Lake Erie fishing report for the week of May 28, 2017: , ,
Fishing Report Posted: May 28, 2017

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[ Lake Erie & Tributaries Fishing Report ]

Posted by Capt. Walt Ermansons on May 28, 2017 at 15:59:55:

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!

Capt. Walt

Trophy Charters





[ Lake Erie & Tributaries Fishing Report ]

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