Lake Erie fishing report for the week of July 2, 2017: , ,
Fishing Report Posted: July 02, 2017

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Posted by Capt. Walt Ermansons on July 02, 2017 at 12:37:51:

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!

Capt. Walt

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