Fishing report for the week of July 25, 2025: , ,
Fishing Report Posted: July 25, 2025

Brought to you by FishLakeErie.com


[ Lake Erie & Tributaries Fishing Report ]

Posted by Capt. Walt Ermansons on July 25, 2025 at 15:14:40:

It is said that “The Only Constant in Life Is Change” For a guy like myself that does not embrace change well, we finally saw plenty of it here these past couple of weeks off of the Port of Ashtabula. We were more then overdue for the inevitable. After about a month of really stable weather and no real blow days we got a few days of pretty good winds including one show stopping day with 40+ knot winds where nobody was able to fish and a couple of other days where we toughed it out but it was far from pleasant. And that’s all it took to change everything. After these wind events the near shore waters no longer seemed to be holding the large volume of fish that it had been holding before the blow. Not that you can’t catch anything in within the so called near shore waters of 5 nautical miles from shore. But it’s become much, much slower then it has been in close with a new onslaught of sub legal fish showing up in masses along with some junk fish mixed in there as well now just for good measure. Ugh.

So this past week we pointed The Trophy north and scoured a wide range of water ranging anywhere from 7, 8 miles out clear to 20+ miles out on several different days. We took it out that far more out of curiosity then necessity. And what we found is what I’ve been saying all along. There are Walleyes just everywhere! Just no one real magical area like when the fish were stacked in tight to shore these past couple of months. But enough everywhere where if you put a little bit of effort into it you can still pull limits no matter what or where. And we are still doing that daily. Limits! Techniques are definitely changing however as the fish are dropping deeper and deeper in the water column as the water warms. And we have even loaded up some of the dreaded wire line fishing rods and already have boxed some fish on them. I still hold out high hopes that we really don’t have to rely on them much and be able to just concentrate on our Dipsy Diver deep water program. Dipsys are fast out, fast back in. Nobody really wants to reel in 500 foot of wire just to get a 17 or 18 inch fish if they don’t really have to! Lol!

What we did find well offshore is where all the Steelhead Trout have been hiding all summer! After going nearly three months without even hooking a single one aboard The Trophy we are now tangling with one or two most everyday it seems like. Many as always have been getting off after a considerable fight but we still have managed to box a few beauties! There’s nothing like the scream of the drag on a Dipsy rod when one of these big boys hits! And like always when they start showing up we’ve already lost a handful of spoons to those creeps! Lol! But that’s OK I guess. As long as it’s only one or two a day that steal my stuff! It really gets everyone excited however and that’s all part of the fun of the fishing charter!

So cheers to three months down now and only two more to go in my fishing season. In a couple of more days it will be August already. Hard to believe but it seems like I say that every year as the summer whizzes by. Everyday is a blur anymore by this time of year for me. Wash, rinse and repeat. The same routine over and over and over. Up everyday at 2:30am. Shower and eat a bowl of cereal while checking emails and weather and wind reports for the day. Then down to the boat by 4am to prepare and load everything up for the day and to warm the engines. And just like clock work we’ve been rolling off the dock most days right on time at our current scheduled departure time, 4:30am. Up until now I’ve still felt rather refreshed and rested but just a few days into making these stupid long runs in this returning heat wave and choppy lake conditions on some days it has worn on me some. I used to love the extreme far offshore fishing way out there in no mans land but the older I get and the higher the marina fuel prices keep climbing the less exited I get about it. But we’ll tough through it as we always do in August and do what we have to do and go where we have to go to load the fish box for everyone. It’s just what we do...

Capt. Walt
Trophy Charters





[ Lake Erie & Tributaries Fishing Report ]

(107.123.49.126)