Lake Erie Fishing Report by Capt. Walt Ermansons



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Lake Erie fishing report for the week of May21, 2017

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!

Capt. Walt

Trophy Charters



Source: Capt. Walt Ermansons May 21, 2017 at 17:23:42


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