Lake Erie Fishing Report: May 16, 2002 Western Basin: Lake Erie water temperature is 52* F off Toledo. Mother Nature is still refusing to cooperate with Lake Erie anglers. Wind and rain events have muddied waters and made it challenging for boat anglers to get out. During any windows of angling opportunity, walleye anglers have been most successful northwest of Kelleys Island, off Davis Besse, the reef complex, and the Toledo Harbor Light, and farther out into the Toledo Shipping Channel. Anglers are drifting weight-forward spinners, mayfly rigs, and bottom bouncers with crawler harnesses tipped with nightcrawlers, as well as trolling deep diving lures. Walleye catches are in the 16- to 18-inch range and larger. The legal bag limit for walleyes for Lake Erie and its tributaries is six fish from May through February. Perch fishing remains excellent when wind and weather conditions are stable. The top hot spots have been around Kelleys Island. Perch anglers are catching many limits of nice-sized perch in the 9- to 13-inch range using perch spreaders or crappie rigs tipped with minnows. The yellow perch bag limit is 30 perch per angler per day. Smallmouth bass fishing is good around the islands. Anglers should also try fishing the western basin reef complex, Sandusky Bay, and Ruggles Reef when conditions are favorable. The legal limit for smallmouth bass is five fish per angler with a minimum length requirement of 14 inches. Central Basin: Water temperature is 50* off Cleveland. Perch fishing has been good off Cleveland and Fairport Harbor. May is the peak month for smallmouth bass fishing in the Central. Once the weather improves, smallmouth bass angling should be excellent at Ruggles Reef, the artificial reefs in the Lorain/Cleveland area and harbor breakwalls from Cleveland to Conneaut. Most catches will measure 14 to 18 inches. Steelhead trout have now left inland streams, except for an occasional straggler. Streams are very high.
Source: ODNR
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