Lake Erie fishing report for the week of July 5, 2020.: , ,
Fishing Report Posted: July 05, 2020

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[ Lake Erie & Tributaries Fishing Report ]

Posted by Capt. Walt Ermansons on July 05, 2020 at 13:09:35:

A odd couple of weeks. It’s turning out to be much more challenging this summer to stay on top of the Walleyes then in the past couple of years. Although we have still been getting our limits, it certainly has not been a burn everyday. Most days in fact are much longer days then most have come accustomed to. And things are changing daily out there too. Since I have wrote last, we have been back in the shallow water for a few days for some really good fishing and then as far out as 10 miles out in 72 foot plus of water where it seemed better on other days. There seems to be a new “hot” bite somewhere different almost every day. I think the problem is that the fish are super scattered this year for whatever reason and actually are spread out a lot thinner then in past summers. And not all the areas that have Walleyes have active feeders all at the same time. What we are experiencing this year is kind of like, well, fishing! Lol!

All the rumors of the record smashing hatches the last year or so must be true. We have started battling a onslaught of small Walleyes. It really is a beautiful thing to behold but the hungry little dinks are starting to make my and every one else's life super miserable. I mentioned that we were fishing very shallow for a few days and we pulled some awesome racks of Walleyes out of there but I finally just couldn’t take dealing with all the undersize babies that we were handling in there. Sorting thru all of them to get those keepers. As long as they stay in close to shore we can escape them for a while but I fear that it’s going to overtake the whole lake as the offshore water continues to warm. We saw the same thing happen with past monster hatches. I don’t know how many Walleyes Lake Erie can sustain but one thing is for sure. It is super loaded with a unprecedented numbers of fish. When these new fish become of legal size in the next year or so coupled with all the legal sized ones out there now it’s going to go back to stupid fast no matter where or how you fish!

The weather has had it’s share of swings again this last couple of weeks but we have now settled into a drought stricken real heat wave. I’ve lost track of how many 90 degree days that we've had here as of late but I’m about tired of that as well already. In the past couple of years we’ve been beating the heat on most days so it was not that big a deal when it got this hot. But with the more challenging fishing here as of late we have been fishing in sauna like conditions by mid to late morning. And hustling to weed thru all the baby Walleyes leads to tons of sweat constantly pouring down your face, getting into your eyes and burning like crazy mixed with the sun block. It’s like always something out there. Not so bad for my guests that get to hang out under the shade of the hardtop most of the time but not so great for this old captain stuck in the back working all the rods all the time. Did I mention “old”? Lol!

So the 4th of July has come and gone already. It’s well into July now and we are locked into a real heat wave. The dog days of summer has come early this year! Water temps have sky rocketed into the 70’s driving the fish that are offshore down super deep. Most of the Walleyes that we are catching out there now are 50 foot or better below the surface. Although I haven’t felt the need to do so in a couple of years, thoughts of breaking out the old wire line rods has crossed my mind. We’ll see but I am still holding out hope that a strong Dipsy diver bite takes off here real soon squelching any need or thoughts of going back to that torture of those long wire leads. We were so spoiled here the last couple of years! Like I said, we’ll see! This heat should drive some of the usual migrating fish to move east out to our basin here close to the Ohio/ Pennsylvania line. Nothing is more forgiving to dialing in your fishing strategies then just having a ridiculous amount of fish below you! That’s when everybody becomes a rock star! Fingers crossed it happens for all of us here real soon!

Capt. Walt
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