Fishing report for the week of August 22, 2025: , ,
Fishing Report Posted: August 22, 2025

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[ Lake Erie & Tributaries Fishing Report ]

Posted by Capt. Walt Ermansons on August 22, 2025 at 10:46:53:

Winding down fast. About another week left in August now and then we flip the calendar to my last month of this 2025 fishing season. For those of you that have been following along you already know how good of a season it’s been. These past couple of weeks have been no exception. In fact, I would say some of the heaviest catches of the year were boated aboard The Trophy here just recently. We even had one brute of a fish that weighed in at a little over a true 10 lbs. The Walleye was just a hair under 30 inches in length. You just don’t see very many Walleyes that big in the middle of the summer anymore for whatever the reason. Late fall, winter and early spring yes, when they are heavily laden with eggs and have packed on lots of fat to sustain them throughout the cold water period. This same 10 pound Walleye that we caught had it been caught early next spring and pre spawn, it may have easily weighed in somewhere in the low to possibly even the mid teens with all the eggs and extra fat. What a fish!

And that wasn’t the only big girl that we caught. We had plenty of other fish in the 25 to 28 inch range that we also captured. Where have all these big fish been all season? The fishing has still been fast and furious as well and pretty much still in the same area offshore that we have been fishing in all of August. About 10 to 15 miles offshore and in around 72 foot of water. The only thing that has changed in these past couple of weeks is that the long stretch of beautiful lake conditions that we were enjoying has pretty much ended. We had several days these past couple weeks of rather heavy seas that we fished in and even several days where we just outright canceled our trips because of small craft advisories and unfishable and unsafe lake conditions. There will just never be a perfect summer where Lake Erie doesn’t display her ugly side and all of her furor. I guess we can just be thankful for the great weather that we had when we had it.

Nothing has changed for us tackle wise. 2 to 3 Dipsys per side depending on how many fisherman we have onboard and how many fish we need. I’ve really been trying hard to work in a downrigger or two each day whenever I have a chance to do so if for no other reason then that I really enjoy playing with them. Often times they are Steelhead Trout killing machines but we have yet to take a Trout on a rigger this summer. Really weird but maybe not so much considering the fact that the Steelhead have once again become very scarce and few and far between. As remarkable and insanely good that the Walleye fishing has been this summer, this year will go down in my books as the least amount of Steelhead Trout that we have tangled with. I’m not sure whether to be thankful about that or sad! Lol! Even weirder is the fact that all that we have used this entire summer for baits is the flashy shiny spoons which normally the Trout just can’t resist. Also shocking but much more appreciated is the complete lack of any kind of junk fish. You can count on one hand the amount of Sheephead and other species such as White Bass or White Perch that we’ve caught this year. Just straight up Walleyes. LOTS and LOTS of Walleyes!

So as I mentioned, September is knocking on the door now. Along with early September comes Labor Day weekend. The unofficial end of summer up this ways. Local weather forecasts for next week are already calling for a taste of fall with high temperatures only in the 70’s and lows at night in the 50’s. That actually all sounds good to me after all of the heat that we have had! As long as it doesn’t come in with tons of wind as many times the cooler air brings. It’s a bit too early to tell with all of that yet though. If these Walleye follow the same migrating patterns that they normally do each year as the water cools, they should start moving back closer towards shore in these coming weeks as well. That never makes me mad each fall! Ha! I’m really not sure how long we’re going to stay in the water this year. Right now my last scheduled trip is September the 20th. If the great Walleye fishing hangs in there and people show interest we might stay in till about October the 1st or so. Right now we still have lots of open dates scattered thru out all of September as it is. So if anyone is interested in one last trip, well you know the sales pitch and how to get a hold of me by now. OK that about wraps it up for me for this report and August 2025. September. Bring it on!

Capt. Walt
Trophy Charters





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