Lake Erie fishing report for the week of July 15, 2018.: , ,
Fishing Report Posted: July 15, 2018

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Posted by Capt. Walt Ermansons on July 15, 2018 at 12:34:43:

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...

Capt. Walt

www.trophycharters.com





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