for fear of jinxing myself but I think the only thing that might interrupt the roll that we are on again would be having to fish in some harsh conditions where we can’t get our normal spread out or be limited to where we can fish. Right now it’s easy pickings with the fish just around the corner of the lighthouse. But sooner or later the fish will move well offshore and this will present a whole new set of challenges. Maybe Mother Nature will throw us a bone and give us a nice calm dry summer for a change since the spring this year sucked so bad. What’s our chances? Ugh. I think I know. So this will be our first full week of June. I am still refreshed, rejuvenated and very excited to go. I am in awe with how many fish are out there. Not just Ashtabula but the whole lake in general. All the reports that I am reading and hearing from all different parts of the lake are all the same. On fire! We are truly in unchartered territory now with this lake that nobody has ever witnessed before. Record hatch after hatch with more adult catchable Walleyes in the lake right now then anybody has ever seen since records have been kept. Never in my wildest dreams could I ever image that in my twilight years as my career winds down that I would be part of and witness and experience something so special, so amazing and so incredible as to what’s going on now out on Mother Erie! We are all truly blessed to be living and fishing in these amazing times with no end in site. I’m trying to imagine how good it could still get out this way if everybody's else's fish migrate into this area later this summer and join what's already going on out here. Simply unimaginable! |
ODNR Fishing Report May 29, 2019: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 06:36:56 5/30/19 |
Lake Erie Central Basin Walleye Yellow Perch Smallmouth Bass The Lake Erie water temperature is 62 off Toledo and 56 off Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of May 26, 2019.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 07:44:48 5/26/19 |
Going good! I mean, going REALLY, REALLY good for us aboard THE TROPHY! As I described in last weeks report, fishing off Ashtabula has heated up already to mid summer caliber expectations even though the weather on many days has not. This past week was yet another cool, breezy and at times stormy week up here on the north coast. And those are the key words... “up here”. There is just such a world of difference in the spring between the weather we experience on the water or near the water as opposed to even just a few miles inland. It’s the old “air conditioner” effect. With water temperatures seemingly stuck at around 53 degrees, it doesn’t take much of a breeze to cool the surrounding air temperatures down to similar levels. And if the wind is even more than a just breeze, there is actually a wind chill factor out there on the water that no longer gets discussed on the evening news's local weather segment now that it is almost summer. But it’s still there. Brrrrrrr! I ended up cancelling Monday because of conditions but we put in a good week there after. We didn’t have much company out there either. I guess most everyone else is waiting for the 80 degree days before they get too serious about fishing up here. We ourselves didn’t mind throwing some jackets and hoodies on and head on out there. And the Walleyes certainly didn’t mind it either! We easily caught what we needed each day. The marks on the fish finder are just crazy! I really believe there is a insane amount of Walleyes in the area already. For my faithful readers, you’ll remember it wasn’t till a week into June last year before the flood gates let loose and we started to catch fish like we already are here for going on two weeks now. I shudder to think how good it’s going to get when the water temps hit 60 degrees and beyond and we get just a little bit better water clarity. It’s been pretty dingy near shore where the fish are presently stacked up like cord wood. We haven’t really ventured very far from the harbor at all yet. And we haven’t tried it east of the harbor any at all. There really hasn’t been any need to do so. Though I’m not out very far at all, I haven’t really tried fishing in the real skinny water like we did most all of last May either. By skinny water, I mean the water from 15 to 30 ft. in depth very close to the shoreline. Normally this is the water that warms first and is the warmest which attracts the bait fish which in turn draws in the Walleye. That’s where we caught some really nice fish a year ago on crank baits. But this year with the rivers all flooding up and down the shoreline and pumping out the mud, I feel it would be a big waste of time going on in there to try. Besides, we are doing great in water depths of 45 ft. and deeper, so why would I even want to try it? It’s the old and most important lesson in fishing. “Never leave fish to go look for fish!” And it’s so very true! Lol! So Memorial Day weekend is upon us. It’s hard for me to believe that THE TROPHY has been in the water already for a whole month! And starting with this big weekend, the days of me being the only one out there are about over with as well. Many of the private boaters are finally getting their boats in the water after a very trying spring of trying to get their work done so that they can launch. I am so very thankful to have a nice big heated building to do all my spring prep work in myself! Temperatures are supposed to get up in the 80’s as well this weekend and coming week and that will further help bring out the average fisherman. That’s OK. Lots of room out there and there are literally millions of Walleye out there! Come get you some! Lol! Alrighty, last week I mentioned that I had Wednesday May the 29th open. I still do. On top of that I just took a cancellation for the very next day, Thursday May the 30th. So this coming week I have both Wednesday & Thursday available should anyone be interested. Fishing is very good. Happy Memorial Day everyone! |
ODNR Fishing Report May 22, 2019: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 05:28:31 5/23/19 |
Lake Erie Central Basin Walleye Yellow Perch Smallmouth Bass
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Lake Erie fishing report for the week of May 19, 2019.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 14:42:36 5/19/19 |
So my story begins. Or should I say, continues! 33 years worth now for me. And that’s a lot of stories! We began our 33rd year at the end of April last month by splashing in the Ashtabula River for the season amongst some of the rainiest, nastiest conditions in recent years memory. In fact, it was a challenge finding a window in the weather just to get the boat yard to hoist me in! But finally we got the old girl back in the water where she belongs and THE TROPHY couldn’t be any happier! We eventually worked our way back to our dock at River Marine only to be shocked by how high the water level is this year! Without me sounding too dramatic, this is right from the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers website: “The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reports that the water level of both Lake Erie and Lake St. Clair has reached a record high for the month of May. The water level of Lake Erie rose 10" in the last month. The lake is 7" higher than one year ago and is now 27" higher than the May average. The level is now 1" higher than the previous record high level set in 1986. Erie PA is 2.63" above average precipitation since Jan. 1. and Toledo OH is +2.87" for the year”. That’s a lot of water and the lake is not done rising yet! Predictions are for the lake to reach peak heights this year only at the end of June before starting the seasonal drop over the summer months due to evaporation and no more snow run offs up on the upper lakes and waterways. It is said the lake could rise yet another 6 inches or more before this starts to happen! YIKES! The first couple of weeks of May wasn't very conducive for charter fishing and I didn’t even push the issue even though I had about half a dozen groups or so on stand by that said that they would come if the weather and fishing was good. The weather certainly was not favorable! Finally we broke the seal and got our first trip in last weekend. We landed 12 Walleyes and had about another 5 or 6 others come off shortly after the pull back. All in all a fun day and it felt good to be back in the saddle again. The second trip of the year, and the third trip of the year and the fourth trip of the year, LIMITS! LIMITS! LIMITS! baby! It didn’t take us long to get back into our winning ways and pick right back up where we left off last season. A sure great sign of things to come! The rest of this past weekend was FINALLY very summer like as well and the fishing was on fire for us aboard THE TROPHY! Techniques are the usual early season near shore methods that have worked for me in the past 32 years. Planer boards with Jet Divers and Dipsy Divers set very shallow using little Stinger Scorpion spoons. I personally am not buying into all the hype of all the new crank baits that seemingly come out every year and that most early season Walleye fisherman seem to be dragging around anymore. And the recent rage of all the expensive custom painted bait colors to boot cracks me up too! When I know fishing is going to be tough, when I go to my box of lures, I pick out the most banged up, beat up, scratched veteran's that I can find! Many hardly with a shred of paint left on them! True veterans that have been around and around and have been hit many hundreds, possibly thousands of times in previous seasons. Lures that for whatever reason have the exact wobble and action that a Walleye simply can not resist! I mean, think about it. With the game on the line, do you want a flashy young Johnny Manziel in there playing for you or a seasoned proven rough and tough old Brett Favre? Lol, well that’s kinda how I feel about the whole situation! By the way, did I mention that I am a creature of habit? There's a thing or two to be said about being habitually repetitious! Haha! OK, that’s about it for episode one here for this week. I should have much more material related to daily fishing trips after this coming week. Stay tuned... |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of April 1, 2019.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 03:28:24 4/01/19 |
Soon! It won’t be long now. “The Trophy” is scheduled to go back in the water here in just a few short weeks. Fishing charters will start shortly after and we still have a few prime May dates available. Fishing reports will resume sometime in May as well so be sure to check back often! Just Another Day on THE TROPHY... Capt. Walt Trophy Charters |
2019 Lake Erie Fishing Outlook is Once Again Great News for Anglers : Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 14:43:09 3/29/19 |
2019 Lake Erie Fishing Outlook is Once Again Great News for Anglers Ohio announces walleye and yellow perch bag limits |
ODNR Fishing Report January 14, 2019: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 10:25:29 1/24/19 |
ODNR Fishing Report January 14, 2019 The daily bag limit for walleye in Ohio waters of Lake Erie is 6 fish per angler. The minimum size limit for walleye is 15 inches. The daily bag limit for yellow perch is 30 fish per angler in all Ohio waters of Lake Erie. The trout and salmon daily bag limit is 2 fish per angler. The minimum size limit is 12 inches. Black bass (largemouth and smallmouth bass): The daily bag limit is to 5 fish (singly or in combination) per angler with a 14-inch minimum size limit. Lake Erie New for 2019: Walleye Yellow Perch Steelhead Trout The Lake Erie water temperature is 34 off Toledo and 37 off Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of January 1, 2019: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 07:08:36 1/01/19 |
Happy New Year and SUPER Happy New Fishing Season! In just a few short months we are going to be launching the 2019 Walleye season. My 33rd year as a full time Lake Erie charter boat captain and fishing guide! And for the first time in quite a few years or at least this early into the off season, I just simply can not wait to get back out there! The fishing last year was so spectacular, so much fun, and do I dare say, so easy that I have put off any thoughts of retiring any time soon. If the fishing is even half as good as it was last summer, it will still be spectacular! And the size of the fish will be fantastic. I was just so impressed watching the Walleyes that we were catching all of last summer grow and put on weight right in front of our eyes. And there are just so many of them out there now. And it's only going to get better if that is even possible! The Ohio Division of Wildlife has released their final end of the year assessment of last springs Walleye hatch. This 2018 spring hatch had been rumored to have been the second largest Walleye hatch since they have been doing trawl studies and running test nets in the late fall for young of the year fish. They have since corrected their original assessments to now saying that it is by far, the LARGEST, the most GREATEST Walleye hatch ever recorded or that anyone has ever seen! Leaps and bounds above the 2003 Walleye hatch that they said would never be surpassed. Did I mention retirement is going to have to wait? Before we get too carried away with things to come, lets revisit one final time the season that we just had aboard THE TROPHY. 2018 started out a little slower then we would have liked. After a particularly cold and nasty March & April, last May saw water temperatures lagging well below normal along with lousy water clarity. We struggled to catch around a dozen or so fish a trip. On the plus side they however were much bigger on average then the fish that would come the rest of the year. Still, I just couldn't understand it. The year before, May of 2017 it was just about as fast as we could go the whole month. Problem was, most were not quite legal sized. Last May I was expecting the same exact thing. Fast as you could go, just expecting all nice legal sized fish. It didn't happen. BUT then the first week of June last year we got hit with a big wind event that lasted two days. After having cold easterly and northerly winds most all of May, we got hammered with stiff westerly gales dead out of the west for 48 hours straight. Although I lost a couple of trips due to the wind, it was exactly what we needed! When everybody got back out there, water temperatures had jumped 7-8 degrees higher and it had blown a massive school of Walleyes down our way as well! We went from working very hard and having long full days, something I had all of May to suddenly out of control and stupid fast! And all nice legal sized 17 to 19 inch fish like I was expecting. And it remained that way the rest of the year from early June when the big schools arrived till I pulled the boat in October. Every charter I ran, and I mean EVERY charter the rest of the year, we limited out easily no matter how many people we had on the boat or the conditions that we were dealt. 4 guys, 5 guys, 6... it just didn't matter. In fact if the weather cooperated, most days we caught full boat limits including me catching my fish! I kept a few fish for dinner here and there but most were given to add to the crews catch. Something we haven't been able to do in a very long time. But when they are coming that good every day and there are so many fish in the lake, I figured what's the harm? I think most of my guys really appreciated it and knew that I was going well above and beyond of what was expected of me. Hey, I like to fish too! So if we have a normal spring this year for a change unlike last year, we should and I say SHOULD be able to pick up in early May right where we left off here in October. I just can't wait to find out! Regardless, there will be plenty of fish to be caught and sometimes there's nothing wrong with having a "long, full day" out on the lake. Especially when you are catching some of the biggest Walleyes of the year! There isn't a whole lot new planned for myself this season. Everyone really enjoyed last years upgrades and additions especially the overhead new 18 and 1/2 inch tablet that we incorporated into THE TROPHY's already incredible sound system. Using hi tech Wi-Fi & Bluetooth, we literally had a infinite music library and a virtual juke box onboard! We had HD music videos going on all the time as my guests all called out their favorite songs and artists. It got to the point where I didn't know whether I was a fishing guide or a frigging disk jockey! Ha! We had countless games of "name that tune" or "name that singer". We even had a little karaoke going on at times! Some pretty darn good, some rather painful! Lol! All the time while the Walleyes were biting in the back of the boat like CRAZY! Talk about having fun! And the party didn't end when we hit the dock. There was always the "after party" dockside! Also the brilliant new blue underwater stern lights were a lot of fun to see and made leaving in the early pre morning darkness a whole lot cooler as were a few of the other goodies that we added on last year. I do have a couple of neat ideas planned for the boat for this year, but as always you will have to come out and fish with me to find out exactly what! Haha! OK we've freshened up the trophycharters.com website just a little bit and we also have a new brochure out for this year as well. If you are not on our mailing list and do not receive a brochure here in early January, let me know and I would be more than happy to mail one out to you along with our mid winter newsletter. Also, for those of you that have tentative trips penciled in with us or somebody who would like a trip, now is the time to confirm those trips or inquire about a date. With the word getting out about how great the fishing is nowadays, dates go very fast. So that's about it. We've made it this far through the off-season. Everybody stay warm and remain safe the rest of the winter and just keep thinking FISHING! See everybody soon! |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of September 30, 2018.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 08:45:12 9/30/18 |
Thank you! I normally save all of my thank yous in my final fishing report for my final paragraph in the report. But this year has been so good, so very special that I thought it would be only appropriate to start out with sincere thanks from the bottom of my heart to everyone that has made it all possible! And before I thank anybody, I think the biggest thanks of all needs to go out to the big guy up above that has blessed us all with this greatest fishery on earth. Thank you God for beautiful Lake Erie (most of the time, lol!) Thank you for giving us all the most unbelievable crop of fish that any of us has ever witnessed over the many, many years. 2018 has certainly been AMAZING! On a personal note, thank you for keeping me and all of my passengers safe. Thank you for giving me the health to still be able to do this job at this insane level after all these many years. And thank you for all of the success that I have enjoyed along the way. Speaking of success, I would truly be dead in the water if it weren't for all of you guys, my sponsors! YOU GUYS ROCK! My many guests that faithfully come out each and every year. You make this all possible for me. I have the best bunch of guys (and gals) that fish with me on earth! We’ve developed many wonderful friendships. Many that now go well beyond just fishing. To all of you I say a deep heart felt THANK YOU! I am humbled by everyone's loyalty and generosity. It is all greatly appreciated! Someone else that I don’t think I thank nearly enough is my lovely wife Joyce. Many of you have met her on the weekends as she has first mated for me here the last handful of years or so now to give me a little break from running solo everyday. Although she herself has a full time job Monday through Friday, she graciously comes out on the weekends and works very hard along side of me to help all of our guests have the most enjoyable, successful trip possible. She is a real people person. Bubbly and always smiling! This year with the extreme fast pace of fishing that we all experienced and enjoyed I sure did appreciate having some additional help at least on the weekends. It was CRAZY out there! And long after everyone has left, on the weekends Joyce is busy scrubbing the boat, doing the windows or doing whatever else that needs to be done or that I would happen to ask of her. Many months before the boat even ever hits the water each spring she works very hard right along side of me getting everything done to the boat that needs to be done each year. So much cleaning and countless coats of wax that she has done over the many years. THE TROPHY truly stands tall when she first hits the water each and every year! For all of your help and time Joyce I say THANK YOU and I love you! We make a great team out there! The fishing this year has been beyond tremendous. This past week again was no exception. Once again we lost a few a few days due to bad weather as I feared in my last report but the days that we got out the Walleye fishing has been nothing short of ON FIRE! Nothing seems to change this year. Day after day the massive schools of fish are still out there and seemingly going nowhere. Everywhere we go seems like too. And they are so aggressive and willing to hit most anything. The bulk of the fish are the 3 year olds that I have been writing and talking about now for a long time. Hatched in the spring of 2015. The ones that were mostly all under size last year and we were throwing back by the hundreds each week. I kept saying last year to everyone, “wait till next year!” And this year, sure enough they grew into nice keeper sized Walleyes. Fast and furious with rarely a throw back. Just so many mature Walleyes in the lake right now. And just when you think there is no way, no how it can get any better... The states Division of Wildlife officials have just officially announced that this springs Walleye hatch is the second highest, most successful hatch that has ever been recorded! WHAT!!! We have sooooo many Walleyes already now in the lake and we have yet another record crop of Walleyes coming? Are you kidding me! I can not begin to imagine what the fishing will be like if we get anything close to what we already have out there which in itself would easily carry this lake for the next 10 plus years. Many of my more local groups know about the spillway in Linesville, PA on Pymatuning lake where the Carp are so thick that the ducks literally walk on the fish. That’s my vision of Lake Erie and the Walleyes here in a couple of years! Ha! So this year is about a wrap now. As I mentioned before in a report or so back, this will be my final fishing report for the 2018 season no matter what. As I also mentioned I do plan on leaving the boat in the water for another 2-3 weeks however. I don’t have much for trips booked so if anybody wants a late season fishing trip as long as these Walleyes hang around here, I am willing to give it a shot. There are plenty of days to choose from as well. If not, I am very satisfied with how things went for me this year. It was another great year business wise. I truly am LIVING THE DREAM at RIVER MARINE, the summer home of THE TROPHY. It was really a fun place to be this year. Lots of exuberant and happy people all hanging around waiting to have their catches cleaned at the end of the trip. Or what I like to call, the after party! Ha! We sure had some good times! OK, there is one final group of people that I didn’t mention but that I would like to thank before signing off. It’s all of you that have followed along each week here with my little blogs. My faithful readers. I hope you’ve all enjoyed reading them nearly as much as I have enjoyed telling my story each week. So until we meet again next year whether it be on the water or in print, I wish everyone a very safe, warm and healthy offseason. And Happy Holidays too! Cya in 2019! |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of September 23, 2018.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 13:11:22 9/23/18 |
Limits! Limits! Limits! Here we are with only about a week to go in September and pretty much the end of my schedule and the 2018 season and Walleye fishing is still as good as it could possibly be. It has not been a question if we will limit out but how quickly and where. The quick has depended on our departure time and the lake conditions. The best bite just as it has been all season is right at the break of daylight. We like to have our lines set in the last moments of darkness and as the dawn of morning breaks, total PANDEMONIUM! It also seems like our biggest fish of the day more times then not comes in the wee hours of the morning. It’s my personal very favorite time of day when it comes to fishing! Lake conditions always dictate how quickly and how far out we are going to have to go as well. With a north wind we crank it way out and troll back with the wind and waves. That take a lot more time (and fuel!) With a south wind, we stop way short and troll our way out. Of coarse the preferred conditions is no wind or very light breezes where we can troll in any direction. We can really fly out to the hotspots fast on a flat lake and we don’t have to go long or short. We go right to the heart of the mother load where I felt that we did the very best the day before and go right at it. This past week right up till Friday was picture perfect weather wise also helping to make fishing easy for us. And the fish are still out here in unprecedented numbers. That really helps! Lol! Although there are some Walleye everywhere, when you get into the thick of the juggler vein of the mother load school it’s plain stupid how fast the fishing has been. Even now, the end of September when in years past Walleye fishing was getting tough because the schools had already started to migrate back out of the area. But even if the fish are on the move now, the schools are so vast that as they move out of the area others by the millions I am assuming are coming through as well making it appear seamlessly that the fish are going nowhere. Whatever the case may be, there's still plenty of fish out there and they are really putting on the feed bag for the fall and winter months. They are so much nicer then the ones on average that we were catching early on in June when they finally turned on for us (or arrived, whatever the case may be). Nice plump good eaters! I mentioned earlier right up to Friday we had great weather. Friday & Saturday, not so much as we had yet another two days of 30 mph winds which shut the fishing down once again for another 2 days. Seems like for the last month or so we can’t get through a single week without a couple days of serious show stopping winds. Ugh! Aboard THE TROPHY we are basically only fishing six Dipsy Diver rods every day that we do get out. And we can barely keep up with those! We have not put the planer boards out in well over a month now. NEVER in all of the years that I’ve been chartering have we ever attempted to run any trips with such limited amount of rods! By mid summer I was blown away with the fact that we didn’t have to run wire line rods off the planer boards. Now we don’t even run planer boards period! The Dipsys are soooooo very nice! Easy in and quickly right back out. None of that running the wire line and crank bait out 350 feet, hooking it up to a release and then running it out yet another 150 feet off to the side of the boat out to the planer. I haven’t had one guest this latter part of summer tell me, “gee we really miss cranking these fish back in from 500 some feet back!” Ha! And the same spoons that I put on there early on in the season, well their still on there. Over a hundred days straight now. Same exact 6 spoons on the same exact Dipsys. No need to change lures or colors or anything. These guys (and I still hear it everyday unbelievably) that say they only could get them on this color today or that they were really picking out this one particular color, well it just plain cracks me up! I probably own and with no exaggeration, well over several thousand Walleye lures and I use the same exact 6 spoons every day! Go figure. So this is just about the end of the line for me. Next weeks fishing report will be my final report for this year. It will be the end of the month and for all practical purposes, the end of my season. Although I plan on keeping the boat in the water perhaps another couple of weeks if the weather holds, I am just about out of trips so there will be no further fishing reports. If anybody wants to take a chance on a late season Walleye charter with me though, I have plenty of dates available the first couple of weeks of October to choose from. I don’t even need much notice. If you see that the weathers going to be nice for a few days, give me a call and come up and get one more load for the old freezer! I am pretty sure that there will still be plenty of Walleyes around. Late season is always pretty sweet. There is practically no other boats out there and the quality of the fish is as good as it has been all season. And if not, I’ve had a good run at them. No complaints. OK, this coming week which is my last big hurrah appears like its going to be a real roller coaster with the wind forecast out on the lake. Not sure what's going to happen at this point. I sure hope they are wrong or we may do more sitting then fishing this coming week. We’ll have to see how it all plays out and as always, it is what it is. Till next week for one final time... |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of September 16, 2018.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 01:36:32 9/16/18 |
Still great Walleye fishing! Well last weekends weather pretty much played out as the forecast had predicted. It was raw, windy and very wet. Nobody fished for three days and even Tuesday started out quite shaky even though the marine forecast was only calling for 1 to 3 ft. waves. We aboard THE TROPHY pushed off in the dark anxious to get back to work only to be greeted at the gap and beyond the break wall with easy 3 to 5 footers. The lake didn’t have any clear wave direction either. It was just a mass of left over confused water from the three days of really hard blowing with wave heights said to be 10 ft. or better on those days. It could best be described as just big holes and moguls of water thrashing around in multiple directions that we encountered early Tuesday morning. The dominate stiff wind was out of the north west and that’s the direction we headed out in. The actual forecast was for 1 to 3 footers going to 1 ft. or less. That’s the only reason we pushed on. Had they called for that kind of water all day or for it to get even worst, it would have been a 4 day loss for me because I would have certainly spun it around and just come back in. But we hung tough and hung our hats on the fact that it just had to get better with such light winds and waves predicted and so we pushed on. At a snails pace of about 8 mph it took us almost 2 hours to get out to 15 miles! A long bouncy, gas guzzling boat ride. As we arrived to where I thought that I should be fishing I was thankful to see that the waves had at least taken on a more clear direction or as its known in mariner terms, taken on a “fetch’'. It was also obvious that the wind was dropping off dramatically. It was going to be a good day after all! But what was the fishing going to be like after a major blow like that? We squared off with the wind and waves and set up a south east troll towards home. Any concerns about tougher fishing was quickly squelched. Running only Dipsy Divers because the lake was still quite lumpy and because before the blow that’s all we could keep up with, we managed to get 4 Dipsys out and immediately had a triple on! 3 nice fat Walleyes! And from there it was game on! Doubles and triples ruled the day or should I say the next hour or so! Lol! It literally took us longer to get out to the fishing grounds then it did to catch 30 Walleyes! The only problem with limiting out that quick is with me aiming for home, we sure didn’t bite back much real estate trolling and once we boated the last Walleye we still had a long boat ride back home again. But it was in the right direction and the lake was getting nicer by the moment. By the time we got back to the harbor the lake was gorgeous and that was just the beginning of a great weather week up here for a change and another fabulous week of easy limit catches. The big blow changed nothing at all. If anything, they seemed even hungrier! Ha! So my string of perfect limit days is still intact! That is over 3 months of solid fishing now. No matter what the conditions or the size of crew. And I dare say without sounding too cocky, pretty darn easy limits at that! Simply amazing. We are now in the late stage of our Walleye fishing season up this way where in years past things usually start dropping off in the Walleye department dramatically. But there is no sign that things are going to change for the worst anytime soon this year. There are just so many Walleyes out there it’s plain crazy! Not even a hard 3 day blow could slow things down for us. As we enter this coming week we once again have the remnants of another hurricane creeping our way. But unlike with hurricane Gordon that met up with a series of low pressure systems over the great lakes and created a wrap around effect which gave us a hard north east blow for multiple days, hurricane Florence looks to just peter out by the time it reaches us. Maybe just a little rain. I see nothing to be overly concerned about this time around. We shall see. One thing is becoming abundantly clear however. It all makes no difference with these Walleyes this year and the dream season that we are all experiencing. It will truly be sad when the time comes to hang it up for this year. Maybe I should start thinking about and really start pushing some October Walleye charters yet this year! Hint, hint, hint! |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of September 9, 2018.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 09:58:42 9/09/18 |
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! |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of September 2, 2018.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 11:03:53 9/02/18 |
The three H’s! HHH, most everyone that knows any kind of weather lingo at all knows that in August the three H’s means hot, humid & hazy. And man oh man did that describe the first few days to the start of last week. It was about as unbearable as it has been all summer around here or that it could possibly be as far as that goes. It didn’t matter whether you were on shore or way out in the lake. It was just plain miserable. But that’s nothing compared to what I had to deal with on top of all that. I had to deal with WRS most all of last week as well. Windy, rough & stormy! WRS! Well, I just made that up, lol but I sure didn’t make up the fact that we had another HORRIBLE weather week up here on the lake this past week. It practically killed all fishing activity for anyone with half a brain Monday thru Thursday. But we aboard THE TROPHY weren’t that smart... We fished. Mondays heat was ushered in with strong southwesterly winds. The kind of wind that suckers you into fishing because the first few miles out don’t seem “all that bad” We fished, we limited but boy when it came time to come home after trolling out with the wind and the waves it was a “Oh $**t moment”! Or should I say 90 minutes! What a horrible ride home again. Next day, same thing but even worst! Strong hot gusty southerly winds. Monday very few boats went. Tuesday, nobody else went out of Ashtabula Harbor that I know of besides us. Reluctantly, we stuck our noses out there again starting very short and then trolled northeast with the nasty swells and frothy whipping white caps. Once again fishing wasn’t the issue of the day as the Walleyes still did their thing. Interestingly enough, starting way shallow the first 3 fish that hit the fish box were big Steelheads! I got no pictures however because we were busy holding on for dear life! Wednesday, same thing. I finally succumbed to the once again strong southwest wind and just outright cancelled my trip. How many beatings in a row can one man take? Again I don’t think anyone fished that day including me. It felt good to have the day off even though I know I could have probably got it in because it wasn’t any rougher I don’t think then the previous 2 days. Thursday, relief! Well sort of. Overnight a strong cold front dropped thru and drove out the heat, humidity and haziness that had plagued the area for days. But again at a cost. Strong northerly winds. But with a fresh days rest we put back on our big boy pants and headed north towards Canada in the 4 ft. seas. After about a 2 hour boat ride north we spun it around and set up a troll for home. We didn’t make it very far back south though before we had a boat limit of very nice plump Walleyes. It was again about as good as it gets! Friday was the real gem of the week. Finally a knock out gorgeous day! Light winds, low humidity and very comfortable temperatures. Knowing how good we did the day before way north and me having a very full boat for the day and needing lots of fish, I didn’t think twice about just cranking it way out again. And the fishing was fabulous as featured here in my lead off picture top of the page. Great weather, a great crew and super GREAT fishing! So this past weeks winds are behind us as is the whole month of August now. I for one am more then happy to put that puppy to bed. Hopefully September will be much kinder to all of us. Fishing is still more then amazing. I covered so much different water with all the different wind conditions and directions that I had to deal with this past week. It mattered little. No matter where we went, where we set up the Walleye fishing was simply on fire. Its just amazing out there! Hopefully next weeks fishing report won’t look so much like a blog from a storm chaser on the Weather Channel! Ha! Frankly I get tired writing about it but not nearly as much as I get tired of fishing in all of that crap. But this sport revolves so heavily around the weather that talking about it is a big part of our story line. If anything though, writing this heavily weather related report up this week was a bit of a change from what I’ve been mostly reporting and writing about week after week after week now this year. The unbelievable, fantastic, super, awesome, incredible Walleye fishing that’s been taking place out of Ashtabula Harbor! Hopefully it holds up for another 4 weeks. That’s about all I have left now. Happy Labor Day everyone! |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of August 26, 2018.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 11:26:17 8/26/18 |
It’s all about the wind. As I feared last weekend when I wrote my last fishing report, this past week turned out to be one windy son of a gun. Ugh! After a really decent June & July up here on the big pond this August has really proven to be a challenge for us. The wind really started getting out of hand on Tuesday when a super stiff south wind set in just ahead of a strong impending cold front. We fished anyway setting up short and just trolled north with the wind and waves. We easily caught our fish. But boy oh boy did we have a fun ride coming back home! Wednesday, forget it! The wind abruptly shifted northerly and cranked for almost 24 hours straight at sustained speeds of 25 mph to gusts of almost 40 mph! No chance of fishing at all for anyone as my lead off picture here illustrates. Just plain downright nasty! Thursday was quite harsh as well with left over big waves from the north from the day before and a stiff westerly wind that overtook the lake creating a crazy washing machine effect out there. But we managed to get back out there and we got our fish once again without much effort. Friday was supposed to be 2 ft. or less. Well, lets just say that they lied. And then on Saturday back to a horrendous stiff south wind and another horrible ride home. What a week! Even the big winds and big waves have done little to slow down the incredible Walleye fishing that has been taking place this summer however. I remember in years past sometimes after a big blow like this it would take up to 3 days for things to return to normal. But not this time. Not this year. With the 1st day back out there and the 1st rod that we put in the water it was game back on like nothing ever happened! I honestly think if you could have been on a freighter Wednesday and somehow managed to go slow enough you could have pulled Dipsy Divers and caught limits of Walleyes in the 7 to 9 ft. waves that they called for out there and in reality probably even bigger that day! Just so many hungry Walleyes out there this year! If the big blow on Wednesday did anything, I think it actually moved some of the fish back in closer! On Thursday and Friday both it seemed like the very best action was back to under the 10 mile mark. A welcome change after hanging out around 15 miles out. 5 miles may not sound like much but if its on top of going out 10 miles already, that’s a huge savings for us! Usually in September the fish start moving back in anyway. And even though we are only days away from September now, perhaps this past weeks blow will jump start the move of the fish back towards the south shore. Maybe even back as close in as they were for the longest time the last couple of months. That sure would cap off a already great year! We’ll see! Otherwise, nothing much else has changed. The bulk of the fish are still deeper as they have been now for a few weeks but there are so many fish out there that you can still get more then enough fish on the shallower sets as well. Aboard THE TROPHY we are still wire line free. I have never fished in August and not trolled wire fishing line. But between our Dipsy Divers and still the Jet Diver braid rods we have been able to easily still catch our limits each day. If we can catch fish on 150 ft. leads, you would have to be silly or a glutton for punishment to want to put out the 300 to 400 ft. of wire line! Yet there are a lot of guys doing it now. I say, have at it! Lol! So this coming week is the last week of August. Next weekend is September already. My final month of chartering pretty much. It will pass quickly. As did August. As did this whole summer. It still remains to be seen if we can ride this tremendous high that we are on all the way to our final few charters. There is no sign that Perch fishing is going to be any good this fall. The few people that keep trying are failing miserably so it looks like we will probably be Walleye fishing right to the bitter end. That's OK by me I guess. Especially if the Walleyes move way back in again. It will be interesting to see how the end really does play out. Sadly for me the end for this year is plainly in site now. |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of August 19, 2018.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 09:58:38 8/19/18 |
Racking up the miles now! Well it didn’t take long for this August to become like any other August that we’ve ever had around here. Long daily boat rides out to the fish and then back home again. My goodness were we ever spoiled all of June and July! Just round the break wall many days and start fishing. Now get in, get comfortable and get ready for about a minimum of a 45 minute to 1 hour plus ride out to the fishing grounds. Walleye fishing seems to be the very best about 12 to 15 miles out right now. Depending on wind direction, I’ve been out as far as 18 miles from harbor with a NW wind for example so that I would have enough room to troll in one direction back towards home before we run out of fish. Yes, it is possible to find yourself in water that is not all so productive. I didn’t think I’d be able to say that this year the way things have been going but with the huge schools sliding ever further north there’s not much going on near shore. As I touched upon in last weeks report, it’s a whole lot more difficult getting out to the fish now and fishing in the bigger seas offshore has been challenging too. This past week was no exception. It was rough every friggin day! Even the days that it wasn’t supposed to be. A lot of days it wasn’t near shore. But by the time we got out to where we needed to be, it was rolling big time. Man does that get old in a hurry when you beat your way out, fish in rough water and then beat your way home only to wake up the next day to find similar conditions and the next day and again the next day... well, you get the idea. But the saving grace has been that once you get out there, the fishing has been absolutely FABULOUS! And in any direction, anywhere out there. You just have to be far enough north. Aboard THE TROPHY this past week we had several days where I think we had more time involved in traveling to and back from the fishing grounds then we had in actual fishing time before limiting the boat out! The Walleyes out there are super stacked and eagerly hitting anything we offer them. A lot of the other charters have switched over to deep water wire line trolling now but personally I see no reason to switch anything yet. We are still doing well with the #40 Jets and spoons along with the Dipsy Divers which have been smoking hot. My streak of perfect limit days is still intact! The grade of fish has not changed way offshore but the “eater” sized Walleyes do appear to be getting plumper with each passing day. As I mentioned in last weeks report, these fish are still eating extremely good. I had some Walleyes puking up Smelt this past week and not just the numerous Shad as the week before. I think they are like a little vacuum cleaner down there. Just whatever they can get their mouths on! OK, last week we had some issues with our pictures for a couple of days that normally accompany my fishing report. They finally did appear for those that might have missed them. As always, all of my reports are archived and it’s easy to go back and read or re-visit any report that you might have missed. Normally the pictures usually lag for a few hours anyway before popping up with the text the way we have things set up on my end. That’s why I tell everyone to just check the reports on Monday when it’s a safer bet that they should be up. They weren't this past week till Tuesday and for that I apologize. Without spending much money on redoing the format and the way that we post our reports, I guess we’re going to have to put up with the occasional lag in pictures appearing with the text from time to time. Hopefully this week things go smoother! So this week we enter the second to last week of the month. I am not liking the wind forecasts that I am seeing right now for mid week. We’ll see how it all plays out. It’s been a beating the last couple of weeks. I don’t think we can handle much more wind then has already been thrown at us this month. Stay tuned... |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of August 12, 2018.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 09:33:00 8/12/18 |
Offshore Baby! Well, whether we want to or not we now find ourselves suddenly many miles out in the lake catching the same grade of Walleyes that we caught all summer long only a few short miles out. As I suspected (and dreaded) the fish have moved out on us big time. Near shore waters as defined by NOAA’s marine forecasts is the waters that is within 5 nautical miles of the south shore. That’s where we spent every day of fishing the last 3 months and slaughtering the Walleyes for the last 2 months to boot. We now find ourselves 10 to 15 miles out! There for about a week now the main band of fish has been moving northward on us about a mile a day. Yikes! I sure hope they put the brakes on here pretty soon! And besides the obvious much higher fuel consumptions and the longer traveling times involved, comes the hardships of dealing with big water offshore fishing. It’s another world out there. The water is so often so much rougher that far out! In closer to shore, any wind with some south on it be it southeast, south, or southwest is very manageable. When you get out that far, it just don’t matter. Waves are violently much bigger whenever the wind blows. And I believe the waves in general are always so much bigger offshore no matter what direction the wind is from. This is the water where you really appreciate a much larger sea worthy vessel. I was very appreciative of my 30 ft. Cherokee Sport Fisherman this past week. Being that far out we had several days this past week that were downright nasty. Yet we fished comfortably and safely through it all and as we have done now all along since early June, we limited out easily each day keeping my unreal streak of perfect limits for my guests still intact! I think a new huge batch of Shad baitfish has arrived offshore and the Walleye are in hot pursuit gorging themselves like kids in a candy shop! All the Walleyes this past week that we were catching aboard THE TROPHY out there have been puking up handfuls of very fresh and some really good sized Shad. No longer am I seeing the tiny minnows, Emerald Shiners and Smelt that they were spitting up closer to shore. I don’t recall in past years seeing this many Shad like this coming out of the Walleyes as we net them. Smelt, yes at times but not consistent fresh Shads out of so many fish. They are definitely eating good right now and consequently must be growing and putting on fat for the winter months like crazy. Even though the fish are further out now and also deeper at the same time, there is still a feeding frenzy going on each day that is unprecedented. And I thought they were eating good last month! I am so happy that there appears to be enough food out there to sustain this incredibly huge school of Walleyes that we are so very blessed with now. So we are approaching the mid point of August this week. The game has changed now with the fish really only being where they are supposed to be at this time of year. We were very fortunate to have them that close to shore for so long this summer. They should start moving back in next month and in October again but who really knows what's in the cards this year. It’s like a completely different lake this year. What we did in past years and where really hasn’t applied a whole lot this year. Here we are in mid August and I have yet to use any wire line which is my specialty! Unheard of. The Jet Divers are still producing very well and Dipsy Divers are simply smoking hot. Just with a little longer leads. All Spoons have been the ticket for me thus far this summer. Other then using them in the shallows back in May, I have felt no need to pull any crank baits this summer. I keep waiting for things to drastically change and the bottom to fall out on us but it just never does. I guess the huge schools of hungry Walleye out there right now is so forgiving that you really don’t have to have anything particular really dialed in. Somebody pinch me... |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of August 5, 2018.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 09:51:01 8/05/18 |
And the beat goes on... Just like the Sonny & Cher song, the beating that we’re putting on these fish this summer just goes on and on and on! Yet another week is in the books and THE TROPHY still has a perfect score card of perfect limit catches. It is truly a remarkable run that we’ve had at them now with the string of consecutive successful full limit catches. And things seem to be getting even more interesting as we are seeing more and more Steelhead Trout showing up each day now in our daily catches along with the still occasional monster Walleye. Fun times! The weather was just average typical Lake Erie this past week. Nothing to write home about and nothing to really complain about. We had a couple of really nice days, a couple of choppy days and a couple days that some would consider quite rough. But we managed to fish through it all and with results that I have already covered here in the previous paragraph. There was a lot of thunderstorms in the area earlier in the week as well but they either skirted around us or passed through much later in the day when most everybody was already limited out. Sometimes the ball does bounce your way. I do feel that things are on the verge of changing out there however. Although we have yet to switch over to any really deep trolling programs yet, the fish appear on the fish finders to be much deeper now and with each passing day and they appear to be creeping northward as well. They have done that numerous times already this summer only to turn around and move right back in on us again. We’ll see but somehow I get a gut feeling that it’s not going to happen this time and we’re going to be putting on some miles this month. We have all been spoiled for so long now. Also, the crazy insane pace that we were catching the fish most all of this summer has seemed to settle down to “just” a good pick. Imagine that! Complaining that they are coming “just” good instead of crazy out of control and on fire fast! Lol! So we have not only flipped the page to August, we’re already practically a week deep in now. The downward slide of this season. As I listen to my guests talk on the boat about their kids soon going back to school and seeing commercials on TV for school supplies, it all reminds me of how fast it is all slipping away. And my body is starting to tell me that as well. Although the days on average have been much shorter this summer, it’s the routine that wears you down. I can’t remember the last time now where my alarm clock hasn’t gone off at 3:00am. Get ready each morning for my day, head down to the boat way ahead of when my guests are scheduled to arrive. Carry heavy coolers of ice back and fourth to the boat. Rig everything up. Then fish in all kinds of lake conditions that in itself will wear you down whether you bang your fish out in a short 4 hours or you’re out there the full 8 hours. I’m starting to feel it pretty good now. That worn down feeling. The thoughts of now possibly having to start beating our way well offshore each day is not really impressing me either. But as always, I will continue to do my very best to offer all of my upcoming guests the very best trip that I can. No matter how far we have to run or how tired my old back is feeling. It’s what we do. |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of July 29, 2018: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 08:43:01 7/29/18 |
GREAT weather and GREAT fishing! After a up and down week the week before in the weather department, this past week may have been the most pleasant weather week we’ve had out there on the lake this entire summer season. Not too hot with just enough of a breeze to give you a little baby chop on the surface each day. The only exception was Friday where some thunderstorms late Thursday night had the lake a bit stirred up for a short while Friday morning before also laying down and becoming just knock out gorgeous. Bright sunny days, many without a cloud in the sky. Just perfect summer weather. And to add to the pleasantness, the Walleye fishing this past week was as it has been all of this summer thus far. Simply fabulous! The string of perfect limit catches aboard THE TROPHY continues on. Without having to dwell over any of my past records, I know for a fact that in 32 years of chartering I’ve never had anywhere near this long a run of perfect limit catches each day. This is truly unbelievable! To understand how the fishing can be so very good this year one only has to go back and revisit some of my past reports from last season. That’s exactly what I did and this one entry that I had wrote last summer caught my eye and reminded me of the struggles that we went through last year to get to where we are today. Last June I wrote in one particular report: “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.” And this year those same exact fish are all back. And as I wrote last year, they are everywhere. Except this year they have all grown into nice eating size keepers. Almost everything that comes across the back of the boat goes straight into the fish box without even having to measure them. Just hit the counter! The hand writing was on the wall last season. All we had to do is wait for these fish to grow up just a little more. And that they have. Which leads me to daydream about next year already. I can hardly contain my excitement thinking about how much nicer in size all these Walleyes are going to be next year and all the years to come thereafter! This past week we were fortunate enough to capture a few of the older much larger fish that are still swimming around out there just not in great numbers. One can only imagine all the “eaters” that we are catching this summer one day being all this size! It’s going to be INSANE! But for now we are going to have to be content catching these great eating size Walleyes and be happy that we are not going through the exhausting pace that we went through last summer only to have to throw most everything that we caught back. So in a couple of days now it will be August already. As I predicted July was nothing short of a blur. By now we should be making long grueling rides out to the off shore fishing grounds. Yet, we turn the corner each day shortly after splitting the harbor gap and immediately proceed to fish with the Walleyes seemingly just everywhere and instantly hitting most anything you throw at them. Unbelievably we are all still using the same easy shallow water set ups that we were using nearly 2 months ago now. The same exact lures, the same line counts, the same everything. I don’t know how many times in one report or in one seasons reports I can use the word unbelievable but I am sure that I am not done saying that yet. Because it is all so very UNBELIEVABLE! See you all in August... Capt. Walt |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of July 22, 2018.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 09:06:25 7/22/18 |
Silly easy fishing in some not so easy conditions. Well it wasn’t exactly “Ground Hog Day” when it came to the weather this past week. We had everything from a dead flat lake and very hot weather to very choppy and cool conditions back to very nice and then back to really windy and super choppy days this weekend. But no matter what the lake threw at us, one thing remained a constant through it all. The Walleyes simply did not care! Everyday calm or rough the fishing has been just on fire. Our string of days of 100% perfect limits everyday aboard THE TROPHY is still intact including this weekend when it was just about unfishable. Yet, we “got er done”! I went back through my calendar and records and I can honestly say that we have limited out and EASILY at that every day since June the 7th of last month! And I found out this past week that the schools of fish right now out from Ashtabula Harbor are even more massive then I could have ever imagined! After a beautiful but hot day on Monday, we awoke to a cold front or maybe I should just say a cool front on Tuesday. Winds were brisk and dead out of the north. It brought much needed relief from the heat and humidity that had set up once again last weekend on into Monday. So with the north wind I decided to take it out further then I have been at any time this summer. More out of curiosity then out of need. It took a while in the 3 foot seas to punch our way out there but I steered THE TROPHY due north and did not flip it around till we were exactly 10 miles out. I had almost forgotten how neat it is to be that far off shore. Far away from all the crazy boat traffic and pressure that the near shore and in front of the harbor area is receiving this summer ever since the word got out about the crazy easy fishing in close. But it mattered little. We opened up in fish good and never went more then a few minutes between bites as we trolled straight back towards home. It almost took as long to get out there as it did for us to get a boat limit of Walleyes! Wednesday we headed out once again on a even choppier lake with the waves running about 4 footers but still dead out of the north. So like déjà vu, we cranked it straight out once again but this time just for fun I went several miles even further north then we went the day before. And guess what? ON FIRE! We again opened up heavy in Walleyes and by the time we finished up trolling homeward dead south, we were still miles north of the furthest point north that we had gotten in recent weeks of fishing the closer to home waters. It is simply mind boggling how many Walleye must be out there in the lake right now! Even out there the same exact trolling programs and line counts worked. The fish are very high and super aggressively feeding. Even those off shore fish are loaded up with tiny minnows. As we net and swing the fish over the stern they are spewing minnows everywhere. Amongst all the many things that are happening this summer out there that I have never seen before, you can add to that list that I have never seen that many Walleyes that full of so many tiny, tiny minnows! So earlier in the week, Monday I think it was I rounded the break wall and shortly proceeded to put out all our gear. Somehow, someway we managed to get all the rods out and I was actually able to get back up to the helm and get a swig of my coffee. Something that on most days I don’t get to do from the moment I throttle down till we are done trolling. As I stood there sipping my coffee I was thinking, oh crap I started way too close. That thought had hardly entered my mind when all 10 rods took a hit at the same time! A 10 banger! In disbelief I thought “Oh ****” But with a little leadership and some frantic coaching from me, we landed all 10 Walleyes. 10 for 10 all in one shot! Lol! The picture above is what it looks like on my boat when the Walleyes wipe out all the rods at once. Quite chaotic, lol! I can’t help to think back how many days in the 32 years of chartering that I have had days where it took me all day JUST to catch 10 Walleyes. I have to shake my head. It will be fascinating to see how the rest of this season plays out. As August draws nearer, August is traditionally our very most productive month. If the fishing gets any better, I’m going to have to start taking sedatives! |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of July 15, 2018.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 12:34:43 7/15/18 |
Another GREAT week! At the risk of starting to sound like a broken record, this past week was yet another banner week for all my guests aboard THE TROPHY and everyone else out there for that matter. I think I would have to go back well over a month now in my records to find a day where we did not limit out. Many days we even had the boat limit with me catching some fish too! As summer begins to wind down, I need to start thinking about getting a few for my freezer back home as well! I was never that eager to keep any of the really big fish that we were catching a few years ago but these smaller tenderonies, man I would love to have a whole freezer full of them. Mmmmm! There is just such a HUGE difference when it comes to eating them. That’s also the reason these younger fish are affectionately known as “good eaters”! Speaking of eating, these Walleyes that we are catching now are gorging themselves on anything that swims out there big time! There for a long time these 3 year olds didn’t seem to have anything in their stomachs. I was actually getting concerned whether a school of fish this massive could all find enough forage fish to eat each day. That at the risk of them literally getting “stunted” out there. This is not all that uncommon when it comes to overpopulated bodies of water with very dense particular fish species and not enough food for them all to eat. A perfect example would be a farm pond with way too many Blue Gills or even Pymatuning Lake where all the Walleyes looked like “hammer handles” at one time because there was just so many of them. Where for many years the bulk of these fish were hung up right around the 14” inch sub legal mark. They just didn’t seem to grow at all. But on Erie? One wouldn’t seem to think that was at all possible. But all those worries at least for the time being are being put to rest. These younger Walleyes right now are coughing up, spitting and puking fresh and partially digested bait fish up by the handfuls like crazy! They are loaded! Many that we caught this past week actually still had live shiners in them that were still kicking yet the Walleyes were hitting our lures! Just nuts! Can you say feeding frenzy? No wonder the Walleye fishing is on fire right now. I’m not sure if many of the bait species have just hatched out and are finally achieving edible size for these Walleyes right now or that the water temps which are now running around 75 degrees have these fish’s metabolism in high gear and they are just eating machines eating everything and anything possible. I have already seen tiny Smelt in these Walleyes, big Emerald Shiners and what I believe to be tiny, tiny Shad that must have just recently hatched out. Whatever it is, these fish are capitalizing on it and man are they making a big mess of my boat each morning as we net them! Lol! So now we are at the mid point of this month already. The 4th of July holiday has come and gone. And as I predicted, this summer and the fishing season in general is screaming us by. Everything to me is very weird and surreal this summer. It’s almost like we are living in the movie “Ground Hog Day”. The weather each day is very similar to the day before and shaping up to be one of our nicer summers here in a long time. The fish aren't moving anywhere and just staying in close to shore day after day. We are still using the same early season Jet Diver presentation program that we have used for well over two months now with the fish staying very high in the water column. Limits have been automatic. Eat, sleep and repeat. Everyday day. Day in, day out. Over and over and over! And I just plain LOVE IT! I like everyone else do wish that these fish were just a tad bit bigger but on the other hand I know in my heart that those days are coming back to the lake and maybe even sooner then later if they keep eating like they are eating out there right now. I think that in the coming weeks you're going to literally be able to see a noticeable difference take place right in front of your eyes. Oh, and did I mention that “Ground Hog Day” was one of my favorite movies ever? Just surreal... |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of July 8, 2018.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 07:00:29 7/08/18 |
A real heat wave! And even hotter fishing through it all! Wow did we have a run of days in the 90’s this past week. And the humidity was plain off the charts. I don’t know that much about the heat index’s last week which is a combination of temperature and relative humidity to give a perceived comfort level. Very similar to how wind chill works in the winter. Just in reverse. All I know is that I seen many days in the 100 degree plus category on the local weather channels. That’s seriously hot and uncomfortable! Yikes! Aboard THE TROPHY we bumped our dock departure time up to a early bird 4am departure most of the 5-6 days the heat wave lasted. Fortunately for me I had folks all week that were as eager as I was to get out there, get our fish and get the heck off the lake before it became too terribly uncomfortable. And that we did! Relief arrived by weeks end when on Friday a strong cold front arrived in the wee hours of the morning ushering in much more comfortable temperatures and much more humane humidity levels. All at the cost of another lost day for the whole charter fleet in Ashtabula. I went down to the dock to meet my group for a pre arranged 5am departure only to be met by stiff northerly winds sustained at 24 mph out of the north with gusts to 28 mph. Ugh. With the flags across the river standing straight out stiff and snapping like someone was snapping a towel, everyone both captains and charter guests alike all agreed it was not to be that day. Plain sucks especially since the forecast for Friday originally was for not all that bad. But as often that they do, over night the forecast changed for the worst with wave heights projected to be 3 to 6 feet for all day Friday. From one extreme to another around here. It was interesting to find out how good the fishing was going to be in the dark by leaving at 4am. For the most part thus far this summer we aboard THE TROPHY have been leaving right around our normal departure time of 5am. And by the time we arrive at our fishing spot and get the gear in the water it’s already breaking daylight. It’s really weird how different everything seems by leaving just one hour earlier. Not a sole is around anywhere. We load up and head out in the early morning darkness in total solitude. No other boats to deal with. It’s like having your own private lake. Set up where you want. Go where you want. Aboard THE TROPHY over the years I’ve acquired about $10k in spectacular Rigid LED lighting which projects unbelievable light in all the right directions to light up the night when we troll in the dark. Rigid is the worlds premier leader in high end off road and marine lighting. I can honestly see everything as good if not better then in the daylight especially when we are fighting the suns glare after day break. Pretty darn neat! And the Walleyes did not disappoint! Each day even at that ungodly hour of the morning we opened up like a house on fire! Unbelievable! Don’t those things ever sleep? Lol! Just unbelievable all the way around this year! OK, I have some good news for the remainder of my guests that have yet to fish with me this year. River Marine where THE TROPHY is docked has decided to lower the price that they charge for fish cleaning! It was $2.50 a fish and they have now gone to a much more fair $2 bucks a fish. It still amazes me when the occasional group elects to take all their fish home and face that huge mess themselves. Billy, our fish cleaner at River Marine is like a surgeon and gets you every ounce of meat possible! No mess or carcasses to have to dispose of afterwards either. The fillets are perfect and done in record time while most get to enjoy a post charter adult beverage while waiting in the shaded tent area that River Marine now offers! Every now and again even I get convinced to join up in a post trip celebratory cocktail, regardless of time of day! Lol! We are truly living the dream this year at River Marine. Every day I ask someone to pinch me! Feeling very blessed... |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of July 1, 2018.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 11:59:42 7/01/18 |
July! Boy did June ever fly by. June around here came in chilly with slower then we would like it fishing and exited in a major heat wave with faster then we would like it fishing! Lol! Talk about a month of transition! In a couple of few days it will be the 4th of July holiday and then if you think June flew by fast, stay tuned. The rest of the summer will really be a blur! It always is. I’ve personally always felt that the 4th of July was like the halfway point to our summer fishing here in Ashtabula. After that we start the downward slide towards the end of summer and the end of our summer Walleye fishing. With each day now the sun will come up just a little bit later. All the signs will be present that the summer of 2018 is rapidly passing us by. The last week of June here was a very good one for us. Walleye fishing once again was as good as it gets aboard THE TROPHY and for everyone else for that matter. There is no question at least right now whether you will limit out or not. It’s just how long will it take! I think most charters are baffled as to how to drag it out to give our folks more time on the water each day. We’ve all really limited the number of rods that we use each day. Problem is there is practically no travel time involved to the fishing grounds right now since the fish are in so close which doesn’t help lengthen the day any. Good for us captains but maybe not so much for the overall experience of our guests. No nice long boat rides. Just right down to business soon after we clear the break walls with the hungry Walleyes seemingly waiting for us. I don’t know how many times here in the last few weeks that the very first line out in the morning instantly had a Walleye on it! A few observations from my perspective about this past June. This was the first June ever for me where I didn’t need or feel the need to use my favorite Walleye lure, the Jr. Thunder Sticks on wire line. I’ve always been the first charter to switch over to an all wire program albeit with short leads but still all wire. Always by the last week of June for sure for me. I’m getting my regulars now that are coming up on the exact same days that they take each year. And when I start breaking out the Jet Diver rods instead of the wire line rods for the day I hear, “What the Hell are those?” Lol! But it’s hard to put away something that is working so very well. I’m not sure that we might not be able to squeeze most of this entire season out just using these simple effective gadgets. Short leads on braided line with seldom a tangle is hard to pass up knowing all the complications that come with wire line fishing. Also, unrelated but this is the very first June that I’ve ever seen where we didn’t have ANY bad bug days. Very odd but greatly appreciated by all! So what will this July bring us? I just don’t even know what to think anymore. I’ve always believed that the Walleye fishing up here was very repetitious. Where you find them one year and the way that you catch them will work each year about the same time of year. But not this year. The fish should be out about 10 miles already. They're not. They should be down about 40 to 45 ft. in the water column. Their not. There should be plenty of really big fish being caught. There hardly is. There are no junk fish. No bugs. Just millions upon millions of close to shore 3 year old Walleyes very high in the water column that will hit anything that you throw out there. Could this last all summer? I highly doubt it but then who really knows for sure. Everything that is all happening up to now is all unprecedented. Totally uncharted territory. This will certainly go down in the record books as a year to remember. And as I’ve really been saying here as of late. It’s all only all going to continue to get better as these 3 year old fish continue to grow and get bigger with each and every passing year. I am just in total awe! |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of June 24, 2018.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 00:04:53 6/24/18 |
A very special year! It’s becoming to be quite clear that we are all witnessing something very special and unprecedented in 2018. A school of hungry younger Walleyes that literally consumes the entire lake. It's hard to believe that last month off Ashtabula that we were struggling to catch a dozen or so fish each day. Now that the water has warmed and some of the Walleyes that were in the western basin have moved out this way it has been incredibly easy fishing. Everyone is limiting out! I wrote about it last year when we were throwing all those 14” inchers back. Wait till next year. I wrote about it in my mid winter Jan. 1st report. Wait till this summer! And after the tougher then normal start out this way earlier in our season I was beginning to second guess myself. Could I have been that wrong? But when the fish finally arrived, they arrived in numbers that nobody could have ever imagined. Even myself! My career has spanned 4 decades now. The 80’s, the 90’s, the 2000’s and right through the 2000’s–teens. I have lived and worked through and enjoyed what the biologists and Dept. of Natural Resources have described as the greatest Walleye hatches ever. In the 80’s we had the hatch of 1982. These fish quickly grew and overtook the entire lake. Fishing was incredibly good starting about 1985 and lasting for well over a decade with the fish being bigger with each passing year. This batch of fish is what enticed me to quit my good paying machinist job and pursue a career as a full time charter boat captain and fishing guide on Lake Erie. This hatch made for fabulous fishing for well over a decade. It seemed like the well would never go dry. But after a series of poor hatches and constant pressure the class of 1982 was finally about depleted and we had a handful of leaner years. Along came the record breaking hatch of 2003. Mother Nature always seems to know when to throw us a bone. It took several years for these fish to come online but man oh man was fishing ever fantastic the latter 2000’s and early 2000’-teens when these fish matured. The ODNR still insists this was the greatest Walleye hatch ever. Same scenario. The great fishing from this record hatch carried us for well over a decade. But as before with the 82 hatch, this year class finally got thinned out and between fishing pressure and natural mortality things were beginning to look rather grim. And then came the hatches of 2014 and especially 2015. Although the ODNR still claims 2003 was the greatest, anybody that spends all their time fishing on the lake and is constantly aware of what others are doing up and down the lake will argue that point. I for one am one of them! I thought I had seen some spectacular fishing after those other record hatches but all those great years are pale in comparison with what's going on out there right now. Up and down the entire lake now. Everyone. These 3 year old fish are everywhere and thicker than fleas. I have never seen anything like it and can only imagine how much better it will be in the coming years as these fish continue to mature and soon all become the 5 to 10 pounders that Lake Erie is famous for! I have never been more excited to be a charter captain! But is too much of a good thing a bad thing? I personally don’t think so myself but it has brought on some problems that we have never had to deal with before. Everyone and I mean everyone, all the charters alike and all the private boaters have been limiting out much quicker then most are accustomed to. Some days actually too quick. I know that aboard THE TROPHY I have literally done what I can short of going to one rod or something stupid like that to slow things down to give my guests some sense of a longer trip before we are maxed out. I have even reeled in fish myself so we can come in with more fish or try to spend more time out there. It matters not. Fishing is just too good right now. We do not do catch and release when trolling because most trolling fish are stressed out and do not survive if you throw them back. And it’s pointless. All the fish right now are practically all the same size. It’s not like you can weed through them looking for larger fish. I say just enjoy it. You are witnessing history. Things will settle down with time as these fish get thinned out some and become more spread out over time. It will also be a whole different ball game as these fish indeed start to become trophies rather then the good eaters that they are now. But I always say, take what the lake gives you and be happy. Of the two evils, I would rather catch them too quickly then not catch them at all or struggle doing so. Been there, done that. Not fun! But right now we are living through something that nobody has ever seen before. Something very, very special! Enjoy! |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of June 17, 2018.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 08:35:20 6/17/18 |
Excellent fishing! Everybody both the charters and private boaters alike all enjoyed another week of excellent Walleye fishing off of Ashtabula Harbor. This past week the fish bounced back and fourth a bit between the shallower water and the slightly deeper water but still well within what is considered to be near shore or out to five nautical miles. Even if you miss the main vein of fish which seems to parallel the south shore, there are so many active fish out there right now that you can’t help but still do well even if you are in the outside fringe area of the heaviest concentration! I just love it! It has been interesting to see how the core of the school has been moving in and out a mile or two each day depending on water temperature. I don’t remember a year where we have had so much fluctuation in water temps. Depending on wind direction and the unknown currents below the surface which are always present, we have seen surface temperature swings of as much as 6 degrees or greater in a single day. I blame it on the extreme high water. There's a huge block of cold water out there right now and its taking a long time for the bulk of the water to warm up. The upper few feet of water warms up quickly but as the wind kicks up, especially a stiff east wind it disperses the warmer water making for wild temperature variances. And the core of the fish have been following the warmer water. The Walleyes are also very high in the water column making for fast and furious fishing when you are in the heart of the school! Weather was a non issue. It was a lovely week out there! And the bug hatches thus far out in the lake have been non existent. Blame that as well or should I say credit it to the colder then normal water as well. I sure appreciate that at least! Sometimes in June when there is no breeze and the lake is slick and calm there can be some nasty bug hatches. That’s the number two question I get from all my upcoming guests when we touch base right before their trip this time of year. “How's the fishing” & “How's the bugs been”! Lol! I’m sure we won’t get thru this whole June without dealing with it but so far so good. So things are really good out there right now. Other then the possible bugs, June is my favorite month. The weather is finally very summer like where the month of May can go either way. The fish are still in close and much easier to catch when they are in the upper part of the water column as opposed to late summer where we have to make long grueling runs off shore and have to put out a ton of line to get down to the deep fish. Who knows, maybe the fish will stay in closer this whole summer. Somehow I highly doubt it though! OK, I still have a couple of open dates to offer this month. This coming week I have Wednesday June the 20th available and the the following week I have Tuesday June the 26th available. Anybody interested can call or text me as always at 216-387-2656. Hard to believe we are already past the halfway point of this month. It is flying by so quickly! |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of June10, 2018.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 00:42:14 6/10/18 |
Like someone flipped a switch! This past week we experienced some of the fastest action I’ve ever seen Walleye fishing on Lake Erie. EVER! In last weeks fishing report I discussed the slower than we would like it fishing all of May here and how I believed it was going to take a good a good hard westerly blow to to move some warmer water from the west end of the lake along with the Walleyes out our way and turn things around. I got my wish! At the cost of two lost trips however. Starting on Monday and lasting well into Wednesday we had small craft warnings up and a very strong west, NW wind. Though we managed to fish Tuesday my group on Monday and Wednesday asked to come back after we stuck our nose out in the open lake and they didn’t think they could take it. I spun the boat right around and came right back in. We never make anyone do anything that they aren't comfortable with. Though we have fished safely many times in similar conditions, it was probably the right call as I was on the fence myself about whether we should go or not. But boy did that three day blow shake things up. In a good way! *Disclaimer: This lead off picture is from last weekend after my fishing report had already posted. These recent fish though plentiful are much smaller on average... Thursday we got back out there on a dead flat calm lake with high expectations and high hopes. And WOW is all I got to say! We weren't very far out of the harbor when the fish finder lit up like crazy with classic Walleye “hooks” that one can only dream about! The fish were stacked everywhere like cord wood for miles and miles in any direction that we went. And they are definitely all Walleyes! We aboard THE TROPHY along with all the other charters and all the private fisherman simply could not get a line in the water without a hungry Walleye grabbing it! It’s been literally as fast as we can go ever since Wednesday! It just leaves one scratching their heads! How do you go from working so hard to catch a fish to being done too quick each day and not being able to keep a line in the water? Unbelievable! This is what we actually were expecting and waiting for all of last month. We caught fish like this at the same pace all of last May last year. Most however were undersize. Now we’ve returned to that same kind of frenzy but this year all these same fish are turning out to be keepers. Not lunkers mind you but good eaters. And action! The number one thing that everyone expects when going on a charter. I mentioned that we fished on Tuesday. That trip was a very unique day for me and THE TROPHY as by special request we did a very rare drift fishing trip. Although I ran casting trips up at the Islands in the west end of the lake for almost 30 years before quitting going up there in the early spring, I never really ran a drift trip for Walleyes out of Ashtabula. Although we didn’t completely limit out Tuesday we did quite well! And it was the perfect day to try it as well as we had plenty of “drift”! Lol! We primarily caught fish on bottom bouncers and worm harness’s but the boys also caught a few nice ones on the old Lake Erie stand by, Erie Dearies! But I felt out of my element all day and I hated carrying all the other drift fishing gear besides all the trolling equipment which I wasn’t going to take off just for one day. And in reality, you need lots of wind to cover a lot of ground just like trolling. After all, that’s all you’re really doing. Sideways trolling with lighter equipment. And talk about being tossed around! Everybody was pretty beat up at the end of the day after being sideways drifting in the pitching tossing seas. That’s one of the reasons why I quit going to Port Clinton! I’m just getting too old for that crap! Lol! So things have changed out there and in a hurry. Maybe a good thing, maybe in some ways not so much. When we were catching a dozen to 15-16 fish a day, the fish were certainly much bigger. And everybody had a nice full day. Now this enormous school of 3 year old fish, 16” to 20” inch Walleyes on average has over run everything and the larger local fish don’t even have a chance before the hungry smaller rug rats gobble everything up. And its all starting to make sense why maybe our Perch out here have disappeared. The only Perch caught here in the last couple of years have all been huge. There has been no recruitment with young small Perch. Why? I think this massive school of millions upon millions of Walleyes ate all the small Perch fry as they were being hatched. Seriously! All these millions upon millions of Walleyes have to eat something each day! I know one thing. I wouldn’t want to be a little minnow or a baby Perch out there right now! YIKES! So that’s it for another week. The week before we turned the page to June and this past week somebody finally flipped the switch. It will be interesting to see how long this stupid easy fishing holds up. Everyday for about the next 10-15 more years would be just fine by me! Ha! OK, just a quick note. Due to a bizarre coincidence of different medical reasons, we have taken several cancellations for this month which are now available. I have June 15th, (a rare Friday!) June 20th & June 26th all open for immediate booking. Oh, and did I mention the fishing is on fire? Call 216-387-2656 mobile/ text 24/7. |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of June 3, 2018.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 12:53:24 6/03/18 |
Turn the page. One of my favorite Bob Seger songs come to mind as we turn the page from May to June. May for me was filled with plenty of highs and lows. Just this past week on Tuesday and still May we had our best trip to date this year. With a rare 5 man charter for me anymore, we easily boated 28 Walleyes and we were done before 1pm. And in my own defense, we should have easily had the limit of 30 because we lost plenty of fish just short of the net that I was looking at as they came off including a couple of real slobbers. But that’s fishing and you will never get them all. I was just excited to be moving rods at the pace that we were! The day I got into the fish the lake was calm and it was blistering hot. In the shallows surface temps jumped to 67 degrees! Game on! But the same afternoon a wicked cold northeast wind kicked in which lasted throughout the night. The next day I was off but when I got back out the following day I was dismayed to see a surface temp of 49 degrees! And just like that it killed the good bite. We struggled to capture 13 Walleyes that day and the following day even one less and we came in with 12 fish. Back again to being the “King of The Dozen”! Pretty much as we did aboard THE TROPHY all of May! Still not horrible but just not up to everyone's expectations including my own. Highs and lows. Yup. I was more than ready to turn the page. I would be lying if I did not admit how disappointed I am so far at the lack of easy limits. Last year by now it was stupid how many fish we were handling. Granted most were undersized but it was non stop Walleye and everywhere we went. I assumed that if even a fraction of these same fish were back this year on the same exact dates that they all would all be legal fish and without having to throw any back, we would easily be done in no time each day. Well, I got part of that assumption right. They indeed are all legal sized fish. We finally had one throw back undersized Walleye this past week. But that’s it for the whole month of May! Just one lonely 14” incher which was returned to the water unharmed. But the numbers of Walleye in the area right now compared to last year are flat not there. Just like the fish we caught all of May I figure the ones we are catching are just local Walleyes that are probably here year round. The huge schools of Walleyes including the crop of throw backs that we were throwing back in big numbers by now last year are still hung up out west somewhere. Blame it on near record high water levels and near record cold water in the eastern basin for this time of year due to the exceptionally cold spring. We have had no big westerly winds at all this May to push the warmer water from the shallower west end of the lake out our way. I am certain if that happened it would also push some migrating Walleyes out this way as well to join up with our local fish. But all we get is either nice calm weather or easterly big blows. It’s like a stopper in a bottle right now. All we can do is wait and hope. As more proof that we are stuck with exceptionally cold water here off of Ashtabula Harbor, we caught for this area yet another very rare exotic cold water fish. In last weekends fishing report I told you about the nice Chinook Salmon that we caught the week before. Well we had yet another big surprise this past week when a good sized Lake Trout decided to once again hit our inside #2 Dipsy. This time hitting a big spoon. As did the Salmon, the strong Laker peeled the drag and put up a good tussle before we managed to slip the net under the beautiful fish. At first I thought it was either a big Steelhead Trout or another Chinook since we already caught one that fought similarly. But as the fish neared the back of the boat and I could see the bronze colored fish I immediately started thinking it’s either a big Brown Trout or possibly a Laker which again is very, very rare for this region. Lake Trout are deep water, cold water fish. There is a fair number of them in the extreme east end of Erie where the water stays cold year round. Seldom are they caught this far west however. That alone along with the Salmon tells you that we have some real funky water out here right now. Again, in 32 years of chartering and thousands and thousands of trips run, (literally) we have only captured 5 Lake Trout including this fine specimen. And not quite so exotic but kind of rare for trolling, we also had one day where we got into a slew of HUGE Catfish! We trolled into shallow water at one point this week in our never ending quest to find schools of Walleye when all of a sudden rods started going off like crazy. I knew they were all big fish and I’m thinking I hit the mother load of 10 pounders! Well I was wrong on both accounts. They weren't 10 pounds and they weren't Walleyes! They were more like 20 pound Catfish! WTF! (what the fish!) Unreal! At one point we even had a triple. All Cats and all HUGE! We went on to catch 7 or 8 and I had to get the heck out of there! Although I’ve trolled up a number of Catfish over the many years, it’s always been just one here and one there. Never a bunch in short order like that. Chinooks, Lakers, Catfish... It’s like a friggin zoo out there right now! Lol! OK, that about does it for another week. My reports are never sugar coated like most “Facebook” fishing reports that you see where when the guide struggles and sucks there are no posts that day but when they catch fish good they trip all over themselves to brag how quickly they caught them. Lol! I’m not afraid to tell you how it is. Keep it real I figure. And it’s not easy out there right now. This slow fishing was acceptable back in early May. But not now. Not June. We’ve turned the page! Stay tuned... |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of May 27, 2018.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 13:07:47 5/27/18 |
Steady as she goes! Once again, Walleye fishing for us aboard THE TROPHY off the port of Ashtabula remains just about the same as it has been all this past month. Just a slow steady pick. Somehow, someway on most days we manage to get into the lower double digits for Walleyes captured. I am beginning to think that I am the King of the DOZEN! We’ve had more days this month where we caught about 12 Walleyes on each outing out then I ever remember. This Saturday we managed 19 Walleyes but it seemed like earlier in the month it was always 12, 12, and 12! Maybe I should just start running two man charters! Ha! Actually, that’s been the saving grace for me. I only run small up to 4 man highly personalized trips anymore as it is and this past week I was blessed with 3 man trips 6 out of 7 days! Nice! Rather then split the action 6 ways as most charters would have to do on these slower then we would like it days, my guys got to land about 4 Walleyes each. And they didn’t have to split the fillets 6 ways either! The other saving grace for us has been that each day out we have captured some real monsters! Just this week alone we landed 3 Walleyes over 30 inches and several over 29 inches. Wow! And still not a single throw back! I am running out of ideas to try. I guess all of us out east here have to just patiently await for some migrating Walleyes to move in from who knows where to join up with these local fish that I have been playing with for about a month now. There's Walleyes out there now and there has been. No doubt about it. Just not in the huge numbers that we would really like to see. I’ve tried fishing east of the harbor, west of the harbor, in close, further out... It’s about the same everywhere I go. Just one here and there most everywhere I try and no matter what technique that I use. I guess the very best program for us everything considered has been the Jet Divers and little Stinger Scorpion Spoons way out on the big planer boards. No big surprises there. It’s what we always use early in the year. This should work for everyone for most all of June too. Maybe longer this year considering the slow start to our season out east here. Water temps are still way off for this time of year compared to other years. Blame it all on our very chilly and rainy spring this year. Boo! We did have some real excitement this past Wednesday when a very rare Chinook Salmon for around here at least decided to hit our #2 Dipsy. I had a shallow lipped Husky Jerk on the diver about 70’ ft. back when the beautiful fish hit it. It immediately peeled off 30’ some feet of line with the clicker and drag set! I just love that screaming sound! After a few flops on the surface and yet another small run, the fellow on the rod expertly reeled it in to the awaiting net and I easily sweeped it up for him. The whole time I thought it was just a big Steelhead. But after seeing the black mouth and the forked tail and other obvious features easily distinguishing it from a Steelhead Trout I realized right away that we had caught a Salmon! Cool! It should be great fixed on the grill or done in the smoker! Mmmmm! In 32 years of chartering and running trips almost everyday in season, that only makes 7 or 8 Kings that we have caught aboard THE TROPHY. Always a real thrill tying into something that is not all that common such as a Brown Trout or Coho Salmon. We’ve actually caught a lot more of some of these other exotic species then Chinooks or as some would call them, King Salmon. Truly a rare treat for this area! So its Memorial Day weekend. The weather appears to have FINALLY broke into real summer like patterns. There are now more and more boats out there fishing and the rest of the Ashtabula charter fleet is slowly coming to life. It will be nice to finally have some help out there. We all work pretty well together and word gets out pretty fast about who caught what and where. There's a lot of water out there and trying to stay on top of everything when you are the only one fishing is a pretty tall order. With the nicer weather warming the water rapidly now and us turning the page to June with lots of others also helping to look, we should have a good bead on these fish real soon. If we get even just some of these western basin fish to move on out east here it should really be game on! Not that it has been all that bad already. We are catching fish! But as most anglers usually do, we always want more and better! Lol! OK, as I mentioned here a couple weeks back, I still have this coming Wednesday May the 30th available for a Walleye charter. The upcoming weather this week looks to be really GORGEOUS and I sure would like to fill this date if anybody is looking for a trip or knows anyone that is. If not I guess I’ll just go ahead and rest up. I’ve already had a pretty good run at it this month and feel very blessed. Thanks to everyone that has already come out to fish with us. Lets see what this coming week and the new month brings us. Happy Memorial Day everyone! |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of May 20, 2018.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 12:00:02 5/20/18 |
About the same. Fishing for us aboard THE TROPHY remains about the same. Somehow we manage about a dozen or so fish on most outings WHEN the weather cooperates. I ended up with two trips on Thursday. I did a 4 hour morning trip and caught a dozen fish even and then ran a 6 hour afternoon charter and pulled 13 more nice fish. So technically, Thursday was my best day so far this year with THE TROPHY getting 25 Walleyes for the day. It just took me 10 hours to do it! Ha! The weekend wasn’t all that hot though. We lost Friday altogether to 40 mph plus winds and torrential rains both Friday and Saturday. This did us no favors with tough fishing on Sunday. Things should straighten out here in a day or so. There are plenty of fish out there in my opinion. As I threatened to do so in last weeks report, this past week I made a serious attempt at making our Jet divers and Spoons program work. And it did! Most of the 25 Walleyes that we caught Thursday came off the boards using #40 Jets and Scorpion Stinger Spoons. Although the marks on the fish finder are showing plenty of marks in all parts of the water column, ironically the deep fish are the ones we are taking. Usually it’s the other way around with the deep fish being the tougher ones to catch and the higher ones being the active feeders. But we put a lot of lines both deep and high out each day and see what goes. And so far it’s mostly the deeper fish that we are picking away at. I think when the high fish start to fire up, that’s when it’s going to get silly easy! Around here it seems like it either takes too long to catch anything or you get them way to quick! Never the perfect pace for a 8 hour charter lol! The one thing that I am pleasantly happy to see is that so far this year I personally have not caught a single under sized Walleye aboard my boat. After handling literally thousands of sub legal sized fish at exhausting paces most all year long last season, so far it’s like my prayers have all been answered. Seems like everything has grown up into very legal nice sized and plump I may add Walleyes! If we’re not throwing any back and we start catching fish at the rates we were handling Walleyes last year, well we should easily be home each day for a early lunch. I’m more than eager to have a easier year. We just worked way too hard the last two years to get a limits of legal sized fish. Some days it was like 10 to 1! Simply a ridiculous ratio but still good to see knowing that sooner or later all these fish would all grow up into keepers. And I think we are finally there! So while most boats aren't even in the water here in Ashtabula yet and the other charters don’t have any trips, we are in full swing now with trips everyday aboard THE TROPHY. We are enjoying the solitude out in the lake and the challenge of catching these early season local fish. They are nice full days for all of my guests unlike the hour or two trips that the western basin captains are seemingly trying to do each day nowadays. All trying to out do their fellow charter buddies each day so they can brag about it on Facebook! I am soooo glad I never got into all of that Facebook crap. I don’t need anybody to “Like” me on “Facebook”. If I want to know if anyone “Likes” me, all I have to do is look at my own calendar and schedule! And for that, as always I can’t thank all of my regular guests enough for overwhelming me with all the business that I want each and every year! You’ve stuck with me through the good times and the bad and that tells me that I’m doing something right whether we limit out or not! I think we are all in for something really special together this year! We are off to a GREAT start! |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of May 13, 2018.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 00:55:56 5/13/18 |
Pretty good Ashtabula fishing for early May! THE TROPHY has been busy running trips already and the fish are coming. We have not been limiting out yet but we certainly have caught more then enough fish to hold our heads up high. Perhaps if the weather would have cooperated just a bit better on charter days for me, we could have bumped our fish counts up by maybe a few more fish. This past weekend is a perfect example. It was just plain yucky up here on the lake. As I watched the evenings weather over the weekend it was both amazing and frustrating seeing where the stationary frontal border was hanging all weekend. On the lake we had raw stiff east-northeast winds with cool temperatures while not that far inland it was in the 70’s and pleasant. But we toughed through it all and were rewarded with some very nice Walleyes. Everything is typical early central basin Walleye fishing. The fish are in close as they always are this time of year and they are rather high in the water column. There has been next to no boat traffic. We fished on days where the only other “boat” we would see all day is a lake freighter! I guess everybody thinks that you can only catch Walleyes at the western basin this time of year! Lol! Well, they can have that bumper boat fishing out there. I am soooo done with all of that! After 30 years of fighting it, I’m ready to wind out the rest of my career here in my very own back yard and fish for our local Walleyes which I really believe are here year round. It’s just that nobody fishes for them. And on average, I’m sure they are much bigger. I saw pictures of some of the racks from this spring that the jiggers were hanging. Wow, I couldn’t believe how small the fish were running! So far, our Walleyes that we’ve been catching are pretty typical nice sized fish. Typical early spring techniques have worked for us aboard THE TROPHY. Big planer boards ran way out to each side of the boat in the “quiet” water with multiple high lines on braid has been catching. Thus far I’ve been using mostly stick baits but plan on trying Jet Divers with spoons a lot more seriously this coming week. I’ve dabbled with it some already but with only a few fish to show for my efforts. But I know when the water warms up just a bit more and the spoons start to fire, its hard to beat a Jet Diver program when it’s working! The stick baits I’ve been using so far include Smithwick Perfect 10’s, Rapala Husky Jerks, Storm Thundersticks along with a occasional Bandit and Bay Rat. By far for me, the Husky Jerks have been our best producers so far. Colors have favored the chartreuses. The water clarity off of Ashtabula this whole month has not been the greatest. It’s was a very rainy and windy April this year and the water is yet to fully recover. I think when it gets just a little better, the chromes and golds and purples will take off and edge out the fluorescent colors. It always does around here. So THE TROPHY has been in the water since the last week of April now already. I ran a couple of fun fishing exploratory trips in April and yes we caught Walleye in April here as well. As we near mid May now, fishing should only get better with each and every passing day. I hope the warm weather moves in for good as well. We’ve been teased a few days here and there this May with temperatures cracking 80 but then it’s been right back to crapola. Man you got to be tough to live here along the north coast is all I got to say! Lol! OK, in closing I have a couple open dates to put out there should anybody be looking to go fishing any time soon. May 17th and May 30th are both available for immediate booking. I might also have something else available this coming week. I’m not sure. Call for the latest details if interested. Weather looks to be good this coming week also. Till next week... |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of April 1, 2018.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 05:47:38 4/01/18 |
We are only days away now from launching “The Trophy” for yet another fishing season! Unbelievably we are well into our 4th decade of chartering now! We are busy putting the final touches on the boat and I can’t wait for all of our regular guests to see all the new and fun improvements that we’ve done over the winter. To find out what all we’ve done, you’ll have to fish with us! Ha! Which reminds me to put it out there that we still have a handful of open dates left for May. These trips will be out of Ashtabula, OH. Regular fishing reports will also resume in May from Ashtabula so check back soon! Capt. Walt Trophy Charters |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of January 1, 2018.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 09:26:30 1/01/18 |
January! Already! Happy New Year everyone! We are fast approaching the half way mark in the fishing offseason. And as fast as we got here, the rest of the winter will slip away as well and we’ll be once again back in the water enjoying yet another fishing season. Year number 32 for me chartering and we’re still going strong! I would briefly like to take a look back at the year that just was and the season to come in 2018. 2017 was a real surprise for everyone. After dealing with a exceptional amount of undersize Walleyes in 2016 which were all 2 year olds at the time meaning that they were hatched in 2014, we all looked forward to 2017 thinking it was going to be easy pickings of nice legal sized fish. And it may have happened had we not been overrun with an even larger hatch of 2 year old fish apparently hatched in 2015. In fact this hatch dwarfed the 2014 hatch and really anything that anybody has ever witnessed out on Erie over the many years. Just massive! You just could not get away from these younger fish! We had days where it was non stop catching and mostly releasing just about as fast as we could go from start of the day to the end. It wasn’t till late in the year where a lot of these fish started making it above the legal minimum size that we were able to catch our breath and start boxing more then we threw back. The fish that started to make the grade this past fall should all be really nice keeper sized eaters this year. Those along with that 2014 class and the real old fish that are always out there in some numbers, well it should be just incredible fishing. I am very excited about how good the fishing should be for everyone this this year and I can hardly wait! For as promising as the fishing looks for the Walleyes in 2018, things look equally as grim for the Yellow Perch again this year. Last fall for everyone in the central basin the Perch fishing was all but non existent. Nobody knows for sure what happened but they were just not there. I do not see things getting any better any time soon. For this reason, in 2018 I AM NOT booking any “Perch only” trips. In September we will be booking “Perch/Walleye trips” and it will be depending on what is available and what is biting best that determines what we fish for. Captains discretion! We are not going to sit at anchor catching nothing when we could be catching a bunch of Walleyes! If the situation changes for the better, we’ll try for Perch again but I’m telling everyone right now that more then likely we will be just fishing for Walleyes again through out this fall and normal Walleye rates will apply. For that reason in 2018 we are also limiting our Perch party size to a maximum of 4 people to be in line with our Walleye party size. That way should we be forced to choose that we fish for Walleyes at the last second there is no confusion or conflict on rates. No matter what we fish for now, it will be 4 PEOPLE MAXIMUM! That is all I choose to run anymore anyway and after 32 years, I can be choosy! 4 people is the ultimate personal and comfortable group size for all involved and the easiest group size for most folks to put together. My charter rates have always been “subject to change” in mid season and for any reason. In 31 years I have never made a mid season rate change. We are going to attempt to hold the line on our Walleye rates once again in 2018. We have not raised our Walleye rates for 4 man charters in 7 years now and we are the cheapest boat at River Marine, the charter hub where I am docked. HOWEVER, because of the very plentiful Walleye population out in the lake right now, there is a chance that they MAY raise the limits on Walleyes in 2018. We will not know that for sure till either March 1st when the new fishing licenses come out or June 1st when the TAC (total allowable catch) is announced by joint commissions from both the Canadian and US Dept. of Natural Resources. That is when the official decision is made as to how many tons of fish both the commercial and sport fisherman can take out from the lake. Most likely there will be no changes. HOWEVER if the sport fishing Walleye limit goes up any at all, that will automatically trigger a $50 dollar increase in my Walleye rates also. It would be the right time. That would only bring me up to what everyone else at my marina charges right now anyway. Till now I have always depended on your very generous tips to keep our rates the very lowest. Thank you! So that’s about it. We’re only about 3 short months away from going fishing. The Walleye fishing should be FABULOUS this summer and there are really no big changes planned on my part. As always, now is the time to confirm your trips or make any changes that need to be made. 2018. Bring it on! Capt. Walt Trophy Charters |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week October 1, 2017.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 16:13:43 10/01/17 |
And like a fine novel who's final chapter has been wrote, so has the final chapter of my fishing season concluded now and hence here my final fishing report for this year been wrote. The 2017 season is in the books now. My 31st year of full time chartering. My goodness how the years have flown by. This year has been no exception. It seems just like yesterday we splashed the boat for the season back in April fresh from a long winters rest and eagerly embarked on this years journey. And here we are nearly half a year later and many, many trips later I’m back to being pretty whipped and looking forward to yet another winter of rest and relaxation and recharging my batteries and getting ready for next season, my upcoming 32nd year! Yup. I’m not planning on going anywhere any time soon! lol! My final “official” last week of chartering was nearly perfect again. Nearly. It was perfect fish catching wise. The weather, not so much. The long stretch of awesome weather that we had the last few weeks came to a screeching end by Thursday morning with a strong cold front dropping into the region and bringing strong gusty winds resulting in me loosing my last few scheduled trips. Stupid weather just couldn’t stay nice for a few more days and have me end 2017 on a really high note. Ugh. Such is life here on the north coast. I guess I just have to be thankful for the long stretch of great days that we did have in September right through Wednesday of this past week. It was amazingly calm for days on in and the Walleye fishing was the very best that I’ve ever seen it this late in the year. All just signs of things to come for many coming years. The massive schools of younger Walleyes that we now have out there in the lake are growing up fast! I’m not going to dwell long on the fishing. These pictures here speak for itself. I do however want to take this opportunity to thank all of you that made this all possible again this season for me! My crazy loyal clientele. Many who have fished 20, 25, and yes even 30 years plus with me! You are all my GOOD friends. My sponsors who’s business and friendship I value more than these mere words can ever express. I am humbled by your years of faithful patronage and generosity. We have seen a lot of ups and downs together. I think really great things are yet to come and I am thankful to know that most all of you will be back with me again next year. So again, THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart for coming out this past season and I look forward to doing it all over again with you next year with a great crop of fish waiting on us. We have many more of the: “Just another day on THE TROPHY” to experience together! OK, a few loose ends here. This years Perch fishing was a big dismal disappointment. Perch around Ashtabula Harbor were literally non existent and even the popular Conneaut OH area, an 18 mile one way run for me was iffy at very best. I do not look for things to get any better next year with the Perch. In 2018 I will no longer offer just “Perch” trips in September but will instead re label these trips as Walleye- slash/ Perch trips as deemed by weather conditions and what is biting best. It will be MY DISCRETION ONLY and if deemed a Walleye trip, will be run at at the appropriate rates. It will be a fishing trip with full coolers of “Something” as the goal. More on all this to come this winter in our winter newsletter and updated website. So this is my last “official” week. I’ve decided to chance the weather and leave the boat in a couple of more weeks longer. Maybe I’ll get out once or twice for myself. If the weather and fishing remains good I may even be convinced to run a short notice charter or two if anybody desires but everybody has to keep in mind that it is now super late season for around here and that the Walleye fishing could start turning to crap on any given day. I figure it will probably suck the day I set out to get a few for my own freezer! lol! Anyway, if anybody is interested give me a ring and we’ll discuss it. And I have one final BIG thank you to express. Thanks for all of you that have followed along here in my weekly little reports and ramblings. I am flattered by the amount of new texts and emails I get from complete strangers each year thanking me for my dedication. Even other charters here in Ashtabula now steer their guys to my reports because they don’t want to go to all the trouble of writing something each and every week themselves like I do! Lol! I still enjoy doing these reports even though it can be a real pain at times and if I didn’t, you would soon know it! lol! That’s it. Thanks again everyone and I look forward to continuing on again next season. So till we meet again either on the water or in print next year I wish everyone a healthy and safe off season and winter along with VERY Happy Holidays! Over and OUT one final time for the season “2017” !!! |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week September 24, 2017: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 10:38:05 9/24/17 |
Walleyes, Walleyes, and MORE Walleyes! Just when fishing for the Walleyes around here at the end of September is SUPPOSED to really start getting tough for everyone, it only just keeps getting better and better out there! The weather this past week was simply fabulous once again and the Walleyes were stupid suicidal. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that many boats each morning this time of year as I did this past week out there all Walleye fishing and all limiting out so very quickly each and every morning! All of the charter boats at my own little marina, River Marine have converted all of their Perch trips to Walleye trips as have I and everyone was very busy this past week Running Walleye trips. And what a slam it’s been for the River Marine captains! A couple of mornings last week I was back to the dock at 9:00am with limits and I was the LAST CHARTER BOAT BACK! Lol! Simply unreal! What helped make things so speedy, the Walleyes have really moved in now very close to the harbor. A lot of days its been under 5 miles! Very little travel time involved and what little distance we did have to travel, with the flat lake conditions everyday you could zip right out there. Then the fishing was just about as fast as you could go once you started. Everything plain worked. You didn’t even have to dial everything in real well. Wherever you happened to stop your Dipsys or long lines, they wouldn’t sit out there for very long before a hungry Walleye would grab it! The fish are stacked out there and in many parts of the water column. The fish finder looked like it was in some kind of demo mode or something! As I mentioned, the lake conditions were just as nice as could be this past week as well. Where the heck was this great weather all summer long and especially back in August and the beginning of this September? Everyday the lake forecast was for 1 foot waves or less and for a change they were spot on! Just a beautiful calm lake day in and day out. No rain and basically wall to wall sunshine everyday. Just perfect late season weather. And most of next weeks weather looks to be similar! It should be another great week of Walleye fishing! So Perch fishing is about non existent. Nobody is catching them and it’s getting to the point where nobody is even trying anymore. The Walleye fishing is just too good not to take advantage of right now. I myself am glad that all of my groups trust my better judgment and that they put their trust in me. Everybody basically just wants to have a fun day and to take a nice load of fillets home for a dinner or two. There is nothing less fun then sitting Perch fishing all day and not catching anything. Been there, done that and I don’t want to do it again knowing that the Walleye fishing is that crazy good. I think I have talked to most all of my remaining trips and everyone is good with just Walleye fishing for which I am very thankful! It’s only a week to go now for me and after that I guess it won’t really matter. Next week will also be my final report. I will try to wrap everything up and thank everyone that needs to be thanked. Although I am not looking to book any trips past this next week, I may keep the boat in the water an extra week or two if the weather holds. If a group comes around and things are still going good, I may be persuaded to try a October Walleye charter just for a little mad money. But we will see. Officially, this coming week is my LAST week. It went fast. One more week and one more report. Check back for the wrap up next week! |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week September , 2017: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 10:21:01 9/24/17 |
A kinder, gentler lake! You couldn’t ask for a nicer lake then what we had this past week! After being on what seemed like a warpath the last several weeks, Mother Erie FINALLY gave us a reprieve and dished out about as nice a week as we have had all season. If not the nicest, right up there with the top 2-3 that we had in 2017. And it was about time. My fishing reports were starting to look more like a blog for the Weather Channel or something rather then fishing reports! Lol! Fishing for Walleyes remained excellent as well this past week. Limits were almost automatic everyday and “The Trophy” had another perfect scorecard for all of it’s guests. Mostly all the “good eater” sized ones but as has been the case all summer long, we topped the box off almost everyday with a monster or two. Best action has been around 15 miles out NE out of Ashtabula harbor. Not a bad ride with the flat seas that we had this past week. Most fish still remain very deep so that meant lots of cranking. The good news lately and this whole season has been that there has been very few junk fish to contend with. If the fish makes it to the boat, 99 times out of 100 it’s a Walleye. I remember years past where it was a real nightmare especially in the month of September with those monster Sheepheads out 500 some foot off the planer boards and the wire line. Sheeze, I’m glad we’re not dealing with any of that crap this year! Well I finally ran two perch charters this past week also. On the one trip we had 36 Perch and the second trip went just a bit better with about a 100 Perch. Certainly not the greatest. Most other reports I have received from others have been even grimmer. I have been one by one contacting most of my upcoming Perch charters and strongly suggesting that we just go for the Walleyes rather then take a chance at a dismal day. So far, everybody has respected my suggestions. I don’t know what is up with the Perch fishing this fall but I have a bad feeling that it’s not going to get much better any time soon. We’ll see. I will continue to keep my eyes and ears open for any and all reports from others Perching. Most charters however are doing likewise, converting their Perch trips to Walleyes so it’s not even that easy to get reliable information right now. I think the 10 billion Walleyes out there ate all the friggin Perch! Two weeks left now for me. I think most of this upcoming week is scheduled Walleye trips anyway but the last week of the month is going to be troublesome for me as I think every day is supposed to be a scheduled Perch Charter. Hopefully everybody will have a open mind and if the weather holds, takes my recommendation to maybe just go for the Walleyes. But whatever the people want. On a side note, the few Perch that we did get were super HUGE! We also caught some keeper Walleyes on the Perch rigs while we Perched! Did I mention the Walleyes are EVERYWHERE? OK, I did just take a cancellation for this coming Wednesday, September the 20th. The weather this upcoming week looks equally nice as last weeks and it would be a shame to not be out fishing somewhere. Anybody that might want to jump on this late season-last chance trip can call me as always at any time of day or night right up to late Tuesday evening on my cell, 216-387-2656. I don’t need much notice. And like I said, Walleye is still AWESOME right now. So that’s it for another week. |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week September , 2017: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 10:21:01 9/24/17 |
A kinder, gentler lake! You couldn’t ask for a nicer lake then what we had this past week! After being on what seemed like a warpath the last several weeks, Mother Erie FINALLY gave us a reprieve and dished out about as nice a week as we have had all season. If not the nicest, right up there with the top 2-3 that we had in 2017. And it was about time. My fishing reports were starting to look more like a blog for the Weather Channel or something rather then fishing reports! Lol! Fishing for Walleyes remained excellent as well this past week. Limits were almost automatic everyday and “The Trophy” had another perfect scorecard for all of it’s guests. Mostly all the “good eater” sized ones but as has been the case all summer long, we topped the box off almost everyday with a monster or two. Best action has been around 15 miles out NE out of Ashtabula harbor. Not a bad ride with the flat seas that we had this past week. Most fish still remain very deep so that meant lots of cranking. The good news lately and this whole season has been that there has been very few junk fish to contend with. If the fish makes it to the boat, 99 times out of 100 it’s a Walleye. I remember years past where it was a real nightmare especially in the month of September with those monster Sheepheads out 500 some foot off the planer boards and the wire line. Sheeze, I’m glad we’re not dealing with any of that crap this year! Well I finally ran two perch charters this past week also. On the one trip we had 36 Perch and the second trip went just a bit better with about a 100 Perch. Certainly not the greatest. Most other reports I have received from others have been even grimmer. I have been one by one contacting most of my upcoming Perch charters and strongly suggesting that we just go for the Walleyes rather then take a chance at a dismal day. So far, everybody has respected my suggestions. I don’t know what is up with the Perch fishing this fall but I have a bad feeling that it’s not going to get much better any time soon. We’ll see. I will continue to keep my eyes and ears open for any and all reports from others Perching. Most charters however are doing likewise, converting their Perch trips to Walleyes so it’s not even that easy to get reliable information right now. I think the 10 billion Walleyes out there ate all the friggin Perch! Two weeks left now for me. I think most of this upcoming week is scheduled Walleye trips anyway but the last week of the month is going to be troublesome for me as I think every day is supposed to be a scheduled Perch Charter. Hopefully everybody will have a open mind and if the weather holds, takes my recommendation to maybe just go for the Walleyes. But whatever the people want. On a side note, the few Perch that we did get were super HUGE! We also caught some keeper Walleyes on the Perch rigs while we Perched! Did I mention the Walleyes are EVERYWHERE? OK, I did just take a cancellation for this coming Wednesday, September the 20th. The weather this upcoming week looks equally nice as last weeks and it would be a shame to not be out fishing somewhere. Anybody that might want to jump on this late season-last chance trip can call me as always at any time of day or night right up to late Tuesday evening on my cell, 216-387-2656. I don’t need much notice. And like I said, Walleye is still AWESOME right now. So that’s it for another week. |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week September 17, 2017: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 09:36:30 9/17/17 |
A kinder, gentler lake! You couldn’t ask for a nicer lake then what we had this past week! After being on what seemed like a warpath the last several weeks, Mother Erie FINALLY gave us a reprieve and dished out about as nice a week as we have had all season. If not the nicest, right up there with the top 2-3 that we had in 2017. And it was about time. My fishing reports were starting to look more like a blog for the Weather Channel or something rather then fishing reports! Lol! Fishing for Walleyes remained excellent as well this past week. Limits were almost automatic everyday and “The Trophy” had another perfect scorecard for all of it’s guests. Mostly all the “good eater” sized ones but as has been the case all summer long, we topped the box off almost everyday with a monster or two. Best action has been around 15 miles out NE out of Ashtabula harbor. Not a bad ride with the flat seas that we had this past week. Most fish still remain very deep so that meant lots of cranking. The good news lately and this whole season has been that there has been very few junk fish to contend with. If the fish makes it to the boat, 99 times out of 100 it’s a Walleye. I remember years past where it was a real nightmare especially in the month of September with those monster Sheepheads out 500 some foot off the planer boards and the wire line. Sheeze, I’m glad we’re not dealing with any of that crap this year! Well I finally ran two perch charters this past week also. On the one trip we had 36 Perch and the second trip went just a bit better with about a 100 Perch. Certainly not the greatest. Most other reports I have received from others have been even grimmer. I have been one by one contacting most of my upcoming Perch charters and strongly suggesting that we just go for the Walleyes rather then take a chance at a dismal day. So far, everybody has respected my suggestions. I don’t know what is up with the Perch fishing this fall but I have a bad feeling that it’s not going to get much better any time soon. We’ll see. I will continue to keep my eyes and ears open for any and all reports from others Perching. Most charters however are doing likewise, converting their Perch trips to Walleyes so it’s not even that easy to get reliable information right now. I think the 10 billion Walleyes out there ate all the friggin Perch! Two weeks left now for me. I think most of this upcoming week is scheduled Walleye trips anyway but the last week of the month is going to be troublesome for me as I think every day is supposed to be a scheduled Perch Charter. Hopefully everybody will have a open mind and if the weather holds, takes my recommendation to maybe just go for the Walleyes. But whatever the people want. On a side note, the few Perch that we did get were super HUGE! We also caught some keeper Walleyes on the Perch rigs while we Perched! Did I mention the Walleyes are EVERYWHERE? OK, I did just take a cancellation for this coming Wednesday, September the 20th. The weather this upcoming week looks equally nice as last weeks and it would be a shame to not be out fishing somewhere. Anybody that might want to jump on this late season-last chance trip can call me as always at any time of day or night right up to late Tuesday evening on my cell, 216-387-2656. I don’t need much notice. And like I said, Walleye is still AWESOME right now. So that’s it for another week. |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week September 10, 2017: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 13:01:11 9/10/17 |
Another nasty week! I think this lake is testing my patience and will! After a particularly choppy lake the week before, this past week wasn’t a whole lot better. Picking up where I left off in last weeks report where I was fearing that we might loose Monday, Labor Day to rough water, well they were right about the wave and wind forecast but we went fishing anyway. I had a crew in town for a two dayer last Sunday and for that Monday and after cancelling on Sunday due to a very nasty lake, I wanted to at least get them out one day out of their two scheduled dates. So we put on our big boy pants, sucked it up and went for a long bumpy boat ride on Monday. When we arrived the Walleyes were waiting for us and on fire! Using only Dipsys we quickly knocked out 4 limits of Walleye and once again scurried for safe harbor. Tuesday was probably the “nicest” day of the week but far from calm! Then the real show started! Wednesday morning a strong cold front settled in over the region and brought in much cooler weather along with stubborn stiff winds that puffed both day and night relentlessly. The cold air aloft spawned two days of waterspouts over the lake that put on a heck of a show! On Wednesday there was a squall line that stayed south of us as we fished further out in the lake that produced one water spout after another. Sometimes there were as many as four dancing on the water at one time! Some were as wide as I have ever seen in all of the summers that I have been fishing up here. I was real happy that we weren't too terribly close although it would have made for better pictures had I been closer! Lol! And as always, the camera just does not do the pictures any justice. In person, it was pretty amazing to see. And it wasn't short lived either. The show lasted all morning! Again, the Walleyes could care less as we were as busy as we wanted to be while watching the show. Limits came easily in several short hours for us. Thursday leaving in the dark to try to beat the forecast of building winds thru out the morning, our plans went awry when after running out about 7 miles a narrow band of thunderstorms blossomed out over the lake to the north out of nowhere. If it had been just rain, I would have punched thru it to get up north. But the line was loaded with lightning and again even more water spouts! There was one bolt of lighting that I wish I could have captured on film with a very good camera. The bolt was a particularly massively wide cloud to ground (water) strike with branches of lighting sticking out on both sides of the bolt. And when it lit up the night sky, on both sides of the bolt of lighting was two wicked curling waterspouts that were also touching down that we didn’t even know were there till the stike lit up the night sky for a second! Simply AMAZING and perhaps once in a life time site! After I saw that, we elected to wait it out back at the harbor. 7 miles out for nothing and 7 miles back, 14 miles round trip just to sit it out for about an hour. By the time we got back out there the wind was smoking already and it was a real struggle to get out to the fishing grounds. But we persevered and pushed on and when we finally got out there, it wasn’t only the wind that was smoking! The Walleyes were just silly suicidal. A late departure and still back before noon fully loaded. Not bad! Friday, what else. Wind! Another long ride out, easy fishing and a long ride back. It is what it is and if we didn’t fish on the windy days, we would just never fish! Saturday was rough again (it wasn’t supposed to be!) After encountering minor boat engine problems on one engine on the way out, we limped back in about 7 miles on one motor and by the time we got the issue resolved (a couple hours) it was decided that we weren't going to go back out. My aching back gave no argument! So that was my week in a nut shell. Good fishing everyday on a rough lake also everyday. Right now the long range forecast for all of next week looks rather tranquil. I’m not sure if I’m buying into all of that though. With the remnants of Hurricane Irma working it’s way up the interior of the United States, I’d be very surprised if we didn’t get some kind of wrap around effect out of it which usually means a northeaster for us here on Lake Evil, I mean Erie! I guess we’ll know soon enough. Just 3 more weeks. I can do this, I can do this... |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week September 3, 2017: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 07:47:42 9/03/17 |
September! And just like the song sung by the group “Europe”, It’s the final countdown! Four weeks. That’s all that I and “The Trophy” have left in the 2017 charter season. What started with the boat getting splashed way back in the end of April of this year has rapidly fast forwarded to this moment. I think in past reports I’ve described it as a real blur. And it has been for me. The days, weeks and months have just flown by. It has been a good year all in all. Even with the onslaught of young Walleyes keeping us busier then busy the entire year and even still now. Weather as always has been a real challenge in 2017. And this past week was certainly no exception. In fact, this past weeks weather on the big lake was about horrific. Other then Wednesday which was the gem of the week every day besides Wednesday was nothing but wind, wind and more WIND! Ugh! It started with Mondays super stiff south winds. I HATE a south wind! You clear the gap and head out in a seemingly nice lake. With each mile as you head out it gets choppier and choppier. By the time you get close to where you need to fish you are already in heavy seas and now forced to troll with the wind and the waves on the tail and now getting forced further and further from shore and with each mile that slips by the waves just start stacking up and grow taller and taller. What appeared as a nice lake when you left is now a nightmare. And you know that sooner or later you have to turn around and come back home. Head on. Right into all that crap! And that is exactly what happened to us on Monday. With south winds well in excess of 20 to 25 mph the lake got ugly in a big hurry well offshore. With the way things were shaping up that morning I just pulled the plug early on the trip and cried uncle before we got so far out that I would have had to beat into 6 footers head on all the way home for 20 miles. Even with the 10 miles that I did have to come back in, it was a very tough sled ride! What a disappointing day. I wake up Tuesday, same thing. Ugh. Stiff south wind. This time, convincing myself that it wasn’t quite “as bad as yesterday” we stuck it out and somehow, some way managed to limit out before we were so far offshore that it took us the rest of the day to crawl our way back home. We only had to come home in 3 to 5’ footers. Only! Ha! Wednesday had me scratching my head wondering, is this even the same lake that I fished on the last 2 days? A beautiful lake and the Walleyes were on FIRE! Home early too with a GREAT load! Thursday was the exact opposite and back to crap. Strong north winds this time. I’ll take that however over a strong south wind. Let me know how bad its going to be right out the gate so I can decide right away if we want to do this or not. Which we did. We took it straight out exactly 20 miles in 4 footers and just aimed it for home. Fishing was good and it was reassuring that with each passing mile that we fished that we were getting closer and closer to home. Friday? Forget it! With a northeast wind blowing a sustained blistering 25 knots and higher, we didn’t even attempt it. Saturday the wind curled around to dead out of the east and continued to howl, especially the first thing in the morning before easing a bit. With the right crew for the day and my wife acting as a first mate, we were the only boat from River Marine to go for it. After a long boat ride east, we spun it around and smoked 35 Walleyes in no time flat! Everybody had a ball despite the steady 4 foot seas and it was the first time this year I even got some Walleyes for myself! Sunday, the next day again proved to be another no-go. Without much wind at the marina nobody was more surprised then me after sticking our noses out into the lake about a quarter mile to find our selves in a horribly heavy sea of about 8 footers with the wind dead out of the west. It took all my skills as a captain and perfect timing just to swing the boat around and scurry for shelter. Yet another lost day in a very tough week and right now Mondays forecast for the big holiday looks equally bleak at this point. That would make 4 days lost to the weather in about a weeks time. And a couple other of the days that we fished coulda/shoulda been blow days despite us sucking it up and going anyway. What a week. Despite these pictures in this report featuring our nicest Walleyes that we captured this past week, the bulk of our fish once again consisted of the same ole, same ole. Mostly just “good eaters” Walleyes of legal size in the range of 15” inches to 20” inches or so. But every now and again we would turn around and hook and land a real bruiser! We sure had some monsters this week! Just not a lot of them. I can’t help but keep envisioning what all these 15” to 20” inch fish are all going to look like next summer. It should be SWEET! So tomorrow is Labor Day. Man, what a fast summer! And next weekend I have a couple of Perch charters scheduled already that I need to run. I am not really looking forward to that knowing that the Walleyes are still on fire out there. But we’ll see what happens. Probably be another long boat ride to Conneaut just to catch Perch. Thus far everybody that I have talked to has told me that it hasn’t been all that great although I have seen a few big cooler fulls back at the fish house. All we can do is try I guess. If it’s not any good, I suppose we can always throw a few Dipsys out and top the cooler off with a few Walleyes. We’ll just have to see how it all plays out. Four weeks. The final countdown! But who's counting! Happy Labor Day everyone! |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week August 27, 2017: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 13:22:57 8/27/17 |
Bigger fish and bigger waves! It was a semi sweet week this past week up here on the north coast for most Walleye anglers. It seemed that most everyone's catches ran much larger on average compared to the past week. There were certainly plenty of huge Walleyes caught both aboard “The Trophy” and other fellow charter boats that dock at the little River Marine marina. And everybody got to do it it most days in much rougher conditions then were both predicted or what we would like to see. But the Walleyes didn’t seem to care and at the end of the day everyone returned safely and there were plenty of smiles going around on all the people floating around back at the dock. We had several days with stiff north winds so again we pointed “The Trophy” northward first thing in the morning and never looked back till we were about 20 miles out in the lake so that we could could ride the wind and the waves straight back as we trolled homeward. And has been the case more times then not this summer whenever we’ve taken it that far out into the lake, the amount of large Walleyes that we manage to capture goes up on most days. There are some really big girls that lurk out there! Too bad it’s just not feasible to get out that far on most days. The wind has to be just right or have no wind at all to pull that one off. Anything blowing stiff out of the south or east or even west and we are going to be fishing somewhere much, much closer to home. Plenty of Walleyes closer to home as well but I really believe there are more larger fish out by the border as we proved again this past week as opposed to the week before where most days we plied the nearer to shore waters and had nice but smaller fish on average. Regardless of where we’ve fished, near shore or offshore, the Walleyes are now all super deep. As deep as they’ve been all season. No problem catching them. We just let out more line on everything but certainly much harder on all of my guests that have to crank the fish back in. When we were catching just “eaters” it wasn’t that big a deal. But when you start catching the occasional monsters on wire line about 500 foot back (including the distance of line out after you’ve sent it out to the planer board), well it brings almost tears to the eyes of even the biggest of muscle men! Lol! I often compare it to reeling in a cinder block! Ha! I’m just glad I DON’T HAVE TO DO IT! But the reward at the end of the struggle can be amazing! We had plenty of 28” to 30” inch fish this past week. Real cinder blocks! So we are entering the last week of August and by Friday it will be September already. Next weekend is also Labor Day weekend. The unofficial end of summer. Also meaning I only have a month to go myself in my season. It’s been a blur of a summer. I’m starting to feel it too. Sorting through the thousands (yes, THOUSANDS!) of short Walleyes to get all my guests limits of legal sized fish this summer has been simply exhausting! And on most days I do everything all by myself as opposed to most of the charter fleet in the harbor who’s captains are much younger than I am but still utilize a first mate so they can double team all the tasks that need to be done once we start our trolls and then get inundated with the young fish. But as I have done for over 30 years now, I get my crews heavily involved each day and we do what we have to do and eventually most always “get r done”! I just don’t get in any big hurries anymore. Everything we do, we do slowly and very calculated. I think all my guys enjoy being heavily involved with the process and to have a nice fuller day rather than being done in record time and have some first mate do it all. So far this year, I think I have a near 100% of all my guys indicating to me that they would like to keep their same exact date again next year. I must be doing something right! Trophy Charters |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of August 20, 2017: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 13:47:43 8/20/17 |
Another very good week of fishing. Not much has changed in the past week out here. Fishing continues to be very good for everyone off of Ashtabula Harbor in most any direction that you care to go. Aboard “The Trophy” we covered a lot of different water all week long depending on whatever direction the wind has been blowing from. As we most often like to do to make things as comfortable as possible for all of our fishing guests, I run out far enough so that we can square off with the wind and the waves right on the tail and then start a long troll with the following seas. Everything runs so much better that way and it is much easier for everyone to stand and navigate around the boat when you’re not bucking head on into the waves. We made a couple of more runs this week to almost Canada with a northerly wind and a couple of days we started really short with a stiff south wind and worked our way on out. It mattered little. Wherever we started it was game on each day and we never had to turn the boat not even one time. All one way trolls till we easily had what we needed for the day. Sweet! We even got into the low 60’s for feet of water depth after spending many weeks out in the 70 ft. plus range offshore where the Walleyes are really stacked up. And we marked them crazy good and caught them good even in shallower too. Man, really how big is this block of fish that we have out there! Just totally insane! Granted, they're mostly just the two year old fish which are really now almost two and a half years old assuming that most Walleyes hatch around the end of March, first half of April of each year. But none the less these two year old plus Walleyes are seemingly everywhere and more of them are now making the minimum legal size then are not. Boy if I could look into a crystal ball and see what the next few years are going to be like out here on this lake! I predict it will be life changing for a lot of people! Fishing will be so good that boat sales will once again soar around the lake. Property values close to the lake will increase. The local economies everywhere around the lake shore will be significantly impacted as there will be a new “gold” rush with everyone flocking to Lake Erie in unprecedented numbers to get in on the phenomenal Walleye fishing that I am sure is going to come for many years! The weather this past week was just so, so. We had a few nice days and a couple tougher ones again with stronger winds and even one day with strong threatening thunderstorms. Such is life on the big lake in the summer. Once again aboard “The Trophy” somehow we managed to get all of our trips in and actually was back to the dock quite early on a few of the days. Those plentiful two year old fish dominated the catches most everyday this past week with the occasional “monster” Walleyes a bit harder to come by. It is what it is and you graciously take what the lake gives you. Most everyone has been great sports about the size of the fish this summer and I think that I’ve taken it a lot tougher then my guys have feeling like I should be catching racks of trophy fish everyday like we have always done for many years before this year. But you just can’t catch what isn't there anymore and thank God that this super hatch came around when it did a couple years ago or we would all be very disgruntled! So now we enter the latter part of August. On paper, I only have six weeks remaining in my schedule. It’s quite possible that I might leave the boat in a little longer then I planned on doing this fall. I will probably only decide on doing that last minute depending on this falls weather patterns and how the fishing is going. Normally I round out my season running some Perch trips. So far for those that have been trying, Perching has been dismal at best. Last fall wasn’t all that great either. We actually converted a lot of my Perch trips to Walleye trips last year because Perching was slow and I got a strong feeling it will be much of the same again this fall unless something drastic happens here in the next coming few weeks. I don’t see these Walleyes going anywhere any time soon in the numbers that we are seeing and they will really be nice plump keepers by the end of September! That beats sitting around for hours waiting on a Perch to bite! We’ll just have to see how everything plays out. But for now, another week of fishing is in the books! Trophy Charters |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week August 13, 2017: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 14:45:15 8/13/17 |
Another really good week of fishing! It’s almost amazing how big a block of fish that we all are blessed with here off of Ashtabula Harbor right now. From my own different track lines each day and where everybody else is fishing and spanking the Walleyes, it’s pretty safe to say there is a solid blanket of fish stretching at least from Ashtabula running east to the Ohio-PA line and from about starting at 70 ft. running north right to the Canadian border. Very impressive! There really has been no real need to turn and double back on any one spot or to circle around and “pocket fish”. A big part of all that is that the insane amount of two year olds that we have been catching all year most everywhere are now piling up offshore and the fact that a lot of them are FINALLY nice plump legal sized fish. It should only get better with each passing day now! The really nice weather that I was expecting this past week wasn’t quite as nice as they had been calling for but somehow we got everything in, including Tuesday when most everybody either outright cancelled or went out and came right back. I was on the fence myself as to what to do. For one thing, I had four younger hardy guys that were very eager to go. That coupled with the fact that at no point were they calling for that kind of wind! It was “supposed” to be 2-4 feet overnight subsiding to 1 foot or less by morning. Imagine everyone's surprise when we were greeted that morning with solid 3 to 5’s and the wind just a whistling! After talking it over, we decided to take our time and just putz our way out there with high hopes that the wind and waves indeed subsided to the predicted 1 footers that they were calling for. After a long ride out to the Canadian border (again), we spun it south and immediately started pounding the Walleyes! Everybody had a ball and by the time we quit with limits of really nice fish, the lake was almost flat. A very good call! The thing that really amazed me and I’ve seen it a hundred times and more over the years. At no point that morning did they ever have small craft advisories up! They just stuck to their guns all morning. 1 foot or less as I was blowing waves off the bow trying to make my way out there! Idiots! I’ve seen it go both ways also in disbelief. I’ve seen it many times where they’ve posted small craft warnings and not backed them off at all while the lake did absolutely nothing. Flat and non threatening while we would again be about the only boat out there after everybody else had cancelled because of their horrific forecast. I don’t know how they come up with their forecasts or what they base their decisions on but I’m telling you, it’s seriously messed up! Honestly, most days you just have to show up and see for yourself and then based on a lot of different factors such as what it’s “supposed” to do, your boat size, your crews sea worthiness, make up your own minds whether you should attempt it or not. Even I loose plenty of days where there is just no way that you can safely and comfortably fish no matter who you are or how big your boat is. I sure don’t want to throw away trips needlessly because of the National Weather service’s blown forecasts. And yes, that has happened to me as well more times then I can count! Very frustrating. So its about mid month already. Man, didn’t we just flip the page here to August? Everywhere I go I hear talk about kids going back to school and the guys discussing all of their hunting plans for this fall. As good as the fishing is getting now, it will be very interesting to see how long these fish hang in there for us this year. I personally think we’ll be catching Walleyes good in October this year! I may just have to re-think when I want to pull the boat for the year. My initial plans all along was for early October this year. All part of my master plan of starting to slow down some here in my final years of chartering! Ha! But if the Walleye fishing is smashing good, I might just have to hang in there some this fall! We’ll see! OK, I have another very short notice date that just opened up due to a unforeseen circumstance that I would really like to try and fill. This coming Tuesday, August the 15th is now available for immediate booking. Anybody interested may call, text, or email me at ANY time of the day or night for this short notice trip (216-387-2656 cell) or (trophy@trophycharters.com). Fishing is really Excellent right now and it would be a real shame to see “The Trophy” get sidelined here in the prime month of August if the weather is nice which Tuesday weather looks awesome right now. Alrighty then, that’s about it for yet another week. |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of August 6, 2017: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 13:32:00 8/06/17 |
Really good fishing! Walleye fishing out of Ashtabula Harbor for us aboard “The Trophy” and the rest of the charter fleet this past week was probably the best thus far of this whole season. I don’t know anyone that isn’t limiting out right now. The real question has been just how long will it take. The answer to that here lately has been, not too long! Thursday every charter boat at the River Marine marina was out on a charter trip and every boat at the marina was back to the dock with limit catches by 10:00am, regardless of their party size. Boy was the fish cutter swamped! Billy, the fish cutter at River Marine is probably the hardest working guy I know this time of year. He is a big part in making the end of everyone's fishing trip a complete and hassle free experience. The marina has lowered the price on cleaning Walleyes this summer because the average size of the catch is down. The fish cutters that work for the marina only make half of what they charge with the rest of the charge going to the house so he is making even less money this year. I hope everyone remembers to tip their hard working fish cleaner who has a tough thankless job standing there all day cleaning everyone's fish. Thank you Billy! We would be lost without you! Speaking of Thursday, not only was the bite hot and heavy that morning, the average size of everyone's catch was dramatically much better with plenty of wall hangers showing up in everyone's catch as well that day. Aboard “The Trophy” that morning we had a interesting thing happen that I don’t remember happening even in the best of times in the years when all the fish tended to run big. In a matter of mere minutes we took back to back to back five monster Walleyes! The smallest being 28 1/2” inches and the largest at 31” inches. A true tournament winning bag of 5 fish in just a few minutes time! Talk about being at the right place at the right time and doing everything right! All 5 of those fish made the “Fish Ohio” citation program where the minimum size on a Walleye is 28” inches. Very cool that every one of my guests that morning got a “Fish Ohio” Walleye at the almost the exact very same time! Sometimes some of my guests go seasons before they get a eligible qualifying Walleye. For those of you this year that have gotten a Walleye that big and would like to get their free hat pin and certificate from the Ohio's Division of Wildlife, a reminder to you that there is a quick link on my charters website www.trophycharters.com to the State's Fish Ohio program. Maybe the Walleye were on fire Thursday because it was the calm before all the storms and high winds that moved into the area for Friday and Saturday resulting once again in no fishing for most everyone and shutting down the entire fleet for yet another two days. The thunderstorms and torrential rains actually started late on Thursday afternoon and carried right on thru most all of the day on Friday. Numerous very intense cells pounded the Ashtabula harbor area and boy did it put down the rain in sheets of squalls at times. It actually came down at one point so hard that it flooded the River Marine stores' floor where I am docked. I have never seen that before! And behind that line of storms was the cold front which ushered in the cooler powerful winds which shut down any thoughts of fishing on Saturday. The National Weather Service called for 5 to 9 feet! YIKES! I guess this summer's tough run of almost weekly set backs in the weather department is going to continue for a while for us. The hits just keep coming. So we are now entering the second week of August already. This coming week's weather appears to be rather tranquil for a change. Winds seem to be on the low side through out the entire period as far out as I can see at this point. Temperatures are supposedly to be in the 70’s. Perfect weather for Walleye fishing as far as I am concerned. Many years most of August meant temperatures in the 90’s. I certainly do not want any part of that! We are still departing the dock everyday till further notice around 4:00 to 4:30am at the very latest. We may be bumping that back a bit towards the end of this month as the days begin to stay dark longer and longer. A sign that summer is nearing its end. Also one thing that I’ve been meaning to mention all along but keep forgetting to do so. If you are coming up to fish from the Pittsburgh area and normally run I80 west to Rt. 11 north, the on ramp for 11 north is closed and the detour is poorly marked I guess. Please allow for some extra travel time especially if you are just coming up early in the morning the day of your trip. I always encourage everyone if at all possible to just come up the night before and make your get away that much more pleasant for yourself and not be so very rushed. Get a room and get some rest, enjoy a nice meal the night before with friends and family and show up bright and early all wide eyed for your fishing adventure! Well that’s about it for another week. |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week July 31, 2017: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 12:31:20 7/30/17 |
Wind, wind, and more wind! Ugh. Just last weekend I was describing the week before as being very “pleasant”. Well this past week that we just wrapped up was all but “pleasant”. I should have known we would have Holy Hell to pay for having such a lovely stretch of calm days. And we did. Starting with Monday morning we were greeted at the dock with stiff northwesterly winds. With the right crew for the day, we still decided to try it and were the only charter boat that left Ashtabula Harbor that morning. After a rather long crawl out to the fishing grounds, we got started and caught fish good right away. Eventually the building wind got the best of us and we had to cut our day a bit short and a few fish short of a limit catch. It was the best we could do with what we were dealt with that day. Tuesday morning was even windier! Double Ugh! But with winds forecast to back off some by mid morning we elected to do a weather delay and try to get out after daybreak. By 6:30am there was a noticeable improvement in lake conditions and we were off. Tuesdays wind was straight out of the north and that is exactly where we headed. Way north! Again it was a long tough crawl out and I did not spin “The Trophy” around till we hit the Canadian/US line to ride the wind and waves straight back. A long grueling 2 hour ride out. BUT... the fish were there! We were in fish right away and went on to catch one of our nicest limits of fish to date. We had a good handful of fish between 27” inches and 30” inches. The rest of our limit catch that day was rounded out by the “good eaters” that have been saving the day this entire year for us. Wednesday & Thursday were the gems of the week. Calm and uneventful. Limits came easily and everyone had on a happy face. Even me! Then came Friday. Ugh AGAIN! With a forecast of 3’ to 6’ foot waves and seas building even further, we just flat out cancelled the trip. And the same thing again on Saturday when we cancelled once more. Friday night we had winds up here on the lakeshore in excess of 40 mph out of the northeast. Just a raw and ugly night to cap off a nasty, nasty week. Two lost trips for me and had we not sucked it up and gone earlier in the week, it would have been 4 days lost in the same week like most of the charter fleet here experienced. That’s a big, big hit in a limited season where a loss is a loss and you just can’t make up that many lost days. Truly a tough business to be in! So in a day we flip the page here to August. Fishing is real good right now. Weather has been the issue a lot this summer thus far though. How this entire season will be remembered is yet to be determined. With each passing day more and more of these younger Walleyes will start to becoming keepers. That will help things a lot. August a lot of times is the three H’s. Hot, humid & hazy. There is still time to turn this season around if the weather ever gives us a break. Thus far though, I will remember it for being rainy, stormy and WINDY for the most part filled with tons and tons of throwback Walleyes. We’ll just have to see how these last two months play out. August baby! Bring it on! |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of July 23, 2017: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 10:17:37 7/23/17 |
A pleasant week! Pleasant. Have I used that word yet this year? Have I ever even used that word to describe a whole week here on Lake Erie? Lol! Well, either way it hasn’t been for a long time if ever. For a very welcome change we had no thunderstorms or high winds to concern ourselves with this past week. I think the whole week was forecasted to be about 1 to 2 foot waves and I would say that’s about all we had to deal with. Just downright pleasant! To add to the pleasantness, the Walleyes were pretty much on fire as well. Most mornings from the moment I would go to the back of the boat to help the guys start running lines, I was so busy that rarely did I find a second to myself to run up to the helm and get a sip of my morning coffee just sitting there getting cold. With the smaller Walleyes still attacking us as if they’ve never ate before, it’s been a real accomplishment just to get all our lines in. You would get a few set and you would already have 2 hanging. Nonstop, just about as fast as my crews and I could go. And like its been all along this summer, with much weeding we managed to have a perfect string of limit catches of keepers for all my guests everyday of this past week. And we continue to catch a few dandy's each day. This past week was no exception. We added to our ever growing long list of Walleyes this summer that have cracked the 30” inch mark. We had another pair of 31”s this past week along with plenty of others that were 28” inch or better. Maybe not rack fulls like it was a few years back but a few each day just to keep things exciting. Seems like we are now seeing more 18” to 22” inch fish as well. Those would be those pesky 14” inchers that we were throwing back last summer. I get all warm and fuzzy thinking that all the fish we are throwing back this summer will be similar in size next year! So that’s about it for another week. It is hard to believe that we are entering the final week of July already. It's been a blur. August traditionally brings the hottest weather of the summer. I’m not really looking forward to that if it comes to pass. What does help is our super early morning departures where we get a good jump on the day by leaving around 4:00am everyday. I tell all my upcoming trips that we need to be on our way somewhere between 4:00 and 4:30am at the very latest. Especially with the travel time involved now. Most of my groups have been there by 4am as requested and for that I thank you! I just have no desire to be out there anymore in the heat of the day and prefer to be setting lines in the predawn morning coolness. It's very neat as well with all my awesome Rigid LED lights lighting up the night. I honestly can see better with the Rigid lights all focused on the spots that I need to see as opposed to staring into the sun lit glare on the water when the sun gets up higher. And as my first picture in this fishing report illustrates, we’ve been getting a few real monsters in the dark too! Well that will do it. Off to bed for me now. I have to get up again VERY early tomorrow! Lol! |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of July16, 2017: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 11:39:12 7/16/17 |
A stormy, stormy week! Wow, it’s never good when my lead off sentence is about the weather. But the weather played such a big role in our daily attempts to fish this past week that it is the first thing that jumps to my mind as I reflect back about the week that just was. In the past week we had mornings where we had to roll our departure times back because of impending thunder storms. There were days we had to cut our trips short and make a mad dash for the harbor because of storms. And there was a day or so where we kind of got caught in some passing weather that just blossomed overhead without much warning. And talk about rain! I think almost everyday up till Friday we had torrential rains that accompanied these daily storms. Man did it ever come down! But one way or another, some way, some how we got all our trips in. Just never a dull week up here on the north coast! Aboard “The Trophy” this past week we bounced back and fourth between the smaller Jr. Thundersticks and the larger full sized Storm Thundersticks in an attempt to cut back on all the shorts. Let me tell you, that strategy don’t work! Lol! The little guys still jump all over the bigger baits. I couldn’t see any difference myself. These smaller Walleye just have no fear! Makes me wonder for as many trillions that must be in the lake lakewide right now, how many of these smaller Walleye try to eat each other! Seriously! I’ve already posted pictures of larger Walleye that had smaller Walleye in their mouths. Where do they draw the line? I’ll bet it happens! Man what a mean world of survival it must be down there when the population of one species explodes like this and the fish all compete for food! Aboard “The Trophy” this past week we bounced back and fourth between the smaller Jr. Thundersticks and the larger full sized Storm Thundersticks in an attempt to cut back on all the shorts. Let me tell you, that strategy don’t work! Lol! The little guys still jump all over the bigger baits. I couldn’t see any difference myself. These smaller Walleye just have no fear! Makes me wonder for as many trillions that must be in the lake lakewide right now, how many of these smaller Walleye try to eat each other! Seriously! I’ve already posted pictures of larger Walleye that had smaller Walleye in their mouths. Where do they draw the line? I’ll bet it happens! Man what a mean world of survival it must be down there when the population of one species explodes like this and the fish all compete for food! So as I look at next weeks weather, dare I say it looks gorgeous at this point? Maybe we will get a uneventful week for a change. I am getting pretty worn out dealing with everything that has been going on here as of late. Uneventful would be a welcome change as far as I am concerned. Maybe a few more big fish will trickle into the area as well. It almost seems like everybody is starting to catch a few more of these bigger fish on a daily basis now then we we were just even a week ago. Maybe there are more big ones yet to come. We will see... |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week July 9, 2017: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 12:48:52 7/09/17 |
Better fishing on the better weather days. Most of last week was pretty decent in the weather department and as I had predicted, most everyone now has started to ply the offshore waters well beyond the 5 nautical mile mark which traditionally separates what is considered to be“near shore” and what is considered to be“offshore”. The Trophy was the first to stick her nose WELL offshore! On Monday and Tuesday of last week with a flat lake and a smaller 3 man group in for a 3 day trip, we decided to go do some exploring. Leaving the dock just before 4am we made the over 1 hour ride out to the Canadian line to see what lurked out there. And interestingly enough, there seemed to be plenty of Walleye out there already! And guess what else is out there in big numbers? BABY WALLEYES! Holy Cow! Even that far out we experienced plenty of throwbacks in those 2 days. Maybe not anywhere as many as are found in the “near shore” waters but still enough to be real pests. Unreal how many young Walleye are EVERYWHERE in the lake! We ended up with a rather similar catch out there compared to what we have been catching on most days fishing closer to port. 15 to 20 inchers as the bulk of the catch with the several large fish each day as has been the case most anywhere we have fished this year. After fueling back up on day 2 of this exploratory mission and putting a hundred plus gallons of fuel back into “The Trophy”, I decided well that’s enough of exploring! Lol! Interesting though that the Walleye are out there as well. I suppose if they were all hogs out there, that would have warranted further trips out there whenever the lake allowed but that was not the case. The rest of the week we spent still well off shore gauging by the 5 nautical mile mark as a benchmark but not the insane 20-22 mile one way runs that we made earlier in the week clear to the border. And most everywhere we would go, be it 8 miles out, 10 miles out to 12 miles plus out, the same results. Lots of action but with much weeding, you would end up with the necessary amount of keepers needed on most any given day. Weather permitting. So I guess there’s no real need to go 20 miles. There truly are fish everywhere right now but quite apparently, no large schools of many large Walleye. I guess we all just have to be patient and watch this record hatch of 2015 and strong class of 2014 come into its own. With it being well into July now and us fishing well offshore as well, aboard “The Trophy” we’ve gone into our full fledged deep water trolling program. All the braided line rods and all Jet Diver rods have been swapped out to all wire line and crank baits. It does not make things any easier however. In fact, now it really sucks to patiently peel off 300 foot plus of line, hook it up the release and feed it out yet another 100 foot out to the planer boards, set the rod down only for it to immediately get loaded up with a undersize Walleye which now takes twice as long to crank all the way back in and then have to do it all over again. Wash, rinse and repeat. Over and over! But out of every few fish or so, we would coax out a keeper. We just keep doing what we have to do this year. But I have really been focusing on getting the Dipsy Diver and downrigger rods into the game just because these other long lines are so time consuming. These shorter rods which are easy in and easy out have been real game savers on most days for us. I can not imagine how much work it would be right now if all you used was the planer boards and all those super long lines! Weeeee Bob! Lol! OK, a couple of interesting tid bits. While fishing in the shipping lanes out by the Canadian line earlier in the week, I was surprised to see how many Smelts the Walleyes that we boated, including the small Walleyes puked up. Apparently it is quite bait rich out there! They keep eating like that they’ll all be chunky monkey keepers before you know it! Here is a interesting picture of one that a Walleye coughed up just as I netted it. Laying it down right next to the lure that we caught the fish on, notice any similarities? Lol! Also, unrelated but kind of interesting, while trying to get all our gear out in the pre dawn darkness on our second trip out to the Canadian line we got escorted for several miles by a HUGE United States Coast Guard SHIP of some sorts! I watched it for a long time on my radar heading eastbound as I ran but gave it no more thought thinking it was just a barge. I got around it and went a bit further north and got busy fishing when I realized the huge vessel had spun around and was now coming at us dead on! I still wasn’t sure what it was at that point and actually thought it was going to run us over! It got ever so close and then just proceeded to follow us along as we trolled and watched us for about a half hour. At this point you could make out the Coast Guards insignia on the ship. After being satisfied apparently that we truly were a fishing vessel and not some kind of terrorists or drug runners, they finally went about their merry way. Anybody that doesn’t think that our borders even out this way aren't closely watched are WRONG! Not really a fishing related story but I found it interesting that in 31 years of off and on flirting with the border that we were so closely scrutinized by such a large Coast Guard vessel. Well that’s it. Another week in the books. Stay tuned... Trophy Charters |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of July 2, 2017: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 12:37:51 7/02/17 |
It’s July! The halfway point to my season. The fishing season of 2017. One that I certainly will NEVER forget! And I CAN NOT WAIT for it to be September. No, not that I want this season and summer to be over with. I want it to be September because I know that by then all these hundreds of Walleyes that are just shy of 15” inches that we are throwing back each week will all be keepers by then. Maybe not real big keepers, but keepers none the less. It wouldn’t be much different then our catches that we are seeing now really. I think 3/4 of our daily catches right now and EVERYBODY else's for that matter is these 2 year old fish already. Some of the faster growing 2 year olds or possibly the females that are usually a little bigger then the males anytime you catch them in their life cycle. About the size of the Walleyes in inland lakes such as Pymatuning Lake in southern Ashtabula County where the Walleyes never seem to get any bigger then 15 to 17 inches. Lake Erie’s big difference is that the fertile shallow and bait rich waters will contribute to continued fast growth. Seeing mostly 15 inch Walleyes will be short lived for everyone as these fish grow rapidly past that mark but it will be a welcome site to everyone when the bulk of these fish do cross this threshold! Yet, as I have been stating in almost all of my reports this summer, we continue to latch into a few biggies almost everyday! In a way the way this summers been playing out lake wide, it’s brought a whole new level of appreciation for the truly big ones that you do still catch from time to time. When we were all catching almost nothing but biggies on a daily basis, I think that the level of appreciation and awe all got lost along the way. Any one of those fish from back then and the couple few biggies that we are still catching almost daily now would be a fish of a lifetime in many of the inland lakes such as Pymatuning Lake. And now when we do land a big one it certainly gets much more attention then when they were coming a dime a dozen. I guess sometimes you have to go without something for a while before you can really appreciate what you’ve taken for granted for so very long! The weather this past week to put it bluntly was simply lousy. Lots and lots of wind and thunderstorms and torrential rains almost on a daily basis. Some days that we fished through it. Some days that we did not. When I loose a trip to the weather, on my daily calendar that I carry with me always, I mark in red ink “Lost to Weather” in the daily block that represents the date that I lost the trip. As I look back at the page of June 2017 in my book, I see a sea of red. Days lost that I can not make up. A big hit. Sort of unusual as June is normally our calmest of months up here. Almost too calm some years as many days that represents a whole different set of difficulties such as numerous big bug hatches or slower than we would like fishing when the water gets too stagnate. That sure hasn’t been a big problem thus far this year, especially this past June. Maybe this July will be kinder to us. Maybe. So by the time my next weekends fishing report rolls around, the 4th of July will already be a distant memory and we will be closing in on the mid month of July just that fast. It seems like once I get to the half way point of my season, the days and weeks really start to fly by. I am still holding out hope that some magical big school of all large Walleyes appears somewhere out there within our striking distance but I must admit that my hopes are starting to dwindle with each passing week. We’ll see. If these daily high winds and storms ever start to ease, maybe more anglers will be willing to venture further offshore and help look around. This past week in particular, nobody was too eager to get any further out then absolutely necessary. I can’t blame them. I was one of them. We’ll see what this coming week brings for everybody. Happy 4th of July everyone! Trophy Charters |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of June 25, 2017: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 10:35:58 6/25/17 |
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. Trophy Charters |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of June 18, 2017: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 15:15:07 6/18/17 |
An exhausting pace in exhausting heat. What a week! After not the warmest starts to June of this year, this past week we soared on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday straight into the 90’s with very high humidity to boot. I was very thankful that my groups on those days complied with my wishes for a bright and early departure. I think all three of those super hot days we were off the dock by 4:30am. So we managed to at least get a few hours of comfortable fishing in before the heat index kicked in. It might not have been as bad if you could just hang out under the hardtop and jump in the back of the boat and occasionally reel in a big fish. But that was not the case. We were all glued to the back of the boat constantly shooting out lines only for a 14 incher to grab it just about as fast as we could get it out there. Reel it in, throw the fish back and try it again. Every once in a while a keeper would beat the the little stinkers to the bait and we would actually box one. But it was nonstop action from the moment the lines went into the water till the final keeper of the limit catches was fortunately finally caught. Still no sign of any big schools of big fish anywhere. Just millions of the two year old throwbacks and the occasional 3 year old keeper. Nearly everyday we’ve managed to get a couple of real big ones however just to keep things interesting and for that I am thankful. Maybe not quite what everybody is used to catching but perhaps the new normal till some larger numbers of bigger fish either show up or these 2 year olds start making the grade by later this summer and become the “good eaters” that we are struggling to even get right now. But I was reminded this past week of the simple joys of just going fishing and catching lots of fish this past week when I had a group of youngsters for a charter! These kids had the most fun I think of anybody that I’ve had onboard so far this year. It mattered little whether the Walleye was a keeper or not. It was just fast paced action and everybody was very excited to reel in lots of fish. Even though it was about as fast as I could go, it was precious to see the kids fighting over the next fish calling it “my fish, my fish!” Lol! Rachel if you’re reading this you’re a heck of a great Mom! That was a awesome thing you did to take the kids fishing all by yourself! I think they will remember this trip for the rest of their lives! I’ve run thousands of charters in 31 years of doing this and most become a blur after a while but I will remember this one myself for a long time. It was a fun day! So as I mentioned, the potential of getting a real monster is still there even though we are inundated with the smaller Walleyes right now. On Monday, we captured our third 31”incher of this summer. What a magnificent fish it was! I think handling so many smaller Walleyes each day made this monster look even bigger than it was! Lol! We had several others in the 28 –29” inch class as well this past week. It felt really good to be netting a really big fish again from time to time. I was beginning to forget how bad those heavy fish make my shoulders and back ache as I reach out as far as I can with the net and scoop them up! Makes me think. Man I hope I’m finally retired when all these 14 inchers all become 8 to 10 pounders! Holy Moly! June is flying by. There are a lot of boats fishing now. It’s a lot easier to get a good read on what is going on out there. So far, everybody is doing about the same thing. Sorting thru lots of fish to come up with a batch of keepers. One thing I learned a long time ago. The lake is a level playing field and plays no favorites. When it’s buggy out there, everybody has them. When it’s rough, it’s rough for everyone. Same thing with what’s going on right now with this unprecedented crop of young fish. Everybody is going through the same exact thing. And everybody's catches look pretty similar at the end of the day. It is what it is. Maybe we all need to take a lesson from those kids that I had onboard. Just enjoy the moment and be thankful just to be able to go fishing. Be thankful to be having lots of action instead of sitting around for hours on end hoping for just a bite. The real upside of all this is all these fish will grow up and this lake will be more amazing then it’s ever been before! Now if I can only convince myself of all that! Lol! Trophy Charters |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of June 11, 2017: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 00:15:01 6/11/17 |
Very good fishing! We saw a little bit of everything this past week aboard “The Trophy”. On a couple of days we managed to put together some of our heaviest catches to date so far this year with some very nice Walleyes being boxed. Limits happened every day but on some of the other days we were back to the bulk of the keepers being just “good eaters”. And on all days that we fished, the throwbacks that we handled was just plain sick. To say that we’ve been very busy is a understatement! Weather the first half of the week was tough. On Monday we started out on a flat lake that quickly deteriorated as a strong cold front swept down across the lake. We went from a clear and calm lake to 3 to 5 footers in a matter of minutes. A perfect example of how someone in a much smaller boat could get in big trouble. On top of the quick change in wave height, a dense thick cold fog settled in as well bringing visibility down to almost zero. Very creepy conditions. And of all days, I had a rare 5 man charter onboard and we needed 30 keepers! Ugh! With radar guidance from my trustworthy Raymarine electronics, we toughed it out and persevered to capture a truly awesome box of ‘eyes! The cold front that sat down upon us deepened and sadly Tuesday and Wednesday turned out to be “no fishing” blow days. With a crew in town eager to go, their wasn’t much we could do but throw in the towel. Originally the NWS only called for 1 to 3 ft. waves on the one day and 2 to 4 foot the following day. They weren't even close. With wind gusts nearing 40 mph on both days, the lake was a serious mess of mean white water! And just that fast, on Thursday the lake went from violent to flatter than flat with hardly a breath of air moving. And along with that, a whole different set of hardships emerged with a bug hatch out on the flat water to rival any that I have ever seen. That on top of the fact that that we just had a massive bug hatch just days earlier. Man was the boat and our clothes trashed! But the Walleyes didn’t seem to mind and again we did good that day and the next several to come. So everybody is doing quite well now albeit that everyone's catch is much lighter on most days then anyone ever remembers it being for around here. It makes me wonder what we all would be doing each day if these recent years hatches hadn't come along. My guess is a whole lot of nothing! Mother nature threw us a bone just in the nick of time! I guess it will be interesting to see how fast this crop of 14 inchers grow. Call me crazy, but I swear I already see a difference in the bulk of the throwbacks that we are putting back as compared to even just a month ago! Man, so many are now soooooo very close to making it! Also this past week we started to see a fair share of even smaller cigar sized Walleyes showing up. Those would be one year olds. Could it be that we had a good hatch again last year? That would be 3 consecutive back to back years! If so, this lake is going to be UNBELIEVABLE for many years to come. It all seems too good to be true! Time will tell I guess! Trophy Charters |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of June 4, 2017: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 10:57:08 6/04/17 |
Lots and lots! Boy did we ever catch lots and lots of fish this past week. Lots of limit keeper Walleyes this past week. And LOTS and LOTS of throwback undersize Walleyes! “The Trophy” compiled total numbers of Walleye landed in one week to the likes that I have never seen in 31 years of full time chartering. Unfortunately, the bulk of these Walleyes were all undersize of the legal minimum requirement size of 15” inches. What the heck is going on! There are literally MILLIONS of 14” inch Walleyes that have invaded the Geneva, Ashtabula, and Conneaut lakeshore right now. With much weeding, I think we still limited all of our parties out this past week with 24 keepers each day except for 1 day where the weather forced us off a bit early with a few fish short of a limit catch. But most days to get 24 good ones we had to handle anywhere from 50 to 75 at the least sub legal fish. I know for a fact that we are easily throwing back 2 to 3 undersize fish and on some days even more for everyone that we do keep. Do the math! I am running ragged and I know that I can not keep this pace up all summer! Big fish have been few and far between here as of late but each day we still manage to get a handful or so of the larger fish more typical of Ashtabula sized Walleyes. The rest have been nothing to write home about. Just good eaters. Where we used to need 2 big tubs to off load our 24 Walleyes each day, now we’re only using 1 tub and even then its only about 3/4 full. Like I said, What the heck is going on! I always try to keep my fishing reports real and never sugar coat anything. And that’s about what's going on for us aboard “The Trophy” and everyone else for that matter right now fishing in this Geneva to Conneaut area. Anybody that tells you otherwise, well they are lying. We are overrun with small fish fish right now and either the big fish have been run off by the onslaught of these 2 year olds or somehow thus far everyone's missed where the bigger schools of bigger fish are. Maybe it’s time to start looking seriously further and further offshore in the much deeper water. Even though it’s only early June, maybe that’s the answer. To give you an idea of how far and how fast these fish can move, I have a interesting story to tell you! This happened just last weekend actually. We were trolling along in the pre-dawn darkness when a rod doubled over with what appeared to be a big fish. Fish on! After a bit of reeling from one of my guests onboard that morning I was about to dip the net on what I thought was a nice Walleye but instead up pops somebody's inline miniature planer board! Inlines are very small plastic planer boards that the smaller boats use. You clip it right to your fishing line to pull your lure off to the side of the boat. When bringing in the fish, at a certain point you have to stop and unclip the little plastic planer board and then continue to reel in the fish the rest of the way. Well apparently, somebody lost theirs when the line broke. While untangling the slight mess from my line, I feel a tell tale tug tug! Heck, there's still a fish on the end of the line hanging from the small board! After hand lining it in the rest of the way in, we netted what was about a 18” Walleye on a Bandit crank bait. Cool! Hit the clicker! Lol! Later in the day by daylight I examined the little planer board and seen the rightful owners name and cell number wrote on the plastic. I sent out a text to make arrangements to return his gear which the owner really appreciated! Then I got a follow up text, “by the way, where did you find it? I lost that thing 2 weeks ago in front of downtown Cleveland”! I’m like, WHAT! That’s 50 some miles away from where we snagged it fishing in front of Ashtabula! That Walleye had swam all that distance towing that planer board in 2 weeks time and was still as fresh and lively as if it had just happened the night before we snagged it! Unreal! So a big batch of fish could arrive off Ashtabula at any time! They are on the move! Another interesting thing happened last weekend as well. Around Ashtabula everybody that’s been fishing in close for Perch have all been striking out big time. Nothing! Zilch! Nada! Well on one of my northern most exploratory trolls we cracked the 70 ft. plus water depth range. We didn’t find much out there really but did have a very deep downrigger go off out there with a BIG fish on it! After a bit of a tussle, my lucky guest at the end of the rod landed a 27” inch Walleye. Just as I netted the beautiful Walleye and slung it across the stern of the boat, the big Walleye coughed up a 10” inch Yellow Perch! Wow! Some of you that follow along with my little fishing reports may recall that last summer we did something very similar. We caught a big Walleye, somewhere around 29” inch I think it was also on a deeply set downrigger and as I swung it over into the boat with the net it coughed up a foot long another Walleye that it had freshly swallowed and then puked right back out after we landed it! Yikes! Maybe I should start trolling with Musky lures! Lol! OK, that’s about it for another week. Off to bed. I got a bunch of “babies” that I got to take care of in the morning! Ha! Trophy Charters |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of May 28, 2017: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 15:59:55 5/28/17 |
We’ve turned the corner! Or so I hope! With much better weather this past week, we aboard “The Trophy” enjoyed some pretty good Walleye fishing and even some action at times that was really fast and furious! Water temperatures have finally jumped a few degrees which is helping fire all those fish out there that have been stacked up now for weeks. We had one more crappy weather day on Monday that we had to muddle through with strong westerly winds which hampered our production but after Monday, we were good to go! Each day thereafter it only got better and better. My long running group from Wisconsin's that takes these same days each year were my guests this past week for most of the days and were handsomely rewarded with a fine four day catch with keepers ranging anywhere from 15 inches to big fish of the week being a crazy big fat 28 1/4” incher! And the amount of just under size Walleyes that we handled was just unreal. More on that subject in a moment. Wednesday we finished up with just shy of 20 keepers and Thursday, their final day we captured 26 Walleyes on a very rainy day but flat lake. They were definitely biting in the rain! Fridays group limited out as well quite easily and we were back at the dock by 11:00am. Not a real burn but a remarkable difference from the week before. The weekend was equally good with fish counts in the upper teens along with some really big Walleye. We even boated a huge Steelhead, the first of the season aboard “The Trophy” and lost his twin a short while later that was just a jumping fool. What a show he put on and when he finally won his freedom, I didn’t feel all that bad. Well played Mr. Steelhead, well played! As far as all those small Walleyes go, all I can say is HOLY COW! I’ve never seen anything like it this early in the season around Ashtabula. We thought we handled a lot of shorts last year! If this holds up, it’s going to be a long summer of weeding through the non legal fish just to come up with what we need each day. On Thursday, I know we threw back well over a hundred under size fish to get our 26. Seriously! Most of these Walleyes are measuring anywhere from 13 inch to just a hair under 15 inch, which is the minimum size requirement for Walleye here in Ohio. These fish are all 2 year olds and would be from the hatch of 2015. It had to be a monster event! I am getting lots of reports of the same thing happening throughout the entire lake. The future of Lake Erie's Walleye fishing looks very bright indeed for many years to come! We all just have to be a pit patient right now. Most of the fish that we are catching are still in the shallows but we’ve pulled fish clear out to 60+ foot of water now. Jet Divers and spoons have been doing most of the damage for us. Typical of this early season fishing for these rather high fish. Boat traffic is starting to pick up as well. I guess I should learn to keep my mouth shut! Ha! Anyway, everybody is catching fish. Some better than others but it’s definitely starting to happen. I think though that everybody is going to have to get used to a smaller grade of keepers overall as the bulk of the catch now is from the other monster hatch of 2014. All those shorty's that we were weeding through and throwing back last summer. As always, there's some real lunkers out there swimming around just to keep things interesting. Some still from the all time monster hatch of 2003. 14 year old fish! Biologists are telling us that they can live in excess of 20 years! Makes me wonder how many of these fish that I’m throwing back now will still be around in the year 2031, 14 years from now! The things that make you say hmmmmmm! I hope everyone has a enjoyable and safe Memorial Day weekend! Trophy Charters |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of May21, 2017: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 17:23:42 5/21/17 |
Some big fish! I guess we’re just going to have to hang our hat on that for now. We are getting some really nice sized Walleyes aboard “The Trophy” each day but we are still not putting the big numbers in the box that I would like to see and I am sure that all of my guests would like to see. It was much faster last year at this time of year for us but nobody really cares about all of that. This is a “what have you done for me lately” kind of business and I understand that. And “lately’ around here has been a slow start to the year for us. With much trying we’ve only managed to put anywhere from 5 to 10 fish in the box each day. I tell it like it is. And it is what it is... But as I mentioned, we have pulled a few dandies though! We caught two separate fish on separate days this past week that both went a easy 31” inches. Fat as all get out too! Sometimes its no big deal to catch a long skinny fish but these Walleyes were built like a football fullback! Thick and stout! Both fish earned a free ride home to my guests local taxidermist shop. Beautiful Walleyes and they should make a beautiful mount! Many anglers fish their whole lives and never land a Walleye that big! So if there is a positive to take away from this years slower start, it’s that any time a rod goes off, it could be a fish of a lifetime! I guess unless I’m filling the box to the rim everyday, I take it much harder then a lot of my guests. Try telling these two lucky anglers that they didn’t have a very memorable trip! They were more then ELATED! I guess I’m going to pick up right where I left off last year complaining about the darn weather. Will it EVER quit blowing up here on the lake? Sheeze, already I had to cancel Friday and Saturdays trips because of the ridiculous wind. And all the other days out there that we have fished haven't been exactly no walk in the park either. None of which is helping our production. Maybe, just maybe if we ever get any stable weather all of these fish that I’m seeing on the fish finder each day might start to fire better. Best depths have seemed to be somewhere between 42’ and 52’ foot. I’ve been both east and west of the harbor. There's fish everywhere that we’ve looked. We also need a little more water temperature. We’re finally up to 55 degrees but this late into May we should be closer to 60. We just haven't had very many hot days. A couple days this past week and then right back to a strong cold front which brought along those strong northeasterly winds costing me my trips on both Friday & Saturday. Ugh! So we’re still dabbling with the Bandit lures. And their catching a few. Just like my Husky Jerks, just like my spoons that I tried this week as well. One here and one there, and one on this and one on that! Not really a fair evaluation in my opinion thus far. I do have to say however that I am very impressed with how accurately these lures seem to track right out of the box. Almost all of them are spot on and the few that I’ve had to tweak were easily brought into tolerance. Some of you might remember my evaluation of the Bay Rat lures last summer. Great colors, catches fish very well ONCE TUNED but most of them are just horrible right out of the box requiring much screwing around to get them to swim straight. I have a real problem paying upwards of $10 dollars for a lure for something that doesn’t swim correctly brand spanking new. And for whatever reason, they just were not that easy to tune. I actually had a few Bay Rats that I gave up on altogether! But once dialed in, they did catch fish good. A real catch 22 with them things. We’ll see where I end up with these Bandits. Right now, me thinks I should be fishing with Dynamite! Lol! Trophy Charters |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of May14, 2017: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 18:20:45 5/14/17 |
Getting a few! Season number 31 is well under the way for me and “The Trophy” is already busy plowing the near shore waters off of Ashtabula Harbor. And like I said, we are getting some. Perhaps not limits yet, but not exactly horrible either! This report is not going to be terribly long because I really hadn’t planned on posting anything at all till a little later in May when limits are a little more easy to come by. But I have been getting so many texts and e-mails from my so many faithful followers asking when I was going to resume posting my reports that I thought I would throw something up here for everyone! Actually it’s a miracle that we are catching anything at all! The first two weeks of May up here along the lake shore have been so cold, so rainy and so WINDY that the lake is really tore up. Even the deeper waters of the central basin here has been one big mud pit. I just can not believe the amount of rain that we have had either. The lake itself and its tributaries are near record high! After being docked at River Marine here in the Ashtabula Harbor for what seems like forever, this is the first time that we have had to actually build a step on the dock just so that my guests could board the boat! With several trips now under my belt now, I am not at all disappointed by what I am seeing on the fish finders. Dare I say, it’s about as as good looking as it could possibly look for this time of year? Loaded with nice crisp hooks at many different points in the water column with plenty of bait balls thrown in as well to keep these fish that I assume are mostly Walleyes interested. Maybe too much bait with most of these fish well fed and not all that eager to eat our plastic baits! Lots of bait, murky water and cold east, northeast winds for two weeks straight now and like I said, it’s surprising that we are getting as many Walleye as we are! But I do believe that they are there. Techniques are typical early season shallow water trolling. Aboard “The Trophy” we’ve been pulling our big planer boards and loading them up with a spread of Tru Trip Jet Divers and mostly shallow lipped stick baits. Nothing new here. Marking fish deep but catching the stealth higher fish that you rarely mark as the boat trolls over head and spooks the fish off to one side or the other. I have also this spring bought into the hype over the deep diving “Bandit” crank baits that seems to be all the rage anymore. These cranks pulled off the boards with just straight up braid is really pleasant to work with but I am yet to be convinced that it is more productive then the old Jet program that we’ve pulled for so many years now. We’ll see. So far I would say of the around 20 or so big Walleyes that we’ve captured, its been about 50/50 with the Bandits verses the Jets. We’ll see what this week brings. I have a heavy schedule facing me right off the bat so it shouldn’t take long for me to form a strong opinion! So it’s game on. Check back next week! Trophy Charters |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of April 2, 2017: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 05:51:10 4/02/17 |
Fishing reports will resume around the end of May. I did want to take a moment however to help alert everyone that enjoys Lake Erie and all the other Great Lakes for that matter of something that President Trump is trying to pass in his proposed budget cuts. He proposes to slash ALL funding for many essential and vital programs that help clean and preserve our Great Lakes that we all treasure. There are many articles out there, just Google Trump & Great Lakes. Here is a good one but you’ll have to copy and paste the address into your browser: http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2017/03/trump_budget_eliminates_great.html Particularly troubling is this will eliminate all efforts to keep the Asian Carp from getting into Lake Erie and controlling the Sea Lampreys that prey on our sport game fish. Everything about this budget cut even if it comes to be half of what he proposes is very devastating to our waterways. I find it ironic that the great lake states that helped propel this man to presidency is now getting boned in return. I urge everyone to read about this, pass it on to others and make as much noise as we can collectively to say NO to this insane proposed cut in funding. Write and call your representatives. Names, numbers and addresses are easy to find online. Don’t let this Loony Tune “So called President” ruin our Great Lakes! Cya on the water... Capt. Walt Trophy Charters |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of January 1, 2017: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 09:01:49 1/01/17 |
Happy New Year and HAPPY NEW FISHING SEASON! It seems strange to be thinking already about boating and fishing in the new year as we are locked in a particularly harsh winter here in northeast Ohio. But as always, time flies by and in a blink of an eye we’ll be back at it again. December was very brutal with tons of snow and bitter cold. What the remainder of this winter will bring is anybody's guess at this point. Seems to me though that whenever we have a hard winter that the next fishing season is always a great one around here. Last winter was very mild and the lake never even froze and the fishing was just mediocre at best in my opinion. We’ll have to see how it all plays out this year. Regardless, we’ll still catch fish as we always do and we’ll certainly have lots of fun together doing it. I can hardly wait! So we got our big 30th year in business celebrations all out of the way last year and this season we can just concentrate on fishing. I guess 2017 will be known as my “YEAR OF THE STILL HERE” season! As I begin my 31st year, I’m not planning on going anywhere any time soon. We will again run a slightly shorter season this year as we did last year and just concentrate on our Ashtabula summer trips. These have always been our most successful and most comfortable trips. Fishing should be dramatically better this summer due to the sheer numbers of younger fish that we all saw last year. These Walleyes should all be nice eater sized keepers this summer. Rest assured that there will still be plenty of trophy sized fish caught for those of you that are still looking for that wall hanger! There always is! So till we all meet again on the water a little later this year, stay warm and stay safe and everybody think LAKE ERIE WALLEYES! See you soon! Capt. Walt |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of September 25, 2016: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 16:14:52 9/25/16 |
The end of the road. And so in a blink of an eye, my self proclaimed five month season comes to a end and year number 30 is officially in the books. It’s a year that I will never forget for a variety of reasons. Primarily being a milestone year for me celebrating my 30 years in this business. Not so fondly, I will also remember 2016 for how hard we struggled many of the days to send all our guests home with as much fish as possible. A lot of days it wasn’t real easy but somehow, some way at the end of the day on most days we had pretty decent boxes of Walleyes to show for our efforts. Mission accomplished! It also seemed like a excessively windy and rough year to me to compound things. Maybe it’s just that I am getting older now and everything just hurts that much more after the lake dishes out its almost daily beatings. This past week was pretty decent however for a change with good weather and some really good fishing for both the Walleye and the Perch if you were willing to make the 18 mile run to Conneaut where everybody is catching them right now. We did exactly that on Friday and it was awesome for us! The rest of the week we still Walleye fished and that was still very good as well. And that’s about as much that I’m going to talk about fishing here in this final report. The rest of this blog is going to be filled with some people that I would like to thank and something that I usually don’t do enough of. Recognizing a couple of new sponsors that I had onboard with us this year. And in no particular order I would like to start with Seadek Marine Products. A innovative company that manufactures boat deck coverings. This past winter I had the opportunity to attend the Miami International Boat show down in Florida. This is where I first saw this product. I couldn’t believe how many brand new boats were decked out with this high tech non skid soft floor covering and how GREAT they all looked! After returning home and doing much research and my own due diligence to learn as much as I could about this product, I was convinced that I wanted to try it. It’s basically a very durable closed cell foam rubbery like sheet that comes in many colors and textures that can be cut and easily applied to any surface with it’s own peel & stick 3M back side. The edges can be easily routed to give it a nice finished look. And when used on the boats floor, it gives you a unbelievable non skid surface especially when wet that also provides exceptional shock absorption and anti fatigue qualities. After contacting Seadek, they were gracious enough to work with me to get some on “The Trophy” and get some exposure also up here on the Great Lakes. For my first year I laid it down throughout the entire cuddy cabin in a beautiful Bimini Blue including the bunks and steps. It looks great and everything stays put right where you put it no matter how rough the lake is. I also covered the engine boxes which double as seats, the dinette table top and a couple of test pieces in the back of the boat where everyone stands to set lines and reel in fish. Before I did the whole deck, I had to see for myself how it held up to a seasons worth of commercial abuse. And let me tell you something... This stuff is unbelievable! It wore like iron with no signs of hardly any wear or nicking and cuts. It cleans up easily. And oh my how comfortable to stand on! I never felt more confident netting fish in the back as my feet stayed planted no matter how wet it was or how bad the boat rocked! I am now a big time BELIEVER and I promise you, for 2017 every square inch of decking aboard “The Trophy” will be covered in Seadek! Again, thank you Seadek Marine Products and I encourage everyone that has a boat to visit www.seadek.com and or call me to discuss my experiences with this fine product. And I would like to give a big shout out to Rigid Industries LED Lighting. The foremost recognized name in high end LED light bars. They also have a line of marine products built specifically to deal with the harsh punishment that a marine environment has to deal with. My fascination with forward projecting lighting started many years ago when we started leaving earlier and earlier in the morning darkness to arrive at the fishing grounds at the first hint of daylight. But along with making these long runs in the pitch black darkness came the increased risk of whacking a log or even worst out in the water. I thought, why not have powerful lights illuminating the path forward as we traveled? And so it started for me. Many years ago I mounted up on the bow a pair of commercial marine grade halogen spot lights. Back in the day these were big money and the baddest things available. I thought they were great even though everybody laughed at me by saying things like, “hey look at that car coming”! And what do you need lights for! I didn’t care. I had a new sense of additional safety. Then LED lighting started becoming more readily available and I dabbled with some cheap Chinese knock off lights. Even though my earliest LED’s were of poor quality and build, they made my expensive Halogens look yellow and dim. So again I did my own due diligence and set out to find the brightest, best built LED marine light bar available. Everything kept pointing to and coming back to Rigid Industries. So I first started with a pair of M 6” six inch Rigid spots which I used to replace the halogens that I had. I was instantly impressed! The build quality was unsurpassed and when I lit them up in the dark for the first time I was just blown away! Each 6 inch bar gave me 4,500 lumens of pure white light for a total of 9,000 lumens of lighting power. But I wanted more! And with a little help from Rigid, I added yet another pair of twenty inch M 2 20”s in their driving beam pattern this year. Each of these light bars is a astonishing 18,000 lumens! Together these two driving lights provide me with 36,000 lumens and when I run the six inchers also which I do, it’s a total mind boggling 45,000 lumens of lighting! It simply makes daylight out of darkness. After running this combination all of this season, I am pleased to say that these things are bullet proof! Never a flicker, no condensation anywhere, just total awesomeness! And these white marine light bars look GREAT too! Again, thanks goes out to Rigid Industries for building the finest marine lighting that is available on this planet! I also encourage everyone that does any kind of boating or fishing in the dark to visit www.rigidindustries.com and to feel free to contact me as well with any questions on my own experiences and applications with Rigids. And finally just as I wrap up all of my fishing reports each year, I would like to thank my most important sponsors of all. ALL OF YOU that fished with me this summer and made all of this possible! I thank everyone from the very bottom of my heart! Even though I think it just may have been my toughest year ever, I also think that in all 30 years of chartering I had the very best crews EVER this year! I enjoyed everybody's company and really appreciated all the generosity everyone showed. I thank everyone that honored my wishes of keeping the crew size down to 4 people this year. It was just wonderful and it really worked out great because on most days that’s about all that we could catch! 4 limits of Walleyes. Thanks also goes out to everyone that got up super early as per my wishes so that we could get out crazy early and be there all set up and ready whenever the fish finally turned on. It also gave me a chance to play with all my fancy LED lights! Lol! Thanks to everyone that congratulated me this year and wished me well here in my 30th season. That in its self meant more to me then words can say. And finally thanks to everyone that followed along weekly with my journey through this years fishing season by reading all of these reports. Every year I get complete strangers that approach me and thank me for my dedication to these things each week. I am glad so many people look forward to following along each week. Whether you fish with me or not! So that’s about it. I’ll be in the water one more week fishing but as I mentioned last week, we’ll be super busy wrapping things up next weekend so I wanted to sign off this week where I had more time and a chance to do it properly. I hope everyone has a very safe and prosperous winter and that everyone enjoys the holidays with their friends and family. I know that I will! I have a lot of catching up to do myself! So till next year folks, one final OVER & OUT! |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of September 18, 2016: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 13:45:08 9/18/16 |
Winding down quickly now. But apparently the Walleyes didn’t get the memo! This was probably one of the best weeks that we’ve had with the big toothy fish in several weeks now. The Walleyes continue to move back in closer to shore as they have been here lately and as they always do in the fall of each year. “The Trophy” caught fish in water as shallow as 48 foot this past week although 64 to 70 foot was probably the sweet spot for us. Not only was the action fast and furious at times with the Walleyes, the incidental pesky junk fish that have been bothering us so bad for about a month now really weren't too bad either. A very pleasant surprise on both counts with no complaints coming from me. And the Walleyes were pretty decent sized for a change with many Fish Ohio citation caliber fish being caught by us and many others. Weather continued to make things challenging mid week once again. I’m not going to dwell on the subject much because I’m so sick of it but if you fished Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, well I don’t have to convince you that it sucked. But we still fished and we caught fish. Sometimes that’s all that matters. Weekends continue to haunt us however. As I knock this report out on Friday night as I usually do so it can be posted on Sunday, I’ve AGAIN scrubbed my scheduled Perch trip for Saturday because of the predicted 3-5 foot waves and a 80% chance of heavy rain & thunderstorms. I’ve yet to even fish for them this year! In 30 years of chartering for me, this is the very latest in the season that I have gone without running a single Perch trip yet! I’m not sure that I even I miss it though. Perch fishing out front of Ashtabula this fall has been dismal at best and everybody that’s been giving it a shot out of Ashtabula has been making the long 18 mile grueling run one way to Conneaut, OH just to fish for them. And even that has been hit or miss many a day so far! So after writing last week that that we’ve been doing much better with the smaller sized stick baits this summer, this past week made a liar out of me. After a few of my colleagues started pulling some larger fish with the larger baits along with good numbers of fish, I also jumped on the band wagon myself with pretty good results. I mixed it up with both the bigger Storm Thunder Sticks and the Long Deep Bay Rats that I’ve been dabbling with. Both worked well being fished off the big planer boards with the wire line and fished back about 330 feet or so. We also had a fairly strong Dipsy Diver bite this past week with the large jointed Storms. I guess now that the season for us is just about practically over, their going to decide to start hitting good on everything! Even the down riggers caught some nice fish for us last week! Go figure. OK after writing what seemed like a book in last weeks report, I’ve decided to keep this one a bit shorter. We’ll see what this coming week brings once we get past this weekend. “The Trophy” comes out of the water for the winter here in two weeks now. About a month earlier than other years. All part of my plan of scaling it back some in my final years. Next weeks report/ blog will be my final one for the 2016 season. Although I will still fish the whole week after next weekend, that very last weekend will be very busy for us as we attempt to run our final trips, get everything cleaned up and winterized. Be sure to catch my final ramblings here as I try to wrap things up and give shout outs to all those that are deserving this year. That’s about it for now. I might even have some Perch pictures as well next week as I once again have some Perch trips scheduled towards weeks end. We’ll see! |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of September 11, 2016: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 07:56:20 9/11/16 |
More weather woes! It’s never good when my lead off line starts right off about the stupid weather but that’s what it’s come to here in these final weeks of our Walleye season off of Ashtabula,OH. We again all week dealt with extreme heat, extreme wind, extreme thunderstorms and by weeks end a strong cold front which once again has squelched any thoughts of getting out and doing any fishing. As I sit here on a Friday night and put my thoughts down in print, I’ve already cancelled both Saturdays and Sundays trips which would have been by the way my first two Perch trips of the year. Some easy fishing for a change. Just throw out the anchor and turn everybody loose as I just watch and help out whenever needed. Instead I see waves forecast for both Saturday & Sunday in the 4 to 6 foot range with strong gusts of wind predicted in access of 30 knots at times and with rain and thunderstorms once again thrown in for good measure. It’s getting old this fighting the weather all the time anymore but I also know that my season is quickly winding down and soon I won’t have to worry about it anymore. It’s also this knowing that my seasons about to be over that makes loosing these final days to the weather so painful. But we still got some fishing done in between everything that Mother Nature threw at us this week and we still caught some really nice Walleyes along with a few bonus Steelhead Trout as we have been doing here as of late. The one real downside of all this wind has been that it’s really fired up all the junk fish once again. Seems like late in the year when the water is really warm and it gets all stirred up by constant winds, it sends the White Bass and big Sheephead into a feeding frenzy! It was a real struggle keeping lines in the water long enough to catch a Walleye with the super active undesirable fish. In particularly, the White Bass. And they are HUGE this summer! They literally run the drags when they hit the Dipsys! Exhausting weeding through that many of them but somehow we did exactly that and we were eventually rewarded with what we had set out for in the first place. Lake Erie GOLD! Walleyes!!! OK, a few weeks ago I mentioned that I had been experimenting with some new lures that have been all the rage here out on the lake anymore. Bay Rat deep diving crank baits. I also mentioned that I would report back after I had more time with using them. So here is some of my humble unbiased opinions and observations. First and foremost, they do catch fish very well. And when I say fish, I mean the Walleyes plus all the other crap that we don’t really want to catch. I think this past week I caught some of the biggest Sheep Heads I ever saw on them! Lol! But I’m sure that was just a coincidence. Early on I only used the larger sized deep diving Bay Rats but the larger crank baits have not worked all that great for us in general this summer. It’s probably because most of our catches here in the second half of summer have consisted of the smaller 2 year old plus fish. The now 15 to 18 inchers. Most recently I’ve been using the Short Deep Divers on our wire line with much better results. I had plenty of days where these fish were definitely picking them off over others in my line up consisting of Jr. Thunder Sticks and Bomber 24a’s. Some of the things that I like about this lure is that it’s well made, keeps its paint well and is availabe in an interesting array of colors. By far my favorite has been the “Purple Wish”. That color has really kicked ass for us! Some things that I do not like is the hook quality and the smaller split rings that they use when I go to swap out the trebles. This really is no surprise however as I dislike most all the cheap hooks that most manufactures use nowadays and pick out higher quality Trebles all the time for my most favorite lures. BUT the biggest complaint that I have is that they are almost all junk out of the box without you tuning them. In Bay Rats defense however, their crank baits are not the only ones that are like that. I am appalled with all these different lure companies that charge in upwards of $10 dollars for a lure and they can’t sell one that swims straight! Errrrrrrr! Again these are just my opinions but after 30 years of full time chartering and fishing Lake Erie for myself for 10 years before that even, I think I know a thing or two about the subject. And I’m going to share some of my insight with all of you right now. Next time you’re trolling and at your normal trolling speed, run your lure that you want to check back about 40-50 foot. Do it directly off the back, not standing to the side of the boat. Pick a spot where you are not directly in the prop wash. Hold your rod straight back and tip almost to the water. Now while still at trolling speed, crank your lure back to the boat as fast as you can. If your lure pulls off to one side or the other or worst yet pops out of the water or flips around, you have a improperly tuned bait. A perfectly tuned lure will track perfectly straight back to the boat and dig deep. This assures that all lures are running at the desired depths and keeps tangles to a minimum. All very important in doing well out there. If you find a lure in your line up or one right out of the box (and I promise you that you will) that is not running right, tuning them can be either easy or a lesson in frustration. As you look forward at the bill of the lure and the eye, if the lure is running to the right, bend the eye EVER SO SLIGHTLY to the left with a pair of needle nose pliers. Remember to bend the whole eye to one side or the other and not just twist it. A good rule of thumb is something that I learned 40 years ago back in my machine shop days when adjusting tooling fixtures. “If you feel it move, you probably went too far” Lol but oh so true! Be prepared to spend some time as most likely you’ll be back and fourth quite a few times before you get it just right. And you’ll probably learn some new swear words along the way as well! Lol! Alright, that’s it for my second and most likely last tutorial of this season! Happy tuning! |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of September 4, 2016: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 13:18:14 9/04/16 |
September and it’s Labor Day Weekend! The unofficial marking of summers end around here. It seems just like a blur since we launched the boat earlier this year. Memorial Day and The 4th of July have all come and gone and now finally Labor Day is upon us as well. “The Trophy” has only about a month to go now and year number 30 will officially be in the books. It didn’t exactly go nearly as as well as I had hoped fishing wise but go it did do indeed. This past week was full of plenty of highs and lows as has been the whole summer season. Walleye Fishing was simply just fair. The weather which I get so sick and tired of writing about all the time and fighting in real life was well, not so fair. Monday was kick ass plain nasty when it really wasn’t supposed to be. Everybody went but everybody that did go has cancelled trips in the past for less harsh conditions at one time or another I promise you. I think the only thing that egged everyone on was the fact that it was only supposed to be one footers that whole day. Thanks again National Weather Service for yet another totally blown forecast. Tuesday was the gem of the week I suppose and it was almost too flat! Hot and sunny as well. It all made for very slow fishing. We got what we needed that day plus a few bonus Trout but it was a real grind. Wednesday was very unsettled with lots of storms out over the lake. We cranked it way offshore on a hot tip and fishing was very good for us as long as we lasted out there. We needed 24 Walleyes and had 18 in the box before a huge pop up thunderstorm sent us scurrying for safe harbor. Always frigging something. And Thursday & Friday? Both ended up being totally lost days. Small craft flags flew for both days with a harsh northeast wind cranking all day and night right on through the period. Nobody fished. I guess my September is going to start out the way so many of our days in August went for us. This weeks report will be a bit shorter this extended holiday weekend. Please just enjoy a few of these pictures from some of our nicer fish that we managed to capture. Although like everyone else we’re catching lots of smaller fish, we still managed to snare just enough larger fish to keep everyone excited. We’ll see what this coming week brings. I believe I even have a Perch trip or two coming up here in the next week. Yikes! I might have something completely new to boo hoo about! Lol! Happy Labor Day everyone! Enjoy and stay safe... |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of August 28, 2016: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 14:48:49 8/28/16 |
Just another one of those “just OK” weeks. This past week was nothing to really write home about. As has become the new normal around here now, we put in rather full days this past week and eventually either captured our limits or came darn close to it. Lots of smaller fish and it just wasn’t real easy. Weather wasn’t supposed to be much of a factor this past week but it turned out to be a thing that we all had to reckon with. More on that here in a moment. I guess if there was anything to get excited about, it’s been that the Steelhead Trout have really made their presence known around here as of lately. I can’t hardly remember now when was the last day where we haven't hooked up with at least a few of these jumpers. On most trips we’ve managed to land anywhere from one or two to as many as a handful. Most have been coming off the Dipsy Divers. Just leave those drags loose and wait for the screaming reel! As I suspected, last Sunday was indeed a wash. Nobody fished. Every day there after according to the National Weather service was supposed to be like in the 1 to 3 foot range near shore. Instead, pretty much everyday it was at least 2 to 4’s and maybe more at times. A nasty short chop each day that tried every ones patience and just didn’t make things any easier for anyone. In fact Thursday, with a near shore forecast of only 10 to 15 knot winds out of the SW and waves supposedly only to be 1 to 3 footers, it turned out to be more like 5 footers plus for most of the day. We set out aboard “The Trophy” in the dark and some rain that morning with high hopes of getting our day in. It wasn’t too bad when we first left. We lasted about a whole half hour out there before a wall of wind hit us! Dead out of the west and according to the Fairport Lighthouse report, blowing at 27 knots! It was one of the more dramatic wind sweeps that I’ve witnessed in recent memory. Our 1 to 3 footers almost instantly became 5-6 footers and our day was over before it ever really started. We pulled our lines and just headed back in. A sad turn of events for my guys that day and another lost day for me for this very windy month. They are really starting to add up. For as long as we fished that particular morning, we hooked 3 fish in the dark with only a handful of lines out. One was a throw back, one was about a 17 inch keeper and as we were trying to clear lines in the gale winds that kicked in we hooked and almost landed on one of the last Dipsy rods still out one of the biggest Walleyes that I’ve seen in a long time! It was behemoth! I’m guessing it would have gone easily 13 maybe 14 pounds. It’s been a long while since we’ve landed one quite that big. Just as I was about to try netting it and with the fellow on the rod trying to back up in the wildly pitching and bobbing boat in the big waves, he stumbled backwards and just that quick the magnificent fish was gone. So very close! Man, I really wanted that fish! But that’s how it’s been for us almost every morning here the last few weeks. Slow starts in the dark but one or two really good ones almost every trip out. Here’s a couple pictures in this report of fish that weren't nearly as big but that didn’t get away either! Lol! So everyone all of a sudden is catching some “Chrome” out here. Silver fish that some call Trout and some call Salmon. Truth is, we are getting both! I get a kick out of the other captains back at the marina always asking my opinion on some of the more suspicious looking silvers as to what it really is that they caught. After many years of fishing Lake Ontario and the rivers in Michigan long before I ever started chartering, I learned early on what to look for. This came up again just last Saturday when one of River Marines captains brought in a small King Salmon (Chinook). They were pretty sure it wasn’t a Steelhead but didn’t know if it was a Chinook or Coho. It was definitely a small King. Aboard “The Trophy” we’ve caught all three this summer. Coho, Steelhead and also a nice small Chinook. This final picture is from a few weeks ago where we brought in one of each. On the left is the Steelhead and on the right is the small King Salmon. Notice the Trouts almost square tail with the many small speckles all through out the tail. The Salmon on the right has a deep fork in the tail with slightly larger spots all through out. Both fish have nice tight scales. And the biggest give away is the Trouts mouth which is all snow white. White gums, mouth and tongue. The Chinook’s mouth is almost all coal black. And the Coho Salmon which are also being caught as well this summer have their own distinguishing features. Their gums and tongue are more grayish. The tail has a fork in it as well but with very few and much larger faint spots. And the scales are very loose on the Coho Salmon! Big, big differences! Interesting that these smaller Kings are showing up all of a sudden mixed in with our other fish. Somebody somewhere must be stocking a few again. Man, you think a Steelhead can make your drag scream! Hopefully a few of these young Kings will be back next year as much larger mature Salmon. That would be awesome and bring back memories of the early 80’s out here again as it used to be when Ohio & PA both stocked them regularly! Well that’s it for another week and my personal tutorial on Salmon vrs. Steelhead! Lol! |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of August 21, 2016: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 09:01:52 8/21/16 |
A up and down week! Actually I entertained the thoughts of using “A much better week” for a lead off line. And it was too if you discounted the stinking high wind/ rough lake days that we were hit with every other day this past week. After a very crappy windy weekend last weekend where most including myself elected not to go, Monday was about as pretty a lake as you’ll ever see. Flat as a pancake with a light 6-12 inch surface chop. It was overcast and much cooler and just down right pleasant. And like somebody flipped a switch, the fish were on fire as well! We easily knocked out a four man limit by 9:30am and almost made it back in time for breakfast! Tuesday was the exact opposite. Super strong gusty southerly winds kept most off the lake. We chose to fish but stayed in tight quitting about the time that we had limited out the day before with only a handful of fish to show for our efforts. It was just too windy to stay out any longer. Again, the luck of the draw got my group that day. Just plain sucks. Wednesday was once again a gorgeous lake and it was like Tuesday never happened. Same results as Monday. Easy limits by 10:00am and a very happy crew! Thursday was the real kick in the pants for us and everyone else. With a “one foot or less” forecast and the Wind Alert and iWindsurf apps showing only single digit wind velocities for all day, we were greeted with strong gusty south west winds that soon went north westerly that created a crazy confused washing machine action out over the lake. Though we fished, our production was once again well off the mark and it again reminded me how much fate plays a role in how your long awaited day is going to go. I was about beat to death when we got done fishing including wrenching my back on one big awkward wave while netting a big Walleye. Ouch! The Dr. Jekyll/ Mr. Hyde strange lake condition phenomenon carried on going into Friday and we were greeted again with pleasant lake conditions and very hungry Walleyes. With a nice light manageable south wind we ran offshore and set up a further north troll. Trolling an additional five miles north towards the border we pulled 14 decent Walleyes and turned and finished up by trolling south into the waves and landing an additional dozen fish. A very good day and again done before 10am. As I write this up on Friday night a day earlier then usual, it looks like we will squeeze out one more nice day on Saturday before the proverbial “stuff” hits the fan on Sunday. I already cancelled that days trip with a forecasted strong cold front scheduled to sweep down the lake on early Sunday morning. All my sources are showing rain and winds in excess of 30 mph. NOAA is also calling for 5-7 foot waves. Sounds definitely like a no-go to me! We’ll see how bad it actually becomes. Sundays nasty weather appears to be short lived though. Although temperatures are supposed to be significantly cooler next week with highs in the 70’s, winds at least at this point appear to be rather light for much of the week. I’m all about the cooler weather arriving after baking most of this month thus far. I hope however that the cool down doesn't change things out there. Do I dare say that it really appeared like there was a nice block of cooperative fish out there this past week? Even the junk fish was surprisingly very manageable this past week. Just those pesky windy days that keep rearing their ugly heads every other day that kept this week from being a great week. We’ll see how it all plays out next week. I know one thing. I’m already savoring my planned day off for this weekend. It’s never good to loose a day when you’re a seasonal worker but this is a whole lot better then getting up at 2:30am just to greet your crew and sending them away anyway at the dock in total disgust! At least I’ll be able to rest my back that day! Till next week... |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of August 14, 2016: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 08:55:11 8/14/16 |
Much more of the same. Things really haven't changed much one way or another for us. We are still working our butts off to come up with decent boxes of fish for all of our guests. The only difference this past week was that most days we had to do so under extremely harsh conditions. This heat wave that we have been under is really starting to get to me. On top of struggling with everything else that seems to be stacked against us this summer, I’ve just about had my fill now of sweat mixed with sun block running into my eyes and other body cavities where it just don’t belong. Exhausting, miserable and frustrating is about how I sum up my week this past week. Not nearly as tough for the others that are onboard each day because between bites they get a chance to duck under the hard top and get some shade. But for myself stuck in the back acting the part of both captain and first mate and overseeing everything including untangling crap and trying to work miracles with these stubborn fish this year, it was pretty brutal. We had several days of eventual limit catches and a couple of near limit catches but all of the days were long hard drawn out affairs. The lake was quite rough several days as well even with the heat and that just made for even tougher fishing. Tough to stand, tough to stay on the fish and very tough trolling into the waves when we had to turn on them. Maybe I’m just wearing down or something. I don’t know. I’ve all but given up on the big schools of Walleye magically appearing this late into summer already making for easy fishing. It’s really hard to get excited knowing that each day is going to be yet another beating. But somehow I pull it together each day, put on as a happy face as possible and go to work. But it wouldn’t make me mad if somebody turned down this freakin heat some! Sheeze! Enough already with the 90 degree plus days! I think one of the more frustrating things for me that seems to be going on right now is the lack of a good pre dawn bite. I’ve had no problem getting my crews to show up at 4am but I’ve had a real problem getting the fish to go good until well after the sun comes up here as of late. It seems like we manage to catch one or two monsters each day in the pre dawn darkness and then we ride around forever before rods start to bend again. It never used to be like that in past Augusts of other years. Heck, it wasn’t like that earlier this summer! It just seems like everything is different this summer especially this month. Maybe somehow this is all tied in with this big heat wave? I don’t know but I’m not liking it. No strong early morning bite right now pretty much insures us that we are going to be out all day long and fishing in the heat of the day. If things don’t start popping better in the dark this coming week, I think I’m going to adjust our departure times accordingly. It’s about time to roll it back some anyway as it’s starting to stay dark longer and longer now each morning as we approach summers end. We did have one interesting thing happen to us this past week aboard “The Trophy”. We caught a nice monster Walleye maybe 28-29 inches long that still had a rather fresh 11 inch Walleye stuck in his throat! Walleyes eating other Walleyes! It was one of the small one year old Walleyes that seem to be everywhere in the lake right now no matter where you go . Is that what’s going on? Are there so many of the baby Walleyes in the lake right now that the big Walleyes are simply turning on them? Feeding on the zillions of little ones that are polluting the lake to the point where they could care less about our lures? The things that make you go hmmmm! I know that I’ve never seen so many little Walleyes before in all of my years on the lake. I also know that I’ve never seen the Walleye fishing this tough before out this way in August. Coincidence? I don’t know. I don’t think anybody does. I do know that most everybody likes a good conspiracy story and maybe this one will be mine! Yup, that’s it! Their not hitting our lures because they are ALL full from eating other little Walleyes! That’s my story and I’m sticking to it! Lol! Stay tuned! |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of August 7, 2016: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 14:31:45 8/07/16 |
A HOT week! No, not the fishing... the WEATHER! Wee Bob was it ever a stifling hot, humid and hazy week over the big pond this past week. Even our 4:00am departures didn’t spare us from the warmth and humidity. Even at that hour of the morning it was sticky and sweaty just setting up the boat. And after daylight and when the sun started to climb it was like fishing in a sauna. I forget what I just saw on TV the other day on the Cleveland's weather but it was a ridiculous amount of 90 degree plus days that we have already had this year that they were saying. Water temperatures out in the lake are soaring! I don’t believe that the record water temperature in Erie has ever cracked 80 degrees. Right now it’s sitting at 77 degrees! And we are just at the start of August. Traditionally the hottest month of the year. It will be interesting to see how high it will actually climb! In past years the hotter the summer the better the fishing was in the cooler, deeper waters of the central basin especially the Ashtabula area. The big fish flocked in groves out here to enjoy the more comfortable water temperatures and the bait rich environment. That just does not seem to be the case this year. Sadly we had another much slower week this past week. We all still caught fish but it was a real struggle. Long, full days in all of this heat to boot. There are vast areas out there that just do not have any fish. If you are lucky enough to get over a good patch you can still do well and that’s what the better charters are doing. But the fish are really moving and it’s been an uphill battle to keep up with it all. Very un Ashtabula like. By this time of the year you should be able to go most anywhere out here and make one way trolls and do well. It just is not the case this year. We are working very, very hard to put box’s of fish together for all of our guests. And something that I really haven’t complained all that much about this year is the junk fish. Well that all changed this past week. Maybe the big schools of Walleyes have not moved into the area but all of a sudden I think every junk fish in the lake has showed up in the area! This past week was just brutal with White Bass, White Perch, Sheephead. You name it. And just for good measure, throw in a incredible amount of undersize Walleyes ranging from 6 inches to just undersize that we also just can’t keep off our lines, well we’ve been non stop busy. Not exactly how I had hoped to relax a bit in my 30th year and make things as easy as I can for myself! I had visions this year of knocking out 24 quick fish each day and being the first one back to the dock and enjoying the rest of my day. Now, it’s just a accomplishment to get them all and be back to the dock period before time expires! But we are still catching. Everybody is still taking plenty enough home to have some wonderful fresh fish dinners. Many days here recently the fish are not running nearly as big as in past years where everyone got spoiled. Just be thankful to be catching at all is what I say! I know I am! There has not been a day go by yet where we still at the very least have not caught a handful of huge fish. Many of the rest though here lately have been just “good eaters” 15 to 20 inchers. It is what it is. If I could write the script, everybody would catch nothing but 10 pounders. But it just don’t work that way. Take what the lake gives you and be thankful. I’ve said it often. Just enjoy the day! We’ll see what the rest of this month brings as we enter the real dog days of summer! |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of July 31, 2016: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 13:36:00 7/31/16 |
A pleasant week! In all the years I’ve been writing my fishing reports, I don’t think that I have used that particular adjective to describe the past weeks fishing. But it just seemed fitting to do so this week. It wasn’t that things were that very spectacular or anything like that. It was just nice consistent fishing with eventual limit catches of really nice fish for everyone regardless of my group size. I was blessed with some smaller party sizes this week and they in turn were rewarded with just the right amount of action to make their trips very memorable. After running larger groups for many years, it was very pleasant to have the smaller party sizes where everything is so much more personal for all involved. That was always my goal as I begin to slow down here in my final years and get more selective with what trips I decide to accept anymore. I remind everyone that this year we are only accepting and running 4 person trips maximum. Another thing that made this past week so pleasant was the delightful real summer like weather. Not that it didn’t get hot and miserable in the afternoons which it did but we were never out there after it got that hot having finished up already and back to the dock way before then. As I mentioned last week, we having been striving to get off the dock at 4:00 am to get in on the good early morning action and to get our fish and get the heck out of there before the real heat of the day sets in. At 4am and for the the first handful of hours in the morning it has been cool and comfortable out there. We also had no storms this week up until Saturday morning where we had to deal with a bit of weather. But Monday through Friday we had no high winds or big waves to worry about. Just nice summer weather. We have really settled into on our deep water summer trolling techniques aboard “The Trophy” now. Wire fishing line and Jr. Thunder Sticks have been our staple lures. We have however bought into the hype and recently dabbled with the newly popular “Bay Rats” lures that are now sweeping the lake. They don’t look much different then the larger full size Thunder Sticks that we normally round out our late summer season with except that they have a slightly larger bill I believe. They have a interesting line of new colors that meet a lot of the criteria that I look for in a Walleye lure. My lead off picture in this report features one that I particularly like. I am not sure how much I am going to be using these new lures in my line up but I can tell you that they do seem to work well. Better then a Thunder Stick? I don’t think so but at least equally as well I am thinking at this time. When we start favoring the larger lures as the fish continue to go deeper, I will experiment some more with them. So tomorrow is August already. Can you even imagine? We only have about a month and a half of Walleye trips left on the schedule now and then a couple of handful of Perch trips and season 2016 will be in the books. It’s slipping away quickly. I guess it’s not too early to mention that if you would like a Perch charter with me this fall you probably should get a hold of me real soon here. Openings left are limited and I expect to fill up as I always do. Especially with the boat coming out in early October this year. All part of my “slowing down” package that I have outlined for myself in this 30th year of chartering. I am secretly already really starting to look forward to the off season I must admit. Especially when my alarm goes off every morning at 2:30 am! Lol! But for now, we still have some serious fishing left to do Check back again next week... |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of July 24, 2016: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 12:48:27 7/24/16 |
A pretty good week! After a few weeks of working as hard as I’ve ever worked trying to make things happen for my guests, this past week was a bit easier. A bit... I wouldn’t get carried away and go as far as to say that the fish have finally gotten here but I would definitely say that the fish that are already here are really feeding now. We’ve had some real heat now and water temperatures keep rising. When the water warms the Walleyes metabolism really soars and they become real feeding machines. All this season thus far I have not seen the fish that we did manage to catch puke and spit up as much smelt and shiners as our fish did this past week. My fish box at the end of the day when we went to dump it has been just loaded with all kinds of little fish that the Walleyes that we had captured had regurgitated! The fish that “The Trophy” has been chasing this past week have still been found in multiple areas. We literally fished three distinct bands on various days. There are fish out by the Canadian line, a fair band about mid point and we even pulled some fish in some skinny water this past week when weather dictated that we didn’t go out too far. Most of the days this past week weren't so ridiculously rough that when we did hit a nice pocket of fish that we couldn’t stay with them. And unlike past weeks where sometimes it didn’t pay to keep working a little area for a long time, this past week when we got something going for ourselves, it kept working. I was a little nervous with the extremely full moon this past week that so many times spells total disaster for our daylight fishing but it didn’t seem to be much of a factor this past week. As we enter our final week of July now and stare August, traditionally our hottest month of the year right in the face I can not stress the importance of leaving the dock super early! Especially if we are traveling the longer distances that we are now. We’ve been pulling off at 4:00am sharp here lately to get a jump on things and to beat the heat. This past week it really paid off as most days we had a ticket plus before I ever even turned my lights off. Some really nice fish too! Man, I love to see those monster Walleyes wallering in behind the boat with their big eyes aglow under all my lights! It is so peaceful and pretty out there at that hour of the day too before all the other boaters show up. And man that full moon this week! Although from a point of fishing I really hate it, it truly was spectacular to see this week as it cast it’s bright light over the water and was reflected. Simply stunning! So as I mentioned we are entering our last week of July now. Was this a fast month or what! Fishing is finally showing some signs of improvement. Not that we haven’t been doing OK all along but maybe to the point where we don’t all have to be surgeons out there dissecting little patches of actively feeding fish as strategically as we have had to up to now to catch some. And if a few more spill into the area from points unknown, we’ll really be in business! They are certainly more then over due if they ever do get here! And if not, there is still enough fish out there to do well on most days when the weather cooperates. Sadly, it’s more important to have decent conditions to work with out there then it is just to have huge schools of fish out there! We’ll see. As always, it is what it is. That’s it for yet another week. Stay tuned... |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of July 17, 2016: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 12:56:20 7/17/16 |
Several really great days, and several slower days. It’s almost like, well... FISHING! The weird year that we are all dealing with here on Lake Erie continues. Aboard “The Trophy” this past week we had pretty much more of the same ole, same ole that we all have been dealing with all this summer. There are fish here, there and nowhere. We do very well one day and then struggle the next. You just have to go fishing and hope for the best I guess. I get calls and texts each week from friends and other captains wanting to know “where's the best place to go tomorrow”? And I honestly haven’t had any really good answers for any of them! How can I give out good sound advise when I really don’t know where I want to go myself the next day? One of the reasons for the tougher days again this past week was all weather related. Wednesday, and especially Thursday and Friday were real butt kickers! Nice sunny days but 3-5 footers with even bigger seas later in the day about quitting time each day. Really limiting our choices as to where we fished and certainly whether we turned on the fish after we caught a few. Just not ideal conditions to work with especially when the pockets of fish are fewer and further between like they have been this whole summer. I actually was starting to feel beaten down and wishing that I had cancelled a couple of those days. But that’s not what my guys that had waited a whole year to fish with me again wanted to hear. So I sucked it up and put fourth my best effort even though I really didn’t want to be there. Nobody got sick, we caught fish even on the tough days and still caught in the upper teens for numbers once again and everyone wants to come back again next year. I guess you can’t ask for more then that after the lake throws you a series of crapola days. “The Trophy” got a chance to roam around a couple of days as far out as 18 mile from the harbor in the ongoing relentless search for the big schools. Though there are some fish out there that far, I personally didn’t find it much better that far offshore as some of the nearer to shore waters that we have been plying the last few weeks. Just a long fuel guzzling, body punishing day in the choppy seas. I personally hope that we don’t find them that far out this year. Nobody wants to start doing daily 20 mile runs like we did for a big portion of last summer. But time will tell. As always, I will go wherever I hear or feel the bite is the very best. However reluctant I am to go. That’s just my job. So it is indeed now past the halfway point of July. We are catching nice Walleyes everyday as we have been all along but it is not any more consistent or any easier then back in mid May when I started this year off in Ashtabula. We all still have high hopes of huge schools and easy limits everyday but reality is starting to set in with me that it might not be so this year. It’s been so good the last handful of years that it should come as no great surprise to anyone that we might have a slower year. Maybe we get through this year we will all be rewarded with crazy good Walleye fishing for years to come judging by the amount of undersize Walleyes that everyone is catching and throwing back this year. Not a bad thought to hang your hat on. But for now and at least this summer, the search for the Mother Load around here goes on! |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of July 10, 2016: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 13:47:35 7/10/16 |
Slower than we would all like it! This was probably the slowest week that I have had this whole summer season aboard “The Trophy”. Not horrible, mind you but just slow. We still managed to get fish boxes of upper teens to low 20’s for fish counts each day but for a lot of my groups that are used to having limits iced down and cracking a beer back at the dock by 10:00am, well it’s been a real eye opener. Other then somebody that just likes to brag, I would say it’s a safe bet that most everyone is in the same predicament and most everyone would agree with me. It’s been a real grind for everyone. There’s some really good fisherman and captains around here that are plain scratching their heads and working their butts off for everything that we all are bringing in. Tiring and very stressful to say the least! I think I know what is going on. These Walleyes are doing what Walleyes around here do in July. They are moving offshore. The real problem is the lack of any huge schools of fish. When you take a thin band of the larger fish from the “near shore waters’' and now spread them out even thinner in the vast and super deep offshore waters, well it’s going to get tougher. At least till more recruitments move into the area from wherever they might filter in from and make the population denser. It will happen. It just hasn’t happened yet. When the existing fish were bunched up closer to shore and in the shallower waters, we had the advantage. Now like I said, they are spread even further out there. The lack of very many really solid marks on the sonar offshore is troublesome also. It’s hard to get excited and put all the gear out each day when you’re not marking hardly any fish but that’s exactly what we have to do. You just have to “assume” that there are some out there and do it. Put your gear out, put your time in and PRAY! I made some mistakes this past week by not turning on some fish when we did have a spurt of action on several occasions. Not that it was so great and me thinking that we will run into something better. But in hind site I should have spun around when I had the chance and see if I could squeeze a few more out of where we did catch one or two. That’s what it seems to have come to. At least this past week it seemed to be that way. If you catch one, you better be turning! Lol! Funny and pitiful both. So “The Trophy” is spending her days now in 70 foot plus of water. We are catching some fish down deep where they ought to be. Some real hogs as a matter of fact. Just not in the great numbers that we would all like. If there is a bright side to the story, it’s the fact that the garbage fish haven’t been too bad out there either though. And it seems like the bulk of the “baby” Walleyes are still back in the shallower near shore waters as well. Man I had my fill of having 14 inchers hanging everywhere even though I love them dearly! We are still catching a handful each day even offshore but it’s been very manageable thus far. That might all change as well as the offshore waters start to really warm. We will just have to see how it all plays out. We did have a pleasant surprise this past week when we boated our second Brown Trout of the summer season aboard “The Trophy”! Man are they ever a beautiful fish! I sure hope that catching a couple is a sign of things to come around here! It also helps liven up the crew after staring at rods for long periods of time! Lol! So by this coming weeks end, it will be mid July already and the 4th will already seem like a distant memory. Like I said in last weeks report, it’s going to go fast now. I also mentioned last week that I had Tuesday July the 12th available for a charter should anyone be wanting a trip. Well surprisingly, I STILL have it OPEN if anyone wants to go hunting with me for the rare and elusive offshore Walleye! Lol! We are probably only days away from things really busting loose around here. You don’t want to miss out on your chance to be onboard when we run into the old Mother Load! Worst case scenario, I’m pretty sure you’ll have a lot of fun and have more then enough Walleye fillets for some ‘bangin good dinners! And if I don’t fill that date, well a mental health holiday don’t sound all that bad to me right now either! That’s it for another week... |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of July 3, 2016: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 13:56:54 7/03/16 |
The 4th of July weekend! Unbelievably we are already at the unofficial half way point of summer around here! Although on the calendar it shows that we are only a few weeks deep into summer, here in northeast Ohio after the 4th of July it seems like it’s all downhill after that and by the 1st of September, well it’s all over but the tears. But for now people are enjoying this long holiday weekend and you know what? I’m going to enjoy mine too the best that I can. Rather then sit in front of a computer screen and try to figure out what to blog about, I’m just going to throw up a few pictures from this past weeks fishing and just call it good! But if I were to report on this past weeks action for us aboard “The Trophy”, I would be describing it as yet another good week for us! We are still putting in rather full days most everyday and the fishing seems quite slow while we are out there all day, but at the end of the day we’ve had some mighty full fish boxes. I don’t think anybody's left disappointed! I always touch upon the past weeks weather as well. This past week we had a real mixed bag of extremely pleasant weather and several days of all day long 4 footers which in itself made it tougher to limit everybody out. As always, the early risers that got to the boat as early as possible did the very best. It’s still a extremely strong early morning bite and most mornings even in the bigger chop we usually can catch 6 to 8 fish before daylight ever breaks and the junk fish wake up. That’s big. Then things slow down and we grind it out the rest of the day. So that’s it for this weeks rather abbreviated report. I’m going to enjoy my extra few minutes that I have to myself by keeping this one a shorter one and spend some little precious time time with friends and family before my daily 7:00pm bed time rolls around. Not much of a life for me these summer months of fishing but hey, it’s “all down hill” after this! I hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable holiday weekend! |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of June 26, 2016: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 13:15:15 6/26/16 |
A pretty good week! As I speculated towards the end of my report last week, it was indeed a rather tranquil week. Weather was a non-issue for a change. With the calmer seas, “The Trophy” was able to do a little exploring and take a look at some different water almost everyday. My conclusion is that there simply is no mother load out there. Not yet anyway. The further out you go, the thinner everything becomes. Even the White Bass and babies thin out big time. What remains is a thinly spread nearer to shore bunch of Walleyes that still range from as shallow as 35 foot to about 68 foot of water. Or as the National Weather Service calls it, the “near shore waters within 5 nautical miles of shore” That’s still an awful lot of water to try and cover and the Walleyes are spread rather thin throughout. You just have to put your time in, cover a lot of ground with a lot of baits in the water, sort through all of the junk fish and millions of baby Walleyes AND with a little bit of luck, you end up with racks of fish such as these! I was treated to my visit from my Iowa boys for their annual three day fishing trip on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this past week. Wednesday is always a shorter day as they always want to get a start for home a bit earlier. I get a real kick watching young Jaedon who’s skills could pass for a first mate literally grow up on my boat from year to year. Jaedon wrote a note to me 5 or 6 years ago which I put up and is still up on my testimonial page on my website. We’ve really had some great trips together over the years now. For their efforts this year, they took home 55 Walleyes and a bonus Steelhead Trout! A nice haul especially with Wednesday being a shorter day. I’ve been blessed this season to have had many multiple 3-4 day trips already. I love it! Everybody knows what to do, there is no anxiety or bazaar expectations on anybody's part. And all of these groups so far have been returning guests from past years. It’s like taking your buddies out fishing! All of my multiple day trips this year have all had good luck and nice big hauls to take back home. That got me to thinking as I watched all those fillets get bagged up. What is the value of a successful charter or charters? A fishing charter should NEVER be judged only by just the poundage of fish caught. It should always be something very special. Doing something that most might only do once a year. Spending quality time with family and friends. Away from work, maybe troubles at home, or any other of the usual grinds that life may throws at us. Seeing Mother Nature at her very greatest and sometimes, not all so great. Still all a memory though. Every outing is always different. But when things do come together and you also leave with a big haul of fresh Lake Erie Walleyes, on top of the full day of fun that you’ve had and those memories that you have made, what exactly is the value of what you have in those coolers as you leave and head for home? I went online in the “pretense” of wanting to buy some “fresh Lake Erie Walleye fillets”! What I found was amusingly unbelievable! I have seen it at times locally in the stores anywhere from $14.99 a pound to $17.99. And that’s always with the skins on them! I know one of my groups from earlier in the year that fished three days with me left with well over a hundred pounds of perfectly skinless, boneless fillets! Take a look a look at the above screenshot and do a little simple math! Simply amazing. And these fillets are always skinless and GUARANTEED fresh! Something you can never be quite sure of when buying store bought fish! Friday was the gem of the week for us aboard “The Trophy”. Faced with a group of 5 that I was TALKED INTO doing lol, I set out with thoughts of “well we’ll be lucky to catch 24”. Fishing in the “near shore waters within 5 nautical miles of shore”, we started out rather slow. Then the lake chopped up a bit and like somebody flipped a switch, it was GAME ON! It ended up being our biggest day yet this year beings I had to catch 5 limits of keepers. All that and we were back before noon for lunch! It don’t get too much better then that! We did nothing different really. We beat around the same waters we’ve been fishing. Pulled the same lures and set ups. We just got a bit lucky and ran into a few more actively feeding fish that day. It never hurts to be in the right place at the right time! And the pile of fillets that these boys took home? Well, lets just say their charter was pretty much FREE! |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of June 19, 2016: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 12:05:43 6/19/16 |
Monsters and Babies! It was another week of some serious sorting through all the shorty's to get our keepers again this past week. All I can tell you is that the future looks very bright indeed for all of Lake Erie. The big fish and babies are all mixed in together and they are EVERYWHERE! There is just no rhyme or reason to it. You catch a 31 incher and the very next rod that fires is maybe a 8 or 9 incher. The week before last week the 14 inchers invaded us. They are still out there big time but there is also now a real onslaught of one year olds ranging in size from 7 to 10 inches. You can hardly tell they are on your lines at times! Oh, and did I mention the White Bass? Just like the last couple few years where we got invaded right around mid June with zillions of White Bass, here we go again. And unlike the nuisance little Walleyes that still put a smile on my face, the White Bass onslaught is exhausting and frustrating both. Now not only do we have to weed through all of the two year classes of under size aggressive Walleyes, suddenly we are plummeted with these stinking creeps too. And yet, through it all we are pulling some really nice big fish. We took more 31 inch Walleyes this past week then we have altogether the last month combined that I’ve been running trips here. Monsters and babies. AND WHITE BASS! Errrrrrrrr! And the weather, well lets just say it was another challenging week. Not a big deal for those that only fish one day or two a week and can pick your days but tough for those professionals that are scheduled to go 7 days a week. We had it all. Thunderstorms like those that we had on Thursday that chased us off the lake not only once but twice in the same day! Exhausting pulling everything in and making a high speed run for the barn to play it safe. And then venture out again only to have more pop up storms blossom out of nowhere and force us to retreat once again. Then followed up with small craft flags on Friday making for a very choppy lake. Doable, but not necessarily the most comfortable of days. Still we caught a nice big tub of fish including a beautiful Steelhead Trout which thus far this season has been few and far between. So next weeks forecast looks rather tranquil. I think I’m going to continue to push “The Trophy” northward in search of the larger migrating schools of Walleyes. Everything is always like clock work around here on the big lake and very repetitious. Just like how the White Bass showed up, I’m sure the larger schools of larger Walleyes can’t be far behind. I guess I’ll have to be the first one to really stick my nose out there and look. Honestly, I am getting quite bored running back and fourth in the same near shore waters. It wasn’t so bad before all the other boaters started Walleye fishing. Now between the junk fish, boat traffic and the toddler Walleyes, I’m ready to go get lost somewhere offshore all by myself and hunt down some of those migrating piggies! I got a sneaking feeling when we do find them out there, the Steelies won’t be far behind either . Maybe next week you’ll hear me complaining about how the trout are now attacking me too! Whaaa whaaa whaaa! Lol! |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of June 12, 2016: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 09:24:47 6/12/16 |
A very windy week! As I feared last weekend, “The Trophy” got a couple of days off of work this past week thanks to good old Mother Nature. Monday thru Thursday were all super nasty days right on through with Monday and Wednesday being just plain unfishable. We somehow managed to fish in a pretty good chop both Tuesday & Thursday however and somewhat salvaged a otherwise disastrous week. I don’t know how we did it but we still managed to capture 18 nice Walleyes both of those days for my 4 guys each trip. Not bad considering what we had to work with and how big the fish were. Friday was picture perfect and left me once again scratching my head wondering is this even the same lake? My, if one only had the luxury of going only when the lake is perfectly flat. It was a real joy just to be out there and fishing was great for us! After hearing about other parts of the lake being inundated with young and undersize Walleyes this spring and summer, the Ashtabula area is suddenly flooded with 14 inch fish as well and even one year olds which are about 7-8 inches long. Commonly and affectionately called “cigars”. A real blessing to see all these young fish but oh my what a nuisance while trying to put bigger fish in the box. Friday they just exploded and seemed to be everywhere. There must have been a GREAT hatch back in 2014! It will be exciting to watch them grow! Especially when I “welcome” them aboard the boat next season! Lol! In last weekend's report I mentioned that we had caught a nice but rare Brown Trout on one of our previous trips. I’ve had several people since ask me why didn’t I put a picture of that on my fishing report? The short answer is that when the fishing is good, I end up with way more pictures then I can possibly use with this four picture format that we have for our fishing reports. So, for the sake of full disclosure this is the picture from the week before last of the Brown Trout that some of you have asked about. It was a very nice fish which by the way earned a ride to a local taxidermist back where the guys live. It should look great on somebody's wall in their office or den or wherever it might end up! And also last week I mentioned that we caught a large Catfish while trolling. Well, we caught TWO MORE Catfish while trolling on two different days this past week! I think somebody's going around and spraying my lures with stink bait scent when I’m not around the boat in the evenings! What the heck? I haven’t caught that many trolling in the previous 30 years combined out here! Lol! So the weekend rolls around and guess what? Saturday its back to flipping smoking stinking rough again! I’m like, YIKES! Are you even serious ? Friday was just so awesomely gorgeous and Saturday, right back to total crap again. I don’t think anybody but us ran as far as charters go. No regrets though. We had lots of fun and laughs, caught a nice box of Walleyes and everybody wants to come back again next year! You can’t ask for more then that. I know in my heart that I did what I could with what we had to work with and I was fortunate enough to have a good bunch of guys onboard that understood all of that. I really have my schedule and all of of my crews and everything about my trips exactly where I want them now! You know, I might just stick around long enough to see these “babies” “grow up”... Lol! |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of June 5, 2016: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 12:09:40 6/05/16 |
GREAT fishing! It didn’t take very long for our Walleye fishing off of Ashtabula to go from good to GREAT! Aboard “The Trophy” we picked up right where we left off last summer in the height of our season with relatively easy limits again this past week. It was refreshing to be back to a few earlier quits as well! Man I’m really getting to love this early central basin fishing in this area. It just goes to show that the last few years upon my immediate return from Port Clinton where we got right into the Walleyes very good that it was no accident or fluke. There's just a lot of fish each year in this area well before June 1st and certainly well before most even think about trying this area. And if it weren't for this past May being the coolest May in 11 years according to Cleveland's Fox 8 meteorologists, I really believe it would have been hot and heavy weeks before this. There were plenty of marks on the graph right along but the fish were sluggish in the cooler then normal water. Now that we have gotten some hot weather and warmed the water some, it’s been game on! And it’s not just Walleye swimming around out there either! Aboard “The Trophy” this past week I think we caught just about every specie that swims around out there. Monday particularly was very interesting. We caught plenty of Walleye of coarse but we also caught a big Channel Catfish, Sheephead, White Bass, White Perch, Yellow Perch, a COHO SALMON! And a BROWN TROUT! I’m like, WHAT! And though we got none that day, we went out the very next day and caught a nice Steelhead. We could have used one of those the day before that to have had a real Grand Slam to go along with our Brown Trout and Salmon that we had! Lol! Lots of fun! The fish are creeping outward already though. We’re no longer lurking just around the corner and hugging the break walls. Actually, I’m not sure that you still couldn’t pull some from so close but now with more traffic all of a sudden it isn't practical to drop boards right in the pathway of people coming out of the harbor. We’ve been meandering in water depths ranging from 45 ft. to 65 ft. And honestly, its not pocket fishing. There seems to be a nice spread of fish in any direction that we’ve gone. A very, very good thing! Same program to catch these fish as we’ve been using. Tru Trip jet divers and spoons. The fish are up and down too although I personally have had better luck with the slightly deeper fish. With that in mind we’ve even dabbled with the wire fishing line and crank baits already with mixed results but I don’t want to go to that well till we really have too! Nice to know that you have a variety of weapons to fall back on though if need be! So up to now we’ve had pretty decent weather for all of my trips to date except for a day or so which we still managed to stumble through. This weeks coming forecast for the beginning of the week however looks somewhat troublesome. Some kind of cold front or something coming in for Monday & Tuesday at least knocking temps back into the 60’s. That alone I could care less about. It does however if you can believe the different sources that I check daily to be accompanied with strong westerly winds for a couple of days. We’ll have to see how it plays out but Monday and Tuesday may be no-go’s. A real shame too with the fishing setting up as good as it is right now. More fearful then that is the fear that it might change things out there for the worst from where its at right now. That is always possible! I still have Thursday the 9th available. Perhaps I can bump one or the other of my first part of the weeks trips back a couple days. I’m about ready for a day off anyway. We’ve had a pretty good run at them already! Stay tuned... |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of May 29, 2016: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 14:12:01 5/29/16 |
Quietly catching fish. Without much fanfare or any attention, The Trophy has been very busy fishing Ashtabula for the last two weeks already and doing quite well. Perhaps not limits everyday but more then enough fish where we could hold our heads up quite high back at the dock when we got in. Not that there has been anybody around besides the fish cleaners to see it! After all, “it’s too early for Walleyes” at Ashtabula! lol! Most of the days that we spent plowing the near shore waters for these early season fish, we never even seen another boat out there! Troll where you want, turn when you want, it has been totally awesome. Then I read and hear about everyone's boat traffic nightmares elsewhere on the lake. I don’t miss any of that, that’s for sure! And no junk fish! When a rod fires, it’s guaranteed it’s a big Walleye on the other end! We have been so close to the break walls on some day and still catching fish that I swear we could hit it with a rock it seems! I sooooo wish it could be like that all summer long but we all know it won’t so I am really enjoying it while it lasts! And the fish are being caught high on short leads. None of the 400–500 foot of cranking that we have to do later in the summer after everybody else gets started fishing! lol! Short leads and Jet Divers. You can’t beat it. And the fish have been as per usual around here, HUGE! What we lacked in total numbers for fish on some trips, we more then made up for in quality! I had two different long distance groups that took home some serious poundage of fillets for their efforts! The last time I seen it by the way, they were selling for about $17 bucks a pound at the fish market if you can even find it! One group was in from South Dakota for a 3 day trip and another was in from Wisconsin's for 4 days! Both groups were rewarded with great weather and good fishing. Thanks guys! I really enjoyed the friendship and the fun that we had together not to mention the business. So without running to Facebook or any of the fishing forums only on the days that we do good, I guess I’ll start posting my actual reports here as I always do. Good, bad, or ugly... I always tell it like it is. It’s just fishing after all. You don’t have to be a hero everyday. Just try your hardest and don’t lie. That’s what we’ve done for 30 years now and my schedule reflects that. I hope everyone has a great Memorial Day weekend and if you’re out on the water anywhere on Mother Erie this weekend, lets be extra careful out there! Here's to another GREAT SUMMER! |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of April 3, 2016: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 05:55:17 4/03/16 |
Fishing reports will resume in June. Capt. Walt |
Lake Erie fishing report for January 1, 2016: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 06:59:35 1/01/16 |
30 years of memories! Happy New Year & happy new fishing season everyone! Our 30th season of running fishing charters on Lake Erie! It does not even seem possible that I have been doing this for so very long now. Seems like just yesterday that I as a very young man had a dream of fishing for a living. I took some schooling, got my Coast Guard license, bought my first big brand new charter boat and quit my good paying machine shop job to be a full time charter boat captain. As scary as that all was I never looked back and here we are 30 years later. Not much has changed over those many years except that we are on our 2nd (and last) boat, have run several thousand charter trips and well, I am not quite such a young man anymore! Most of my mid winter reports here online in the past have just been recaps of my previous fishing season that I had just finished up. In this special anniversary report, I’m going to take a moment and try to ever so briefly reflect upon the past 29 years. Though not so much has changed for me personally in these 30 years, much as changed around me in the sport. Most notably, my colleagues that I started out with so very many years ago are all but gone. Some have just given up on it, some have retired, and sadly some have passed away. Names of good friends that have passed away such as Capt. Ed Shavelin-Fish Chaser Charters, Don Mansfield-Happy Hooker Charters, Capt. Freddy Wells-No Slack Charters, and a couple of my very biggest idols that I myself really looked up to. The very BEST of the best. Guys like Capt. Rick Lightner-Osprey Charters, and the legend himself, Capt. Ron Johnson-Thumper Charters. What a fisherman and a genuinely good guy. I miss Ronny everyday, especially during the fishing season. There were many others especially lake wide over the years. But these are all guys that I started out with so long ago and local to the north east Ohio area where I fish. There are a handful of us from the class of the mid-eighties still hanging tough though in this area. Good friends and fellow fishermen such as Capt. Curt Anderson-There He Is Again Charters, Capt. Mark Szekely-Gizzmo Charters, Capt. Bill Anderson-Book Maker Charters, Capt. Taylor Click- Taylor Made Charters and a few others. Not too many though. I’ve seen a lot of guys come and go in these last three decades. Some only lasting a season or two. Some maybe a handful or so years. But there are very few of the 30 and plus years guys like myself and the few guys that I mentioned. There are still plenty of new captains out there however to choose from as the door is always revolving in this business. But it certainly is a different new breed of young guys in all of their fancy charter shirts and what not My own work uniform is usually a NASCAR or Jimmy Buffett t-shirt and a pair of old comfortable shorts! Lol! Just the way it’s been for 30 years now! It don’t make the other younger guys bad guys though. There's some real good fisherman out there. But us old timers have already run more trips then these young guys can ever dream about. When it comes to experience and making the right decisions and knowing the lake like the back of your hand, it’s pretty hard to beat the old guys that have made this our living for this very long! And customers or as I prefer to call them, my guests. I am truly blessed for the most part to have a long list of loyal returning clientele. Really good guys that many I consider to be my very good friends and not just customers. Some that have been with me every year that I’ve been doing this or very close to it! It amazes and humbles me both as almost everyone that that gets off my boat instructs me to go ahead and put them down for “The same day” again next year! Sadly, some never do return because I find out the next year that they have passed away. The list of people that I consider to have been my friends and that we have lost is extensive over these past three decades. I miss all of you and not just because of the business! Well that’s about it. I could bring up many statistics such as how many trips I’ve run in all of these years or how many fish we’ve caught but heck, nobody would ever believe it anyway! Lol! So, 2016! The year of the I’M STILL HERE! Capt. Walt |
Lake Erie fishing report for October 4, 2015: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 10:25:35 10/04/15 |
It’s October! And it’s just about all over for me and “The Trophy” now for another year. This past week wasn't much of a week for anyone. We got just a couple of days of Perching in before a incredible stretch of unreal windy days kicked in starting with Wednesday. And it had nothing to do with the hurricane churning out in the Atlantic right now. Just a series of fronts that came together to form our own perfect storm over Lake Erie! As I sit here and write this final report on Friday night because I know there will be no fishing this weekend, gale warnings are posted out on the lake. I keep checking the buoy and all the lighthouse’s wind reports in total disbelief. Sustained constant northeast winds of well over 40 mph along with gusts to 55 mph plus! The several times that I drove down to the beach to see for myself I was simply in awe to see the wave action offshore and the monster waves washing over the break walls. I am so very disappointed that with a heavy Perch schedule these last two weeks that this weather could not have held off till after I pulled the boat here in about week. It is what it is I guess. The Perch fishing that we did do was just OK earlier in the week. After a real burn last weekend, this past Monday and Tuesday that we did fish was considerably slower for us. Not terrible though and we did get all of our fish, but it took pretty much the full 8 hours each day of the allotted time on a Perch charter to do so. As most always on these Ashtabula Perch trips we had some real jumbos! If you have never experienced the fun of “Perch jerking” and especially catching BIG Perch, it should certainly be on your bucket list of things to do someday! And when it comes to eating fish, there are few that will argue that Lake Erie's Yellow Perch do not make incredibly good table fare and probably are the very best fish that you could possibly eat. I certainly wouldn’t argue with that statement! Even though I will be in the water till the 12th of October yet with trips scheduled everyday, it remains to be seen if things will settle down enough and rebound in time for me after this at least five day massive blow. I don’t think we had anything quite this severe this whole season and for so many days in a row like this nasty stretch that is hammering away at us right now. Even though the winds and waves are forecasted to ease some this coming week, the lake is probably going to be one big big muddy mess with everything all churned up and the lake probably completely turned over. Really bad news for fishing and for those that have plans on going anytime soon. I know I’m going to have to have a real talk with all of my remaining upcoming trips. Maybe if your expectations aren’t real high, perhaps. We’ll see. If not we had a nice run at it while it lasted and when the weather held for us this year. Both for the Walleyes and the Perch. Which brings me to the part of my final fishing report of each year where I take the time to thank all of the people that have fished with me this past season from the very bottom of my heart. I still find it hard to believe that I have been doing this for 29 years now. Without everyone's continuing patronage and the business that you’ve given me both this year and in the past seasons, I certainly would not have made it this long. I am humbled by your continued loyalty and the friendships that have evolved with many of you. Some spanning over many years now from this little fishing business of mine that I started so very long ago. I hope everyone understands that I try very hard for everyone. Each year it gets just a little tougher for me as I grow older myself. It’s a very physical, weather driven job. I appreciate everyone's understanding and patience with me at times. Sometimes I get down on myself be it because of the weather that I have to deal with or that the bite is off or whatever the reason may be and might not be as pleasant as I could be. If I ever came across like that, I apologize. I hope everyone understands though that it is a business for me and that I am hard at work. While you are hooping and hollering and having fun, I am working. I have a lot of incredible responsibilities and a lot going on all around me constantly with even more things on my mind that I have to worry about. So if I ever came across as being distanced or not as socially interactive with everyone as some might have expected while onboard for the day, well that is my explanation. I am working very hard constantly at trying to catch everyone as much fish as possible and to keep everyone safe out there. After 29 years of doing so and still being here, I must be doing something right! So thank you my friends and my guests. Thanks for fishing with me,, thanks for following along with these weekly reports. Thanks for everything! So that’s it. It’s a wrap. I’ll still be around for a little while longer fishing out there if we can get back out but there will be no more reports till next year now. So till we meet again, I’m wishing everyone safe travels, good health, and very Happy Holidays! Over and OUT for one final time for yet another year! |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of September 27, 2015.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 10:12:50 9/27/15 |
Spectacular fall weather! We slipped into fall this past week meteorologically according to the calendar but you would have never had known it if you were out and about this past week. It was sunny everyday with no rain and fairly light winds each day. The lake cooperated nicely all week long as well. Although it really wasn’t by my choice but we ended up still Walleye fishing again several days of this past week. And we caught 30 Walleyes! It just took 3 days to do it! Lol! The Walleye fishing for us aboard “The Trophy” was at about the same pace as the latter part of the week before. Just very slow. Obviously the bulk of the fish have moved on now with a few stragglers remaining out there in my honest opinion. But a lot of the Walleyes that we did catch were real trophies! I know of at least one that we caught that went straight to the taxidermists and a couple others that probably should have! It was very lonely out there again for us fishing for the Walleyes this past week. Everybody is Perching now everyday. I didn’t have to worry about a single other boat in my way out there all of the days that we Walleyed. There simply weren't any anywhere to be seen where I was fishing. I enjoyed that part of it anyway. The junk fish seemed to have eased some as well now. In fact with the Walleyes being very slow and the seemingly easing of the White Bass and Sheephead, there was actually long periods of just staring at the rods riding around. That hasn't happened to me since way back in the spring of this year. It definitely is coming to an end out there for offshore trolling for us. The days that we didn’t Walleye fish, we Perch fished. That went very well for us and most everybody else out there. It’s just unbelievable to see how big the Perch pack of boats has been out there, especially on the weekends! Fish cleaning back at the marina has been a real problem upon returning back to the dock as well. If you're not one of the first few coolers in line to be cleaned, you are in for a LONG wait! They just get backed up so very quickly in there and although the cutters are very talented, it takes a lot longer to clean a cooler full of say a couple hundred Perch compared to a couple dozen Walleyes. The fish cutters are simply exhausted standing in one spot cleaning thousand of Perch everyday for about 12 hours straight. I simply do not know how they do it frankly. And they only work for half of the money with the other half going straight to the marina contrary to what some might think. I sincerely hope that everyone tips their fish cleaners very well for the excellent services rendered. Those guys of all people REALLY deserve it! So, this week we finally flip the page to October. It’s just about all over for me now for yet another year. Next week will be my final fishing report for the season as well. The weekend after that, “The Trophy” comes out of the water for a well deserved off season's rest . I will be very busy cleaning everything up and winterizing the boat and the campsite where I stay about a mile up river that weekend also. There will be no time for any reports. Nor is there really a whole lot to talk about when you just Perch fish. And I plan on STRICTLY Perch fishing now these next two weeks. I don’t care how bad anybody begs me! Lol! I just like the fish cleaners am simply exhausted at this point from it all and have had more then my fill of everything. I simply want to go out now these final two weeks and anchor up and relax and jerk some Perch. I may even break all the trolling gear down and send it all home so that it will not be open for any kind of debate. It’s just time. Be sure to check back next week for one last final fishing report and some parting words. Till then... |
Lake Erie fishing report for week of September 20, 2015: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 14:40:37 9/20/15 |
Still catching! Aboard “The Trophy” we squeaked out yet another week of late summer Walleye fishing out of the Ashtabula Harbor area. It was rather lonely out there too all week long way offshore as most are now pretty much strictly into the Perch fishing mode. But as I indicated last week, I am willing to go for whatever my guests would like to fish for as long as the weather allows us to do so and I know in my heart that there are still a few Walleye around out there that we can catch. Even though Perch fishing is so much easier on the captain and really more profitable all things considered. But for 29 years now I’ve been about the last charter to pursue the Walleyes to the very bitter end around here each year and I guess this year will be no different. After our three day blow last weekend which lasted on into Monday, “The Trophy” finally got to go back to work on a still rather windy Tuesday this past week with surprisingly good results. We needed 24 fish for my 4 man group Tuesday and we managed to capture 22 Walleyes. Wednesday again we needed 24 but ended up with one less Walleye but we did get a nice bonus Steelhead. So 22 fish again. Not bad! Thursday and Friday were much different stories. We really struggled to get just barely into the double digits each day but we did manage to do so with some of the fish being very nice sized as a consolation prize . In fact we may have taken one of the if not THE biggest fish of the year this past week with one of the bruisers that I measured for my guests big fish contest amongst themselves going a easy 32 inches! And fat! Wow, what a fish! I can’t believe that we didn’t even think to weigh it when we got in but looking back I’m guessing now that it went 12, maybe plus pounds? I know I had to look away when they just went ahead and had it cut and filleted! Lol! But none of the days this past week was it ever easy at any point fishing for the Walleyes. Tuesday and Friday although sunny and pleasant were very windy and very rough days bringing on it’s own share of difficulties along with it. And all 4 days that we did Walleye fish the junk fish were just relentless. From huge mostly snagged spinning grumper Sheephead to nonstop big White Bass constantly plugging up all of our lines. I was really beside myself at times just barely able to keep up with running a couple of board lines on each side because we flat out could not keep the junk fish off. It’s easy to see why most other captains have just thrown in the towel and switched to the Perch. I don’t know. It never used to be like that back in the 80’s and 90’s and early 2000’s. We sometimes even in the late summer and fall season back in the day would troll for days with us rarely even catching a White Bass and just the occasional Sheephead here and there. Now, each year it just seems to be much worst then the year before. The lake is sure changing and not necessarily in a good way if you ask me. Maybe with some good Walleye hatches here the last year or two coming online in a couple of years or so we can get these bigger fish to keep things a little more in check. One can only hope. Or just quit Walleye fishing! Lol! So with the weekend warriors having it there way and having good weather for a lot of the summer season on the weekends, suddenly we have had back to back crap weekends here as of late. This weekend was very similar to last weekend but with me having only pre scheduled Perch charters, we went ahead and still stuck our noses out there anyway and tried our hand at Perching ourselves. From the moment the anchor grabbed Saturday morning in the still pre dawn darkness till we put number 180 in the box a few hours later, it was game on with non stop action. Doubles ruled the day! Although it wasn’t long till daybreak actually broke, I was amazed how well we did in the dark fishing under the flood lights! Normally Perch unlike the Walleyes really don’t fire up till its good and daylight! With us starting out in the dark and the Perch biting very well, nobody even noticed the pitching and rocking of the boat in the very stiff wind that day! This comings weeks weather looks to be back to quite nice now if you can put any faith at all in the weather guessers, I mean men. I am not very sure at this point what all we are going to be fishing for this coming week ourselves but I’m sure I’ll have something to report back on next weekend. Check back again then! |
Lake Erie fishing report for September 13, 2015: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 08:08:15 9/13/15 |
Getting much tougher now! We worked very hard aboard “The Trophy” this past week to put some fish in the box. Last week I had mentioned that things were changing. I am now quite surprised myself how rapidly the Walleyes are really disappearing from within our reasonable striking distance. The offshore fishing is all but toast now. I am convinced of that. Where most of those fish went is anybody's guess. The only Walleyes that we were able to find this past week ourselves were much closer to shore then we have fished for the whole past two months. I am not even sure that these fish might not have been there all along and we have all just simply over ran them on our way out to the promised land and what we perceived to be the mother load way offshore. This past week we worked in water only 50 to 60 foot deep for the most part. The Walleyes were still super deep though. In fact, I would go as far to say that we were pulling most of our fish right off the bottom of the lake. Not easy fishing when you are working a slope say from deep to shallower. One minute you are dialed in and pulling a few fish and next thing you know you’re hitting bottom with all your rods and loading your hooks up with Zebra Mussel shells and other crap from off the bottom. Ugh! So very much work clearing and resetting. And even though the Walleyes are fewer and further between it seems, the junk fish still abound everywhere. Lots of big Sheephead and plenty of the stinking White Bass to keep us very busy. Even more work! But aboard “The Trophy” we were still able to put some nice catches together. A couple of the days we were able to still capture 4 man limits for my parties of 4 guests and on a couple of our slowest days we were still able to get into the mid teens of fish caught also for my parties of 4 guests. Not really horrible especially considering how huge some of these fish were. In this weeks reports pictures I decided to just feature some of our bigger fish that we caught rather then our regular rack shots which after a while all start looking repetitious. These fish here were all 30 inchers and plus! Wow! And in last weeks report, I also mentioned the possibility of some real rugged weather heading this way by weeks end. Well, we sure got it. After a nice run of great weather for all of the weekend warriors, this past weekend was absolutely horrible! A big cool down accompanied with torrential all day rains and high northerly winds shut down all thoughts of any fishing of any kind for everyone. I myself went ahead and cancelled Saturday’s, Sundays and even Mondays trips due to high winds and waves. So very disappointing for all involved. The lost work days for me and other captains continue to accumulate. What a year is all I can say! And what this big blow will further do to our diminishing Walleye fishing out there is also anybody's guess at this point. The real problem from here on moving forward is the fact that there just wont be that many others helping to look for the fish. Many have already switched completely over to Perch fishing now and a few that could go either way are just electing to go for the easier to catch Perch now that the Walleye fishing has gotten tougher. Aboard “The Trophy” we will continue to go for whatever my guests choose to fish for as long as the weather allows us to do so. I do have a mix of Perch trips myself coming up with still a handful of Walleye trips. We will see. The good news is that once we get past this weekends nasty weather and the wind that looks to carry over into Monday, the rest of the week appears to be very delightful bouncing back to real summer like conditions. The forecasts that I am seeing are calling for very sunny days and temps back into the 80’s with light winds! Sounds good to me! OK, couple things here. First of all I took a cancellation for this Thursday, Sept. the 17th. This can be a Perch or Walleye trip. Your choice. Again, the weather looks great. And for all of those that have a trip of any kind booked now, we are further rolling back our departure time to 6am. It’s now staying dark for so very long in the mornings that it is pointless to leave any earlier. Especially now since we are no longer making those long Canadian runs. So that’s it for another week. |
Lake Erie fishing report for September 6, 2015: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 10:37:27 9/06/15 |
September! Well it took all summer to FINALLY get a whole week that actually felt like summer! And it happens to come in SEPTEMBER! This past week was as good as it gets. The weather was simply beautiful! Warm with wall to wall sunshine and just a light chop on the water all week long. No cold fronts. No big wind. No rain. After the way things had been going up here lately it almost felt sur-real out there. I really enjoyed it! And the Walleye fishing for us aboard “The Trophy” was very good as well. But things are changing out there in a hurry now. At least in the Walleye department. Although we caught good fish, for the most part it was not real easy. The fish are really moving around now. Way out north close to the Canadian line where it was so good for so very long it is now virtually a ghost town out there. Guys that were still trying it up there this past week were coming back empty handed. Last weekends good bite straight out but 6-7 miles this side of the border that everybody got in on is virtually over with too. Those fish disappeared almost over night. What it seems like that we are left with now is small pockets of dense fish here and there that are still very much actively feeding heavily. You would troll along with nothing for extended periods of time and then all of a sudden you would have multiple hook ups. And as in the last couple of weeks, most of these fish are still choking full of Smelt and other bait fish. I’ve seen them cough up little shiners, baby Perch and even Gobies indicating how deep and close to the bottom a lot of these fish are. And that’s where this weeks great weather was the saving grace for us. When we would hit a good pocket I would mark it up quickly on the chart plotter and then with the calm seas, I would circle the wagons repeatedly and keep working that area till it quit producing fish and then we would move on and keep looking. We had many nice sized fish too this past week! These fish are good sized to begin with but they are really fat now with how good they are eating! The real down side of this past week for us was the stinking Sheephead. No big surprise. I see this every year towards the end of summer. And they are feeding just as viciously as the packs of Walleyes. If you are unfortunate enough to run into a patch of those creeps, you’re in for a work out! World class huge spiraling, twisting sideways snagged Sheephead that you can hardly budge flopping on the surface 500 foot back. Ugh! And the White Bass still seem to be everywhere and in all parts of the water column. Lots of cranking, lots of sorting, lots of work. But as always we worked our way through it all, got our Walleyes and came home. We’ll see how things go this week. I have a strong feeling that we will find fish way closer to home this coming week. I am a little concerned however about a big change in the weather that I am seeing for the latter part of this coming week. But it’s still way too far out to panic yet. We can always go Perching if it comes to that. I have all of my Perch gear onboard now as well and people that are Perching are finally doing very well. So that’s it for yet another week. Happy Labor Day by the way to everyone! |
Lake Erie fishing report for August 30, 2015: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 03:01:33 8/30/15 |
Great fishing after a very snotty weather start to the work week once again. The week before this past week saw us get hammered on Thursday and Friday with winds big enough to shut down all thoughts of offshore Walleye fishing. A two day loss for me and many other charter captains. Then last weekend just in time for the harbors big Wine & Walleye festival here in Ashtabula, the weather straightened out nicely and it was flat knock out gorgeous out on the lake and beautiful both inland too. Man did they ever luck out with the nice weather weekend for all of their festivities! Then came Monday and Tuesday of this past week. Oh boy. Can you say UGLY? Yet another strong cold front swept thru the region. It was brutally chilly for August, very windy with heavy overcast off and on rain showers both days. And again, no Walleye trips for anyone for yet another two more days leaving myself and the rest of the charter fleet here on the north coast of the lake scratching our heads and wondering will these beatings ever quit? Wednesday was no prize either. We woke up to a still raw and windy morning with a persistent cold drizzle. With a marine forecast of “only” 2-4 footers supposedly subsiding to 1-3 foot, we elected to go for it. For the first time since May, I put on a pair of long pants and warm jacket and off we went. With stiff winds out of the north west and me knowing that there wouldn’t be any circling around any one spot that day, we cranked it out again 25 miles NW and just let it slide with the wind and waves. After a bit of a slow start, things took off nicely and we were off to the races. The lake never did calm down but oh my what a nice box of fish did we ever put together that day! So Thursday I’m all excited to go! Finally! A forecast of ONE FOOT OR LESS! Yay!!! Except... In reality it was even rougher then Wednesday! I’m like, are you frigging kidding me? So just like deja vu and the movie Ground Hog Day, once again we crank it out into the NW wind and waves yet another 25 miles, set up again the same one way troll and proceed to capture once again a simply amazing box of fish. The lake did finally calm down. After we were about done running back in that is! Lol! Man, if you can get out there those fish are still out there and they are really putting on the feed bag right now and fattening up for the fall months. I just could not believe the smelt that the fish were spewing just as we would go to net them. Some of them would still have mouthfuls of fresh smelt in their jaws as I would take the lure out even. I counted as many as a dozen little fish still in them at times and yet they still went for our lure! When its good, its really GOOD! Friday and this weekend were stunningly gorgeous once again. Just like the weekend before. And all the weekend warriors are thinking and saying, wow, what a nice summer. I just have to shake my head. But I did appreciate the break from all the wind and waves but not necessarily all the added boat traffic that the weekends and especially the nice weather weekends brings. But somehow we aboard “The Trophy” got thru it all. Wind, waves, crazy boat congestion 20 plus miles out in the lake. You name it. And oh yeah, the stinking White Bass and big Sheephead were particularly bad this past week as well. But like I said, we got thru it all and my guests that were fortunate enough to actually get out and go fishing got to enjoy some real world class Walleye fishing and everyone took home great memories and a big pile of fillets. Lets see if we can keep it going as we enter September here in a couple of days and my final month of Walleye fishing for this 2015 season. Stay tuned... |
Lake Erie fishing report for August 23, 2015: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 15:19:57 8/23/15 |
Same ole, same ole. I could probably save myself a lot of time this week and just copy and paste any number of my past fishing reports from the past month or so and it would pretty much be spot on and describe how things went for us again this past week. Early on in the work week we had the heat to deal with again but the fishing was good. Oh yeah, and we had the bugs too. Wednesday we had a strong south wind that we had to troll out with and then have to deal with the long teeth jarring ride home hitting the waves right on the nose as we went. But again, fishing was good. And then Thursday and Friday, typical of practically every week this summer a strong cold front swept down the lake and created a unfishable condition for two whole days. Nobody in the harbor went for the Walleyes offshore as far as I know. Another set of lost days for me and all the other charters. Pretty much the same as many of the other past weeks where we have been loosing a day or so a week to a bad lake. There was some good new news this past week as a secondary band of fish somewhat closer then the Canadian border batch that we have been fishing is seemingly to be setting up around the 11 to 15 miles out mark. Aboard “The Trophy” we decided to give this area a whirl after some reliable reports started to surface saving me from having to make the dreaded 20 to 25 mile run that I’ve been doing for so very long now. And there are definitely Walleye there! We pulled limits several days in a row before the two day blow hit us. A little more of a real mixed bag size wise with some smaller fish mixed in with still some biggies. Otherwise these somewhat “closer in” fish are holding at the same water depths that their northern cousins are in. Most are still seemingly suspended down deep anywhere from 50 to 65 foot down in water 72-73 foot deep. Wire line with deep diving crank baits and long leads on the Dipsys Divers are still doing most all of the damage for most everyone regardless of where they are fishing. We did enjoy some limited success with our downriggers also aboard “The Trophy” this past week which have been very flat thus far most of the summer. I don’t know why they don’t do better earlier in the summer but usually towards the end of the year they start to shine on a few days. I love it when they do start to work well! Way more fun then reeling in a 500 foot plus board line! So once again I got a chance to rest up some with the unexpected days off. Also making the slightly shorter runs was really nice and saved some additional wear and tear on the body and spirit. We’ll see if this holds up as we move into this final week of August. They should actually keep moving on in closer as we get into the fall months. We’ll see. It’s been one bizarre summer thus far and who knows what will happen. OK that will about do it for this weeks report. I’m still trying hard to keep these reports shorter but already find myself rambling on! Lol! Oh, there is one other thing! Departure time for my upcoming charters is now 5:00am. If you have a trip scheduled for this coming week, please note! Alrighty, till next week... |
Lake Erie fishing report for August 16, 2015: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 14:49:05 8/16/15 |
Good fishing. A good ways out. Under not so good lake conditions again this past week. It was a great week weather wise. If YOU WERE ON LAND that is! It was another terribly windy week for us. The days were pleasant enough. Sunny and warm but oh my the wind. Not very many charters went Walleye fishing besides “The Trophy” out of Ashtabula Harbor this past Monday through Friday. Many that did go out at all converted their Walleye trips just to Perch trips electing to stay much closer to shore and fish for the way easier to catch pan fish. We ourselves just stuck to our program and with the right crews onboard for the nasty conditions each day, we pounded our way up north and fished for the big toothy ones that everybody this time of year wants. But once we got there, the fishing was very good for us. A few days we spent way more time traveling then it did to knock out our limits! This weeks report is going to be a much shorter one. There just isn’t all that much new to talk about frankly. I look back at some of my past reports and I tell you I’m putting way more effort into these weekly reports/ blogs then I ever intended on doing so. It’s also getting to that point in the season where I am pretty tired all of the time anymore and it just isn’t as appealing for me now to sit in front of a keyboard all cross eyed and write up a whole big write up. Basically we are still fishing way out, this August has been one windy SOB, and we aboard “The Trophy” are still catching good. Pretty much end of story. So I’ll just let these pictures from this past week tell the story. In fact that will probably be the trend for the remainder of this season. Much shorter reports unless there is something new or there is much more to talk about. Who knows what the lake conditions are going to be this coming week. Certainty not the hopeless and clueless NOAA and National Weather Service doesn't. I know all other indications point to the return of some real heat for this third week of August already. Man, I really don’t care what it does. Rain. Sunny. Hot... I don’t care. Just turn off the friggin WIND! I know that I can’t do many more of these daily super rough days and this terrible rut that we seem to be stuck in. So that’s it. A new more abbreviated version of my weekly report. Lets see if I can muster up enough strength next week to put a few more of my thoughts on paper. I mean on screen that is! Lol! Stay cool everyone! |
Lake Erie fishing report for August 9, 2015: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 12:40:13 8/09/15 |
An alright week. It was just an alright week for us aboard “The Trophy” this past week. Not spectacular. Not really terrible. Just alright. The work week started out lousy however and ended a bit shaky weather wise as well. Monday we went ahead and pre cancelled our trip the night before as did almost everybody else in the harbor with a 5’ to 7’ foot marine forecast predicted along with rain and thunderstorms for the day also. Well, they blew the rain forecast as it was nothing but sunshine and blue sky's all day long but we did get the strong winds that they were calling for. The lake was a nasty frothy mess! It ended up being a good call to cancel. The rest of the week the lake was alright and pleasant for everyone. Up until Friday that is. With a 1’ to 3’ foot forecast out of the northeast predicted, everybody headed out. Many to the Canadian line only to be greeted with strong gusty winds and rapidly building huge seas growing by the moment. Before it was over we were in solid 4’ to 6’ footers out there maybe more and again wondering how in the Hell could they be so very wrong with “their” stupid marine forecasts? After threatening not to go that far out anymore and start to look for fish in closer to shore, “The Trophy” found herself still right back out there skirting the line trolling for the big fish that have stubbornly been sitting out there it seems like most all of the summer long now. It’s really hard to leave fish to go look for fish. And when the lake allowed, we just pointed her north and continued to rack up the miles for this season. With the unusual summer weather this year, the Walleyes didn’t work their way out there slowly over the coarse of the summer like in normal years. They just leap frogged from in close to 20 mile plus straight out it seemed like almost overnight and they’ve been there ever since. And if the weather has allowed us and we could work our way out there, the fishing has been consistently good out there. This past week was no different. We didn’t have any smashingly fast burn days out there but we always came back with a full box of fish. Even Friday where we were caught by surprise by the super rough lake. We were in the fish all day. It was just hard to stand, hard to keep all the lines going and made for a very long and hard ride back home to port. It was noticeably cooler this past week then the week before and with no bugs. I appreciated all of that. But I am really tiring of the daily long boat rides. This past week we pushed the envelope right up to the Canadian-US line. And when I say to the line, I mean I think when we started, the one planer board of ours was actually over the border! Lol! Friday for example with a stiff northeast wind building the further I went, I cranked it out a whopping 26 miles right up to the international border. It’s a lonely, lonely place being that far out into the lake. Especially when its rough. We could actually see the higher landmarks on the Canadian shore line better then back towards our own south shore! They must have an incredible wind mill farm right across the lake from us there in Canada. You could plainly make them out on the north shore! And the shipping lanes that you normally see way to the north when normally fishing further out in the lake with its east and west bound freighters are well to the south of you when you are that far north and right on the line. Now that’s really weird looking back to the south to see the shipping lanes! Anyway, for whatever reason the fish are out there and I continue to be drawn out there as well. Like it or not. So as I look ahead to this coming week I see nothing out of the ordinary at least on paper. No big weather systems predicted. (Hahaha) At least nothing noticeable that catches my eye at this point. I suppose we’ll still be fishing way up north this coming week. The troubling thing is that most everybody is fishing out there now as well and nobody is even looking elsewhere closer. Everybody with a charter is fearful trying and bombing in close knowing fully well that your peers will probably come in with big boxes of fish from up north making you look and feel really bad. Nothing worst then coming in with a handful or worst of fish only to have everyone else back at the dock racking up big racks of fish for pictures. Been there, done that one. Not good and very stressful! So I guess I will continue to take my daily beatings and continue to head to Canada each day till I hear of something better in closer. Just like everyone else! Lol! Anyway I will continue to pray for calm seas and for the schools of fish to move southward. As I look at the calendar by the time I do next weeks report, half of this August will be in the books already. I can not deny that I am secretly starting to look forward to the off season. Just starting to get plain burnt out. The big distances that we have to travel each day is only adding to that feeling. We’ll see what happens going forward. I still have better then a months worth of Walleye trips left on the books. Let me see, that’s about 2,200-2,300 more miles of boat rides for me at the rate that I’ve been going! Holy Cow! I hope things change! Catch everybody again next week... |
Lake Erie fishing report for August 1, 2015: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 15:29:46 8/02/15 |
August! And it has been extremely hot, humid and hazy. Or at least the the first few days of this past work week were unbearably hot with very little air movement. It was also very buggy out on the lake those few days. Those tiny little creepy green gnats that swarm by the millions out there at times and stick to everything. They get in your eyes, in your mouth, up your nose and when you're all hot and sweaty, stick to your skin like Shake And Bake breading! And that’s what we did out there. Bake out there big time! And when we got back to the dock while everybody was chilling in the shade drinking some cool beverages waiting on their fish to be filleted, I got to spend yet an extra hour on the boat sweating even more profusely in the now heat of the middle of the day cleaning the boat up and trying to make it presentable for the following days trip. Knowing fully well that probably all of that cleaning will all be for naught 10 minutes into our day the next day if we get swarmed again which of coarse we did. Yup. Always something to drive me nuts and for me to complain about. But as hot, flat and buggy as it was on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, fishing for us aboard “The Trophy” way out there was super EXCELLENT! So I make the mistake of praying for a little “breeze after cussing all those little bugs out”. Well, we got it on Thursday and Friday! Although it was still very hot and sunny, it was so crazy windy that most either outright cancelled their trips or cut them way short. Thursday we fell into the short day category as I had a guest that was not handling the conditions well and I thought it best just to call it a day. Friday was wicked windy too but with a smaller group where I didn’t need all that many fish we stuck our noses back out there in the big surf and did surprisingly OK, staying much closer to shore then in past days and weeks. Perhaps not as fast in closer but much more doable in rougher seas. More of a mixed bag of all different sized fish including some smaller ones closer in but hey one is one and at the end of the day, it all averages out anyway with always plenty of good sized ones in the mix. I never have any control on what size bites. I’m just happy to know we have some options now. The school of fish that I have been fishing are really out of striking distance right now. They just keep going further and further north. I really believe that many of them have crossed the line over to Canada now making them totally out of question. Just way too far. Time to find some different schools of fish to fish. One thing I noticed this past week regardless of where we fished is the fact that they are seemingly even deeper down in the water column now. A lot of guys have switched to the larger sized crank baits that have a steeper diving curve. Aboard “The Trophy”, we have been bouncing back and fourth between the bigger Thunder Sticks and the Jrs. Both are working well if you ask me. You just have to put out more wire line out with the smaller baits to get them deeper. Earlier in the week with the flat seas I was pulling the larger ones myself. But with the surging seas in the real rough water later in the week, I was having problems keeping them from breaking the rubber bands which we use to secure the line to the planer board releases. I switched back to the smaller lures and eliminated that problem and still continued to catch decent. Doing this for 29 years now, I remember many, many years of never using anything but the Jr. Thunder Sticks the whole season long. Seems like that is my program and what I know the very best and am the most comfortable with. We’ll see though. I have everything available to me and I am never afraid to switch over in a moments notice if I feel that is what I have to do to put fish in the box. So we have indeed flipped the page on the calendar now from July to August. The real Dog Days of Summer! It started out hot as most Augusts are around here do. We’ll see if we can keep it going. Right now from what I’m seeing it looks like we are in store for a cool down back into the 70’s this coming week. That’s OK by me. After complaining all summer long about the cool, raw and wet conditions out there, I was reminded this past week how miserable it can also be out there when you take it to the other extreme. It just wasn’t that much fun either with the terrible heat and all the sweat running down in your eyes. Never mind all the bugs, which you can get out there no matter what the conditions are but never seem quite as creepy when you can throw a long sleeve shirt on. Oh this “dream job” of mine! Lol! Anyway as fast as we blew through July, this month too will all too soon be yet just another memory. The days, weeks and months just keep flying by in this season. OK, with us now possibly fishing much closer in and the days staying way darker longer in the mornings now, I have now bumped our departure time back slightly and am now telling everyone to be dockside and ready to roll at 4:30am. I’ll see how that works out for us this coming week. We may even be able to roll it back even further to 5am very soon as well. Yay! I’ll be able to sleep in to maybe like, 3:30! Lol! Alrighty then. Check back again next week to see what new I can come up with to complain about! Lol!!! |
Lake Erie fishing report for July 26, 2015: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 14:49:44 7/26/15 |
A very windy Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Ugh! I really would like to get away from all this talk about the weather all of the time on here but it seems like I really have no choice. Although we had really nice bright sunny days most of this past week, we also had a very stiff wind for three days straight that just made my job so very miserable and made me wishing that I was anywhere but out in the middle of frigging Lake Erie. Although the week before the fishing was silly easy under very pleasant lake conditions, this past week things were a whole lot different and a whole lot tougher. Tougher to get out to the fishing grounds. Tougher to keep all of the lines going. And just tougher just to even simply stand and land the fish that we would hook. Just plain tough for a few days. Monday was the gem and the pick of the week. The lake was flat out gorgeous! Little Emma reeled in Walleye after Walleye! How adorable! Her family had a great trip! Tuesday I departed with a different crew and a very stiff southwest wind but with a big wind change predicted for later in the morning supposedly switching around to the northwest around 11am. I had the perfect game plan! Run out to the fringe area where we could start catching some fish to the south of the bigger schools of fish that are well offshore. Then set up and troll out with the southwest wind and after it switched later in the day, troll back southward with the northerly winds behind us later in the day. The perfect game plan! EXCEPT, shortly after we got set up at daybreak the wind was already starting to pick up dramatically and curl around to the north hard. With a east, northeast troll set up already, we were trapped in trolling now sideways in the north wind and ever growing steep waves and white caps. We did that for a while till I just couldn’t stand it any longer and then just started going south way sooner then I wanted to squaring the waves off with the stern for a more comfortable ride. Miles from where we really needed to be. Thanks National Weather Service. Thanks again by blowing the marine forecast once again so badly. They were wrong on the predicted time frame for the big wind change by five whole hours and they were big time wrong on the wave heights predicted for the day. It was smoking out there! Still, we went on to catch a nice box of fish although we didn’t quite limit out for the day. The streak that we were having aboard “The Trophy” ended for us. It is what it is. Wednesday, oh my, Wednesday... I went down to the marina at 4 in the morning like I do everyday and stepped out of my truck in total dismay and disbelief. The wind was howling dead out of the north so fiercely that it made the day before look like a walk in the park. And once again our friends at the National weather service were calling for 1 to 3 foot waves for that day. I’m like, are you kidding me? And of coarse my eager crew was already waiting and very excited to go. My suggestions for them to just go back to the house that they had rented and sleep in for a while was scoffed at and before I could say boo, they were already loaded up and egging me on to go. Lol! It took everything that I had to convince myself to do this. Everyone else either cancelled their trips that day or the few that went put their crews on a weather delay. But off we went in the dark. Taking our time, it took us nearly 2 hours to punch and pick our way out north 22 miles close to the US-Canadian border where we set up a long one way troll southward once again along with the wind and the waves. For the first couple of hours way out there, the fishing was just about as fast as we could go. We caught some beautiful Walleyes! But again after we got so far south, things started drying up pretty fast. I think we ended the day with 21 and a few Steelhead. A few short of what we needed but again a very respectable box considering the conditions that we were dealt. Thursday it was back to just a plain miserable super stiff south west wind while all along the marine forecast was again calling for less then two footers for that particular day. I lined up even further out this time then I did on Tuesday and just trolled out with the seas squared off on the tail. We went on to have a very good day coming up just one short of limiting out for the day and again having a few bonus Steelhead in the mix. A good day no matter what the lake conditions are! So we survived the 3 day challenge that Mother Nature threw at us and by Friday I was rewarded with a beautiful lake finally and easy fishing once again for us along with a nice early quit for me. But still all that talk of mine last week about me being all well rested up again all went out the window this past week. I am very tired and beat up after those 3 brutal days. In other words, back to normal! Lol! But hey, I have everybody's “dream job”! Or at least so I am told almost daily by most of my crews that only have to go thru this crap about maybe once a year! Lol! On a little side note, the date that I offered last week has been snatched up by somebody already. Thanks for all the calls folks. OK, that about does it for this weeks weather report, I mean, FISHING REPORT! Over and out for now... |
Lake Erie fishing report for July 19, 2015: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 16:53:44 7/19/15 |
Just as good as it gets! PERIOD! We enjoyed some unbelievably incredible world class Walleye fishing this past week aboard “The Trophy”. Each and every outing that we ran was a smashing burn with the fish coming just about as fast as we could possibly go. Most of my crews right now are all repeat guests from previous years and some even being with me from just about every year that I’ve been doing this. We worked together like a well oiled machine everyday. Everybody knew what to do and even I was amazed at how smoothly things went. We would be shooting two lines back out with three fish coming in. And that’s what you got to do when the feeding frenzy is on. You have to move fast and you can’t make any mistakes doing so that costs you time straitening things back out. And it doesn't hurt to have a little luck on your side. We set up each day right in the thick of things and never looked back till we were done. Most days that didn’t take too long. Like I said, just as good as it gets! But we still continue to pound the miles to do so. The very best fishing has been way out for us and we went straight to the juggler vein each day before we ever even dropped a line. Most days that meant a 20 mile run out in the complete pitch dark of the pre dawn morning. And just about every morning we would capture the first 5 or 6 of our fish in the still full fledged dark. Pretty neat! We would have a ticket in the box before most others have even left the harbor! 20 miles out and 20 miles back on average each day. That’s not counting the miles of trolling around in between either. I am sure right now there are plenty of days where we log around 50 miles a day! On the weeks where I manage to run 7 days a week, that’s around 300-350 miles! And with an average fuel economy of about a mile a gallon at the very best, well the fuel consumption for me has been off the charts too. But that’s what we do. We go to the very best possible spots that I am aware of. No matter what. And this week it really paid off for us. It wouldn’t be right if I didn’t discuss this past weeks weather at least in one paragraph. For the most part, it was rather decent for a change. We did have one major hiccup on Wednesday. We had a one day blow that came out of nowhere on Wednesday that was so severe that it kept all of the charter fleet not to mention all of the private crafts back at safe harbor. The marine forecast had small craft warnings up that morning with waves predicted at 4 to 6 foot. The northeast wind was so violent that morning that I honestly believed it was probably a whole lot bigger then that out there even. No fishing that day. The very next day, Thursday was exactly the opposite and probably the nicest day of the year for us. Sunny skies and a dead flat lake with about a 6 inch ripple on it all day. Zero bugs and super low humidity with unbelievable great visibility and just the most comfortable air temperature possible. Not hot, not cold, just perfect. And once again it left me scratching my head. Is this really even the same lake I was looking at the day before? Man, like I’ve said so many times before what a difference a day makes around here! So with the earlier quits this past week and me having Wednesday off, I’ve even managed to get somewhat rested back up again sneaking in some bodacious mid day nippy naps. Still though 2:30am when my alarm clocks go off rolls around mighty quickly each morning and I’m like WHAT! when they do go off! I sure don’t feel rested at that crazy hour! lol! We continue to roll off the dock at 4:00am each day and I strongly urge all my upcoming trips to continue to do so. . And as I look at next weeks weather forecast we’re especially going to want to get our early mornings in before the heat of the day kicks in as well. It actually looks like we are going to have a hot week around here finally. I sure don't want to be riding around out there by mid day in the heat after the big bite dies off. Hopefully we can keep this great week that we just had this past week going. OK, here's something that I haven't mentioned in quite a while. I have a very prime date to offer that recently opened up due to a cancellation. Monday, August the 3rd is now available for anyone that is looking. A three day weekend for someone! If anybody wants to go for a really long boat ride and catch a big box full of world class Walleyes I’m your man and that can be your date! Call, e-mail or text if interested. Well that about does it for yet another week. Talk to all of you again in about another 300 miles or so... |
Lake Erie fishing report for July 19, 2015: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 16:53:44 7/19/15 |
Just as good as it gets! PERIOD! We enjoyed some unbelievably incredible world class Walleye fishing this past week aboard “The Trophy”. Each and every outing that we ran was a smashing burn with the fish coming just about as fast as we could possibly go. Most of my crews right now are all repeat guests from previous years and some even being with me from just about every year that I’ve been doing this. We worked together like a well oiled machine everyday. Everybody knew what to do and even I was amazed at how smoothly things went. We would be shooting two lines back out with three fish coming in. And that’s what you got to do when the feeding frenzy is on. You have to move fast and you can’t make any mistakes doing so that costs you time straitening things back out. And it doesn't hurt to have a little luck on your side. We set up each day right in the thick of things and never looked back till we were done. Most days that didn’t take too long. Like I said, just as good as it gets! But we still continue to pound the miles to do so. The very best fishing has been way out for us and we went straight to the juggler vein each day before we ever even dropped a line. Most days that meant a 20 mile run out in the complete pitch dark of the pre dawn morning. And just about every morning we would capture the first 5 or 6 of our fish in the still full fledged dark. Pretty neat! We would have a ticket in the box before most others have even left the harbor! 20 miles out and 20 miles back on average each day. That’s not counting the miles of trolling around in between either. I am sure right now there are plenty of days where we log around 50 miles a day! On the weeks where I manage to run 7 days a week, that’s around 300-350 miles! And with an average fuel economy of about a mile a gallon at the very best, well the fuel consumption for me has been off the charts too. But that’s what we do. We go to the very best possible spots that I am aware of. No matter what. And this week it really paid off for us. It wouldn’t be right if I didn’t discuss this past weeks weather at least in one paragraph. For the most part, it was rather decent for a change. We did have one major hiccup on Wednesday. We had a one day blow that came out of nowhere on Wednesday that was so severe that it kept all of the charter fleet not to mention all of the private crafts back at safe harbor. The marine forecast had small craft warnings up that morning with waves predicted at 4 to 6 foot. The northeast wind was so violent that morning that I honestly believed it was probably a whole lot bigger then that out there even. No fishing that day. The very next day, Thursday was exactly the opposite and probably the nicest day of the year for us. Sunny skies and a dead flat lake with about a 6 inch ripple on it all day. Zero bugs and super low humidity with unbelievable great visibility and just the most comfortable air temperature possible. Not hot, not cold, just perfect. And once again it left me scratching my head. Is this really even the same lake I was looking at the day before? Man, like I’ve said so many times before what a difference a day makes around here! So with the earlier quits this past week and me having Wednesday off, I’ve even managed to get somewhat rested back up again sneaking in some bodacious mid day nippy naps. Still though 2:30am when my alarm clocks go off rolls around mighty quickly each morning and I’m like WHAT! when they do go off! I sure don’t feel rested at that crazy hour! lol! We continue to roll off the dock at 4:00am each day and I strongly urge all my upcoming trips to continue to do so. . And as I look at next weeks weather forecast we’re especially going to want to get our early mornings in before the heat of the day kicks in as well. It actually looks like we are going to have a hot week around here finally. I sure don't want to be riding around out there by mid day in the heat after the big bite dies off. Hopefully we can keep this great week that we just had this past week going. OK, here's something that I haven't mentioned in quite a while. I have a very prime date to offer that recently opened up due to a cancellation. Monday, August the 3rd is now available for anyone that is looking. A three day weekend for someone! If anybody wants to go for a really long boat ride and catch a big box full of world class Walleyes I’m your man and that can be your date! Call, e-mail or text if interested. Well that about does it for yet another week. Talk to all of you again in about another 300 miles or so... |
Lake Erie fishing report for July 12, 2015: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 13:22:35 7/12/15 |
Rolling along nicely now but really racking up the miles! It was a very solid week for us this past week aboard “The Trophy”! Fishing has really stabilized out there well offshore for us with the improving weather conditions. We had a perfect string of limit catch days. In fact, we were back to some really early quits with some extremely full fish boxes! What wasn’t quick however was the very long hauls out and back to the fishing grounds. I hate so very much those super long, expensive boat rides back and fourth. Even on a nice lake it’s a minimum of at least an hours run and that’s even running rather hard. And quite a bit longer with each additional foot of chop. Hard on the body, hard on the machinery and especially hard on the pocket book. And with the additional travel time, we have now moved up our departure time up even earlier to 4:00am. This all so when we arrive to the fishing grounds that we can still be setting lines by dawns early breaking light. It has really paid huge dividends for us though by not missing out on the usually strong morning bite. The weather for the most part this past week was good. For the most part. We did have a few bumps in the road though. Nothing that we aboard “The Trophy” could not work thru but it’s never all that pleasant fishing in less then desirable conditions out there and especially when you know you are 15 to 20 miles from shore. Tuesday we had a extremely stiff south wind, just ahead of a cold front that came barreling thru on Wednesday. Cold fronts in July. Can you even imagine? I just have to shake my head at this summer. But came thru it did and along with it Wednesday was very rough with stiff cold winds out of the north. It took almost two hours to work our way out to almost the Canadian border for just a long one way troll back home. It certainly was a rough lake but the Walleyes did not seem to mind it. We smashed the fish! I think it took us longer to go back and fourth then it did to get our 4 man limit of huge Walleyes. We had some real monsters! And Thursday, we had one of the hardest one day all day rains I think that we’ve had all of this summer. Most of it was out over the lake but, ummmm, that’s where we spend all our time! Lol! But once again the Walleyes didn’t much care and the fishing was GREAT for us! Surprisingly the offshore fish are still not all that deep way out there. It really is a very unusual summer. Normally when we are fishing that far out, the fish are also quite a bit deeper. Not right now though. At least not yet! I would say that we are still catching most of our Walleyes in the top 35 foot of the water column. Early summer conditions over late summer distances traveled out into the lake. But the water temps are also close to being 10 degrees cooler then normal and water levels in the lake are close to being 2 foot higher then even just a year ago. Man, if the water gets any higher, we are going to need a step ladder back at the dock just to be able to board the boat! All of this plays into what is going on out there with the fish. The better charters have figured it all out. Lots of other people are struggling though to catch fish out there. Especially a lot of the smaller private boats. But believe me, the fish are out there in good numbers and you just need to make the necessary adjustments with lure depths, boat speed and angle. Of coarse, it doesn’t t hurt to be out there at day break when these higher then normal fish are really biting! So in a couple of days it will be mid July already! Man, I feel like I was just up at Port Clinton and the Islands! This summer is definitely screaming by. Maybe these fish will soon start their steady slow march back towards the south shore like they always do later in the summer. Who knows in this weird year what will happen going forward. All I know is that I am very tired of all of the cold days out on the lake, especially in the mornings. And all of the rain and all of the insane amount of miles that we are pounding now to keep our guests over the very best fish possible. In fact, I myself am just plain getting pretty tired physically. Seems like I just can’t get rested up enough now here as of late. I have my alarm clocks set to wake up at 2:30 in the morning! Can you even imagine doing that every day? Anybody that insists that I have their dream job ought to try doing it day after day after day. And have no choice and “have” to go. Rough water, rain, bugs, finicky fish, you name it. No matter what. It is very physically and mentally challenging. And its very stressful to “have” to produce everyday. The investment is huge and the expenses are great on top of everything. It is quite the commitment and life style to run a operation on the scale that I try to present. Not much of a life in the summer honestly. Fish, eat, sleep and do it again. Wash, rinse, and repeat. Over, and over, and over! Oh yeah, and write these little fishing reports! Lol! Check back next week to see what's up! |
Lake Erie fishing report for July 5, 2015.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 14:57:37 7/05/15 |
A surprisingly good week after a really horrific weekend last week! After everybody lost their trips last Saturday and Sunday, “The Trophy” got to go back to work on Monday to rather pleasant lake conditions. What a difference a day or two can make around here! On Saturday and Sunday we had many inches of rain and up to 60 mph winds out on the lake and by Monday, well it was just a nice calm lake with less then one foot waves and nice dry conditions. And that’s about all I’m going to say about all of that. Frankly, I’m just about plain sick and tired of talking about the weather all of the time! But the “weather” that we did have last weekend really did not do us any big favors. The fish are even further out then before now and man did it ever fire up the White Bass! We had a few days this past week where it was just plain unbelievable with how many we had to weed thru to get all of our Walleyes. But we did get our Walleyes. I think we only had one day where we did not limit out completely. But even on that day, we came very close with a whole pile of HUGE fish! And all of it to to a very full moon as well this week! Many times if not almost always this spells the kiss of death to our later in the morning Walleye fishing after the fish feed heavily all night long under the bright conditions. But it didn’t seem to matter much though this past week with the well offshore Walleyes. And that’s where we aboard “The Trophy” had to go to stay on top of the bigger schools of fish. Way, way out. After doing this for nearly 30 years now it came as no big surprise to me that the fish would be out there 15 to 20 miles out. I’ve seen it many times before. The near shore waters really got tore up with all the constant storms all of June and it really climaxed with last weekends big gales. That and PLUS, it’s JULY! That’s what they do around here in the summer. The fish move out! A good friend of mine and fellow charter captain who also belongs to the areas few 30 years of chartering fraternity club once summed it up the very best. “If they are not in, they are out. And if they are not out, THEY ARE OUT EVEN FURTHER!” And there is a whole lot of truth in that simple little statement. Some years it’s later in the season, some years it can be sooner. But in July, you better have a full tank of gas when you go looking. You’re going to need it! And that reminds me to send a special thanks to all of my groups that dug extra deep at the end of the day here lately with generous tip money to help offset the extreme pain at the pump at the end of the day with these long runs. Most groups realize the extra burden that it places on my operation for me to do whatever it takes to put them on good fish. One of the funniest moments for me this past week after a particularly painful fill up was when the docks gas girl that filled me up went to ring up the bill. She looked at the pump and then she looked at me and said, “Where did you go? The f %$# ing moon?”! Lol! Well, it’s funny now but seriously, it takes a whole lot of extra gas to run these long distance trips and any extra $$$ at the end of the day to help out is very much appreciated! So it’s already a week into July now. The 4th has come and gone already and you can’t help but feel that summer is somehow slipping away rapidly. The nearer to shore fishing is seemingly over with now and there is nothing easy in site for any of the foreseeable future. I just sure hope that we got most of this summers lousy weather out of the way already and that we have nice flat seas to cruise in and fish in going forward to this new promised land. It’s a whole new game now. Better buckle up... |
Lake Erie fishing report for June 28, 2015: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 08:25:08 6/28/15 |
So where do I begin? Do I just dive into the fishing portion of this weeks report or do I discuss once again how perfectly lousy this weeks weather was many of the days for everyone that attempted to fish Lake Erie here in the central basin? I feel like a broken record with these last few week's blogs/reports. Seems like all I ever harp about anymore is the weather. But it’s a fact. This sport of ours is so extremely weather driven that everything else is pale in comparison and almost nothing else matters. The daily weather is what determines if we get out fishing, how comfortable and fun your day is going to be, and ultimately most days how the catching will likely go. I’ve said it a thousand times before. It’s all about the weather. And this past weeks and especially this weekends weather really sucked the big one! Probably the gem of the week was Monday. Sunny, calm and pleasant. Fishing was GREAT under the good conditions and we killed the fish limiting out easily. Tuesday with the same crew in town for 3 days from Iowa, we seen it all. Everybody got to sleep in while the area got battered early morning with severe thunderstorms and torrential rains. After the storms passed by mid morning and skies cleared my old nemesis the wind arrived right on time. The marine forecast was calling for 5 to 7 footers. Although it was rough, I didn’t think it was quite that bad and we made a decision to go for it. With a late departure and in about 4 footers rolling from the west, we set up a troll between Ashtabula and Conneaut. We called it a day after about a 4 hour troll capturing better then half of their limits and started the long ride back east to home harbor. Had we not lost the handful of big fish in the surging big waves we would have really been sitting pretty for the day! Wednesday the weather was fair again and fishing was OK for us. With a shorter day in order due to their travel plans my boys wrapped up their yearly 3 day trip with me by taking home 61 Walleyes including many big ones! Not that bad at all! Thursday I was blessed with a shorter party and we got what we needed easily. Friday, oh boy what a day. It was another one of those days where the National Weather Service entirely blew the marine forecast. They had called for both the near shore and offshore waves to be 1 to 2 footers. It was probably easy 3’s when we left in the dark at 4:30 in the morning and by the time we arrived at the fishing grounds the lake was rolling easy 3 to 5’s and still building from the east. Aboard “The Trophy” we set up a long one way troll and went to work. I don’t know how we did it but somehow, some way we went on to having a great day of catching in some seriously big water. When we went to come home they were easy solid 6 footers and maybe a few a whole lot bigger! And the whole time the worthless national Weather Service was still sticking to their forecast product. Last time I looked late in the day at it they were still saying “2 foot or less”! Idiots! Hello, how about just looking out the window for a change! Anyway, nobody got sick and we returned safely and even managed to somehow have a awesome day under some very trying conditions. And then their was the dreaded weekend! With gale warnings posted and 100% chance of heavy rain including the potential of up to 4 inches of rain, I along with all of the other charter operators went ahead and cancelled both days of fishing. A big blow to the bottom line of so many in a limited season which grows shorter with each passing week. Also a big disappointment for those that waited so very long for their fishing trip with much anticipation. It just stinks all the way around. So, we just have a couple more days of this mostly miserable June left for us and we can then turn our attentions to July and see what all it holds. Sadly, I see no change in this weather pattern that we here in north east Ohio seem to be locked in on. The 7 day forecasts that I am seeing right now look like something out of the movie “Ground Hog Day”! A chance of rain and thunderstorms every frigging day! Yikes! I guess it could be worst. I could be a farmer trying to put up hay! But none the less, it has been a very tough month and one that I am eager to put behind me and move on to July. One can only hope things change soon so that we can have at least some sense of a summer this year! With this cool, raw pattern, I don’t see the huge schools of Walleyes setting up camp out here either in massive numbers in our deeper cooler waters off Ashtabula like in some of our other hottest years. There will be fish to be caught out there no doubt but we will have to work for what is out there. Limits may not be quite as automatic as some have come to expect. We will just have to see. I hope that I am wrong. For now just don’t put those rain jacket to far away. Sigh... |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of June 21, 2015.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 09:31:01 6/21/15 |
Is this really June? We continued to be hammered almost daily this past week with showers and thunder storms ranging anywhere from just nuisance light drizzle's and showers to heavier squalls along with some thunder and lighting. Once again somehow though we managed to work around most of the heavier weather all week long and got to go fishing but we sure got soaked on a lot of the days at one point or another in the day. It’s been a very strange June. It’s even been very chilly in the mornings and for those that braved the rain blasts with no rain gear on thinking that, “come on it’s June, how cold could it be...” well, goose bumps and shivering were in order for the rest of the day for a lot of them after getting soaked completely thru. So far it’s been very un-summer like and I think that it is impacting the fishing too after this many days in a row of just plain crappy weather. Aboard “The Trophy” this past week we worked on our deep water off shore programs with fair success. It seemed like every morning the fish were wherever we started and more then eager to hit but after a couple hours of fairly good fishing it was just pretty much slow for us. I just could not keep them going strong all day. It’s pretty hard to explain how you can catch 10 or 12 fish rather quickly and then have it drop off so much. It has been even more important then ever to get a super early departure here as of lately. I think had we not been setting lines right at daybreak or even before daylight, we would have really struggled to get half of what we did. And with all the rain that we have received here lately there is so much debris in the water that you really have to be careful running around in the dark out there. It’s a real catch 22 situation right now. Thankfully I have a state of the art lighting system projecting forward in the dark which helps us while running but even that is not fool proof and makes one uneasy. How I long for just a hot, dry summer like we used to have all the time seemed like “back in the day”! One of the things that saved the day for us several of the days this past week was the fact that I had rather small party sizes on most days and we didn’t really have to put huge numbers of fish in the box to make everyone happy. That and the fact that the fish that we did box on most days out there in the deeper water fishing deep were quite big. We seen good numbers of 28, 29 and even 30 inch Walleyes. Any one of which could be a fish of a lifetime on most any other inland waterway. My how quickly we all forget and get spoiled when the fishing is exceptionally good and easy for a few weeks! And then you have too really work for them. Still though, I believe this is just a bump in the road and if this weather ever straitens out the fishing will become more stable as well. Right now there is just no real set patterns to put all of your faith in. There seems to be fish scattered in really close that some guys are working and some clear out to as far out as 72 foot now as we aboard “The Trophy” can definitely attest to. They are everywhere. We haven’t had any problems finding some Walleyes. We’ve just had difficulties in keeping them biting real good much past the early morning. So as I look forward to this coming weeks weather it’s pretty much a whole lot of the same ole same ole. Holy cow, is it ever going to quit raining? I think I saw a chance of rain showers and thunderstorms on at least half of the seven days of various weather forecasts that I viewed. Summer will be over before I ever get my rain gear fully dried out! lol! Anyway, we’ll be out there somewhere if at all possible snooping around looking for some cooperative big Walleyes way offshore. It’s pretty nice out there actually. I have been out there all by myself almost daily with not a single boat in site. None of the drama and horror stories that I keep hearing about in some of the other areas that are being fished right now closer to shore. Less debris out there, less junk fish and next to no traffic. They can keep playing bumper boats in on shore. We like our space aboard “The Trophy”! We’ll see what this coming week brings for us out there. Check back soon! |
ODNR Fishing Report for 6/17/2015: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 05:26:13 6/18/15 |
Central Basin Walleye Where: Fishing was good 2 miles north of Lorain. Fishing was excellent off Cleveland in 52 to 55 feet of water, northwest of Fairport in 20 to 30 feet of water, and from Geneva to Ashtabula in 35 to 68 feet of water. How: Anglers are trolling planer boards and Dipsy divers with pink and purple spoons and worm harnesses. Yellow Perch Where: Anglers are catching fish with a few limits reported in 36 to 40 feet of water off Cleveland, in 46 feet of water off Ashtabula, and in 48 feet of water off Conneaut. Shore fishing has picked up with a few fish being caught off the E. 55th Street and E. 72nd Street piers in Cleveland and in Fairport Harbor. How: Perch spreaders or crappie rigs with shiners fished near the bottom produce the most fish. Smallmouth Bass Where: Fishing has been good in 4 to 22 feet of water around harbor areas in Fairport Harbor, Ashtabula and Conneaut. How: Anglers are using tube jigs, crankbaits and spinners. The Lake Erie water temperature is 69 off Toledo and 59 off Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of June 14, 2015.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 14:52:29 6/14/15 |
A good week of fishing. The weather, ahhhh, not all so much. As I had mentioned last week, this past weeks weather looked to be quite unsettled. And it was. Although we didn't get caught in any real violent thunder storms, we sure got spanked out there while fishing by passing heavy frontal weather systems over the lake with heavily embedded torrential rains on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of last week. And it was all accompanied by plenty of wind and buckets of rain at times! There wasn't a day go by where we didn’t get some kind of passing rain storm or thunder storm. In the latter part of the week a lot of it managed to hold off till we were done fishing. And it was a good thing too. The more violent storms were much later in the afternoon and on into the evening hours. Some with passing gusts of 50-60 mph winds even! Never a dull moment up here up on the north coast! So when I say a good week of fishing, it was just that. Just good. But it wasn't nearly as crazy good as was my first two weeks of fishing back here upon my returning from the western basin Islands area this spring. Maybe a bit of a reality check? Or maybe finally just one too many weather systems back to back impacting the fish? I don’t know, but it definitely wasn't nearly as a suicidal bite each day as we had been experiencing prior to all this crappy weather setting in. Don’t get me wrong. We still got plenty of fish including many HUGE Walleyes this past week but limits weren't necessarily automatic each day We worked very hard for each and every fish that we caught it seemed like. We even had a couple of days where we didn't quite limit out although we still managed to get into the high teens or better for fish caught each day . I can think of many times in the past almost 30 years where I would have killed to have had that kind of production on some of my “slower days” Lol! I also believe that things are changing out there already as it inevitably does each summer. The fish are slipping out deeper and deeper with each passing day. Almost everyday this past week where I ended up doing the very best the day before, the next day I would have to go out a bit further to get back into the fish good again. Just a taste of things to come I guess. My how I wished they would just stay in tight close to shore all year long like they were there for a while for us. It sure was easy pickings! And as they slip further and further off into the deeper water, they are also starting to descend deeper and deeper into the water column. Although we are still using the Jet Divers and spoons, I myself believe that we are about maxing out the manageable obtainable maximum depth achievable with the #40 Tru-Trip divers without adding any weights or going to a size #50 jet. By design a #40 jet reaches down at best maybe to 40 foot. And that’s about where I am marking most of the fish right now. Around 40 to 45 foot down in 60 foot plus of water. Of coarse, this is not a hard rule. You can always find and catch the occasional fish in nearly any part of the water column. But aboard ‘The Trophy”, we are always seeking the “sweet spot” or the level that most of the active fish are hanging in. This coming week to come at least at this point looks to be rather tranquil wind wise anyway. There is still a chance of rain and thunderstorms almost daily though. I fully expect to be dabbling with some of the deeper water programs that we run aboard “The Trophy” each summer. I have already blown the dust off some of the wire fishing line rods and have been busy prepping everything for that chapter of fishing that is yet to come. And just like with the fish slipping offshore now, the easy way of catching them is also almost behind us. Along with the wire line comes wire tangles, snap offs and all kinds of other chaos that makes even the most patient of charter captains start to talk to themselves! Lol! But it works and works well once the fish start going offshore and that is why we do it. Dipsey Divers should start kicking in much better as well. Up till now, those big divers aboard “The Trophy” have been very quiet. And downriggers? Forget it. They have been utterly useless thus far. But as these fish start going deeper, all of these tools that we have available to us should start to shine and have their moments. Maybe not yet this coming week but soon. Very soon! Stay tuned! |
ODNR Fishing Report for 6/10/2015: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 17:53:16 6/12/15 |
Central Basin Walleye Where: Fishing was good just south of the Lorain dumping grounds, in 42 to 50 feet of water north of Edgewater Park, and in 47 to 59 feet of water northwest of Ashtabula. How: Anglers are trolling deep diving crankbaits, and Dipsy and Jet divers with stick baits and worm harnesses. Yellow Perch Where: Anglers are catching fish in 40 to 50 feet of water northwest of Fairport Harbor and in 43 to 46 feet of water off Ashtabula and Conneaut. Fishing from shore has picked up with a few fish being caught off the E. 55th Street and E. 72nd Street piers in Cleveland and in Fairport Harbor. How: Perch spreaders or crappie rigs with shiners fished near the bottom produce the most fish. Smallmouth Bass Where: Fishing has been excellent in 12 to 20 feet of water around harbor areas in Cleveland, Fairport Harbor, Geneva, Ashtabula and Conneaut. How: Anglers are using tube jigs and crankbaits. The Lake Erie water temperature is 65 off Toledo and 58 off Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. |
Lake Erie fishing report for June 7, 2015: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 13:46:37 6/07/15 |
Whacking and Stacking! We had yet another unbelievably fabulous week of Walleye fishing aboard “The Trophy” in her home port of Ashtabula, Ohio! We are off to a VERY solid start to our summer fishery once again. The last handful of years or so immediately upon my return from the western basin the the fish have been here already in groves and on fire! This year has been no exception. It literally has been as good as it possibly gets. On top of the excellent Walleye fishing, there has been next to no boat traffic every day and very little if any junk fish. Somebody pinch me! It’s almost too good to be true! And the real remarkable story is that even the horrific start in this past weeks weather did little if anything to slow down what has been going on out here. Seems like I can’t ever go too long a stretch before I end up having to discuss a rash of really ugly weather up here on the lake. And man, did we ever get hammered last Sunday and Monday! Sundays marine forecast looked grim several days out and I along with most other charter captains had already cancelled our scheduled outings to save the groups a wasted trip up to the lake. And as bad as they had forecasted the wind, waves and rain forecast, it was pale in comparison to how bad it actually got. Sunday mornings' of a week ago cold front that dropped down on us here along the lake shore sent temperatures plummeting into the 40’s. Winds gusted for a 24 hour period between 40 and 50 mph out of the east, northeast. And Rain? Oh my goodness! The area picked up between 3 and 4 inches of rain. It was just about as miserable as it could possibly get. Not only did we loose a couple of days of fishing, everyone feared the worst for what it may have done to our near shore Walleye fishing immediately after being able to get back out there on the water. The short answer is, it did nothing to set us back any! After loosing Monday as well to the 48 hour severe weather system, I set out hesitantly on a still very choppy Lake Erie on Tuesday with a strong easterly winds. With a elderly crew onboard I quickly decided that there would be no circling around on any one tight area. I just cranked it out east about 6 miles and set up a long one way troll. We started in about 45 feet of water and just headed west with the wind and waves square on our tail. It ended up being a long but productive 12 mile one way troll and we caught fish the whole way! We started around 6 miles east of the harbor and finished up about 6 miles west of the gap. We did what ended up being about a couple of fish a mile. And all of this immediately after a major blow and cold front which had just exited the area. Something that normally would be a big time kiss of death for at least a few days up here on the big lake. Just a testament to how good this fishing really is for us this year in this still very early part of our season out here. And all of this in the what is considered still relatively shallow water for us compared to what is yet to come the remainder of this summer. The rest of the work week with pleasant weather setting back in, fishing was nothing short of a burn for us aboard ‘The Trophy” There was nothing but big smiles from all of my happy angling guests! And this past weekend, oh boy. Saturday was again very choppy. Maybe not not anywhere near as bad as the previous Sunday was but just enough to discourage most from going. We aboard “The Trophy” along with a handful of other charter boats did fish but most all others elected to just stay back at the dock. Although we were probably in 3 to 5 foot waves, fishing was amazingly good for us for as long as we lasted. By late morning however with seemingly building wind and waves and my crew not feeling all that great anymore, I pulled the plug and we just headed back in. We had better than half our limit I believe which was good enough and most of those were real monsters! Not bad for a choppy cold day and early quit. Sunday of this same weekend was back to gorgeous weather and very flat seas. Man, what a difference a day makes! So, this upcoming weeks weather looks to be somewhat unsettled. As I check all of my sources, I see a chance of rain and thunderstorms pretty much everyday for most of the week. Ugh! At least I’m not seeing any signs of anymore real dramatic winds like we experienced a week ago and on Saturday of this past weekend. We’ll just have to see how it all plays out. Rain never really did bother us as long as it’s not storming. Bring your rain gear is all I can tell you. Till next week... |
ODNR Fishing Report for 6/02/2015: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 19:14:54 6/04/15 |
**All information is from prior to the high winds on Sunday 5/31/2015**
Walleye Where: Fishing was good near shore west of Huron (off Sawmill Creek), off Cranberry Creek, in 40 feet of water off the condos east of Vermilion, in 30 to 40 feet of water north of Cleveland, in 40 to 50 feet of water west of Geneva and in 42 feet of water east of Ashtabula. How: Anglers are trolling Dipsy and Jet divers with stick baits and worm harnesses. Yellow Perch Where: Anglers are catching fish off the break wall at Lorain, in 50 to 60 feet of water off Cleveland and in 44 to 46 feet of water off Ashtabula and Conneaut. Fishing from shore has picked up with a few fish being caught off the E. 55th Street and E. 72nd Street piers in Cleveland and in Fairport Harbor. How: Perch spreaders or crappie rigs with shiners fished near the bottom produce the most fish. Smallmouth Bass Where: Fishing has been excellent in 10 to 25 feet of water around harbor areas in Cleveland, Fairport Harbor, Geneva, Ashtabula and Conneaut. How: Anglers are using tube jigs and crankbaits. The Lake Erie water temperature is 62 off Toledo and 56 off Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of May 31, 2014.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 08:59:28 5/31/15 |
Home Sweet Home ASHTABULA! We’re home! After a almost two month stay at the western basin, “The Trophy” made the long ride home across the lake from Port Clinton to Ashtabula Ohio immediately after my last trip on Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. Our great fishing the last two weeks at Port Clinton held up nicely right till I had to leave. I was hoping to have a early day on that final last Saturday. And I got it! I was blessed with a real flat lake and a great bite. By 10:30 in the morning we had 31 good sized Walleyes and were done and started heading back to port to unload the guys and the fish. After a rather quick turn around, “The Trophy” all topped off with a belly full of fuel split the gap at Port Clinton for the final time this spring at a quarter after 12 noon and started the long trek eastbound. With great lake conditions, we pulled into Ashtabula Harbor in record time arriving at 5pm on the nose. 120 plus miles in 4 hours and 45 minutes! It was a great ride and home never looked so good! And I had the very best surprise possible waiting for me! Absolutely on fire smoking hot Walleye fishing right out the gate back here! Right off the bat I had a great schedule for this past week and each trip that I ran went beyond EXCELLENT! And typical of central basin summer Walleye fishing, the size of these fish is simply AMAZING! There wasn't a day go by where we did not put some 10 pounders in the box. Action was fast and furious at times. Just like the last couple weeks back at the islands minus all the trash fish and all the boat traffic that we had to fight through at that end of the lake. Man, as good as the fishing has been each year now upon my return, I have to question am I staying out there too long or do I even need to go through so much anguish at that end of the lake when I have all this happening in my own back yard in May? Things that make you say hmmmmm! I’m going to have to do some serious thinking here. Next year will be my 30th year. It may just be time to re-evaluate my goals and needs. But that’s a long way off! I still have to get through this year of 2015 and and this second half of my season. Nothing new on the early summer techniques that we are using to capture these amazing racks of fish back here. In fact, all the same lures and Jet Divers that we were using the last few weeks at the western basin is getting it done back here as well. I have literally not even changed one lure. Speaking of which, aboard “The Trophy” we continue to stick with the Scorpion Stinger spoons. They are working GREAT! The only thing that I have done is lengthen our lead lengths accordingly for the deeper water and where I happen to see most of the fish marks stacking up on the fish finder each day. Water depths have been ranging anywhere between 30 and 50 feet. I believe most of the fish that we have been catching aboard my charter boat have been coming from around 20 to 27 foot down in the water column. Early mornings have been by far the very best although a couple of days they went strong all day long till we got what we needed. I think that there is just an awful lot of fish in the area right now and when you have great numbers of fish below you, everything else is not nearly as critical. So we are off to a GREAT start to our summer fishing. I feel refreshed and I am ready for this exciting part of our seriously big water offshore fishing that is yet to come. But before we get too far along in this summer fishing, there are a couple of things that I would like to remind all of my upcoming charters of. (1) As I have been simply asking all along now for the last few years. Please try your very hardest to keep your group size to a very comfortable, more personal experience of 4 people for everyone involved. I myself just flat out DO NOT WANT more than that on my boat anymore for these summer trolling trips. This is not a hard rule or policy (yet) but if you folks want to keep me happy and chartering for years to come, you will do this for me and for yourselves. (2) We ABSOLUTELY need to be off the dock between 4:30am and 5:00am at the VERY LATEST! Our best fishing is ALWAYS at the crack of dawn and WE DO NOT WANT TO MISS OUT ON THAT OPPORTUNITY. Please, DO NOT BE Late! I am at the boat and ready to roll everyday by 4:30am and if you want to catch lots of fish, you will be ready as well! Well that about does it for my first week back. |
ODNR Fishing Report for 5/27/2015: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 17:14:39 5/27/15 |
Central Basin Walleye Where: Fishing was good nearshore west of Huron (Sawmill Creek), off Cranberry Creek, between Vermilion and Lorain, off Cleveland in 37 to 42 feet of water, and from Geneva to Conneaut in 35 to 55 feet of water. How: Anglers are trolling stick baits and worm harnesses. . Yellow Perch Where: Anglers are catching fish with a few limits reported just off the break wall at Lorain, in 50 to 60 feet of water off Cleveland, in 46 feet of water off Ashtabula, and in 45 to 55 feet of water off Conneaut. Fishing from shore has picked up with a few fish being caught off the E. 55th Street and E. 72nd Street piers in Cleveland and in Fairport Harbor. How: Perch spreaders or crappie rigs with shiners fished near the bottom produce the most fish. Smallmouth Bass Where: Fishing has been excellent in 5 to 20 feet of water around harbor areas in Cleveland, Fairport Harbor, Geneva, Ashtabula and Conneaut. How: Anglers are using tube jigs and crankbaits. The Lake Erie water temperature is 60 off Toledo and 55 off Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. |
ODNR Fishing Report for 3/26/2015: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 12:09:07 3/25/15 |
There is very little fishing activity on Lake Erie right now. There is still ice on Erie's western basin, but access has become very dangerous.
Ice jams on the river caused flooding and pushed large ice sheets out of the river banks, causing significant structural damage to roads, trails and parking lots in some areas. After the ice jams broke up and the river receded, large blocks of ice remained which must now be removed. Anglers looking for other access areas are reminded that Fort Meigs Fishing Access and Orleans Park in Perrysburg and White Street access in Maumee remain open. Some areas off Harrison Street are accessible, but much of the tow path and access trails are closed on both sides of Conant Street. For boaters, the Maple Street and Cory Street boat ramps are open.
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ODNR Fishing Report for 3/18/2015: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 11:42:03 3/18/15 |
Walleye Where: Ice fishing for walleye was exceptional through the weekend. With warmer weather travel is becoming unsafe and conditions are changing daily. How: Most anglers are jigging with spoons tipped with emerald shiners. Panfish Anglers are encouraged to always wear a U.S. Coast Guard-approved personal flotation device while boating. |
ODNR Fishing Report for 3/3/2015: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 07:25:40 3/04/15 |
Use caution when ice fishing on Lake Erie. Ice conditions are extremely variable and can change quickly. Walleye Panfish
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ODNR Fishing Report for 2/11/2015: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 04:46:24 2/13/15 |
Walleye Use caution when ice fishing on Lake Erie. Ice conditions are extremely variable and can change quickly. Where: The best walleye ice fishing has been between Catawba and Camp Perry. Most reports have come from the buoys around the southeast corner of the Camp Perry firing range, and as close as 2 miles out of Catawba State Park. Panfish Anglers are encouraged to always wear a U.S. Coast Guard-approved personal flotation device while boating. |
ODNR Fishing Report for 2/04/2015: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 18:13:24 2/04/15 |
Walleye Use caution when ice fishing on Lake Erie. Ice conditions are extremely variable and can change quickly. Where: Most ice fishing reports for walleye have come from the area between Catawba and Camp Perry. Recent snow has made travel on the ice difficult in some areas. Panfish Anglers are encouraged to always wear a U.S. Coast Guard-approved personal flotation device while boating. |
ODNR Fishing Report for 1/28/2015: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 17:16:59 1/28/15 |
Walleye Use caution when ice fishing on Lake Erie. Ice conditions are extremely variable and can change quickly. Where: There have been reports of walleye being caught through the ice 2-to-4 miles off Camp Perry and west of Catawba State Park. Panfish |
ODNR Fishing Report for 1/21/2015: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 07:12:54 1/23/15 |
Walleye Use caution when ice fishing on Lake Erie. Ice conditions are extremely variable and can change quickly. Where: There have been reports of walleye being caught through the ice, mostly within a few miles of Catawba State Park. |
ODNR Fishing Report for 1/14/2015: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 07:27:55 1/15/15 |
Walleye Recent cold weather has ended open water fishing and ice is forming. Although there have already been reports of both main lake and harbor ice fishing, ice conditions are still extremely variable. Use caution when ice fishing on Lake Erie. |
ODNR Fishing Report for 1/06/2015: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 08:07:06 1/07/15 |
Walleye Where: Walleye were caught through the weekend in open water between Cedar Point and Huron, and off Cleveland harbor. Weather conditions will most likely limit open water fishing opportunities. How: Anglers trolling were using deep diving crankbaits (deep husky jerks and Reef Runners) and shallow diving crankbaits (husky jerks and perfect 10's) in the top half of the water column. Anglers fishing from shore and piers are casting shallow diving crankbaits.
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ODNR Fishing Report for 1/02/2015: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 06:55:20 1/03/15 |
Walleye Where: Walleye were caught last weekend between Cedar Point and Huron, east of Kelleys Island, and around Cleveland harbor. How: Anglers trolling are using deep diving crankbaits (deep husky jerks) and shallow diving crankbaits (husky jerks and perfect 10's) in the top half of the water column. Anglers fishing the shoreline and piers are casting shallow diving crankbaits. The Lake Erie water temperature is 33 degrees off Toledo and 37 degrees off Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. Anglers are encouraged to always wear a U.S. Coast Guard-approved personal flotation device while boating. |
Lake Erie fishing report for January 1, 2015: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 06:16:10 1/01/15 |
Happy 2015 New Fishing Season! And oh yeah, HAPPY NEW YEAR too! We are now officially at about the half way point of the off season. It seems like the time between putting up the boat at the end of the fishing season and the end of the holidays goes faster and faster for me each year. A blur is the best way I can describe it. And I know as fast as that time went by, these next couple of months or so between now and splashing the boat again for the 2015 fishing season are going to fly by just as fast! But before we look forward, lets take one final look back at the fishing season that just passed by. Last year was the strangest start to the spring fishing that we ever had. I put the boat in a week later then ever and even at that it was another week before we could get out because the lake was STILL FROZEN! After a few trips lost because of that, we finally got things rolling and the season was under way in earnest. Our spring stay at Port Clinton ended up being a good one. “The Trophy” went on to boat 615 spring Walleyes and even a couple of rare Lake Erie Muskies! If it weren't for the usual amount of crappy cold early spring rough water days and the lost trips along with the first hint that we were in store for a White Bass year from Hell, I would say it was almost great! We returned to our home port of Ashtabula as per usual on Memorial Day weekend and the big Walleyes were stacked up and already waiting for us. We went on to have a phenomenal June with the near shore, high in the water column fish. But along with the Walleyes, the nuisance White Bass were there as well in big numbers waiting for us and it made things very difficult for us. We spent many wasted hours reeling in and resetting lines needlessly just because we simply could not keep the junk White Bass off. That and all the tangles that they always seem to cause. Day after day. It was just the beginning of a long summer for me with them. But even with all of that, we weeded through all of the junk and put together day after day, rack after racks of amazing world class Walleye catches! It was truly amazing! The rest of the summer went on about as well as could be expected. The fish moved offshore like they always do and we started fighting the elements as much as we did the fish. Both the good ones and bad. And it’s never as easy when you are way offshore fishing. Even the slightest of winds can make for challenging waves out there. And the numerous White Bass followed the big Walleyes offshore as well. The days, weeks and months eventually slipped by and by the time it was over we added about another 2,400 Walleyes to our Walleye count and ended up boating right around 3,000 Walleyes total aboard “The Trophy” for the year 2014. Many of the fish in the 24” to 30” inch plus range. A very good year as far as that goes! The final leg of our season, the Perch season in the fall was great as it almost always is! We did have a few tougher days in the beginning and the very end but for the most part, most days were “ just about as good as it gets”! We even caught a few more Walleyes incidentally! We ended up pulling the boat out of the water mid October, a couple weeks earlier then usual and it ended being a good call as our fall weather really deteriorated rapidly. So, all in all, lots of fish, lots of great memories made and just like that my 28th year of full time chartering was in the books! So as I get ready for my 29th year in business, I have to wonder what the new fishing season will bring and just how much longer I can continue to do this at least at this level. Every year is just a little tougher on me then the year before. I must admit, some of the days it’s just not as much fun for me anymore out there. I shudder at the thoughts of having another year of battling all of the junk fish like last year just to get my guests their needed Walleyes. And the rough water wears me out way faster then it used to. I feel beat up and tired all the time it seems like. This job is very physical and is really a much younger mans job. At least at the level that I have been operating at. But I will show up again this year, do my very best and hope for just a little kindness on the part of Mother Nature and the fishing Gods. This year I am really going to strive to encourage my trolling groups to come as a group of four anglers. I don’t care so much about having that 5th person on the drift fishing trips or on the Perch trips but it just dismays me when I know I have to put 5 limits of fish in the boat when I have 5 people for the day and the price that I am going to have to pay to try and catch that many fish. Many days we don’t do so no matter how hard I try. It seems like we can usually catch 4 limits before things slow way down to almost nothing and if we have to catch more, we just end up battling the rest of the day catching crap fish and getting ourselves further and further from the harbor in usually rough water. It just is so much better for all involved when the trolling party is held down to 4 people. Once again I am going to simply“ask” people to try and do this for me and for themselves. Try and keep the party size down to four people if at all possible. If I make it to 30 years and maybe beyond, this might just be my policy. Time will tell. But for at least this year, there are no changes what so ever planned for 2015. Same dock locations, same rates, same everything. So that’s it for this mid winter update. Check out the new pictures that are up now on our websites home page slide show and the album page from some of last seasons finer catches. If you’re one of our guests from last year, see if you made this very special cut! And if we tentatively set a date aside for you for this coming year or even talked about it, now is the time for you to confirm your trip or trips. Letters and brochures for most of you that are on the mailing list will go out later towards this months end. It won’t be long now and we’ll be back in the water for “Just another day on the Trophy”! Year of 2015! See you SOON!!! Capt. Walt |
ODNR Fishing Report for 12/26/2014: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 05:08:45 12/27/14 |
Walleye Where: Last weekend walleye were caught between Cedar Point and Huron in 35-to-42 feet of water, east of Kelleys Island, and around Cleveland harbor. How: Anglers trollings are using deep diving crankbaits (deep husky jerks and Reef Runners) and shallow diving crankbaits (husky jerks and perfect 10's) in the top half of the water column. Anglers fishing the shoreline and piers are casting shallow diving crankbaits.
Anglers are encouraged to always wear a U.S. Coast Guard-approved personal flotation device while boating. |
ODNR Fishing Report for 12/17/2014: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 20:15:28 12/17/14 |
Walleye Where: Over the past weekend walleye were caught between Cedar Point and Huron in 35-to-42 feet of water, east of Kelleys Island, and around Cleveland harbor. How: Anglers trolling are using deep diving crankbaits (deep husky jerks and Reef Runners) and shallow diving crankbaits (husky jerks and perfect 10's) in the top half of the water column. Anglers fishing from shore are casting shallow diving crankbaits. The Lake Erie water temperature is 35 degrees off Toledo and 38 degrees off Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. Anglers are encouraged to always wear a U.S. Coast Guard-approved personal flotation device while boating. |
ODNR Fishing Report for 12/02/2014: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 16:41:20 12/02/14 |
Walleye Where: Walleye fishing was good the week of Thanksgiving. The best areas were east of Kelleys Island, nearshore from Huron to Vermilion, and around Cleveland harbor. The Lake Erie water temperature is 36 degrees off Toledo and 42 degrees off Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. Anglers are encouraged to always wear a U.S. Coast Guard-approved personal flotation device while boating. |
ODNR Fishing Report for 11/25/2014: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 06:44:25 11/26/14 |
Walleye Where: For the second straight week weather conditions have limited Lake Erie fishing opportunities. If conditions improve the best walleye fishing will be nearshore around the islands, from Cedar Point to Lorain, and around Cleveland harbor. The Lake Erie water temperature is 37 degrees off Toledo and 44 degrees off Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. Anglers are encouraged to always wear a U.S. Coast Guard-approved personal flotation device while boating. |
ODNR Fishing Report for 11/19/2014: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 07:15:59 11/20/14 |
Walleye Where: Recent weather conditions have limited Lake Erie fishing opportunities. If conditions improve the best walleye fishing will be nearshore around the islands, from Cedar Point to Lorain, and around Cleveland harbor. How:Anglers trolling are using deep diving crankbaits in open water and shallow diving crankbaits nearshore at night. Anglers fishing from shore and piers are casting shallow diving crank baits. The Lake Erie water temperature is 41 degrees off Toledo and 48 degrees off Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. Anglers are encouraged to always wear a U.S. Coast Guard-approved personal flotation device while boating. |
ODNR Fishing Report for 11/12/2014: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 07:34:00 11/14/14 |
Walleye Where: Daytime walleye fishing has been slow. The best fishing has been 4-to-8 miles offshore from Cedar Point to Vermilion. Night fishing for walleye has been good in shallow water along the shorelines around the Bass Islands, Kelleys Island, Huron, Lorain, and Cleveland. How: Anglers trolling are using deep diving crankbaits in open water and shallow diving crankbaits nearshore at night. Shoreline and pier anglers are casting shallow diving crankbaits. The Lake Erie water temperature is 45 degrees off Toledo and 51 degrees off Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. Anglers are encouraged to always wear a U.S. Coast Guard-approved personal flotation device while boating. |
ODNR Fishing Report for 11/4/2014: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 19:43:38 11/05/14 |
Central Basin Walleye Yellow perch Smallmouth Bass and Largemouth Bass Steelhead The Lake Erie water temperature is 47 degrees off Toledo and 54 degrees off Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. Anglers are encouraged to always wear a U.S. Coast Guard-approved personal flotation device while boating. |
ODNR Fishing Report for 10/29/2014: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 05:56:09 10/31/14 |
Central Basin Walleye Yellow perch Smallmouth bass and Largemouth Bass White bass Steelhead The Lake Erie water temperature is 53 off Toledo and 57 off Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. Anglers are encouraged to always wear a U.S. Coast Guard-approved personal flotation device while boating. |
ODNR Fishing Report for 10/22/2014: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 04:32:22 10/23/14 |
Central Basin Walleye Yellow perch Smallmouth bass and Largemouth Bass White bass Steelhead The Lake Erie water temperature is 53 off Toledo and 59 off Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. Anglers are encouraged to always wear a U.S. Coast Guard-approved personal flotation device while boating. |
ODNR Fishing Report for 10/16/2014: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 08:26:55 10/17/14 |
Central Basin Walleye Yellow perch Smallmouth bass and Largemouth Bass White bass Steelhead The Lake Erie water temperature is 55 off Toledo and 60 off Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast.
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Lake Erie fishing report for the week of October 12, 2014.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 05:08:03 10/12/14 |
It’s finally a wrap. The fishing season of 2014 is all but in the books for “The Trophy”! What started out seven months ago way back in March at Port Clinton, OH chasing early spring Walleyes came to a successful end today in Ashtabula, OH with our final Perch trip and trip of any sorts for this season. “The Trophy” comes out of the water tomorrow morning, Monday Oct. the 13th for a well earned long winters nap! The Captain and the old girl are both ready quite frankly. Its been a long and sometimes bumpy road! It has been a couple of weeks now since my last fishing report. That doesn't happen too often. I had a lot of different things going on last weekend though so I let one slide there. And this one will now be the final one for this year. In the very last report that I did write, I was looking forward to a nice stretch of good weather and a nice run of Perch trips that I had on the books. And it all played out nicely. For the most part. Monday through Friday we had great weather and even greater Perch fishing. Man, we just slaughtered the Perch with many, many true Jumbos being caught everyday. But starting with last weekend we entered a very ugly stretch of wet, cool and nonstop windy days. There was a six day stretch there where nobody could get out no matter what. Other then loosing the weekend trips a week ago, I didn't have much scheduled this past week though so it wasn't a real crushing blow to me. We resumed our fishing and my final few Perch trips this weekend and it all went about as well as can be expected after a really big blow. Even at that he lake was supposed to be 2 foot or less each day which of coarse it wasn't and was rather chilly to boot. Considering it blew hard for a solid week, it was a wonder that we caught anything at all. But we did manage to put together some nice boxes of fish in our last few outings regardless. Definitely not as good as it had been but decent enough. We even managed to catch a couple of bonus Walleyes while Perching this weekend! And quite a few others have as well this whole fall season. More so while Perching this year then I remember ever before really. It makes me think there must still be a good gang of them out there quite apparently! So it’s over for another year. Year number 28 of full time chartering for me! I find that alone very mind boggling! Where did all these years go? Anyway this year will go down in my ever getting thicker book as a very good year. Not a great year, but pretty darn close to it. All in all, it was a rather coolish spring and summer this year with more then our share of rain. The Walleyes didn't seem to mind it however and averaging everything out, our catch rates were very good with many limit catches. The size of the Walleyes was ridiculously good as it has been for many years now as we continue to catch many big fish still from the monster hatch that we had way back in 2003. Very mature, big Walleyes. On a side note, reports are starting to come in from the Dept. of Natural Resources and other sources indicating that this years hatch was very strong also! A interesting story well worth following! OK, as I bring this final report to a close, as I do every year I want to thank all of my new friends and old friends that fished with me this season! I am humbled at how loyal most of my cliental has been over these many years. I thank each and everyone that fished with me this year from the bottom of my heart. Without your interest and continuing support, “The Trophy’ would have surely been dead in the water a long time ago. I’m not going to go ramble on and on about this but I do want everyone to know that I am very sincere in my appreciation for all of you guys! And finally, I want to thank everyone that has been following along here with my weekly little fishing blogs both on my website and on the Fish Lake Erie.com website. I hope you all enjoyed reading about my journey through this fishing season as much as I enjoyed sharing it all with you! So, till we meet again either right here on these fishing reports or on-board “The Trophy” itself, I bid everyone a final farewell for now and a very safe and healthy winter season. Stay warm and we’ll catch everyone again NEXT YEAR!!! Capt. Walt |
ODNR Fishing Report for 10/9/2014: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 05:57:01 10/11/14 |
Central Basin Walleye Yellow perch Smallmouth bass and Largemouth Bass White bass Steelhead The Lake Erie water temperature is 57 off Toledo and 63 off Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast.
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ODNR Fishing Report for 10/2/2014: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 17:25:17 10/03/14 |
Central Basin Walleye Yellow perch Smallmouth bass and Largemouth Bass White bass Steelhead The Lake Erie water temperature is 65 off Toledo and 65 off Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. Anglers are encouraged to always wear a U.S. Coast Guard-approved personal flotation device while boating. |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of September 28, 2014.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 12:24:31 9/28/14 |
Just a Perch jerking machine now! Well this was the first week since the boat went in the water way back this spring in March where “The Trophy” did not have even a single Walleye charter scheduled. We did manage to squeeze a couple of Perch charters in however and still managed to pay the light bill! Lol! And just as I predicted in closing in my last weeks report, this past weeks weather was just as delightful as it could be once we got past Monday which was unfishable. But since then it’s been nothing but light breezes and wall to wall sunshine and temps in the 70’s! I just have to shake my head at my luck. I would have loved to have had weather like this the last couple weeks that I ran my final Walleye trips. The blow that I Perched in last Saturday and Sunday and especially Monday where it really blew did not do our Perch fishing any favors. The first couple of days back on the water for most that went Perching was very slow and just about everybody really struggled to put any great numbers in the fish box. It’s been my experience over the many years that I've fished for Perch is that it usually takes about three days for things to return to normal and the fish to really fire back up. And this blow was a textbook example of that and demonstrated that fact again. After a slow rebound for most everyone early on in the week, by Thursday it was like somebody flipped a light switch and most went from struggling to easily limiting out. Though I had no trips myself, as I threatened to do so also in last weeks report, I went fishing for myself on Thursday & Friday aboard my dock partner's boat as a guest along with some other fellow captains. And we just KILLED the Perch and were the first boat back to the marina each morning. We had 150 the first day and 180 the second day. Very nice! And after all the fish got divied up I still got a nice load for my freezer to enjoy this coming winter when the snow starts to fly! Thank you Capt. Ray! Saturday and Sunday of this weekend, it was back to work for me aboard “The Trophy” showing others once again a good time at this fall Perch fishing thing that we do. And we did not disappoint nor did the cooperative Perch let us down either! Saturday and Sunday both were very fast and furious with a generous amount of the fish being true Jumbo Perch. Twelve's, thirteen's and even fourteen inchers were very plentiful! We limited out Saturday with a 150 Perch and Sunday where we needed 180 fish, we easily got those as well. There was never a dull moment either both days as we were inundated with junk fish Sheephead, White Perch and White Bass as well. If you didn't get a bite within a minute or so at any given point of those two days, rest assured you had no bait left! It was just non stop action for everyone for as long as we were anchored up. Doubles and triples were quite common. Sometimes all good ones. Sometimes all junk. Sometimes one good one and two junk or vice versa. We went through lots of bait! LOL! This coming week’s weather forecast continues to be as optimistic as any forecast that I have seen this entire fishing season. No cold fronts. Wall to wall sunshine for all week long and most importantly of all, no big winds! And unlike last weeks schedule where I didn't have much going on, this coming week looks to be pretty busy for me aboard “The Trophy” with a nice run of Perch charters scheduled on the books. I guess this will be my last big run at it for this year as we get ready to pull the boat out for the winter here in about two weeks. A bit earlier then in other years but my past experience has almost always been that it really doesn’t pay for me to stay in the water much longer then mid October. Speaking of which, we flip the page on the calendar here once again one final time in this fishing season of 2014 to October in a couple of days. Sad to see in some ways yet exciting in many other ways for me to see the season finally come to an end. I've been very dedicated to my work here for the last seven months. I am looking forward to some time off now with my family and to be able to do some of the normal things that most people do and that many take for granted. BUT, it’s not over with quite yet! Even with my run of Perch trips coming up, I still have a handful of open dates available before we pull the boat. So if anybody is interested in an end of the season fishing trip, I can hook you up. It will have to be a Perch trip though now. The Walleye gear is coming off the boat this week I've decided! That chapter for me for this year is now over with. So let’s go jerk some Perch! Capt. Walt |
ODNR Fishing Report for 9/24/2014: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 08:29:52 9/25/14 |
Central Basin Walleye Yellow perch Smallmouth bass and Largemouth Bass White bass Steelhead
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Lake Erie fishing report for the week of September 21, 2014.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 13:58:12 9/21/14 |
Still Walleye fishing. Still catching! Well it was another choppy week out on the big pond this past week offshore. Maybe some of the Perch jerkers would say otherwise anchored in real close but it was nothing short of miserable for me. Blowing and white caps everyday. And I mean every day. Not huge waves where we might have second guessed our decision to go but just persistent 3 to 4 footers everyday. What was weird and I don’t know that I have seen that for a whole week before was the daily 180 degree swings in wind direction. One day it was almost dead out of the south, the next day almost dead out of the north. Then again back to the south the following day. This went on all week long! The only thing that didn't change was the velocity. It was just a stiff, steady cold persistent wind no matter which way it blew. Yet the Walleye fishing was fairly steady for us. The only difference that I noticed was that the fish seemed to be much deeper then they have been at any point this whole summer and they are definitely moving back towards shore some. I chased the big fish into water as shallow as 65 foot this past week but the very best seemed to be around 68-69 foot with the fish being just a few feet off the bottom. We actually ran our lures so deep this past week that each day we were picking up a handful of really dandy sized Yellow Perch along with our Walleyes. That along with the fact that I have been moving into the range where they can be caught also. Oh well, at least they aren't White Bass! And speaking of which, in the slightly shallower waters that I have been working for the Walleyes the White Bass have been much more scarce. If we did get one, it was a really big one. And if I dare say, virtually no Sheephead either! And another thing that was practically non existent was any other Walleye anglers out there. It seems like most everybody else has slipped into the Perch fishing mode by now. Speaking of which, “The Trophy” also joined the ranks of Perch jerkers out there over the weekend. And you guessed it. Still under a extremely choppy sea condition. Both days Saturday and Sunday though ended up being very productive despite the rough water for us unlike last weekend where we really struggled in that crap. Saturday we started out in 54 foot of water. After putting about 90 Perch in the box things died completely on us and I thought, oh boy here we go again. I ended up pulling anchor and moving further out by about a mile or so to about 61 foot. After a slow start again at this second spot we ended up getting them worked up pretty good and caught the other 90 that we needed that day in rather fast fashion. I was sure to mark this spot on my plotter for the next day. Sunday greeted us with rain, thunder and a very stiff southwest wind. With none of the lightning near us at departure time and Saturdays catch still fresh in my mind, we went straight to my red X on my plotter from my second move the day before. We no sooner got anchored up and it was immediately game on! Doubles and even triples were very common. In a matter of couple of hours time we knocked out 180 beautiful Yellow Perch plus a bonus 30 inch Walleye that hit our Perch rig! When we landed it, it spit up a couple of PERCH! Imagine that! Lol! So this coming week, the last full week of September is looking to be pretty decent in the weather department once we get past Monday which sounds pretty bad. if you put any faith in their seven day forecasts that is. I’m going to go out on a limb and predict that it will most likely be the nicest lake conditions that we have had in many weeks. How do I know that or would even dare to say that? Well because I practically have all of next week completely wide open! Lol! That’s just the way it seems to work for me. You gotta love it! Anyway if anybody is interested in going fishing aboard “The Trophy” this coming week, we are definitely looking for some sponsors! Again still at this point we can do either a Walleye Charter or Perch Charter. It’s your choice as long as the weather holds and there are still some Walleyes hanging around. Give me a call if you are interested. If I don’t get any calls, I might just have to slip out there and catch a few Walleyes for my own freezer for a change before it’s too late. Especially with the big fish slipping back into somewhat easier striking distance. We’ll see... |
ODNR Fishing Report for 9/17/2014: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 05:05:09 9/18/14 |
Central Basin Walleye Yellow perch Smallmouth bass and Largemouth Bass White bass Steelhead The Lake Erie water temperature is 64 off Toledo and 68 off Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. Anglers are encouraged to always wear a U.S. Coast Guard-approved personal flotation device while boating. |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of September 14, 2014.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 07:28:19 9/14/14 |
A real taste of fall! After a decent beginning to this past weeks weather, we were hit with a dramatic change by Thursday that ushered in some of the chilliest weather since this past early spring. It came in with vengeance resulting in once again Thursday being a lost day as the wind howled and the rain flew. To say that it was an ugly day would be an understatement. Friday we were back out there Walleyeing under a still raw and cool day with a stiff north east wind. Saturday with my seasons first Perch trip scheduled, we took to the water with a rather ominous forecast looming. Small craft warnings were posted to take effect at 11:00 am. With a chilly, rainy and windy start to the day we never even made it till 11:00 am before conditions deteriorated from lousy to life threatening in one of the more dramatic, almost instant shifts in both wind direction and velocity that I have witnessed in a very long time. We pulled anchor and really struggled just to make the short one mile trip back to safe harbor. Wow is all I got to say about that! The Walleye fishing earlier in the week remained fairly strong all things considered. After a bit of a reprieve with all the junk fish the week before they were back unfortunately as well and we were again working very hard weeding through all of the White Bass and Sheephead just to get our Walleyes. Boy, it’s been a long summer with that problem. Some weeks worst then others, but there is no denying that there is a real White Bass explosion going on lake wide in Lake Erie right now. With our Walleye count on the season at over three thousand Walleyes boated aboard ‘The Trophy” now, I shudder to think how many White Bass I've had to handle this year! Twelve Thousand? Fifteen Thousand? Maybe more! I know on most days we would catch 4 or 5 White Bass for every Walleye that we would box and that is no exaggeration! It was enough to give me nightmares at times. But when we were not tied up with the junk, we did manage to capture some real beautiful late season plump Walleyes. We even landed a seasons best 13 pounder this past week aboard “The Trophy”! And even though we are still fishing well offshore for our Walleyes and not anywhere near any creeks or tributaries, the Steelhead Trout are starting to become more common in our daily Walleye catches again as well. I think we had Steelhead at least hooked up multiple times on all of our most recent outings and managed to even land one or two most days. Pretty successful trips. Rough water, junk fish and all. And back to my first Perch trip, well that did not go nearly as well. Although we caught 40 or so mostly nice Perch before the weather totally deteriorated on us, it was far from a burn and what we have come to expect when Perching. With the weather as it was there was no pulling of the anchor and go looking around elsewhere. Where we stopped is where we fished. It is what it is and I guess there is nothing you can do about the weather, and that’s fishing, and all that crap blah, blah blah... So we enter the second half of September now. I believe that I have mostly all Walleye trips still scheduled this coming week until next weekend when we will try our hand again at Perching. The weather looks to be stabilizing somewhat and I don’t see anything exceptionally bad on the horizon. We’ll see. OK, it’s been a while since I've really had many open dates to offer but it’s getting to be that part of the season where my schedule is really starting to lighten up. Although most weekends are taken, we now have some nice blocks of open dates to offer if anyone is still looking for a late season fishing trip. Right now we can still go either Walleye or Perch. Just give me a call. And again last week I mentioned that we were going to start leaving the dock at 5:30 am. Well that’s still too early. I can’t believe how long it’s staying dark now in the mornings already. I’m now telling everyone for this weeks trips to meet at 6:00 am. That about wraps it up for another week. We’ll see what this coming week brings. |
ODNR Fishing Report for 9/10/2014: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 06:01:18 9/11/14 |
Central Basin Walleye Yellow perch Smallmouth bass and Largemouth Bass White bass The Lake Erie water temperature is 71 off Toledo and 70 off Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. Anglers are encouraged to always wear a U.S. Coast Guard-approved personal flotation device while boating. |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of September 7, 2014.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 04:31:02 9/07/14 |
Still a fair week but working really hard at it now! This holiday shortened fishing week seen plenty of ups and downs for us but once again the fishing for the Walleyes was pretty good if you got out there and worked for them. I mentioned in last weeks fishing report that I couldn’t help but feel that things are really changing out there now all of a sudden. And after this past week, there is no doubt in my mind that it has. There is a awful lot of dead water out there now where you go long stretches without moving a rod. Even the junk fish situation seems to be easing drastically. And then you hit a little pocket and most all the rods all go off at the same time with Walleyes! Then back to nothing. Very strange. Of coarse I would mark the little spots up where we do catch fish right away on my chart plotter. Then if the waves would allow, I would re-run those spots. Sometimes it would produce a few more fish. Sometimes it wouldn’t and then we would have to go looking again. The start of the week after Labor Day Monday was not a pretty one however. Tuesday was only “supposed” to be 2 to 4 footers. We loaded up and took off in the dark as we do every morning. Well, it may have been 2-4’s right at the gap of the break wall but with the wind really humming out of the west, southwest it didn’t take long for us to be in a very heavy sea. I pushed on constantly checking with my guests if they were still comfortable with going and everyone onboard seemed game but by the time we arrived at the fishing grounds I had two ladies hanging over the sides suddenly quite sea sick. Without even wetting a line, I just spun it around and just came back. Chalk another one up in the lost column. Mid week Wed. & Thur. were the gems of the week. Simply picture perfect! Not too hot, a light breeze and relatively flat seas. And I really needed conditions like that for my two day trip with some of my most elderly guests that I get. Sometimes all the stars do align up and we got two awesome days for my four senior fisherman. For their efforts they took home 48 Walleyes for two days Thank God I could spin around on those small pockets of fish once we hit some because that’s what it took to get them. Friday was back to rough out of the south but we still managed to max out along with a bonus Steelhead. Saturday was back to total crap again. It was just nice enough when we left for us to run out 12 miles and start getting set up when we got hit by a big wind shift and a wall of wind that dropped temperatures considerably and almost instantly kicked the lake up to 4 to 6 footers. Under horrible squalls of wind driven rain and some serious white caps I once again pulled the plug and reluctantly headed back to port. Boy I’m getting pretty sick of making these long runs out there just to turn around and come right back. We fished a total of about a whole 5 minutes but we did catch A Walleye! A, as in one! Lol! So another week is in the books for us. Unbelievably I have my first Perch trip of the year next weekend already and that will really give me the feeling that this summer is all but over with. I still have a mix of Walleye trips and Perch trips over the next few weeks before I finish up with all Perch though. OK, I never put a lot of faith in the long range forecasts but the latter part of next week looks quite troublesome already again with rain coming and temperatures struggling to get into the low 60’s. That usually spells big northerly winds. We’ll just have to see. Sometime this coming week I’m going to load up all of my Perch gear on the boat anyway so if it gets too rough to go way offshore, we always have that option to fall back on as well. And finally, we have bumped our departure time back some and are now departing the dock at 5:30am. It’s just staying dark now too long with each passing day. Welcome to fall I guess. Stay tuned... Capt. Walt |
ODNR Fishing Report for 9/3/2014: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 10:09:30 9/04/14 |
Central Basin Walleye Yellow perch Smallmouth bass and Largemouth Bass White bass The Lake Erie water temperature is 72 off Toledo and 69 off Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. Anglers are encouraged to always wear a U.S. Coast Guard-approved personal flotation device while boating. |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of August 31, 2014.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 06:14:37 8/31/14 |
September! Well we blew through the month of August like it was nobody's business. And with a flip of the page September is here and symbolically signals the end of summer and for all practical purposes, just about the end of my and many other peoples Walleye trips. Before this month is over, I will for most likely be all done Walleyeing, will for sure be running some final Perch charters and literally be counting down my final few trips of any sorts for the year. Yes, It’s just about the end of the road for me and “The Trophy” for yet another season. A road that started a long six months ago. Thousands of boat hours ago spent aboard “The Trophy’ this season and many more miles then that traveled by water aboard ‘The Trophy” as well since she was first splashed this year way back in March. And I’m afraid summer is going to end just about the way it started around here. With plenty of Walleyes but with a horrific amount of junk fish pestering us as we try to load up on the “eyes. This past week seen the terribly annoying return of the junk White Bass just like we went through back in June, that along with more Sheep Head then we have seen all summer. Big, fowl hooked Sheep Head that will bring even the strongest of muscle men to their knees trying to winch them in just so we can clear the lines and run them back out in hopes that a big Walleye will grab it before another frustrating junk fish beat the Walleyes to the bait once again. It was very, very bad with White Bass this past week. Just horrible actually. And the weather was nothing to write home about either this past week. The cycle of good weather one week and crap to work in the next that we have experienced for over a month now on the lake continued on with this past week being another one of those crap weeks. Almost every day was very rough on the big lake. A couple of days to the point where most cancelled their trips and sent their groups packing. I had the right group of tough guys however on those days so we sucked it up, cranked it out and got our days in with very productive results none the less but it was far from easy. Very tiring just trying to stand no less constantly reeling in junk fish after junk fish just to get our Walleyes. But we did get plenty of Walleyes and even a few big Steelhead and after everything was said and done, everyone went home happy. Done for another year. Unlike me, where I have to get up everyday and go do it all over again. All week long, all season long. Choppy water, White Bass and Sheephead invasion or whatever. Day after day. Just like the movie, Ground Hog Day. Get up and do it over, and over and over again. So we are in the final leg of our Walleye season now. Right now I just am not sure its going to hold up as good as it did last year. It sure seems to be changing out there now in a hurry. We covered a lot of water this past week making very long slides in the rough water and I was shocked at how much bad water we covered without pulling any Walleyes for long stretches. That and the onslaught of junk fish. Not very encouraging. But still, even with the handicaps that we were handed this past week, we still ended up with some incredibly nice catches. We just had to work that much harder then we have had to for a long time now. We’ll see what this coming week has to bring. The end of the season is starting to sound better to me with each passing day now! Happy September everybody! |
ODNR Fishing Report for 8/27/2014: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 18:28:15 8/27/14 |
Central Basin Walleye Yellow perch Smallmouth bass and Largemouth Bass White bass
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ODNR Fishing Report for 8/27/2014: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 18:26:35 8/27/14 |
Central Basin Walleye Yellow perch Smallmouth bass and Largemouth Bass White bass
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Lake Erie fishing report for the week of August 24, 2014.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 06:13:24 8/24/14 |
A very nice week at work! After a week like the one we had before last where the weather really challenged us, this one was just like the one we had here a few weeks ago. Practically perfect! Just simply delightful weather to work with. “The Trophy” put a lot of miles on each day this week, running out into the lake on average about 15 miles out and then trolling all day and then running back the same 15 miles. No big deal though when the lake is flat like it was. And that’s what we mostly had here last week. Very calm seas of mostly 1 to 2 footers or less everyday. Man I wish it could be like that more often! The Walleye fishing remained very good for us and many of the others out there. We spent most of the week running northeast ourselves but there were a lot of different areas that the different charters and private anglers found fish in. The particular school of fish that I have been chasing for a while now does seem to be on a slow and steady march eastward however. And rather then keep rolling up the miles, it might be time to take a look at some of these other areas that the guys are fishing. Especially the closer ones. Even though the lake has been quite flat, my fuel bills here as of late have been rather ugly. Along with a flat lake also comes the temptation to get into the throttles a little more then we would normally cruise in when there is a chop on the lake! Lol! The fish themselves have been very predictable. Just a nice layer of fish hanging about 50 to 55 foot down in mostly water 69 to 72 foot of water every day. They have been stacked like this for a very long time now. Get offshore, get your stuff down deep and get ready to get busy. Oddly though here as of late, we have not been getting a strong early dawn bite. Seems like everyday now we manage to get all the rods or almost all the rods in before they really start to bend. But once they do start to fire, the next few hours are usually very hot before we start hitting the wall where things really start slowing down. And it does almost everyday around 10ish it seems like. Though we have been getting all of our fish, it is noticeably harder once that “wall” rears it’s ugly head most every day. So it’s here. The last week of August already. It just does not seem possible. At least we did squeeze out a couple of really nice weeks out of this month. That amongst a couple of weeks that I would like to forget about. But we got through all of it so far and I look forward to possibly having yet another great weather week to round out the month with. Right now, the forecast looks no different then last weeks did. They are still calling for considerable warmth although it never did get as hot this past week as they had called for. That part was OK with me. As long as they don’t call for and we don’t get those dog gone big winds here in the final dog days of summer. I think Mother Nature still owes us some nice weather yet this summer. Stay tuned... |
ODNR Fishing Report for 8/20/2014: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 17:25:22 8/21/14 |
Central Basin Walleye Yellow perch Smallmouth bass White bass
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Lake Erie fishing report for the week of August 17, 2014.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 12:29:44 8/17/14 |
Is this REALLY August? REALLY? What a lousy, cold week in what should be the hottest month of the whole year. Last week I made mention that there was a cool down coming according to the forecast. Wow, did we get one. I also mentioned that they however were not calling for a lot of wind associated with the cooler weather. Well, they weren't a couple days out before the bomb dropped on us but the marine forecast sure changed in a hurry as the cool down approached. They started bumping the wave forecasts up every time I would check the marine forecast. What on Sunday looked like 1 to 3 footers for all week long ended up being 4 to 6 footers plus predicted by mid week resulting in multiple days lost again where it was just too rough to go. No matter who you were. No matter how big your boat is. Just too much. The week before we had such a delightful week. One of just a few weeks this summer where we didn’t have any big cold fronts and storms and wind to contend with. This past week it was back to same ole, same ole though. People once again walking around in long pants, hooded sweat shirts and jackets. Unbelievable. Wednesday and Thursday were the very worst with November like looking skies and gusty cold winds blowing hard all day long. Lake Erie was one churning frothy mess. Earlier in the week, Monday and Tuesday along with Friday right before and after the peak of the cold front was nothing to write home about either. It was chilly on the lake, especially in the mornings and rather choppy as well. Fishable but not necessarily the very nicest. Probably 2 to 4 footers. Just not all that comfortable to fish in. But you can’t cancel all your trips. It’s not good for the guys that for a lot of them waited all year long for their big day and certainly not good for my business's bottom line. So you suck it up and just go when you can. Yet one thing remained fortunately the same ole, same ole as well. And that was that just like it has all summer long, cold front after cold front, big winds after big wind, nothing much changes in the fishing department. We get back out there and it’s like nothing ever happened. Lots and lots of big Walleyes eagerly waiting to smack our lures the minute we start up again. Simply amazing. This past Friday proved that once again. After loosing back to back days because of ferocious high winds and waves we got back out there on a still rather choppy lake and easily knocked out 30 nice Walleyes in a matter of just a few hours. Nothing had changed at all. In fact, even the lead lengths that I use on my board lines and Dipsey rods each day have been the same exact counts for over a month now. We just pound our way out there, get the gear in the water and start harvesting Walleyes. Big, plump world class Walleyes. Fish that Ashtabula has now become famous for! So we are well past mid month now already. Many of the kids are back to school already. The summer that never really was is quickly fading away. The weeks and months just scream by as fall looms around the corner now. In some ways I am happy to see it all winding down yet like everyone else, sad to see the warmest months of the year all but over with now even if they weren't all that warm this year. We may just get one last blast of some real heat after all though. Just like last week where at this point I was talking about a impending cool down, now the talk for this coming week is of possibly the warmest weather of the summer with a real chance of cracking the 90 degree mark, which strangely we have not done this whole summer. I’ll have to see it to believe it myself. Again, not much talk about any high winds of any kind either for this coming week but we all know how quickly those forecasts can change around here. One thing I think we can count on though. The Walleyes aren't going anywhere any time soon and if we can get out there to them, the amazing Walleye fishing should continue in this truly odd weather year. Tight lines...
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ODNR Fishing Report for 8/13/2014: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 18:35:04 8/14/14 |
Central Basin Walleye Yellow perch Smallmouth bass White bass
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Lake Erie fishing report for the week of August 10, 2014.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 05:30:03 8/10/14 |
A perfect week! Perfect weather with perfect limit catches. We just had just one of the most delightful weeks of this whole summer. After a less then perfect July at least in the weather department, this past week was about as nice as it gets. Even nicer maybe then in a normal hot summer where we would be sweating away in the August heat. It was just very comfortable and even almost coolish in the early morning hours. A pleasant change from other years where we were getting burnt up by the hot sun and high humidity that August often brings. It sure is a different kind of summer. We didn’t have a lot of rain or thunderstorms or big winds either to combat the whole week long which made my job a lot easier and things much more comfortable for my fishing guests. Just pretty much perfect! Walleye fishing remained very good offshore. We fished a variety of different spots throughout the week, all with the same good results. “The Trophy” spent several days to the east of the harbor, couple days straight out, and even back out NW of the harbor. It didn’t seem to matter. There is just a lot of fish everywhere out there right now. Most of our trolls this past week were long, one way trolls. There was no need to rush into any turns to stay on the fish. In fact, most of the time when I started to think that we really ought to go into a turn, we would hook another fish or two and it would squelch those plans. A very good problem! Couldn't turn because we constantly had fish on! I think we had more triples and quadruples hooked up this week then any other week this whole summer as well. Man, when it’s good, it’s really GOOD! The Walleyes themselves seem to be stacked up pretty uniformly in the 50 to 60 foot down range in better then 70 foot plus of water. Lots of “hooks” showing up on the fish finders right now practically every where you look offshore. Aboard “The Trophy”, we have been running the wire line program off of the big planer boards to get our lures down to them. Storm Thundersticks have been our weapons of choice. I really don’t think colors seem to matter out there either right now. Just get the lures down to the right depth, run them at the right speed, find the right angle in the troll direction that doesn’t fight whatever currents may be flowing down deep and just hold on! Many times we don’t even get the lines clipped up to the planer board line. They are snapping them right out of our hands as we work the rods around. Pretty amazing stuff! So, it looks like perhaps there may be a bit of a further cool down coming this upcoming week. We’re only talking a handful of degrees but that should insure that we’re not going to get baked out there again this coming week. Right now, the marine forecast does not reflect any higher winds in the forecast but I wouldn't be surprised if the “cooler” weather that they are talking about didn’t come in with at least some stronger “breezes”. I suppose it would be too much to ask for another week as pleasant as the one that had just passed. I guess as always, we will just have to see what rolls around and just deal with it as it happens. I don’t think anything could slow down the great fishing at this point that is taking place out there right now. There are just way too many fish in the region for anything to change any time soon. And that in itself is just PERFECT! Capt. Walt |
ODNR Fishing Report for 8/6/2014: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 18:13:50 8/06/14 |
Central Basin Walleye Yellow perch Smallmouth bass White bass
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Lake Erie fishing report for the week of August 3, 2014.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 05:35:46 8/03/14 |
August! Hopefully this August's weather will return to more summer like conditions and be a lot less eventful and stressful then this last month of Julys weather was for us. This past week's weather, the last week of July was no exception. Monday thru Thursday was a real meteorological potpourri of you name it, we got it! Monday we had a cold front go thru the region that kicked up the biggest winds of the summer so far. The waves over the lake were just plain unbelievable! Worst then they predicted. No one fished. Tuesday morning they were calling for wind and waves to subside and only be 1 to 3 footers. I greeted my party at five o clock in the morning in dismay to the flags still snapping and standing straight out. The docks were rocking badly and the boats were bouncing uncontrollably. It looked hopeless. Most others sent their trips home. I decided to put a hold on things and see what happened after day break. Still rough! Another weather delay later and finally, around 10am we decided to just go for it. Waves were about 4 foot still at that time. It took a little while to get out there but we killed the fish and it ended up being a fun day! Wednesday looked to be uneventful. WRONG! After checking all my live Doppler weather feeds that I subscribe to on my big electronics, everything looked good to go so we went ahead and cast off at 4:30am in the darkness as we have been doing so all summer long. After splitting the gap and starting out into the lake we see some flashes of lighting! What! After checking again the live Doppler, I just couldn’t believe my eyes! A line of nasty looking pop up thunderstorms had blossomed right over our heads and out into the lake where we needed to go. And just that fast! Crap. Back to the dock we go and again we find ourselves in another weather delay. The storm continued to intensify and our decision to return was a good one. After a spectacular lighting show and lots of rain, things finally let up and the remnants of the storm moved slowly eastward and away from us. Again with a much later then anticipated departure time we headed out but the fishing Gods were very kind to us and rewarded us with 24 beautiful Walleyes in a fairly fast fashion. Thursday rolls around and things just have to be less dramatic, right? Wrong again! We make the long ride all the way out there, get all of our lines in the water under a ominous line of big dark black clouds and just as daybreak is breaking and our first Walleye is coming in, I look up and see a water spout! And another one! And another, and another, and another! They were EVERYWHERE! You just got to be kidding me! Man, I’m starting to feel more like a storm chaser then a charter captain. It really was tense with all the water spouts bearing right down on us at times. At one point, I had everyone up under the hard top as one bore down on us from the rear and coming right up my stern. I had my second engine fired up already and pocket knife handy just in case I had to cut the lines in a frantic situation. At the very last second and like a miracle it dissipated and the funnel retreated back into the clouds quickly. Thank you God! This continued all morning long and all around us. And through the whole show, we were netting Walleyes just as fast as we could go. What a morning! Friday, August the 1st arrives and once again for the weekend crowd, the weather is delightful. No gale winds. No lightning. No downpours and no water spouts. Just great weather and even greater fishing! It was ALMOST boring! Lol! So, fishing continues to be fabulous for us. We have been fishing most days somewhere between 10 and 15 miles out. Not horrible but not good either. Especially when the wind is smoking out of the south or any other direction for that matter. Just a long way to be out in the lake everyday. I’m still looking forward to some dog days of summer yet this season as well. The 3 H’s. You know. Hot, humid, and hazy. We really haven't had any of that yet this summer. Very unusual. I don’t think we’ve even had a single 90 degree or more day this season. Like I said, very odd. Maybe this month. Well that’s about it for another week. Happy August everyone! Storm chaser Capt. Walt, over and OUT! |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of July 27, 2014.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 12:34:17 7/27/14 |
A up and down and up week. Again, it was all about the luck of the draw in how the weather was on any given day last week and how the fishing related to that. Early on in the week we had dead flat conditions with the fish on fire for us aboard “The Trophy”. By mid week though yet another strong cold front for this time of year came rip roaring through on Wednesday creating again nasty lake conditions and very challenging fishing. We fished but really struggled to get all of our fish that day. As conditions deteriorated, we knocked off a bit early coming up short of our limits for the day. One of only a handful of days where this has happened this summer for us aboard “The Trophy”. Limit catches have been more the rule then the exception this summer as it usually is for us this time of year. And the next day, Thursday was not any better. After getting beat up pretty good myself the day before, I wasn’t too eager to go through all of that again on back to back days. With conditions supposedly improving according to the marine forecast as the morning progressed, I had the guys on a weather delay. Well after rolling our departure time back three consecutive times in two hour increments each with no real backing down of the wind and waves, I reluctantly ended up pulling the plug for the day and called the trip off. These lost days in this month of July are starting to add up. I’m not too terribly happy about how the weather has treated us this month. What ever happened to the dog days of summer with hot, humid and hazy conditions like other Julys have been in years past. What's up with all these cold fronts that keep rolling through every few days? Friday rolls around and its like the past two days had never happened. Flat seas, pleasant weather and once again great fishing. I just have to scratch my head. And again, all the weekend warriors attack the lake and think, wow, what a great summer! Must be nice to be so charmed that the days that you fish are so very nice. Not so much for some of my guests that waited all year for their long awaited fishing trip only to have it fall on one of the crap days that keeps rearing it’s ugly head around here as of late. Just plain unfortunate. But we do keep bouncing back from these cold front set backs and it seems like each time that we do come back, we come back even harder with even more phenomenal fishing. Friday was no exception. We did great and Saturday was off the charts great. In less then three hours actual fishing time, we took 31 beautiful Walleyes. Now that’s moving some rods! So I’m looking at the start of the weeks weather forecast and guess what? Yup. Yet ANOTHER very strong cold front is forecasted for the area. Imagine that! As I write this report up, I am torn in what I should do. Let the guys come up, hoping that the forecast is wrong and not as severe as they are calling for? Cancel the trip and save the guys a ride up? Or just go anyway and hope for the fish to be suicidal and get them fast and get off? Decisions, decisions, decisions. I hate it so much. And usually whatever I decide to do, it’s more times then not is the wrong decision. If I tell them not to come, it ends up being nice and everyone ends up going but me and I end up sitting wondering what the Hell just happened here. Sigh. It just is not easy. As I look at the calendar, we only have a few days left in this roller coaster month. I for one am more then ready to flip the page. Talk to you guys again in AUGUST! |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of July 20, 2014.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 13:57:56 7/20/14 |
Not the easiest of weeks. At least, not till this past weekend starting with Friday where things rebounded very nicely. But if you’re part of the weekend warrior crowd that usually only fishes on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, you probably don’t even have a clue about how lousy our weather really was and all the difficulties that all of that subsequently caused us full timers who have to fish everyday. Every group that comes up is as eager to have a great day and catch fish whether it’s a Monday, a Wednesday or a Saturday. Somehow though we fished through most all of what Mother Erie threw at us, but it was not prettiest or the easiest. All my fears from my last fishing report pretty much came true to create kind of a “perfect storm” of why the fishing was tougher the first part of the week. Starting with the good ole “Super Moon”. It just did us no favors. The Walleyes just don’t bite very good by daylight after feeding heavily all night by moonlight. It’s a fact. I’ve experienced it a hundred times plus. Plain sucks. Then add to that one of the more colder cold fronts that anyone has experienced or remembered in the month of July in a long time and you really have a loosing combination. Anyone that knows anything at all about Walleye fishing knows that cold fronts and Walleye fishing does not mix. For whatever reason, it just shuts them down. And as if all of that is not enough, now you’re fishing in very rough water which makes for it’s own set of challenges even when the fish are suicidal which they were not early on in the week this past week. The mid summer “polar vortex” was not really as cold as all the hype hyped up on the Weather Channel and news but it sure came in with lots of wind as I had also feared last week when I did my report. We had about 4 days that down right stunk. Of the 4, we threw in the towel early on a couple of those days. Mostly because I couldn’t take another minute of all the pukers. And before everybody thinks that I am not very sympathetic, quite the contrary. All my ill guests that I had onboard in granted fairly heavy seas was bragging as they were boarding first thing in the morning about all the bars that they had closed up and how much they had drank. And they were the ones that paid for it while fishing with me a few hours later. It ruined their day and it dragged their friends down along with them. Yup, trip over. I’m not going to listen to that crap all day long. Some people just don’t learn. But as I mentioned, by Friday it was like a distant memory already. The weather on the lake straitened out nicely and just like someone flipped a switch, the fishing was a burn again for us aboard “The Trophy”. Ah, if you could only pick and choose the very nicest days and only go then. But on Erie, that’s not a lot and we don’t have that luxury. Like someone once said. It’s like a box of chocolates. You never know what you are going to get. And when you book a trip so far in advance, it’s all about the luck of the draw. We do amazing things in very tough conditions many times but there is just days where things just don’t go well. Throw in big bad moons, nasty cold fronts and winds plus very drunk guests and you have a recipe for disaster. And then when we do get a picture perfect day, I always hear, “you have my dream job captain” Lol, yeah, it’s a dream alright! See everyone again in a few short days... Capt. Walt |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of July 13, 2014.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 12:02:55 7/13/14 |
A very topsey turvey week! We had quite the week this past week. After a brutal and nasty start to the beginning of the fishing week with high winds, torrential rains and strong thunderstorms and trip cancellations on my end of things, things improved dramatically and rapidly by mid week and quickly escalated back to how things have been for us all summer so far. And that is, “just as good as it gets”! The Trophy went back to work on Wednesday and it didn’t take long for us to figure things back out. The turbulent weather we had on Monday and Tuesday had driven the fish much deeper down into the water column but thankfully not much further out into the lake. After adjusting our lines accordingly, we were back to catching Walleyes just as fast as we could possibly go! Doubles and triples were the norm and we probably would have had even more hooked up if we could have gotten lines back into the water faster! What a good problem to have! It seems like there is plenty of fish most everywhere now. All the boats are scattered out for many miles and everybody that is a halfway decent at this game is doing very well now. We ourselves have been starting at different points in the lake each day as I normally adjust my troll each morning accordingly to the wind direction to make things as comfortable as I can for my guests. Its always nice to get everyone acclimated to what we are doing each morning by starting out trolling with the wind and waves resulting in the most stable ride possible. Everyday I have a target in mind from where we did the very best the day before. However, depending on wind direction, I may be 3 or 4 miles away in one direction or the other starting each day so that I can get lines in and aim towards my desired waypoint. And each day, no matter where “The Trophy” finds itself starting, we have immediately been heavy into the fish. Again, a good problem! There is one thing that I noticed after being off the water for a couple of days. It seems like there is a onslaught of new and smaller Walleyes that have entered into the region. Kind of a nice thing for me to see. I know everyone wants nothing but monsters when their fishing with me but its good to see future generations of different year classes showing up out there insuring us a strong fishery for many years to come. It also does my old back some good not having to constantly net what feels like “cinder blocks” each and every time! Lol! I mean, we are still getting plenty of good ones each day but we are also getting some 16 to 20 inchers which are awesome table fare. “Good eaters” as we like to call them! If I had my rathers for myself, those are the ones that I would like to have my freezer full of. But none the less, we take them as they come. I don’t have much say about it. Whatever bites is what we keep if it’s a Walleye. There is no sorting as most of these fish die anyway after coming up from so deep and being stressed out from reeling them in against the tow of the boat as we troll forward. One is one, hit the counter... We have some interesting natural phenomenon coming our way from what I’m hearing for this coming week. Actually I’m putting my thoughts down here for my report a couple nights early just to be done with, to be posted Sunday evening as per usual due to some events that we have planned in the afternoon for this weekend when I get in off the water. Neither one of these phenomena's however is anything to look forward to though I don’t think. First, this weekend we are supposed to have another rare “Super Moon” which usually makes for a horrible Walleye bite much after day break. We’ll see how that plays out and how long the effects linger into the new fishing week. And secondly, believe it or not, they are calling for a “polar vortex” to sweep down into the country this coming week! WHAT! Well, actually not real arctic air like in the winter but a big departure from normal supposedly with possible record cold temps for this time of the year. We’ll just have to see how this one goes as well but I’m hoping that it doesn’t come in with any strong northerly winds. It’s going to have to be out of the north is my guess to drop temperatures that dramatically. We’ll see. So that’s it for another week. If we don’t all freeze to death this coming week, we’ll all meet up again next weekend for a recap of how my week went! |
Lake Erie fishing report for the week of July 6, 2014.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 14:17:57 7/06/14 |
July! We made it! Man, it seems like just yesterday we were locked in tight in one of the most brutal winter grips that anyone ever remembered. Polar Vortex’s, constant snows and crazy wind chills. Summer and July’s heat seemed like an eternity away at that point. Yet, here we are. Halfway through the season and sadly practically halfway through the summer already. And everything is as it should be. The Walleye fishing continues to be amazing out here off of Ashtabula harbor. The area is living up to everyone's expectations just like it has in all the past summers. Year after year here we have had a solid Walleye fishery that truly has to be the very best on earth. Sure, other harbors on Erie get good for a while as these same fish migrate around the lake each year but we surely must have the longest stab at this world class fishing. It's been fabulous from the moment I came back from the west end on Memorial Day weekend back in May, to if you go by last years fabulous fishing, extending sometime possibly well into October again before these fish slip away from the area for another year. Aboard “The Trophy”, we had another fabulous week this past week. Day in and day out we managed to fulfill all my peoples fishing fantasies and expectations . The weather however is starting to change and not necessarily for the best as we are start to experience more and more of these strong warm southerly summer winds. And as I have wrote about many times before, these heavy south and southwesterly winds are magnified that much more the further and further out into the lake that you stick your nose out in. We got a real dose of that this past week. I really hate a strong south wind. It gets you every time. It lulls you into thinking that it’s not all that bad as you depart the harbor and everything is flat and fine beings on the lee side of the lake. But then like a cork screw it starts. With each mile that you run out it gets rougher and rougher. Then you start to fish and travel even further out trolling along with the wind and waves. Pretty soon you realize, oh crap! You gotta go home sooner or later and you’ll be hitting those now monster waves right on the nose. Oh yeah, we got a real taste of that this past week. But through it all we are catching awesome, awesome Walleyes and numerous Steelheads again this summer. Rare is a day now where we don’t tangle with a few trout out there offshore as well. I’ve had some real mad scrambles moving rods around as these jumpers create total havoc each and every time we have a hookup with one of them. I remember more then once thinking this past week, man I’m getting too old for this “stuff”! Well, that might not exactly be the exact word that I used but you get the idea! Lol! And netting this many Walleyes gets tiring too. I mean, these are all big fish for the most part that we’re catching! I’m starting to feel it in my shoulders and back once again. Right on schedule. The slight and constant pain that reminds me that we are having another successful summer up here and that I have already scooped up many tons of Walleyes for my many excited guests. We’re talking tons of fish already, literally... So tomorrow, Monday and the start of the new fishing week, it looks like its going to begin like real crap. And again, because of my most unfavorite wind direction. The National Weather Service is predicting very stiff south west winds 15 to 25 knots with waves 4 to 6 foot building to 5 to 7 feet. Probably the worst wind and marine forecast that I’ve seen up for this area since my return from the islands. So, based solely on the product that they are putting out there, I reluctantly just went ahead and cancelled my trip in an attempt to save my guys a needless ride up. They are also talking numerous thunderstorms so it just doesn’t sound good all the way around. We’ll see. I’ve been screwed before by their gloom & doom forecasts. Regardless, it’s supposed to be a fast mover and by Tuesday & Wednesday, its back to nice. Which brings me up to the way that I’m going to end this report. Pitching dates once again. No trip now on Monday because of weather and I just took a TWO DAY short notice cancellation for Tuesday & Wednesday of this week (July 8th & 9th). I would really hate to not be fishing that many days in a row with the fishing as good as it is right now. So, if anybody would like to join me on a spur of the moment trip and catch some of these beautiful Walleyes for yourselves, you can call me as late as the night before and at any hour. I don’t need any notice on my end. Hope to hear from someone! So that’s it for another week. Happy July! |
:Lake Erie fishing report for the week of June 29, 2014: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 00:55:18 6/30/14 |
Pretty much still the same this past week. Pretty good fishing, still pretty rainy and still pretty White Bassy. Not much has changed since the last report. Aboard “The Trophy”, we had a perfect week this past week of perfect limits for however many people we had onboard each day. Some days easier then others but we got them. Seems like if I have 4 people, we get our 24 in a reasonable amount of time before they shut off each day. But when I get 5 people, that last limit is a deal breaker and a real SOB. We end up spending hours and hours trying to get those last few after the bite dies off. We got them this week when we needed to but I wasn’t too terribly impressed. I always strongly suggest keeping the group size to 4 people which is PERFECT for everyone involved. Five people anymore is just plain tough. We’re out there for hours sorting thru trash fish and tangles trying to pick up just a few more Walleyes. I see a day in the future in my final few years of my career where I may just cap it at that. Four people. Anybody that needs a bigger group can just go to one of my competitors that is much younger then I am and utilizes a first mate rather then me who does all the work by myself. I’m just dreaming right now but that’s what I’m thinking for future years should I hang in there much longer. Can you tell I’m starting to tire a bit already this season? Lol And this rain. Wow. Another rainy week for us. Fishing in soaking sneakers and wet to the bone again. Docking the boat a few days has been a real adventure as well coming back in as the Ashtabula River has really been flowing after some of the torrential rains we have been receiving. The run offs have been significant at times and anybody that has ever tried backing a boat into a raging current can attest to the fact that it is nerve racking and not very easy to do. No matter how experienced you think you are or however sharp you think your skills are. The river will humble you in a hurry as soon as you get sideways to it. We managed to dock safely thru all the big flows that we have had this whole month of June but there's a few people back at the marina that have helped catch me at the end of the day that have arms a few inches longer then they did at the start of the month! The fish themselves have not moved much since the previous week. We are spending most of our time now in 70 foot plus of water, or about 7 to 9 miles out. Not horrible yet, but just far enough to notice a big jump in fuel bills and make it quite choppy when the south winds pick up. We had a couple mornings this past week where we were tested with an extremely stiff south breeze in the morning and subsequent very choppy conditions. Fortunately each day the lake settled down eventually but not before making a few of my guests slightly uncomfortable and wishing they had taken a motion sickness pill. As I have always preached, if you’re not sure of yourself you should take something just to be on the safe side. Also, taking a motion sickness pill just before you board does not cut it. If you get sick, that is the first thing you are going to throw up! The pill! Lol! Most of my crews that have had issues over the years have learned that if you are susceptible to motion sickness, you need to take the pill the night before fishing already so that it can get into your system and then again another in the morning before heading out. And as always, if you’re not sure of yourself, stay off the alcohol the night before. Don’t eat a big spicy meal and try to get a good nights rest. Eat a light and dry breakfast also. I know that might be asking a lot of some that are enjoying possibly their one getaway of the year but being sick is not fun either and a big price to pay the next day when you should be enjoying your fishing trip. So we have one final day of June left before we flip the page to July. It’s been a heck of a month. We went from fishing all by ourselves on most days out there earlier on to now where “everyone” is a Walleye fisherman out there and being quite congested at times here recently. Little do most of these folks know how easy it was early on when the fish were only a mile or so off shore and before the White Bass invasion got real bad. Nice short leads on the Jet Divers worked with the fish high in the water column. Man, that was fun. Now the fish are moving out, dropping deeper and getting scattered out in the offshore vastness. Aboard “the Trophy” we are already dabbling with our deep water fishing presentation program. Wire line, downriggers and the whole nine yards. In my opinion, the real easy fishing is behind us now and we are going to have to work a heck of a lot harder in July then we have been. I am already having wire line tangle flashbacks in my sleep! Lol! But we’ll get thru it all. We always do. We’ll continue to catch fish and we'll keep marking the days off the calendar. The summer is really starting to fly by now. By the time I report back here next week, heck the 4th of July will be behind us and we will be entering the 2nd week of July already! Wow! Guess I’ll see everyone again “next” month right back here! |
ODNR Fishing Report for 6/25/2014: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 18:05:11 6/25/14 |
Central Basin Walleye Yellow perch Smallmouth bass White bass Channel Catfish
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Lake Erie fishing report for the week of June 22, 2014.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 03:59:43 6/22/14 |
A very rainy and stormy week! YIKES! Man, it was one wet week. I don’t know how we did it but somehow, someway we managed to get all of our trips in. But I was one wet puppy, rain gear and all. It’s one thing to be one of the guests huddled under the hard top waiting your turn on the rod buts its another thing to be the one in charge and having to be in the back running the whole show. And even with excellent rain gear, reaching up hooking up releases and everything else, it runs down your sleeves, down your neck and every where else it can creep into and the next thing you know, you’re soaked. We even had a morning where we had to make a mad dash back to safe harbor because of embedded lightning approaching us in the rain. After a hour and a half wait back at the dock letting it pass by, it was back out there again. Twice the gas running back and fourth. Twice the work tearing down and setting back up again. And a much longer day then anticipated. Such is my job. You got to love it! But we also had several pleasant days where it was a joy to be out there. Fishing for us aboard “The Trophy” remained very good. As I had noted in last weeks report, the fish do seem indeed to be on a big and rapid march to well offshore. It should come as no big surprise because after all we are approaching the end of June now. But it’s not a real good feeling knowing that the fuel bills are going to go up substantially, especially this year with fuel again at six year highs already and the media greasing us up for “possible” record high gasoline prices this summer with the unrest in Iraq again and whatever else they can hype up just to sell the news. They prepare us and big oil just finds it that much easier to stick it to us. Don’t get me started. Oh yeah, I’m already ranting! lol! Anyway, offshore fishing presents a whole new set of added difficulties. You no longer get any kind of wind break from the shore line should you have a strong southeast, south or southwest wind. There's a reason they give you two marine forecasts. Near shore and offshore. It all means longer rides, rougher water to work in and much more costly trips. I guess it’s time to suck it up for the rest of the year again. And with us fishing further and further out now, we are running into more and more Steelhead Trout out there also. I think that practically every day this past week we either landed a nice big Steelhead each day out or at least had one on. Still fun, one or two a day. But I remember past years though where for whatever reason they were really ganged up out there offshore and we couldn’t get away from them. Some days ending up catching in the teens and even in the twenties of the silver bullets! Maybe big fun for my guests but a real royal pain in the butt for me, trying to put Walleyes in the box. Action like that most often results in busted tackle, wiping out all of your cooler space that was intended for your Walleyes. And also in having to carry much more ice daily, just in case. Frantic jumping around on my part moving rods around and back breaking over extended netting jobs. And at the end of the day, most people really don’t even want that many trout. An occasional one for the grill or smoker is alright but when the trout start to out number the Walleyes like I have seen it at times before, well I get to hear more complaing again. We’ve had years like that. Hopefully it will remain just like it is right now. Just one here and there. So we are entering the last week of June already. If it weren't for the tremendous onslaught of the pain in the ass White Bass this month, I would have to rate this June as again, one of the best Junes ever. We have had many amazing catches almost every trip out but I have also been working in the back of the boat like a dog non stop every day weeding thru all of the garbage fish to make it happen. Exhausting and frustrating. Once we started going further out in the lake I thought that maybe that dilemma would ease some, but that really hasn’t been the case. The White Bass are just bigger out there! Lol! So that’s it for another week. Hoping for better weather this coming week, less White Bass and still the excellent Walleye fishing that we have been experiencing thus far ever since I came back from the islands. I would say everything is right on schedule out here and that the area is living up to its famed reputation that it has earned over the year. See everybody again next week. Capt. Walt |
Fishing report for the week of June 15, 2014.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 11:26:47 6/15/14 |
Very good fishing! Fishing this past week for us aboard “The Trophy” remained very good and ranged anywhere from silly easy to a bit tougher towards weeks end where we had to work a little harder for them. But the results again were simply amazing non the less. Huge, huge fish! Most of my groups took home every day pretty close to 70 pounds of pure boneless, skinless fillets after electing to use the marinas fish cleaning services on the premises. That’s some serious fish fry's! This weeks report is going to be a rather short one. It is Sunday and Father's Day as I sit down to write this up rather quickly and get ready to shoot home and visit my own father for a few hours before returning to the lake to get a few hours of sleep and do it all over again. So just enjoy these pictures from this past week of some of our best catches and just imagine how much fun everyone had reeling those monsters in! The fish do seem to be on the move now. We are still pulling fish shallow early in the morning each day. Some times almost like a Chinese fire drill in very rapid fashion. But then each day and with out fail I end up going further and further out to close the deal. And the full moon by weeks end also did us no favors with the fish feeding heavily all night and then shutting off almost completely after full daybreak. The White Bass situation presently also seems to be worsening if that is at all possible. We have been mighty busy from the moment we set lines to the moment we quit. Sigh. And finally, after writing last week about the lack of any real Steelhead Trout action, well we still haven't got any more of those. But, we did manage to capture a nice football sized Brown Trout this past week! Seems like every year that we catch at least one exotic Brown Trout aboard “The Trophy”. This one came off of a jointed shallow running Storm plug that I had running behind a Dipsey Diver. Although it wasn’t out very far, it stripped line from the reel and carried on something terrible acting like it was some big old Salmon or something before finally being netted. Very exciting! So that’s it for another week. Tight lines and happy Father's Day to all you dads out there. |
ODNR Fishing Report for 06/11/2014: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 18:23:49 6/11/14 |
Central Basin Walleye Yellow perch Smallmouth bass White bass Channel Catfish
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Lake Erie fishing report for the week of June 8, 2014.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 12:43:17 6/08/14 |
A very solid week. If you judged my production this past week like they judge some of the events in the Olympics by throwing out the highest score and the lowest score and then averaging out the rest of the scores, well you would still come up with a very solid performance. And that’s about how about how it went for us aboard “The Trophy” this past week. We had one day where we knocked out limits in a little less then three hours. And then we had one day under a very rough lake condition where we really struggled just to get into the teens. But every other day was just a nice steady productive pick resulting in very full racks of world class big beautiful Walleyes by the end of the day. A very solid performance. We saw plenty of 8 to 11 pound fish also this past week. We had one trip where we had two 11 pounders in one day! Even around here that doesn’t happen everyday! Fishing pressure has been very lite all of the days that I’ve been out there so far also and after the last few weeks that I was up at Port Clinton, well that has been pretty easy to take as well. The only thing that resembled the fishing that I fished thru last month out at the western basin is the fact that the over abundance of those damn pesky little White Bass seem to stretch all the way down the lake. I just can’t seem to get away from them no mater how hard I try. They are everywhere and just next to impossible to keep off our lines. Just a lot of extra work for me. Lots and lots of sorting. Catch 10 little White Bass, then catch a 10 pounder. I guess it’s worth it.... Sigh. Otherwise we are using the same Tru Trip rigs, the same little Scorpion Spoons and many days the same exact line counts letting the line out that we were using out at the western basin. It’s nice to be able to run back from so far and go fishing here without having to re-tool! Steelhead Trout seem to be very elusive thus far back home here where lots of times you just cant get away from them here in the central basin. In the two weeks that I have been back and fishing out of Ashtabula, we have only hooked up with two of them. The one we landed the first week I was back and then this past week we had one other one hooked up and just shy of net range but it made some frantic darting moves as I was holding the net over it and about ready to net it and just like that it was gone. I can’t even speculate that they are just further off shore because the one real rough day that we had with the stiff winds out of the north, I pulled lines and ran out 10 miles to make a long slide south and just ride out the big water. I told the guys that I thought we might get into some Trout out there but the one that we hooked and lost that day was pretty close to the harbor towards the end of our slide. Interestingly enough though, we did capture a few Walleyes that far out that day in 72 foot of water. The Walleyes are starting to filter in from all different directions now I’m guessing. So in last weeks report I threw out a open date that I was looking to fill for next Sunday. It has since been taken. Thank you for all the phone calls. Alright, the weather last week was picture perfect minus that one rough day. This upcoming week looks to be equally tranquil. In all of the years of my chartering that I have done, I’ve found June to be traditionally the calmest month up here on the big lake. Many times almost too calm with glass like conditions, bringing out the bugs and shutting down the Walleye bite as the sun gets higher. I guess I’ll take the bugs and hot flat lake over the very rough, but sometimes I wonder. So that’s it for our second week back. Thus far it’s been real good fishing, mostly good weather, no real bad bug days (yet) and the only downer has been those pesky little White Bass that have been driving me crazy. But hey, if it weren't for them right now, what else would I have to complain about? Stay tuned... |
ODNR Fishing Report for 6/04/2014: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 18:38:58 6/04/14 |
Central Basin Walleye Yellow perch Smallmouth bass White bass Channel Catfish
Anglers are encouraged to always wear a U.S. Coast Guard-approved personal flotation device |
Lake Erie fishing report for June 1, 2014.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 17:58:24 6/01/14 |
Home again and really GREAT fishing back here! “The Trophy” made it’s annual trek eastward on Saturday of Memorial Day weekend uneventfully after a morning charter at Port Clinton which set the tone for the day. We caught the fish that we needed that day record fast, got out of Port Clinton bound for home record early and on a almost dead flat lake, made the 120 mile run back home in record time. 4 hours and 42 minutes, dock to dock. The only other record that I set was one that I wasn’t all that keen about. It was the total $$$ that it took to replenish all of the burned fuel that day. We fueled up at Port Clinton before shoving off. Then less than 5 hours later we were filling back up again, a very empty fuel tank at these new astronomically, absurd fuel prices that we are seeing both on the street and particularly disturbing, the marina fuel docks. Ouch! I think perhaps that most casual local boaters might not even burn in a summer what I pumped through my tank in that one day! Did I mention, OUCH? But none the less, it’s good to be back in my home port again and it’s especially good to be back with as good as the fishing has been for us since I have returned. We have had no problems getting limits or near limits each trip out. Granted it may have been a bit faster there towards the end of my stay at Port Clinton with limits the last 8 trips straight that I ran up there, but the shear size of the hog Walleyes that we have been catching back here have all but overwhelmed all of my Ashtabula guests and even me. Frankly, I had almost forgotten how consistently big these central basin Walleyes really are. I had gotten acclimated to netting 2 to 4 pound fish on average the last 2 weeks in PC and seeing these monsters come to the net fish after fish is even astonishing to me. Even after all these years. Wow, what a fishery we have out this way. Too bad its so dead earlier in the spring around here or I would never leave! But none the less, it’s good to be back in my home port again and it’s especially good to be back with as good as the fishing has been for us since I have returned. We have had no problems getting limits or near limits each trip out. Granted it may have been a bit faster there towards the end of my stay at Port Clinton with limits the last 8 trips straight that I ran up there, but the shear size of the hog Walleyes that we have been catching back here have all but overwhelmed all of my Ashtabula guests and even me. Frankly, I had almost forgotten how consistently big these central basin Walleyes really are. I had gotten acclimated to netting 2 to 4 pound fish on average the last 2 weeks in PC and seeing these monsters come to the net fish after fish is even astonishing to me. Even after all these years. Wow, what a fishery we have out this way. Too bad its so dead earlier in the spring around here or I would never leave! So now it’s just a matter of settling into this deep water fishing for me and just getting back used to the super early departures which are a must around here. I attribute the “Trophy’s” better then average success rates around here to the fact that we are very early risers and recognize that in this much cleaner water that it is imperative to be setting lines with the very first hint of daylight. And with that, I would like to have all of my upcoming trips that might be reading this report to take note and PLEASE be at the dock between 4:30 and 5:00am at the VERY latest. Fishing is the very best the first few hours of daylight and we DO NOT want to miss out on that opportunity! OK, now that I’ve scared everyone away with that, I have one very prime open date to offer that will be here before you know it. I just took a cancellation for Fathers Day, Sunday June the 15th. How cool would it be to take your Dad or some Dads out fishing on this very special day? As per usual, if anybody would happen to be interested, you can call me at any time, day or night on my mobile number, 216-387-2656 right up to the very last second of that date should it is still be available. Hope to hear from somebody sooner then later on that one! Fishing is really GREAT right now... Capt. Walt |
05/21/2014: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 18:40:40 5/21/14 |
Central Basin Walleye Yellow perch Smallmouth bass Channel Catfish
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ODNR Fishing Report 2/26/2014: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 08:17:22 2/27/14 |
Walleye Where: Ice anglers have been catching walleye west and northwest of Catawba Island, between Catawba Island and South Bass Island, 3 to 7 miles north from Cooley Canal to Magee Marsh, and to a lesser extent west of South Bass Island around Green and Rattlesnake Islands. Be cautious when ice fishing the offshore areas of Lake Erie, as ice conditions can change quickly due to water currents and wind. Wind and warmer temperatures the week of February 17 changed ice conditions, especially around Mouse Island. Travel with caution and regularly check ice conditions before proceeding. How: Most Lake Erie ice anglers targeting walleye are using jigging spoons tipped with emerald shiners. Panfish |
ODNR Fishing Report 2/19/2014: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 07:12:39 2/20/14 |
Walleye Where: Ice anglers have been catching walleye west and northwest of Catawba Island, between Catawba Island and South Bass Island, 3 miles north from Cooley Canal to Magee Marsh, and to a lesser extent west of South Bass Island around Green and Rattlesnake Islands. Be cautious when ice fishing the offshore areas of Lake Erie, as ice conditions can change quickly due to water currents and wind. How: Most Lake Erie ice anglers targeting walleye are using jigging spoons tipped with emerald shiners. Panfish |
ODNR Fishing Report 02/12/2014: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 06:51:00 2/13/14 |
Walleye Where: Ice anglers have been catching walleye west and northwest of Catawba Island, 3 miles north from Cooley Canal to Crane Creek, and west of South Bass Island around Green and Rattlesnake Islands. Be cautious when ice fishing the offshore areas of Lake Erie, as ice conditions can change quickly due to water currents and wind. How: Most Lake Erie ice anglers targeting walleye are using jigging spoons tipped with emerald shiners.
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ODNR Fishing Report 2/5/2014: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 13:21:13 2/06/14 |
Lake-wide Where: Ice anglers have been catching walleye west and northwest of Catawba Island, 3 miles north of Crane Creek, and west of South Bass Island around Green and Rattlesnake Islands. Be cautious when ice fishing the offshore areas of Lake Erie, as ice conditions can change quickly due to water currents and wind. Panfish Anglers are encouraged to always wear a U.S. Coast Guard-approved personal flotation device while boating. |
ODNR Fishing Report 1/29/2014: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 12:31:31 1/31/14 |
Lake-wide Where: Ice anglers have been catching walleye, primarily west and northwest of Catawba Island, and west of South Bass Island around Green and Rattlesnake Islands. Fish have also been caught in front of Magee Marsh Wildlife Area. Be cautious when ice fishing the offshore areas of Lake Erie, since ice conditions can change quickly due to water currents and wind. How: Most Lake Erie ice anglers targeting walleye use jigging spoons tipped with emerald shiners. |
ODNR Fishing Report 1/21/2014: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 19:23:29 1/21/14 |
Lake-wide Where: Ice anglers have been catching walleye, primarily west and northwest of Catawba Island, and west of South Bass Island around Green and Rattlesnake Islands. Be cautious when ice fishing offshore areas of Lake Erie, since ice conditions can change quickly due to water currents and wind. How: Most Lake Erie ice anglers targeting walleye use jigging spoons tipped with emerald shiners. Anglers are encouraged to always wear a U.S. Coast Guard-approved personal flotation device while boating. |
ODNR Fishing Report 1/15/2014: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 10:21:21 1/15/14 |
Lake-wide There have been some walleye caught by ice anglers, primarily west and northwest of Catawba Island, prior to the weekend of Jan. 11. However, above freezing temperatures, rain and wind have made ice conditions extremely dangerous since then. Be cautious when ice fishing the offshore areas of Lake Erie. Anglers are encouraged to always wear a U.S. Coast Guard-approved personal flotation device while boating. |
ODNR Fishing Report 01/08/2014: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 12:55:40 1/08/14 |
Regulations to Remember: The daily bag limit for walleye on Ohio waters of Lake Erie is six fish per angler. The minimum size limit for walleye is 15 inches. Lake-wide Winter weather has ended open water fishing on Lake Erie. There have not been any reports of fishing over the past week as of Jan. 7, 2014. Anglers are encouraged to always wear a U.S. Coast Guard-approved personal flotation device while boating. |
Fishing report for January 1, 2014.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 12:20:15 1/01/14 |
Happy New Fishing Season 2014! Oh my I can’t believe its mid-winter already and that in two short months “The Trophy” will be once again back in the water and ready for action. What I really can’t believe is that this will be my 28th season! Where have all the years gone? My career is definitely winding down. But it’s not over yet!
This coming year should be no different. If we can get half way decent weather, our remarkable Walleye fishery should once again deliver remarkable catches and wonderful memories. Although there may be snow on the ground outside, right now is the time to make your fishing plans and firm up those dates that I may be holding for you. This is the least favorite part of this business for me: the scheduling and trying to accommodate everyone's wants and needs. You can help by please promptly replying with your date confirmations and deposits. Every year I get burned somewhere along the way because I generously hold dates for people longer then I should have.
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ODNR Fishing Report 12/18/2013: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 06:59:21 12/19/13 |
Lake-wide Winter weather has limited fishing opportunities on the main lake as frozen harbors have restricted access to open water. Water Temperature Anglers are encouraged to always wear a U.S. Coast Guard-approved personal flotation device while boating. |
ODNR Fishing Report 12/04/2013: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 08:37:29 12/05/13 |
Lake-wide Walleye Water Temperature Anglers are encouraged to always wear a U.S. Coast Guard-approved personal flotation device while boating. |
ODNR Fishing Report 11/20/2013: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 13:45:01 11/20/13 |
Lake-wide Walleye: Recent weather has limited fishing opportunities. Yellow perch Smallmouth bass Water Temperature |
o: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 13:43:09 11/20/13 |
Lake-wide Walleye: Recent weather has limited fishing opportunities. Yellow perch Smallmouth bass Water Temperature |
ODNR Fishing Report 11/13/2013: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 18:30:09 11/13/13 |
Lake-wide Report Walleye: Recent weather has limited fishing opportunities. Where: Most walleye anglers have been fishing nearshore from Ruggles Reef to Cedar Point. Yellow perch Where: For some of the biggest perch of the year try traditional fall spots such as the green buoy off Catawba State Park; Green and Rattlesnake Islands; Ballast Island; Kelleys Island shoal; east of Kelleys Island airport; between Kelleys Island and Lakeside; the Marblehead Lighthouse; north of Cedar Point; the south end of the sandbar offshore between Vermilion and Lorain; and just off most of the ports from Huron to Conneaut. Smallmouth bass Where: Bass start moving shallow to feed as water temperatures drop. Try fishing rocky areas along both island and mainland shorelines to find feeding smallmouth bass. Areas with gizzard shad, shiners or gobies will be best.
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ODNR Fishing Report 11/06/2013: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 06:18:27 11/08/13 |
Lake-wide Walleye Yellow perch Smallmouth bass Water Temperature |
ODNR Fishing Report 10/30/2013: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 04:51:10 10/31/13 |
Central Basin
Walleye: Some walleye have been reported within 5 miles of shore from Cedar Point to Lorain. Trolling crankbaits behind planer boards is a popular method for catching fall walleye. Farther east try in 70’ of water N of Ashtabula. Anglers are trolling wire line with all colors of stick baits. Anglers are also beginning to catch walleye nearshore off Cleveland during the evening trolling deep diving lures.
Yellow perch fishing has been good in between the storm events just N of the Huron River mouth, in 38-52’ of water N of Cleveland, in 47’ of water NW of Fairport Harbor, and in 48-54’ of water NE of Ashtabula. Spreaders with shiners fished near the bottom produce the most fish. Shore fishing has picked up at the Cleveland piers.
Smallmouth and largemouth bass fishing has been good in 10 to 20’ of water around harbor areas in Cleveland, Fairport Harbor, Geneva, Ashtabula and Conneaut. Anglers are using crayfish and leeches.
White Bass fishing has been hit and miss off the E. 55th St and E 72nd St Piers in Cleveland and the long pier in Fairport Harbor. Evenings have been the best. On the lake, look for gulls feeding on shiners at the surface; the white bass will be below. Anglers are using agitators with jigs and small spoons.
Steelhead Trout are being caught off the long and short Piers in Fairport Harbor and also in the Grand River up to Helen Hazen Wyman Park. Anglers are using jigs tipped with maggots or minnows with a bobber and small spoons. A few fish are being caught off the Cleveland shore piers. Anglers are using jigs and minnows with a bobber.
The water temperature is 48 degrees off of Toledo and 56 degrees off of Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. |
ODNR Fishing Report 10/15/2013: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 19:46:20 10/15/13 |
Central Basin
Walleye fishing was good off of Huron, 14 miles NE of the river around the offshore dumping ground. Worm harnesses with inline weights, or crankbaits with snap weights have produced the best catches. There weren’t many angler interviews this past week, but excellent fishing continues with a few limit catches in 70-71’ of water N of Geneva and in 56-70’ of water N of Ashtabula. Anglers are trolling wire line with white, pink, blue, yellow, orange, green and red stick baits.
Yellow perch fishing has been fair N of the condos that are E of Vermilion, around the south end of the sandbar, N of Lorain, and off of Ruggles Reef. Excellent fishing was reported in 46’ of water NW of Rocky River, in 38-42’ of water NE of Gordon Park, in 47’ of water NW (the hump) of Fairport Harbor, in 46-54’ of water NE of Ashtabula and in 39-53’ of water NE and NW of Conneaut. Spreaders with shiners fished near the bottom produce the most fish. Shore fishing off the Cleveland and Fairport area piers has been slow.
Smallmouth and largemouth bass fishing has been good in 10 to 20’ of water around harbor areas in Cleveland, Fairport Harbor, Geneva, Ashtabula and Conneaut. Anglers are using crayfish and leeches.
White Bass fishing has been hit and miss off the E. 55th St and E 72nd St Piers in Cleveland and the long pier in Fairport Harbor. Small fish are being caught off the Fairport Harbor pier. Evenings have been the best. Lots of large white bass are being caught by boat yellow perch fisherman off Fairport Harbor. On the lake, look for gulls feeding on shiners at the surface; the white bass will be below. Anglers are using agitators with jigs and small spoons.
Steelhead Trout are being caught off the long and short Piers in Fairport Harbor and also in the river up to Vrooman rd. Anglers are using jigs tipped with maggots with a bobber and small spoons.
The water temperature is 61 degrees off of Toledo and 66 degrees off of Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. |
Fishing report for the week of October 13, 2013.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 07:15:19 10/13/13 |
It’s the end of the road. Although “The Trophy” will be in the water for about two more weeks, I’ve decided to bring my reports to a final close here with this last one here. I want it all to end on this incredible winning note that we’ve been having this whole fall season before things possibly turn sour and I have to report on something lousy. It’s just as well also as I am practically out of any more remaining trips and I wouldn’t have all that much to report about anyway. What a great stretch of weather and truly incredible fishing for both the Perch and Walleyes that we’ve had right up to the very end here. And yes, the Walleye fishing this past week was STILL FABULOUS as well! But I’ve decided to feature these final few pictures in this final report for this year with what we always end our season fishing for normally this time of year and that is the Yellow Perch! You guys have already seen plenty of Walleye pictures for this season anyway, lol ! The only charters that I had going out this past week were a couple of Perch charters. And as we have done so all fall long we absolutely slaughtered them. “The Trophy” right up to this present date has had a perfect track record of perfect limits every trip out when we’ve gone for the Perch. Some days the size was a bit better then others but none the less perfect limits. Nobody left this fall without a really nice mess of fresh Lake Erie Perch fillets. And even I got a chance to work on my very own freezer for a change this past week. On Tuesday I grabbed several fellow charter captain friends and headed out on ‘meat run” aboard “The Trophy” for ME! We started with the Perch first and in no time at all we knocked out 120 very nice Perch. Then we pulled anchor and headed out a few more miles to see if we could get a few Walleyes for me to go along with those tasty Perch. To say it was ridiculously easy would be a understatement! Almost immediately we had Walleye after Walleye coming in. October Ashtabula Walleyes and still on fire! Just plain unbelievable! The real problem that day was trying to get somebody to crank them in after we hooked them. Especially the real long wire line rods! How painful! I can’t believe people pay me for that kind of torture! LOL! In the end when we needed 8 more fish for a perfect boat limit of 24 Walleyes and we hit a spot and had all 8 rods hook up fish all at once! An eight banger! We didn’t even have anything that crazy happen all season long! More incredibly we even landed all 8 fish and just like that, we were done. And one of those Walleyes was even yet another 13 pounder! What a nice haul. Even after splitting the fish up some, the guys gave me the Lions share of fillets so I know I will be eating good this winter just like so many of my charter guests. Mmmm, Mmmm! So this long journey for me and “The Trophy” is finally about up for this season. Its been a very long road indeed. Incredibly it started back in March back at Port Clinton where we first got splashed for the season. Check out my March 25th, 2013 fishing report! In the snow! And here we are. Seven months later and just shy of 3,000 Walleyes later, it’s just about a wrap. A very good year even with all the lost trips this spring and an unusual amount of lost trips this summer because of big winds and lousy weather. September and October on the other hand were just about picture perfect. That really helped! There were plenty of other highs and lows through out the season. There always is. But nothing major and a whole lot out of the ordinary. And thank God that there were no kinds of incidents or mechanical problems of any sorts to worry about. No big dramas. Just a lot of very happy memories for my many charter guests. A very good road and another great year is now in the books. Season # 27 for me. Wow. And as I began doing so here a couple of weeks ago, I would like to once more reach out to everyone that has fished with me this past season and offer everyone a huge heart felt thank you! Thank you for your business and all your friendship. Without all of you guys, “The Trophy” would truly be dead in the water! I hope everyone had a great time and that I wasn’t too hard on anyone. Sometimes in the heat of battle when things are happening fast and furiously I may become short or perhaps not be as pleasant as I could be. I apologize if that was ever the case. I am forever working on my people skills but sometimes in my desire to be as successful as we can be each and everyday I forget that this is really just a sport and that most of you take it a whole lot better then I do when things aren’t going exactly right. Thanks for understanding and hanging in there with me. It is truly mind blowing and humbling to me how many of you guys have been with me for so many years now. Some even as long as I’ve been doing this. A extra big thank you to all of you really long timers! Thanks to everyone as well for following along here with my little weekly blogs/ slash fishing reports/ slash rants, etc. LOL! Seems like every time I want to take a week off from writing I go and meet someone else that thanks me for my faithful weekly reports and tells me how much they enjoy following along. Well, the thanks is all mine! OK, although the reports are done for this year, we’ll still be in the water for a couple of more weeks yet. The fishing is far from over with that’s for sure. If the weather holds and somebody wants to jump on for a spur of the moment and last chance trip, give me a call. If not, I hope to see everyone again next year aboard ‘The Trophy” for “JUST ANOTHER DAY ON THE TROPHY” !!! |
ODNR Fishing Report 10/08/2013: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 21:39:53 10/08/13 |
Central Basin
Walleye fishing is improving off of Huron, mostly 8 to 15 miles NE of the river. The offshore dumping grounds SW of the weather buoy has produced big fish over the past week. Worm harnesses with inline weights, or crankbaits with snap weights have produced the best catches. Fishing continues to be excellent in 68-71’ of water N of Geneva and in 68-72’ of water NE of Ashtabula. Some limit catches were reported this past week. Anglers are trolling wire line with white, pink, blue, yellow, orange, green and red stick baits.
Yellow perch fishing has been fair 1 mile N of Beaver Creek, in 38’ of water N. of Lorain, and at the S end of the sandbar between Vermilion and Lorain. Excellent fishing was reported in 38-40’ of water NE of Edgewater Park, in 42’ of water NW of Wildwood Park, in 44-53’ of water NW (the hump) of Fairport Harbor and in 44-55’ of water NE of Geneva. Spreaders with shiners fished near the bottom produce the most fish. Shore fishing off the Cleveland area piers has been slow.
Smallmouth and largemouth bass fishing has been good in 10 to 20’ of water around harbor areas in Cleveland, Fairport Harbor, Geneva, Ashtabula and Conneaut. Anglers are using crayfish and leeches.
White Bass fishing has been hit and miss off the E. 55th St and E 72nd St Piers in Cleveland and the long pier in Fairport Harbor. Small fish are being caught off the Fairport Harbor pier. Evenings have been the best. On the lake, look for gulls feeding on shiners at the surface; the white bass will be below. Anglers are using agitators with jigs and small spoons.
Steelhead Trout are being caught off the short Pier in Fairport Harbor and also in the river up to Vrooman rd. Anglers are using jigs tipped with maggots and small spoons.
The water temperature is 64 degrees off of Toledo and 67 degrees off of Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. |
Fishing report for the week of October 6, 2013. : ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 08:42:51 10/07/13 |
OCTOBER WALLEYES – OCTOBER LIMITS !! Everyday and everyday super easily! Are you kidding me? Somebody pinch me! Aboard “The Trophy” we enjoyed a solid week of GREAT summerlike weather and the very best super late season Walleye fishing that I’ve ever experienced in 27 years of full time guiding on Lake Erie and an additional 10 years of fishing for myself on the big lake prior to that. This first picture that you are looking at was from this past Friday, October the 4th ! October! And all these other pictures? Yup. All from this first week of October. Just as good as it gets. EVER no matter what month it is ! And all that talk of mine about being all out of Walleye trips now and me “longingly looking to the north” “wondering if their still out there” lol... Well, after reading my past couple weeks fishing reports, that’s all everyone this past week wanted to fish for! Screw the Perch. We’re going for the big ones! And “The Trophy” and the Ashtabula, OH area did not disappoint. After Perching both last Saturday and Sunday, I headed out hesitantly on Monday with four very anxious charter guests onboard. Will they still be out there? With the very first few lines in it was pretty apparent how our day was going to go. 3 lines in, 3 HUGE Walleyes on instantly. And we never looked back from there. Just as fast as we could go for the next 2 1/2 hours. And that’s all it took. At 9:20am we were done with 24 gorgeous Walleyes in the box. We even caught an extra one for me for dinner just trying to clear the last couple of lines. What a fire drill. Twice we had all four men cranking Walleyes in all at once and had others hanging ! And it was the same on Tuesday & Wednesday (which I was fortunate to book after all after soliciting the open date here on my report very hard last week, lol) and Thursday & Friday. Five days of Walleye charters in a row in October when most have long given up on Walleyes out there and are lucky to even have a Perch trip. In fact, many boats including many charters have now even pulled their boats for the season. Just making it that much sweeter out there. One of the most massive schools of Walleyes that I have ever seen regardless of what time of year and next to nobody out there fishing for them but me this past whole week. I was truly blessed having the bookings, the great weather window and the chance to experience this fabulous action right along with my lucky guests. It was unbelievable how fast we limited out each day and the huge load of pure fillets that these groups took home with them. Wow wow wow !! So this coming week, well who knows what’s going to happen. The weather looks decent. The big fish out there seem very reluctant from moving at all. The guys out there Perching are doing very well. And me, well I am finally running out of trips of any kind myself as well. Maybe it’s best that it ends on this winning note. It would really suck to talk somebody into going Walleye fishing and then have it stink. At this point I can’t imagine going back out there and riding around not catching anything and wishing you could get a bite. Not after all these great trips where I never even had two seconds to myself to finish my morning coffee until the ride back in! BUT, should anyone out there want to push the envelope and see how late in the year we can really keep this dream season going, well I’ve got lots of dates open from here on out for you to choose from. But just like the name of my buddies charter boat, there are “No Guarantee's” lol ! One of these days this school of fish is finally going to pack up it’s bags and boogie. It probably will be very abrupt and almost overnight when it does happen is my best guess. But, hey... We can always go for those “little” ones! Well, for now it’s over and out for another week. There isn’t very many of these reports left for this year. Enjoy. |
Fishing report for the week of October 6, 2013.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 18:01:22 10/06/13 |
OCTOBER WALLEYES – OCTOBER LIMITS !! Everyday and everyday super easily! Are you kidding me? Somebody pinch me! Aboard “The Trophy” we enjoyed a solid week of GREAT summerlike weather and the very best super late season Walleye fishing that I’ve ever experienced in 27 years of full time guiding on Lake Erie and an additional 10 years of fishing for myself on the big lake prior to that. This first picture that you are looking at was from this past Friday, October the 4th ! October! And all these other pictures? Yup. All from this first week of October. Just as good as it gets. EVER no matter what month it is ! And all that talk of mine about being all out of Walleye trips now and me “longingly looking to the north” “wondering if their still out there” lol... Well, after reading my past couple weeks fishing reports, that’s all everyone this past week wanted to fish for! Screw the Perch. We’re going for the big ones! And “The Trophy” and the Ashtabula, OH area did not disappoint. After Perching both last Saturday and Sunday, I headed out hesitantly on Monday with four very anxious charter guests onboard. Will they still be out there? With the very first few lines in it was pretty apparent how our day was going to go. 3 lines in, 3 HUGE Walleyes on instantly. And we never looked back from there. Just as fast as we could go for the next 2 1/2 hours. And that’s all it took. At 9:20am we were done with 24 gorgeous Walleyes in the box. We even caught an extra one for me for dinner just trying to clear the last couple of lines. What a fire drill. Twice we had all four men cranking Walleyes in all at once and had others hanging ! And it was the same on Tuesday & Wednesday (which I was fortunate to book after all after soliciting the open date here on my report very hard last week, lol) and Thursday & Friday. Five days of Walleye charters in a row in October when most have long given up on Walleyes out there and are lucky to even have a Perch trip. In fact, many boats including many charters have now even pulled their boats for the season. Just making it that much sweeter out there. One of the most massive schools of Walleyes that I have ever seen regardless of what time of year and next to nobody out there fishing for them but me this past whole week. I was truly blessed having the bookings, the great weather window and the chance to experience this fabulous action right along with my lucky guests. It was unbelievable how fast we limited out each day and the huge load of pure fillets that these groups took home with them. Wow wow wow !! So this coming week, well who knows what’s going to happen. The weather looks decent. The big fish out there seem very reluctant from moving at all. The guys out there Perching are doing very well. And me, well I am finally running out of trips of any kind myself as well. Maybe it’s best that it ends on this winning note. It would really suck to talk somebody into going Walleye fishing and then have it stink. At this point I can’t imagine going back out there and riding around not catching anything and wishing you could get a bite. Not after all these great trips where I never even had two seconds to myself to finish my morning coffee until the ride back in! BUT, should anyone out there want to push the envelope and see how late in the year we can really keep this dream season going, well I’ve got lots of dates open from here on out for you to choose from. But just like the name of my buddies charter boat, there are “No Guarantee's” lol ! One of these days this school of fish is finally going to pack up it’s bags and boogie. It probably will be very abrupt and almost overnight when it does happen is my best guess. But, hey... We can always go for those “little” ones! Well, for now it’s over and out for another week. There isn’t very many of these reports left for this year. Enjoy. |
ODNR Fishing Report 10/01/2013: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 20:04:10 10/02/13 |
Central Basin
Walleye fishing is improving off of Huron, mostly 8 to 12 miles N and NE of the river. Fishing continues to be excellent in 62-72’ of water NE of Ashtabula and in 68-72’ of water N of Conneaut. Many limit catches were reported this past week. Anglers are trolling wire line with white, pink, blue, yellow, orange, green and red stick baits.
Yellow perch fishing has been fair 1 mile N of Beaver Creek, in 38’ of water N. of Lorain, and at the S end of the sandbar between Vermilion and Lorain. Excellent fishing was reported in 45’ of water NE of Gordon Park, in 41-43’ of water N of Wildwood Park, in 42’ of water N and 44-62’ of water NW (the hump) of Fairport Harbor, in 56-65’ of water NE of Ashtabula, and in 52-70’ of water NW of Conneaut. Spreaders with shiners fished near the bottom produce the most fish. Shore fishing off the Cleveland area piers has been slow.
Smallmouth and largemouth bass fishing has been good in 10 to 20’ of water around harbor areas in Cleveland, Fairport Harbor, Geneva, Ashtabula and Conneaut. Anglers are using soft-craws and leeches.
White Bass fishing has been hit and miss off the E. 55th St and E 72nd St Piers in Cleveland and the short and long piers in Fairport Harbor. Evenings have been the best. On the lake, look for gulls feeding on shiners at the surface; the white bass will be below. Anglers are using agitators with jigs and small spoons.
Steelhead Trout are being caught off the short Pier in Fairport Harbor and also in the river. Anglers are using jigs tipped with maggots and small spoons.
The water temperature is 63 degrees off of Toledo and 67 degrees off of Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. |
Fishing report for the week of September 29, 2013.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 08:39:12 9/29/13 |
Great weather ! Great fishing !!! Man we waited a long time for such a nice stretch of weather as we had this entire past week. Just picture perfect. Cool nights, warm and sunny days with light winds and calm seas. Just about as good as it gets. And the fishing... Oh my goodness, the fishing. Just spectacular ! This past week “The Trophy” spent most of the week at the end of the hook fishing for the Yellow Perch. Lake Erie’s other gold. And just like the weather, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen it this very good. Let me re-phrase that, this very GREAT ! It was not a question if we were going to limit out. It was just how fast. And a few days this past week was just silly fast. Hard to believe that at times, and yes it happens some days that we sit there all day long and just peck away at them with just one here and one there trying to get a cooler full and then sometimes never even get them all. But this past week it was far from that. Nothing but doubles and triples everywhere I looked. Every trip. They sure add up fast when they are on fire like that! And the Walleyes are far from being done as well. It’s just unbelievable how strong they are still hanging in there this year. This past Wednesday I ended up having a two boat deal and taking out 12 Amish guests for a building supply company. They wanted to Walleye fish. For my second boat I used my dock partner, Capt. Ray of the ‘Eye Fish Charters. It’s a shame that the Amish folks do not believe in getting their pictures taken. What a load of Walleyes we ended up having between both boats for the day. 72 mostly all monster Walleyes! Each boat limited out with 36 Walleyes and both boats were back to the dock by 2:00 in the afternoon! And that’s taking into consideration that we are no longer departing the dock super early either because of how late day break is now a days with the sun rising later and later each day. I think it was closer to 7:30am before we even started to set lines. Aboard “The Trophy” we ended up almost filling my second huge fish box that I utilize built into the boats decks. Something that rarely ever happens. And Capt. Ray had two massive 100 quart plus coolers stuffed to the very max with fish! What a catch. That sure would have been a great rack shot. If we had a rack that could hold so many fish that is! But the main focus this time of year is certainly still the Yellow Perch trips and the hopes of getting into the jumbos for most everyone. Just a very fun, hands on trip. A fall classic around here. Everywhere you looked this past week you could see boats anchored up. In close, way out. Everywhere. We ourselves anchored in multiple areas this past week. We fished in water as shallow as 42 foot a mile and a half out and in water as deep as 62 foot, about 6 miles out. It was pretty much loaded where ever we tried it. I think that the size might be a bit better a little further out and that is what I was trying to put my guys on when I could. But only because the nice weather and lake conditions allowed us to do it. Had I had to deal with Lake Erie's typical nasty waves and weather like we’ve been having, the in closer areas would have been more then good enough to entertain us. Maybe not quite as fast as further offshore but certainly good enough to get the job done. And as the days and weeks slip by, most of the Perch will start moving in even closer anyway if we don’t get no big blows. It’s not unusual for the Perch to be in very heavy as close in as a few hundred yards off the break walls by early November. This usually happens about the time all the boats are finally pulled out and winterized and everyone is just plum out of trips for the year! Figures. But that’s just the way it is. All good things must come to an end. And winters cold winds and lake effect snows are usually just around the corner as well as early November approaches. Nobody wants to be caught unprepared. So now September is all but over with. In another day or so it will be October already and by the end of the month “The Trophy” as well will be out of the water and back home safely tucked away in a nice warm barn, ready for a long winters nap. But not quite yet... We still have a few weeks to go. Maybe I’ll even still get a Walleye trip or two in these final few weeks. It’s been a long time since I attempted to run a Walleye charter in October and even longer since I ran one that late and did really well. From what I’m seeing, there is no sign that these migrating fish that we’ve been chasing around all season long are in any hurry to start moving back west and out of this area. After our big day on Wednesday, I was curious to see if anything had changed out there and after we got our Perch on Friday and since it was so very gorgeous that day, I ran out a few more miles and thru all the Walleye gear out. Just like a couple days before that, it was instant game on with the Walleyes! My intentions were to capture a couple few big fish for the guys to top off the Perch cooler and just call it a day. Well, it was so good that we went on to get 18 for my 3 guests that day. A trip to remember and maybe even a trip of a lifetime! At least for this time of year. Like I said earlier, it’s just spectacular right now ! OK, I still have a good schedule this coming week with only one day open should anyone be interested and looking. Right now I have no trip for Wednesday, Oct. the 2nd. If anyone might be interested in this day, as always I can be reached at any time of the day or night on my mobile, 216-387-2656. The next 8 day forecast also looks equally delightful so it would be a shame for this day to go unfulfilled as good as the fishing is right now. Maybe you could be my first October Walleye limit in a long time! Or, maybe you might just want a big tub of Perch! We can do either. Or maybe, just maybe I’ll just go catch a few fish for my own freezer if no one calls! Hey, now there's an excellent idea! lol ! Stay tuned. This season ain’t over yet ! |
ODNR Fishing Report 09/24/2013: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 08:08:44 9/25/13 |
Central Basin
Walleye fishing continues to be excellent in 62-72’ of water NE of Ashtabula and in 68-72’ of water N of Conneaut. Anglers are trolling wire line with white, pink, blue, yellow, orange, green and red stick baits.
Yellow perch fishing has been fair at the S end of the sandbar between Vermilion and Lorain. Excellent fishing was reported in 42’ of water N of Rocky River, in 44’ of water N of Gordon Park, in 42’ of water NW of Fairport Harbor (south of the hump), in 45-52’ of water N of Ashtabula and in 42-68’ of water NE of Conneaut. Spreaders with shiners fished near the bottom produce the most fish. Shore fishing off the Cleveland area piers has been slow.
Smallmouth and largemouth bass fishing has been good in 10 to 20’ of water around harbor areas in Cleveland, Fairport Harbor, Geneva, Ashtabula and Conneaut. Anglers are using soft-craws and leeches.
White Bass fishing has been hit and miss off the E. 55th St and E 72nd St Piers in Cleveland and the short and long piers in Fairport Harbor. Evenings have been the best. On the lake, look for gulls feeding on shiners at the surface; the white bass will be below. Anglers are using agitators with jigs and small spoons.
Channel Catfish are being caught off the Edgewater and E 55 St piers in Cleveland and the short pier in Fairport harbor. The evenings are best. Anglers are using nightcrawlers.
Steelhead Trout are being caught off the short Pier in Fairport Harbor. Anglers are using small spoons and jigs tipped with maggots.
The water temperature is 63 degrees off of Toledo and 68 degrees off of Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. |
Fishing report for the week of September 22, 2013.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 12:16:10 9/22/13 |
Fabulous fall Walleye fishing! Simply fabulous. I guess our central basin Walleye fishing here in Ashtabula, Ohio is going to end the way it started way back in the beginning of June of this year. Simply fabulous... You know, if it weren't for all the lousy weather this summer, all of the White Bass woes, the extreme spikes in marine fuel costs and all the other events that constantly seem to get me down, this would truly be the summer of all summers. How could this Walleye fishing be any better? And this past week, probably my last big hurrah for this year for the Walleyes was no exception. The fish have really moved in now and they are stacked maybe as thick as they have been this entire season. And they are real eating machines right now, putting on the fat for the winter months. It really was as fast as I could go. From the moment that the first lines would hit the water up until we pulled the last line out because we were limited out, it was just a non stop crazy fire drill with many times as many as four fish at a time on being reeled in. Huge fish at that. Just like all summer long. But at a crazy non stop pace. The real problem was when you are bringing fish in that fast, you just can’t get any other lines back out there and the next thing you know, you just have nothing left out there. Wish all my other problems this past summer were so pleasant! Thursday and Friday I had four guests in from W.V. for a two day trip and both days we were done by around 9:00am in the morning with massive full boxes of fish! For their efforts, they took home 48 beautiful fall Walleyes. God, what a pace that we had out there and what a pile of fillets that they had to take home! But it wasn’t all gravy though. We did all of that most all week long in very strong southerly gusting winds again which had the lake whipped up into a frenzy many days. Just nuts how much wind we’re having here up on the north coast this season . If it would have been blowing that hard out of any other direction then the south, these trips may have been in jeopardy as well. But being on the lee side of the lake with the south winds and the fish being in much closer, we were able to get our trips in even though we were in very steep 4 footers. Each day we would start in the upper 50 foot of water depth and then just troll out with the winds and waves. Each day it was immediately game on even in the 50 foot range of water. By the time we would crack into the lower 60’s, it was out of control good as the fish finder would light up like a Christmas tree. And all those hooks that I was marking on my fancy Raymarine color fish finder, well they must have been Walleyes because that was all that we were catching, and again simply as fast as we could go. You would no sooner get a line out and sometimes not even get it clipped up to the planer board before the rod would double over. Fish on ! So this coming week I believe I pretty much go into the Perch fishing mode. Figures. The Walleyes finally move way in and are suicidal and I am pretty much out of Walleye trips now. Understandable though. Most of my upcoming Perch trips are previous guests that have already fished for the Walleyes with me this season. Some several times even and are now coming back to cap off the year with their final outing with me to catch a mess of those tasty Perch for the freezer as well. Really a lot more laid back of a trip for me and a whole lot less work. I should be very happy. And I will really appreciate that if this crazy wind keeps blowing like it has been. But I know me. The first really nice day that we have out there I will be looking longingly to the north and wondering, gee are they still out there? Are they still biting like like they were? And reflecting back about the long road that I’ve been down already this season. Thankful that I had a good schedule even though we lost a lot of days to weather, thankful that I had no major mechanical problems, Very thankful that the Walleye fishing was so extremely good once again here off of Ashtabula. Thankful for all the new friends that I made along the way and all of the old ones that I got to see once again and so faithfully fish with me each season along with everyone's generosity. Hmmmm... Maybe it really was the summer of all summers... |
ODNR Fishing Report 09/17/2013: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 08:54:25 9/18/13 |
Central Basin
Walleye fishing continues to be excellent in 68-72’ of water NE of Ashtabula and in 70-72’ of water N of Conneaut. Anglers are trolling wire line with white, pink, blue, yellow, orange, green and red stick baits.
Yellow perch fishing has been fair at the S end of the sandbar between Vermilion and Lorain, and on the Lorain dumping grounds. Excellent fishing was reported in 47-50’ of water N of Edgewater Park, in 50’ of water N of Gordon Park, in 45-52’ of water NW of Fairport Harbor (the hump) and in 45-52’ of water NE of Ashtabula. Spreaders with shiners fished near the bottom produce the most fish. Shore fishing off the Cleveland area piers has been slow.
Smallmouth and largemouth bass fishing has been good in 10 to 20’ of water around harbor areas in Cleveland, Fairport Harbor, Geneva, Ashtabula and Conneaut. Anglers are using soft-craws and leeches.
White Bass fishing has been hit and miss off the E. 55th St and E 72nd St Piers in Cleveland and the short and long piers in Fairport Harbor. Evenings have been the best. On the lake, look for gulls feeding on shiners at the surface; the white bass will be below. Anglers are using agitators with jigs and small spoons.
Channel Catfish are being caught off the Edgewater and E 55 St piers in Cleveland in the evenings. Anglers are using nightcrawlers.
Steelhead Trout are being caught off the short Pier in Fairport Harbor. Anglers are using small spoons and jigs tipped with maggots. Also a few fish have been caught in the Ashtabula River.
The water temperature is 64 degrees off of Toledo and 71 degrees off of Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. |
Fishing report for the week of September15, 2013.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 05:38:22 9/16/13 |
Walleyes and Perch ! Well “The Trophy” had the chance to do a little of both this past week. At least for a few days before the weather turned ugly on us again. We managed to get a couple of Walleye trips in and we even managed to get a couple of our first Perch trips of the year in as well. Both went very well for us. Some of the biggest Walleyes of the year came from this past week in this late part of our season. On Monday the Ohio State Division of Wildlife had personnel in the fish house back at the marina taking careful weights and measurements on all the fish coming in for their lake wide assessment study of the health of the lake and the fish populations. They were in awe with our catch and measured I don’t know how many 30 inchers on their sophisticated scales and rulers that they had brought with them. The very biggest measuring exactly 32 inches and a solid 12 pounds! They made my groups day when they told them that it was the biggest Walleye for this particular survey that they had EVER measured ! Needless to say, a couple of Mondays Walleyes got a ride straight home to the taxidermists afterwards! The Perch fishing was excellent as well even though we fished in some rather rough water on a couple of days where others elected not to even go. That’s about what it has come to around here. You either fish rough water or you just don’t fish at all. But the Perch didn’t seem to care. On both trips that we anchored up on, doubles and triples were common with everyone onboard. The size was decent as well with one day being a bit better then the other but both still good. When it’s smoking rough out there, you don’t get too selective. You get your Perch and get the heck off of there. At least we fished. Had I had to Walleye on those two days, I would have been forced to cancel these trips also. And speaking of the weather. Oh boy, the weather. I’m not going to get too carried away in this report about how lousy it’s been but it sure has not been pretty out there on the lake in a long, long time now. And sadly this past week was no exception. We went from a couple of 90 degree plus days with heavy gusting south west winds to yet another strong cold front sweeping down from Canada associated with storms, cold temperatures, high winds and waves and of coarse, more lost trips for me and others. Frustrating and tiring. I asked my wife last week if she had read my report and what she thought of it. She seemed to feel that I was being too negative in my last few posts with all the weather stuff. Well sure I was. Because it is what it is. I don’t ever try to sugar coat anything. When it sucks, it sucks and I’m not afraid to say so. And its been sucking for a lot of weeks now. But I’m not going to dwell too much more about it anymore. Like they say, there's nothing you can do about the weather. So, this coming week I still have a decent schedule coming up. Right off the top of my head I think most of my weekday trips are still scheduled Walleye charters. I don’t see nothing in the cards right now in the weather department that is all that horrible. We’ll see. It’s getting dangerously close to that time of year around here where the Walleyes can disappear almost over night. Bad weather around here usually seals the deal and when we get back out there after being off for a few days it’s always quite concerning. Are they still out there? Did they move in or out? East or west? So far the last few weeks after loosing strings of days we’ve gone back out there and nothing at all has changed. But one of these days we’re going to run out of luck and it will be a changed world when we get back out there after a blow. I just hope its not this week. Just not yet anyway. But we still have our Perch fishing to fall back on should it all go to Hell. And pretty soon it won’t matter anyway as we start to get into the heart of my Perch schedule. I’m ready. Just throw out the anchor and get back to the basics of fishing. Hold the pole, wait for the bite, bite, bite and just jerk. Sounds like fun to me, rough lake or not! |
ODNR Fishing Report 09/11/2013: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 14:31:59 9/12/13 |
Central Basin
Walleye fishing continues to be excellent in 72’ of water NE of Ashtabula and in 70’ of water N of Conneaut. Anglers are trolling wire line with white, pink, blue, yellow, orange, green and red stick baits.
Yellow perch fishing has been fair at the S end of the sandbar between Vermilion and Lorain. Good fishing was reported in 45-50’ of water N of Edgewater Park, and in 45-50’ of water N of Gordon Park. Fishing has been excellent in 53’ of water NW of Fairport Harbor (the hump), in 62’ of water N-NE of Ashtabula, and in 62’ of water N of Conneaut. Spreaders with shiners fished near the bottom produce the most fish. Shore fishing off the Cleveland area piers has been slow.
Smallmouth and largemouth bass fishing has been good in 10 to 20’ of water around harbor areas in Cleveland, Fairport Harbor, Geneva, Ashtabula and Conneaut. Anglers are using nightcrawlers, soft-craws, leeches and tube jigs.
White Bass fishing has been hit and miss off the E. 55th St and E 72nd St Piers in Cleveland and the short and long piers in Fairport Harbor. Evenings have been the best. On the lake, look for gulls feeding on shiners at the surface; the white bass will be below. Anglers are using agitators with jigs and small spoons.
Channel Catfish are being caught off the Edgewater and E 55 St piers in Cleveland in the evenings. Anglers are using nightcrawlers.
Steelhead Trout are being caught off the short Pier in Fairport Harbor. Anglers are using small spoons and jigs tipped with maggots.
The water temperature is 69 degrees off of Toledo and 69 degrees off of Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. |
Fishing report for the week of September 8, 2013: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 15:32:10 9/08/13 |
New month, same old crap. Well, when I so eagerly flipped the page on the calendar from August to September I was really hoping that we might be starting the fall season off with some great weather. This past week was far from great however. It was pretty much a big wash out more days then not with 4 out of the 7 days being plain unfishable due to high winds and heavy seas. Man, I’m getting so tired of greeting my people at 5:30am just to send them packing. And a couple of the other 2 out of the 3 days that we fished in were no walk in the park either. Seems like it’s just rough all the time anymore. I’m getting tired of fishing in it. I’m getting tired of writing about it. I’m just plain tired of it all. The only consolation is that the fish are still out there and whenever we can get to them they seem to always be on fire and are very willing to hit our baits no matter what the weather has been. On the days that we fished this past week it may not have been easy to fish in under the conditions that we were dealt with but we still came in with incredibly full boxes of huge Walleyes. Pretty amazing stuff as far as that goes. The Walleyes seem to be stacked pretty heavily right now out there in the 10 to 15 mile mark from shore. Still a long way to be out in the lake when you’re fishing in 3 to 5 foot waves like we ended up in a couple of the days. Surprisingly the junk fish have not been so horribly fired up whenever we did get out there as I had feared with all the windy days that we had. Certainly not as bad as like a couple of the weeks that we had back there in August. And do I dare say, but it seems like we might get thru this late part of the season of Walleye fishing without having a unbearable Sheephead bite as I have seen so many other Augusts and Septembers in past years of chasing these Walleyes down in the final weeks of our season. I don’t think we’ve had a single day so far out there where we’ve caught more then half a dozen or so of the Sheep. Now White Bass, well that’s been a whole another story... So this coming week I already see some “windy” days in the marine forecast. Imagine that. One thing I do know for sure. “The Trophy” is going to be sitting out there on the end of the hook as we start mixing it up with some scheduled Perch charters this upcoming week. And now that I have finally broke down and put all my Perch fishing gear on the boat, one other thing I know for sure. If the weather is even marginablebly rough, I won’t bat an eye at converting any of my remaining scheduled Walleye trips into a Perch trip whether the people like it or not. I’m done getting beat up and trying to make something out of nothing out there trolling around in the big waves. I’ve just had enough for one year. Of course they can always go home if they don’t like it. What's a few more lost trips... |
ODNR Fishing Report 09/03/2013: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 09:43:47 9/04/13 |
Central Basin
Walleye fishing has occasionally been good around the SW corner of the sandbar (N of Vermilion), and nearshore from Sawmill Creek to Ruggles Reef trolling crankbaits or worm harnesses. Excellent fishing, the best of the year, was reported in 70-72’ of water NE of Ashtabula and in 70-72’ of water N of Conneaut. Anglers are trolling wire line with white, pink, blue, yellow, orange, green and red stick baits.
Yellow perch fishing has been fair on the Huron dumping grounds, N of Vermilion, and in 45-50’ of water N of Edgewater Park. Fishing has been excellent in 50-60’ of water NW of Fairport Harbor (the hump), in 46-60’ of water N-NE of Ashtabula and in 58-68’ of water NE of Conneaut. Spreaders with shiners fished near the bottom produce the most fish. Shore fishing off the Cleveland area piers has been slow.
Smallmouth and largemouth bass fishing has been good in 10 to 20’ of water around harbor areas in Cleveland, Fairport Harbor, Geneva, Ashtabula and Conneaut. Anglers are using nightcrawlers, soft-craws, leeches and tube jigs.
White Bass fishing has been good with a few larger adult fish being caught off the E. 55th St and E 72nd St Piers in Cleveland and the short and long piers in Fairport Harbor. Evenings have been the best. On the lake, look for gulls feeding on shiners at the surface; the white bass will be below. Anglers are using agitators with jigs and small spoons.
Channel Catfish are being caught off the Edgewater and E 55 St piers in Cleveland in the evenings. Catfish are also being caught in the Grand River. Anglers are using nightcrawlers.
The water temperature is 74 degrees off of Toledo and 73 degrees off of Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast.
Anglers are encouraged to always wear a U.S. Coast Guard-approved personal flotation device while boating.
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Fishing report for the week of September 1, 2013.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 09:23:33 9/01/13 |
S-E-P-T-E-M-B-E-R !! We made it ! All of us. Whether you fish or not, we made it. We made it thru the summer of 2013. One of my favorite songs is John “Cougar” Mellencamps summer of “69” I really doubt that anyone will be writing any songs about the summer of “2013” but none the less, it’s in the books. It started out totally awesome for us aboard “The Trophy” way back in June but after the fish moved offshore in July and we started dealing with all the torrential rains, big winds, high fuel prices not to mention all the junk fish and other handicaps, well it just was a whole lot tougher a lot of days. I think I took it much harder then a lot of my guys did that I took out on the days that we did not not limit out but I always feel it’s my job to deliver the absolute best possible experience out there that I can every day. But after June, it seemed like it was a constant uphill battle for me and a lot of the other charter operators with the weather and the other factors. Lots of my groups did just great regardless. Some did just OK. And a few others, well we even struggled. I guess that’s just fishing. If it were up to me, everyone would do just fabulous everyday. But it’s just the luck of the draw I guess. I don’t have all that much control after a certain point on how the days going to play out. And this final week of August was no exception. We had some of my very best trips of the year as you can tell from these pictures and then again a couple of days that I would just rather forget about. All weather related of coarse. When we did have good lake conditions, we simply crushed the Walleyes this past week. When we didn’t, well we just didn’t do nearly as well. And that’s the way it’s been all summer long. At least the last two months here. And in reality, each and every year. You just can’t be 100% perfect every day, day after day. Not when you’re butting heads against Mother Nature. But if you caught just the right day, it was nothing short of spectacular a lot of the days this past week and all of the summer of 2013 with incredible rack fulls of fish. I guess that’s what I should be excited about. The days that everything came together for us. Maybe September won’t be nearly as much of a roller coaster ride for us aboard “The Trophy”. Either way though, most of my Walleye trips are now in the books. We start this month off with “The Trophy” being a full time Walleye boat with us running our final few weeks of Walleye trips and then going straight into our Perch charters. By the end of the month, we’ll be strictly a Perch boat. So far, Perching has been pretty good for most everyone. I’m hoping it will get only better as we approach the fall season and I also have to jump into the game. I think I am getting really close to wanting to start doing these Perch trips and just putting my Walleye rods away for this year. It’s been a long road since the end of March when I first started chasing the Walleyes way back at Port Clinton. Thousands of miles later and a hundred some trips later, there is plenty of wear and tear on all of my equipment not to mention me! Lol ! So, many fishing trips and fishing reports later, here we are. September. Just a few more weeks of Walleyeing left for me at best and just a few more weeks of these final reports with me trying to put it all in perspective from my point of view here on print for those of you following along with my fishing blogs. We are closing in on the end of the road. As far as for an actual report, well we did find some fish closer in once again this past week. And just in the nick of time. Fuel prices as of this past Friday jumped yet another $.30 cents a gallon at the marina pumps where I am docked. That is just unbelievable to me. The junk fish this past week were not so terribly bad either in close where we were fishing for the Walleyes. The size of the fish continued to be very good for us but we also seen some smaller fish in the mix this past week insuring that the fishery appears to be healthy for years to come. And still next to almost no Steelhead Trout for us this past week. I think we only caught one. Very strange. I don’t have a clue where they might be. Maybe this coming week we’ll run into a few more of them. They are really due to start moving thru as they move towards the shorelines and the streams for the fall runs. Once again, we’ll just have to see how it all goes for us here this first full week of September. And as of this report, I haven't really even looked at the long range weather forecast for this coming week. I guess there is no point in doing so. They usually get it all wrong anyway. Whatever it is, I will show up and if it is at all doable, we’ll head out there and I will again try to do my very best. And if you fall into the about 80% of my groups that usually catch a half way decent lake, well, you’ll be just fine. Just keep your fingers crossed you’re not in that other 20% category !
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ODNR Fishing Report 08/27/2013: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 08:19:42 8/28/13 |
Central Basin
Walleye fishing has occasionally been good around the SW corner of the sandbar (N of Vermilion), W of Ruggles Reef, and around the Huron dumping grounds trolling crankbaits or worm harnesses. Excellent fishing, the best of the year, was reported in 70-72’ of water NE of Ashtabula and in 68-72’ of water N-NE of Conneaut. Anglers are trolling wire line with pink, white, orange, yellow and green stick baits.
Yellow perch fishing has been fair in 47’ of water N of Edgewater Park and in 65’ of water N of Gordon Park. Excellent fishing in 56-58’ of water NW of Fairport Harbor, in 46-60’ of water NE of Geneva, in 58-70’ of water NE of Conneaut. Spreaders with shiners fished near the bottom produce the most fish. Shore fishing off the Cleveland area piers has been slow.
Smallmouth and largemouth bass fishing has been good in 10 to 20’ of water around harbor areas in Cleveland, Fairport Harbor, Geneva, Ashtabula and Conneaut. Anglers are using nightcrawlers, soft-craws, leeches and tube jigs.
White Bass fishing has been good with larger adult fish being caught off the E. 55th St and E 72nd St Piers in Cleveland and the short pier in Fairport Harbor. Evenings have been the best. On the lake, look for gulls feeding on shiners at the surface; the white bass will be below. Anglers are using agitators with jigs and small spoons.
Channel Catfish are being caught off the Edgewater and E 55 St piers in Cleveland in the evenings. Catfish are also being caught in the Grand River. Anglers are using nightcrawlers.
The water temperature is 72 degrees off of Toledo and 72 degrees off of Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. |
Fishing report for the week of August 25, 2013.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 13:23:22 8/26/13 |
Blue Moons, water spouts, flat water, rough water, good fishing and some so, so fishing. We had it all this past week. If you were bored with the conditions on any given day this last week, you only had to wait for the following day for a completely different set of events that Mother Nature had in store for us. And my assumption last weekend that this whole week would be a “thing of beauty” well, that didn’t exactly play out as I had hoped for either. By Thursday we were back to a smoking rough lake, sea sick guests and me wondering if its ever going to get easy for me again out there more then just a day here and a day there. All the junk fish was horrifically terrible all week once again making my job a real nightmare and it was especially bad with them when the winds kicked up as they did for us on Thursday. This is just way more work and physical punishment then I had signed on for when I took upon this little summer job. And here we go with the full moon crap again. Once again it did us no favors all of last week with the Walleyes feeding heavily by night and then not all that interested by day light later. Some of the nicest Walleyes we caught aboard “The Trophy” all of last week were caught in full fledged darkness when we first arrived at the fishing grounds just before day break. And all the meteorologists all excitedly talking about how rare it is to have two full moons in the same month and how we won’t experience that again till 2015. Well, it would be OK with me if we like, NEVER SEEN THAT AGAIN! Yikes, how many different things do I have to worry about anymore out there ! Also, after briefly acting like the the fish were on the march back in towards shore some, all of a sudden this past week it seemed like the best action was back out to about the 16-17 mile mark from shore. 4-5 miles further out then just a few days ago. Just a terribly long way to run by boat to catch fish. If you don’t think so, next time you jump on a straight piece of highway while in your car, pick a starting point and then watch all the different scenery wiz by as you roll off 17 miles. Then try to remember way back to where you started and how long it took you to cover that amount of ground. Now picture having to go striate out that same distance in a pitching, rocking boat banging thru all the waves at a third of the speed if you’re even lucky! It’s a long way! Now you know how happy we all are when the fish are not out that terribly far and how I cringe with each passing mile as they slip back out to the north. And you also have to keep in mind that it’s a double whammy. If the fish slip out say even just 4 miles, well round trip, that’s a total of 8 miles more of travel and added expense that gets factored into our day. But once again, through it all we are still catching plenty of HUGE, HUGE Walleyes! Traveling the long distances, battling all the harsh conditions, sorting through all kinds of incidental garbage fish. But still catching. Even on our “slower” days, it’s simply better then anywhere else on earth on a day to day basis. Day in, day out we throw 10 pounders into the fish box like it’s just no big thing. And last week was no exception. We took an incredible amount of 8 to 10 pound fish! Whenever we do rack them up if my guests so choose to do so at the end of the day, they are almost all cookie cutter identical huge. Everyday. It’s just some days the racks are fuller then others. So if you don’t get caught up in some kind of a lunar spectacle, gale wind or water spout ( of which we seen plenty of early on in the week last week ), there's more then a good chance of filling that brag board back at the marina and hearing me say, “Why, it’s just another day on THE TROPHY!” Bring on another week... |
Fishing report for the week of August 18, 2013.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 08:08:55 8/18/13 |
Jackets and sweatshirts... Is this really August or what ? The bizarre lousy off and on summer weather this year continued on this past week as a series of cold fronts dropped thru the north coast area up here at the lake and dropped temperatures drastically and once again kicked up the stiff north winds. To the point where that by mid week nobody could fish and everyone was all bundled up like it was a dreary cool late October day. Another lost day of chartering in a season where the lost days are beginning to really pile up. And the weather and lake conditions before Wednesday, the day that no one fished and Thursday, when everybody went back out again was no picnic either. Tuesday was cool and raw with very ugly winds and waves as was Thursday. Somehow, someway, though we fished thru those nasty days and somehow, someway we even did very good. Don’t ask me how. One thing that I do know for sure however. This summer is starting to wear on me. And their BACK ! The junk fish that is. After a bit of a reprieve last week from all the nasty trash fish that we had been weeding thru the previous couple of weeks, the high winds have stirred the lake all up again and once again fired up all of the undesirable fish that makes for sooooooo much more additional work for us as we try to get our lines and baits set for the Walleyes. And its no longer mostly just the White Bass. The dreaded onslaught of Sheephead are starting to weigh in heavy in this potpourri mess of trash fish. Not the huge ones yet that are next to impossible to crank in as they spin and roll out there on the surface hundreds of feet away but still Sheephead in ever growing numbers. Not a good sign. White Bass, Yellow Perch, White Perch, Sheephead. All trash fish. If its not a Walleye, its trash. But as I mentioned earlier, the Walleye fishing thru it all has remained very strong. There are plenty of good fish still out there if you can brave the conditions on a lot of these windy summer days and have the patience and perseverance to sort thru all of the other junk fish that has been attacking everyone's baits in ferocious vengeance. Things out in the lakes eco system must be changing. After chartering for nearly three decades now, I really don’t remember this trash fish situation being like this in all of the early years. It just seems like the last few years it has gotten worst and worst with each year. But what can you do ? The Walleye are still out there, everyone still wants them and to go Walleye fishing. I guess you just deal with it. That’s all you can do. If we were going thru all of this and not catching world class Walleyes like we are, then it would be truly insane. But at the end of the day we are still racking incredibly nice catches of Walleyes. I guess that’s the bottom line and all that really matters. So as I study next weeks weather forecast it actually looks to be a thing of beauty. No cold fronts predicted and light winds with next to no chance of rain for quite a few days. Could it be really true ? God knows that we’re more then overdue for some kind of late summer like weather. Maybe with the calmer waters this will also back off all the other junk fish some like it did the week before. It does seem to be a trend that I am now noticing though. That is that when the water is warm and then we get a series of hard windy days, it seems to really excite and fire up all of the undesirable fish. Man, if you could only pick and choose a few days that you fish and not have to fish everyday like when you are fishing for a living, it would be a whole lot easier. Fingers crossed for everyone’s sake that this coming week finally brings fair weather with calm seas, not much junk fish and more racks and racks full of huge Walleyes ! Stay tuned... |
ODNR Fishing Report 08/13/2013: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 21:56:14 8/14/13 |
Central Basin
Walleye fishing has occasionally been good around the weather buoy along the Canadian border, W of Ruggles Reef, and around the Huron dumping grounds trolling crankbaits or worm harnesses. Excellent fishing was reported in 68-74’ of water N of Ashtabula and in 65-74’ of water NW of Conneaut. Anglers are trolling dipsy divers, jet divers and wire line with blue, yellow, purple, green, and orange spoons.
Yellow perch fishing has been good in 46-50’ of water N of Cleveland and in 52’ of water NW of Fairport Harbor. Excellent fishing was reported in 46-53’ of water NE of Geneva, in 48-52’ of water N of Ashtabula, and in 56-62’ of water NW of Conneaut. Spreaders with shiners fished near the bottom produce the most fish. Shore fishing off the Cleveland area piers has been slow.
Smallmouth bass fishing has been good in 10 to 20’ of water around harbor areas in Cleveland, Fairport Harbor, Geneva, Ashtabula and Conneaut. Anglers are using nightcrawlers, soft-craws, leeches and crankbaits.
White Bass fishing is picking up with small fish being caught off the short pier in Fairport harbor. Best spots to try are E. 55th St and E 72nd St Piers in Cleveland and the long pier in Grand River and the short pier in Fairport Harbor. On the lake, look for gulls feeding on shiners at the surface; the white bass will be below. Anglers are using agitators with jigs and small spoons.
The water temperature is 70 degrees off of Toledo and 73 degrees off of Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast.
Anglers are encouraged to always wear a U.S. Coast Guard-approved personal flotation device while boating.
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Fishing report for the week of August 11, 2013.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 16:49:39 8/11/13 |
A better week.... Better weather, better fishing, better spirits! After a particularly tough couple of weeks all the way around, this past week was a little more like normal and what we like to see. In fact, most of the days were downright fabulous for us aboard “The Trophy” with easy limits a lot of the days and back home early for an early lunch. We caught plenty of Walleyes all week long no matter what, that’s for sure ! And the junk fish situation that plagued everyone so terribly the week before, well just like a flip of a switch, we had hardly anything this past week. Truly bizarre but I’ll take it. Maybe it does pay to whine and complain ! The only thing I can think of is that with all the very rough water that we had been having that the lake had rolled over again and somehow had fired all the other fish, particularly the White Bass into a feeding frenzy. Now with the much calmer waters, things are returning back to normal. It remains to be seen if we can yet dodge the huge Sheephead flare up that usually rears its ugly head sometime in August most years. The Walleyes are even seemingly moving a bit closer back in again. A very welcome event in any case. Perhaps this month may not be as tough as I had feared. It just goes to show how fast things can change out there. With us fishing a bit closer in again, we have also gotten away from all the Steelhead Trout. This was the quietest week with the trout that we have had in a couple of months with them. It doesn’t make me any mad but some of my guests that welcome a few on each trip for their smokers and grills were a bit disappointed. I am sure that we are not done with them however and as fall approaches and they start their march closer to shore for the fall Steelhead runs up the creeks, our paths will meet again. So they’ve taken me off of suicide watch and I actually enjoyed myself out there again this past week a few of the days. It wasn’t perfectly peachy all week though. We still had a couple of very stiff south wind days out there that made things a bit tougher but it was certainly doable and a lot more reassuring being able to see the south shore once again while fishing. Maybe we’ll even find some fish even closer in. Time will tell. It almost seems like we’re slipping into a fall like pattern already. Actually way early for the fish to be moving in like this but maybe they know something that we don’t. The guys that are Perching are already really hammering them. I guess I’m not that many weeks away from having to start that myself. Which reminds me to remind all of you to start booking those Perch dates with me before all the better dates all get picked over. But for now, we’re still Walleyeing on... We’ll see where we end up next week.
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ODNR Fishing Report 08/06/2013: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 20:08:27 8/06/13 |
Central Basin
Walleye fishing has been good around the weather buoy along the Canadian border, in less than 20’ of water nearshore between Huron and Vermilion, and 4 miles N of Vermilion trolling crankbaits and worm harnesses. Excellent fishing was reported in 70-73’ of water N of Geneva and in 70-73’ of water NE of Ashtabula. Anglers are trolling dipsy divers, jet divers and wire line with yellow, pink, green, and orange spoons.
Yellow perch fishing has been good 6 miles N of Huron, in 46’ of water NW of Rocky River (Gold Coast), in 40’ of water NW of Gordon Park, in 36-52’ of water NW of Fairport Harbor, in 48’ of water N of Geneva and in 50’ of water N of Ashtabula. Spreaders with shiners fished near the bottom produce the most fish. Shore fishing off the Cleveland area piers has been slow.
Smallmouth bass fishing has been excellent in 10 to 20’ of water around harbor areas in Cleveland, Fairport Harbor, Geneva, Ashtabula and Conneaut. Anglers are using nightcrawlers, soft-craws, leeches and crankbaits.
White Bass fishing has been slow. Best spots to try are E. 55th St and E 72nd St Piers in Cleveland and the long pier in Fairport Harbor. On the lake, look for gulls feeding on shiners at the surface; the white bass will be below. Anglers are using agitators with jigs and small spoons.
The water temperature is 69 degrees off of Toledo and 70 degrees off of Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. |
Fishing report for the week of August 4, 2013.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 09:02:00 8/04/13 |
Exhausting... Simply exhausting. You can certainly tell it’s August. It usually gets bad this time of the year with all the junk fish but what is happening at the moment is totally unbelievable. Every frigging crap fish in the lake seems to be fired up big time right now. And OMG the White Bass ! I have never seen it this bad with them. I am non stop in the back of the boat everyday from the moment we start fishing till the last line is pulled. White Bass after White Bass after White Bass. Everywhere we go, everywhere we try. I went out even further this past week right up to the Canadian line to try and get away from them, and they only got bigger! Just non stop clearing and re-setting of the lines and fixing the non stop tangles that theses little creeps are costing us every day. Exhausting. And the weather has not made it real easy either. Seems like forever now since we had a really nice lake. It just blows and blows. We fished in some big water this past week. It was either that or just loose all of my trips. God knows I’ve lost enough already here as of late. And once again more bone jarring, body beating rides everyday for me. I feel bad for the guys that waited all year for their annual outing. But they get roughed up a little and then go home, done till next year again. I get up, see it’s still windy, still rough and know that I have to go and do it all over again again and that I’m going to get my butt handed to me yet once again. Day after day. Beat our way out and then deal with all the trash fish and tangles on top of all of that. Yeah, I have everyone's dream job as I am so often told. But through all of the mayhem, chaos, and carnage we are still getting Walleyes. Big Walleyes and that is what everyone comes for. Central basin summer hog Walleyes. It just happens that they are way offshore right now, way deep and that the fishing grounds that everyone is fishing right now is totally inundated with these pesky White Bass and Sheephead and other junk fish. We are even getting lots of suspended Jumbo Perch while trying to troll up these Walleyes and that’s not all bad but this time of year but when you are targeting Walleyes, they are as much a nuisance as any White Bass or Sheephead is. It takes so long to run your lines out, only to see the little shaker taping away on the rod, then have to drag them all the way back in, hopefully without tangling everything up and then back out again. All wasted time. You can’t be catching Walleyes when your stuff is all tied up with junk fish. And that’s what even the Perch are too me this time of year. Just plain junk. And it’s even worst when you don’t realize that they are even on there like on the Dipseys Divers. All wasted time, wasted opportunities. So we did indeed flip the page on the calendar to August here this past week. Boy the summer is flying by! Only the days are long to me. If things don’t change though, this is going to be one long ass month. We have seen bouts of White Bass flare ups before in past years and it usually does ease. That’s the hopeful good news. The dreaded bad news, the Sheephead, especially the colossal, behemoth ones usually get unbearable sometime this month always and are yet to fire to the unbearable level like the White Bass presently are. Lol ! You have to laugh, because if you don’t laugh, you end up crying. That’s what I feel like doing when I’m out there and I see 6 out of 8 board lines all limp and twitching away. “You have my dream job, Capt.” Yup, I’m even starting to see those little bastards in my sleep now! See you guys all next week, providing I’m not locked up in a nice padded room where there are no sharp items near by ! Lol
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Fishing report for the week July 28, 2013.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 15:42:33 7/28/13 |
Plugging along, and rolling up the miles... I’m beginning to feel like a long distance truck driver with a daily route. It’s pretty much the same thing everyday now. Around a 50 mile trip each day. Not really so terrible when rolling down the highway in a vehicle but a pretty good chunk of water to cover every day by boat. And that’s about what “The Trophy” has been averaging here as of late. About a 20 mile run out, about 10 miles of trolling around, and then about another 20 miles or so run back home . Day in, day out. Day after day after day... Except for the days where it was just too rough to venture that terribly far out. And that’s been happening more and more here as of late as well sadly enough. Four days out of the last eight day period have been just too nasty to fish. That’s counting todays trip, Sunday, where we stuck our nose out there and immediately came back because of heavy seas and tomorrow's trip that I’ve already cancelled due to a 3 to 5 foot forecast building to a unfishable 4 to 6 foot. Just terrible. Not very good for the bottom line when you figure that this is that part of the season where you “make it or break it” in this business. And the days that we do make this little “50 mile jaunt”, half of the proceeds seem to go straight back into the gas tank immediately before all the other bills ever even get paid. Big runs, big fuel bills and lots of wear and tear on the equipment not to mention on the operator. But on the days that we did manage to get out to these distant fishing grounds, the fishing has remained very good for us and most all of the other charter operators running out of the Ashtabula area right now. We actually had some days where “The Trophy” spent longer in transit round trip then it did to capture the Walleyes that we were seeking. We have set into a pretty repetitious daily routine now of very long leads of wire line and long Dipsey leads. Lots and lots of cranking for my guests but lots and lots of Walleyes as well. It’s an amazing world out there. There's no one little spot that anybody is working in particular right now but many miles of loosely scattered Walleyes for as far as the eye can see out there. Assuming you made that long, grueling ride that far offshore. But it is what we do. We follow the Walleyes. When they move out, we move out along with them. And then hope for fair seas to be able to get out to them and hope for somewhat reasonable fuel prices to make it all worth while. This past week or so we didn’t get too much of either. The only consolation was that the fishing out there when we managed to get out that far was good. I mean, really good. So this is it. The final few days of July. It seems like I’ve logged a million miles already this summer. And August will not be any easier for any of us. It never is. Our Walleyes usually don’t start moving back in until sometime later in September. For joy. More mileage to be racked up along with those incredible weekly checks that I will be writing to the marina for the petroleum that they will be selling me to be able to get out to this promised land. Just a endless, repetitious routine that we happen to be in right now and for the foreseeable future. Just like a truck driver. Just drive and drive. Drive right into August! See you guys down the road next week. |
ODNR Fishing Report 07/23/2013: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 20:57:00 7/24/13 |
Central Basin
Walleye fishing has been good at the weather buoy between Vermilion and Lorain near the Canadian border and in 17’ of water nearshore between Huron and Vermilion. Excellent fishing was reported in 72-74’ of water NE of Geneva and in 72-74’ of water NW of Conneaut. Anglers are trolling dipsy divers, jet divers and wire line with yellow, pink, green, and orange spoons.
Yellow perch fishing has been good just off the Huron River mouth, off of the condos E of Vermilion, in 32-42’ and 48’ of water N of Edgewater Park, and in 50’ of water NW of Gordon Park. Excellent fishing was reported this past week in 42-52’ of water NW (the Hump) of Fairport Harbor and in 44-49’ of water NW of Conneaut. Spreaders with shiners fished near the bottom produce the most fish. Shore fishing has been slow due to muddy water from the big rain storms.
Smallmouth bass fishing has been excellent in 15 to 25’ of water around harbor areas in Cleveland (5-20’ of water), Fairport Harbor, Geneva, Ashtabula and Conneaut. Anglers are using crankbaits, spinnerbaits, tube jigs, curly tail grubs, soft-craws and leeches.
White Bass has been fair in the evenings off Euclid Beach, E. 55th St in Cleveland and the long pier in Fairport Harbor. Look for fishing to pick up once the water clears up from the rain storms. Anglers are using agitators with jigs and small spoons.
The water temperature is 75 degrees off of Toledo and 73 degrees off of Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. Anglers are encouraged to always wear a U.S. Coast Guard-approved personal flotation device while boating. |
Fishing report for the week of July 21, 2013.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 17:50:28 7/22/13 |
HOT ! HOT ! HOT !!! Oh, and the weather, it was a little on the warm side also this past week ! Lol ! We had some pretty HOT fishing this past week especially early on in the week in one of the hottest heat waves that I have fished thru in quite a few years. Man was it toasty out there. Monday through Thursday we had very little breeze if any out on the lake and that coupled along with 90 degree plus temperatures made for some very uncomfortable conditions by mid morning each day. The only thing that got us through it was our super early morning departures each day which gave us a few good hours of fishing before the sun got up too high and started the bake cycle. The fact that the Walleyes were biting pretty good helped also. A couple of the days we limited out early sending us scurrying for air conditioners back on shore. A couple of other days we came close to limiting out but when it became almost unbearable by about 11ish, my crews thankfully cried UNCLE and were willing to settle for a few fish short of limits in exchange for a very welcome high speed cruise back to shore and the chance to get out of the sun. By Friday, change was on the way but in the form of too much of a good thing. All week we prayed for a bit of a breeze. Friday we got it. Sustained gusty hot winds making for solid 3 to 5 footers all day and once again making for pretty uncomfortable and tough fishing conditions. Somehow we still managed to get a pretty full kettle of fish and only came up a few short of limiting out. It was not easy however and I was pretty spent at the end of the day. I don’t think I was the best of company all week frankly. I just don’t do this kind of heat very well. The weekend ushered in much cooler temperatures and much needed relief but at the cost of a trip for me on Saturday. It was just too rough to fish way offshore. In close it was tolerable but the further out we got the nastier it became. It made Fridays heavy seas look like a walk in the park. After running all the way out there, we never even wet a line and just turned around and came back in. The Walleyes have moved so far offshore now that there are just no easy days for us anymore. Long, grueling expensive boat rides back and fourth to the fishing grounds. Not such a big deal when the lake is calm but a a very big problem and a very big deal on the typical very choppy and even rough conditions that greet us more times then not on Erie. And the Walleyes dramatic move to way offshore coincides with a incredible spike in the fuel prices once again back at the marina pumps. Figures. I’m not very happy right now about what's been happening. The marina where I am docked just raised their fuel price by a whopping 29 cents a gallon all in one session just 5 days ago and yet ANOTHER 20 cents just this weekend. I’m like, what the heck! What ever happened to the days when fuel prices rose by pennies or a nickel! 49 cents in less then a friggin weeks time! Are you kidding me ? Anyway, an extra special thanks to all my charter guests that have taken notice of all this and have generously dug even a little deeper into their pockets at the end of the day to ease my horrible pain at the pumps right now. It really helps a lot and is appreciated more then my mere words of thanks can express. So the season is progressing right on que. We are entering the last full week of July already. The fish are super way out and I’m beginning to feel more then just a little tired. I am also totally bummed out about these ridiculous fuel prices. Maybe it was all of this heat this week but I’m already starting to think about the off season and the fact that after August, its thankfully all down hill. I have semi mixed emotions about the time flying by so quickly but it seems like each year I welcome the off season just a little more then the year before. I know I have to get my second wind though and put some of these thoughts behind me because there is still a lot of Walleye fishing that has to take place for me before that nice long winter break. We’ll see what this coming week brings. I hope its not more 90 degree weather, 6 foot waves and another 49 cent jump in the marina gasoline prices ! |
ODNR Fishing Report 07/16/2013: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 21:30:53 7/16/13 |
Central Basin
Walleye fishing has been good at the weather buoy between Vermilion and Lorain near the Canadian border, in 20-24’ of water NE of Rocky River, in 32-42’ of water N of Edgewater, in 68-72’ of water NE of Geneva, and in 68-72’ of water N of Ashtabula. Anglers are trolling dipsy and jet divers with worm harnesses and yellow ,orange, pink, green and purple spoons with copper backs.
Yellow perch fishing has been excellent in 39-43’ of water off of Avon point, Edgewater, Eastlake/Mentor, Fairport Harbor, Ashtabula, and Conneaut. Shore anglers are catching a few fish off the E. 55 St pier in Cleveland, the Mentor Headlands pier, and the short pier on the Grand River. Spreaders with shiners fished near the bottom produce the most fish.
Smallmouth bass fishing has been excellent in 15 to 25’ of water around harbor areas in Cleveland (5-20’ of water), Fairport Harbor, Geneva, Ashtabula and Conneaut. Largemouth bass are also being caught in the same areas. Anglers are using crankbaits, spinnerbaits, tube jigs, curly tail grubs, soft-craws and leeches.
White Bass has been fair in the evenings off Euclid Beach and Sims Park in Euclid and the short pier in Fairport Harbor. Anglers are using agitators with jigs and small spoons.
The water temperature is 74 degrees off of Toledo and 68 degrees off of Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. |
Fishing report for the week of July 14, 2013.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 15:02:06 7/14/13 |
A so, so week... We had everything this past week from extremely fabulous fishing several days including the very best day of the year for me to, well, just some so, so fishing. A very strange week indeed. After a very good weekend last week we were greeted with some fairly slow days early on in the past week. It just made no sense to me. The very same areas, the very same lures, the very same counts on the lines we put out... yet dramatically different results. But I now think I know what was to blame. I think... Tuesday I was especially beside myself after a rather tough day the day before and yet more of the same again the that day. I had called home that evening to touch base with my wife as I always do during the middle of the week. Before I even I had a chance to start to complain about how hard my day had been, she surprised me by saying I would never guess what she had just heard on TV coming from one of the Cleveland's news channels chief meteorologists concerning Lake Erie. She said they did a story on how the lake had just “turned over” and how unusual that phenomenon is this time of year. Usually this happens in September when we start getting cooler nights and the very top part of the water column cools and sinks down to the bottom and the once cooler water down below now rises as the “new” warmer water. This is also known as the lake “flipping over” or “turning over” with the thermocline breaking up. When it happens in September, it really screws up the Walleye fishing for a few days and that’s exactly what I think just happened to us last week. Very unusual for mid summer and the very first time that I’ve heard of it happening out here. And why? They went on to say it was because of all the record rainfall every day for so many days on end. Apparently the colder rainfall that we’ve been receiving and I’m talking many inches at a whack on some days has had the same impact on the thermocline as the fall weathers natural cooling cycles that takes place each year. The lake had homogenized and disrupted the normal thermocline that usually sets up by now in earnest for the summer. To further understand this, I’ve come across a very neat YouTube video that explains how this all works and what happens. Although out on the big lake everything is on a much bigger scale and over a much bigger time period, the theory is still the same. I can not post a live link but I urge all of my readers that finds this as fascinating as I did to copy and paste this into your browser window and watch this short demonstration for yourself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSFSNTI67wc Fascinating ! So the lake had flipped over and the Walleyes were in a bit of disarray for a few days. Very interesting and hopefully very short lived. By weeks end however things were returning back to fabulous and on Friday we had a 39 fish day for my six charter guests that particular day. I rarely get 6 guys anymore nor do I want that many guys on the boat really but somehow, someway we went well and we went on to have the best day of the year number wise aboard “The Trophy”. Very strange after a few days of terribly struggling just a couple of days before. Saturday was a burn as well with us capturing 30 Walleyes before 10:00 a.m. Same results on Sunday. It was on fire and done early! I guess I have a new excuse to use now anyway. I will add it to my long list already of why the stupid fish aren’t biting. “The lake has turned over” I will add that one right below the “super stupid moon” phenomenon on my ever growing list! lol ! Anyway, this weeks 10 day forecast is calling for almost no rain right on through the extended period and temperature's soaring into the 90’s by early in the week ! We should get our thermocline back in a big time hurry and the rest of summer should be back to just simply peachy. Should be,... right ? Stay tuned ! |
ODNR Fishing Report 07/09/2013: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 08:04:45 7/10/13 |
Central Basin
Walleye fishing has been good at the weather buoy between Vermilion and Lorain near the Canadian border, in 69-72’ of water NW of Ashtabula, and in 70-72’ of water NW of the Conneaut. A few fish are also being caught in 34-40’ of water N of Wildwood State Park. Anglers are trolling dipsy and jet divers with worm harnesses and yellow ,orange, pink, green and purple spoons.
Yellow perch fishing has been excellent in 36’ of water N of Gordon Park, in 37-38’ of water N of Wildwood State Park, in 41-47’ of water NW of Fairport Harbor (the hump), in 42-45’ of water NE of the Geneva, and in 44-50’ of water NW of the Conneaut. Shore anglers are catching a few fish off the E. 55 St pier in Cleveland and the short pier on the Grand River. Spreaders with shiners fished near the bottom produce the most fish.
Smallmouth bass fishing has been excellent in 15 to 25’ of water around harbor areas in Cleveland, Fairport Harbor, Geneva, Ashtabula and Conneaut. Largemouth bass are also being caught in the same areas. Anglers are using soft-craws and leeches.
White Bass has been fair in the evenings off Euclid Beach and Sims Park in Euclid and the short pier in Fairport Harbor. Anglers are using agitators with jigs and small spoons.
Channel Catfish has been very good along the Grand River. Anglers are using chicken livers and large chubs.
The water temperature is 71 degrees off of Toledo and 65 degrees off of Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. |
Fishing report for the week of July 7, 2013.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 08:59:18 7/07/13 |
July !!! And, not only is is it July already but we have already put the big 4th of July holiday behind us already and as you guys are reading this, we are incredibly entering the second week of the month already ! Is this summer flying by or what ? It is just a total blur for me. Eat, sleep, fish... rinse & repeat. So fishing this past week for us aboard “The Trophy” has been back to pretty much awesome once again. We made all of the necessary adjustments this past week and have simply followed the fish offshore. We've also changed our program over to the deep water summer techniques that has worked for me for almost three decades now. It’s almost comical to see so many boats just now trying to perfect their Jet Diver and other shallow water techniques. Man, that part of the season around here is over with. And when it’s over, it’s really OVER ! We have now ourselves moved on to the wire line and crank bait program and it is working pretty much to perfection ! And I don’t mean maybe! We had many memorable and productive days this past week. We caught plenty of fish and many of those in the “trophy” and “fish of a life time” category. Saturday my guys had a big fish contest amongst themselves and I was the designated judge in charge of measuring them. The very first three fish that made it to the boat in the morning that I measured went a whopping 29”, 29 1/4”, & 29 1/2” which ultimately was the big fish of the day. Not a bad way to start the day! Or my boys from Iowa that fished with me two days Thursday & Friday and went on to take home 125 pounds of pure fillets for their two days effort! Just many, many success stories this past week. What will this new week bring? I am sure many new unforgettable memories. Peoples first Walleye ever, peoples biggest Walleye ever, the most Walleyes they ever caught, their first Steeelhead... On and on. I will hear lots of hooping and hollering and that I am sure of. And through it all, I will calmly say, why its just “another day on The Trophy !” lol ! See you guys next week. |
ODNR Fishing Report 07/02/2013: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 21:06:58 7/02/13 |
Walleye fishing has been good W of the Huron dumping grounds, at the weather buoy, 1.5 miles N of Beaver Creek, nearshore from Sheffield to Avon point, in 61-65’ of water N of Gordon Park in Cleveland, and in 40-42’ of water NE of Chagrin River. Fishing has been excellent in 68-70’ of water NE of Geneva and in 65-72’ of water NW of the Ashtabula. Anglers are trolling dipsy and jet divers with worm harnesses and yellow ,orange, pink, copper and purple spoons. There has also been excellent fishing nearshore in 12-24’ of water NW of Ashtabula and off Conneaut. Anglers are drifting Erie Dearies.
Yellow perch fishing has been excellent in 37’ of water N of Wildwood State Park, in 33’ of water N of Chagrin River, in 39-47’ of water NW of Fairport Harbor (the hump) and in 45-48’ of water N of the Conneaut. Shore anglers are catching a few fish off the E. 55 St pier in Cleveland and the long pier on the Grand River. Spreaders with shiners fished near the bottom produce the most fish.
Smallmouth bass fishing has been excellent in 15 to 25’ of water around harbor areas in Cleveland, Fairport Harbor, Geneva, Ashtabula and Conneaut. Largemouth bass are also being caught in the same areas. Anglers are using soft-craws and leeches.
White Bass has been good in the evenings off Euclid Beach and Sims Park in Euclid. Anglers are using agitators with jigs and small spoons.
Rock Bass are being caught off the breakwalls in Fairport Harbor.
Channel Catfish has been very good along the Grand River. Anglers are using chicken livers and large chubs.
The water temperature is 69 degrees off of Toledo and 68 degrees off of Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. |
Fishing report for the week of June 30, 2013.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 04:07:38 6/30/13 |
Ahh, that “Super”, super moon... After a truly incredible run at the Walleyes since Memorial Day and my return from Port Clinton, we finally had a bit of a reality check aboard “The Trophy” this past week. And it all started with that pesky phenomenon that occurs each month, the full moon that plays such havoc with our daytime Walleye fishing efforts every time it rears its head. Except last weekends “super” moon as it has been called being the very absolute worst possible Walleye show stopper. The full moon being at its rare closest orbit to the earth creating an exceptionally huge, bright night light for the fish that the Walleyes take full advantage of over their prey with their excellent low light level brilliant eyes. Basically they feed heavily all night long and shut down completely by day shortly after daybreak. It’s a fact. And this ‘Super” moon coupled with the extremely bright cloudless sunlight and flat seas that we had made for some very tough fishing for a few days. I guess the streak that I was riding on was destined to have some bumps in the road. A real reality check and reminding us of the fact that we are indeed just fishing and that anything can happen. Last Sunday was the toughest for us. We caught fish pretty good right after day break but when it ended for us, it was totally over and no matter what we tried or did, it just plain did not matter. You couldn’t buy a bite. And for a few more days it was more of the same with us struggling to get into the teens and no real early quits. By Wednesday, things showed promises of getting back on track with us pulling almost limits. Thursday we had an early quit due to an unbelievable all day rain deluge event. I honestly don’t think that I have ever fished in such a non stop heavy down pour. Man were things flooded when I got back to my camp grounds about a mile up river from where the boat is docked. Still we managed 18 Walleyes thru all of that. Of coarse with all the rain, it was dreary and dark day and those Walleyes were feeding pretty good right on thru. I think if we would have managed to fish the full allotted time, we would have had a real big day for my five guests that day. As it was though, we had a pretty nice tub of fish not to mention some very wet butts! Saturday, yesterday was the gem of the week. We easily limited out my party of 5 and were back home early for cocktails! So much for that big old bad moon. And as for the rest of the week, well I think things are changing fast out there or so I believe. The fish look deeper on the graph each day and we have even caught a few now on the deep water wire line trolling program although it’s still far from great. Of coarse I was really struggling to get anything going when we were working with the wire line anyway and when the fish are biting good particularly at dawn, the Tru-Trip divers still get the job done as good as anything. I do plan to extensively start working the wire line and crank baits into my daily presentation with this coming week however. It is time. And frankly, the little spoons on the boards are now starting to attract way too many White Bass. We had plenty of White Bass action all day even though the Walleyes were shutting down on us during those post moon lit nights. We must have handled hundreds and hundreds of those creepy little pests this past week. And that’s putting it nicely ! Lol ! On a positive note, we are also starting to see more and more Steelhead Trout showing up in our and everyone else's catches now for those that enjoy this type of added excitement. We had quite a few of them on this past week although not that many actually made it to the net. There is a reason why they call them “silver bullets” and “jumpers” ! So another chapter closes as we get ready put this month of June in the books. Aboard “The Trophy” we almost squeaked out a fairy tail picture perfect June with a almost perfect track record in regards to production. Almost. The Super moon made sure that I got humbled a bit and don’t get too carried away with this “best June ever” stuff that I’ve been screaming about. I still believe it was though. And if it wasn’t, it had to be right up there with some of my best ones ever in the past 27 years of running fishing charters. I remember a lot of tougher ones. Especially the early part of the month in some of those Junes in past years. There is a reason that a lot of the other charters don’t even book trips early on in the month and that the private anglers mostly focus just on Perch fishing. In can be painfully slow at times in early June. This year was not the case. I sincerely hope for everyone's sake that the best fishing is not already behind us but for those that had not fished and are just now starting, well you are starting out with a much tougher bite. What will July bring ? Besides much higher fuel bills and long boat rides, we should recover after this full moon fiasco and start catching once again some serious offshore migrating deep water summer Walleyes. Time will only tell and I will pass it back on to you. |
Fishing report for the week of June 30, 2013.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 04:06:58 6/30/13 |
Ahh, that “Super”, super moon... After a truly incredible run at the Walleyes since Memorial Day and my return from Port Clinton, we finally had a bit of a reality check aboard “The Trophy” this past week. And it all started with that pesky phenomenon that occurs each month, the full moon that plays such havoc with our daytime Walleye fishing efforts every time it rears its head. Except last weekends “super” moon as it has been called being the very absolute worst possible Walleye show stopper. The full moon being at its rare closest orbit to the earth creating an exceptionally huge, bright night light for the fish that the Walleyes take full advantage of over their prey with their excellent low light level brilliant eyes. Basically they feed heavily all night long and shut down completely by day shortly after daybreak. It’s a fact. And this ‘Super” moon coupled with the extremely bright cloudless sunlight and flat seas that we had made for some very tough fishing for a few days. I guess the streak that I was riding on was destined to have some bumps in the road. A real reality check and reminding us of the fact that we are indeed just fishing and that anything can happen. Last Sunday was the toughest for us. We caught fish pretty good right after day break but when it ended for us, it was totally over and no matter what we tried or did, it just plain did not matter. You couldn’t buy a bite. And for a few more days it was more of the same with us struggling to get into the teens and no real early quits. By Wednesday, things showed promises of getting back on track with us pulling almost limits. Thursday we had an early quit due to an unbelievable all day rain deluge event. I honestly don’t think that I have ever fished in such a non stop heavy down pour. Man were things flooded when I got back to my camp grounds about a mile up river from where the boat is docked. Still we managed 18 Walleyes thru all of that. Of coarse with all the rain, it was dreary and dark day and those Walleyes were feeding pretty good right on thru. I think if we would have managed to fish the full allotted time, we would have had a real big day for my five guests that day. As it was though, we had a pretty nice tub of fish not to mention some very wet butts! Saturday, yesterday was the gem of the week. We easily limited out my party of 5 and were back home early for cocktails! So much for that big old bad moon. And as for the rest of the week, well I think things are changing fast out there or so I believe. The fish look deeper on the graph each day and we have even caught a few now on the deep water wire line trolling program although it’s still far from great. Of coarse I was really struggling to get anything going when we were working with the wire line anyway and when the fish are biting good particularly at dawn, the Tru-Trip divers still get the job done as good as anything. I do plan to extensively start working the wire line and crank baits into my daily presentation with this coming week however. It is time. And frankly, the little spoons on the boards are now starting to attract way too many White Bass. We had plenty of White Bass action all day even though the Walleyes were shutting down on us during those post moon lit nights. We must have handled hundreds and hundreds of those creepy little pests this past week. And that’s putting it nicely ! Lol ! On a positive note, we are also starting to see more and more Steelhead Trout showing up in our and everyone else's catches now for those that enjoy this type of added excitement. We had quite a few of them on this past week although not that many actually made it to the net. There is a reason why they call them “silver bullets” and “jumpers” ! So another chapter closes as we get ready put this month of June in the books. Aboard “The Trophy” we almost squeaked out a fairy tail picture perfect June with a almost perfect track record in regards to production. Almost. The Super moon made sure that I got humbled a bit and don’t get too carried away with this “best June ever” stuff that I’ve been screaming about. I still believe it was though. And if it wasn’t, it had to be right up there with some of my best ones ever in the past 27 years of running fishing charters. I remember a lot of tougher ones. Especially the early part of the month in some of those Junes in past years. There is a reason that a lot of the other charters don’t even book trips early on in the month and that the private anglers mostly focus just on Perch fishing. In can be painfully slow at times in early June. This year was not the case. I sincerely hope for everyone's sake that the best fishing is not already behind us but for those that had not fished and are just now starting, well you are starting out with a much tougher bite. What will July bring ? Besides much higher fuel bills and long boat rides, we should recover after this full moon fiasco and start catching once again some serious offshore migrating deep water summer Walleyes. Time will only tell and I will pass it back on to you. |
ODNR Fishing Report 06/25/2013: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 20:38:50 6/25/13 |
Central Basin
Walleye fishing has been good W of the Huron dumping grounds, at the weather buoy, 1.5 miles N of Beaver Creek, and nearshore from Sheffield to Avon point. Fishing has been excellent in 63-65’ of water N of Rocky River, in 62-65’ of water N of Gordon Park, in 65-70’ of water NW of Fairport Harbor and in 60-69’ of water NE of the Geneva. Anglers are trolling dipsy and jet divers with worm harnesses and spoons.
Yellow perch fishing has been excellent in 30’ of water NE of Gordon Park, in 37’ of water N of Chagrin River, in 42-52’ of water NW of Fairport Harbor (the hump) and in 21-44’ of water N of the Ashtabula. Shore anglers are catching fish off E. 55th St in Cleveland. Spreaders with shiners fished near the bottom produce the most fish.
Smallmouth bass fishing has been very good in 15 to 25’ of water around harbor areas in Cleveland, Fairport Harbor, Geneva, Ashtabula and Conneaut. Largemouth bass are also being caught in the same areas. Anglers are using soft-craws and leeches.
White Bass has been good in the evenings off Euclid Beach. Anglers are using agitators with jigs and small spoons.
Rock Bass are being caught off the breakwalls in Fairport Harbor.
Channel Catfish has been very good along the Grand River. Anglers are using chicken livers and large chubs.
The water temperature is 71 degrees off of Toledo and 65 degrees off of Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. |
Fishing report for the week of June 23, 2013.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 18:44:19 6/23/13 |
Just another solid, solid week. Fishing remained most excellent for us aboard “The Trophy” again this past week and everybody else for that matter that is now starting to get serious about the Walleye fishing. As always, some are doing better then others but you’ll always have that each and every year and wherever you go. I stand by my statement that I made in my last fishing report though. This is by far the best June that I have ever seen personally around here. Again, I am just speaking for myself and what we have been able to accomplish aboard “The Trophy” thus far this month when I say this. A few others may think differently but I think most will concur. It’s been really, really good out there especially on these better weather days. I also mentioned last week that judging by the forecast that it looked very summer like for the week to come which is now this past week. Well, the week may have ended up that way but the nice weather was very slow getting here. We had some very tough conditions again which we somehow fished through at the start of the week but by Thursday the lake finally laid down to nothing and it became sunny and warm and just simply a joy to be out there once again. And it’s been nice ever since and also coincides nicely with the actual beginning of summer if you go by the calendar. On the nastier days though, it just is so much harder to go about the business of trolling with all the gear that we have to run. I really don’t care who you are. The weather creates a level playing field and everybody has a harder time. But this is no fault of the fish. They are still there. This past week was a perfect example of that. When the lake was rough we just had a harder time catching what we did catch. And when the weather returned to nice on Thursday, we not only went back to smoking them, it was EVEN faster and better then it was before if that’s even possible ! There's just a LOT OF FISH OUT THERE RIGHT NOW ! And again, not much else has changed either. The Walleyes are still relatively close in and still hanging in the upper half of the water column. We have done very well in water depths from as shallow as 50 foot to water as deep as 70 feet. We’ve just been lining up on my best areas depending on the wind and wave conditions and just coming in on them from different angles. I can honestly say that we have caught Walleyes good wherever I’ve been forced to start. But when the lake allows I’ve been hanging as close to the harbor as possible and enjoying the gas savings and saving the wear and tear on the equipment not to mention not beating anybody up any more then need be. We are still using the Tru-Trip style of Jet Divers off the big planer boards along with the little Singer Scorpion Spoons to catch these Walleyes. If it’s not broke, don’t try to fix it. My very favorite spoons, the Savants are starting to work pretty good on the big Dipseys also now. And as long as we keep beating them up like we have been with these unique and simple Tru-Trip divers on the boards, I could care less if we ever used wire line again. But in my heart I know we are already almost on borrowed time with the fish poised to move out and drop deeper into the water column making the switch to wire line necessary. We’ll just have to see how long we can milk out this shallower water program this year. So far, so good... So that’s it. Another great week for us with everybody leaving with incredibly huge bags of fillets for those that chose to have their fish cleaned. Lots of smiles all the way around. And if the forecast looked favorable last week, it REALLY looks nice for this upcoming week. Right now I don’t see anything less then 80 degrees right on through along with very light winds. Perhaps the beginning of the official start of summer will really trigger and lock us into some good old dog days of summer. Hot, humid and hazy. Along with more great Walleye fishing. Love it! Just the way it should be ! Tight lines until next week, |
ODNR Fishing Report 06/18/2013: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 20:17:46 6/18/13 |
Central Basin Walleye fishing has been good on Ruggles Reef, at the weather buoy, on the sandbar, nearshore from Sheffield to Avon point, in 65’ of water N of Rocky River, and in 60-62’ of water N of Edgewater Park. Fishing has been excellent in 35-55’ of water NW of Fairport Harbor, in 68-70’ of water N of the Geneva, and in 65’ of water NW of Ashtabula. Anglers are trolling dipsy divers, jet divers and inline weights, with worm harnesses and spoons. Yellow perch fishing has been good off of Beaver Creek and Lorain in 25-30’ of water, in 38-40’ of water N of Gordon Park, in 32’ of water NE of Wildwood State Park, and in 50-53’ of water NW of Fairport Harbor. Fishing has been excellent in 48’ of water NE of the Ashtabula and in 30-45’ of water NE of Conneaut. Spreaders with shiners fished near the bottom produce the most fish. Smallmouth bass fishing has been very good in 15 to 25’ of water around harbor areas in Cleveland, Fairport Harbor, Geneva, Ashtabula and Conneaut. Largemouth bass are also being caught in the same areas. Anglers are using soft-craws, leeches, tube jigs, and crankbaits. Channel Catfish has been very good along the Grand River. Anglers are using chicken livers and large chubs. The water temperature is 68 degrees off of Toledo and 61 degrees off of Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. |
Fishing report for the week of June 16, 2013.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 13:34:41 6/16/13 |
Best June ever... EVER ! Man, I don’t know how the rest of this month or the rest of this summers going to go but what a fabulous past few weeks we’ve enjoyed aboard “The Trophy” so far here out of Ashtabula Harbor ! We’ve had an absolutely perfect string of incredibly successful trips on my boat with just simply the most incredible grade of huge Walleyes that you could possibly ask for. Day in, day out it has been crazy good thus far. And for the most part, nobody else has hardly even been fishing. I don’t know what everybody else is waiting for but I LIKE IT ! Just us, the freighters out there and those MONSTER Walleyes on most days. Of course we had another unusually cool, raw and super wet week this past week. That might have a lot to do with the lack of any real boat traffic out there. It has been very unlike any other June that I have seen in a lot of years now. The amount of rain that we have had here along the lake shore these last couple of weeks has been insane. The Ashtabula River has been running muddy & swollen with flooding waters and debris now for what seems like an eternity. Docking at times has been a real adventure to say the least ! And it seems like no sooner that I get all my rain gear and shoes finally all dried out that we start all over again. It’s been just like the movie “Ground Hog Day” ! Over and over again ! lol But rain, wind or whatever, the Walleye fishing has been just tremendous for us out there. I’ve been fishing these waters for over 30 years plus now and chartering full time for 27 of those years and I just don’t remember the fishing being so consistently good this early on in the summer around here. And the size, well I’m starting to sound like a broken record here. It’s been just incredible. And we haven't had to go very far out to catch these huge fish either. Just go around the corner and start fishing. Aboard “The Trophy” we have still been targeting the high fish with the new Tru-Trip Divers using the little Scorpion Spoons. It has been working flawlessly so far. And when you have a lot of fish to work with, everything else is very forgiving. Speed has not been all that critical for us. We have caught them good speed trolling, trolling normal and creeping like a snail. I don’t think lure colors have mattered all that much either and lead lengths have been all over but for the most part on the high side on most days. When it’s good, it’s simply good. So perhaps we are finally going to break into some real summer time weather judging by the most recent forecasts that I am seeing right now for this next week. Its about time. It’s hard to believe that we are now in the second half of the month already. Don’t blink. It will soon be July. Soon these fish will start their slow and steady march north out and away from the near shore waters just like they do each and every year. This easy fishing will soon be a memory as we beat our way well offshore and have to start running many hundreds of feet of line out just to get our lures down to the right strike zone. I cringe at the thoughts of all that but I will make all the necessary changes and go where ever I have to go to keep my boys over the fish the very best that I can. It’s what I do. But I will never forget about this phenomenally great start to the season that we’ve already had this year and wish that we were really locked into a fishing version of “Ground Hog Day” ! Stay tuned... |
ODNR Fishing Report 06/11/2013: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 23:01:30 6/11/13 |
Central Basin
Walleye have been caught nearshore from Cranberry Creek to Vermilion including Ruggles Reef, on the dumping grounds N of Lorain, in 38-42’ of water N of Edgewater Park and in 50-60’ of water N of Chagrin River. Fishing has been good in 61’ of water NW of Fairport Harbor. Excellent fishing this past week in 52-60’ of water NW of the Geneva and in 50-60’ of water NW of Ashtabula. Anglers are trolling dipsy and jet divers with worm harnesses and spoons.
Yellow perch fishing has been very good in 35’ of water NE of Gordon Park, in 33’ of water NE of Chagrin River, in 40-56’ of water NW of Fairport Harbor and in 36-48’ of water N-NE of the Conneaut. Spreaders with shiners fished near the bottom produce the most fish. Shore fishing has been good off the E. 55th St and E. 72 nd St piers in Cleveland and off the Fairport Harbor Pier. Anglers are using spreaders with shiners and the mornings have been best.
Smallmouth bass fishing has been very good in 15 to 25’ of water around harbor areas in Cleveland, Fairport Harbor, Geneva, Ashtabula and Conneaut. Largemouth bass are also being caught in the same areas. Anglers are using soft-craws, leeches, tube jigs, and crankbaits.
Channel Catfish has been very good along the Grand River. Anglers are using chicken livers and large chubs.
The water temperature is 64 degrees off of Toledo and 54 degrees off of Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. |
Fishing report for the week of June 9, 2013.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 20:19:06 6/09/13 |
Smoking awesome... I mean, totally SMOKING AWESOME !!! We had another unbelievably great week of Walleye fishing out of Ashtabula Harbor aboard “The Trophy” this past week. This format that I use for my fishing reports limits me to only four pictures per report each week. That’s a shame too because I think I took at least 50 fantastic pictures this past week ! Lol ! We got pictures of racks full of fish. We got multiple pictures of various 10 pound plus Walleyes including one huge cow that went 32 inches and weighing in at a whopping 13 pounds. We even got pictures of a beautiful and quite rare Brown Trout that we captured aboard “The Trophy” early on in the week. All these great photos that I would love to share with everyone and here I am limited to just four measly pictures. And then I think back to certain weeks in past seasons where I struggled to even come up with four worthy pictures over the coerce of a whole weeks period due to one reason or another. Usually because of horrific weather. Speaking of weather, it wasn’t exactly June like or pleasant most of this last week either. We had a stubborn cold front sit on top of us all week long over the lake keeping temperatures well below normal with a pesky stubborn east northeast wind churning away at the water making for lots of white caps. And to add to all the excitement, we had TONS of rain, most of it associated with the tropical system Andrea that marched up the center of the country and stalled over us for two whole days before turning east and moving on. And somehow, someway we still fished through all and had a ball ! Funny how even in miserable ghconditions it can be really fun when you have fish after fish on at the end of your line. And we certainly didn’t have to fight any crowds out there. It wasn’t till Friday when we seen the first other boat out there trolling around for the Walleyes in the same areas that I was working. A very pleasant change from the congestion and chaos that I just went thru at the western basin last month. If that’s all it takes to make the whole lake all mine, just a “little rain and a bit of cool breeze” I say, bring it ! Providing that the Walleyes are as suicidal as they were for us all this last week in those honestly crappy conditions, lol ! So its almost scary how good the fishing is for us this June right out the gate this year. Normally things around here in the central basin start out a bit slower and steadily build up to the crescendo that peaks in July & August. I mean, its always fairly good even early on if you work really hard at it but right now if you know half way what you're doing, its almost silly easy. It just makes me wonder if the huge schools that normally migrate into the area later on in the season are not already here prematurely for whatever reason. And that also makes me fearful that perhaps they may keep trucking east this year when most just expect them to arrive. I guess time will tell but it certainly is as good as it gets out there right now and at least as good as any of the supposed “peak months” that are supposedly yet to come. Hopefully they will stick around. It makes me giddy to think that even more schools of Walleyes may be moving into the area and be joining up with the big schools that seem to be out there already making it EVEN BETTER then it is now ! Yikes, somebody please pinch me ! I guess from here on out there will be more and more people joining me out there as the word gets out about how good the fishing already is out there. I haven't exactly kept it a big secret myself with these reports, lol... I just hope that once others start joining me out there that everyone can for a change be more courteous to one another and use some common sense when you get in to some traffic. Everybody has the age old argument “I’ve been on this heading all day long”. Well, hello... usually so have ! The bottom line is that there is no one right or wrong. Rules of the road really do not apply out there when you’re trolling around in all different directions. But common sense does. I’ve often said that if you give me a little and I give you a little, there would never be an issue. But those that just sit there with their arms folded and refuse to give an inch while you crash and burn, well that’s just plain shameful. It’s a big lake out there with lots of fish for everyone. Lets spread the word this year and everybody try to work together! We’ve all been caught in situations where you came up on another boat unexpectantly in a bad way because you were just so busy in the back. It happens. So, after all this preaching if I happen to almost run you over, well I’m apologizing already in advance ! lol ! OK, real quick before I wrap it up here. Walleye fishing is beyond FABULOUS RIGHT NOW ! And of all things, I have a couple open dates this coming week because of some weird cancellations. If anybody is interested, I have this Tuesday, June the 11th open along with a rare Friday opening, June the 14th for those that love those long three day weekends. I would dearly like to fill these dates while the fish are on fire like this if I can. Help me spread the word about these openings ! |
ODNR Fishing Report 06/04/2013: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 20:34:30 6/04/13 |
Central Basin
Walleye have been caught nearshore from Cranberry Creek to Vermilion including Ruggles Reef, on the dumping grounds N of Lorain, in 38-42’ of water NW of the Chagrin River, in 53’ of water N of Edgewater Park in Cleveland, in 26-38’ of water NW of Fairport Harbor, and in 46-52’ of water NW of Ashtabula . Anglers are trolling dipsy and jet divers with worm harnesses, spoons and stick baits.
Yellow perch fishing has been very good in 36’ of water N off Edgewater Park, in 30-35’ of water N of Gordon Park, in 43’ of water NW of Fairport Harbor, in 39-40’ of water N of the Ashtabula and in 40’ NE of Conneaut. Perch spreaders with shiners fished near the bottom produce the most fish. Shore fishing has been good off the E. 55th St and E. 72 nd St piers in Cleveland and off the Fairport Harbor Pier. Anglers are using spreaders with shiners and the mornings have been best.
Smallmouth bass fishing has been very good in 15 to 25’ of water around harbor areas in Cleveland, Fairport Harbor, Geneva, Ashtabula and Conneaut. Largemouth bass are also being caught in the same areas. Anglers are using soft-craws, leeches, tube jigs, and crankbaits.
White Bass fishing has been good in the Grand River up to the Uniroyal hole.
Channel Catfish has been very good along the Grand River. Anglers are using chicken livers and large chubs.
The water temperature is 64 degrees off of Toledo and 59 degrees off of Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. |
Fishing report for the week of June 2, 2013.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 11:46:01 6/02/13 |
Holy huge fish Batman ! “The Trophy” returned back to her home Port of Ashtabula Harbor Sunday evening on Memorial Day weekend and had the most pleasant of all surprise waiting on us ! WALLEYES ! Lots and lots of HUGE Walleyes and nobody even fishing for them ! After running my last Port Clinton Walleye trip of the year that Sunday and fighting the boat traffic, all the junk fish and the size of the Walleyes dramatically dropping off with each passing day, I was pretty eager to just head east and go back home. And that’s exactly what I did that day after off loading my guys and topping off the tank with a belly full of fuel. I split the gap of the Port Clinton pier heads exactly at 3pm and pulled “The Trophy” into the Ashtabula Harbor exactly 10 minutes after 8pm, a 120 miles later not to mention a whole lot lighter on fuel. lol ! Tired and cross-eyed after an extremely long day, it was still a very good feeling to be back home ! And although I never hardly ever fun fish, I thought we would do just a little scouting troll the very next morning. Wow is all I can say ! We normally do pretty good even on our first charters out after returning to the deep water out east here but this was just way too easy. With a couple of friends onboard we made a short couple hour troll and boxed 12 monster Walleyes ! In the short time we fished, we had a triple hooked up of which we boxed all 3 of and then another double which we also boxed both of. We were trying to pull lines to quit after deciding we had seen enough and caught enough for a quick scouting trip and we were still catching. We picked up two more fish just trying to clear the lines. And here it was still MAY even ! And the real story was the size. They were simply behemoth! Although I did not measure any of the fish, I would bet most anything that about 8 out of the dozen that we captured would have easily made Fish Ohio standards of at least 28 inches or better. What a box of fish for such a short time of fishing! So, was it a fluke ? Did I just happen to stop over a little pod of fish ? Naw. Thursday I got to do it again and for real this time with a bunch of eager and excited charter guests and we simply KILLED them once again ! Although we didn’t do any triples this day, we had a very nice steady pick going all day. And the size wasn’t too far off from what we had seen earlier in the week. Just nice, nice fish. I think we knocked off about 1 o’clock and we had 24 in the box. And we had to quit. There was no way, no how we were ever going to squeeze another fish into the big fish box built into the Cherokees boat deck. As it was, we came in with the lid ajar. What a good problem to have ! Our technique was very similar to our west end trolling program. Trolling Tru-Trip Divers very shallow off the big planer boards and even a few on the big Dipsey Divers. All spoons were used across the board on both kinds of Divers. We welcomed June 1st in on Saturday with yet another incredible day ! This time we had 29 beautiful Walleyes in the boat by about 12:30 ! Just about as good as it gets ! And that was under some pretty choppy conditions. So now the real serious part of my season really begins. My 27th year of doing so. The big water offshore fishing that everybody gets so excited about. And it looks like we are in store for yet another GREAT summer of superb world class Walleye fishing just like the previous 26 years before. I can honestly say we’ve never had a really bad year around here. The waters offshore of Ashtabula is just simply a magical, mystical big Walleye magnet! If there are some of you out there reading this that have yet to experience what I am talking about, I invite everyone to give me a call and try to secure one of the few remaining dates that I happen to have left. I would very much like to show you what I am talking about and hear some new voices excitedly yell, FISH ON !!! |
ODNR Fishing Report 05/28/2013: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 08:37:14 5/29/13 |
Central Basin
Walleye have been caught off Rocky River in 53’ of water fishing on the bottom using worm harnesses. A few walleye have been caught off the Cleveland Crib area in 50’ of water and also in 26-34’ of water NW of Fairport Harbor. Anglers are trolling dipsy and jet divers with worm harnesses, spoons and stick baits.
Yellow perch fishing has been good weather permitting in 32-34’ of water N off Gordon Park in Cleveland, in 42’ of water N of Cuyahoga River light house, in 50’-55’ of water N of Mentor Lagoons. Fishing has been very good in 38-40’ of water N of the Ashtabula and in 38-49’ N of Conneaut. Perch spreaders with shiners fished near the bottom produce the most fish. Shore fishing has been good off the E. 55th St and E. 72 nd St piers in Cleveland. Anglers are using spreaders with shiners and the mornings have been best.
Smallmouth bass fishing has been very good in 15 to 25’ of water around harbor areas in Cleveland, Fairport Harbor, Geneva, Ashtabula and Conneaut. Largemouth bass are also being caught in the same areas. Anglers are using soft-craws, leeches, tube jigs, and crankbaits.
White Bass fishing has been good in the Grand River up to the Uniroyal hole.
Channel Catfish has been very good along the Grand River. Anglers are using chicken livers and large chubs.
The water temperature is 59 degrees off of Toledo and 57 degrees off of Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. |
ODNR Fishing Report 05/21/2013: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 06:18:23 5/22/13 |
Central Basin
Walleye have been caught N of Lorain in 48 to 50’ of water, and off Rocky River in 53’ of water fishing on the bottom using worm harnesses. Also nearshore off Cleveland in the early mornings and after 6:00 pm in 35-38’ of water using rapalas, husky jerks and reef runners. Anglers are starting to catch some fish in 38-42’ of water off Mentor Lagoons. Anglers are trolling dipsy and jet divers with worm harnesses and stick baits.
Yellow perch fishing has been good weather permitting in 42’ of water N of Gordon Park in Cleveland, in 38’ of water N of Bratenahl, and in 38’-42’ of water N of Mentor Lagoons. Fishing has been very good in 40-43’ of water N of the Ashtabula and in 28-42’ NW of Conneaut. Perch spreaders with shiners fished near the bottom produce the most fish. Shore fishing has been good off the E. 55th St and E. 72 nd St piers in Cleveland. Anglers are using spreaders with shiners and the mornings have been best.
Smallmouth bass fishing has been good in 15 to 25’ of water around harbor areas in Cleveland, Fairport Harbor, Geneva, Ashtabula and Conneaut. Largemouth bass are also being caught in the same areas. Anglers are using drop shot rigs with rubber worms, soft-craws, leeches, tube jigs, and crankbaits. |
ODNR Fishing Report 05/15/2013: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 07:55:50 5/16/13 |
Central Basin
Walleye have been caught nearshore off Cleveland after 6:00 pm and at night in 35-38’ of water using rapalas, husky jerks and reef runners.
Yellow perch fishing has been good weather permitting in 38’ of water N of Gordon Park in Cleveland, in 38’ of water N of the Fairport Harbor lighthouse and in 42 to 50’ of water NE of the Ashtabula. Perch spreaders with shiners fished near the bottom produce the most fish. Shore fishing has picked up off the E 55th St. pier in Cleveland. Anglers are using spreaders with shiners and the mornings have been best.
Smallmouth bass fishing has been good in 15 to 25’ of water around harbor areas in Cleveland, Fairport Harbor, Geneva, Ashtabula and Conneaut. Largemouth bass are also being caught in the same areas. Anglers are using drop shot rigs with rubber worms, soft-craws, tube jigs, and crankbaits. |
ODNR Fishing Report 05/07/2013: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 07:26:00 5/08/13 |
Central Basin
Walleye have been caught nearshore off Cleveland after 6:00 pm and at night in 10-15’ of water using rapalas, husky jerks and reef runners.
Yellow perch fishing has been fair to average in 36-50’ of water N of Gordon Park in Cleveland, in 36’ of water N of the Fairport Harbor lighthouse, in 38’ of water N of the Ashtabula lighthouse and also NW of Ashtabula in 60’ of water. Perch spreaders with shiners fished near the bottom produce the most fish. Shore fishing has been spotty in the Cleveland area and off the Fairport Harbor Pier. Anglers are using spreaders with shiners and the mornings have been best.
Smallmouth bass is picking up in 15 to 25’ of water around harbor areas in Cleveland, Fairport Harbor, Geneva, Ashtabula and Conneaut. Anglers are using drop shot rigs with rubber worms, soft-craws, leeches, tube jigs, and crank baits. |
Fishing report for the week of March 25, 2013.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 18:30:07 3/25/13 |
Happy Spring ! We are finally open for business again ! What a month of March that we have had and what a difference a year makes. Non the less, “The Trophy” got splashed for the year here at Port Clinton today amongst 30 knot winds and blinding snows in the morning. But with an improving forecast for Easter weekend, I wanted to be available should anyone want to go catch themselves a Easter Walleye ! We have the entire Easter weekend available. Friday, Saturday & Sunday. Temperatures are “supposed” to be in the 50’s so not bad if true ! Over the years I have a lot of really fond memories of fishing on Easter weekends and getting into the really big pre-spawn piggies as they begin to stage and get ready for the upcoming spawn. The biggest Walleye we’ve ever caught aboard “The Trophy” was on April the 1st here a few years back. A true Trophy, just shy of 15 pounds ! You just never know ! If anybody wants to put that cabin fever behind them and get out there, give me a call at 216-387-2656 and WE’ll GO FISHING !!! We have plenty of weekdays left at this point as well for you to choose from. Give me a call. Fishing reports will return in earnest here shortly. Maybe you can be one of the first ones to grace our fishing reports page with a nice Lake Erie Walleye ! Capt. Walt |
ODNR Fishing Report 01/30/2013: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 12:39:17 1/31/13 |
There were some very limited ice fishing opportunities in harbors and to a lesser extent W of South Bass Island prior to 1/28/13. Recent warm temperatures, wind and rain have ended most ice fishing. |
ODNR Fishing Report 01/08/2013: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 10:10:54 1/09/13 |
Weather conditions have continued to limit open water fishing opportunities on Lake Erie (as of 1/8/13). Although most of the lake is still open water, nearshore ice around harbors has limited access to the open water. |
ODNR Fishing Report 01/02/2013: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 10:26:13 1/03/13 |
Winter weather conditions have limited open water fishing opportunities on Lake Erie over the past two weeks. Although most of the lake is still open water, accesses have started freezing. |
Fishing report for January 1, 2013.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 14:44:32 1/01/13 |
Happy New Year ! And welcome to the new and upcoming fishing season ! The year 2013 will mark my 27th year of being a full time charter captain and guide on Lake Erie. Wow is all I can say. It seems like just yesterday I was informing my wife that I was quitting my good paying machinist job and buying a big boat which by the way was going to cost more then the house that we had just purchased and be a full time fishing guide. Somehow we got past all of that and here we are with 26 years under our belts now and thousands of trips run and with many more countless thousands of Walleyes captured over those 26 years. We are looking forward to yet another new fishing season and seeing a lot of our old friends that we have made over those years and making some new ones too ! Last seasons fishing was about as good as it could be. Most of that could be attributed to the nicer then usual average weather that we had in 2012. Not that we didn’t have our share of crap days here and there. And if you were one of the groups that drew that particular straw, well your catch probably reflected it. But as a whole, it was pretty dog gone decent and along with good weather comes decent fishing conditions and great catch rates. We had plenty of fish in the area to work with last year and when everything was all said and done, we ended up capturing 2,683 Walleyes and thousands of more Perch in 2012. A very good year ! Perhaps we will have another mild spring followed by a great summer. And if so, we should have another banner year. One can only hope ! I don’t foresee any major changes with anything for the new year. Fish limits should remain as they were and I don’t foresee any big changes on my end. We will once again be in the western basin for the early spring fishing operating out of the same dock location in Port Clinton for the months of April and May. Then it will be back to Ashtabula Ohio my home port for the rest of the year. Rates will again remain at $650 for a group of 5 or less but I am really urging those that do not do it already to consider coming as groups of 4. It is just so much more personal and comfortable with just that one less person. And on the trolling trips your turn on the rod comes up quicker and at the end of the day you end up splitting your catch 4 ways rather then 5. It is a lot easier limiting the boat out with 4 people then 5. Many days with a full boat it’s just plain tough catching that many fish and frequently come up a few short where with 4 people it’s usually highly obtainable. At the end of the day it’s a win, win for everyone. Especially for me. I just don’t move around as well or bounce back from my daily beatings that the lake dishes out as I did 27 years ago! I see a day coming in my final years where I may just cap it at 4 people maximum. Period. So now it is 2013. It really is time to start firming up those fishing plans for this spring and summer that will be here before you know it. For those that are tentatively on the books already, we need firm commitments from you followed up with deposits so that we can lock you in. And if you are not coming, we need to know that too so that those dates can be offered to others. I am blessed with a very good schedule each year but the scheduling and getting everyone what they want is no easy task. It certainly helps when everybody starts setting things up sooner then later and not bother me so much after we actually start fishing. My days are long as they are and with a necessary policy of early to bed, I’m not too happy when I have a lot of e-mails to answer and phone calls to return along with all the associated paper work that goes along with processing deposits and so fourth. I’d rather be just concentrating on catching fish and keeping the equipment up which is almost a full time job in its self. So I urge everyone to book soon for both of our sakes. Remember, the best dates go first and fast ! See you guys on the water in a few short months ! Capt. Walt |
ODNR Fishing Report 11/27/2012: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 10:30:56 11/28/12 |
Through Thanksgiving day walleye fishing was excellent with many limits being caught, including some fish over 10 pounds. Fish were caught 1.5 miles S of “F” can of the Camp Perry firing range, between Green Island and Rattlesnake Island, and N of Kelleys Island. Wind after Thanksgiving temporarily limited fishing opportunities on the main lake. Trollers are using crankbaits such as Reef Runners and Rapala Deep Husky Jerks. Most walleye are caught in the fall by trolling crankbaits in open water or by fishing at night nearshore and around piers. Fall yellow perch fishing can also produce some of the best catches of the season. Most perch anglers fish around the islands or within a few miles of the ports from Huron to Conneaut. |
ODNR Fishing Report 11/20/2012: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 14:09:10 11/20/12 |
Over the past week walleye were caught west of Green Island and Rattlesnake Island, between Green Island and Catawba Island, and most recently about 1.5 miles south of “F” can of the Camp Perry firing range. Trollers are using crankbaits such as Reef Runners and Rapala Deep Husky Jerks. Most walleye are caught in the fall by trolling crankbaits in open water or by fishing at night nearshore and around piers. Fall yellow perch fishing can also produce some of the best catches of the season. Most perch anglers fish around the islands or within a few miles of the ports from Huron to Conneaut.
For steelhead fishing reports visit: http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/Home/FishingSubhomePage/
The water temperature is 44 degrees off of Toledo and 48 degrees off of Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. |
ODNR Fishing Report 11/06/2012: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 08:14:59 11/07/12 |
Wind, waves and muddy water have limited most fishing opportunities on Lake Erie over the past week (as of 11/6/12). As the lake starts to clear up expect walleye fishing to improve around the islands and from Cedar Point to Lorain. Most walleye are caught in the fall by trolling crankbaits in open water or by fishing at night nearshore and around piers. Fall yellow perch fishing can also produce some of the best catches of the season. Most perch anglers fish around the islands or within a few miles of the ports from Huron to Conneaut.
The water temperature is 45 degrees off of Toledo and 50 degrees off of Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. |
ODNR Fishing Report 10/30/2012: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 00:06:26 11/01/12 |
Central Basin **** All reports are based on fishing information before the major storm hit on Monday October 29, 2012.
Walleye had been caught 4 to 8 miles N-NW of Huron. Most fish were caught by trolling with worm harnesses or crankbaits.
Yellow perch fishing has been good within 1 mile of Huron and Vermilion. Farther east fishing continues to be excellent with many limit catches. The best locations to fish are in 32-35’ of water NW of Wildwood State Park, in 35’ of water N of Chagrin River, in 49-52’ of water NW of Fairport Harbor (the hump), and in 45-62’ of water NE of Conneaut. Perch spreaders with shiners fished near the bottom produce the most fish. The best shore fishing spots to try are the Cleveland Piers and at Headlands Beach Pier in Mentor and the Fairport Harbor Pier. Fair catches were reported this past week at the Fairport Harbor Pier. Anglers are using crappie rigs and spreaders with shiners and the mornings and evenings have been best.
Steelhead Trout. All rivers are near flood stage and it will be several days or longer before they are fishable again. Call ahead to your local bait shops to check on river and stream conditions. Before the storm, anglers were catching fish off the Fairport Pier at the mouth of the Grand River and also in the river up to the Uniroyal hole, Boat anglers were having good luck in the Grand River as well as the Ashtabula River and Conneaut Creek. Try using small spoons, spinner baits, and jigs with maggots.
The water temperature is 50 degrees off of Toledo and 57 degrees off of Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. Anglers are encouraged to always wear a U.S. Coast Guard-approved personal flotation device while boating. |
ODNR Fishing Report 10/16/2012: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 08:06:02 10/17/12 |
Central Basin
Walleye have been caught on the sandbar between Vermilion and Lorain and around the Huron dumping grounds. Most fish have been caught by trolling with worm harnesses or crankbaits. No current reports from the Ashtabula-Conneaut area. Look for walleye in 64’ of water 8.5 miles out N of Conneaut. Try trolling with dipsy and jet divers, or inline weights, with worm harnesses.
Yellow perch fishing has been good within 1 mile of Huron and Vermilion. Farther east fishing continues to be excellent with many limit catches. The best locations to fish are in 38-40’ of water NW of Edgewater along the Gold Coast, in 38-39’ of water N of Wildwood State Park, in 52’ of water NW of Fairport Harbor, and in 57’ of water N of Ashtabula. Perch spreaders with shiners fished near the bottom produce the most fish. The best shore fishing spots to try are the Cleveland Piers and at Headlands Beach Pier in Mentor and the Fairport Harbor Pier. Fair catches were reported this past week at Headlands Beach Pier and the Fairport Harbor Pier. Anglers are using crappie rigs and spreaders with shiners and the mornings and evenings have been best.
White bass has been spotty but can pick up at any time. Try near shore in 10-25’ of water N of Cleveland Harbor, NE of Gordon Park (Bratenahl), and in 10-20’ of water N of Eastlake CEI. Look for gulls feeding on schools of shiners at the surface. The white bass will be below the shiners. Shore anglers are catching white bass off the Eastlake CEI breakwall. Anglers are using agitators with jigs tipped with twister tails or using small spoons.
Steelhead Trout anglers are catching fish off the Fairport Pier at the mouth of the Grand River and also in the river up to the Uniroyal hole. Boat anglers are having good luck in the Grand River as well as the Ashtabula River and Conneaut Creek. Try using small spoons, spinner baits, and jigs with maggots.
The water temperature is 53 degrees off of Toledo and 59 degrees off of Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. |
ODNR Fishing Report 10/10/2012: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 08:28:27 10/12/12 |
Central Basin
Walleye have been caught on the sandbar between Vermilion and Lorain and around the Huron dumping grounds. Not many reports are coming in from the Ashtabula-Conneaut area. Look for walleye in 64’ of water 8.5 miles out N of Conneaut. Trollers are using dipsy and jet divers, or inline weights, with worm harnesses. Walleye are also being caught with crankbaits off of planer boards.
Yellow perch fishing has been good 10 miles N of Vermilion, off the Vermilion breakwall, and off of Cranberry Creek. Farther east fishing continues to be excellent with many limit catches. The best locations to fish are in 38’ of water N of Gordon Park, in 35’ of water NW of Wildwood State Park, in 49-50’ of water NW of Fairport Harbor, and in in 56-66’ of water NE of Conneaut. Perch spreaders with shiners fished near the bottom produce the most fish. The best shore fishing spots to try are the Cleveland Piers and at Headlands Beach Pier in Mentor and the Fairport Harbor Pier. Fair catches were reported this past week at Headlands Beach Pier and the Fairport Harbor Pier. Anglers are using crappie rigs and spreaders with shiners and the mornings and evenings have been best.
White bass has been spotty but can pick up at any time. Try near shore in 10-25’ of water N of Cleveland Harbor, NE of Gordon Park (Bratenahl), and in 10-20’ of water N of Eastlake CEI. Look for gulls feeding on schools of shiners at the surface. The white bass will be below the shiners. Shore anglers are catching white bass off the Eastlake CEI breakwall. Anglers are using agitators with jigs tipped with twister tails or using small spoons.
Steelhead Trout anglers are catching fish off the Fairport Pier at the mouth of the Grand River and also in the river up to Mason’s landing at Vrooman Rd. Try using small spoons, spinner baits, and jigs with maggots.
The water temperature is 55 degrees off of Toledo and 63 degrees off of Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. Anglers are encouraged to always wear a U.S. Coast Guard-approved personal flotation device while boating. |
ODNR Fishing Report 10/02/2012: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 07:53:33 10/03/12 |
Central Basin
Walleye have been caught on the sandbar between Vermilion and Lorain. Not many reports are coming in from the Ashtabula-Conneaut area. Look for walleye in 65-70’ of water 8-9 miles out. Trollers are using wire line off planer boards and dipsy divers, with purple, black, red, green, orange and brown spoons and stick baits.
Yellow perch fishing has been good 10 miles N of Vermilion, 2 miles N of Beaver Creek, and off of the Avon power plant. Farther east fishing continues to be excellent with many limit catches. The best locations to fish are in 35-38’ of water N of Rocky River, in 38-42’ of water N of Gordon Park, in 32-34’ of water NW of Fairport Harbor, in 47-50’ of water NE of Ashtabula and in 60-64’ of water NE of Conneaut.. Perch spreaders with shiners fished near the bottom produce the most fish. The best shore fishing spots to try are the Cleveland Piers and at Headlands Beach Pier in Mentor and the Fairport Harbor Pier. Anglers are using spreaders with shiners and the mornings and evenings have been best.
Smallmouth bass fishing continues to be very good in 15 to 23’ depths around harbor areas in Cleveland, Fairport Harbor, Geneva, Ashtabula and Conneaut. Anglers are having good luck using crayfish, drop shot rigs and tube jigs.
White bass has been spotty but can pick up at any time. Try near shore in 10-25’ of water N of Cleveland Harbor, NE of Gordon Park (Bratenahl), and in 10-20’ of water N of Eastlake CEI. Look for gulls feeding on schools of shiners at the surface. The white bass will be below the shiners. Shore anglers are catching white bass off the Eastlake CEI breakwall. Anglers are using agitators with jigs tipped with twister tails or using small spoons.
Steelhead Trout anglers are catching fish off the Fairport Pier at the mouth of the Grand River and also in the river. Try using small spoons, spinner baits and jigs with maggots.
The water temperature is 60 degrees off of Toledo and 65 degrees off of Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. |
ODNR Fishing Report 09/25/2012: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 21:18:54 9/26/12 |
Central Basin
Walleye have been caught on the sandbar between Vermilion and Lorain. Not many reports coming in from the Ashtabula area due to the rough lake conditions the last 5 days. Look for walleye in 70-71’ of water 10-11 miles out NE of Ashtabula and in 60-74’ of water 7.5-10 miles out NE of Conneaut. Trollers are using wire line off planer boards and dipsy divers, with purple, black, red, green, orange and brown spoons and stick baits.
Yellow perch fishing has been good N of the Vermilion River in 31’ of water and E of Vermilion off of the condos. Farther east fishing continues to be excellent with many limit catches. The best locations to fish are in 38-40’ of water N of Gordon Park, in 38’ of water N of Wildwood State Park, in 50-52’ of water NW of Fairport Harbor (the hump) and in 59-62’ of water NE of Conneaut. Perch spreaders with shiners fished near the bottom produce the most fish. The best shore fishing spots to try are the Cleveland Piers and at Headlands Beach Pier in Mentor and the Fairport Harbor Pier. Anglers are using spreaders with shiners and the mornings and evenings have been best.
Smallmouth bass fishing continues to be very good in 15 to 23’ depths around harbor areas in Cleveland, Fairport Harbor, Geneva, Ashtabula and Conneaut. Anglers are having good luck using crayfish, drop shot rigs and tube jigs.
White bass has been spotty but can pick up at any time. Try near shore in 10-25’ of water N of Cleveland Harbor, NE of Gordon Park (Bratenahl), and in 10-20’ of water N of Eastlake CEI. Look for gulls feeding on schools of shiners at the surface. The white bass will be below the shiners. Shore anglers are catching white bass off the Eastlake CEI breakwall. Anglers are using agitators with jigs tipped with twister tails or using small spoons.
Steelhead Trout anglers are catching fish off the Fairport Pier at the mouth of the Grand River. Try using small spoons, spinner baits and jigs and maggots.
The water temperature is 59 degrees off of Toledo and 68 degrees off of Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. Anglers are encouraged to always wear a U.S. Coast Guard-approved personal flotation device while boating.
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Fishing report for the week of Sept. 23, 2012.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 07:53:28 9/23/12 |
My last Walleye trip of the 2012 season is now in the books ! And once again, it was totally AWESOME ! This past Monday was indeed my last scheduled Walleye trip and just this one last time this year I’m going to coin the phrase once more “It was simply as good as it gets”! Although the wind was howling dead out of the south, from the moment we set up we could not get a line in the water without a huge Walleye immediately grabbing it. At no point while we fished did we ever get more than two or three lines in the water. The Dipsy Divers were just smoking ! In less than two hours of actual fishing time not counting the ride out and back, we had my four man party's limit of 24 on ice and were done. And all my talk about how bad the Sheephead were the week before, well we only caught 2 that morning ! I really believe that the Walleyes were beating the Sheephead to the lures. Nice! And it was impressive enough for me that when I got in I grabbed a friend that was just hanging out at the marina and ran right back out to finally catch a few for my own freezer! We picked up right where I had left off running only 4 Divers and in about just an hours fishing time we had 12 more big Walleyes and 4 Steelhead this time which we didn’t have any of in the morning. What a awesome and fitting end to one of the best summers that I have ever seen. Since Monday we have had hellacious winds on Tuesday & Wednesday which normally this time of year sends the fish scurrying. I would be hard pressed to believe that it is still that good out there after all of that. It’s just that time of year. So the 2012 Walleye season for “The Trophy” is over with now and I thought it would be kind of neat to have some fun with some numbers and review what we have accomplished this year. I’ve done this before in the past and it always amazes even me. OK, I log everything. I can tell you exactly what we caught and where & when. In 2012 aboard “The Trophy” we brought in a total of two thousand, six hundred and eighty three Walleyes! A pretty staggering figure in itself. Not even close to my all-time highs set annually back in the 80’s however but pretty amazing considering my average party size of 4 guests nowadays that I have been striving for in recent years and going to address even further next season. I’m getting to the point in my career where I can be choosy. But I’m getting off the subject here. Alright, with an easy average and we checked this many, many days this summer, with an average weight of six pounds per fish, those two thousand, six hundred and eighty three Walleyes collectively weighed in at a whopping sixteen thousand, and ninety-three pounds! That’s over EIGHT TONS OF WALLEYES !!! After netting all of those big fish and fighting the harsh more times than not lake conditions all season long, it’s no wonder that my hips and back along with other things such as my shoulders is killing me. I just no longer bounce back like I did back in the “80’s”! But seriously, eight tons of Walleyes. Man, that’s a lot of fish sandwiches ! Now for however long “The Trophy” remains in the water this fall, it will be nothing but Perch Charters from here on out for us. I’ve actually run a handful of Perch trips already and I believe we’ve had a perfect track record thus far of limit catches with those as well. No more one to two hour boat rides out in rough water or big wire line tangles for me or netting back breaking big Walleyes. Just a simpler, more laid back form of fishing fun. Throw out the anchor, drop your lines over the side with some minnows on them and wait for the telltale tap, tap, tap. Set the hook and reel up some Lake Erie gold. The famed Lake Erie Yellow Perch. World renown and prized. Great fun for everyone especially those that might not be able to handle a big offshore outing and reeling in those cinder blocks, I mean big Walleyes ! lol And when it gets right down to the eating part, as good as the Walleyes are, it’s hard to argue with most everyone that insists that the Perch are even tastier! I know the first chance I get, I’m going to try to get out there and get a load or two for my own freezer once again to go along with those tasty nice Walleye fillets I have waiting for me. Mmmmmmmmm, nothing like watching the snow fly while the fish fry ! Alrighty. This will more than likely be my last detailed fishing report for this season. Perching is a blast but frankly it’s not that glamorous to be writing weekly reports about. Our Perch fishing is very good right now and will only get better as the water cools and even more Perch move in closer to shore. Except for possible extended bad weather periods, one can expect pretty consistent limit catches from now till everyone pulls the plug. I myself plan to remain in the water through most all of October. October, only a few days away now is probably the most popular month for Perching around here. I have plenty of available open dates for a Perch Charter in October. If anyone wants to have one more fun filled day aboard “The Trophy” with me, by all means call me or e-mail me and I would be happy to set up a last chance trip for you. You won’t be disappointed! And now I would like to take a final minute to thank all of my friends and guests from this season that gave me a chance to serve you. I appreciate all of your business and your friendship. Lots of times I get myself down and out after a particular grueling day or fighting one thing or another but after everything is said and done and especially in hindsight at the end of the season, I look back at all of the laughter and the memories that we have made together and I think to myself, you know it wasn’t all so bad. I hope to see all of you, my friends again in 2013. Thanks to everyone that has been following along with my weekly little blog here as well. I am glad so many of you enjoy following along. I hope to see some of you yet this fall Perching, but if not have a GREAT winter everyone and we’ll see you again next season for “just another day on The Trophy”! |
ODNR Fishing Report 09/18/2012: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 16:30:37 9/18/12 |
Central Basin
Walleye have been caught off of the Castle near Ruggles Reef and on the sandbar between Vermilion and Lorain. Excellent fishing continues in 70-71’ of water 10-11 miles out NE of Ashtabula and in 60-74’ of water 7.5-10 miles out NE of Conneaut. Trollers are using wire line off planer boards and dipsy divers, with purple, black, red, green, orange and brown spoons and stick baits.
Yellow perch fishing has been good E of the Huron River channel buoys and N of the Vermilion River. Farther east fishing continues to be excellent with many limit catches. The best locations to fish are in 42-47’ of water N of Gordon Park, in 40-43’ of water NE of Chagrin River, in 50-52’ of water NW of Fairport Harbor (the hump) and in 51-71’ of water NE of Conneaut. Perch spreaders with shiners fished near the bottom produce the most fish. The best shore fishing spots to try are the Cleveland Piers and at Headlands Beach Pier in Mentor and the Fairport Harbor Pier. Anglers are using spreaders with shiners and the mornings and evenings have been best.
Smallmouth bass fishing continues to be very good in 15 to 23’ depths around harbor areas in Cleveland, Fairport Harbor, Geneva, Ashtabula and Conneaut. Anglers are having good luck using crayfish, drop shot rigs and tube jigs.
White bass has been spotty but can pick up at any time. Try near shore in 10-25’ of water N of Cleveland Harbor, NE of Gordon Park (Bratenahl), and in 10-20’ of water N of Eastlake CEI. Look for gulls feeding on schools of shiners at the surface. The white bass will be below the shiners. Shore anglers are catching white bass off the Eastlake CEI breakwall. Anglers are using agitators with jigs tipped with twister tails or using small spoons.
Steelhead Trout anglers are catching a few fish while trolling for walleye off Ashtabula. Some large steelhead have been caught. See locations for walleye above.
The water temperature is 67 degrees off of Toledo and 71 degrees off of Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. Anglers are encouraged to always wear a U.S. Coast Guard-approved personal flotation device while boating. |
Fishing report for the week of September 16, 2012.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 21:09:18 9/16/12 |
Lots of junk fish... But plenty of Walleyes too ! Well we wrapped up what will probably be my last full week of Walleye fishing for the 2012 season in grand style. I know I am beginning to sound like a broken record but it was just an absolutely AWESOME week for us with some of the biggest Walleyes of the entire year being caught aboard “The Trophy” this past week. That along with a whole pile of monster Sheephead as well. Lol. Wow, were the junk fish bad this final week for us but we worked very hard every day and weeded through all of the nuisance fish and ended up each day with a incredible box of huge Walleyes. Everyday this past week Monday through Friday we ended the day each day with anywhere from the mid twenties to about thirty fish for the day. Most all huge, fat Walleyes all putting on the feed and fat for the winter months. We had as many 12 pound plus Walleyes this past week all in one week as we’ve had all summer long. On three different days we had three different Walleyes that weighed in at the end of the day right at the 12 pound mark. And that was on top of the massive numbers of 9’s, 10’s and 11’s as well that we had. Just plenty of huge, huge Walleyes. And I shudder to think how much better we might have done each day if we had not been tied up doing battle with the equally humongous Lake Erie Drum which have finally fired up to a very pain staking level. I guess we were very fortunate that the really bad Sheephead action held off as long as it did. Other years it had started to get to insane levels much earlier then this. Most that have already given up on the Walleyes around here this fall didn’t even have to deal with it at all like I have had to as have the last few charters that still have had a trolling trip or two left. The Walleyes that are left out there continue to march south a little more each day and seemingly westward by a mile or so each day now. With next to no boat pressure out there most all week long, we had these Walleyes all to ourselves pretty much. It was a very weird feeling to have absolutely no one else out there with us on so many different days. Of course the very stiff south winds almost every day last week also helped keeping the competition at bay with most deciding to chase the nearer to shore Perch if anything at all. And to be honest with you, a few of the days even though we were catching OK, I was wishing we were anchored ourselves rather then out there so far all by ourselves fighting the big waves and all of the problems that come along with catching so many big Sheephead. We wiped out some serious rods each day no matter how careful we tried to be. Those big ass snagged spinning Sheepheads will tangle all kinds of lines in a hurry and there is just no way to get around it. I had plenty of home work to do each day long after my charter had left the marina and gone home. That’s on top of an already long, tiring day for me. You gotta love it ! So except for maybe one or two more Walleye trips, I am just about done with them for this season. There are still plenty of Walleyes left out there but I am just flat out of Walleye trips. Everything left on the books now is all for Perch except for this coming Monday and perhaps maybe one or two other dates here and there with some names on my books and me not remembering what exactly they wanted to fish for. I hope it’s Perch. I think I’ve reached the point where I’ve just had enough. I am tired, beat up and now frustrated with all of the junk fish that are so very bad out there now. We had a great run at the Walleyes this year. It’s best that we end this on a winning note. There will always be next year. Now it’s time for me to focus on the final leg of our late fall season. The fabulous Yellow Perch fishing that this area offers as well. I will be available for Perch Charters for about the next five weeks and have a good selection of dates still available for anyone that might be interested. I am looking forward to this more laid back part of the season. But I’m sure as we sit there anchored fishing for the Perch, I will catch myself longingly looking way out to the north and reminiscing about the season that has just passed and wondering if there are any more Walleyes left out there... |
ODNR Fishing Report 09/11/2012: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 08:40:16 9/12/12 |
Central Basin
Walleye: Excellent fishing continues in 66-70’ of water NE of Ashtabula and in 70’ of water NE of Conneaut. Trollers are using wire line off planer boards and dipsy divers, with purple, black, red, green, orange and brown spoons and stick baits.
Yellow perch fishing has been good E of the Huron River channel buoys, N of the Vermilion River, and in 38’ of water N of Beaver Creek. Farther east fishing continues to be excellent with many limit catches. The best locations to fish are in 38’ of water N of Rocky River, in 38-40’ of water N of Gordon Park, in 46-52’ of water NW of Fairport Harbor (the hump) and in 50-55’ of water N of Ashtabula and in 50-55’ of water N of Conneaut. Perch spreaders with shiners fished near the bottom produce the most fish. The best shore fishing spots to try are the Cleveland Piers and at Headlands Beach Pier in Mentor and the Fairport Harbor Pier. Anglers are using spreaders with shiners and the mornings and evenings have been best.
Smallmouth bass fishing continues to be very good in 15 to 23’ depths around harbor areas in Cleveland, Fairport Harbor, Geneva, Ashtabula and Conneaut. This past week anglers are having good luck using crayfish, drop shot rigs and tube jigs.
White bass has been spotty but can pick up at any time. Try near shore in 15-30’ of water N of Cleveland Harbor, NE of Gordon Park (Bratenahl), and in 10-20’ of water N of Eastlake CEI. Look for gulls feeding on schools of shiners at the surface. The white bass will be below the shiners. Shore anglers are catching white bass off the Eastlake CEI breakwall. Anglers are using agitators with jigs tipped with twister tails or using small spoons.
Steelhead Trout anglers are catching a few fish while trolling for walleye off Ashtabula. Some large steelhead have been caught. See locations for walleye above.
The water temperature is 69 degrees off of Toledo and 73 degrees off of Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. Anglers are encouraged to always wear a U.S. Coast Guard-approved personal flotation device while boating. |
Fishing report for the week of September 9, 2012.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 04:27:08 9/09/12 |
AWESOME, FANTASTIC, FABULOUS, GREAT, INCREDIBLE, SUPER, UNBELIEVABLE, WONDERFUL, REALLY REALLY GOOD... ! That pretty much sums up the Walleye fishing that we experienced this past week all of Monday thru Friday aboard “The Trophy”. It really was simply just as good as it gets once again this past week. Still... This will be a shorter report this week. There is just not that much left to write about that I have not described in the past weeks and months now. The fishing this past week was very good once again for us. We had perfect limit catches all week long regardless of how many people that I had on board each day. Including Friday where we had a full boat of 6 anglers. What a load that we had with us filling almost both of my built in fish boxes in the floors. For all of my regulars, how often do you see that ? The only thing that did change this past week was the fact that the fish have finally moved in by a couple of few miles. No big deal really but certainly in the right direction as opposed to slipping out even further. Also the weather this whole past week up until the weekend was about as delightful as one could expect this late in summer. I don’t even feel like I went 15 rounds with Mike Tyson ! Maybe just 6 or 7 rounds... lol ! Anyway it was a splendid week all the way around and it really has to be close to being one of the last ones for the Walleyes at least around here. So Saturday morning rolls around and what a difference a day makes. Everyone woke up to torrential rains and a updated marine forecast with gale warnings in effect for the day. No fishing for anyone. The blow however was forecasted to be a short lived event with Sunday being back to very nice and 1 to 3 footers forecasted. We’ll see. And all of next week actually looks to be really pleasant as well with very light winds and warmer temperatures once again predicted right on thru. OK, it’s been a long time since I’ve mentioned any available openings in my schedule but I have a few open dates coming up at the end of the month that will be here before you know it. September 25th, 26th & 27th are all open for anyone that might want to jump on for a last chance Walleye trip or even a Perch trip with me. As big as the schools of Walleye are out there right now, I really believe that they will be around for a good while this year. As always, I can be reached on my mobile # 216-387-2656. Like I mentioned, we can go either Walleye or Perch on any of those dates. After all, tis the season... lol |
Fishing report for the week of Sept.. 2, 2012.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 03:29:51 9/02/12 |
SEPTEMBER ! And we are still going strong ! After a couple of tougher days the week before where there was bit of a hint that things may be slowing down, it was back to spanking them again this whole past week aboard “The Trophy”. We spent most of the week hugging the Canadian border pulling some real monster Walleyes with very little boat traffic to contend with. I think most everyone else has finally had there fill of these super long boat rides to this promised land just to catch Walleyes. I know I have. But with the flipping of the page on the calendar to Sept., this signals to me that I am down to my last few weeks of Walleye trips myself and soon it will be over. It’s been a long road. Five months of chasing the ‘eyes is behind me now. The weather was not the friendliest either. Although not rough enough to just blow the trips off completely, it was just rough enough a few of the days to make things miserable for some of my guests not to mention myself. I am really beginning to feel beat up after this last month. Tuesday on the ride out we came off of one particular wave which was not that exceptionally large but just awkwardly square and took an exceptionally hard landing. Well I rarely sit while running the boat, rather using my seat as a leaning post. I felt a jarring pain shoot up every vertebrate in my back. I have not been right since. I am sitting here typing this report up with a heating pad on my back days later and chewing Ibuprofen’s like they are M & M’s. The fact that I was netting exceptionally large Walleyes all week long didn’t help things either with my aches and pains. And yet I hear everyday “You have my dream job captain” Yeah, right. But the fishing itself was very strong out there. Aboard “The Trophy” we have switched over to the larger Storm Thunderstick lures on the wire line to get down easier to the now ultra deep Walleyes. The program has been working very well for us and I have to believe that the shear size of these larger lures is catching us a larger then average grade of fish. Just great. Just what my aching back needs right about now! lol ! On the Dipsys we have been using the larger Stinger Spoons, the Stingrays as well. The bigger, the better. And I am scared to even mention it for fear of things back firing on me but I have got to believe this is helping us cut down on a good many of the nuisance junk fish along with their smaller mouths. Seems like if we do get a White Bass or something now, it is huge as well but it has not been too bad. This is probably how we will round out these last few weeks of trolling. So the Walleye season for us is winding down real fast now. Guys are already catching good numbers of Yellow Perch. It won’t be long before “The Trophy” will be parked out there as well in the big packs that tend to converge around the charter fishing boats. In some ways I am looking forward to this more relaxed way of spending the day. Just simple fun back to the basics kind of fishing. We have lots of open available dates for anyone interested in one of these more laid back outings. Lots and lots of fun and the Perch are incredibly good eating. Give me a call and I’ll be glad to set up a date for you. Now is the time to book all of these trips. And finally, starting this week we are going to roll back our departure time to 5:30am. It is now starting to stay darker longer and longer in the mornings and even with the long runs that we are making, we are arriving way too early now while it is still dark. Another sure sign that fall is upon us. So if you have a upcoming trip with me, please take note of this. Yippee ! I get to sleep in till 4am now! What a dream job ! lol |
ODNR Fishing Report 08/28/2012: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 20:38:34 8/28/12 |
Central Basin
Walleye fishing has been good offshore at the weather buoy near the Canadian border N of Vermilion. Excellent fishing continues in 70-71’’ of water NE of Ashtabula. Trollers are using wire line off planer boards and dipsy divers, with purple, pink, blue, green, orange and brown spoons and stick baits.
Yellow perch fishing has been good E of the Huron River channel buoys and off of the Castle near Ruggles Reef. Farther east fishing has been excellent. The best locations to fish are in 47-53’ of water NE of the Cuyahoga River (water intake crib), in 52-53’ of water N of Wildwood State Park, in 51-58’ of water NW of Fairport Harbor (the hump), and in 57-58’ of water N of Conneaut. Perch spreaders with shiners fished near the bottom produce the most fish. The best shore fishing spots to try are the Cleveland Piers and at Headlands Beach Pier in Mentor and the Fairport Harbor Pier. Anglers are using spreaders with shiners and the mornings and evenings have been best.
Smallmouth bass fishing has been very good in 15 to 23’ depths around harbor areas in Cleveland, Fairport Harbor, Geneva, Ashtabula and Conneaut. This past week anglers are having good luck using crayfish, drop shot rigs and tube jigs.
White bass has been spotty but can pick up at any time. Try near shore in 15-30’ of water N of Cleveland Harbor, NE of Gordon Park (Bratenahl), and in 10-20’ of water N of Eastlake CEI. Look for gulls feeding on schools of shiners at the surface. The white bass will be below the shiners. Shore anglers are catching white bass off the Eastlake CEI breakwall. Anglers are using agitators with jigs tipped with twister tails or using small spoons.
Steelhead Trout anglers are catching a few fish while trolling for walleye off Ashtabula. Some large steelhead have been caught. See locations for walleye above.
The water temperature is 73 degrees off of Toledo and 73 degrees off of Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. Anglers are encouraged to always wear a U.S. Coast Guard-approved personal flotation device while boating. |
Fishing report for the week of August 26, 2012.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 06:50:44 8/26/12 |
Simply stunning weather ! This past weeks weather may have been the nicest stretch of weather of this whole summer. What a late summer beauty of just picture perfect days all week long. It’s been a long time since I have seen the off shore forecast so tame for so many days in a row this time of year. Right from the start last Monday, they were calling for 1 foot or less all week. For the most part, they finally got it right ! Fishing for the most part was very good for us and a lots of the others all week long as well. We did get a bit of a reality check however a couple of days aboard “The Trophy” where we did not completely limit out. Such is fishing and I knew it was coming one of these weeks for us. You just can’t fish that many days in a row as we have and keep batting a thousand forever. Fishing is fishing. Still though, everyone went home with more then enough fish for a very ‘bangin fish fry. And yet a few days this past week were still real ‘burn” days where we went as fast as we could possibly go once again. I just don’t get it. It’s very weird out there right now. Where you kill them one day, the next day might be very slow. I can’t help but feel that the fish are on the move once again. For a while I felt they were moving east big time out there even though they were still way offshore. But now I’m not quite so sure of even that. We’ll see what this week brings. I’m thinking of trying a couple of closer spots to see what happens. I’m plain getting burned out making these ridiculously long runs back and fourth. There just has to be some fish closer to home. So this one will be a shorter one. I can hardly keep my eyes open as it is here on this Saturday evening typing this all up. Just enjoy these pictures from our best catches of this past week. I think the days of completely full racks of fish day in and day out everyday now are really numbered. If it all ended tomorrow, it’s still been a insanely good run that we had at them. I don’t think it will but perhaps this is the beginning of the tail end of our great summer fishing. Or at least, the real easy fishing. You know what they say... “all good things must come to an end” After all, next weekend is SEPTEMBER already. YIKES ! So that’s it for another week. Check back again next week. |
Fishing report for the week of August 19, 2012.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 07:51:47 8/19/12 |
Another AWESOME, AWESOME week for us! We were still fighting a bit of bad weather woes off and on this past week but I have no complaints at all as far as that goes about the quality of the fishing that we experienced aboard “The Trophy” all the days that we got out. In fact, we had a perfect score card of perfect limits everyday last week and back early for lunch and cocktails on each and every outing. Pretty good considering I was even loaded up with parties of five people on most of those days as well . Listening to everyone else cry on the radio all week was really puzzling to me because really nothing seemed to change at all to me after our on and off again high winds. The fish are way out, they are way deep, and WAY hungry ! I left off last week wondering if we would even get out on Sunday. Well, we split the gap at 5:00am in the pitch dark on Sunday morning with the spot lights and flood lights just a blazing as the waves and spray blew completely over the bow of the boat with some good ones even blowing over the hard top! With the boat’s radar safely guiding our way, we settled in for a 22 mile boat boat ride out in the northwest 3 to 5 foot seas. After arriving at my target starting spot that I had in mind, we commenced to setting lines. The same lures, the same old beat up colors, the same counts on the line counters. Same everything. Including the same GREAT results ! Another limit catch for my party of 4 that particular day plus 4 bonus Steelhead Trout as well for our efforts. We kept just busy enough where we didn’t even mind or really even notice the big chop which we had put on the stern at that point and just trolled downstream along with the wind and the waves. And by the time we finished up, the winds and waves had eased significantly and it was smooth sailing all the way back home. The rest of the week was uneventful and very productive up until Friday where we got another shot of very heavy north wind that shut most all operators down. I myself sent a group packing early in the morning but picked up a spur of the moment trip in the late afternoon when the lake finally started to lay down. We shot out in the now 3 to 4 footers and picked off yet again another fine mess of Walleyes. What a day after a dismal and disappointing start and what a finish after most were just wishing they were fishing. Sometimes the ball does bounce your way. Anyway, by a round and about way, I got my day in with really great fishing to boot and not another boat insight. It just don’t get much better then that! Still, the pain at the pump when we return continues to haunt us as we keep making these insane long runs, many times in pretty heavy head seas where you can literally watch the fuel meter dropping right before your eyes. Disheartening. I just wrote the marina a check for over two grand for gasoline for only about a weeks worth of trips. That’s a lot of gas at a ridiculous exuberant marina price. That will wipe the smile off of any captains face, regardless of how many or how big your catch was. Plain sucks. Thank you sooooooo much to those that went above and beyond at the end of the day when settling up. You know who you are! And finally Saturday arrives. My least favorite day of the week with all of the weekend warriors, tournaments going on and all the part time charter operators out there. It’s almost unbelievable to travel that far out and not see a thing in site between shore and the now well publicized offshore fishing grounds and see hundreds of boats when you arrive all zig zagging every which way in one huge chaotic cluttered mess. This particular Saturday was especially bad with super great weather and a tournament going on plus the word being out that the Walleyes were biting. And that they were. It was probably the fastest day of the week for us aboard “The Trophy”! A real burn with the Walleyes coming for us just about “as fast as we could go” once again. In a matter of about 2 hours actual fishing time, we had captured our 30 needed Walleyes for the day and were able to leave that mess of boats behind us for the others to fight through. Just another great day for us. I know this pace can’t hold up forever but I’m savoring it while it lasts. My guys don’t seem to mind it either! Now if only those fish would move back in by 8 or 10 miles, it would be perfect ! CYA next week... |
ODNR Fishing Report 08/14/2012: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 20:29:23 8/14/12 |
Central Basin Walleye fishing has been good offshore at the weather buoy near the Canadian border N of Vermilion. A few walleye have been caught near shore early in the morning off Cleveland. Excellent fishing, probably the best of the year with many limit catches, continues in 69-73’’ of water NW and NE of Ashtabula and in 74-75’ of water NE of Conneaut. Trollers are using wire line off planer boards and dipsy divers, with purple, pink, yellow, orange and brown spoons and stick baits.
Yellow perch fishing has been good. The best location to fish is 46-50’ of water N of the Cuyahoga River to Bratenahl. Further east, perch catches have been excellent in 49-52’ of water NW of Fairport Harbor (the hump), in 46-55’ of water N of Geneva, and in 50-58’ of water N of Conneaut. Perch spreaders with shiners fished near the bottom produce the most fish. Shore fishing has been slow off the Cleveland Piers and at Headlands Beach Pier in Mentor. Anglers are using spreaders with shiners and the mornings and evenings have been best.
Smallmouth bass fishing has been very good in 15 to 23’ depths around harbor areas in Cleveland, Fairport Harbor, Geneva, Ashtabula and Conneaut. This past week anglers are having good luck using crayfish, drop shot rigs and tube jigs.
White bass has been spotty but can pick up at any time. Try near shore in 15-30’ of water N of Cleveland Harbor, NE of Gordon Park (Bratenahl), and in 10-20’ of water N of Eastlake CEI. Look for gulls feeding on schools of shiners at the surface. The white bass will be below the shiners. Shore anglers are catching white bass off the Eastlake CEI breakwall. Anglers are using agitators with jigs tipped with twister tails or using small spoons.
Steelhead Trout anglers are catching fish while trolling for walleye off Ashtabula. Some large steelhead have been caught. See locations for walleye above.
The water temperature is 70 degrees off of Toledo and 75 degrees off of Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. Anglers are encouraged to always wear a U.S. Coast Guard-approved personal flotation device while boating. |
Fishing report for the week of August 12, 2012.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 08:00:45 8/12/12 |
Just as fast as we could possibly go... on the days that we could get out there that is! Well our string of perfect weather days came to an end with a real potpourri mix of weather conditions this past week. That also included a couple of days where I had to flat out send the guys away in the morning because it was just too windy and stormy to take a chance and go that far out. If the fish were in maybe 5 or 10 miles we might have been able to pull it off in the stiff south west winds. But 20 plus miles out? Forget it. But the days that we did make the long run, WOW! We just couldn’t get the lines out fast enough before a fish would pick it off. The Dipsys were like Yo - Yo’s ! In and out, in and out. Sometimes you would barely get the reel locked down and a step or two away before it was, FISH ON ! I can’t remember the last time here in the last few weeks where we actually managed to get all of the lines out. What a good problem to have ! lol ! After loosing last Sunday completely to storms and wind, Monday greeted us with a very stiff fresh breeze heavy out of the north east. Knowing that my best spots were around 20 miles out and knowing also that there would be no circling around in those conditions, I elected to crank it out heavy to the north east and start right on the US – Canadian line and then straight line troll it back till we limited out. I was using my best spots around the 20 mile mark as a target. We were just coming in on them from the north this time. It was the longest run of the season for “The Trophy”. We cranked it out 26 miles ! 26 tough, gas guzzling & bone jarring miles. It took us two hours to make the run in the 4 foot seas. We started in what seemed like no mans land with not even a hint of shoreline in the crystal clear visibility that day. We also started with a double on with the first two lines in the water! And it was “just as fast as we could go” from there on out. By the time we got to the 20 mile mark that I was using for my target, we were already done with over 30 fat walleyes for my 5 man crew. How friggin huge is this school of fish ? The rest of the week we seen a mix of a couple absolutely stunning picture perfect weather days and a few marginal days along with thunderstorms that we skirted around and more strong south/ southwest winds that we battled thru. Friday was another typical blown lake forecast from our friends at the National Weather Service. The idiots were calling for 2 foot or less near shore and up to 3 foot offshore. Well, I have a flag up on the bow of my boat. The wind was blowing exactly dead out of the south and I was running exactly dead north about 22 miles an hour. As I’m running, I’m looking at this flag hanging dead limp and strait down as if the boat was sitting in a building. Wait a minute, that wind must be blowing exactly 22 miles an hour! A very heavy wind out of the very worst possible direction for us. And sure enough, with every passing mile it just got rougher and rougher and ROUGHER ! When we finally set up around 17 miles out we were already in steady 3 to 5 footers and it was still building. I actually cut the day a bit short and a few fish short to start our trek back to safe harbor in the now 4 to 6 footers by mid morning. So much for the 2 to 3 footers. YIKES ! But for as long as we lasted, it was on fire out there. We just had our share of difficulties trying to land the big fish with the boat surging in the super steep rollers. Never a dull moment! And after taking a thumping on Friday, I wasn’t exactly eager to do it again the very next day. So with Saturdays forecast calling for heavy winds out of the south-west turning westerly with 4 to 6 foot waves building to 5 to 7 footers, I just made the dreaded phone call and told everyone to stay home. What a shame. All those millions of Walleyes out there and you just can’t get to them many a day this time of year when they are that very far offshore. Just as I had speculated and feared earlier on after the fish made the dramatic move north. Another lost day for me and that always hurts doing this for a living but a really big blow to so many of the part timers that many times only have trips on weekends. As I sit here and type this up on Saturday morning since I have no trip, I am already concerned for Sunday as well. Once again it is not the best of forecasts that they are calling for but not quite as ugly as Saturdays. Maybe they will be wrong all together again and it will be nice this time. I can’t phantom them getting the wind/ wave forecast correct two days in a row since they actually got Saturdays right! l lol ! Stay tuned to see how it all turns out... |
ODNR Fishing Report 08/07/2012: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 21:46:00 8/07/12 |
Central Basin
Walleye fishing has been good offshore on the sandbar between Vermilion and Lorain, and nearshore off of the Castle between Huron and Vermilion. Anglers are picking up a few fish in 69’ of water N of Wildwood State Park. Excellent continues fishing in 70-72’’ of water N of Geneva and Ashtabula. Trollers are using planer boards, dipsy divers, jet divers and wire line with purple, blue, green, pink and yellow spoons and stick baits.
Yellow perch fishing has been good. The best locations to fish include the condos E of the Vermilion River, 40-42’ of water N of the Cuyahoga River and in 43’ of water N of Wildwood State Park. Further east, perch catches have been very good in 39-49’ of water NW of Fairport Harbor (south the hump), in 40-50’ of water NE of Geneva and in 50’ of water W of Ashtabula and 48’ of water N of Conneaut. Perch spreaders with shiners fished near the bottom produce the most fish. Shore anglers are catching fish off the Cleveland Piers and at Headlands Beach Pier in Mentor out at the lighthouse. Anglers are using spreaders with shiners and the mornings and evenings have been best. Shore anglers are also catching rock bass off the Cleveland piers.
Smallmouth bass fishing has been very good in 15 to 29’ depths and around harbor areas in Cleveland, Fairport Harbor, Geneva, Ashtabula and Conneaut. This past week anglers are having good luck using crayfish, leaches and tube jigs.
White bass has been spotty but can pick up at any time. Try near shore in 12-30’ of water N of Cleveland Harbor, NE of Gordon Park (Bratenahl), and in 10-20’ of water N of Eastlake CEI. Look for gulls feeding on schools of shiners at the surface. The white bass will be below the shiners. Shore anglers are catching white bass off the Eastlake CEI breakwall. Anglers are using agitators with jigs tipped with twister tails or using small spoons.
Steelhead Trout anglers are catching fish while trolling for walleye off Ashtabula. Some large steelhead have been caught. See locations for walleye above.
The water temperature is 77 degrees off of Toledo and 80 degrees off of Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. |
Fishing report for the week of August 5, 2012.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 03:57:46 8/05/12 |
As good as it gets ! We slipped quietly into August this past week with beautiful weather all week long and just another week of the most rock solid splendid Walleye fishing that I can remember. Almost ever. I think you would have to go back clear to 1988, the last really big drought year to recall conditions such as we’ve had this season and the Walleyes so very fired up. Day in and day out now for a long time this summer it has not been a question if you are going to limit out, but just how soon. Big fish and lots of them and it’s been pretty much non stop from the moment we drop our lines out there to the moment we pull them after filling all of our “tickets” ! In fact if it were not for the very long boat rides out and then back in afterwards, some of these trips would be ridiculously quick right now. But we have a considerable amount of travel time involved everyday now even though most of that has been under surprisingly good lake conditions here as of late. I shudder to think how long and punishing these rides will be if the normal August winds from the south and southwest ever kick in. But there is nothing too normal so far with the weather this year and perhaps we will luck out and get away with only these “1 hour” boat rides out and back to the fishing grounds on most days. Time will only tell. But it is amazing how much fuel you can push thru the carburetors with both engines turning very high RPM’s in those couple of hours of high speed cruising in a big boat. I am sickened each day now when I go to top off “The Trophy”. And worst yet when I got in on Friday, the fellow running River Marine, home of “The Trophy” and where I do all of my fueling up says “hey, if you need gas, get it now. It’s going to be going up $.65 cent a gallon !” I’m like WHAT ! Whatever happened to the days of gas going up a few cents or a nickel or so? I guess it’s because of some BS issue with some pipeline in who knows where so now like overnight it’s bend over time. Wow. What terrible timing too. Just when our fuel consumption is off the charts this time of year, this comes along. Just another problem we charter captains all have to deal with in an otherwise perfect dream season. Hopefully most of my guests will notice my pain at the pump and step up to the plate as most have graciously done so in the past whenever fuel prices have spiked. So we’ll see if we can keep this phenomenal fishing going this second week of August. Hopefully the fish will slide back in a few miles south here pretty quick. We can ill afford for the fish to go any further north at this point. Especially if the bulk of them would decide to slip over the Canadian line which isn’t all that far from where we are fishing. That would be the very worst case scenario. We flat out do not go into Canadian water. It is just way too complicated to do so. Once again, time will tell. But for now they seem content hanging around the twenty mile mark. We are still marking tons and tons of bait where we are fishing. As long as they hang around the Walleyes won’t be far behind. It’s amazing to see how many Smelt these Walleyes are spewing up whenever we go to net them and lift them out of the water. They sure are feeding good out there ! So till I report back again, I’ll be rolling up the miles... |
ODNR Fishing Report 08/01/2012: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 16:48:30 8/01/12 |
Central Basin
Walleye fishing has been good at the weather buoy near the Canadian border N of Vermilion. Anglers are picking up a few fish in 70-77’ of water N of Chagrin River. Excellent continues fishing in 70-74’ of water N of Geneva and NW of Ashtabula. Trollers are using planer boards, dipsy divers, jet divers and wire line with purple, blue, green, pink and yellow spoons and stick baits.
Yellow perch fishing has been good. The best locations to fish include 39-47’ of water N of the Cuyahoga River and in 40-44’ of water N of Wildwood State Park. Further east, perch catches have been good in 45’ of water NW of Fairport Harbor (the hump), in 40-50’ of water NE of Geneva and in 43-48’ of water N of Conneaut. Perch spreaders with shiners fished near the bottom produce the most fish. Shore anglers are catching fish off the Cleveland Piers and at Headlands Beach Pier in Mentor out at the lighthouse. Anglers are using spreaders with shiners and the mornings and evenings have been best. Shore anglers are also catching rock bass off the Cleveland piers.
Smallmouth bass fishing has been very good in 15 to 29’ depths and around harbor areas in Cleveland, Fairport Harbor, Geneva, Ashtabula and Conneaut. This past week anglers are having good luck using crayfish. Also try drop shot rigs with rubber worms, leeches, tube jigs, and crank baits.
White bass has been spotty but can pick up at any time. Try near shore in 12-25’ of water N of Cleveland Harbor, NE of Gordon Park (Bratenahl), and in 10-20’ of water N of Eastlake CEI. Look for gulls feeding on schools of shiners at the surface. The white bass will be below the shiners. Shore anglers are catching white bass off the Eastlake CEI breakwall. Anglers are using agitators with jigs tipped with twister tails or using small spoons.
Steelhead Trout anglers are catching fish while trolling for walleye off Ashtabula. Some large steelhead have been caught. See locations for walleye above.
The water temperature is 76 degrees off of Toledo and 80 degrees off of Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. Anglers are encouraged to always wear a U.S. Coast Guard-approved personal flotation device while boating. |
Fishing reort for the week of July 29, 2012: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 07:36:47 7/29/12 |
“If they are not in, they are out. And if they are not out, they are out even FURTHER ”! A wise fellow charter captain once told me that nearly 30 years ago about our Ashtabula Walleyes. And sadly enough that pretty much came true for us this past week like it has most any other season around here this time of year. Almost over night our really big schools of fish shot way out towards the Canadian line. It was still one of the more dramatic moves I’ve seen the fish make in a long time. It’s not that you can’t catch some fish closer in. You can and some guys are still doing so. But just not with the same results as the guys that are making the big runs now. And it sucks the big one that the fish did that. This extreme offshore fishing means back to the long, gas guzzling, engine wearing extreme tough boat rides just to get out to where you want to start fishing. And it comes with more then it’s share of difficulties when the weather isn’t exactly picture perfect. On a nice lake, you’re looking at about an hours ride. Just that much longer when you start to fight Lake Erie's big chop which is more the norm more times then not out there. And along with August we start getting these really strong south and southwest winds almost every day. Killers I tell you. Just nice enough in close to the harbor to lull you into a false sense of security. And with each passing mile, it gets rougher, and rougher and ROUGHER. And then there's that really long ride back home in that s%$#, I mean crap... But for us aboard “The Trophy”, it is what we do. I reluctantly but always sacrifice my fuel economy and the comfort and reassurance of the nearer to shore fishing where you can still see the land to position ourselves over what I believe to be the best spots available to us. No matter where I have to go. I always have. And when we found and chased these fish all the way out there, I knew the party was over for me. We just had it way too good so far this summer, way longer then even most expected. I guess it really should not come as no great surprise though. After all, in a couple of more days it’s going to be August. Wow ! Just saying August is depressing to me. It’s all a downward slide from here. Where did this summer go ? Kids will be going back to school, football will be starting and the fish just keep moving further out. YUCK. And yesterday, Saturday comes around and everything I describe above about offshore fishing comes true. The creeps at NOAA once again predict a two ft. or less for Saturday. In reality, after skirting some minor thunderstorms early on, a very stiff NE wind sets in there after from nowhere and everyone out there there seems to find themselves fighting 5 to 6 foot waves after they have already issued a a 2 ft. or less forecast for Saturday. Just about as accurate as they have been all summer. Not much fun but somehow we got through it and we still caught a whole mess of Walleyes. Not sure how the others out there did but once again I shudder to think about all the other small vessels that we seen out there amongst the HUGE waves trying to just get back in! Plain unacceptable !!! Well, we will try again in the morning. For now, it’s over and out... And please, disregard any forecast that you may have heard for the next few days. Odds are, they are nowhere near being right ! |
ODNR Fishing Report 07/24/2012: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 17:21:47 7/24/12 |
Central Basin
Walleye fishing has been good at the weather buoy near the Canadian line N of Vermilion and nearshore in 15 to 30’ from Old Woman Creek to Vermilion. Anglers are picking up a few fish in 73’ of water N of Chagrin River and in 58’ of water N of Wildwood State Park. There has been excellent fishing in 68-72’ of water NE and NW of Ashtabula. Trollers are using planer boards, dipsy divers, jet divers and wire line with purple, blue, green, pink and yellow spoons and stick baits.
Yellow perch fishing has been good. The best locations to fish include 35’ of water N of the Cuyahoga River and in 32’ of water N of Gordon Park Ramp. Further east, perch catches have been excellent in 40-45’ of water NW of Fairport Harbor and in 43-48’ of water N of Conneaut. Perch spreaders with shiners fished near the bottom produce the most fish. Shore anglers are catching fish off the Cleveland Piers and at Headlands Beach Pier in Mentor out at the lighthouse. Anglers are using spreaders with shiners and the mornings and evenings have been best. Shore anglers are also catching rock bass off the Cleveland piers.
Smallmouth bass fishing has been very good in 15 to 29’ depths and around harbor areas in Cleveland, Fairport Harbor, Geneva, Ashtabula and Conneaut. Fish are being caught using drop shot rigs with rubber worms, soft-craws, leeches, tube jigs, and crank baits. In the Grand River, anglers are catching smallmouth bass and some largemouth bass.
White bass anglers are catching white bass near shore in 12-25’ of water N of Cleveland Harbor, NE of Gordon Park (Bratenahl), and in 10-15’ of water N of Eastlake CEI. Look for gulls feeding on schools of shiners at the surface. The white bass will be below the shiners. Shore anglers are catching white bass off the Eastlake CEI breakwall. Anglers are using agitators with jigs tipped with twister tails or using small spoons.
Steelhead Trout anglers are catching fish while trolling for walleye off Ashtabula. A potential state-record brown trout and some large steelhead have been caught. See locations for walleye above.
The water temperature is 77 degrees off of Toledo and 77 degrees off of Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. |
Fishing report for the week of July 22, 2012.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 08:23:09 7/22/12 |
Weather and Walleyes ! The Walleye fishing last week remained really GREAT. The weather several of the days last week, well not so much. In fact, everyone found themselves with a unplanned day off on Friday when relentless north east winds had the lake churning with 5 to 7 foot waves. Just too much for even the hardiest of crews or the biggest of charter crafts. With the right crew and a nice sunny lake when things don’t seem quite so ominous, “The Trophy” can be found out there amongst the white caps trudging along in maybe 3 to 5 footers capturing Walleyes the best that we can with the conditions on hand. But when it gets much above that, well I don’t care who you are or how tough you think you are it just becomes unfishable and just not very smart to be out there. I try not to cancel on a whim. It’s not good for the guys that have waited a year to go again and certainly not good for me. But it is what it is. In 26 years of chartering, I’ve lost hundreds of days where I had no choice but to cancel. I can add another day to that list... And several other days were marginable last week where we fished under less then ideal conditions but the Walleye didn’t seem to mind it. The great fishing that has been taking place the last few weeks is still continuing for us with spectacular limit catches of huge Walleyes ! It was just more challenging with the choppy seas and threatening thunder storms bearing down on us a couple of the days. We just worked that much harder and faster aboard “The Trophy” to get the job done and boy did we ever. I am blessed this time of year with the heart of my schedule and my longest running guests coming back now for their yearly fishing outing. Many groups are guys that I have had for well over twenty years now. There isn’t too much training or coaching that I have to do. We just go to work and “get er done” Most just want to know “how far back ?” and jump on it. Guy’s are running wire lines out... others are setting the boards out while someone is watching and setting the Dipsys to whatever count I tell them and we’re off to the races. I have everyone help watch for boats. We work well together everyday as a team. It’s really not all that tough when they are “biting” ! lol The best Walleye fishing still remains in the 7 to 10 mile mark off shore. Seems like 66 to 70 foot of water is holding the most fish right now. The Walleyes are holding pretty steadily in the 45 to 55 levels below the surface. If anything, some of these fish seem to be coming up even higher over the coarse of the day. Just the opposite of what you would think. Several days when the action started dying off for us, we just shortened our leads up a bit to bring the lures up a little higher and then finished strong. Another thing I noticed last week with the water temperatures now approaching record warm was that these fish are really liking the trolling speeds much faster. I mean, REALLY fast! We trolled at times to speeds from 2.7 to 2.9 miles per hour and couldn’t keep a lure in the water with Walleyes hanging themselves everywhere ! It’s funny to see these fish pop right to the surface at these speeds like a cork back there and ski all the way in. Maybe not quite as sporty as when we are slow trolling and the fish are digging down deep as you bring them in but certainly effective here as of late and that is the name of the game. The one thing that I really like with the fish popping up like that is that there are hardly any tangles when they do that as they easily clear the other lines that are still down deep. So Saturday morning rolls around and I’m like, did yesterday even really happen ? The lake at 4:30am is flatter then flat. And we go out and just can not keep a line in the water! Absolutely nothing changed and if anything, things just got plain better ! I don’t remember a trip where we had as many multiple hook ups as we did on Saturday. I think three different times we had five fish on all at the same time ! And with my superior coaching and a little bit ( actually a whole lot ! lol ) of luck, I don’t think that we lost even a single fish or tangled a single line out of all of that! Pretty amazing stuff ! What a great day of fishing ! And again, I don’t see anything changing any time soon. There are just too many fish out there right now and they are all mighty HUNGRY ! And “The Trophy” is here to serve up whatever they want to eat! Stay tuned... |
ODNR Fishing Report 07/17/2012: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 22:38:10 7/18/12 |
Central Basin
Walleye fishing has been good at the weather buoy near the Canadian line N of Vermilion and nearshore in 15 to 30’ from Old Woman Creek to Vermilion. Walleye fishing remains good off Cleveland in 58-65’ of water N of Edgewater Park and 10 miles N of Eastlake in 70-75’ of water. There has been excellent fishing in 68-74’ of water NE and NW of Ashtabula and N-NE of Geneva. Trollers are using planer boards, dipsy divers, jet divers and wire line with purple, pink, green and orange/copper spoons and stick baits. A potential state-record brown trout and some large steelhead have been caught in the mix while trolling.
Yellow perch fishing has been very good. The best locations to fish include 40-45’ of water N of Rocky River, Edgewater Park, and at the old Browns Stadium reef. Further east, perch catches have been good in 48-52’ of water NNW of Fairport Harbor, Ashtabula, and Conneaut. Perch spreaders with shiners fished near the bottom produce the most fish. Shore anglers are catching fish off the Cleveland Piers and at Headlands Beach Pier in Mentor out at the lighthouse. Anglers are using spreaders with shiners and the mornings and evenings have been best. Shore anglers are also catching rock bass off the Cleveland piers.
White bass anglers are catching white bass near shore in 12-25’ of water N of Cleveland Harbor, NE of Gordon Park (Bratenahl), and in 10-15’ of water N of Eastlake CEI. Look for gulls feeding on schools of shiners at the surface. The white bass will be below the shiners. Shore anglers are catching white bass off the Eastlake CEI breakwall. Anglers are using agitators with jigs tipped with twister tails or using small spoons.
The water temperature is 77 degrees off of Toledo and 75 degrees off of Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. |
Fishing report for the week of July 15, 2012.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 08:59:42 7/15/12 |
LIMITS ! LIMITS ! LIMITS ! You really have to go back quite a few years to recollect a year with so many consistently good days as we aboard “The Trophy” have been enjoying and most everyone else for that matter this summer and especially here as of late. It was just another incredible week for us with a perfect track record of limits all week and back before the heat of the day made things miserable each day. Right now there is a block of fish stretching from at least west of Geneva to at least Conneaut, OH to the east. And I’m not talking small patches of fish either. I’m talking steady action no matter where you go in the 4 to 7 mile range off shore and paralleling the shoreline between the above mentioned ports that I had just named. And there is even a secondary band of fish even further out there as well. I guess it’s finally safe to say, the mother load has arrived to the Ashtabula area ! And you can thank or blame it on the heat ! I’ve seen many exceptionally hot summers over the past three decades that I’ve been doing this gig and there is one thing for sure that is always in common. The hotter and the dryer the summer, the better our fishing is going to be here at the eastern end of what is considered the central basin. When the rest of the lake to the west starts to warm to bathwater like temperatures, the baitfish pour into the cooler waters here and it seems like every Walleye in the lake is in hot pursuit as well. It is simply mind boggling to see the clouds of Smelts and Emerald Shiners showing up on our High Definition digital fish finders right now along with all of the embedded big hooks, the Walleye marks mixed in and right below them. These Walleyes with their high metabolism because of the warm water are feeding on these baits like crazy. Every day when we empty my fish box at the end of the day, there is handfuls of these smelts that our captured Walleyes had regurgitated. And if you lay one of these dead smelts up against one of my Jr. Thundersticks, well it’s easy to see why these lures are my very favorites for getting the job of fooling them done. It’s a dead ringer for their favorite prey that they feed upon. You could not have asked for nicer weather to be out on the water and to be fishing as we had all of last week either. You just have to feel for all the farmers with all their crops desperately needing water but it has always been that way up here. When the farmers are hurting because of the terrible drought conditions, the dry weather and the heat up on the lake is to our advantage. It draws fish to this area and makes fishing for them much less of a chore as say fishing in pouring rains. And we didn’t even have any big wind events this past week either. Just a perfect summers week with wall to wall sunshine, no rain and very pleasant and comfortable temperatures, at least in the mornings when we were doing the bulk of our damage on the fish. Just perfect fishing weather. It looks like there is more of a chance of rain here and there this coming week but really no real big deal. I see no big winds predicted and I think that we slipping quietly into the dog days of summer now. I see no big changes in the catching either as this many fish in the area are not going to disappear over night and we know for a fact that the Walleyes are putting on the feed big time right now as well. It’s about time that the fishing became a bit easier for us. We have all paid our dues working very hard for our guests that we have been taking out all season long and it’s refreshing when you can make longer trolls and not have to put all that much thought into each and every detail and move you make. Big schools of fish are more forgiving and you don’t have to split hairs just to get everything just right. I know that the work I am doing now is much more physical then when the fishing was leaner but at the end of the day, I am much fresher. There is a lot less stress when we are catching and you don’t have to rack your brain out. Imma liking it ! lol |
Fishing report for the week of July7, 2011.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 09:00:17 7/08/12 |
Heat, Storms and WALLEYES ! We had it all this past week. Incredible heat. Incredible thunder storms. And incredible Walleye fishing! We had several days where we either had a late departure because of impending thunder storms or we had to cut our day a bit short because of threatening weather. But the hours and the days that we fished the Walleye fishing was nothing short of world class spectacular. And for a few of those same days even the trout found us again with “The Trophy” having many hook ups with them bad boys as well. We had one day where we brought in half a dozen Steelhead along with our Walleyes and probably lost that many more trout the same day. They are still roaming around out there. When you run into them, LOOK OUT ! lol In the past week I’ve been bouncing around between the off shore fishing and the nearer to shore bite. There seems to be two bands of fish out there. Both schools of fish come with their pluses and minuses. The near shore fish are heavily mixed in with a ton of junk fish. Boat traffic is horrific and these fish in the shallower water tend to turn off earlier in the day. There are also more smaller Walleyes in that mix. But the fuel savings is attractive... The offshore fish are mostly all pigs and there are plenty of trout out there too. They seem to go all day long in the deeper water and there is much less nuisance fish. The downside is bigger seas out there especially if there is a strong south wind. They are smaller pods of fish. I mean when you are on them, it’s four on at a time sometimes but there is much more dead water in between. And then there’s that thing about the fuel again... Either band of fish that we are working now however have one thing in common. They are all really super deep now. “The Trophy” is on a all wire line program now to address that. Most of the fish are now marking well below the 50 ft. mark. We’ve been putting out a lot of line and that means LOTS of cranking once we do hook up. Feel the burn baby ! It cracks me up to see the look of pain on some peoples faces as they winch these big fish back to the boat! And then I’ll get some women or kids onboard that don’t complain or make it look like someone is killing them and quietly just crank them in. Too funny ! I tell them all though, no pain no gain. Keep cranking ! lol And talk about hot! Wow, with a few days in the upper 90’s, I was thankful for the early departures and the cooperating Walleyes so that we could get our fish and get the heck off the lake before the heat of the afternoon became too unbearable. This coming week looks to be much more pleasant with temps dropping back to the lower 80’s. It should be a GREAT week to fish. At least on paper, there doesn’t seem to be any big winds in store either. Famous last words, right ? lol So we are a week deep into July now. Summer is flying by. I even heard them talking about the sales of back to school supplies ! I’m like, WHAT ! But that’s how it goes. Don’t blink. This warmth and great fishing will be a memory once again. But for now, We still have some memories to make. See you guys next week with more tales from the ‘Bula... |
ODNR Fishing Report 07/03/2012: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 07:05:42 7/04/12 |
Central Basin
Walleye fishing has been good. Fish have been caught at the weather buoy near the Canadian line N of Vermilion. Fishing has slowed down off Cleveland with the best locations in 20’ of water NW of Rocky River and in 49-55’ of water N of Gordon Park. There has been very good fishing in 69-72’ of water NE of Geneva and in 65-70’ of water NE of Conneaut. Trollers are using planer boards, dipsy divers and jet divers with green, yellow, pink, and purple spoons and stick baits.
Yellow perch fishing has been good to excellent. The best locations to fish include 38-40’ of water NE of Edgewater Park, in 40-42 NW of Fairport Harbor and in 43-47’ NW and NE of Conneaut. Perch spreaders with shiners fished near the bottom produce the most fish. Shore anglers are catching fish off the Cleveland Piers and at Headlands Beach Pier in Mentor out at the lighthouse. Anglers are using spreaders with shiners and the mornings and evenings have been best. Shore anglers are also catching rock bass off the Cleveland piers.
Smallmouth bass fishing has been very good in 15 to 25’ around harbor areas in Cleveland, Fairport Harbor, Geneva, Ashtabula and Conneaut. Fish are being caught using drop shot rigs with rubber worms, soft-craws, leeches, tube jigs, and crank baits. East of Fairport Harbor anglers are trolling crank baits in 22-24’ with good success. In the Grand River, anglers are catching smallmouth and some largemouth bass.
White Bass Anglers are catch white bass near shore along the shoreline. Look for gulls feeding on schools of shiners at the surface. The white bass will be below the shiners. Shore anglers are catching white bass off the Eastlake CEI breakwall. Anglers are using agitators with jigs tipped with twister tails or using small spoons.
Catfish fishing has slowed down in the Grand River around the Grand River Landing but fish are still being caught.. Anglers are using night crawlers.
The water temperature is 74 degrees off of Toledo and 73 degrees off of Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. |
Fishing report for the week of July 1, 2012.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 19:22:22 7/01/12 |
A GREAT WEEK ! It was quite the week for us aboard ‘The Trophy” ! Although the week started out on the bumpy side on the big pond, I had the right crew for the lousy conditions that we were dealt. With my favorite tough as bull snot crew from Iowa in town again this year for their annual 3 day outing, we headed out the first day on Monday in 3-5 footers albeit very sunny brilliant conditions. With a strong northerly fetch on the wind and waves, we cranked it out almost to the Canadian line for a long one way troll south. Although not super fast and furious, we landed what we needed and came in with a nice limit of Walleyes and one nice Trout. We had many other fish on but you could only do so much in the surging ripping waves as the boat was being hurtled south with the wind and waves. Tuesday it was like Déjà vu with yet again strong northerly winds. And just like the movie “Ground Hog Day”, we cranked it out once again and once again we captured our limit in one long slide south. Wednesday was just plain “choppy” but a walk in the park compared to Monday & Tuesday. We easily limited out again under what we thought was “gravy” conditions while listening on the radio to the other boats on the radio that finally came out talking about how rough it still was and how tough the fishing was under “those conditions” I guess they would not have not been too terribly impressed with the previous two days conditions if they did not like Wednesday! lol ! All in all it was still a great start to a great week with an incredible amount of beautiful Walleyes caught in less than ideal conditions ! Thursday was the gem of the week with picture perfect conditions. Just a slight chop. Not too hot, not too cold. No bugs. PERFECT ! And we went on to capture 30 Walleyes easily by 10:00am. Although I happened to have 6 people that day, they were more then elated and elected to quit before it got too hot out and the bite dropped off. And who was I to argue ! lol ! Just a super great day with a super nice group that was not overly greedy and was very happy with the incredible catch that we managed to muster in just a few short hours. It doesn’t get any better then that. The fact that I had a good target in mind from the previous three days paid HUGE dividends when it came to selecting a chunk of water to work under the now pleasant conditions. I targeted my best spot and they were there. That’s why I hate being off the lake even for one day this time of year. It just creates so much doubt in your mind. Have they moved ? Has anything changed ? But when you are out everyday, you know where you did the very best the day before and when you use that as a target, more times then not it pays off. And that’s what we did Thursday and it was AWESOME ! We even caught a rare Brown Trout Thursday along with our big Walleye catch ! The Brownie hit a #2 Dipsy Diver about 120 back with a Contender Spoon. Just an incredibly good looking fish. What a day ! And our exotic catches this past week did not end there. On Friday besides limiting out my 4 guests onboard that day, we also captured a very rare Chinook Salmon ! In 26 years of chartering and literally thousands of trips that I’ve run, that’s probably only the 10th or so King that we’ve actually landed. Just crazy exciting. This particular fish hit a Storm Jr. Thunder Stick fished with wire line off the planer boards. It instantly peeled off about a hundred feet of line off the reel as the drag screamed ! Then after it’s initial wild run, the fish quickly tired and it was just shear weight that the lucky angler on the stick had to muscle in. I never had a clue it was a Salmon till it was in the net and I got a closer look at it. Again, what a fish. I thought all along that it was just a big Steelhead. But there is a world of difference between the two. The most obvious is the black mouth, tongue and gums where a Steelheads entire mouth is snowy white. And speaking of Steelhead, we are still doing our one to two a day on most days out there now. A far cry from the one week that we had a few weeks ago where we were catching numerous ones repeatedly. But it’s just right now as far as I am concerned for adding a little bit of excitement to an already exciting day each day. Just enough to mix it up without creating too much havoc with all the gear and equipment that we have out there ! So Saturday rolls around and the National Weather Service predicts 1 to 2 foot waves for everyone with diminishing waves. Yeah, right. Saturday morning in reality turned out quite ugly with wave heights running at the very least 3 to 5 foot with some breakers a whole lot bigger. Not that big a deal for us because we had already cranked it out to the west and we just rode it out. But it was scary to see the many tiny boats struggling to get back in when the lake blew up so bad. And I know in my heart that they would have not even been out there had they not predicted such an extremely nice lake. I’m telling you they are going to cost someone their life with the forecasts that they are putting out and I think that they should be held accountable. You either come up with a better product then you are putting out there when it comes to your daily guesses, I mean forecasts or just come clean and say “we don’t have a clue what it’s really going to do today” and proceed to tell everyone to use EXTREME caution when venturing out. What a joke. I can’t believe that we pay these clowns with our hard earned tax dollars for the forecasts that they provide us with. OK, that’s my rant for this week. We’ll see what adventures might await us now in this upcoming first full week of July. Perhaps we’ll continue to catch a few more “exotic” species aboard “The Trophy” ! I mean, I know there’s still a Coho Salmon or a rare Lake Trout just waiting to join the elite list of species that we have handled here as of lately. But just be careful if they tell you it’s going to be a nice lake and that it’s only going to be two foot or less... |
Fishing report for the week of June 24, 2012.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 16:44:24 6/24/12 |
Well, they found me. No, not little boats that sometimes like to follow me around like a puppy dog out there. No, not the big schools of Walleyes that I really WISH would find me. But the White Bass ! The zillions of stinking little White Bass that I sooooooo hated this spring up at the islands and couldn’t wait to leave behind back in May when I headed east. They have found me again along with most everyone else fishing out there that has been washing lures this past week or so. I mean, jeepers creepers are they ever a big pain in the butt. It really is killing us having to non stop clear lines and re-set everything in hopes that a Walleye might grab the lure before it gets spotted and snatched up by these little piranha like little fish. I don’t know how many times we’ve been loaded up with bass on practically every line out there and many times not even realizing that there was one was hanging on there. Just a real nuisance. And you can’t be catching Walleyes when you are dragging junk fish around or loosing time bringing them in and re-setting everything constantly. It is definitely cutting into our productivity and making everyone work just that much extra hard. I am not very happy about all of this. But on a brighter note though, when we did somehow get past the White Bass this week, the Walleye fishing was pretty good ! Most days this past week “The Trophy” came in with counts of Walleyes numbering in the twenties to high twenties ! Quite a bit better then we were doing just the week before last. Lots of very nice sized ones as well. Although I took no pictures on Tuesday because my guests that day were Amish, I wish I could have had a few of them hold up some of the monsters that they cranked in. I have this same particular group on the same exact day each year and every year they luck into some of the biggest fish that we have brought in to date. They always have a contest amongst themselves for the biggest fish landed. Well the first Walleye to the net this year was a 30 incher which we weighed at the end of the day and came in at an even 10 1/2 pounds. Did that win the contest? Nope. The second to last fish brought in that day went 31 inches and just a little over 12 pounds! What a fish and the biggest Walleye so far this year aboard “The Trophy” ! And all their other fish that day were no slouches either with many 28 & 29 inchers in the mix. They just always seem to get get lucky with similar boxes each year. What a load and what a streak these guys are on ! So as I speculated about in last weeks report, we did poke around a little further off shore this past week. I myself however still seemed to do better not all that terribly far out in the 68 to 72 foot range. But along with that came the White Bass problem. As you get out further, they are not all that bad. But it also seems a lot quieter with the Walleyes. Not really a good trade off. I also dabbled with the wire line program some last week but I didn’t see where it helped me all that much. Some of the better charters did as well and even better with the all jet diver program. I guess it’s just about a wash and depends on what your preferences are. I just like the wire better personally so I’ll probably be actively trying to make it work a little better as we enter this last full week of June. These fish are due to start dropping down deeper and that’s when the crank baits and wire excel. Plus it’s a lot easier to tell when one of those little pesky White Bass is clinging on to the end of it. I am not quite sure what to make of my big Dipsys. I just flat out can not keep the White Bass off of those. I am running huge spoons with big trebs and they are still constantly loading me up. And how those little White Bass manage to get that big treble hook into their mouths and stapling themselves shut is beyond me. YIKES ! We had very nice although very hot weather last week. It looks like the start to this week is going to be a bit bumpy and cooler for a couple of days. Hopefully not to the point where we can’t get out. We will just have to see. Maybe that’s what the lake needs. A good blow to stir things up. Who knows. Things can change in a hurry around here. The week before I was talking about all the Trout that we were catching. This past week we were barely catching one or two a trip. Crazy weird. But we will be out there again trying and searching this coming week in hopes that the Mother Load arrives and chases all of these White Bass to Buffalo or somewhere ! lol ! What’s my chances? Oh well. We’ll get thru it. We always do. As long as we are still catching an occasional big Walleye, it is all good. Well, stay tuned to see what other mayhem may await us this coming week. Probably will be the attack of Sheephead. I know that one is coming too ! |
Fishing report for the week of June 17, 2012.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 03:51:22 6/17/12 |
A TROUT POND! It’s a friggin trout pond out there right now I tell ya! Lol ! Wow, it’s been a lot of years since the Steelhead Trout fishing has been this good, this early in the summer here in Ashtabula. This past week found “The Trophy” literally being attacked by these big lake run Rainbows on each and every outing that we made. Although we were targeting the Walleyes, nobody seemed to mind the heart pounding, reel screaming action each and every time one of these silver bullets got hooked up ! In fact, more times then not there was a bit of a race and scuffle to the rod that had just gone off as everyone wanted to try and do battle with this prized fighting jumper. I’m glad everybody enjoyed it so much, but I think I’m finally getting too old or just too tired to be jumping around like I had to and be moving rods around and directing everything and then netting these heavy missiles that had usually crossed every Dipsy lines, downrigger lines and everything else for that matter. What a Chinese fire drill ! It’s really nice that the trout have stepped up to the plate because the Walleye fishing has still been a little bit on the slow side for most everyone. Although we have somehow managed to get at the very least into the double digits each day for Walleyes caught, it’s not as good or fast as many of my guests have come to expect from over the years. “The Trophy” has been on a search and destroy mission each day this past week as we have been searching for the mother load of Walleyes. Oddly enough, there has been no where that we have gone where we have not caught at least some Walleyes and Steelhead both. We’ve been in the 40 ft. range of water, 50 ft., 60 ft. and even as of the last few days, the 70 ft. plus depths of water. There just seems to be some Walleyes everywhere we go not to mention the explosive Steelheads that keep surprising us every where as well. Just no huge numbers. I think the spoon program that we are running right now off the Tru Trip Jet Divers is contributing to enticing these crazy Trout that we are catching. They just love those fluttering spoons ! Other then a couple of days mid week this past week, the weather has been almost picture perfect for trolling for the big ones. We covered a lot of ground with a lot of lures and have enjoyed limited success. A few others have done better on occasion, some have done worst and I guess I’ll be content knowing that we have been somewhere in the middle of the road most of the days but always trying hard. Still things are due to bust loose. Perhaps as more fish move into the area and they start to drop deeper into the water column where they don’t get spooked as easily by the boat and shut down so quickly each day when the sun gets higher we can start to enjoy more limit catches again. Of coarse as I have been telling everyone all along, you shouldn’t get too terribly hung up on “limiting out”. Just enjoy your day on the water with your friends and relatives and be thankful for each and every fish that the big lake gives you. I mean really, where else can you go and reel in a 5 to 10 pound Walleye and maybe the next time up on the rod follow that up perhaps with a 5 to 10 pound Steelie. Even if that is all that you reel in all day, you’ve had a heck of a good day on the water doing something that not all that many people get a chance to do ! So we enter our second to last week in June already anxiously awaiting for things to really turn on. Maybe it will, maybe it won’t this week. That’s all part of the excitement of going. The anticipation and uncertainty of how your day will go and how they will bite. Still though, as long as things don’t get any worst it should be plenty exciting for everyone coming up this week with more then an excellent chance of catching a trophy sized Walleye and even maybe a Steelhead Trout of a life time as well. Good stuff ! I think we will push it out even further this week and see what we can find. There just has to be a bigger school of fish out there somewhere ! Maybe one of my groups this week will be the lucky ones to be there when we bring in the first massive load of Ashtabula Walleyes as we have done so many times before over the years. We are more then over due. You just never know from day to day ! |
ODNR Fishing Report 06/12/2012: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 11:14:37 6/13/12 |
Walleye fishing has been good. Fish have been caught from Ruggles Reef to Vermilion, in 50’ of water NW of Lorain, in 63-64’ of water N of Gordon Park, in 30-40’ of water NW of Fairport Harbor and in 68-70’ of water NE of Geneva. Trollers are using divers with blue, pink and purple spoons and worm harnesses.
Yellow perch fishing has been fair to good. The best locations to fish include 27-38’ N of Gordon Park in Cleveland, 35’ NW of Lakeshore Park in Ashtabula, and 42-47’ NE of Conneaut. Perch spreaders with shiners fished near the bottom produce the most fish. Shore anglers are catching fish off the Cleveland Piers and at Headlands Beach Pier in Mentor out at the lighthouse. Anglers are using spreaders with shiners and the mornings and evenings have been best. Shore anglers are also catching rock bass off the Cleveland piers.
Smallmouth bass fishing has been very good in 15 to 25’ around harbor areas in Cleveland, Fairport Harbor, Geneva, Ashtabula and Conneaut. Fish are being caught using drop shot rigs with rubber worms, soft-craws, leeches, tube jigs, and crank baits. East of Fairport Harbor anglers are trolling crank baits in 17-22’ with good success.
Catfish fishing continues to be very good in the Grand River around the Grand River Landing. Anglers are catching large fish using night crawlers.
The water temperature is 68 degrees off of Toledo and 63 degrees off of Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. Anglers are encouraged to always wear a U.S. Coast Guard-approved personal flotation device while boating. |
Fishing report for the week of June 10, 2012.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 20:55:50 6/10/12 |
Great weather! I mean, really really, great weather! Well after loosing all of last weekend due to lousy weather and a rather bumpy start to the fishing week both Monday & Tuesday, a fantastic weather pattern has set in with calm seas, lots of sun and very comfortable air temperatures. Too bad the fishing was actually better when the weather was shaky! Actually the fishing was very good up until the weekend when things slowed down for most everyone. Even though we still managed to get into the double digits over the weekend, it wasn’t the like the 20 to 25 fish a day that we were doing earlier on in the week. I blame a lot of things including just too many days of flat seas. It’s a shame many times on the Lake Erie you have to be suffering because of cold or high waves or some other calamity to be catching lots of fish. It’s just never easy out there. The other thing that did us no favors was the extremely full moon this past week. It was so full and so bright the last few nights that numerous times while trying to sleep at night in the camper where I stay up river at the campgrounds where I stay I was startled awake thinking OMG I slept in and it was already daylight! There are many things I don’t worry all that much about when it comes to Walleye fishing up here such as wind direction or low or high pressure systems, but knowing that the moon will be full and bright gives me the heeby geebys. After doing this for so many years, I know for a fact that when the moon is that bright that these Walleyes feed heavily all night long and a bit at dawn and then after that it’s siesta time the rest of the day. It is a fact and exactly what we encountered yet again here the last few days. A great first hour or so of fishing and then the wheels fall off the cart. But when they were biting this past week, the fish that we caught were dandy's! Catching a dozen or so of these hog Walleyes is like catching 30 fish in the western basin or 40 keepers at Pymatuning or most any other inland lake. They are BIG fish! Plus we are already doing the occasional Steelhead Trout and they have not been dinks themselves by no means. All big fish. This past week we did about half a dozen Trout mixed in with our Walleyes with a couple differnt days landing pairs and loosing one or two others that we had hooked up. A pretty good start on the trout fishing if that is your kind of thing where some years we don’t start seeing any at all till we get well offshore. The program has been the same all week. Spoons fished on 40 Jets about 90 to 110 foot back on the big planer boards and nearly the same on the big Dipsy Divers. It all worked before the sun got up too high each day and sent the Walleyes down to the depths for a nice sleep. It’s always something... So we start another week with another batch of new guests coming up, all with high expectations and pent up fishing excitement. Some will have great catches and some may have mediocre results. Only time will tell. I guess that’s what keeps it interesting and why they call it fishing and not catching. I’m pretty sure most will leave with enough for a fish dinner and then some. As long as you enjoy the outing itself and not get too hung up on the meat angle of it, you will have a blast. I know I will be trying my hardest as always. If I could write the script, everyone would leave with limits and nothing but 10 pounders. It just does not work that way. It would certainly be easier for me. I work ten times harder when the fishing is slow then when we are banging them hard. Constantly moving the sets around, changing lures, doing everything I can think of to try and get something going for the guys. It is what it is. We’ll see what this week brings. |
ODNR Fishing Report 06/05/2012: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 22:29:35 6/05/12 |
Central Basin
Walleye fishing has slowed due to the rough lake conditions. Fish have been caught around Cranberry Creek in 25’ of water, in 52-53’ W of Edgewater State Park, 49-57’ NE of Gordon Park, and 60’ NW of Fairport Harbor. Trollers are using divers with purple, yellow, black, pink and blue spoons and also worm harnesses.
Yellow perch fishing should improve once the lake calms down from 5 days of windy conditions. The best locations to fish include 34-35’ E of Gordon Park, 40-45’ NE of Geneva, and 44’ NE of Conneaut. Perch spreaders with shiners fished near the bottom produce the most fish. Shore anglers are catching fish off the Cleveland Piers and at Headlands Beach Pier in Mentor out at the lighthouse. Anglers are using spreaders with shiners and the mornings have been best. Shore anglers are also catching rock bass off the Cleveland piers.
Smallmouth bass fishing has been very good in 15 to 25’ around harbor areas in Cleveland, Fairport Harbor, Geneva, Ashtabula and Conneaut. Fish are being caught using drop shot rigs with rubber worms, soft-craws, leeches, tube jigs, and crankbaits. Anglers are also catching fish in the Grand River up to the Painesville dam using tube jigs and golden shiners.
Catfish fishing has been very good in the Grand River around the Grand River Landing. Anglers are catching large fish using night crawlers.
The water temperature is 64 degrees off of Toledo and 60 degrees off of Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. |
Fishing report for the week of June 4, 2012.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 22:59:40 6/04/12 |
... and hello ASHTABULA ! Well, I closed one chapter of this years season up already by finishing my two month stint in Port Clinton on Sunday of Memorial Day weekend and bringing the boat across the open lake to Ashtabula, Ohio, the REAL home of “The Trophy” ! Although it was one of the better springs in years, I was soooooo ready to come back home ! The send off however wasn’t very pleasant. With a two foot or less forecast that day, I dropped my Sunday guys and their fish off from my morning trip and by the early afternoon I was off thinking that I was in for some smooth sailing. WRONG ! After grabbing a tank full of fuel before taking off, I was dismayed to see a nasty northeast chop setting up as I hit the open lake just outside the Port Clinton harbor. Already committed to go, I pushed on. And by the time I rounded Kelly’s Island and started my trek across the big stretch of open lake, I was in some seriously big water. 3 to 5’s right on the nose straight out of the east northeast. What a crappy and fuel consuming ride that turned out to be. I turned what normally would be a 5 1/2 hour pleasant ride home into a grueling and tiresome 7 1/2 hour boat ride getting in just at dark. I was just about cross eyed by the time we got her tied up and pretty much running on fumes after plowing for so far. What a ride. And if the send off wasn’t bad enough, my welcome home wasn’t all that swift either. With my home schedule starting in earnest on this past Friday, June the 1st the weather decided to really turn ugly up here on the wide open spans of the big lake. Friday I sent my guys away because of 5 to 9 foot waves. Saturday I sent my guys away because of 5 to 7 foot waves. Yesterday, Sunday I sent my guys away because of 4 to 6 foot waves. Like, are you KIDDING me ? What a heartbreaker and disappointing starts to my summer trolling season back here. Normally I do my fishing reports on Sunday night. Well, I had nothing to write about since I had lost all of my trips. We did manage to get out today, Monday the 4th under still a choppy lake, maybe 2 to 4’s but very doable for a change. So I figured I would throw up a quick report so nobody thinks that I fell off of the face of the earth or something ! lol ! And so it starts. We stuck our noses out to the northwest of Ashtabula Harbor this morning and it was immediately game on. First fish to the boat, a plump 7 pounder. Just a real nice Walleye ! Then we fired off a double off the big planer boards with our Tru Trip 40’s that we have been running ever since these Divers have come out about a year or so ago. Good stuff. It was actually back and fourth between the board lines and the big Dipsys. It all worked. It wasn’t long before the old fish box started filling up. Man, these central basin Walleyes are HUGE ! And with a nice early quit, we were just a few fish shy of maxing out. Not bad for my first trip out, even though it should have been my 4th trip already. Oh well. Such is this job. I guess Mother Nature makes up all of the rules. I’m just a simple player. So that’s my report. Kind of a quickie and a day or so later then usual but at least I got something up here anyway. This whole week looks to be much better weather wise so I should have all kinds of fish stories by next Sunday. OK, very quickly I am reminding all of my upcoming trips that we REALLY need to get off of the dock by 5:00am and at the VERY latest be motoring by 5:30am. These central basin big Walleyes in this real clear water are really squirrely and 90% of the time they feed like crazy right at dawn and then it drops off dramatically with each passing hour. WE DO NOT WANT TO MISS OUT ON THIS OPPORTUNITY if you want to catch a nice load ! It’s really just that simple. Also please MAKE SURE that you have your fishing license ahead of time before arriving in the morning. There are no provisions for licenses at the marina. Any questions, call my mobile # 216-387-2656 |
ODNR Fishing Report 05/28/2012: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 21:53:21 5/30/12 |
Central Basin
Walleye fishing has been very good around Ruggles Reef, N of Lorain, in 45-47’ N and NE of Gordon Park, 50-66’ NE of Fairport Harbor, and 42-60’ NW of Geneva. Trollers are using divers with purple, yellow, black, or blue spoons and also worm harnesses.
Yellow perch fishing has been good 30’ E of Gordon Park, 26’ NE of Chagrin River, 38’ NW of Fairport Harbor, 37-42’ NE of Ashtabula, and 36-40’ N-NE of Conneaut. Perch spreaders with shiners fished near the bottom produce the most fish. Shore anglers are catching fish off the Cleveland Piers and at Headlands Beach Pier in Mentor out at the lighthouse. Anglers are using spreaders with shiners and the mornings have been best. Shore anglers are also catching rock bass off the Cleveland piers.
Smallmouth bass fishing has been very good in 15 to 25’ around harbor areas in Cleveland, Fairport Harbor, Geneva, Ashtabula and Conneaut. Fish are being caught using drop shot rigs with rubber worms, soft-craws, leeches, tube jigs, and crankbaits. Anglers are also catching fish in the Grand River up to the Painesville dam using tube jigs and golden shiners.
Catfish fishing has been excellent in the Grand River around the Grand River Landing. Anglers are catching large fish using night crawlers.
The water temperature is 69 degrees off of Toledo and 58 degrees off of Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. Anglers are encouraged to always wear a U.S. Coast Guard-approved personal flotation device while boating. |
Fishing report for the week of April 29, 2012.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 22:42:08 4/29/12 |
A nasty, nasty week ! Much of last week was unfishable and the aftermath of the heavy weather did not do our Walleye fishing here in the western basin any favors. Monday and Tuesday saw last weekends stiff winds worsen to full fledged gales. Gale warnings went up on Sunday night and did not come down till the wee morning hours on Wednesday morning. By far the worst 48 hour wind event that we have had all of April. And I’m pretty sure all of March as well as March this year was more summer like and tranquil then even most Mays around here. To give you an idea of how hard it blew for two days up here on Erie, here is a dramatic little YouTube video that I came across on the internet showing the monster waves incredibly busting completely over the light house in Cleveland on Monday. I’m sure this will not be a live link for you, but I urge you to go ahead and copy and paste this into your browser and check it out. Make sure you turn your speakers up and go full screen. It is simply AMAZING to watch Erie's mighty force and fury: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNGgpzjAaSY&feature=player_embedded We managed to get a few trips in afterwards but the dirty water left in the heels of the big winds really took its toll on our productivity. Trying to get something going for the guys, I spent one day jigging way up north around the Islands. We found a few active fish in between Rattle Snake and Middle Bass Island in the deep water. The key word here however is “few”. We only laded a handful of Walleyes that day although they were all pretty nice sized spawned out females. I was really surprised at the amount of Sheephead that we caught up north also including a few real behemoth ones ! We had a few other Walleyes come off up there as well. I’m totally sure they were Walleyes because nobody in history has ever lost old rubber lips ! Man, every one of those creeps that we caught up there had every hook possible buried in that rubber like face and mouth. I could hardly get them out even with the darn pliers. How come all the Walleyes always come in just barely hooked and if you even look at them funny, the hooks fall out ! Just plain crazy. The rest of my time was spent on my regular favorite reefs but with no great numbers of fish taken as we were doing before this blow. This was definitely the slowest week that I and most everyone else I believe have had this entire spring. One thing I have to say though. The water is cleaning up REALLY fast! I think there is a huge difference between when the river systems are pumping out the mud in to the lake because of flooding rains such as we had all of last spring and a strictly wind driven event like we had last week. I think in just a couple of more days, all of last weeks damage done to the water clarity in most areas will be completely undone. It’s literally cleaning up in front of your eyes in a lot of areas. Today, Sunday we managed about a dozen fish around Locust Reef and that area was almost too clean already ! Sadly though, there is no doubt in my mind that this springs spawning Walleye run is just about over. That coupled with the dirtier then we would like water still in a lot of areas is adding to the slower fishing for most at the moment. So in preparation for the flipping of the page on the calendar from April to May, I’ve already loaded a fresh flat of night crawlers on to “The Trophy” and have been very busy preparing all of the trolling gear as well just in case there are days where we have to go to the plan “B”! Most of these spawning fish up until now have not really been eating at all but have been aggressively just hitting anything that comes near them out of aggravation. That’s why the irritating vertical jigging presentation draws so many strikes during the spawn. Now that this phase of this yearly ritual is just about over, these fish that have not really ate in many weeks are going to be putting on the feed big time. And I for one am here to serve up some nice fat juicy worms for them ( or plastic lures should they choose, lol ) ! If the weather stays nice, we should be right back into good numbers of fish very soon. Just with a different kind of presentation. Speaking of weather, it looks like the worst is behind us now and May is going to arrive with the 70’s back into the forecast once again. Also speaking of May, as I look at my calendar, for the next coming three weeks straight I have all of the Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays still available for a trip. Anyone interested in helping me feed these starving Walleyes on any of those dates, please call me at 216-387-2656 ! lol CYA next week ! |
Fishing report for the week of March 25, 2012.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 05:20:38 3/26/12 |
Open for business ! Just a very quick note to let everyone know that we are in Port Clinton, in the water and ready to fish. Most every other year I am like one of the very first ones in the water here at the western basin. With this springs fantastic weather however, seems like I am the last one in this year. There are boats in everywhere and people have been fishing for weeks and doing GREAT ! We actually managed to get out this afternoon for a little while and easily hammered a 4 man limit of Walleyes out in about 3 hours. So, the real weekly reports will start with next weekend. I just wanted to alert everybody that the fishing is and has been super excellent and that I am ready to go. We have plenty of available open dates including this upcoming entire weekend, Fri., Sat. & Sunday - March 30th, 31st & April 1st. With everything about 4 weeks ahead of normal, these dates would be a shame to go unfilled. Give me a call at 216-387-2656 and come get some of these prime early season Walleyes and give me something to write about next week ! lol Capt. Walt |
ODNR Fishing Report for 01/11/2012: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 08:52:44 1/11/12 |
Walleye- With unseasonably warm weather fish are still being caught in open water NW of the Huron River and also at night around Cleveland harbor (as of 1/10/12). Trolling crankbaits in the top 15' of water has produced most of the fish. The water temperature is 36 degrees off of Toledo and 37 degrees off of Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. |
Fishing report for January 1, 2012.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 14:38:51 1/01/12 |
HAPPY NEW FISHING YEAR ! As I have been doing now in the past few years, I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very Happy New Year and take a moment and look back at the season that just passed and set our sights on the new season coming up which is just a few short months away now. 2011 was a wild roller coaster ride with plenty of highs and lows. Although we had some super days at Port Clinton at the western basin last spring, the weather for the most part made the spring as a whole very disappointing for many people. It was just plain tough getting out there many days and the high winds kept the shallow basins water very muddy. This made catching very hard a lot of days. You just never know how it’s going to go. Some springs are beyond fabulous. Others, not so good. Last spring was not the best. Upon returning to my home port for the summer in the deeper waters off of the port of Ashtabula, it was like another world. The summers weather for the most part straightened out quickly and the Walleyes came very good there after. Really nice sized fish all summer long as well ! The springs nightmare weather and fishing was soon forgotten and life was good once again ! One of the down sides of last summer however, at least for me was the horrific surge in fuel prices which did not ease till the season was over. For 2012, I have raised all the summers trolling trips rates up by $50 bucks. Hopefully everyone will understand and you will not have to listen to me harp about it again each week in the fishing reports when the prices spike again after Memorial Day as I am sure they will. This increase will only apply to the Ashtabula summer trips where my usage is off the charts with the long offshore fishing runs that we do there. The spring trips and the fall Perch trips will remain the same. At least for one more year... We have not had a very strong Walleye hatch in a few years now so it’s anybody's guess as to how good the fishing will actually be this year. One thing is for sure though. Even at it’s worst, Lake Erie's world famous Walleye fishing is still the best on earth ! Period ! There will be plenty of fish caught and new memories made. There always is ! What we may lack for in numbers of fish is more then made up for in the shear size of Walleyes. The average size just seems to get bigger every year. We had no problem living up to our name last year, “Trophy Charters” ! WOW ! This year should prove to be the same. Have your local taxidermist on stand by ! Lol ! And the Perch fishing was as good as ever last fall and there certainly should be no change at all with this come fall. The weather was considerably better last fall then the previous year although the gale winds did rear their ugly heads a few weeks there in October. Again, you just never know how it will go. So other then the slight summer rate change, everything else will remain the same. We will once again be in Port Clinton all of April & May and then Ashtabula for the rest of the year. All dock locations, departure times and everything else will be the same ole, same ole. We have updated our websites slideshows pictures on both the home page and the photo album page with all new pictures from this past 2011’s catches. Check them out and see if you made the cut if you fished onboard with us last season. www.trophycharters.com Lots of good stuff on there and a wealth of information . Also a reminder that now is the time to book or confirm your tentative dates for 2012. The best dates go quick ! So that’s it for now. Look for the real reports to resume in early April. CYA soon ! |
ODNR Fishing Report for 12/20/2011: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 09:34:24 12/21/11 |
Walleye- Walleye continue to be caught off of Huron and also at night around Cleveland harbor. Open water temperatures are still around 40 degrees, but harbors and rivers are beginning to occasionally freeze up when overnight temperatures drop. Use extreme caution when fishing in cold water. The water temperature is 38 degrees off of Toledo and 42 degrees off of Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. |
ODNR Fishing Report for 12/06/2011: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 08:51:31 12/07/11 |
Walleye- Weather conditions have continued to limit Lake Erie walleye fishing. Some fish are still being caught at night around Cleveland harbor and nearshore from Huron to Vermilion. Water temperatures remain in the 40’s and fishing could improve if conditions allow.
Steelhead Trout: For the Steelhead fishing report see the ohiodnr.com web site: Go to - Wildlife - Fishing - Lake Erie - Steelhead trout fishing
The water temperature is 42 degrees off of Toledo and 46 degrees off of Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. |
ODNR Fishing Report for 11/29/2011: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 20:49:14 11/29/11 |
Walleye- Windy weather and reduced water clarity has slowed Lake Erie walleye fishing. Some fish have been caught at night around Cleveland harbor and nearshore from Huron to Vermilion. Water temperatures are still in the mid to upper 40’s and fishing should improve if conditions allow.
Steelhead Trout: For the Steelhead fishing report see the ohiodnr.com web site: Go to - Wildlife - Fishing - Lake Erie - Steelhead trout fishing
The water temperature is 45 degrees off of Toledo and 48 degrees off of Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. |
ODNR Fishing Report for 11/09/2011: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 15:01:00 11/11/11 |
Walleye- Fishing slowed over the past weekend (11/5) as high winds greatly reduced water clarity. Fish have been caught N of Kelleys Island and from Cedar Point to Lorain in 25 to 45’ of water. Trolling with deep diving crankbaits has produced the most fish. There have also been reports of fish caught at night around Cleveland harbor and nearshore from Huron to Vermilion by anglers trolling shallow diving stickbaits or casting from shore. |
ODNR Fishing Report for 10/25/2011: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 03:06:51 10/26/11 |
Central Basin
Walleye: The best walleye fishing in the central basin has been 4 to 6 miles N of Vermilion. Fish have been caught mostly on deep diving crankbaits, and also on harnesses behind divers.
Yellow perch: Fair to good fishing was reported in 35-38’ NE of Rocky River, 35-38’ NW of Edgewater State Park, 52-55’ NW of Fairport and 76’ NE of Conneaut. Perch spreaders with shiners fished on the bottom produces the most fish. Anglers have been using golden shiners when emerald shiners are not available. A few fish have been caught by shore anglers off the East 55th St. Pier in Cleveland. Mornings and evenings have been best.
Steelhead Trout: Northeast Ohio Rivers remain high due to rains late last week. Conditions will improve throughout the week. For the Steelhead fishing report see the ohiodnr.com web site: Go to - Wildlife - Fishing - Lake Erie - Steelhead trout fishing
The water temperature is 50 degrees off of Toledo and 56 degrees off of Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. |
ODNR Fishing Report for 10/18/2011: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 08:14:20 10/19/11 |
Central Basin
Walleye: Prior to high winds over the weekend of Oct. 15 fishing was good 8 to 15 miles N-NE of Huron. Some fish were also caught in 35 to 40’ of water between Huron and Vermilion. Fish have been caught on harnesses with inline weights or divers, and also on deep diving crankbaits. A few walleye have been caught in 62-64’ off Cleveland. Anglers are trolling with stick baits.
Yellow perch: Very good fishing was reported in 42-58’ N of Gordon State Park, 60’ NE of Chagrin River, 52-54’ NW of Fairport and 47-49 NE of Geneva. Perch spreaders with shiners fished on the bottom produces the most fish. Anglers have been using golden shiners when emerald shiners are not available. A few fish have been caught off the Mentor Headlands breakwall. Mornings and evenings have been best.
White Bass: Fishing has been slow off the Eastlake CEI breakwall and Mentor Headlands breakwall. For boat anglers, fishing has been good in the Cleveland area, look for gulls feeding on schools of shiners at the surface. The white bass will be below the shiners.
Channel Catfish: Anglers are catching fish off the Mentor Headlands breakwall at night using night crawlers. Fish are also being caught along the Grand River at the St Clair St bridge.
Steelhead Trout: Good fishing reported this past week, see the ohiodnr.com web site: Go to - Wildlife - Fishing - Lake Erie - Steelhead trout fishing
The water temperature is 54 degrees off of Toledo and 59 degrees off of Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast.
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Fishing report for the week of October 16, 2011.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 14:09:33 10/16/11 |
It's just like déjà vu... Although I did not do a fishing report last weekend, I could literally take the entire paragraph from my last report from two weeks ago and just copy and paste it right into this weeks report. "A great week but a HORRIBLE weekend!" I mean to a t ! It was stunningly gorgeous all of this week when I had no trips until Friday when once again gale force winds along with high waves, rain & cold sidelined everyone that is still left in the water. And once again the few trips that I had left for this dwindling season all got cancelled out. Friday, Saturday & Sunday. Plain sucks. Just like most of the other charters hanging around till the end of the month, I was hoping to get a few more trips in to help wrap up some loose bills still staring at me such as a way ugly gas bill I still have hanging over my head back at the marina. I try not to think about some of the others bills that need paid yet as well. Payments on next years dock fees, campground fees, 4th quarter estimated federal & state taxes, marina services for lifting and washing & winterizing the boat and more ! Wow, I've just managed to depress myself just thinking about all of this ! lol ! Last weekend when I did no report I did manage to get a couple of trips in. And just as it has been all of this fall, the Perch fishing was nothing short of fabulous ! Limits have been almost guaranteed and I believe "The Trophy" has had a perfect run this fall with boat limits on each and every chartered Perch outing. The size of the Perch also has been increasing with each passing week as the water cools. The only strange thing has been that the really good Perch fishing has remained well off shore in the super deep water. 72 foot has been really good but that's about 10 miles out at best and more if you put some east into it angling towards Conneaut coming out of Ashtabula Harbor. That's a lot further than the usual 3 to 5 miles that we like to and normally have to run for our Perch. Heck with the 10 to 15 mile runs that I was making, round trip 30+ miles a lot of days for me and running the motor even at anchor to keep the systems all charged and to attract Perch ( yes, it works ! ) , I may as well have been running offshore trolling trips ! It's no wonder I still have ugly gas bills even though we were just Perching ! With the nice weather and no real trips this past week, I finally was able to get out and get a few fish for my freezer for a change. It always kills me when everybody automatically assumes that I must eat tons of fish all the time and that my freezers are over flowing with fillets. Ummmmm, WRONG ! Everything that gets caught on the charters goes HOME WITH THE CHARTERS ! HELLO ! And if I do have a day off here and there during the season, it's because the weather is bad and if not, there is always repairs/ oil changes etc. etc. etc. that needs to be done. It's really the last thing I want to do is go fun fishing when I am really busy anyway. But I do manage to get a few meat runs in at least during the Perch season each year and that's exactly what I did. I gathered up a few friends and we had at it and had a ball. But by the time I solely paid for the fuel, minnows, fish cleaning etc., it would have been a LOT CHEAPER just to go to the fish market and buy the Perch fillets at the going price of $14.99 a pound ! LOL ! But we had a lot of fun doing it and I have the satisfaction of knowing that those fillets are as fresh as they get as opposed to commercially netted fish that have been dead heaven knows how many days. Mine sure will taste good this winter ! So, the season is just about all but over for me now. This weeks weather does not look good at all for getting out. I still have plenty of open dates left but I am not going to push any of them because of the lousy forecast. I will be in the water regardless of the weather until Monday Oct. 31st when "The Trophy" gets the final big jerk. If things settle down and anybody wants a last chance trip, give me a call. This season was certainly full of highs and lows. It looks as if it's going to end like it started, with bad weather. I guess it's just that time of year. This will probably be my final fishing report for this season. We had some server issues a couple of weeks ago and all of the summers Ashtabula archived fishing reports all got wiped out. I am very, very sad about that because that's when we had our best catches and the most spectacular pictures. Hopefully a lot of you followed along and enjoyed the reports while they were up and when they were being posted each week. I put a lot of work into them, usually dead tired at the end of a work day for me. I am sorry they are gone. So until next year when my reports will faithfully return, I am thanking everyone for following along and I am wishing everybody a safe and quick winter. Special thanks goes out to all of those that fished with me in 2011 and I look forward to seeing everyone again in 2012. Over and out... |
ODNR Fishing Report for 10/11/2011: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 21:03:12 10/12/11 |
Central Basin
Walleye: Fishing has been good 8 to 15 miles N-NE of Huron. Fish have been caught on harnesses with inline weights or divers, and also on deep diving crankbaits. A few walleye have been caught in 62-64’ off Cleveland. Anglers are trolling with stick baits.
Yellow perch: Very good fishing was reported SW of the sandbar between Vermilion and Lorain, 62-72’ NE of Gordon State Park, 62’ NW of Fairport, 40-44 NE and NW of Geneva, 42-52' N of Ashtabula and 40-44’ and 70-76' NE of Conneaut. Perch spreaders with shiners fished on the bottom produces the most fish. Anglers have been using golden shiners when emerald shiners are not available. A few fish have been caught off the Mentor Headlands breakwall. Mornings and evenings have been best.
White Bass: Fishing has been slow off the Eastlake CEI breakwall and Mentor Headlands breakwall. For boat anglers, fishing has been good in the Cleveland area, look for gulls feeding on schools of shiners at the surface. The white bass will be below the shiners.
Channel Catfish: Anglers are catching fish off the Mentor Headlands breakwall at night using night crawlers. Fish are also being caught along the Grand River at the St Clair St bridge.
Steelhead Trout: Good fishing reported this past week, see the ohiodnr.com web site: Go to - Wildlife - Fishing - Lake Erie - Steelhead trout fishing
The water temperature is 59 degrees off of Toledo and 60 degrees off of Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. |
ODNR Fishing Report for 10/04/2011: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 09:01:38 10/05/11 |
Central Basin
Walleye: The walleye have scattered offshore of Ashtabula and Conneaut and there were no reports for walleye this week
Yellow perch: Prior to 3 straight days of high winds and waves, good fishing was reported 42-50’ NW of Chagrin River, 42-60’ NE of Wildwood State Park, 51’ N-NW of Fairport, 60' NE of Ashtabula and 62-64' NW of Conneaut. Perch spreaders with shiners fished on the bottom produces the most fish. Anglers have been using golden shiners when emerald shiners are not available. A few fish have been caught off the Mentor Headlands breakwall. Mornings and evenings have been best.
White Bass: Fishing has been slow off the Eastlake CEI breakwall and Mentor Headlands breakwall. For boat anglers, fishing has been good in the Cleveland area, look for gulls feeding on schools of shiners at the surface. The white bass will be below the shiners.
Channel Catfish: Anglers are catching fish off the Mentor Headlands breakwall at night using night crawlers. Fish are also being caught along the Grand River at the St Clair St bridge.
Steelhead Trout: See the ohiodnr.com web site: Go to - Wildlife - Fishing - Lake Erie - Steelhead trout fishing
The water temperature is 56 degrees off of Toledo and 62 degrees off of Cleveland according to the nearshore marine forecast. |
Fishing report for the week of October 2, 2011.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 15:11:03 10/03/11 |
A great week but a HORRIBLE weekend! I guess I may have jinxed myself by talking in last week's fishing report about how the weather has been half way decent here as of late. Well Monday through Thursday of last week was still pretty pleasant with me managing to get a few more Perch trips in. But then starting with Friday, a super strong cold front swept through the area along with torrential rains and gale force winds bringing all thoughts of any further fishing to a screeching halt. In fact, I would venture to say the lake Friday night was about as bad as I've ever seen it. The huge waves which were forecasted to be gale force and predicted to 14 feet by the National Weather Service had to be all of that and probably even more. I drove down to the beaches on both sides of the harbor just to watch in awe as the huge sheets of waves not only engulfed the entire break walls repeatedly but were actually at times breaking over the entire lighthouse and harbor entrance lights! Holy Toledo what a site! But you wouldn't have known of the impending weather early on in the week. It was just delightful fall like weather with the Perch fishing ON FIRE! Boy, we pulled some ridiculously fast 180 fish limits of super nice sized Perch. I really believe that the Perch knew of the crazy wave action to come and were really putting on the feed right before the storm arrived. It was non stop doubles and triple headers all the days I fished. It literally took longer for the bait to hit the bottom then it did to get a bite. For as long as it lasted, it was as good as it could possibly be. It certainly is not always this good and I'm afraid that after this big blow that it's going to be a bit of a reality check out there for all of us. But for all of those that have Perch fished with me thus far already, no worries. Your freezers are already well stocked! lol ! I did have one crazy experience this week And this is the first time I have ever seen this in 25 years of running many, many Perch Charters. I had just explained to everyone onboard how we do everything and I am standing right next to this guy when he reels up the first Perch of the day. He reels it to the surface and then stops rather then just lifting it straight out. I could not believe my eyes! This huge Steelhead Trout follows this Perch right to the surface! I am watching the whole thing unfold in total dis-believeth. And it's not going away either for a few seconds, staying just below the surface swimming around in circles watching this Perch. Only after the guy lifts the Perch completely out of the water did it shoot away! Incredible! I could have counted every speckle on its sides, the water was so clear and it was so close! Like I said, crazy... So as I look at this weeks upcoming weather forecast, it would appear that we are going to get a real big break and get a return to summer like weather by mid week. It might take a day or two for things to return to normal but I am confident that we will be right back into the Perch once the nice weather gets here. It may not be the two hour limit days like last week but it should be good. This week I have trips going out Wednesday and Friday and it would be neat if I could pick up a trip for Thursday as well since the weather is supposed to be close to 80 degrees all three days. A rare October treat! Also available, I just took a cancellation for next Sunday, Oct. the 9th. A rare weekend opening for me. Anybody interested in this Thursday or next Sunday can call me at any time both day or night on my mobile #, 216-387-2656 . Well that's it for another week from Ashtabula, Ohio, the PERCH CAPITOL OF THE WORLD! lol |
ODNR Fishing Report for 09/27/2011: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 13:45:08 10/03/11 |
Central Basin Walleye: The walleye have scattered offshore of Ashtabula and Conneaut and not many boats are targeting walleye. There was one report of anglers catching fish fishing 72-74’ NE of Ashtabula using dipsy divers.
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Fishing report for the week of January 1, 2009: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 16:41:56 1/01/09 |
Hello Everyone and Happy New Year ! 2009. Wow, has this decade flown by. And while it seems that the new fishing season is a long way off, in reality it will be here before you know it. Every year I get started preparing the boat for the new season around the first of March and we are always back in the water at our spring dock location at the western basin by the last week of March. By April the 1st, we are back in business chasing the Walleyes around the reefs and islands and jigging up some of the nicest fish of the entire year. I can hardly wait ! While again this isn't exactly a fishing report, every year about this time of the winter I like to take a look back upon the season that just passed and also start to set my sites on the new fishing season that is upcoming that holds promises of even bigger and better things. Still it will truly be hard to top the 2008 fishing season that we all experienced aboard "The Trophy" last year. We literally had well over 1000 plus guests enjoy some of the best fishing I've personally ever witnessed in 32 years of fishing Lake Erie. If you did not go home with your limit of Walleyes or Perch last season you were certainly a rare exception and probably one of those that drew a tough weather day on the big lake. Fishing started out great at Port Clinton last spring and we never once experienced a slow period till we were done for the year. After moving the boat to Ashtabula for the summer months by the end of May, we again opened up heavy in the Walleyes and we were all quite amazed at the sheer size of fish that we were catching. There is no reason to believe that this trend will not continue in to 2009. On the downside, as a business operator 2008 will not go down in my books as the best economic year we ever had. Paying close to $5.00 a gallon for fuel for most all of last season truly hurt all of us big boat operators. I know it took a big toll on my operation. It was a real slap in the face only to see fuel prices ease AFTER THE SEASON HAD ENDED ! I am not buying into the fact that fuel will remain this cheap again next summer. Every year we go through the same scenario. After Memorial Day weekend prices soar upward again and at the end of the season after Labor Day when most of the consumption drops off, it eases again. I have seen it every year. It's just that last year was the worst. For 2009 we have adjusted our summer trolling trip rates slightly to adjust for the economy that we live in. These offshore trips are where we took a beating the last several years and I can not continue to bring myself to beg for tips anymore to try and off set the situation. A few years back we tried a fuel sur-charge system and that was even more confusing. Anyways, all of the spring trips at Port Clinton will be offered at the same rates that were in effect the last several years. I can live with those because we don't burn quite as much on most days at Port Clinton as we do off the shores of Ashtabula. The other downside of 2008 for me was the collapse of the River Marine marina where I have always been docked at Ashtabula into the Ashtabula River. If you're not familiar with the story you can read up on it on my August 10th Ashtabula fishing report found on my website www.trophycharters.com Basically what happened was that they dredged the river too close to the rivers edge and most of the frontage of the marina tumbled into the drink. The sea wall bulkheads, docks and everything was lost. Fortunately no boats were damaged. Anyway there is strong talk that everything will be rebuilt by this summer. We will just have to see how it all plays out. If not, I will be docked just on the south side of the bridge where I ended up last fall after the collapse. I will keep everyone posted ... Lastly, our websites pictures on the home page and the photo album page have all been updated with fresh pictures from last season. Check them out and see if you made the cut ! Also right now is the time to book those last remaining last days that we might have open for this year. As most of you know, I book up very fast mostly thanks to all of you that keep coming back year after year. And for that fact I sincerely thank all of you from the bottom of my heart. Again, I am looking forward to seeing all of you, my friends aboard "The Trophy" in 2009 for another adventure on the big water ! Capt. Walt Trophy Charters |
ODNR Fishing Report for 12/10/2008: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 08:07:33 12/11/08 |
Walleye
Few walleye fishing attempts have been made due to recent wind, snow and cold temperatures. Those that have made it out have had little success. The lake is still accessible in places, but anglers should anticipate icy marinas and muddy water on the main lake. |
ODNR Fishing Report for 12/03/2008: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 08:30:00 12/03/08 |
Walleye
Few walleye fishing have been made due to recent wind, snow and cold temperatures. The best area over the holiday weekend was from Huron to Ruggles in 30 to 35 feet of water. Most anglers are trolling crankbaits. Anticipate breaking ice in marinas and muddy water on the main lake. Walleye fishing has been sporadic on the piers at night, but some fish are being caught by casting shallow diving stickbaits. |
ODNR Fishing Report for 11/25/2008: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 01:33:39 11/26/08 |
Walleye
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ODNR Fishing Report for 11/18/2008: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 10:53:26 11/19/08 |
Walleye
Walleye fishing remained excellent through Friday November 14. Recent wind, snow and cold temperatures have temporarily ended most main lake fishing. If conditions improve expect some of the same areas to produce more great walleye fishing from Vermilion to Cedar Point, and also off of Cleveland. The best area had been from Huron to Vermilion in 25 to 40 feet of water. Most anglers are trolling crankbaits. Walleye fishing has been sporadic on the piers at night, but some fish are being caught by casting shallow diving stickbaits. As temperatures drop walleye should continue to move inshore providing fall fishing opportunities through ice up when conditions allow. |
ODNR Fishing Report for 11/12/2008: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 21:49:27 11/12/08 |
Walleye
Walleye fishing has remained excellent from Vermilion to Cedar Point in 30 to 42 feet of water. The best areas have been west of the Huron dumping grounds and north of Cranberry Creek. Most anglers are trolling crankbaits. Walleye fishing has been sporadic on the piers at night, but some fish are being caught by casting shallow diving stickbaits. As temperatures drop walleye should continue to move inshore providing fall fishing opportunities through ice up when conditions allow.
Yellow Perch
Perch fishing effort is decreasing, but catches continue to be good in all the traditional spots around the islands and off of the central basin harbors. Perch spreaders with shiners near the bottom produce the most fish. |
ODNR Fishing Report for 10/29/2008: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 08:50:21 10/29/08 |
Central Basin
*Weather the week of 10/27 has been extremely windy. Information contained in the report was collected prior to the gale force winds.*
Walleye fishing had been excellent from Huron to Lorain. As water temperatures drop the best fishing will start to move inshore. Trolling or casting minnow imitating stickbaits produces the best fall catches.
Yellow perch fishing has been excellent. The most consistent action has been on the sandbar between Vermilion and Lorain, N of Vermilion, and also off of Lorain near the lighthouse. Fishing has been very good all along ports from Cleveland east to Conneaut. The best spots include NW of Gordon Park in 40 to 45 feet of water, NW of Chagrin River in 47 to 50 feet of water, N-NW of Fairport in 45 to 55 feet of water (the hump), N of Geneva and Ashtabula in 45’ to 55’ of water. Perch spreaders or crappie rigs with shiners fished near the bottom usually produces the most fish. Fish have ranged from 7 to 12 inches.
Steelhead fishing is picking up as fish begin to move up into the rivers. Anglers are catching fish near breakwalls, at the river mouths, and at lower- to mid- stream locations in the Rocky, Chagrin, Grand and Ashtabula Rivers, Euclid Creek (Wildwood State Park) and Conneaut Creek. Flows in the rivers and streams have risen with the recent rain and sleet and they are slightly to moderately stained. Small tributaries will fish first. Anglers are using small spoons, spinners, or jigs and maggots or spawn rigged with a split shot under a light bobber.
Based on the nearshore forecast the water temperature is 49 off of Toledo and 55 off of Cleveland. |
ODNR Fishing Report for 10/15/2008: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 21:47:11 10/16/08 |
Central Basin
Walleye fishing is improving from Lorain to Huron. The best areas have been the 30 N line west of the sandbar and the Huron dumping grounds. Fishing remained slow again this past week from Cleveland to Conneaut. Trollers are using worm harnesses, spoons or stickbaits off jet divers, dipsy divers, planer boards and downriggers. Worm harnesses and spoons continue to be the top baits.
Yellow perch fishing has been excellent. The most consistent action has been on the sandbar between Vermilion and Lorain, N of Vermilion, and also off of Lorain near the lighthouse. Fishing has been very good all along ports from Cleveland east to Conneaut. The best spots include NW of Gordon Park in 51 to 55 feet of water, NE and NW of Chagrin River in 51 to 55 feet of water, NW of Fairport in 40 to 50’ of water (the hump), N of Geneva and Ashtabula in 38’ to 48’ of water, and N of Conneaut in 70’ of water. Perch spreaders or crappie rigs with shiners fished near the bottom usually produces the most fish. Fish have ranged from 7 to 12 inches.
Smallmouth bass fishing has been very good in 20’ of water around Cleveland, Fairport Harbor, Ashtabula and Conneaut harbors. Fish are being caught on watermelon, pumpkinseed and green tube jigs, drop-shot goby imitations and crayfish.
Steelhead fishing is picking up as fish begin to move up into the rivers and anglers are catching fish at the mouth and downstream locations in the Chagrin River, Grand River, Geneva State Park, Euclid Creek (Wildwood State Park), Conneaut Creek and along the Conneaut west breakwall. Water conditions in the rivers and streams remain low and clear. Best times have been early in the morning. Shore anglers are using small spoons and jigs and maggots rigged with a split shot under a light bobber.
Based on the nearshore forecast the water temperature is 59 off of Toledo and 63 off of Cleveland. |
Fishing report for the week of Oct. 5, 2008.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 17:45:43 10/08/08 |
It's October and the Perch are on fire ! What a run we had at the Walleyes all season long but it's now time to concentrate on the late fall Perch season. And thus far it's been fantastic. I don't think I've run a Perch trip yet this fall where we have not limited out with these tasty good sized pan fish. Many have even been in the jumbo category. Just plain fun to catch and incredibly good eating! We have been spending most of our days in water anywhere from 50 to 70 foot deep with the Perch right on the bottom. Hook up three minnows on your rig, drop the sinker straight down to the bottom and make sure it rests dead on the bottom while holding the line tight between the sinker on the bottom and the rod tip. Pretty soon you feel tap, tap, tap and then you set the hook. Lots of times you can catch a double and if you're really lucky, even a triple! Even though the marina is closed and I have moved the boat to a different location a couple hundred yards up river, the fish cleaning service is still available thank God. And what a wonderful job they do cleaning all those Perch for just a few bucks. I don't know why anybody would want to screw around and spend all afternoon cleaning fish when these pro's can do it in about 45 minutes for a whole cooler! Keep in mind that with the marina being closed that you still need to get your licenses ahead of time either online through the links on my website www.trophycharters.com or at the K-Mart here in Ashtabula on Rt. 20 just east of Rt. 11. They are open 24 hours also which helps us out a lot. We have about a month remaining in the season before I pull the boat for the winter. We are scheduled to come out Nov. the 3rd. Don't miss out on your last chance to spend a fun filled day aboard "THE TROPHY" catching jumbo's for the freezer. It's a long, long winter! We still have plenty of dates available including a few weekend dates. Give me a call at 216-387-2656, my boat/mobile number. I would be glad to hook you up! |
Fishing report for the week of Oct. 5, 2008.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 12:15:55 10/05/08 |
It's October and the Perch are on fire ! What a run we had at the Walleyes all season long but it's now time to concentrate on the late fall Perch season. And thus far it's been fantastic. I don't think I've run a Perch trip yet this fall where we have not limited out with these tasty good sized pan fish. Many have even been in the jumbo category. Just plain fun to catch and incredibly good eating ! We have been spending most of our days in water anywhere from 50 to 70 foot deep with the Perch right on the bottom. Hook up three minnows on your rig, drop the sinker straight down to the bottom and make sure it rests dead on the bottom while holding the line tight between the sinker on the bottom and the rod tip. Pretty soon you feel tap, tap, tap and then you set the hook. Lots of times you can catch a double and if you're really lucky, even a triple ! Even though the marina is closed and I have moved the boat to a different location a couple hundred yards up river, the fish cleaning service is still available thank God. And what a wonderful job they do cleaning all those Perch for just a few bucks. I don't know why anybody would want to screw around and spend all afternoon cleaning fish when these pro's can do it in about 45 minutes for a whole cooler ! Keep in mind that with the marina being closed that you still need to get your licenses ahead of time either online through the links on my website www.trophycharters.com or at the K-Mart here in Ashtabula on Rt. 20 just east of Rt. 11. They are open 24 hours also which helps us out a lot. We have about a month remaining in the season before I pull the boat for the winter. We are scheduled to come out Nov. the 3rd. Don't miss out on your last chance to spend a fun filled day aboard "THE TROPHY" catching jumbo's for the freezer. It's a long, long winter ! We still have plenty of dates available including a few weekend dates. Give me a call at 216-387-2656, my boat/mobile number. I would be glad to hook you up ! Capt. Walt |
ODNR Fishing Report for 09/17/2008: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 07:48:39 9/18/08 |
Central Basin
Walleye fishing remained slow west of Cleveland with the best area being the sandbar between Vermilion and Lorain. Fishing continues to be slow in the Cleveland area this past week so there are no locations to report. Fishing continues to be good 12-17 miles N of Geneva in 70 to 72’ of water, and 6-10 miles NE-NW of Ashtabula in 69 to 72’ of water. Trollers are using worm harnesses, spoons or stickbaits off jet divers, dipsy divers, planer boards and downriggers. Worm harnesses and spoons continue to be the top baits. The best action has been about 25-50 feet down, and the best colors have been watermelon, purple, orange, green, and gold/black or red/silver.
Yellow perch fishing has remained slow from Huron to Avon. The most consistent action has been on the S end of the sandbar. Fishing has been very good offshore in the Cleveland area and also east to Conneaut. The best spots to fish are NW of Edgewater Park in 45 to 47 feet of water, NW of Wildwood State Park in 41 to 46 feet of water, NW of Fairport in 40 to 50’ of water (the hump), N of Geneva in 40 to 50’ of water, and N-NE of Conneaut in 60 to 65’ of water. Perch spreaders or crappie rigs with shiners fished near the bottom usually produces the most fish, however. Fish have ranged from 7 to 12 inches.
White bass fishing has been spotty off Eastlake CEI power plant in 15-30 feet of water. Anglers are using agitators with blue/silver spoons and jigs tipped with twister tails.
Smallmouth bass fishing has been very good in 16 to 26’ of water around Cleveland, Fairport Harbor, Ashtabula and Conneaut harbors. Fish are being caught on watermelon, pumpkinseed and green tube jigs and drop-shot goby imitations.
Steelhead are being caught off Geneva and Ashtabula while fishing for walleye. Anglers are catching steelhead on blue or green with silver spoons while trolling using downriggers, dipsy divers, or jet divers off planer boards.
Based on the nearshore forecast the water temperature is 67 off of Toledo and 69 off of Cleveland. |
ODNR Fishing Report for 09/09/2009: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 20:24:10 9/10/08 |
Central Basin
Walleye fishing has slowed west of Cleveland with the best area being the sandbar between Vermilion and Lorain. Fishing continues to be slow in the Cleveland area this past week so there are no locations to report. Very good fishing has been reported 7-10 miles N of Ashtabula in 69 to 72’ of water, and 7-12 miles N-NW of Conneaut in 71 to 75’ of water. Trollers are using worm harnesses, spoons or stickbaits off jet divers, dipsy divers, planer boards and downriggers. Worm harnesses and spoons continue to be the top baits. The best action has been about 25-50 feet down, and the best colors have been watermelon, purple, orange, green, and black with copper or blue/silver.
Yellow perch fishing has remained slow from Huron to Avon. The most consistent action has been on the S end of the sandbar. Fishing has been very good offshore in the Cleveland area and also east to Conneaut. The best spots to fish are NW of Gordon Park in 38 to 42 feet of water, NW of Edgewater Park in 40 to 50 feet of water, N of Fairport in 38 to 48’ of water, N of Geneva in 38 to 48’ of water, and N of Conneaut in 60 to 65’ of water. You may try fishing further offshore this week than normal. Fish may also be suspended in the water column until the recent upwelling of low oxygenated water settles back down to the deeper portions of the lake. Perch spreaders or crappie rigs with shiners fished near the bottom usually produces the most fish, however, this week you may want to fish 5 to 10 feet up from the bottom due to the conditions. Fish have ranged from 8 to 13 inches.
White bass fishing has been spotty off Eastlake CEI power plant in 15-30 feet of water. Anglers are using agitators with blue/silver spoons and jigs tipped with twister tails.
Smallmouth bass fishing has been very good in 16 to 26’ of water around Cleveland, Fairport Harbor, Ashtabula and Conneaut harbors. Fish are being caught on watermelon, pumpkinseed and green tube jigs and drop-shot goby imitations.
Based on the nearshore forecast the water temperature is 69 off of Toledo and 71 off of Cleveland.
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Fishing report for the week of Sept. 6, 2008.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 08:19:42 9/06/08 |
September. Just saying that is depressing ! It means our summer is practically over and so is my Walleye season. We are down to our last couple of weeks of Walleye charters before we start our fall Perch trips. And although Perchin is fun, it's not where my heart is. I guess I was born to catch Walleyes. I love the challenge of fishing the big water and making amazing things happen. The more out of control fast action we experience, the faster I work. I thrive on this kind of chaos ! Perch fishing is a lot more laid back. Anchor the boat and jerk jumbo's one after another. More fun for you guy's. I just help unhook fish and whatever. Awh, such is my season and this is what I have to do to round out the year. Walleye fishing has continued to be excellent thus far right into September. I can't believe how big some of these late season beauties have been. We sure have seen our share of 10 pound fish the last few weeks. They are putting on a lot of fat for the winter months and feeding like crazy. It has not been unusual to net a Walleye and have it spew a bunch of smelt out of their mouths. Literally a feeding frenzy going on out there ! We have finally started to see more Steelhead Trout as well the last couple of weeks, something that has been unusually quiet most all of the summer season. Unfortunately the Sheephead have been attacking us as well on some days. The last couple of days have not been so bad though. We are still fishing well offshore most everyday now. 15 to 20 miles has been an almost everyday occurrence for about the last month. Ugly fuel bills everyday to say the least. Locked in at charter rates from a few years ago is not quiet getting it at today's high fuel costs. There will be a slight adjustment for next season ... unless O'Bama or McCain solve all of our problems between this November and next spring, LOL ! For now your generous tip money is still offsetting the difference. What was once meant at one time for the wife and I to go out and have dinner on the boy's is now going right into the pockets of the big oil companies. Sucks. Man, I better get back on the right subject. I'm depressing myself ! I've adjusted to my new dock location as much as I am going to I suppose since the collapse of River Marine into the Ashtabula River last month. See my last fishing report if you are not familiar with the story. Very sad. Anyway, I am still meeting most all of my charters at River Marines parking lot and having everyone just follow me down. It's only a couple of hundred yards back up river but it's been easier this way. Looks like this will be my home as well for the next season. Next year it will be up to everyone to find where I am docked. This sitting in the parking lot in the truck waiting for someone to show up is getting old. The good news is that the fish cleaning is still available but keep in mind that you have to get your fishing licenses ahead of time since there is no longer a marina store. You can do it online ahead of time through the links on my website or the K-Mart in Ashtabula which sells them 24 hours a day. Just plan accordingly. We are departing the dock now promptly at 6:00 a.m. Don't forget to book that fall Perch trip as well. We are booking those right now and will be starting to Perch fish very soon ! Capt. Walt |
ODNR Fishing Report for 09/03/2008: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 07:34:42 9/04/08 |
Central Basin
Walleye fishing has slowed west of Cleveland with the best area being the sandbar between Vermilion and Lorain. Fishing continues to be slow in the Cleveland area this past week so there are no locations to report. Very good fishing has been reported 10-20 miles N of Geneva in 72 to 74’ of water, and 8-12 miles N of Ashtabula in 70 to 74’ of water. Trollers are using worm harnesses, spoons or stickbaits off jet divers, dipsy divers, planer boards and downriggers. Worm harnesses and spoons continue to be the top baits. The best action has been about 25-50 feet down, and the best colors have been chartreuse, purple, orange, green, and black with copper or gold/red.
Yellow perch fishing is very good offshore in the Cleveland area and also east to Conneaut. The best spots to fish are NW of Gordon Park in 35 to 45 feet of water, NW of Edgewater Park in 40 to 45 feet of water, N of Ashtabula in 65 to 70’ of water, and N of Conneaut in 60 to 65’ of water. You may try fishing further offshore this week than normal. Fish may also be suspended in the water column until the recent upwelling of low oxygenated water settles back down to the deeper portions of the lake. Perch spreaders or crappie rigs with shiners fished near the bottom usually produces the most fish, however, this week you may want to fish 5 to 10 feet up from the bottom due to the conditions. Fish have ranged from 8 to 13 inches.
White bass fishing has been good off Eastlake CEI power plant in 15-30 feet of water. Anglers are using agitators with blue/silver spoons and jigs tipped with twister tails.
Smallmouth bass fishing has been very good prior to the upwelling of low oxygenated waters this past week. We expect fishing to pick back up in the harbor areas around Cleveland, Fairport Harbor, Ashtabula and Conneaut harbors. Anglers have been fishing in 15 to 25 feet of water. Fish are being caught on watermelon, pumpkinseed and green tube jigs and drop-shot goby imitations.
Steelhead are being caught by anglers while walleye fishing 7 to 15 miles offshore from Geneva and Ashtabula in 65 to 74 feet of water. Anglers are catching steelhead on blue or green with silver spoons while trolling using downriggers, dipsy divers, or jet divers off planer boards.
Based on the nearshore forecast the water temperature is 71 off of Toledo and Cleveland. |
ODNR Fishing Report for 08/26/2008: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 07:16:20 8/27/08 |
Central Basin
Walleye fishing has been good E of the southern half of the sandbar NW of Lorain 5 to 7 miles out. Fishing has slowed down in the Cleveland area this past week so there are no locations to report. Very good fishing has been reported 10-15 miles N of Geneva in 70 to 74’ of water, and 7-15 miles NE and NW of Ashtabula in 68 to 74’ of water. Trollers are using worm harnesses, spoons or stickbaits off jet divers, dipsy divers, planer boards and downriggers. Worm harnesses and spoons continue to be the top baits. The best action has been about 25-50 feet down, and the best colors have been chartreuse, purple, orange, green, and black with copper or gold/red.
Yellow perch fishing is good offshore in the Cleveland area and also east to Conneaut. The best spots to fish are NW of Gordon Park in 53 to 55 feet of water, NW of Chagrin River in 45 to 50 feet of water, NW of Fairport Harbor in 38 to 50’ of water, and N of Conneaut in 60 to 65’ of water. Perch spreaders or crappie rigs with shiners fished near the bottom produce the most fish. Don’t forget to try several turns up from the bottom as some fish may be suspended. Fish have ranged from 8 to 13 inches.
White bass fishing has been very good off Eastlake CEI power plant in 15-30 feet of water. Anglers are using agitators with blue/silver spoons and jigs tipped with twister tails.
Smallmouth bass fishing has been very good in 16 to 26’ of water around Cleveland, Fairport Harbor, Ashtabula and Conneaut harbors. Fish are being caught on watermelon, pumpkinseed and green tube jigs and drop-shot goby imitations.
Steelhead are being caught by anglers while walleye fishing 7 to 15 miles offshore from Geneva and Ashtabula in 65 to 74 feet of water. Anglers are catching steelhead on blue or green with silver spoons while trolling using downriggers, dipsy divers, or jet divers off planer boards.
Based on the nearshore forecast the water temperature is 71 off of Toledo and 73 off of Cleveland. |
ODNR Fishing Report for 08/20/2008: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 19:39:01 8/21/08 |
Central Basin
Walleye fishing has been good E of the southern half of the sandbar NW of Lorain 5 to 7 miles out. Fishing has slowed down in the Cleveland area with the best areas NW of Edgewater Park in 54 of water and NW of Chagrin River in 72 to 78’ of water. Very good fishing has been reported NW of Geneva in 65 to 74’ of water, and 7-13 miles NE of Ashtabula in 70 to 74’ of water. Trollers are using worm harnesses, spoons or stickbaits off jet divers, dipsy divers, planer boards and downriggers. Worm harnesses and spoons continue to be the top baits. The best action has been about 25-50 feet down, and the best colors have been chartreuse, purple, orange, green, pink, and black with copper or gold.
Yellow perch fishing is good offshore in the Cleveland area and also east to Conneaut. The best spots to fish are NW of Edgewater Park in 51 to 54 feet of water, NW of Chagrin River in 53 to 54 feet of water, NW of Fairport Harbor (the hump) in 50 to 60’ of water, and N of Conneaut in 55 to 65’ of water. Perch spreaders or crappie rigs with shiners fished near the bottom produce the most fish. Don’t forget to try several turns up from the bottom as some fish may be suspended. Fish have ranged from 8 to 13 inches.
White bass fishing has been very good off Eastlake CEI power plant in 15-30 feet of water. Anglers are using agitators with blue/silver spoons and jigs tipped with twister tails.
Smallmouth bass fishing has been very good in 16 to 26’ of water around Cleveland, Fairport Harbor, Ashtabula and Conneaut harbors. Fish are being caught on watermelon, pumpkinseed and green tube jigs and drop-shot goby imitations.
Steelhead are being caught by anglers while walleye fishing 9 to 13 miles offshore from Geneva and Ashtabula in 65 to 74 feet of water. Anglers are catching steelhead on blue or green with silver spoons while trolling using downriggers, dipsy divers, or jet divers off planer boards.
Based on the nearshore forecast the water temperature is 72 off of Toledo and 74 off of Cleveland. |
ODNR Fishing Report for 08/12/2008: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 18:14:45 8/13/08 |
Central Basin
Walleye fishing has been good E of the southern half of the sandbar NW of Lorain 5 to 7 miles out. Fishing has slowed down in the Cleveland area with the best areas NE of Edgewater Park in 63 to 70’ of water, NW of Chagrin River in 70 to 72’ of water. Very good fishing has been reported NE of Geneva in 68 to 72’ of water, and 7-11 miles N of Ashtabula in 68 to 73’ of water. Trollers are using worm harnesses, spoons or stickbaits off jet divers, dipsy divers, planer boards and downriggers. Worm harnesses and spoons continue to be the top baits. The best action has been about 25-52 feet down, and the best colors have been chartreuse, purple, orange, green, and black with copper or gold.
West of Cleveland the best yellow perch fishing has been off of Sawmill Creek in 33’ of water and from Cranberry Creek to Old Woman’s Creek in 31 to 38’ of water. The fishing is fair offshore in the Cleveland area and also east to Conneaut. The best spots to try are NW of Edgewater Park in 50 to 52 feet of water, NW of Chagrin River in 55 to 62 feet of water, NW of Fairport Harbor in 45 to 55’ of water, and N Conneaut in 50 to 60’ of water. Perch spreaders or crappie rigs with shiners fished near the bottom produce the most fish. Don’t forget to try several turns up from the bottom as some fish may be suspended. Fish have ranged from 8 to 13 inches.
White bass fishing has been very good off Eastlake CEI power plant in 15-30 feet of water. Anglers are using agitators with blue/silver spoons and jigs tipped with twister tails.
Smallmouth bass fishing has been very good in 15 to 35’ of water around Cleveland, Fairport Harbor, Ashtabula and Conneaut harbors. Fish are being caught on watermelon, pumpkinseed and green tube jigs and drop-shot goby imitations.
Steelhead are being caught by anglers while walleye fishing 9 to 13 miles offshore from Geneva and Ashtabula in 68 to 74 feet of water. Anglers are catching steelhead on blue or green with silver spoons while trolling using downriggers, dipsy divers, or jet divers off planer boards. |
Fishing report for the week of August 10, 2008.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 17:49:37 8/10/08 |
This latest report is not going to be about fishing although I wish that was all I had to talk about. This report is a sad story about River Marine, the home of "The Trophy" collapsing into the Ashtabula River this past weekend. What started as a crack just a few days before the total collapse worsened rapidly and the end result was the entire concrete slab with the docks and part of the building sent tumbling into the water. Fortunately nobody was hurt and the boats were not damaged as the docks were torn free from the bulkhead as everything collapsed. I was able to scramble back onto the twisted wreckage and cut myself loose. Others had already moved their boats. I had looked at other docks that very same morning and was about to move my boat somewhere else when I got the call that it was too late. Man, it went fast ! Many have speculated as to how this could have happened after that property had stood there as is for over a hundred years with a steel company there before it was tore down and then years later the River Marine building put up. All the existing bulk heads were there as well all those years. How could something like this happen ? Well, I'll tell you what I think. I think it's a combination of factors combined that resulted in the disaster. Many of you that had read some of my previous reports this summer may remember be mentioning that the river was being dredged and that they took it down to a uniform depth of 20 foot, wall to wall across the river. Bingo. What used to be only a few feet deep right by the wall was now dug out to 20 foot ! Now, I'm no Einstein but ... that and the bridge project where they have the huge drawbridge just a few feet away from River Marine standing straight up in the air for over 4 months now day and night shaking and swaying in the wind... I'm not saying anything, I'm just saying ... The implications to this for everyone is going to be significant. I already have found a new dock location at least for the rest of this year just a few hundred yards back up river right by the Oar House Saloon. Coming from Rt. 11 like you normally come, go all the way north on 11 till it dead ends. Then turn left like you did before to go to River Marine but only go exactly 6/10ths of a mile and at the bottom of the hill you turn left into The Oar House's Parking lot. It is a big square white block building that looks like a ware house. Sadly it is not marked very well. I don't know how this will all play out but most importantly it's not looking good for fishing licenses or fish cleaning services at the end of the day unless they get something temporarily put up in a hurry. I am urging all my upcoming trips to contact me on my cell, 216-387-2656 as soon as possible to discuss other options. There are options but the bottom line is it will not be as convenient as we have all grown accustomed to. Very sad. Capt. Walt |
ODNR Fishing Report for 08/06/2008: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 17:17:41 8/06/08 |
Central Basin
Walleye fishing has been good E of the southern half of the sandbar between Vermilion and Lorain 7 to 10 miles out, NE of Gordon Park in 66 to 70’ of water, NW of Chagrin River in 68 to 72’ of water, NE of Geneva in 68 to 74’ of water, and 9+ miles N of Ashtabula in 68 to 74’ of water. Trollers are using worm harnesses, spoons or stickbaits off jet divers, dipsy divers, planer boards and downriggers. Worm harnesses continue to be the top bait followed closely by spoons, especially east. The best action has been about 25-52 feet down, and the best colors have been chartreuse, purple, orange, green, and black with copper or gold.
West of Cleveland the best yellow perch fishing has been off of Sawmill Creek in 33’ of water and from Cranberry Creek to Old Woman’s Creek in 31 to 38’ of water. The fishing is fair offshore in the Cleveland area. The best spots to try are NE of Edgewater Park in 50 to 58 feet of water and NW of Gordon Park in 54 to 58 feet of water. To the east, fishing remains good NW of Fairport Harbor in 52 to 65’ of water, and N of Ashtabula in 60 to 68’ and N Conneaut in 50 to 65’ of water. Perch spreaders or crappie rigs with shiners fished near the bottom produce the most fish. Don’t forget to try several turns up from the bottom as some fish may be suspended. Fish have ranged from 8 to 13 inches.
Smallmouth bass fishing has been very good in 15 to 35’ of water around Cleveland, Fairport Harbor, Ashtabula and Conneaut harbors. Fish are being caught on watermelon, pumpkinseed and green tube jigs and drop-shot goby imitations.
Steelhead are being caught by anglers while walleye fishing 9 to 13 miles offshore from Cleveland, Eastlake, Fairport, Geneva and Ashtabula in 68 to 74 feet of water. Anglers are catching steelhead on blue or green with silver spoons while trolling using downriggers, dipsy divers, or jet divers off planer boards.
Based on the nearshore forecast the water temperature is 75 off of Toledo and Cleveland.
Anglers are encouraged to always wear a U.S. Coast Guard-approved personal flotation device while boating.
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Fishing report for the week of August 1, 2008.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 19:08:11 8/01/08 |
Wow. August ! It almost seems sur-real to me as how fast this summer is flying by . To me it feel's like the movie "Ground Hog Day". I do what I do, over and over and over again. And the days and weeks are just flying by. And the results have been amazingly consistent. Limits on most days. In fact, some days have been literally too fast, even by my standards. But you know what ? You can't have it both ways. You either get out and knock the snot out of them and get er done, or you ride around and drag lures all day and look stupid. I just as soon go out and kill them and be done with it. Apparently most of my regulars have felt the same. Everybody has seemed quite pleased with the early quits and everybody has been re-booking for the following season. Life is good. The fish have seemed to go no where the last few weeks. They just seem to be hanging out around the 8-9 mile to the 12 -13 mile mark off shore. Most days we are running slightly north west. The fish are just there. Day after day, over and over again. As a charter captain, consistency is the best thing that could happen to us. Figure out what lead lengths are working and stick with it. Most Days the fish are very deep. Get you're stuff down there and hold on ! We have been fishing for the marks that are showing up on the fish finder in the 55 to 65 ft.below the surface. It has just been plain working. I have it pretty much figured out and everyday thus far it has been a slaughter. I am just hoping that we can keep it going for the next month and a half. That's how much longer I have left in my Walleye season. It just seems incredible to me. It seems just like yesterday that we put the boat in for the season. Just like I said before, over and over and over again. That's how this season has been for me thus far. Very good and very fast everyday so far ... Man, I can't believe how generous you have all been. Fuel prices have been killing me this season and you guys for the most part have been steping up to the plate and taking that into consideration when settling up at the end of the day with generous tip money. While others have been trying to pass on fuel sur-charges, I have just been focusing on filling the box and letting the chips fall where they may. It's been good all the way around. I get the job done everyday and all of you have made sure that the bills get paid. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. After all the years I've been at this, I am very pleased with my clientele and the relationship that we have. It gives me hope for the years to come. Just as I have been preaching all season long, we still need to get off by 5:00 a.m. We now have some travel time involved and we want to make sure that we get off early enough to where we can get out there and arrive at the hot spots just as day light breaks and start setting lines in time for the feeding frenzy. This has been half of the reason that I have been so successful. I have most all of you convinced as to how important it is to be fishing out there in the wee hours of the morning when the bite is on. It has paid huge dividends for all of us aboard "The Trophy" and it has been the reason we have had the edge on the competition. First out, first back . It's a beautiful thing. Please remember that the drawbridge in the harbor is closed to car traffic and that you must come in by way of Rt. 11 as all of my directions spell out . Also please remember th at the upcoming Perch season will be here in a matter of a few short weeks. NOW IS THE TIME TO BOOK YOUR PERCH TRIPS !! Capt. Walt |
ODNR Fishing Report for 07/29/2008: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 17:50:01 7/29/08 |
Central Basin
Walleye fishing has been good E of the southern half of the sandbar between Vermilion and Lorain, 7 to 10 miles out NE and NW of Edgewater State Park in 62 to 70’ of water, NW of Eastlake in 67 to 70’ of water, NW of Geneva in 68 to 72’ of water, and 8+ miles NE and NW of Ashtabula and Conneaut in 70 to 73’ of water. Trollers are using worm harnesses, spoons or stickbaits off jet divers, dipsy divers, planer boards and downriggers. Worm harnesses continue to be the top bait followed closely by spoons, especially east. The best action has been about 25-40 feet down, and the best colors have been chartreuse, purple, orange, green, and black with copper or gold.
Yellow perch fishing is good offshore in the Cleveland area. The best spots to try are NW of Edgewater Park in 53 to 60 feet of water and NE of Rocky River in 58 to 62 feet of water. To the east, fishing remains good NW of Fairport Harbor in 52 to 65’ of water, and N of Ashtabula and Conneaut in 50 to 65’ of water. Perch spreaders or crappie rigs with shiners fished near the bottom produce the most fish. Don’t forget to try several turns up from the bottom as some fish may be suspended. Fish have ranged from 8 to 13 inches.
Smallmouth bass fishing has been very good in 15 to 35’ of water around Cleveland, Fairport Harbor, Ashtabula and Conneaut harbors. Fish are being caught on watermelon, pumpkinseed and green tube jigs and drop-shot goby imitations.
Steelhead are being caught 7 to 10 miles offshore from Cleveland, Eastlake, Fairport, Geneva and Ashtabula in 62 to 73 feet of water. Anglers are catching steelhead on blue or green with silver spoons while trolling using downriggers, dipsy divers, or jet divers off planer boards.
Based on the nearshore forecast the water temperature is 74 off of Toledo and Cleveland.
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ODNR Fishing Report for 07/15/2008: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 17:52:57 7/15/08 |
Central Basin
Walleye fishing has been good on the sandbar between Vermilion and Lorain, NW of the Chagrin River in 60 to 65’ of water, NW of Edgewater State Park in 58 to 64’ of water, N-NW of Fairport Harbor in 60 to 70’ of water, NW and NE of Ashtabula in 68 to 72’ of water. Trollers are using crankbaits or spoons and worm harnesses off jet divers, dipsy divers, planer boards and downriggers. The best action has been about 20 feet down and the best colors have been chartreuse, silver, orange, green and pink, and monkey puke.
Yellow perch fishing slowed down in the Cleveland area this past week. The best spots to try are NW of Edgewater Park in 42 to 48 feet of water and NW of Gordon Park in 45 to 50 feet of water. To the east, fishing remains good NW of Fairport Harbor in 40 to 50’ of water, and N of Ashtabula and Conneaut in 50 to 60’ of water. Perch spreaders or crappie rigs with shiners fished near the bottom produce the most fish. Fish have ranged from 7 to 12 inches.
Smallmouth bass fishing has been very good in 5 to 20’ of water around Cleveland, Fairport Harbor, Ashtabula and Conneaut harbors. Fish are being caught on watermelon, pumpkinseed and green tube jigs.
Steelhead fishing is picking up and fish are being caught off Fairport, Geneva and Ashtabula. Anglers are catching steelhead on spoons while trolling for walleye.
Based on the nearshore forecast the water temperature is 72 off of Toledo and Cleveland. |
ODNR Fishing Report for 07/08/2008: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 18:09:40 7/08/08 |
Central Basin
Walleye fishing has been very good N of Cranberry Creek marina in 32’ of water, on the sandbar between Vermilion and Lorain, NW of the Chagrin River in 56 to 62’ of water, NW of Wildwood State Park in 60 to 62’ of water, N of Fairport Harbor in 60 to 72’ of water, NW of Geneva in 60 to 72’ of water, and NW of Ashtabula in 60 to 72’ of water. Trollers are using crankbaits or spoons and worm harnesses off jet divers, dipsy divers, planer boards and downriggers. The best action has been 20’ down and the best spoon colors have been chartreuse, silver, orange, green and pink.
Yellow perch fishing has been good NW of Edgewater State Park in 43 to 47’ of water, NW of Chagrin River in 38 to 44’ of water, NW of Fairport Harbor in 45 to 55’ of water, and N of Ashtabula in 50 to 60’ of water. Perch spreaders or crappie rigs with shiners fished near the bottom produce the most fish. Fish have ranged from 7 to 12 inches.
Smallmouth bass fishing has been very good in 5 to 20’ of water around Cleveland, Fairport Harbor, Ashtabula and Conneaut harbors. Fish are being caught on watermelon, pumpkinseed and green tube jigs.
Steelhead fishing is picking up and fish are being caught off Chagrin River, Fairport, Geneva and Ashtabula. Anglers are catching steelhead on spoons while trolling for walleye.
Based on the nearshore forecast the water temperature is 70 off of Toledo and 69 off of Cleveland. |
Fishing report for the week of July 4, 2008: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 08:12:25 7/05/08 |
Just another day, just another week, just another month, and just another half a season in the books aboard "The Trophy" We have now reached the half way point of the 2008 fishing season. Incredibly, we've been in the water now for 3 1/2 months now or officially, the half way point of our 7 month season. Walleye fishing off of Ashtabula has become routinely good pretty much now with limit catches almost a daily occurrence. The weather continues to be challenging with many cool and windy and rainy days on the big pond. For the most part, it has not effected our daily catch rates. It just has made my job tougher. The fish continue to move offshore further and further and drop deeper and deeper down in the water column. Aboard "The Trophy" we have made all of the necessary adjustments and continue to bring consistent catches of beautiful Walleyes back to the bragging board everyday. A few more Steelhead are also appearing in our daily catches as well as we continue to get further offshore with the Walleyes moving out. With this, my daily fuel bill is also starting to get very ugly. Thanks to everyone that is kicking in the extra tip bucks to make sure that fuel is never a determining point for where I am going to fish. I want to take everyone to the very best possible spots no matter how far out this may be. All of you have been very generous and I will continue to take everyone to the best spots that I am aware of, no matter how far out it is. One thing now needs to be addressed. The game wardens as of July 1st are strictly watching and enforcing the 6 Walleye possession rule. This is nothing new. You are not allowed and never have been allowed to have on your possession more then 6 Walleyes a person as you leave the marina. We have been warned and the fish cleaners now have to keep strict records as well. What that means is you are not allowed to have any extra fish that we may catch as we clear lines or whatever just because I am on board. I have been guilty before of letting a few of you keep a few extra fish on my account if they were coming exceptionally fast. This was never legal and they are now watching us closely. Please do not ask me to break any laws. You are allowed 6 Walleyes each and no more. They are going to make an example of someone and they have the power to pull over cars as they leave the marina and count either fish or fillets. Mark my words, this is going to happen. We still need to leave early in the morning each day. If you have a upcoming trip, you need to be at the marina at 5:00 a.m. especially now that we have more travel time involved in getting to the schools of fish. Also, the drawbridge is still closed for repairs so make sure you come in by way of Rt.11 like my directions direct you to. Finally, as we start the down ward slide of the 2008 fishing season I want to remind everyone that the fall Perch season will be here before you know it. Some are already Perching because you don't have to burn anywhere near as much gas and they are doing incredibly well considering it is still mid summer. It will only get better this fall. We are already booking Perch dates and you can really never book to early. Remember that the best date always go first so don't wait ! Book your fall Perch trips now ! Capt. Walt |
ODNR Fishing Report for 07/01/2008: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 21:47:38 7/01/08 |
Central Basin
Walleye fishing has been good S of the Huron dumping grounds in 32’ of water, N of the Vermilion breakwall, N of Beaver Creek, NW of the Chagrin River in 60 to 65’ of water, NW of Gordon Park in 56 to 63’ of water, NW of Fairport Harbor in 65 to 74’ of water, NW of Geneva in 60 to 70’ of water, and N of Ashtabula in 60 to 70’ of water. Trollers are using crankbaits or spoons and worm harnesses off jet divers, dipsy divers, planer boards and downriggers. The best action has been 20’ down and the best spoon colors have been gold, orange, green and pink.
Yellow perch fishing west of Cleveland has been best N of the Vermilion breakwall and off of the Lorain lighthouse. Fishing has been good NW of Gordon Park in 50’ of water, NW of Fairport Harbor in 50 to 55’ of water, N of Geneva in 60 to 70’ of water and N of Conneaut in 55 to 65’ of water. Perch spreaders or crappie rigs with shiners fished near the bottom produce the most fish. Fish have ranged from 7 to 12 inches.
Smallmouth bass fishing has been very good in 5 to 20’ of water around Cleveland, Fairport Harbor, Ashtabula and Conneaut harbors. Fish are being caught on watermelon, pumpkinseed and green tube jigs.
Steelhead fishing is picking up and fish are being caught off Chagrin River, Fairport, Geneva and Ashtabula. Anglers are catching steelhead on spoons while trolling for walleye.
Based on the nearshore forecast the water temperature is 70 off of Toledo and 68 off of Cleveland. |
ODNR Fishing Report for 06/24/2008: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 22:09:45 6/24/08 |
Central Basin
Walleye fishing has been good N of Cedar Point, N of Vermilion to Lorain in 35 to 45’ of water, NW of the Chagrin River in 40 to 48’ of water, NW of Edgewater State Park in 42 to 54’ of water, W of Fairport Harbor in 35 to 45’ of water, NE of Geneva in 60 to 70’ of water, and NW of Ashtabula in 60 to 70’ of water. Trollers are using crankbaits or spoons and worm harnesses off jet divers, dipsy divers, planer boards and downriggers. The best action has been 20’ down and the best spoon colors have been gold or silver with green and pink.
Yellow perch fishing west of Cleveland has been best off of the condos east of Vermilion and off of the Lorain lighthouse. Fishing has been good NW of Wildwood State Park in 40 to 45’ of water, NW of Gordon Park in 30 to 40’ of water, NW of Fairport Harbor in 40 to 55’ of water, and N of Ashtabula in 40 to 50’ of water. Perch spreaders or crappie rigs with shiners fished near the bottom produce the most fish. Fish have ranged from 7.5 to 12.5 inches.
Smallmouth bass fishing has been good in 5 to 20’ of water around Cleveland, Fairport Harbor, Ashtabula and Conneaut harbors. Fish are being caught on watermelon, pumpkinseed and green tube jigs.
Based on the nearshore forecast the water temperature is 68 off of Toledo and 67 off of Cleveland. |
Fishing report for the week of June 23, 2008: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 20:30:58 6/23/08 |
Going very well ! Aboard "The Trophy" we have settled into a very nice consistent pattern of limit catches on most days now. The Walleyes are finally moving off shore and "The Trophy" has been in hot pursuit ! The fish still appear to be running in the top 30 ft. of the water column which makes them easier to catch with the shallower running Jet Divers. I really believe we are only days away from having to switch over to the wire fishing line and deeper running crank bait program. No big deal. We will do what it takes to put fish in the box. I will also go where ever I have to go as well, unlike many of the charters that are now hanging around close to the harbor because of fuel prices. The last few days we've been out as far as 10 miles. Even though we will be out even further in the coming months, the pain at the pump is already setting in big time. By the time we run out 10 miles or so, troll all day and run back 10 miles, the daily fuel expense is very trouble some. I still wonder how we will be able to afford to run out the 20 miles or so that we normally do in July and August before we ever even wet a line. We have not adjusted our rates in the last several years to compensate for what is happing at the marine gas docks. I certainly would have this season if I would have known how the prices were going to soar this summer. I am still very dependent on everyone's understanding and generous tips to try and off set this terrible situation. So far everyone has been taking good care of me at the end of the day. I can't thank you enough . The Walleyes are still only hitting very well in the early morning. The first few hours of daylight has been awesome and then it dies off dramatically. Maybe after the fish drop down to the 50 - 60 foot range they will cooperate a bit better all day but until then, we absolutely have to be off the dock by 5:00 a.m. Especially now since we have even more travel time involved before we even start to set lines. The choice is yours. Show up late and go for a boat ride or show up at day break as I strongly suggest and get in on the blazing hot action that happens just as the sun is coming up. It's my favorite time of day. You have not lived until you've seen a lake Erie sun rise over the water with Walleyes hanging all over the place in total chaotic bliss ! I am reminding everyone that the draw bridge is closed for the summer for vehicular traffic and you must come in by way of route 11 as all my directions clearly spell out. The river dredging project which has been ongoing for the past 3 years is now completed. The last few weeks have been a real pain but now we can now enjoy the deep water that the project has left behind. Most of you will remember how shallow it was behind my boat. We now have 20 foot of water under us and it is right up to the wall. Amazing ! I have seen a lot of changes in the past 22 years of full time chartering out of Ashtabula harbor. This is probably the greatest change I've ever witnessed. Well, let's hope for calm seas and great fishing the rest of the summer. I just love it when I get to say everyday, "just another day on The Trophy!" Capt Walt |
ODNR Fishing Report for 06/17/2008: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 21:54:49 6/17/08 |
Central Basin
Walleye fishing has been excellent on the dumping grounds N of Huron, N of Beaver Creek in 35 to 45’ of water, NW of the Chagrin River in 20 to 30’ of water, NE of Wildwood State Park in 20 to 30’ of water, 4 to 5 miles W of Geneva in 50 to 65’ of water, and 2 to 4 miles W of Fairport Harbor in 20 to 30’ of water. Trollers are using crankbaits or spoons and worm harnesses off jet divers, dipsy divers and downriggers. The best action has been 20’ down and the best spoon colors have been gold or silver with green and pink.
Yellow perch fishing west of Cleveland has been best off of the condos east of Vermilion, in 43’ of water north of Beaver Creek, and off of the Lorain lighthouse. Fishing has been excellent NE of the Chagrin River in 30 to 35’ of water, NE of Edgewater in 30 to 35’ of water, N of Fairport Harbor in 35 to 50’ of water, N of Conneaut in 35 to 50’ of water, and N of Geneva and Ashtabula in 45 to 55’ of water. Perch spreaders or crappie rigs with shiners fished near the bottom produce the most fish. Fish have ranged from 7.5 to 12.5 inches.
Smallmouth bass fishing has been good in 5 to 20’ of water around Ashtabula and Fairport Harbor. Fish are being caught on watermelon, pumpkinseed and green tube jigs.
Based on the nearshore forecast the water temperature is 70 off of Toledo and 63 off of Cleveland.
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ODNR Fishing Report for 06/10/2008: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 21:22:23 6/10/08 |
Central Basin
Walleye have been caught trolling nearshore from Huron to Lorain in 32 to 45’ of water with Beaver Creek producing some of the largest fish, off Eastlake in 35 to 40’, off Cleveland in 40 to 55’, off Geneva 40 to 55’, and off Ashtabula in 35 to 50’. Trollers are using stick baits, spoons and worm harnesses off planer boards, jet divers and also flatline trolling.
Yellow perch fishing west of Cleveland has been best off of the condos east of Vermilion, in 43’ of water north of Beaver Creek, and off of the Lorain lighthouse. Fishing has been very good off Wildwood State Park and Eastlake in 30 to 35 feet of water, off Fairport in 35 to 45’, and off Geneva, Ashtabula and Conneaut in 35 to 50’. Perch spreaders with shiners fished near the bottom produce the most fish. Fish have ranged from 8 to 12 inches. Shore anglers are catching fish off the long pier in Grand River and also the short pier in Fairport Harbor.
Smallmouth bass fishing has been good in 15 to 25 feet of water around harbor areas in Conneaut, Ashtabula, Geneva and Fairport Harbor. Fish are being caught on jigs tipped with minnows, leeches, tube jigs, and by trolling crankbaits.
Based on the nearshore forecast the water temperature is 67 off of Toledo and 60 off of Cleveland. |
Fishing report for the week of June 8, 2008.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 06:39:58 6/09/08 |
A pretty good week. It didn't take long to get back into catching limit catches on most days aboard "The Trophy". Some days are quicker than others and we're still dealing with quite a few windy days but for the most part I am quite pleased with how our Ashtabula trips are now progressing. Things should only get better as more and more migrating fish arrive off shore where they will spend the summer in the bait rich cooler waters here off of Ashtabula. One thing remains the same right now everyday. It is an extreme early morning bite. So far we have been putting the bulk of our fish in the box in the first few hours of daylight. The fish are in very shallow water lots of the mornings and are very high to the surface. I remind and urge all my groups to be at the dock by 5:00 a.m. and certainly no later then 5:30 if you want to catch lots of fish. Its really that simple. I also want to remind everybody that the lift bridge in the harbor is closed for the entire season for repairs and you must come in by way of Rt. 11 just like my directions direct and not a short cut through town for those staying at some of the local motels. River Marine where I dock is also under new management so I hope everybody understands it's going to take a little while as the new people learn the ropes with licenses etc. Lots of changes everywhere this season. I want to thank everybody that has already been out with us this season and that have dug deep in their pockets at the end of the day with extra tip money to help offset the fuel crises that my business faces this summer. We have not increased rates for a couple of seasons but certainly could not have even imagined what is happening right now at the fuel dock. I really don't know how we are going to make it once we start running well offshore. I hope that all of my upcoming trips also take this into consideration when settling up at the end of the day. It just plain sucks that I have to worry about crap like this rather then just focusing on filling the box, no matter what it takes. |
ODNR Fishing Report for 06/03/2008: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 21:35:52 6/03/08 |
Central Basin
Walleye have been caught trolling nearshore from Huron to Lorain in 32 to 42’ of water, and in 40 to 50 feet of water off Eastlake to Cleveland, and in 35 to 50 feet of water off Fairport, Ashtabula and Conneaut. Trollers are using stick baits, spoons and worm harnesses off planer boards, jet divers and also flatline trolling. Fishing is picking up on the piers at Eastlake and Cleveland. The best times for shore fishing are in the early morning and evening with anglers using surface rapalas.
Yellow perch fishing west of Cleveland has been best off of the condos east of Vermilion and off of the Lorain lighthouse. Fishing has been very good off Gordon and Edgewater Parks in Cleveland in 30 to 40 feet of water, and off all the major ports from Fairport to Conneaut in 35 to 45 feet of water. Perch spreaders with shiners fished near the bottom produce the most fish. Fish have ranged from 8 to 12 inches. Shore anglers are catching fish off the long pier in Grand River and also the short pier in Fairport Harbor.
Smallmouth bass fishing has been good in 15 to 25 feet of water around harbor areas in Conneaut, Ashtabula, Geneva and Fairport Harbor. Fish are being caught on jigs tipped with minnows, leeches, tube jigs, and by trolling crankbaits.
Based on the nearshore forecast the water temperature is 62 off of Toledo and 59 off of Cleveland. |
Fishing report for the week of June 1, 2008.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 07:09:09 6/02/08 |
We're back home in Ashtabula and WE ARE CATCHING FISH ! We finished up our two month stay up at Port Clinton on Memorial Day weekend in grand style with easy limits the last few trips out and then moved "The Trophy" back to her home port for the summer season. It sure feels good to be back on the home turf and to take on the Walleyes where I feel I have the home field advantage. I just about had my fill of fighting the western basin boat traffic and all of the other things that I had to deal with in the early spring. Bring on the wide open vastness of our off shore summer fishing and fishing in shorts and tee shirt weather! The Walleye fishing is not starting out crazy fast like it did the past two Junes here when I first came back but it's not bad either. As in past years, the early Walleyes that we're catching right now are very close to shore and are very high in the water column. We had several good days this past week along the shore lines both east and west of Ashtabula Harbor in water as shallow as 30 ft. The problem we are still having is lots of wind. It is very difficult to work the pods of fish when we run across them when fighting a heavy chop. If we ever get the chance to circle around in tighter loops when we run across these pockets, I think catch rates will soar. There is a incredible amount of work being performed in the harbor area right now. The final leg of the Ashtabula River dredging project is being finished. Some of you will remember how shallow it was when I backed my boat into my dock at River Marine. Well those days are over. We now have 20 ft. of water under us ! Also the famous draw bridge right next to River Marine is getting a complete make over. Presently it is being sand blasted and will be completely re-painted over the whole summer. All this means that the drawbridge is stuck open and is closed to vehicular traffic for the entire year. Please note that you MUST come in by way of Rt. 11 exactly how my directions tell you to. If you come in the back way like some of you do when staying in town, you will run into a big detour and you will be very late. PLEASE NOTE THIS ! Also like I preach every year when I come back to Ashtabula, we need to be off the dock at day break which means by 5:00 a.m. and at the very latest by 5:30. That is if you want to catch fish. This early summer season fishing when the fish are high in the water is very weird. We almost always catch the bulk of our fish in the first couple 2-3 hours of daylight. After that we just barely pick at them till again late afternoon when the morning trips are wrapping up. I urge everyone that has a day trip booked with me to be at the dock at 5:00 in the morning so we can capitalize on this extremely good morning bite that takes place on most days. I am quite heavily booked this month but I do have Friday June 27th available for a full day charter. This will be an excellent choice for someone. If interested I can be contacted on the boat/mobile number 216-387-2656. |
ODNR Fishing Report for 05/27/2008: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 20:49:37 5/27/08 |
Central Basin
Walleye have been caught trolling nearshore from Huron to Lorain in 28 to 36’ of water, and in 35-45’ off Eastlake to Cleveland. Trollers are using stick baits, spoons and worm harnesses off planer boards and also flatline trolling. Fishing is picking up on the piers at Eastlake and Cleveland. The best times for shore fishing are in the early morning and evening with anglers using surface rapalas.
Yellow perch fishing has been best off of the condos east of Vermilion, off of the Lorain lighthouse, in 40-50’ off Fairport to Conneaut, and 35-40’ off Cleveland. Perch spreaders with shiners fished near the bottom produce the most fish. Fish have ranged from 8 to 12 inches. Shore anglers are catching fish off the long pier in Grand River and also the short pier in Fairport Harbor.
Smallmouth bass fishing has been good in 15 to 25’ around harbor areas in Conneaut, Ashtabula, Geneva and Fairport Harbor. Fish are being caught on jigs tipped with minnows, leeches, tube jigs, and by trolling crankbaits.
Based on the nearshore forecast the water temperature is 58 off of Toledo and 56 off of Cleveland. |
ODNR Fishing Report for 05/20/2008: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 22:49:44 5/20/08 |
Central Basin
Walleye have been caught trolling nearshore in 15-25’ off Eastlake, Cleveland and Rocky River. Trollers are using stick baits, spoons and worm harnesses off planer boards and also flatline trolling. Fishing is picking up on the piers at Eastlake and Cleveland. The best times are in the evening and early morning with anglers using surface rapalas.
Yellow perch fishing has been best in 30-40’ off Fairport to Conneaut, and 30-40’ off Cleveland. Perch spreaders with shiners fished near the bottom produce the most fish.
Smallmouth bass fishing has been good in 15 to 25’ around harbor areas in Conneaut, Ashtabula, Geneva and Fairport Harbor. Fish are being caught on jigs tipped with minnows, leeches, tube jigs, and by trolling crankbaits.
Based on the nearshore forecast the water temperature is 58 off of Toledo and 55 off of Cleveland. |
ODNR Fishing Report for 01/30/2008: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 13:33:35 1/30/08 |
As of today (1/30/08) all Lake Erie ice should be considered unsafe. By the end of the past week some ice fishing had started, but warm weather and rain followed by wind gusts of over 50 mph have likely done serious damage to any ice that had been fishable. It will take sustained cold, calm weather to re-establish safe ice. |
ODNR Fishing Report for 01/16/2008: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 18:08:28 1/16/08 |
There has been very little open water fishing activity over the past week. Skim ice has formed in some nearshore and harbor areas, especially in the western basin, limiting lake access. Stable conditions and clear water produce the best results. The best technique to catch winter trophies is trolling crankbaits around open water baitfish during the day or along rocky shorelines at night. Shore anglers can also catch walleye from piers after dark as walleye move inshore to feed on shiners and gizzard shad.
The Lake Erie surface temperature is 35 degrees off of Toledo and 37 degrees off of Cleveland. |
Fishing Report for January 1, 2008: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 23:04:12 1/01/08 |
Happy New Year! Wow, we just rolled in another new year and that means our spring trips are only a few short months away. I've really enjoyed my time off thus far, especially the holidays but in a few more weeks I'll be getting serious about preparing for the new season. We had a wonderfully successful season in 07 both business wise and in fishing success. I am very thankful for all of the good things that we experienced aboard "The Trophy" this past season and I am looking forward to doing it all over again. Thanks to everyone that chose our charter this past year over the hundreds of those available to choose from on Lake Erie. I hope I have the opportunity to serve your needs again this coming fishing season out there on "The Walleye Capitol of The World", beautiful Lake Erie ! We'll have some new stuff up shortly on our website, www.trophycharters.com so keep your eyes out and remember that right now is the time to book all your trips for this coming spring and summer. It will be here before you know it ! Capt. Walt |
ODNR Fishing Report for 12/12/2007: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 11:20:24 12/12/07 |
When the weather has allowed the best walleye fishing has been nearshore from Huron to Vermilion and also off of Cleveland. There has been little open water fishing activity over the past week. Continued poor weather has left most of the popular fall areas very muddy. Stable conditions and clear water produce the best results. The best technique to catch fall trophies is trolling crankbaits around open water baitfish during the day or along rocky shorelines at night. Shore anglers can also catch walleye from piers after dark as walleye move inshore to feed on shiners and gizzard shad.
The Lake Erie surface temperature is 33 degrees off of Toledo and 40 degrees off of Cleveland. |
ODNR Fishing Report for 11/27/2007: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 20:43:36 11/27/07 |
When the weather has allowed the best walleye fishing has been nearshore from Huron to Vermilion and also off of Cleveland. Stable conditions and clear water produce the best results. The best technique to catch fall trophies is trolling crankbaits around open water baitfish during the day or along rocky shorelines at night. Shore anglers can also catch walleye from piers after dark as walleye move inshore to feed on shiners and gizzard shad. The Lake Erie surface temperature is 40 degrees off of Toledo and 46 degrees off of Cleveland. |
ODNR Fishing Report for 10/30/2007: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 21:36:40 10/30/07 |
Central Basin When conditions have allowed the best walleye fishing has been from Cedar Point to Vermilion. The best technique to catch fall trophies is trolling crankbaits around open water baitfish during the day or along rocky shorelines at night. Shore anglers can also catch walleye from piers after dark as walleye move inshore to feed on shiners and gizzard shad. Steelhead fishing has been very good and are being caught off the Fairport, Ashtabula and Conneaut breakwalls in 10 to 25 feet and also in the Ashtabula and Grand Rivers, and the mouth of Conneaut Creek. Anglers are catching steelhead trolling green/white, red/white, black/purple, chartreuse, and silver/blue spoons. Yellow perch fishing has been very good off of the Vermilion breakwall in 35 to 38’ of water, off of the Lorain lighthouse, northwest of Gordon State Park (Cleveland) in 42 feet, north of Edgewater State Park (Cleveland) in 40 feet, north-northwest of Fairport Harbor in 45 to 60 feet, and north of Conneaut in 35 to 40 feet. Perch spreaders with shiners or crappie rigs fished near the bottom produce the most fish. Shore fisherman are catching yellow perch at the Lorain ore dock pier using perch spreaders with shiners or crappie rigs. Smallmouth bass fishing has been good in harbor areas, and in 15 to 25 feet along the shoreline in Conneaut, Ashtabula, Geneva and Fairport Harbor. Fish were caught on goby- colored tube jigs, crankbaits, and jigs tipped with minnows or nightcrawlers. Steelhead fishing has been very good at the mouths of the rivers and major streams. Water levels remain low in the main channels on the rivers and streams. Anglers are catching fish at the Lorain Ore dock, East 72nd St Pier in Cleveland, Euclid Creek (Wildwood State Park), Chagrin River, Grand River, Arcola Creek, Geneva State Park, Conneaut Creek and along the Conneaut west breakwall. Shore anglers are using small spinners and spoons, and jigs and maggots rigged with a split shot under a light bobber. The Lake Erie surface temperature is 53 degrees off of Toledo and 59 degrees off of Cleveland. |
ODNR Fishing Report for 10/23/2007: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 11:05:01 10/24/07 |
Central Basin Wind conditions limited opportunities on the sandbar between Lorain and Vermilion where fishing had been good. With the strong south winds some fish were caught nearshore from Vermilion to Huron. Anglers trolling crankbaits or divers with harnesses and spoons had the best success. Steelhead fishing has been very good and are being caught off the Fairport, Ashtabula and Conneaut breakwalls in 10 to 25 feet and also in the Ashtabula and Grand Rivers. Anglers are catching steelhead trolling green/white, red/white, black/purple, chartreuse, and silver/blue spoons. Yellow perch fishing has been very good off of the Vermilion breakwall in 35 to 38’ of water, off of the Lorain lighthouse, northwest of Gordon State Park (Cleveland) in 42 feet, north of Edgewater State Park (Cleveland) in 40 feet, north-northwest of Fairport Harbor in 40 to 52 feet, and north of Conneaut in 53 to 58 feet. Perch spreaders with shiners or crappie rigs fished near the bottom produce the most fish. Shore fisherman are catching yellow perch at the Lorain ore dock pier using perch spreaders with shiners or crappie rigs. Smallmouth bass fishing has been good in harbor areas, and in 15 to 25 feet along the shoreline in Conneaut, Ashtabula, Geneva and Fairport Harbor. Fish were caught on goby- colored tube jigs, crankbaits, and jigs tipped with minnows, nightcrawlers, or leeches. Steelhead fishing has been very good at the mouths of the rivers and major streams and anglers are catching fish at the Lorain Ore dock, East 72nd St Pier in Cleveland, Euclid Creek (Wildwood State Park), Chagrin River, Grand River, Arcola Creek, Geneva State Park, Conneaut Creek and along the Conneaut west breakwall. Shore anglers are using small spinners and spoons, and jigs and maggots rigged with a split shot under a light bobber. The Lake Erie surface temperature is 59 degrees off of Toledo and 63 degrees off of Cleveland. |
ODNR Fishing Report for 10/16/2007: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 09:02:38 10/17/07 |
Central Basin Walleye fishing has been spotty on the sandbar between Vermilion and Lorain, north of Edgewater State Park (Cleveland) in 69 to 72 feet and northeast of Ashtabula in 68 feet. Anglers are trolling dipsy divers with spoons and worm harnesses ranging in copper, black/purple, tangerine, watermelon, wonderbread, antifreeze and gold/orange. Steelhead fishing has been good and is being caught off the Fairport and Ashtabula, Conneaut breakwalls in 10 to 25 feet and also in the Ashtabula and Grand Rivers. Anglers are catching steelhead trolling green/white, red/white, black/purple, chartreuse, and silver/blue spoons. Yellow perch fishing has been very good off of the Vermilion breakwall in 36’ of water, off of the Lorain lighthouse, north of Gordon State Park (Cleveland) in 42 to 50 feet, north of Edgewater State Park (Cleveland) 40 to 51 feet, north-northwest of Fairport Harbor in 30 to 58 feet, and north of Ashtabula and Conneaut in 55 to 60 feet. Perch spreaders with shiners or crappie rigs fished near the bottom produce the most fish. Shore fisherman are catching yellow perch at the Lorain ore dock pier using perch spreaders with shiners or crappie rigs. Smallmouth bass fishing has been good in harbor areas, and in 15 to 25 feet along the shoreline in Conneaut, Ashtabula, Geneva and Fairport Harbor. Fish were caught on goby- colored tube jigs, crankbaits, and jigs tipped with minnows, nightcrawlers, or leeches. White bass are being caught by anglers trolling for walleye, also inshore near the mouth of the Chagrin River and adjacent to the Eastlake Power Plant. Steelhead fishing has been good as fish begin to move up into the rivers and creeks and anglers are catching fish in the Lorain Ore dock, Chagrin River, Grand River, Geneva State Park, Euclid Creek (Wildwood State Park), Arcola Creek, Conneaut Creek and along the Conneaut west breakwall. Shore anglers are using small spinners and spoons, and jigs and maggots rigged with a split shot under a light bobber. The Lake Erie surface temperature is 58 degrees off of Toledo and 64 degrees off of Cleveland. |
ODNR Fishing Report for 10/02/2007: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 09:27:12 10/03/07 |
Central Basin Walleye fishing has been spotty on the sandbar between Vermilion and Lorain, north of Geneva 72 feet, and north-northeast of Conneaut in 70 feet. Anglers are trolling dipsy divers with spoons, stick baits and worm harnesses ranging in copper, black/purple, tangerine, watermelon, wonderbread, antifreeze and gold/orange. A few steelhead are being caught by walleye anglers trolling off Geneva and Conneaut in 70 to 72 feet. Anglers are catching steelhead on red/white, black/purple, chartreuse, and silver/blue spoons while trolling for walleye. Yellow perch fishing has been very good off of the condos east of Vermilion, off of the Lorain lighthouse, north-northeast of Gordon Park (Cleveland) in 52 to 54 feet, north-northwest of Euclid in 52 to 56 feet, north-northwest of Fairport Harbor in 48 to 62 feet, and north of Ashtabula and Conneaut in 55 to 70 feet. Perch spreaders with shiners or crappie rigs fished near the bottom produce the most fish. Smallmouth bass fishing has been good near Ruggles Reef in the Huron area, in harbor areas, and in 15 to 25 feet along the shoreline in Conneaut, Ashtabula, Geneva and Fairport Harbor. Fish were caught on goby- colored tube jigs, crankbaits, and jigs tipped with minnows, nightcrawlers, or leeches. White bass are being caught by anglers trolling for walleye, also inshore near the mouth of the Chagrin River and adjacent to the Eastlake Power Plant. Steelhead fishing has been good as fish begin to move up into the rivers and creeks and anglers are catching fish in the Chagrin River, Grand River, Geneva State Park, Euclid Creek (Wildwood State Park), Arcola Creek, Conneaut Creek and along the Conneaut west breakwall. Shore anglers are using small spinners and spoons, and jigs and maggots rigged with a split shot under a light bobber. he Lake Erie surface temperature is 65 degrees off of Toledo and 68 degrees off of Cleveland. |
Fishing report for the week of Sept. 30, 2007.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 17:38:45 9/30/07 |
Perch, Perch and more Perch ! We have been having a very productive fall season thus far aboard "The Trophy" catching Lake Erie gold, the tasty Yellow Perch. When it comes to the best eating fresh water fish, it's hard to beat a Lake Erie Perch dinner or sandwich. Maybe that's why if you can even find it in the supermarket, it commands a $14.99 a pound price tag. Never mind what it costs you in a restaurant or diner and you only get a couple 2-3 pieces. And I guarantee it is not anywhere near as fresh as the fish that we send down the road ! We have had very nice weather for the most part this fall to work with as well. Just like this entire season, long stretches of bad weather have been non existent. Sure, we have had the occasional one day blow here and there but not enough to screw anything up. The lake hasn't even turned over yet, which usually happens in mid September. This is a phenomenon where after a big blow the warm water on the surface mixes with the cold water below the thermocline. It usually screws the fishing up for a few days. And with this stable weather and the lake not flipping, even the Walleyes are still hanging around ! Although I have only been running Perch trips myself, I have seen very many nice cooler fulls of Walleye still coming in. The word among the Walleye fisherman is that they are super, super deep now. We're talking right on the bottom in 65 to 70 foot of water. Although I would be interested in running a Walleye trip should someone request it, I am perfectly content chasing Perch now that I have started doing so, especially after running Walleye trips day after day for 6 months now ! My October schedule is very light at this point. If anybody is interested in a fun filled day of catching Lake Erie gold, I would be more then happy to welcome you aboard "The Trophy" for a late season day on the water. Remember, old man winter is just around the corner now and the opportunity to do a trip still this year is fast slipping away ! As always, I can be reached directly on my cell phone (216) 387-2656 for a list of what is still available or to secure a day. I have to go now..., I'm going to go back now and have a Perch sandwich. Mmmmmm Mmmmmmmm !!! Capt. Walt |
ODNR Fishing Report for 09/25/2007: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 08:21:23 9/27/07 |
Central Basin Walleye fishing has been spotty on the sandbar between Vermilion and Lorain, northwest and northeast of Ashtabula in 63 to 72 feet, and northwest and northeast of Fairport in 65 to 72 feet. Anglers are trolling dipsy divers with spoons, stick baits and worm harnesses ranging in copper, black/purple, tangerine, watermelon, wonder bread, antifreeze and gold/orange. A few steelhead are being caught off Fairport and Ashtabula in 63 to 72 feet. Anglers are catching steelhead on red/white, black/purple, chartreuse, and silver/blue spoons while trolling for walleye. Yellow perch fishing has been very good west of the Sandbar, off Lorain in 45 feet of water, north-northeast of Euclid in 55 to 62 feet, northwest and northeast of Chagrin River in 55 to 61 feet, northwest of Fairport Harbor in 47 to 57 feet, and north of Conneaut in 57 to 70 feet. Perch spreaders with shiners or crappie rigs fished near the bottom produce the most fish. Smallmouth bass fishing has been good near Ruggles Reef in the Huron area, in harbor areas, and in 15 to 25 feet along the shoreline in Conneaut, Ashtabula, Geneva and Fairport Harbor. Fish were caught on goby- colored tube jigs, crankbaits, and jigs tipped with minnows, nightcrawlers, or leeches. White bass are being caught by anglers trolling for walleye, also inshore near the mouth of the Chagrin River and adjacent to the Eastlake Power Plant. The Lake Erie surface temperature is 67 degrees off of Toledo and 69 degrees off of Cleveland |
ODNR Fishing Report for 09/18/2007: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 08:13:10 9/19/07 |
Central Basin Walleye fishing has been very good on the sandbar between Vermilion and Lorain, north-northwest of Gordon Park and Edgewater in 60 to 71 feet, north-northeast of Ashtabula in 60 to 72 feet, and north of Conneaut in 58 to 65 feet. Anglers are trolling dipsy divers, down riggers and wire line with spoons and stick baits ranging in copper, black/purple, tangerine, watermelon, wonder bread, antifreeze and gold/orange. Steelhead are being caught from Geneva to Ashtabula in 70 to 72 feet. Anglers are catching steelhead on red/white, black/purple, chartreuse, and silver/blue spoons while trolling for walleye. Yellow perch fishing has been very good just off of the Vermilion breakwall, north-northeast of Gordon Park in 56 feet, north-northwest of Euclid in 54 to 55 feet, northwest of Fairport Harbor in 46 to 55 feet, and north of Conneaut in 61 to 65 feet. Perch spreaders with shiners or worm harnesses fished near the bottom produce the most fish. Smallmouth bass fishing has been good in harbor areas, and in 15 to 25 feet along the shoreline in Conneaut, Ashtabula, Geneva and Fairport Harbor. Fish were caught on goby- colored tube jigs, crankbaits, and jigs tipped with minnows, nightcrawlers, or leeches. White bass are being caught by anglers trolling for walleye, also inshore near the mouth of the Chagrin River and adjacent to the Eastlake Power Plant. The Lake Erie surface temperature is 64 degrees off of Toledo and 70 degrees off of Cleveland. |
Fishing report for the week of September 15, 2007: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 14:17:13 9/15/07 |
It's Perch time ! Well "The Trophy" has gone from a offshore trolling vessel to a somewhat closer, anchored bottom fishing platform. I almost forgot how much fun it was to just throw out the anchor, kick back and jerk Perch. It sure is allot less stressful then fighting all the things that I have to deal with on a trolling trip. And to make things even sweeter, the Perch are on FIRE !! This past week we ran our first few Perch trips along with what seemingly may have been my last couple of Walleye trips for the year. At least on the books, I only have Perch trips scheduled from here on out although the Walleye fishing was still so good that I may try to squeeze another Walleye trip or two in the next week or so if anyone would be interested in trying it one more time. Thursday Sept.13th was the last Walleye trip that I took out. We headed out with not much certainty as to what to expect after loosing Tue.and Wed.to gale force winds and forecasted waves to 14 feet ! And absolutely nothing changed. We killed the Walleyes pretty much where we had left off about 15 miles offshore. It was fast and furious. Nice fish too. The junk fish such as the White Bass and Sheephead weren't bad either. A nice way to end the Walleye season if indeed that turns out to be my last one. We have a lot of open dates now as we enter the fall season. Perch fishing is already great and will only get better as the water cools and the true Jumbo Perch start to move in and turn on. Walleye was still good this past week but we are dangerously close to that time of year around here where the Walleye fishing seems to go from really good to crap almost overnight. Still though, anyone interested in whatever trip can call me as always directly on my cell 216-387-2656. |
ODNR Fishing Report for 09/11/2007: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 08:16:35 9/12/07 |
Central Basin Walleye fishing has been very good on the sandbar between Vermilion and Lorain, north-northwest of Gordon Park in 63 to 71 feet, northeast of Geneva in 70 to 72 feet, and northeast of Ashtabula in 70 to 72 feet. Anglers are trolling dipsy divers, down riggers and wire line with spoons and stick baits ranging in copper, black/purple, gold, boy/girl, superman, wonder bread, antifreeze and chartreuse. Steelhead are being caught from Geneva to Ashtabula in 70 to 72 feet. Anglers are catching steelhead on red/white, black/purple, chartreuse, and silver/blue spoons while trolling for walleye. Yellow perch fishing has been very good in 35’ of water off of the condos east of Vermilion, 5 miles north-northeast of Gordon Park in 56 feet, 4 to 6 miles north-northwest of Euclid in 54 to 55 feet, 3 to 6 miles northwest of Fairport Harbor in 48 to 58 feet, and 4 to 6 miles north-northeast of Conneaut in 53 to 65 feet. Perch spreaders with shiners or worm harnesses fished near the bottom produce the most fish. Smallmouth bass fishing has been good in harbor areas, and in 15 to 25 feet along the shoreline in Conneaut, Ashtabula, Geneva and Fairport Harbor. Fish were caught on goby- colored tube jigs, crankbaits, and jigs tipped with minnows, nightcrawlers, or leeches. White bass are being caught by anglers trolling for walleye. The Lake Erie surface temperature is 72 degrees off of Toledo and 73 degrees off of Cleveland. |
ODNR Fishing Report for 09/04/2007: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 21:40:17 9/04/07 |
Central Basin Walleye fishing has been very good on the south end of the sandbar between Vermilion and Lorain, north-northwest of Euclid in 68 to 76 feet, north-northwest of Chagrin River in 70 to 75 feet, northeast of Geneva in 69 to 74 feet, and north-northeast of Ashtabula in 72 to 75 feet. Anglers are trolling dipsy divers, down riggers and wire line with spoons and stick baits ranging in copper, black/purple, gold, boy/girl, superman, wonder bread, antifreeze and chartreuse. Steelhead are being caught from Geneva to Ashtabula in 69 to 75 feet. Anglers are catching steelhead on red/white, black/purple, chartreuse, and silver/blue spoons while trolling for walleye. Yellow perch fishing has been good in 35’ of water off of the condos east of Vermilion, 5 to 7 miles north-northwest of Edgewater State Park in 60 feet, 5 to 8 miles north-northeast of Euclid in 47 to 61 feet, 4 to 6 miles north-northwest of Fairport Harbor in 48 to 58 feet, and 4 to 6 miles north-northeast of Conneaut in 48 to 64 feet. Perch spreaders with shiners or worm harnesses fished near the bottom produce the most fish. Smallmouth bass fishing has been good in harbor areas, and in 20 to 25 feet along the shoreline in Conneaut, Ashtabula, Geneva and Fairport Harbor. Fish were caught on goby- colored tube jigs, crankbaits, and jigs tipped with minnows, nightcrawlers, or leeches. White bass are being caught by anglers trolling for walleye. The Lake Erie surface temperature is 71 degrees off of Toledo and 73 degrees off of Cleveland. |
Fishing report for the week of Sept. 1, 2007: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 20:08:57 9/03/07 |
It's now September ! We have five full months of Walleye fishing behind us now and only about two weeks of Walleye trips left before we make the switch over to our Perch charters for the remainder of the year. As in all of the previous years, it's hard for me to comprehend where the time has gone. It's been quite a ride this year though, with the Walleye fishing consistently just about as good as it gets day after day after day for us aboard "The Trophy" I just can't believe it's about over. The last week or so has seen some sanity return to our fishing as a lot of the fish have dramatically moved back north towards the Canadian border making it a lot tougher to get on and stay on the fish, especially if it is rough out. We've also been plagued with nuisance Sheephead and White Bass in incredible amounts on some days. Still, in between whatever the lake throws at us we've been consistently pulling limit after limit of beautiful Walleyes and the occasional Steelhead Trout. I can not remember the last time that we did not "get them all" ! We sure had our share of thunderstorms that we had to navigate around the last couple of weeks of August. I was so thankful that I had all of the Raymarine electronics that I have on board to help me make educated decisions as to whether it was safe to cast off or not or if we were already out, whether to keep fishing or not. It sure impressed a lot of my customers as we tracked heavy bands of thunderstorms almost daily with the state of the art Sirius weather service displayed on my Raymarine E-120. We also would track the closer squalls on the regular Raymarine boat radar. Never a dull moment out on the big lake, especially when you are out 20+ miles offshore. As I mentioned earlier, Perch season is now just around the corner. Others have already started to Perch and are doing EXCELLENT ! Anyone interested in a Perch trip with me aboard "The Trophy" can call me directly on my boat/cell number: (216) 387-2656. As of this report, we have the following open dates available in September: Sept. 19th or 20th for either a Walleye or Perch trip. Then the last week of Sept. we have Sept. 25th and 27th available for preferably a Perch trip. October still has a lot of open dates left. For a complete up to the minute list of what is available please call me at the above mentioned number or drop me a e-mail at trophy@trophycharters.com |
Fishing report for the week Sept. 1, 2007: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 15:50:26 9/01/07 |
It's now September! We have five full months of Walleye fishing behind us now and only about two weeks of Walleye trips left before we make the switch over to our Perch charters for the remainder of the year. As in all of the previous years, it's hard for me to comprehend where the time has gone. It's been quite a ride this year though, with the Walleye fishing consistently just about as good as it gets day after day after day for us aboard "The Trophy" I just can't believe it's about over. The last week or so has seen some sanity return to our fishing as a lot of the fish have dramatically moved back north towards the Canadian border making it a lot tougher to get on and stay on the fish, especially if it is rough out. We've also been plagued with nuisance Sheephead and White Bass in incredible amounts on some days. Still, in between whatever the lake throws at us we've been consistently pulling limit after limit of beautiful Walleyes and the occasional Steelhead Trout. I can not remember the last time that we did not "get them all" ! We sure had our share of thunderstorms that we had to navigate around the last couple of weeks of August. I was so thankful that I had all of the Raymarine electronics that I have on board to help me make educated decisions as to whether it was safe to cast off or not or if we were already out, whether to keep fishing or not. It sure impressed a lot of my customers as we tracked heavy bands of thunderstorms almost daily with the state of the art Sirius weather service displayed on my Raymarine E-120. We also would track the closer squalls on the regular Raymarine boat radar. Never a dull moment out on the big lake, especially when you are out 20+ miles offshore. As I mentioned earlier, Perch season is now just around the corner. Others have already started to Perch and are doing EXCELLENT ! Anyone interested in a Perch trip with me aboard "The Trophy" can call me directly on my boat/cell number: (216) 387-2656. As of this report, we have the following open dates available in September: Sept. 19th or 20th for either a Walleye or Perch trip. Then the last week of Sept. we have Sept. 25th and 27th available for preferably a Perch trip. October still has a lot of open dates left. For a complete up to the minute list of what is available please call me at the above mentioned number or drop me a e-mail at trophy@trophycharters.com |
ODNR Fishing Report for 08/28/2007: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 22:32:43 8/28/07 |
Central Basin Walleye fishing has been very good on the south end of the sandbar between Vermilion and Lorain, north-northeast of Cleveland in 63 to 77 feet, north-northeast of Ashtabula in 70 to 76 feet and north-northeast of Geneva in 64 to 74 feet. Anglers are trolling dipsy divers, down riggers and wire line with spoons and stick baits ranging in black/purple, gold, boy/girl, superman, wonder bread, antifreeze and chartreuse. Trolling worm harnesses (same colors) have also been successful. Steelhead are being caught from Geneva to Ashtabula in 70 to 74 feet. Anglers are catching steelhead on red/white, black/purple, chartreuse, and silver/blue spoons while trolling for walleye. Yellow perch fishing has been good in 35’ of water off of the condos east of Vermilion, 3 to 5 miles northeast and northwest of Eastlake in 55 to 65 feet, 3 to 5 miles north-northwest of Fairport Harbor in 48 to 60 feet, and 5 to 6 miles north-northeast of Conneaut in 58 to 62 feet. Perch spreaders with shiners or worm harnesses fished near the bottom produce the most fish. Smallmouth bass fishing has been excellent in harbor areas, and in 20 to 25 feet along the shoreline in Conneaut, Ashtabula, Geneva and Fairport Harbor. Fish were caught on goby- colored tube jigs, crankbaits, and jigs tipped with minnows, nightcrawlers, or leeches. White bass are being caught by anglers trolling for walleye. Shore anglers are catching white bass at the Lorain Ore Dock, Eastlake CEI pier, Fairport Harbor pier, and Conneaut breakwall; early mornings and evenings have been the best. Anglers are using agitators and small yellow or white jigs or small spinners. The Lake Erie surface temperature is 72 degrees off of Toledo and 74 degrees off of Cleveland. |
ODNR Fishing Report for 08/21/2007: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 22:56:32 8/21/07 |
Central Basin Walleye fishing has been very good on the south end of the sandbar between Vermilion and Lorain, northeast of Ashtabula in 65 to 72 feet, and north-northwest of Conneaut in 63 to 72 feet. Anglers are trolling dipsy divers and down riggers with spoons and stick baits ranging in black/purple, gold, silver/silver, superman, wonder bread, antifreeze and chartreuse. Trolling worm harnesses (same colors) have also been successful. Steelhead are being caught from Geneva to Conneaut in 65 to 72 feet. Anglers are catching steelhead on red/white, black/purple, chartreuse, and silver/blue spoons while trolling for walleye. Yellow perch fishing has been good 3 miles north of Edgewater State Park in 43 to 51 feet, 3 miles north of Eastlake in 47 feet, 3-5 miles northwest of Fairport Harbor in 48 to 55 feet, and 5-6 miles north-northeast of Conneaut in 48 to 65 feet. Perch spreaders with shiners or worm harnesses fished near the bottom produce the most fish. Smallmouth bass fishing has been excellent in harbor areas, and in 20 to 25 feet along the shoreline in Conneaut, Ashtabula, Geneva and Fairport Harbor. Fish were caught on goby- colored tube jigs, crankbaits, and jigs tipped with minnows, nightcrawlers, or leeches. White bass are being caught by anglers trolling for walleye. Shore anglers are catching white bass at the Lorain Ore Dock, Eastlake CEI pier, Fairport Harbor pier, and Conneaut breakwall; early mornings and evenings have been the best. Anglers are using agitators and small yellow or white jigs or small spinners. The Lake Erie surface temperature is 70 degrees off of Toledo and 73 degrees off of Cleveland. |
Fishing report for the week of August 18, 2007.: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 15:27:24 8/18/07 |
What an awesome, awesome last couple of weeks we've had in an awesome, awesome season ! Just when you think it just can not get any better, it has. There is nowhere you can go now without stopping over millions of Walleyes. Literally. Throw away your GPS, your fishfinder and your chartplotters. It just doesn't matter. It really don't . Run out 5 miles, 10 miles or 20 miles and start fishing. It's just that easy right now, they are there. We are really just now realizing how monsterous the record hatch of 2003 must have been. These 4 year old fish are simply everywhere ! I don't even know where they have all been holding up till now but I know that the central basin from Fairport to Conneaut right now is polluted with fish Aboard "The Trophy" we've been going just about as fast and non stop as we can go from the moment we first start to set lines till the last Walleye is netted. I just simply can not even catch my breath. There is always half a dozen or so things that need my immediate attention constantly. And even though I get all my crews heavily involved in running and setting the lines, it really has been overwhelming. There is almost always constantly 2, 3, 4 and sometimes even more fish on at the same time. It's a fine act of juggling people around, netting fish and still be running lines back out so that you are not caught with no lines in the water. I am very happy with how well all my crews have handled all the mass organized chaos. We truly have worked well together. We are still catching some monster Walleyes but the bulk of the fish are just the nice average sized eaters, maybe 18 to 22 inches. It just doesn't get any better for table fare. And the occasional Steelhead Trout is still showing up almost on a daily basis just to add a twist of excitement to the almost out of control fun. The junk fish such as the Sheephead are also starting to become a bit of a problem. Still though, we deal with it and move on. Most trips we have been back before noon. It has been very nice to be wrapped up and done before the extreme August afternoon heat kicks in. This has been a special year. It will not always be like this so we have to enjoy it while we can. It could all change in a matter of days. And it don't even seem possible but it's already time to start thinking about and booking your Jumbo Perch trips for late next month and all of October. As good as the Walleye fishing is right now off of Ashtabula, we only have about a month to go before switching over for the last part of our season. And even in past record good years, when it's over around here, it's over. As fast as these fish show up in record numbers, they also disappear. I do not like to book Walleye trips any later then I am confident that we can do well. This usually occurs in late Sept. We just switch over to Perch for about 6 weeks and then call it a year. Anyone interested in a Perch Charter can call me at 216-387-2656. Maybe I'll be able to finally catch my breath ! Naw !! |
ODNR Fishing Report for 08/14/2007: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 22:34:18 8/14/07 |
Central Basin Walleye fishing has been very good on the Huron dumping grounds, on the south end of the sandbar between Vermilion and Lorain, north of Edgewater State Park in 68 to 72 feet, north of Chagrin River in 68 to 72 feet, north northwest of Geneva in 68 to 72 feet, and north-northeast of Ashtabula in 67 to 75 feet. Anglers are trolling dipsy divers or jet divers off planers with spoons and stick baits ranging in black/purple, gold, blue/silver, wonderbread, antifreeze and chartreuse with copper backs. Trolling worm harnesses (same colors) have also been successful. Steelhead are being caught off Lorain, Vermilion, and Cleveland in 68 to 72 feet, and Geneva to Ashtabula in 67 to 75 feet. Anglers are catching steelhead on red/white, black/purple, chartreuse, and silver/blue spoons while trolling for walleye. Yellow perch fishing has been good in 39’ of water off of the Vermilion breakwall, 4-6 mi north of Cleveland in 40 to 60 feet, north of Eastlake in 50 to 55 feet, 4-6 mi northwest of Fairport Harbor in 48 to 55 feet, and 4-6 mi north-northeast of Conneaut in 48 to 56 feet. Perch spreaders with shiners or worm harnesses fished near the bottom produce the most fish. Smallmouth bass fishing has been excellent in harbor areas, and in 20 to 25 feet along the shoreline in Conneaut, Ashtabula, Geneva and Fairport Harbor. Fish were caught on goby- colored tube jigs, crankbaits, and jigs tipped with minnows, nightcrawlers, or leeches. White bass are being caught by anglers trolling for walleye. Shore anglers are catching white bass at the Lorain Ore Dock, Eastlake CEI pier, Fairport Harbor pier, and Conneaut breakwall; early mornings and evenings have been the best. Anglers are using agitators and small yellow or white jigs or small spinners. The Lake Erie surface temperature is 76 degrees off of Toledo and 73 degrees off of Cleveland. |
ODNR Fishing Report for 08/07/2007: Eastern , OH
Posted by: ODNR Date Posted: 22:33:37 8/07/07 |
Central Basin Walleye fishing has been very good on the south end of the sandbar between Vermilion and Lorain, northwest of Gordon Park (E 72nd St. in Cleveland) in 60 to 72 feet, 10 mi north of Chagrin River in 68 to 72 feet, west northwest of Fairport in 60 to 72 feet, and north-northeast of Ashtabula in 68 to 72 feet. Anglers are trolling dipsy divers or jet divers off planers with spoons and stick baits ranging in black/purple, gold, wonderbread, antifreeze and chartreuse with copper backs. Trolling worm harnesses (same colors) have also been successful. Steelhead are being caught off Lorain, Vermilion, and Cleveland in 68 to 70 feet, and Geneva to Ashtabula in 70 to 73 feet. Anglers are catching steelhead on red/white, black/purple, chartreuse, and silver/blue spoons while trolling for walleye. Yellow perch fishing has been good 3-5 mi north of Cleveland in 30 to 55 feet, north of Eastlake in 50 to 55 feet, 4-6 mi northwest of Fairport Harbor in 50 to 56 feet, and north-northeast of Conneaut in 48 to 65 feet. Perch spreaders with shiners or worm harnesses fished near the bottom produce the most fish. Smallmouth bass fishing has been excellent in harbor areas, and in 20 to 25 feet along the shoreline in Conneaut, Ashtabula, Geneva and Fairport Harbor. Fish were caught on goby- colored tube jigs, crankbaits, and jigs tipped with minnows, nightcrawlers, or leeches. White bass are being caught by anglers trolling for walleye. Shore anglers are catching white bass at the Lorain Ore Dock, Eastlake CEI pier, Fairport Harbor pier, and Conneaut breakwall; early mornings and evenings have been the best. Anglers are using agitators and small yellow or white jigs or small spinners. The Lake Erie surface temperature is 75 degrees off of Toledo and 74 degrees off of Cleveland. |
Fishing report for the week of August 2, 2007: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 19:34:35 8/02/07 |
It's August, it's hot and the Walleye fishing is on fire! We are now officially in the "dog days of summer" and August is starting out as it should. The heat and humidity has made the lazy, hazy day's of summer out on the water a tee shirt soaking event but the Walleyes don't seem to care! Aboard "The Trophy" we are continuing to pound on the Walleyes everyday. In fact, this season is going to break all of my previous records if this pace carries on. Rare is the day where we haven't been able to limit out with ease. There is no one spot now that we are relying on as more and more schools of hungry feeding Walleyes are setting up shop in the deeper, cooler waters offshore of Ashtabula for this hot part of summer. Water temp's are now around 75 degrees yet the Walleyes that we are pulling in from 50 to 60 foot level below the surface are nice and cold. Tons of baitfish are showing up now, especially the Smelt and the Walleyes are in a literal feeding frenzy with their metabolism in high gear! Aboard "The Trophy" we are relying heavily on the old Storm deep diving Jr. Thunderstick. This lure is identical in size and shape to the Lake Erie Smelt. When you hold each in hand, it's easy to see why the Walleyes are so easily fooled. Best colors for us as always seem to me the metallic colors with gold's and silvers seemingly the very best. Copper spoons on the riggers and divers are also doing very well. Everything is now set super deep for these hungry Walleyes and that means a lot of cranking but as I tell all my groups, "more winding and less whining It is especially vital with this heat to get off the dock bright and early and that means you need to be loaded up and ready to roll no later then 5:30 a.m.if you have a trip booked with us. The fish are a good ways offshore now so there is a considerable amount of travel time. We want to arrive at the fishing grounds just as dawn is breaking so that we can cash in on the early morning heavy bite and try to be off the lake before the heat of the afternoon becomes unbearable. So far, almost all of my groups have been very good about showing up very early all bright eyed and ready to go fishing. That gets us out and fishing when the walleyes are biting like crazy and others are still waiting for their charters to show up! Thanks for helping me look good !! |
Fishing report for the week of July 20, 2007: ,
Posted by: Capt. Walt Ermansons Date Posted: 20:03:52 7/20/07 |
Just another day on "The Trophy". The days, weeks, and now months are slipping by rapidly in this fishing season. It all seems like a blur to me. I am now in the downward slide of my 7 month season, being in the water now for over 3 1/2 months. For most of my guests, it's been about as good as it gets. A few trips have been a bit slower but such is the nature of the game. No trips have been fishless. I have been very pleased with the way the season has progressed thus far. The past couple of weeks we've been bouncing around from one hot spot to another, trying to keep our guests on top of the very best Walleye action that I become aware of. We have been offshore as far as 20 miles and for a few trips we've been working back in some very shallow water after a nice school was discovered in about 40 foot of water. What those fish are doing in such shallow water in the middle of the summer is beyond me but I liked it while it lasted. That particular bite appears to be slowing down although there are still fish in there if you are willing to weed thru all the junk fish. We took many limits of Walleyes from both the near shore and far off shore waters of Ashtabula Harbor in the past couple of weeks. Steelhead trout are still showing up almost on a daily basis when we work our way further out in the lake but not in the crazy numbers that we were catching back in June. We even boated a very nice Brown Trout recently! The size on the Walleyes has been a pleasant mix of year classes although the "03"s have still been dominant. Even as such, these are nice sized perfect eaters. We even have been seeing numerous throw back under size Walleyes while working the shallower waters a few days. A wonderful sign! I believe that fishing in the next few weeks weather permitting is going to be an offshore event. I really liked what I saw on the fish finder out there this past week. This may be the mother load that we've all been waiting to set up. Too bad with gas prices as they are that these fish choose to be out there that far. Aboard The Trophy we easily burn 60-70 gallons a day plus depending on lake conditions and other factors when making these runs. At $3.50 plus a gallon that sure cuts into the bottom line! And fuel is only one of the many expenses that the charters incur maintaing their operations. Hopefully everybody that charters any boat appreciates their captains efforts and realizes that we're definitely not getting rich playing this game. |